The Boor by Anton Chekhov has many themes in it pertaining faithfulness and emotions, because of this it relates to real life and how this could actually happen in a more modern setting. The first theme that sticks out if how Mrs. Popov is persistent on staying faithful to her dead husband, locking herself away in the house and never loving anyone else. The second theme is how misogyny takes over Smirnov and his emotions, Smirnov conveys himself as a misogynist when he argues that women can't actually love or love anybody good. The third theme is how powerful emotions can be because in the end they both set aside their differences and fall in love. The themes in this play show emotion that relates to real life, the first one being staying faithful, the second being how misogyny can take over a man, and the third how powerful emotions can be.
In the play Mrs. Popov wants to remain faithful to her dead husband, she has no desire to move on. She has kept herself cooped up in her house mourning over him. But it is soon discovered that her husband wasn't faithful to her as she is to him. She says, "Oh, that his departed soul may see that I love him! I know, it's no secret to you; he was often unjust toward me, cruel, and-he wasn't faithful, but I shall be faithful to the grave and prove to him how I can love" (1902). If her husband wasn't faithful, then it raises the question of why she still would be now after he has died. She says that she wants to prove how she can love, but there's nothing to love if her husband was nothing but horrible to her. That's where it plays in with how this could happen in real life. Many women, and also men, end up staying with their significant other despite the fact that they have been unfaithful to them. Many people feel that they need to prove that they can love someone passed their flaws and their mistakes, but someone would think that there is a point in which the mistakes have gone too far.
