Lady with a Little Dog

I read this piece in my literature class with Lunberry last semester. I always wonder how basic literature becomes so popular. I mean Lady and the Little Dog in a literature class, really? I just didn't find anything about this story so outstanding that one should read it outside of its collection, let alone study it. A chauvinist meets a soft-hearted woman and their hearts are intertwined. It doesn't work out, and when he stalks her back to her home country, they are disheartened at the fact that their love shall never be.

Let's break it down. The opening scenes introduce Gurov, this totally douchey guy who watches the Lady with the Little Dog in the park until he decides to make a move. They date for a little while, and of course, we have to mention the scene with the watermelon- Lunberry's favorite. After the girl pours her heart out, Gurov totally ignores her and cuts a melon for thirty minutes. So existential. So Beckett.

I guess I don't really even have anything to say about this piece, right? But I have to write at least two pages on it! Which is something I don't get. Why two pages for a journal entry, but four pages for a midterm essay? That doesn't add up! Every time I take Lunberry I think to myself, one page for a journal entry. That just makes sense. That just makes sense! One page for a journal entry. That's it.

That rant ties into Lady with the Little dog because like the absurdity of writing two pages for a journal entry, Gurov soon discovers the absurdity of love when they confess their love for each other, but cannot ever be. The story ends with an active passion: that the two lovers should be together, but ends with them both not taking any action toward that end. Again, very Beckett- like Waiting for Godot, when Vladamir and Estragon agree to leave their plight forever and chase their dreams, they still remain standing on the stage. This story is very Beckett. I like it.

Which brings me back to my original comment. It's not that I don't like this story. I do. I just don't think it's as good as everyone hypes it up to be. Like Lil Wayne, in my humble opinion. Yeah. This story is like Lil Wayne.