The Lady with the Dog

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Natasa Kupusovic World Lit II Renaissance – Present Rawa- 4186 March 26th, 2012 Word Count: 1,157 “My Young, Wise, and Faithful Mistress” It might be a worldwide consensus that a good work of literature leaves the reader with a clear understanding of exactly what the author was intending to express. It might also be a worldwide consensus that an author must speak from personal experience and recognition in order to precisely describe the purpose of his/her characters’ existence. An adequate performance of the former mentioned will then open the reader’s insight into the author’s life without doing much research. Anton Chekhov does an appreciative job of showcasing his life experience through his modern short stories as well as his style of writing. “The Lady with the Dog”, which famous novelist Vladimir Nabokov said was one of the greatest short stories every written, demonstrates a parallel of compassion and reason that is only comparable to the very life of the doctor/artist (Moss). The Ying-Yang theme of love and logic is found all throughout the story of “The Lady with the Dog”. “The Lady with the Dog” is a short story about an affair between an older (married) Russian banker and a much younger (also married) woman that meet on vacation in Yalta, where Chekhov was living in at the time due to medical concerns (Kakutani). The banker in the story, Dmitri Gurov, has a pretty standard marriage with a woman his own age and three children, but has also had multiple affairs with women that have meant as much to him as his marriage, nothing. The young woman, Anna Sergeyevna, is as young as Dmitri’s daughter, resembling the same innocence and naiveté, and is on vacation alone awaiting her husband’s arrival. Gurov charms his way into her acquaintance and the two spend their vacationing days together in romance. The vividness of the atmosphere and geography that
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