Comparing Versions of The Lady With The Pet Dog Essay

Anton Chekhovs and Joyce Oates The Lady with the Pet Dog

The different versions of The Lady with the Pet Dog share both similarities and differences. For instance, the setting is quite different, as are the characters. The point of view is both similar and different at the same time, as is the theme. Both Chekhovs and Oates version are a treat and can soak up an entire afternoon of reading and thought. It could be easy for the reader to relate with one of these for certain.

The story in Anton Chekhovs version takes place with both characters on vacation. In Joyce Oates Anna is on vacation and her lover and his family have recently moved a few houses down from where she is staying. In both versions the reader does not get to know the other characters in much depth. This is important because the perspective may otherwise be swayed against the main characters who are committing adultery. If the readers got to know the protagonists family better they may not be able to empathize with the character and may miss the romance of the affair. In Oates version Annas guilt is sufficient in allowing the reader to recognize what type of affair it is without forcing the reader to focus on how dirty the affair is or cause the reader to empathize with her husband, who the reader does not get to know intimately. On the same subject Chekhovs version only describes Gurovs wife by stating she was a tall, erect woman with dark eyebrows, stately and dignified and, as she said of herself, intellectual. This helps the readers stay unattached to Gurovs family, allowing them to see the affair with less prejudice keeping the focus on the romantic love story.

Joyce Oates The Lady with the Pet Dog has a confusing structure, bouncing time around in a circle like a movie script. This causes confusion in the beginning but becomes entertaining after you have gotten the big picture. Anton Chekhovs is more simplistic and romantic from beginning to end in sequential order. Both versions of this short story are approached from the third person narrator. Chekhovs use of the limited omniscient narrator who only knows Gurovs inner thoughts and feelings reveals the point of view by not including any feminine thoughts and emotions, just a poetic insight of Anna. In this version Anna is beautiful, smart, and intelligent, allowing you to forget that their love was sinful. Oates also uses the limited omniscient narrator who focuses on Anna as the center of consciousness. The reader is able to interpret the thoughts and emotions of the lover through his own words. In this version Anna is a woman without respect for herself, a woman of insane love.

In Chekovs version, Gurov starts out as coarse, arrogant, and callow, things the character himself is aware of. Toward women, he is dismissive and refers to them as the inferior race. His attitude toward Anna represents his character in the beginning. In fact, after his first encounter with her, he regards her as something pathetic. After Gurov returns home to his family he can only think of Anna and goes to her home in pursuit. He evolves from a character who quickly becomes bored with his paramours to being truly in love and respecting Anna in the end. Joyce Oates protagonist Anna is passive. She has suicidal and murderous ideations, a melodramatic self-image of a teenager who is hysterical and self loathing. Her character was weak and appears to be crazy, not at all attractive the way Anna is portrayed in Chekhovs version.

Both versions of this story evoke the common emotions of a loveless marriage. Chekhovs character discovers true love for another human for the first time that we know of as well as the sacrifice it involves, while Oates character begins to love herself for the first time. Who is to say which one has gained the most, but to truly love another is to love yourself.