Fiction is written in a fashion developed by certain standards. Good fiction possesses the ability to break those standards – a significant accomplishment in any author’s writing career. Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog” is a perfect example of how good authors can keep an audience interested, without conflict, a solid climax and no point at the end. The tale opens with an introduction of two characters- Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, a conceited man in his forties, and Anna Sergeyevna, a timid woman in her early twenties. Initially, Dmitry is a man of little moral; always seeking happiness by creating love affairs with multiple women, and feeling no remorse in his dishonesty towards his wife. On the contrary, Anna seems to express more pity for her husband after her unfaithful encounter with Dmitry. Through his character’s passionate love affair, Anton Chekhov manages to create a more realistic image of what it is to lead a secret life. By carefully paying attention to the minor, yet essential details through the act of being unfaithful, Chekhov presents a sense of reality which most authors fail to bring in a story, and he managed to create reality by breaking the rules of fiction.
In the first mini chapter, Dmitry is sitting at a confectionary shop, when he sees a “young woman of medium height, wearing a beret…” (206). A few days later, he sees the same woman in the public garden: “Her expression, her gait, her dress, and the way she did her hair told him that she belonged to the upper class”(207). His assumptions demonstrate that he is a man of judgment; an assessor who concludes that someone’s character may be determined without spoken words. At this point, a traditional author of fiction would make use of Dmitry’s assumptions and would use his conclusion of Anna as an element of foreshadow, or perhaps another author would have Dmitry’s assumptions proved wrong, and that Anna is a strong-willed woman who is not easily persuaded into creating flings,...