Infidelity meets Chivalry

I just finished reading Chekhov’s Lady with a Lapdog. It’s actually quite a heart wrenching tale of forbidden love, and the part that stands out to me most is the sense of sheer longing. Both Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna live in unhappy marriages, one to an overly prim shrew, and the other to a “flunkey,” as she names him. After a short affair, they cannot forget each other, but instead soon start travelling to meet one another every so often. They long to have a beautiful life and household together, but both are trapped, and neither can escape the confines of marital chains.

It is interesting to see this work posited from a male perspective. In contrast to a modern world where it seems anathema for men to espouse higher ideals of love and emotion, the character here does so with gusto. He does not simply want sexual favors from Anna Sergeyevna, but to have her charm, social grace, innocence, and beauty for his own. He seems to be, in short, the classic romantic. Isn’t this something that has disappeared in our modern society? Where is the concept of the gentlemen, and conversely the lady? The gentleman, in precisely the style of Gurov, honors the lady in an attempt to win her. He ascribes true virtue to her – an idea our culture has lost. No one is off limits in modern society, with no distinction between a whore and a lady. Gurov has the grace to treat Anna Sergeyevna romantically and with a degree of chivalrous respect, though he sleeps with her. It is, nevertheless, refreshing to see an acknowledgement of the fact that men have emotions, and can and do indeed love others with passion and longing. It’s a change from our culture norms of bland indifference in the males of our species.

Another interesting aspect here is the perspectives both have on their marriages. They give reasons as to why they are not content, but are these sufficient? The text with which Chekhov presents us clearly supports this affair, but I question the situation. Should the two characters betray and lie to their spouses for the sake of true love and romance? It seems contradictory. True chivalrous romance is accompanied by duty, and both of these certainly have a duty to their spouses that they are betraying for the sake of a fairy tale of love. Would either really be so discontent if they were perhaps more willing to love their spouse, and to fulfill the proper roles of marriage? It is my suspicion that both characters are wonderful (albeit late) representations of the superfluous man, a nineteenth-century figure who continuously pops up in literature – he belongs to the nobility, and has no idea what, exactly, to do with himself, existing solely for the parties, and caught between Russian and French culture. Gurov comes across with wit, and Anna Sergeyevna is clearly meant to be a representation of purity and innocence – but both find meaning in their lives through an illicit affair.

In fact, the work has every possible aspect of a true high-style romance. A beautiful and innocent woman meets a charming man, who seeks her out to display his devotion for her. Both are consumed with their love for one another, and it gives purpose to lives formerly filled with distractions – so why is it an affair? Is Chekhov implying that marriage is merely a social institution, which may be transcended by love of a particularly noble sort? He implies at the end that it will eventually work out for the couple, writing “but both of them knew very well that the end was still a long, long way away and that the most complicated and difficult part was only just the beginning.” So is this justified for Chekhov? Why? Why introduce elements of discontent and infidelity in what is truly a beautiful story of love between two wonderful representations of a man and a woman? Is it to criticize the shallowness of typical elite Russian society (is it significant that they met on vacation in the south), and imply that one may transgress this if the infidelity has meaning?

I honestly don’t know. Thoughts?