Consider the following assessment of the story: " No excuses can be made for the lover's adulterous affair. They behave selfishly and irresponsibly. They are immoral-and so is the story." Explain what you think Chekhov's response to this view would be, given this treatment of the lovers. How does this compare with your own views?
Gurov is less concerned with personal shame than Anna, but he still feels the need to keep the affair secret. Before and after kissing her in public, for example, he looks around furtively to see if anyone is watching.
Yet as the story progresses, this moral compass begins to invert. Gurov and Anna's extramarital love affair—once shameful and best kept secret—becomes the most "sincere [and] essential" part of their lives. Anna no longer cries at the thought of her sins; instead, her tears now revolve around the hardship of keeping their love secret from the world. At the end of the text, the narrator even observes that Anna and Gurov forgive "everything in the present." To them, their love is no longer a source of shame, but rather something beautiful and tender.
Thus, Chekhov's characters start out believing their affair is immoral and sinful, yet the story concludes with them believing that it is the most beautiful part of their lives. In this way, he demonstrates how the passage of time and the evolution of relationships can impact people's perspectives on the moral universe.
