Comparing Anton Chekhov's The Lady With The Pet Dog

Short Paper 4
EngLit 0325 In 1899, Anton Chekhov wrote a story titled “The Lady with the Little Dog” describing a love affair from a married man’s perspective. Seventy-three years later, Joyce Carol Oates wrote her own rendition of the same story, this time writing from the female perspective, titling it “The Lady with the Pet Dog”. Many feminists had criticized Chekhov for his original portrayal of women in the original story, and considered Oates’ version a feminist rewrite. Contrary to this opinion, upon further analysis of both versions, it is revealed that the two points of view serve to complete the story rather than to justify only the man or the woman’s perspective. Both stories are written from a third person limited point of view, meaning Dmitri and Anna are not narrators themselves, but rather
The only difference is the character whose mind the reader has the opportunity to see into. The third person limited point of view allows both authors to tell the reader one side of the story without being as limited as the first person point of view might have been. Using Dmitri’s point of view, Chekhov presents a chronological, open-ended depiction of the affair, allowing the reader to see change and growth in Dmitri’s personality. The early stages of Chekhov’s story offend some feminists, but as the story progresses and especially through Oates’ version, the feminist issue becomes irrelevant. Oates starts her story, through Anna’s point of view, in the midst of the complex affair, using flashbacks to explain Anna’s personality and a somewhat conclusive ending. Each story’s style of point of view (third person limited) is the same, but it is used differently by each author to tell their own version of the story. Reading both “The Lady with the Little Dog” and “The Lady with the Pet Dog” allows the reader to put together the two sides of the story, creating as holistic a view of the affair as