Lady and the Dog

Character Development of Gurov Some men who are unhappy with their families and marriage tend to show infidelity. They hate their lives so much that they go through the motions of looking for happiness or in most cases pleasure in other women other than their wives. Most of the time, these men will just use other women to fulfill their needs that they might not get from their wives, but what happens if they fall in love? In the short story “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov, Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov finds himself falling in love with Anna Sergeyevna. He realizes that he has deceived himself for many years and finds that his desire for life is rekindled by Anna’s love, and everything compared to her and their affair is dull and non-fulfilling. Dmitri Gurov has a wife, a daughter, and two sons. He doesn’t love his wife at all and he never liked being at home. Gurov was always having affairs with other women. He thought of women as being “the lower race”, but yet he found himself more comfortable with women then being with men. One day he saw a lady, Anna, walking with her dog at Yalta. He had never seen her before and was intrigued by her. One evening he was out dinning by himself and Anna sat at the table next to him. He took the opportunity to pet her dog in hopes of starting a conversation with her. It worked. That night he lay in his bed and said, “There’s something pathetic about her, anyway” (184). Gurov said this in the time where he thought he was every woman’s fantasy. He thought he played the romantic love that every woman dreamt of. After that night they continued to see each other. Gurov was soon fallen in love with Anna, but she too soon had to leave because her husband was sick. On that last day together Anna made it clear that they would never cross paths again, and so she went back to her life and so did he. Gurov found it difficult to stop thinking about her. He found that his life in Moscow was dull compared to the time he spent with