Review of The Lady with the Pet Dog by Joyce Oates
Review of "The Lady with the Pet Dog" by Joyce Oates
Joyce Oates’ “The Lady with the Pet Dog” has a strange and suspenseful structure. When reading the story, the reader senses confusion, much like the life of Anna. The author reveals Anna’s character through the structure of the story, and through the imagery in the story. Alfred Kazin said that Anna’s life “seems to move through a world wholly physical in it’s detail” (Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 11 313).
Anna’s life throughout the story is disordered and repetitious. Linda W. Wagner says’ Oates’ “stories are certainly repetitive or trivial” (Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 19 349). In “The Lady with the Pet Dog” Anna’s thoughts and feelings about her feelings about her husband are unclear. She is cheating on him with another lover. She will be with her husband, than go to her lover while going back to her husband not knowing what she wants or if she is happy. This is almost a fear for Anna. Carolyn Walker wrote that “many of Oate’s stories explore major fear with emotion damage inflicted by another person” (contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 3 360). I see this fear in Anna when she is with her lover. The fear is repeated every time she is with her lover. At one-point Anna notices this fear and her life repeating with her stating ‘”Everything is repeating itself. Everything is stuck”’ (Meyer 188). Through out the story, three parts take place with each part going a little further back into Anna’s life explaining it in fuller detail. When the story begins doing this, the repeated part becomes clear and define, much like Anna’s life. Alfred Kazin said “Too much is happening; many will disappear,” much like Anna’s life (Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol.3 363). Several things go on in Anna’s life through out the story. Anna seems confused when something new is being told to the reader, but as the passage is repeated in the next part, she becomes less confused and her feelings start to become clear. At one point Anna’s feelings were becoming clear with her lover, and so she asks him ‘”Do you.. do you love me?’” With him just answering with ‘”You’re so beautiful’” (Meyer 186). Anna’s lover does not help out with...