About Love -- Anton Chekhov

Theme: Love is not bound by (limited to/confined to) marital (marriage) relationship.

Discussion about three kinds of Love:

1. Individual / platonic
2. Materialistic love
3. Spiritual love/rational love

Plot
·       Alyohin – narrator/speaker of the story
·       Talking with his guests Burkin and Ivan Ivanych during breakfast about Russian perspective of
love.
·       Initiates the story of two servants Nikanor, the cook and the beautiful maid Pelageya. It’s like a
mismatch of love. The girl Pelageya was so beautiful whereas Nikanor was clumsy, fat and very bad
looking.
·       Alyohin presents the violent love affair between two servants where the cook Nikanor had high
temper after he got drunk. She didn’t want to marry him but live with him. When he was in drunk, he
used to swear and beat her and she would hide and sob. Alyohin and other servants used to protect her.

·       Alyohin analyses the love between the servants. Why didn’t she fall in love with somebody more
like herself inwardly and outwardly? Personal happiness does not count in love and it uncertain and
vague as well as mysterious. Love is not the absolute solution of happiness and several questions
regarding love are unanswered.
·       The speaker continues to state more about the mystery of love on Russian perspective. “Russians
who are cultivated have a weakness for these questions that remained unanswered. Love is usually
poeticized, embellished with roses, nightingales; but we Russians embellish our love with these fatal
questions, and choose the least interesting of them, at that.” “When we are in love, we never stop
asking ourselves whether it is honorable or dishonorable, sensible or stupid, what this love will lead to,
and so on”.
·       He recalled that he had fallen in love with a girl when he was a student in Moscow but she did not
perform the act of love. The girl used to think of how much she would get from him for the month’s
expenses.
·       When Alyohin was telling a story about love to his guests, the atmosphere was not good. There
was grey sky and drenched (wet) trees and he was telling a story being so lonely.
·       He continued that he returned to his home at Sofyino after graduated from the University of
Moscow (studied Law) and started farming to pay off the debt that his father had spent for his
education. He found the work very hard. He tried to live like a luxurious person but didn’t succeed.
·       He was elected as the honorary justice of peace and he had to go to town for attending the circuit
court and met several educated people. One of them was Dimitry Luganovich, the Assistant President
of the circuit court. They worked together on the arson case.
·       Luganovich invited the Alyohin for dinner, where he had an opportunity to meet with Anna
Alexeyevna, wife of Luganovich. Alyohin was fascinated by the beauty of Anna even after she was a
mother and had a child. She was 22 then. This was in Spring season.
·       Both husband and wife were so fond of him. Next time he met her in the Autumn. He regularly
visited their home whenever he went to the town.
·       Alyohin was attracted by the natural and elegant beauty of Anna. So he couldn’t stop without
meeting her. He was in love with her despite the fact that she was married.
·       He received presents and money from Anna and Luganovich. He thought that
the Luganovichs understood his loneliness. So they became his friends. They also asked him if he
required money, they would be happy to help him.
·       He said that he was always thinking of Anna and wondered why she married the dull and simple-
hearted man of over forty and had children for him. Alyohin said the beauty of Anna didn’t match with
her husband.
·       He loved her tenderly, deeply, but he was afraid to express it. He reflected and kept asking himself
what their love could lead to if they did not have the strength to fight against it.
·       Alyohin thought that if she said her feeling to him and her husband, the result would be terrible.
·       As time passed by, Anna had two children and they used to play with him and called him saying
Uncle Pavel Konstantinovich.
·       He recalled that they used to spend the time together going to theatre and watching opera sitting
side by side.
·       Later on, Anna tried to stay away from her husband and children and stayed at her mother’s or
sister’s house. It was the dissatisfaction in her own life and the means of indifference towards Alyohin.
·       They did not express their love for each other and remained silent.
·       Later Luganovich received an appointment to go to the Western Province and so they had to sell
their villa and everything before they went there. She was being sent to Crimea for further treatment,
advised by the doctors. Several people were there in the railway station to bid good bye to Anna
Alexeyevna.
·       Alyohin rushed to station to bid good bye. When they met, they embraced with burning pain in
their hearts. He finally confessed his love to her. He kissed her and pressed her hands. When the train
started moving, he went into the next compartment and sat there crying.
·       Burkin and Ivan Ivanych felt pity for him because his condition was like the squirrel in the cage.

Alyohin’s Character
Alyohin was a bachelor whose character borders on the tragic side of life. He is the central
character of the story alongside Anna Alexeyevna who happens to be his love interest. He
lived alone on a farm in Sofyino, in Russia. He was a kind man as he gave a very good
treatment to his servants and peasants who had tended his farm. Alyohin was a university
graduate, but because his father had mortgaged the property to fund his studies, he was
compelled to tend to the farm to pay off the debts instead of taking up a vocation that fitted his
study. Because he was “a bookish fellow” he took to farming after much intense disgust for it.
He was elected honorary justice of the peace and came to the town certain times of the year.
While in town, he felt he was in the company of educated people like doctors and lawyers.
This proves that he was sophisticated and cared for fine taste and fine people. He was also a
warm and influential man as the Luganovich’s were very affected by his character and
studiousness. Even their two children were very delighted to meet him during his visits. The
Luganovichs and his friends, Ivan and Burkin compare him to a squirrel in a cage because he
used his knowledge very seldom. He was committed to fulfilling his promise and duty to
father. To the Luganovich household, he was a “noble fellow”. His various activities with Anna
show that he was eager to please her and make her feel happy. He used to help her with
parcels when he was at her house.
However, he was a failure when it came to love. His love with Anna failed because he
reasoned more than committing himself to loving her. He reasoned that his love for Anna
would affect her married life, her children’s, and the whole household’s. He timidly and
jealously concealed his love. He was the victim of his own indecision. It took him separation
from her to realize this truth. He later tells his friend that love should be realized from what is
higher or else one should not reason at all. He seems to offer candid dissection of love as
was prevalent in Russia. He feels that love is a hindrance and a source of dissatisfaction and
irritation.
Thus, Alyohin with all his fine attributes is a tragic character.
Summary of “About Love”
Written by Russian dramatist and a short story writer Anton Chekhov the story “About Love”
defines love as a great mystery. The writer has included three different love experiences to justify love
as a great mystery. Alyohin narrates the stories to his guests Burkin and Ivan. The story begins with the
narration of a violent and sensual love affair between a cook, Nikanor and beautiful woman servant,
Pelageya. Stupid and drunkard Nikanor used to swear and even beat his beloved Pelageya. Therefore,
Pelageya wants to live with him just so without getting married. Nikanor, on the other hand, doesn’t
want to live without getting married.
Reflecting on the love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya, Alyohin defines love as a great
mystery behind any completed final definition. Then, he narrates his own brief episode of a love affair
with the university girl. While he was at Moscow University, he used to be in love with a girl and held
her in his arms all the time, but the girl thought only about the money he would give her to meet her
everyday expenses. After a brief description of bachelors of both in the town and countryside and the
atmosphere, Alyohin begins to tell his guest another love experience of his own with a married woman.

After being graduated from university, Alyohin returned to the farm of his father located
in Sofyino. Though the works on the farm did not suit an educated person like him, he was
compelled to work there to pay off the debt his father had taken for his education. While he was
in the village, he was elected as a magistrate and needed to go to town to deal with court cases.
During his visit, he met another judge, Dimitry Luganovich, who invited him for dinner. At the
dinner, he met the kind, beautiful, fascinating and young wife of Luganovich, Anna
Alexeyevna, and fell in love with her at first sight. During summer, Alyohin busied himself in
his farm. However, he was haunted by the memory of Anna Alexeyevna all the time.
Alyohin went to watch a charity show in the town in autumn. At the show, he met Anna
Alexeyevna once again. Since then he visited Anna Alexeyevna whenever he went to the city.
He was welcomed into the Luganovich’s family as a noble fellow. Both Luganovich and Anna
Alexeyevna used to be worried about Alyohin regarding his profession and even offered him
financial help. Alyohin and Luganovich family used to exchange gifts. Alyohin used to think
that Luganovich was not the perfect match for Anna. He used to go to the theatre with Anna.
Sometimes they would also go for long walks. Despite their gentle, platonic and sincere love
they could not confess the love to each other. Anna reasoned that she was not young and
energetic enough to start a new life with Alyohin. Alyohin thought that he would not be able to
make Anna any happier. He didn’t want to shift Anna from one monotonous life to another. So
they kept their feelings to themselves.
At the later stage of Anna’s life, she started staying with her mother and sister. When she
realized that her life had been spoiled, she suffered from mental prostration and was recommended to
go to Crimea for her treatment. On the day she was moving to Crimea, a large crowd of people
including Alyohin, arrived to see her off. Alyohin went to see her off in the compartment of the train,
carrying a basket she had almost forgotten. When their eyes met, they could not control their emotions
and confessed their love to each other crying and holding onto each other. As the train was moving for
Crimea, Alyohin went to another compartment and getting down the train at the next station, and he
returned home.
After Alyohin finished telling his guests his own love experience with Anna, it stopped raining
outside, the sun came out, and they could see a beautiful scene of garden and river. His friends felt pity
for him.

Question. How does an account of the occasion and of the setting in which the narrative occurs affect
our understanding of Alyohin?
Answer. Firstly, when he started to tell the guests about his love experience with Anna
Alexeyevna, the sky was grey, trees were drenched with rain and in such conditions,
the guest could go nowhere and the only option was to be imprisoned in Alyohin’s
house and listen to him. This setting signifies physical and mental imprisonment in the
life of Alyohin. He was imprisoned on the farm of his father physically and mentally
imprisoned by the memory of Anna.

Secondly, at the end of the narration the sky becomes clear and they could see a fine
view of the garden and the river. This setting helps to understand that Alyohin is now
at least fresh from the memory of Anna by sharing his story to the guests.

Question. Alyohin is said to rush around like a ‘squirrel in a cage’ and this

judgment is echoed in the final paragraph of the story. What is the
significance of this repetition?
Answer. ‘Squirrel in a cage’ indicates the stage of inertia or no change, and the same
was the condition of Alyohin. Both his work on the farm and love affair with Anna had
no chances of progress. All day he worked on the farm but he remained penniless and
could not become able to clear off the debt, his father had taken for his study and he
also could not confess his love with Anna, before it was too late. This condition was
reflected by Luganovich at first sight and the two guests lastly.

Thus, this repetition signifies that Alyohin has been going through a phase of bondage
physically in his father’s farm and mentally through Anna’s memory and hence trapped
in the vicious circle.

 Why did Alyohin and Anna conceal their love for each other?

 “Love isn’t confined by the marital relationship” explain in light of the

story “About Love”.

 Narrate the violent love affair between Nikanor and Pelageya.

 Why does Alyohin say ‘love is a mystery’? Explain.

 Why did Anna become indifferent later on? How did she show her
indifference?

 Why did Anna and Alyohin get separated in the end?

 Write a summary of “About Love.”