(282 words) In the story “About Love” Chekhov shows the contrast between two love stories: Nikanor and Pelageya, and Alekhine and Anna Alekseevna. The first describes a romance between two servants, and the second shows the relationship between the landowner and the official’s wife.
Nikanor and Pelagia openly express their desires, while Alekhine and Anna believe that it is better to hide their feelings. Nikanor drinks and swears with his lover and even beats her. She sobs and hides. Gentlemen always behave very politely: they talk for a long time or they are silent for hours, they go to the theater together, but like strangers. Palagea is not shy about expressing her sensual love. She wants to live with Nikanor without marrying him. On the contrary, Nicanor is deeply religious, and therefore he is ready to live with her only if she becomes his wife. Servants may be happy in their own way, but nobles are not happy with their life. Thus, the tumultuous love affair between the servants contrasts with the quiet and unexpressed love between their masters. In this story, we read the dynamics of emotions almost at the platonic level. Chekhov is trying to show that “love” as such does not have to be connected by marriage.
Alekhine is an ordinary person, but the main character in the plot. Choosing him, Chekhov wants to show the contrast between the life of the average man and what he wants, but cannot achieve - an existence free of conventions. But people like him, ordinary people timidly hide their feelings, fearing condemnation and loss of reputation. This is the slavery that the author called to squeeze out of himself every day.
Anton Chekhov in his story “On Love” claims that love is a “great secret”. It is dynamic, and each novel is different from the other. Each couple is placed in different circumstances in which loving hearts face different challenges. Therefore, to generalize this is useless, and the writer wants to prove that every love story is an individual case.
