About Love by Anton Chekhov: Analysis
In the story 'About Love' Chekhov shows the contrast between the two love stories of Nikanor and Pelageya and Alyohin and Anna Alexeyevna. The first one describes the love between the two servants whereas the second one describes the love between the landowner and the official's wife.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Nikanor and Pelageya frankly express their desires, but Alyohin and Anna think it better to conceal their feelings. The servants are violent. Nikanor drinks and swear at her and even beats her. She sobs and hides herself. But Aloyhin and Anna behave very politely. They talk for a long time and sit silently for hours. They go to the theatre together, but come out like a stranger. Palageya does not hesitate to express her sensual love. She wants to live with Nikanor without marrying him. But Alyohin and Anna control themselves until their spiritual strength deserts them at their final meeting. Nikanor is called ‘mug’ (fool), but Aloyhin and Anna are both intelligent and educated. The servants might be happy in their own way, but Alyohn and Anna are dissatisfied with their lives. Thus, a violent love affair between servants contrasts with the quiet and unexpressed love between the intelligent persons.
Alyohin is an ordinary man, but the main character in the story. By choosing him Chekhov wants to show the contrast between the life the ordinary person and that of the celebrated person. By portraying Alyohin’s life, the author wants to show how the common man lives. Ordinary people hide their feelings timidly. They do not express their love to the other if it is harmful to them.
Anton Chekhov’s “About Love”, states love “is a great mystery”. He doesn’t think there can be any hard and fast definition of it. Love is dynamic and every love story is different. Each couple finds themselves placed in different circumstance in which they come across different persons and different challenges. Therefore, it is useless to generalize it. Therefore story writer wants to prove that each love story is an individual case.
