Love In Lawrence And Chekhov

5 Pages 1305 Words

Love, with no doubt, is the most beautiful and strong feeling a human can experience. It’s hard to find an adult who wouldn’t know what love is and how it usually intrudes in our lives, either warming, or burning our hearts Yet, love may be so indefinite, unpredictable, and different, that it’s hard to say whether it is a steady flame of feeling, or just a bright sparkle, fated to exhaust itself and die. Two stories, Lawrence’s and Chekhov’s, present two stories of love, both emotional, but different.
In D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”, Jack Fergusson, a young country doctor, saves the life of Mabel, the daughter of a horse dealer. Her father died and left her and her brothers the burden of debt and bankruptcy. Facing a gloomy, indefinite future, and potential poverty and misery, loaded with her duty to her family brought her to the thought of finding peace in death. Cold, dark water of a pond had already swallowed her up, when Jack jumped after her.
Following his duty, he brought her, wet and unconscious, to her house and started attending her. There, in the dark empty room, a strange and wonderful metamorphose arose within an hour. She came to and realized that he saved her. Her reaction, however, differed from the one most other people would have. Seeing little, if any, man’s endearment and caress, knowing no tender feeling, let alone, love to herself, being insignificant and almost needless, found in crisis, brought to despair, and snatched right out of Death’s hands, she saw him as a flash of light in the end of her dark life, as a savor. Figuratively, her reaction might have been similar to that of a rescued animal, who starts treating its savor with loyalty and devotion. At some measure, her reaction could be instinctive. Nonetheless, she was a human, so unfamiliar with care and kindness, so unspoiled, that doctor’s attention, which was no more than a professional duty, was taken for lo...