Concerning Love By Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov’s Concerning Love is exactly that, a short story concerning the love that both Alyokhin and Anna Luganovich feel for each other but never act upon. The love started when Alyokhin took up a part-time job in town as the honorary justice of peace. Through his work he met Anna’s husband, Dmitry Luganovich, who invited Alyokhin back to his house for dinner. Alyokhin immediately took a strong liking towards Anna, “…here was a young, beautiful, kind, intelligent, enchanting woman, unlike any I’d met before” (148). However, he failed to act on his love for Anna because “judging from little details” he “…concluded that they [Anna and her husband] were living peacefully and happily” (148), a happy married life with children yet, little did Alyokhin know that Anna was truly yearning for his love.

Alyokhin is a man that would rather be an “armchair” man, “I was never brought up to do physical work and I’m an вЂ?armchair’ type by inclination” (146) however, he was stuck in a farming lifestyle in Sofino because he felt he owed it to his father to keep up their estate. He felt this way because his father merely put the family in debt to send Alyokhin to school, so he thought he owed it to his father to pay off the debts and keep up the estate. Alyokhin liked paying visits into town to break away from the laborious estate lifestyle to a bustling town lifestyle where most importantly, he got to break free to see Anna.

At dinner, Alyokhin and Luganovich were talking about a trial of an arson case in which Alyokhin highly believed that the convicted Jews were being convicted on no reasonable grounds but to clearly point the blame at someone. Alyokhin could not help but notice that Anna was moved and disgusted by the case. Alyokhin believed that Luganovich was a good man yet, a firm believer that when people are convicted they are guilty. Alyokhin saw the illusion that Anna was enjoying her life and did not pay another visit to the Luganvich’s until the following summer.

Anna’s mutual love and attraction to Alyokhin became apparent when they saw each other at a charity show in town. Anna comes straight out and says, referring to when she first met him, “I was even a little taken with you, I must confess. For some reason I thought about you during the summer and when I was getting ready for the theatre I had a feeling I might see you today” (149). She confesses that she, like Alyokhin, took up an immediate liking for him and probably felt funny as a married woman saying that because she bursts out laughing afterwards.

Anna and Alyokhin grow closer and confide in one another more. Alyokhin makes more frequent visits, unannounced visits, like he is part of the Luganovich family. When Alyokhin did not visit frequently, Anna would scold him for making her worry about why he has not been over to see them when, in fact, she must have been referring to why he has not been by to see her. Alyokhin, whenever away from Anna, would be constantly thinking about her, “Whether I was at home, out in the fields, in the barn, I couldn’t stop thinking about her” (150). The two lovers ignore their signs of love for each other and Alyokhin consistently thinks that Anna is living happily, that the “Luganoviches had no worries” (149).

Alyokhin, all the meanwhile, is unhappy with his life. Both Anna and her husband sensed this and would try to help Alyokhin in any way they could. However, Alyokhin would never borrow from Luganovich because he thought of how Anna would think of it as if Alyokhin would not be able to support her and make her happy if they were ever to be. He would compare himself to Luganovich