The Effect of Relationship's on Feelings Towards Others in "

            The Effect of Relationship's on Feelings Towards Others in "The Lady with the Dog- by Anton Chekhov.
            
             Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog- is the story of a married man bored by his wife and his relationship with a young woman, who is also married, while on vacation in Yalta. The relationship between the man, Dmitri Gurov, and the young lady, Anna Sergeyevna, is very intriguing when looking at the roles and the development of each character throughout the story. The change in attitude towards women shown by Dmitri shows the role of relationships and love in determining the feelings of one sex towards the other.
             Early in "The Lady with the Dog,"" it is clear that Dmitri has a negative outlook towards women. His feelings regarding women likely did not initiate in his younger days, but were probably a result of his sour relationship with his wife. In describing Dmitri's feelings of women, Chekhov writes, "He had begun being unfaithful to her long ago-had been unfaithful to her often, and, probably on that account, almost always spoke ill of women, and when they were talked about in his presence, used to call them the lower race'-(238). This leads the reader to wonder what events may have happened to Dmitri which led him to form this opinion of women. It is possible that there is more than one answer. One answer is the present relationship with his wife and also the encounters with other women in his past. Chekhov supports this theory where he writes, "It seemed to him that he had been so schooled by bitter experience that he might call them what he liked-(238). Another explanation for Dmitri's feelings may be the social norms at the time which this story was written in. In the book Sexuality and Subordination : Interdisciplinary Studies of Gender in the Nineteenth Century, Susan Mendus writes describing marriage during the 19th century by saying, "on marrying, the woman must give up her independence and submit to the domination of her husband-(174).