"About Love" by Anton Chekhov

“About Love” by Chekhov begins with three characters discussing the nature of love. One of these characters named Alyohin states that love is a “great mystery” that consists of “questions that have remained unanswered.” Alyohin uses this discussion as an opportunity to tell a story about his experience of love.             

The way the story begins is made by Chekhov to seem arbitrary. The character could have just as easily been discussing the nature of hate rather than love. This is simply how the characters in the story choose to pass the time. I’m uncertain what this adds to the story other than a frame but it’s an interesting technique nonetheless.

Alyohin’s story is about a relationship with another man’s wife named Anna Alexeyevna. Alyohin and Anna are truly in love with each yet they are unable to spend a lot of time together because of Anna’s marriage. Instead of giving in to their love for each other, Anna and Alyohin accept the circumstances that prevent them from being together even though their hearts say otherwise. It’s essentially the story of a forbidden love where both characters never act upon their desires to truly be together.

The story ends with Alyohin finally being able to confess his love to Anna when she is on the verge of being taken away to Crimea. In this moment Alyohin realizes the stupidity of not confessing his love earlier. This final moment speaks to the idea that once love is recognized, it should be acted upon immediately with an utter disregard for rationality.

This concludes Alyohin’s story. The focus then zooms back out to the three men sitting together in the rain. Each man is familiar with Anna so they all feel the sadness of Alyohin’s story. The rain also stops during Alyohin’s story to reveal a fine view of a garden and river. This adds some happiness to a story that is primarily concerned with Alyohin’s unfulfilled love.

The genius of this story is that it exists in a trilogy with two other stories. The proper way to analyze such a story requires a discussion of how the stories relate to each other. I look forward to rereading the other stories in this trilogy and engaging in a discussion of how they relate to each other on this blog.

Love is such a powerful emotion that it is difficult to come away from such an experience not feeling regret. “About Love” advocates behaving irrationally in any situation involving true love. Some attention should be given to the opposite of this argument: that one should also act rationally in a situation involving love. While Alyohin’s story is obviously tragic, his decision to see it as regretful years after it happens is a personal choice. He could just as easily choose to focus on the moments of happiness he experienced with Anna. There is a reason he chose to behave with rationality.

I wonder how one should respond after someone tells the most emotionally devastating story of their life. Perhaps the best response is a silent acknowledgement of the devastation followed by a subtle change in the topic of conversation. 

Also today I read a fascinating post dealing with a connection between Chekhov and George Saunders. Since I am currently reading Chekhov and I have written a fairly popular post on Saunders' story "Puppy" I instantly gobbled up the post with my eyes and brain. I recommend you do the same if you are interested in either author's work. 

As always, thank you for reading and may your love life consist of unanswered questions.

Buy Chekhov's stories here:
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