Personally, I think the idea of marriage is meticulously presented in the short story “The Lady with the Pet Dog” portraying the existing attitudes and beliefs towards it during the nineteenth century. The author exhibits a unique writing style, explicitly exposing a dispassionate emotional balance and ironic, rational, and cynical attitude toward relationships. Within the narrative, the dominant thematic concern I identified is the value of fidelity in any matrimonial arrangement which the characters in the work demonstrate. Anna discovers that she has to reckon with her conscience when she goes against society’s moral code.
From my analysis of the text, the primary ideology that Anna demonstrates revolves around fidelity and the holiness of marriage. I am convinced that her marriage life is largely unhappy. However, she opts to wait for her husband to return until she falls into Gurov’s trap and engages in an intimate relationship with him outside wedlock. Immediately after the incident, she is tormented by immense guilt and shame. It is interesting to note her despair and feelings of guilt and shame at the thought that she has deceived society. Gurov, on the other hand, appears to be someone who is not bothered by love. He is a wealthy middle-aged banker who has the habit of seducing and using women, coupled with his negative perception of them and treats them as lower social class members (Chekhov, 1991). During this period, the two lovers portray a community essentially divided with some believing in the holiness of marriage while others do not.
Another salient attitude that I noted from the short story is the reverence that society has for love which is perceived as a higher law. The most explicit expression is how Anna is willing to risk her loveless marriage to experience passion and affection from Gurov. As such, she is ready to disregard her marriage status and feigns a medical condition to travel to Moscow. Personally, I am impressed by the power of love which instantaneously transforms the lovers’ perception of themselves and their view of each other. Eventually, they admit their shared feelings for one another and forgive themselves for what they previously were ashamed of. The lovers stop apologizing for their infidelity acts instead of focusing on finding ways to live together and enjoy each other’s company openly. The story ends tragically with the characters’ predicaments unresolved and the realization of the complications and difficulties that lay ahead.
In my opinion, Anna’s actions demonstrate her perception of the key thematic concerns regarding love and marriage. These issues involve the essence of marriage, faithfulness, and the value of love. The third influence her choices in life where she and Gurov transcend to a different emotional level. Her decision to follow her heart unveils new opportunities for authentic living, embracing and incorporating a partner’s view within one’s personality. I am particularly impressed by her move to outdo the double standards and hypocrisy of polite society within which everyone is expected to live in deception.
In my judgment, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, is a short narrative that highlights the existing attitudes and beliefs towards love and marriage around the 19th century. In my interaction with the text, I note the critical perceptions to be submission, sacrifice, nature, science, and religion. In the narrative, Georgiana is portrayed as a true symbol of nature due to her commitment and faithfulness to marriage. She leads her life by making choices that describe her perception of love and marriage. All these notions seem to surround romantic associations and the significant role that love plays in people’s lives and shapes their lifestyles.
Personally, I think the narrative focuses on the recurrent conflict that nature and religion face against science and how Georgiana applies them in handling relationships. There were scientific regimes that significantly influenced Aylmer, her husband during this period. The way she demonstrates her totality of love and allows Aylmer to modify her body according to his desires is both saddening and intriguing. She is devoted to such an extent that she fails to notice that it is only her husband who considers her birthmark to be an imperfection. The disheartening part is when she lets Aylmer, who is displeased with nature’s harmony, take advantage and attempt to apply the phenomenon’s methodological analysis in dealing with marital affairs. However, nature triumphs over science when Aylmer takes her to his laboratory to transform her but relies on light to notice that he had murdered her.
I cannot help but wonder about Georgiana’s peculiar personality, which she expresses through her sacrifices and submission to her husband. Throughout the narrative, she represents the ideal wife during this historical period in Russia. She demonstrates unquestioning obedience to her husband’s wishes and dictates even before he requests them. Her actions make me assume that during her time, wives had to unceasingly strive to fulfill and satisfy their husbands’ needs (Hawthorne et al., 2017). When she realizes that her birthmark irritates Aylmer much, she asks him to remove it to appease him. I am saddened by her approval of the procedure while aware of the fatal implications of such an action. In the process, she loses her life, demonstrating the high degree of power that men had over their marital partners. The beliefs are supported in the incident where Aninadab also provides help to complete the experiment on Georgiana.
In conclusion, I think Georgiana is a unique woman, even in her historic time. She takes the role of a woman who sees marriage as a service to men to the very end of the story as she allows herself to undergo several transformations to please her husband. I am captivated by her hidden unconditional love for Aylmer, as demonstrated by her commitment to fulfilling his desires. Initially, the birthmark was her unique trait which most men desired; however, she is ready to remove it when Aylmer shows displeasure. At the end of the story, nature wins the war against science when she dies during the experiment resolving the conflict of attitudes stimulated by the scientific revolution.
Reference
Chekhov, A. (1991). The lady with the pet dog. Forty Stories (Robert Payne, Trans.). Vintage.
Hawthorne, N., Poe, E. A., Collins, W., Adam, V., Moffett, C., Archer, W., Marryat, F., O’Brien, F. J., Guy de Maupassant, R. L. Stevenson, W. F. Harvey, James, M. R., Rickford, K., Pliny the Younger., Gautier, T., Oliphant, M., Hearn, L., Fernando, C. B., Matthews, B., & French, J. L. (2017). The big book of spooky tales-horror classics anthology: Number 13, The deserted house, The man with the pale eyes, The oblong box, The birth-mark, A terribly strange bed, The torture by hope, The mysterious card and many more. Musaicum Books.