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Raspudić Dragica
Professor Džaja
Introduction to Prose Fiction
December 23,2018

The Comparison of the Point of View in Chekov and Oates’ of “The Lady with the Pet Dog”
Oates’s story is more Emotional because the Narrator is Women

Two stories with different characters and narrators, but with the same plot – everything that is
needed for a good essay. Chekov wrote story “The Lady with the Pet Dog” in 1899, but Oates
decided to write a new version with the same plot – but in his story the narrator is women.
Although stories have many similarities, Oates’s story is more emotional and narrator shows
more feelings than in Chekov’s story.
Chekov used a man character, Dmitry, a person who was married to the women he considered
to be stupid “he privately considered her of limited-intelligence, narrow-minded, dowdy”
(Chekov 140). Although he had children with her, he had been unfaithful to her before. He did
not show his emotional side, but he liked to be in women’s company and enjoyed it “In the
company of men he was bored and ill at ease, he was chilly and uncommunicative with them;
but when he was among women he felt free, and knew what to speak to them about and how
to comport himself; and even to be silent with them was no strain on him.” (Chekov 140). As
much as he enjoyed women’s presence, they enjoyed his company too and he was well aware
of that “In his appearance, in his character, in his whole makeup there was something
attractive and elusive that disposed women in his favor and allured them. He knew that and
some force seemed to draw him to them, too.” (Chekov 140). But he had no emotions for
women at all and used to call them “the inferior race” (Chekov 140). After he began his affair
with Anna Sergeyevna, you would probably think that he was going to change his behavior,
but that is not what happened. And while Anna was falling in love with him “and whenever
she turned to Gurov, her eyes were shining.” (Chekov 140), when she started complaining
about her life Dmitry was bored “Gurov was already bored with her; he was irritated by her
naïve tone.” (Chekov 143).
And while in Chekov’s story, narrator has no feelings towards his wife or mistress, in Oates’s
story narrator is women so it is expected that she is going to have feelings for her husband and
lover and that she would act more emotional than it was the case with Dmitry Gurov in
Chekov’s story. In the beginning of Oates’s story, Anna is faced with her lover while she with
her husband, and while men would probably stay calm in this situation, she could not control
her emotions “her blood rocked in her body, draining out of her head… she was going to
faint…” (Oates 2). Everything that was happening in her life made it so difficult for her and
she did not know how to handle it “Still she could not stop crying. The muscles of her face
were springy like a child’s, unpredictable muscles.” (Oates 4). Unlike the narrator in
Chekov’s story, the narrator in Oates’s story, although unfaithful, was too emotional that she
even tried to kill herself “But the bath water made her dizzy, all that perpetual heat, and one
day in January she drew a razor blade lightly across the inside of her arm, near the elbow, to
see what would happen.” (Oates 4). Although she was thinking about her lover all the time,
she could not be cold towards her husband “She put her hand on his head, lightly, as if to
prove to herself that he was real.” (Oates 5). In this story, we have one more example that
shows how women are more emotional than men. When Anna told her lover that he was the
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only person she believed in, he just laughed, he did not even consider her to be serious, but
she was so she repeated it again “She told him about her parents, about her husband…”They
were all people I believed in, but it turned out wrong. Now I believe in you…” He laughed as
if shocked by her words. She did not understand. Then she understood. “But I believe truly in
you. I can’t think of myself without you.” she said…” (Oates 6). We found the best sign of
her emotional side when they first met. She was already confused and overthinking
everything “Her eyes were wandered nervously over the child and the dog. She felt the
nervous beat of her heart out to the very tips of her fingers, the fleshy tips of her fingers: little
hearts were there, pulsing. What is he thinking?” (Oates 8).
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Chekov Anton “The lady with the pet dog.” Literature to Go. Ed. Michael Meyer.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011.
Oates Joyce Carol “The lady with the pet dog” Marriages and Infidelities
Vanguard press edition, 1972