The Country Husband, by John Cheever comparison to Chekov's The Lady with the Dog

The Country Husband, by John Cheever comparison to Chekov's The Lady with the Dog

The Country Husband, by John Cheever, is a story about the life of Francis Weed as he dealt with his mid-life crisis. There is a supportive mid-life crisis theme throughout the entirety of the story. John Cheever goes through many stressful events that almost caused him to lose his family life. The story starts off on a plane in which John was riding home from Minneapolis. The plane crashed and John was left with a near death experience. This event kicked off the story of John's crisis with a big bang. From here on everything John goes through is normally excepted in our society, but with the plane crash in the back of his mind, any normal events become abnormal and add up to overwhelm him.

Like any person would do in our culture, John returned home expecting sympathy and wide-open ears to hear about his exciting plane crash. This is where things started to go bad. (Cheever 1956) John returns to a house full of crying and arguing children that wanted nothing to do with the great story of the crash. In "The Lady with the Dog" the story unfolds gradually with a climax. This quintessentially Chekhovian moment is so private and internal that it is easy to miss the first time one reads the story. (Cheever 1956) Returning to his daily routine in Moscow, Gurov gradually realizes he is in love with Anna. As a result, he also recognizes that the separation between his external and internal lives has become intolerable. (Chekhov 1959) His family leaves him mostly irritated or bored. He especially loathes the vulgar male world he inhabits-"frenzied gambling, ...