Dmitri is excited when he sees the new mysterious woman; he sees a new opportunity to escape the monotonous marriage he is trapped in. Even though everything always failed him before he was unconsciously compelled to try and find something that worked. After meeting "the lady with the dog-, he thought of "her slender, delicate neck, and her lovely gray eyes."" Before he fell asleep though, he thought, "There's something pathetic about her, anyway,"" as a reaction to what always seemed to inevitably happened. He needs to protect his own feelings. As Gurov soon learns after he meets her, the woman's name is Anna Serveyevna. She struck me as a very young, nave woman who can sometimes be controlled by men. "She was not sure whether her husband had a post in a Crown Department or under the Provincial Council - and was amused by her own ignorance."" She does not even care what her husband's occupation is! She is not happy with her marriage. She was shy and did not seem to be comfortable around men. When she had her first conversation with Dmitri, she would answer him without looking at him as if glancing at another man was forbidden. However, as the author stated earlier in the story, Gurov knew how to approach unfamiliar woman and make them feel comfortable in his presence. He was able to break through Anna's shell and coax her into opening up and discussing random things such as "strange light on the sea- and "how sultry it was after a hot day."" As they continued to meet, Anna's passiveness continued to be reflected in the way she acted. He asked her "Where shall we go now? Shall we drive somewhere?- to which her replies were mere silence. Again later he drew his arm around her and kissed her and requested that they traveled to her hotel. Nowhere in the text does the woman suggest anything. She never appears to be the flirtatious one interested in Gurov. Instead, she thinks of her high morals and values.
