A Lady and a Dog

Is Anna and Gurov's relationship simply a case of bad timing? What does "The Lady with the Dog" say about relationships?


I think that Anna and Gurov's relationship is just a case of bad timing. If Anna and Gurov would have met just a few short years earlier before they were married, they probably would been together under different circumstances. I think it's evident that both Anna and Gurov both care and love each other much more than they do their significant others. When Gurov went to St. Petersburg to find her and then found her at the theatre she said that she never stopped thinking about her, even though when parting she said that this was goodbye forever. Gurov also couldn't stop thinking about Anna and that was the reason he travels to St. Petersburg, and then he realizes that as an older, graying gentleman he finally fell in love the right way and knew she was the one (1533). I think they both realized they had found the one, but the predicament they were in would make them tear their families a part in order to be together without sneaking around. If they would have met a few years before and wouldn't have rushed into marriage, I think fate would have made them find each other and they would be in love and happy just as they were in the story. This story reveals through Anna and Gurov's relationship that relationships and love are more problematic and harder than what is shown in romance novels and Disney movies. People have to truly fight for who they love and sometimes the situations can be difficult such as the one in "The Lady and a Dog." I think their relationship shows that timing is everything. If someone rushes into something like Anna and Gurov, they are potentially missing finding their soulmate. Every decision that a person makes affects their future and potential relationships.  Also, you'll find someone that could be perfect for you, but because you didn't wait you can't have your soul mate.


What quest is Gurov on?  Is he successful? 


Gurov was "talked into marrying in his second year at college, and his wife now looked nearly twice as old as he did" (1524). I think his quest is to find happiness. He's so unhappy and unsatisfied with his marriage that he tries to find happiness with little one night stands with other women. The narrator says that, "every time he encountered an attractive woman...the desire for life surged up in him, and everything suddenly seemed simple and amusing" (1524). I think that this showed every time he saw a woman that got his heart racing he became happy and forgot about his wife at home and his unhappiness. He tried to achieve happiness through numerous encounters with random women. The women would satisfy him for only a short period of time, but then he just reverted back to unhappiness. I do not think his goal was to find love, I believe his goal was to find happiness. So I think Gurov was halfway successful at fulfilling his quest. He couldn't get Anna out of his mind and realized on page 1535 that "only now, when he was gray-haired, had he fallen in love properly, thoroughly, for the first time in his life." While he was with Anna he was extremely happy and never wanted to leave her side, but when he was away from her for 2-3 months at a time Anna was all he had thought about. So I think if the story was to continue and Gurov actually left his wife and married Anna then he would have fulfilled his quest and become happy, but at the ending I can say that he almost but didn't achieve his quest because for a large amount of time Gurov is still unhappy because he can't see his love.