About love

-Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

(This story tries to tell us that love is mysterious. Every story of love is different from the other. The three events about love that Alyohin, the narrator, describes prove this fact.)

Alyohin, Burkin and Ivan Ivanych were eating together when Nikanor, the cook, came to ask them about their preference for dinner. He was a man of average height with fat face and small eyes. He was clean-shaven. Alyohin told his friends the story of love affair between Nikanor and his beloved Pelageya. She was a beautiful woman, but loved a drunkard and violent man like Nikanor. When he was drunk, he used to swear at and beat her. He wanted her to marry him. But she did not want to marry him and was willing to live with him just so because of his violent nature. He didn’t like it. Alyohin wondered why Pelageya hadn’t fallen in love with somebody else better than Nikanor.

Alyohin thinks that love is a great mystery. Many questions about it are unanswered. No writings or sayings about love till now have been able to provide the solution. Each case of love is different from the other. So, generalization about love is not possible.

In Alyohin’s opinion, the Russians always flatter love and seek the reason and result of love. It’s an obstacle and source of dissatisfaction. When he was a university student in Moscow, he loved a girl and lived with her. She was always worried about the money Alyohin would provide her.

The sky was grey and it was raining outside. So, all the three friends could not go out. Meanwhile, Alyohin started telling his friends his own love story. He seemed to forget the loneliness of his bachelorhood for some time.

As Alyohin went to the university, his father had borrowed a lot of money to pay for his studies. So, after he finished his study he went back home. He had decided to work hard in the farm to pay off the debts though he did not enjoy working there.

Alyohin had been elected a judge in the town. So, he had to go to town frequently for court cases. Once, he met another judge, Luganovich, in the town. The man invited Alyohin to his house for dinner. At dinner, Alyohin met his wife Anna Alexeyevna. She was almost 22 with a six-month-old baby. As soon as Alyohin saw Anna, he fell in love with her. He felt he had never met such a charming woman before. Anna and her husband looked happy and satisfied in their conjugal life.

Alyohin returned to his village Sofyino, but could not forget Anna. In the late autumn when he went to the town again, he met Anna at a charity show. She asked him about his well-being and said that she could not forget him during the summer. The next day, he lunched at Anna’s house. Then, his visit to Anna’s house became frequent. Every time that Alyohin went to town he would go to visit Anna. Slowly, he became more familiar with Anna’s family.

Luganovich was almost forty. He was a simple, kind and straight-forward person. He was always ready to help Alyohin on his wife’s request. Alyohin would exchange many articles as gifts with Anna and her husband. They were wealthy, so Alyohin would borrow money from them. Alyohin was jealous of Luganovich because he had such a beautiful wife.

Though Alyohin and Anna loved each other secretly, they were unable to express their feelings to each other. Alyohin could not express his love to Anna because he did not want to break up her nice family in which he was so much trusted. Anna was also in conflict in her mind. She was in confusion whether to accept Alyohin’s love for her or not. She had no courage to betray her mother, her husband and her two children.

After some years, Alyohin and Anna had started going to the theatre together. People had started talking about them. Later, Anna suffered from nervous prostration. She would be irritated quite soon. She had started feeling her life dissatisfied and ruined.

Meanwhile, Luganovich got an appointment in another place. So, they had to leave the place. Anna was going to see a doctor in Crimea. As she had already said goodbye to her husband and children and the train was about to speed, Alyohin ran into her compartment to give her the basket she had almost forgotten. When their eyes met together, they could restrict themselves no more. They embraced each other and cried. Alyohin confessed his love to her. He kissed her the last time and parted from her forever.

When Alyohin finished his story, the rain had stopped and the sun had appeared.