Summary of About love

Author’s Background:

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), Russian writer, who brought both the short story and the drama to new prominence in Russia and eventually in the Western world. Taking a cool, objective stance toward his characters, Chekhov conveys their inner lives and feelings indirectly, by suggestion rather than statement. His plots are usually simple, and the endings of both his stories and his plays tend toward openness rather than finality. Chekhov’s works create the effect of profound experience taking place beneath the surface in the ordinary lives of unexceptional people.

 

About Love is a story told by different narrator showing, with sadness and subtle humour, the effects of fear, loneliness, and lost opportunity on the lives of the characters. It is the story of love, its nature and various cases by the story writer and playwright, Anton P. Chekhov. The story presents three different love stories with different style and theme.

The first love story is between Nikanor (Servant of Alyohin) and Pelageya (Maid servant of Alyohin). Nikanor, according to Alyohin, is a fool (mug) and is in love with Pelageya, the pretty cool girl. When he is drunk, he beats her and swears at her. Sometimes she hides herself upstairs in such a case. Notwithstanding, she is ready to live with him just so. But, Nikanor is so orthodox and devout to his religion that his conviction doesn’t allow him to live just so without marriage. The first kind of love story shows the Violent Love because the love gives violence in its return.

The second love story is shown between Alyohin and the university girl. Alyohin is in love with a girl when he is at university. Whenever he goes to meet her, she asks him for a month expense, money for beef and so on. She loves his money not him. Such kind of love is called Material (Mercenary Love). Love in this situation, according to Burkin, is hindrance, irritation and source of dissatisfaction.

Finally, the third love story between Alyohin and Anna is the central part of this story. And it goes as follows… Despite graduating from the university, Alyohin returns to his village, Sofyino, for his duty to pay off the loan his father has taken mortgaging his land and decides to start farming albeit with the dislike in the work. He has to work so hard day and night like a peasant which removes the chance to live as he has lived in the town. He couldn’t reconcile urban living with the rural living. He misses the black coat there.

Later being selected as an honorary justice for the peace, he has to go now and then to the town to take part in the assize and the circuit court. He seems to be much happier in town than in the village. In course of the trial of an arson case, he is acquainted with Luganovich. After two days of the case, Luganovich invites him to have dinner at his house. There he meets with Anna Alexeyevna, Luganovich’s wife. Though she is a young woman of almost 22 with a baby of six month, he likes her so much that he finds very hard to determine what is the extraordinary and exceptional in her he likes most. But at the time of dinner, he sees her very closely which makes him clear that she was very beautiful, kind, intelligent, fascinating and loving. He has never seen a woman like her. It looks as if he has known her since his childhood and has been very near to her. They make him eat as much as possible. From their behaviour, he finds the family very peaceful, happy and harmonious.  After dinner, they play a duet for him, then it gets dark and he drives home. That is the beginning of spring. He spends the whole summer missing the same fair hair willowy feeling her shadow moving around him.

In the late autumn, in a charity show is organized in town, no sooner has he entered the Governor’s box then he sees Anna sitting beside the Governor’s wife. They talk a great deal. Anna also expresses there that she misses him during summer and hoping to meet him in the show. He has the next day’s lunch at the Luganoviches. Thereafter, he goes to their summer villa along with them. After that every time he goes to town he never fails to visit them. Both of them grow used to each other. Then, he starts going there without informing them. Every time he sees her he finds the same impression of something new and extraordinary. He talks to Anna for hours. Later both the husband and the wife are distressed about him thinking that instead of devoting himself to a scholarly work, why he should live in the country and rush around like a squirrel in a cage. They also beg him not to hesitate to ask for money since he is penniless even working hard. They also start giving the gifts to each other. They go to theatre walking. They sit side by side with their shoulders touching. The town people have started making rumours about them; however, they don’t care anything. Anna begins to be affected by his love as she remains stressed and goes to her mother or her sister for some days.

Alyohin is never happy in the village, in the fields, in bed and keeps on thinking about her. He realizes that he is in love with her. He muses over the fact of the beautiful, intelligent, young woman marrying an old, dull and uninteresting person like Luganovich. Why has she met Luganovich first not him? Why such a terrible mistake need have happened in their life? He thinks of the problems which don’t let them meet. He doesn’t want to ruin the family in which he is so trusted. He is poor and probably couldn’t afford for her livelihood or couldn’t give her material satisfaction. He isn’t in a respectable profession or scholarly work. On the other hand, Anna too has the problem. Because of his love, her children, husband, her mother and the whole family would be ruined. Besides, he would have to be distrusted by the most trustworthy family members. So they have determined not to reveal their love to each other.

Eventually, the parting came. Luganovich gets his transfer in the western provinces. Anna has to leave for Crimea for a month to seek medical treatment and later she would join her husband in the western provinces. Everybody comes to see her off at the station. After they leave, Alyohin hurries to her compartment to give her basket before one minute the third bell rings for the train to move. As soon as he enters, their eyes meet causing their spiritual strength to desert them. They embrace each other kissing here and there and confess their love to each other. He repents that he couldn’t live with her blaming each and every thing. So he suggests that one should thing beyond the earthly happiness, vice and virtue when being in love or they shouldn’t reason at all. Kissing her for the last time, he presses her hand and parts forever. He goes to other compartment and sits their crying till he gets off at the next station and returns to Sofyino.

Narrative Framework: Three friends Alyohin, Burkin and Ivan are having breakfast in Alyohin’s house. In the meantime, Nikanor, his servant came to ask what the guests would like to have for dinner in the evening. When Alyohin looked at him, he reminded of his love affair with Pelageya and started to tell the story. After his story over, Alyohin told about his own experience. Then the conversation turned to love as there was rain outside, the sky full of dark clouds and the trees drenched with raindrops. In such a time people could nowhere but listen and tell stories to each other. So Alyohin began his own love affair with Anna. When it was over, the sky became clear outside and it was bright. Ivan and Burkin became very sad hearing his love affair and said that Alyohin was really like a squirrel in a cage. This setting of the story clearly matches with the mood of the character.

Platonic Love: Platonic love in its modern popular sense is an affectionate relationship into which the sexual element does not enter, especially in cases where one might easily assume otherwise. A simple example of platonic relationships is a deep, non-sexual friendship between two heterosexual people of the opposite sexes. The English term dates back as far as Sir William Davenant’s Platonic Lovers (1636). It is derived from the concept in Plato’s Symposium, of the love of the idea of good which lies at the root of all virtue and truth. Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. … Sexual abstinence or chastity is the practice of voluntarily refraining from sexual intercourse and (usually) other sexual act. It signifies a love focused on the beauty of a person’s character and intelligence rather than on their physical charms. It refers to the special bond of affection between two persons of opposite sex.  (14th century – 15th century – 16th century – other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. … However, having acknowledged that the man’s erotic desire for the youth magnetizes and energizes the relationship, they countered that it is wiser for this eros to not be sexually expressed, but instead be redirected into the intellectual and emotional spheres. Eroticism is an aesthetic focused on sexual desire, especially the feelings of anticipation of sexual activity. … So, it refers to the meeting of two souls not two bodies. That’s why it’s called spiritual love. In this story, the love relationship of Anna and Alyohin very vividly signifies platonic love relationship.

Summing up, love in Chekhov’s view is a mystery which can’t be understood however people write and discuss about it as one pleases. In love, personal happiness doesn’t matter. It’s often embellished with roses, nightingales and poeticized. Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure (“I loved that meal”) to intense interpersonal attraction (“I love my boyfriend”). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states. Love is an extremely powerful emotion; it can be irresistible and people are often bound to pursue their love interests. As an abstract concept, love usually refers to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and causing different central psychological importance.