Two Lovers Meet
By
Eric Sissom
Introduction to Literature 1: Fiction
March 4, 2007
I selected to compare and contrast the stories “The Lady with the Pet Dog” by Anton Chekhov and “Roselily” by Alice Walker. In Chekhov’s story, a man, Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, sees an attractive woman walking her dog. He sees her either in the “public garden” (2) or on the street in town. She is always alone. The community does not know anything about her. People just know her as “the lady with the pet dog” (2).
In Walker’s story, a girl is alone sitting on her front porch daydreaming and eating a “bowl of quicksand soup” (2). She is watching the cars go by on the road as “being married to the sound of cars whizzing by on highway 61” (2). There is a man with her that is “against this standing on the front porch of her house” (2).
In Chekhov’s story, Gurov thought he would introduce himself to the woman thinking, “’If she is here alone without husband or friends . . . it wouldn’t be a bad thing to make her acquaintance’” (3). One night, he was “dining in the public garden” (7) and the woman just happen to come in and sit at the table next to him. He thought, “Her expression, her gait, her dress, and the way she did her hair told him that she belonged to the upper class, that she was married, that she was in Yalta [the location of the story] for the first time and alone, and that she was bored there” (7). She started complaining about the city Yalta and said, “’Time passes quickly, and yet it is so dull here!’” (15). He responds, “’It’s only the fashion to say it’s dull here. A provincial will live in Belyov or Zhizdra and not be bored, but when he comes here it’s ‘Oh, the dullness! Oh, the dust!’ One would think he came from Granada” (16). After their little chitchat, they continued eating quietly and when they left, they left together. They had a conversation walking outside about the beautiful sea: “the water was a soft, warm, lilac color, and there was a golden band of moonlight upon it” (17). They also talked about how hot it was that day. The conversation ended after they introduced themselves and told each other about their backgrounds. The woman’s name was Anna Sergeyevna.
In Walker’s story, the man and woman talk about religion and culture. Walker writes, “She knows he blames Mississippi for the respectful way the men turn their heads up in the yard, the women stand waiting and knowledgeable, their children held from mischief by teachings from the wrong God. He glares beyond them to the occupants of the cars, white faces glued to promises beyond a country wedding, noses thrust forward like dogs on a track” (4).
In Chekhov’s story, it was a long time since Gurov and Sergeyevna saw each other again, but Gurov finally saw Sergeyevna during a holiday. It appeared Sergeyevna started to ignore Gurov when she saw him. When it got more dark outside, “Gurov and Sergeyevna was silent now” (23). He tried to talk to her. When she didn’t respond, he “looked at her intently, and suddenly embraced her and kissed her on the lips, and the most fragrance of her flowers enveloped him; and at once he looked around him anxiously, wondering if anyone had seen them (26). Then he whispered to her, “’Let us go to your place’ . . . and they walked off together” (27).
In Walker’s story, the woman “does not even know if she loves him [her husband]. She loves his sobriety. His refusal to sing just because he knows the tune. She loves his pride. His blackness and his gray car. She loves his understanding of her condition. She thinks she loves the effort he will make to redo her into what he truly wants. His love of her makes her completely conscious of how unloved she was before” (21).
In Chekhov’s story, Gurov and Sergeyevna fell in love with each other. Gurov feelings are “only now when his head was gray he had fallen in love, really, truly – for the first time in his life” (115). Walker writes, “Anna Sergeyevna and he loved each other as people do who are very close and intimate, like man and wife, like tender friends; it seemed to them that Fate itself had meant them for one another” (116).
In Walker’s story, the woman “feels a kiss, passionate, rousing, within the general pandemonium. Cars drive up blowing their horns. Firecrackers go off. Dogs come from under the house and begin to yelp and bark. Her husband’s hand is like the clasp of an iron gate. People congratulate” (23). In both stories, two people find each others true love.
Works Cited
Chekhov, Anton. “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” Michael Meyer, eds. 178-190.
Walker, Alice. “Roselily.” Michael Meyer, eds. 206-210.
Meyer, Michael, eds. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 7th ed. University of Connecticut: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2006.
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Grade: 90/100 | This essay was written by Eric Sissom, e-mail: essay@ericsissom.com
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