Chekhov the Realism

   The Lady with the Dog was the second realism literary piece we have discussed about during class. I've tried to define what realism is in the previous reading journal, but the more I get to read about realism, the harder it gets for me to comprehend the full content of it. But I will continue to try my best to understand the gist of it in my own words. After reading The Lady with the Dog, I could actually sympathize with many critics who mentioned that Chekhov's stories are very powerful in drawing the reader's attention, yet being very economical with language. He does not have to use bombastic words to convey the complexity of emotions the protagonists go through; just with simple and concise descriptions, Chekhov manages to deliver the very same effects.

  The story is divided into 4 main parts according to the time frame. The first part describes the very first moment when Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna meet in Yalta. This part is like the introduction of the whole story, introducing who the figures are, and how they get to meet in the first place. The second part is about the remaining time period in Yalta, about how Gurov and Anna spend time together. The third part describes Gurov's visit to Anna's hometown, and the last about Anna's visit to Moscow, where Gurov stays.

WHY IS THE STORY TITLED 'THE LADY WITH THE DOG'?

  At first, I did not consider the title to have any significance. However, after scrutinizing the text for several times, I found out the role of the tile The Lady with the Dog. In the story, Chekhov mentions that "no one knew who she was, and every one called her simply 'the lady with the dog'". This is in the very beginning, when Gurov is still a chauvinistic man who is extremely dissatisfied with his life. Then Gurov meets a woman called Anna Sergeyevna and everything changes. His view of women changes. His view of love changes. Basically, he changes. As he undergoes this transformation, he does not regard Anna as the 'lady with the dog' any more; his intense feelings towards her obviously do not allow him to. Rather, the opposite is true; the way Gurov sees Anna changes, and consequently, Gurov's life changes.

  Compare Gurov in Part 1 and Part 4; he goes through a massive metamorphosis. Then compare the way he sees Anna in Part 1 and Part 4. It is evident that the difference in Gurov is closely related to the difference in seeing Anna.

LOVE IS TO BLAME

  One of the most obvious themes discussed in this short story is love. Many might argue that this was not real love, but an immoral adulterous relationship. My thoughts are a bit different, because I believed that love is involuntary as many people admit. One cannot expect when, and where he will fall in love. It can happen any time, anywhere with anyone in the world. He might fall in love with a wrong person such as an already married man or woman, just like Gurov or Anna, but we cannot blame him for being stuck in such situation. Love, like nature, cannot be controlled. It just exists the way it does, and humans cannot, and should not try to stop it.

She sat down  in the third row, and when Gurov looked at her his heart contracted, and he understood clearly that for him there was in the whole world no creature so near, so precious, and so important to him; she, this little woman, in no way remarkable, lost in a provincial crowd, with a vulgar lorgnette in her hand, filled his whole life now, was his sorrow and his joy, the one happiness that he now desired for himself, and to the sounds of the inferior orchestra, of the wretched provincial violins, he thought how lovely she was. He thought and dreamed.

  Gurov has never been in real love until he met Anna; that explains why he was so confused in describing his feelings towards Anna. When he was with his wife, he did not feel the way he felt with Anna, which proves that he did not know what love was by then. Anna changed him, taught him what actual love is, and I do not see this as a simple, adulterous affair.

HOW'S THE ENDING?

  The story does not have a definite conclusion. The reader is left to conjecture about the future of Gurov and Anna.

And it seemed as though in a little while the solution would be found, and then a new and splendid life would begin; and it was clear to both of them that they had still a long, long road before them, and that the most complicated and difficult part of it was only just beginning.

  I thought that this was very interesting. Isn't this actually what realism is all about? In reality, you cannot have answers for all of your actions; sometimes you have to act even if you do not know how the consequences will turn out to be. In this story, Chekhov does not lock up the characters in a staged future; rather, he lets the imagination of the readers to carry these two lovers to Wonderland. He provides more questions than answers, and some readers might find this frustrating, but the story provides a platform for Gurov and Anna to become whatever the readers want them to be.

SYMBOLISM 

  In Section 3, the Sydney Jones opera The Geisha is mentioned. Gurov, in searching for Anna, attends the opening performance. Although this can easily be overlooked, The Geisha actually has a very important meaning in it. The opera is about a man who falls in love with a geisha even though he is a married man. Quoting the main character, "Every man is disappointed in his wife at some time or other." coincides exactly with Gurov's situation.

  How about the fence? What does the fence symbolize?

Gurov went without haste to Old Gontcharny Street and found the house. Just opposite the house stretched a long grey fence adorned with nails. [...]"One would run away from a fence like that," thought Gurov, looking from the fence to the windows of the house and back again. [...] He walked up and down,  and loathed the grey fence more and more, and by now he thought irritably that Anna Sergeyevna had forgotten him, and was perhaps already amusing herself with some one else, and that was very natural in a young woman who had nothing to look at from morning till night but that confounded fence.

   The fence is basically the limits set by Anna's house, or rather, I should describe the house as Anna's husband's property. This fence restricts Anna, and she is not free in her life. She is totally confined by her marriage, and Gurov feels agonizingly painful to accept this truth. Surprisingly, in this quotation Gurov is looking at the world from someone else's eyes. This is astonishing as love actually broke the boundaries that exist between Gurov's life and Anna's. Gurov's feelings towards Anna are so intense that no fence can now stop him.

  Most stories that are considered to be well-written have a clear background, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. The Lady with the Dog was different. The traditional structure for a short story is broken here, and the story is not confined within the pages. As the plot gets combined with the readers' imagination, The Lady with the Dog goes beyond the pages, and creates a world of its own.

  This The Lady with the Dog came to me much easier compared to The Student, the reason being that it had a very clear plot, or story to follow. If I have a chance, I want to read more stories written by Chekhov, such as The Bet or Women's Good Fortune.

-POSTED BEFORE THE WORD LIMIT-

All about Realism

As this is the very first piece of reading journal for the World Literature class, I am going to make it very special with impressive BS and even include pictures that I find captivating. The very first short story we read in class was The Student by Anton Chekhov, who is  a so-called realism writer. In sharp contrast to writers from the Romantic Period, Anton Chekhov adopted a writing style that is very straightforward and lucid for the readers to comprehend.  

Let us discuss realism in detail. What is this BS we call realism? According to Britannica, realism writers are those who eliminated from their work the "softer" qualities in romantic novels - tenderness, idealism, chivalry passion, and the like - which seemed to them to hide the stark realities of life in a dreamlike haze. Simply put, writers who pursue realism do not like bombastic phrases and flamboyant descriptions. Additionally, they try to portray the reality as how it actually appears to be without any packaging to make it seem glorious. Although the reality is grim and most people try to deny the fact that they are actually living in an abysmal world, realistic writers do not hesitate to reveal the very truth of the society. realistic I really do enjoy reading realism novels as I believe that readers should not accept the illusory sense of reality as presented in romantic novels. Readers should be able to learn about what is actually happening to the contemporary society. In this sense, I think realistic literary pieces are analogous to newspapers.

  However, after reading The Student, I failed to define it as a realistic piece from the language used. Anton Chekhov constantly used detailed descriptions using numerous literary techniques, and they added up to make The Student seem very romantic. Even from the very first paragraph, the sentences caught my eye as even a quick glance showed that this story adopted a writing style that would appear in romantic pieces. I began to question why Anton Chekhov is praised so highly as an exemplary realist among the critiques.

At first the weather was fine and still. The thrushes were calling, and in the swamps close by something alive droned pitifully with a sound like blowing into an empty bottle. A snipe flew by, and the shot aimed at it rang out with a gay, resounding note in the spring air. But when it began to get dark in the forest a cold, penetrating wind blew inappropriately from the east, and everything sank into silence. Needles of ice stretched across the pools, and it felt cheerless, remote, and lonely in the forest. There was a whiff of winter.

  It is tough to comment on the content, because my knowledge of realism is still shallow, and I feel a bit apprehensive to make a suggestion regarding realism. However, I want to say that the story came easy to read, but frustrating to comprehend, especially to those who do not understand the Bible. Another challenge the readers face in dissecting the story is that nothing actually happens, and that is why most people choose to comment on the characters as it is impossible to make a consummate analysis on the plot. After a cursory glance, most will describe Ivan Velikopolsky as affected and ostentatious although he is a figure without wisdom, and I disagree with this remark. It is indeed weird  for a person to start speaking about the Bible to strangers he had never met before. But this behavior of the student does not make him a dabbler, because we cannot judge the scope of his knowledge based on such a short reading. He might actually be an extremely pious Christian who read the Bible so many times that he memorized it completely and is able to talk about it in whatever situation he is stuck. Furthermore, it is perfectly normal for a human being to show off his intelligence to the others and for Ivan's case, his head was simply filled with thoughts about the Bible.

  The story told by Ivan is about betrayal and remorse, and ultimately forgiveness. Peter, who denied knowing Jesus for three times, later becomes one of the greatest of all saints. 

  That Anton Chekhov is a representative realist is not very evident in The Student. One student mentioned about how the norm of realism accepted in Russia might have been different from what we see, and I believe that this can actually be a major reason that thwarts us from approving The Student as a realistic literary piece. This piece of writing failed to include any impressive BS that I had initially planned, but I am sure that I will be able to add a few after getting in touch with many more realistic novels and Anton Chekhov.