I believe that Chekhov wanted to show that a casual flirtation motivated mainly by boredom could lead to the most serious consequences. The moral of the story is that people should not use other people for pleasure or diversion. Chekhov's story has been imitated in motion pictures at least twice. One movie is Fatal Attraction (1987), starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. An earlier movie was Play Misty for Me (1971), starring Clint Eastwood. There are many possible variations on the theme of Chekhov's story. In real life there are many possible tragedies resulting from intimate encounters between two people when one or both are not motivated by sincere affection and mutual respect.

What does the narrator convey in "The Lady with the Pet Dog"?

"The Lady with the Pet Dog" is a limited third-person narrative, told in Chekov's typical laconic and somewhat ambiguous style. It is a story about love coming late to a man who is already married and is also an experienced serial seducer. Dmitri begins his deception of Anna almost mechanically, acting just as he has many times before, but soon realizes that he has been deceiving himself as well as his conquests in what he had thought were love affairs.

The narrator is continually concerned to point out the complexity of human relations. Dmitri seems to be a misogynist in principle but not in practice, since he regards women as a lower race but feels more comfortable with them than in male company. Similarly, love is a redemptive force in the story but makes life more difficult and even more unsatisfying in the short term. Even the story's end is really more of a beginning, as Dmitri and Anna realize that, though they have a "new and splendid life" ahead of them, there is also "a long, long road" before they will be able to enjoy it.