The Lady With the Dog Literary Elements

Short story

The setting is pre-Revolution, late-nineteenth-century Russia; in particular, the port of Yalta, and the city of Moscow.

Third-person omniscient narrator.

The narrator describes the events with a detached, realist tone, occasionally lapsing into Gurov's emotionality (free indirect discourse). The mood of the story is initially laidback and sensuous; it becomes melodramatic as the love affair between Anna and Gurov deepens.

The protagonists are Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna. The antagonists, to a certain extent, are their spouses, society, and their senses of self-doubt.

Gurov experiences an inner conflict between society's expectations and his growing love for Anna. Anna also faces this conflict and is often distraught over the tension she feels.

The climax comes when Gurov and Anna recognize the value and priority of their feelings for each other and resolve to find a way to make it work within the constraints of the world.

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"The Geisha," which Gurov attends in S—, is a real 1896 musical by Sidney Jones and Owen Hall. Chekhov attended its Russian premiere in Yalta in 1899.

See the separate "Imagery" section of this ClassicNote.

One paradox in the text involves Gurov's attitude towards women. The narrator tells us that Gurov disliked his wife greatly and, perhaps because of this, held women in contempt, even calling them the "lower race." Yet at the same time, he got along with women much better than he did with men, and he felt much freer and more sociable in their company. In other words, he suffered from the classic paradox of misogyny: hating women but depending on them for comfort and companionship.

Lives of Anna Sergeyevna and Gurov are given in parallel.

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The landscape and surrounding scenery in Yalta is personified at the start of the text, especially the sea. In one scene, for example, Gurov and Anna watch the sea during a quiet dawn after they first consummate their affair. Gurov observes how “the monotonous hollow roar of the sea came up to them, speaking of peace, of the eternal sleep lying in wait for us all.”