Anna’s Character:

1.​ Anna is introduced to the readers as a lonely, vulnerable woman. She is introduced as a
brilliantly unremarkable character “wearing the same beret”, traversing the roads of Yalta
with her Pomeranian dog. The very unassuming nature that is associated with her
suggests her evanescent presence.
2.​ Anna's background, personal experiences, and viewpoints are deliberately obscured
throughout the narrative. The reader is only able to observe Anna with respect to her
relation with her husband and Gurov.
3.​ The identity of a “pious wife” is deeply ingrained within her unassuming expression.
When Gurov meets her at the dining at the gardens, he recognizes her that she is
indeed a married woman based on her “expression”, “gait”, “her dress”, “the way she did
her hair”. Throughout their subsequent encounters that same expression repeatedly
peeks through. While talking to Gurov, she seems to be almost inconsiderate about her
husband’s condition. Ironically, she is “amused by her own ignorance”. However she also
can’t bear the guilt of her illicit relationship with Gurov.
4.​ Despite knowing that her husband is “flunkey” she can’t bring herself to betray her
husband with Gurov. She acknowledges that due to her early marriage she never got a
chance to enjoy life at its fullest. Anna’s character can be interpreted as that of a
Freudian melancholic. The love-object's pseudo image supplants a fragment of the ego.
Instead of outward emotional expression, the patient directs reproach inward towards the
very fragment. In this case, self-criticism and exposure bring pleasure. Anna repeatedly
condemns herself whenever she is with Gurov. According to her, she is a “mad creature”
who lied to her husband in order to spend some time alone in Yalta. She has now
become “a vulgar, contemptible woman whom any one may despise”
5.​ When she hurriedly leaves Yalta following the call from her husband she feels relieved.
According to her “It’s the finger of destiny”. However when she reconciles with Gurov at
the orchestra theatre she confesses how she’s been unhappy this whole time without his
company. Additionally she also recognizes that she will continue to be unhappy even
after their reconciliation. It is this very dilemma about life that made Gurov comment
about her: “There’s something pathetic about her, anyway”.

Gurov’s character:

1.​ The moral of the story revolves around the concept of love and its unpredictable nature.
For Gurov, the excitement of life ironically comes through cheating.
2.​ Unlike his quaint companion, Gurov is explicitly portrayed as an uninhibited character.
He is almost twice the age of Anna and already as a twelve years old daughter and two
sons at school. Interestingly Gurov’s own wife is portrayed as a foil-character to Anna.
Unlike Anna’s meekness she is “tall”, “erect”, “staid” and “dignified”. Her scrupulous
“intellectual” attitude towards the outside world makes her husband “afraid” of her, and
forces him to be “unfaithful”. Her very existence disturbs the phallocentric hegemony of
the family. Gurov’s repressed hate for his wife tarnishes his own views. It allows him to
 see other women as part of the “lower race” and always speak ill of them. In the society
of women, he feels at “ease” and “free”. However every relationship he has been in
always ends up in “extreme intricacy” and becomes unbearable. Earlier in the story, he is
portrayed as a character who is “eager for life” and his experiences with strangers
(especially women) helps him to derive pleasure. Even with Anna he is most enticed by
her unknownness; proximity with an unknown woman is what he craves for.
3.​ His relationship with Anna (draw from previous points). What attracts him to her is her
exuberant naivety and persistent sadness; her “pathetic” nature.
4.​ eccentric attitude. Anna appears to him as diffident, someone who is experiencing the
“inexperienced youth”. After Anna admits her imperfections, fearing his disdain, he
responds with a compassionate sigh, chiding her for being unaware of her own words.
5.​ Initially, their bond is depicted as superficial and marked by ineffective communication..
While Anna constantly feared that he despised her. On the other hand, Gurov feared that
“he did not respect her sufficiently”. Gurov acknowledges that he has unintentionally
deceived Anna and made her fall in love with someone he is really not.
6.​ Back in Moscow, he is constantly troubled by the memories of his trip to Yalta. What is
particularly interesting is that he slowly starts to harbor new emotions towards his
apparent situation. Real life slowly becomes more congested, “worthless” and “trivial” –
“just as though one were in a madhouse or a person”. When he finally reconciles with
Anna at the orchestra theatre the same little, unremarkable woman transfigures into
someone ethereal.
7.​ When he starts to inhibit “two lives” he finally recognizes the dire condition of the obtuse
reality. Essentially everything about him that is apparent to the society is false. On the
other hand, everything that he is sincere about, everything that makes the kernel of his
life, his illicit relationship becomes the element of secrecy.
8.​ seeking a resolution. trying to get away from the vagabond life.

Miscellaneous points:

1.​ Janet Malcolm emphasizes upon how the story is “playing with the paradox that a lie - a
husband deceiving a wife, or a wife deceiving a husband - can be the fulcrum of truth of
feeling, vehicle of authenticity”.
2.​ According to Maxim Gorky, the importance of the story is as a wake-up call to people “to
let go of sleepy, half-dead existence”.
3.​ The earlier reference of Gurov living “two lives” suddenly comes into the light and
enables him to make a decision. This was another way of manifesting that this new
found relationship could find a solution, not by sustaining itself secretly, but by deciding
to accept. They can resolve their fear by acknowledging that they are positioned at the
beginning of a new life.
4.​ For personal reasons , when Gurov sets out to St.Petersburg with an agenda to meet
Anna, he couldn’t make it to her house despite being near. There was an invitation and
he kept deferring, fearing that Anna would’ve already forgotten.