One of the things that I really appreciate about this
story is the way that it both modernises Chekhov's classic but also re-tells it from the
woman's perspective, giving a uniquely female point of view to the theme of adultery and
love and the tangle of relationships that is involved in the affair. To me, one of the
most convincing parts of this story was Anna's feelings after having committed adultery
and how she felt a strange mixture of emotions, dominated by shame. Note what Anna is
said to feel after their first tryst:
A sense of shame overpowered her: it was smeared
everywhere on her body, the smell of it, the richness of it. She tried to reall him, and
his face was confused in her memory: she would have to shout to him across a jumbled
space, she would have to wave her arms wildly. You love me! You must love
me! But she knew he did not love her, and she did not love him; he was a man
who drew everything up into himself, like all men, walking away, free to walk away, free
to have his own thoughts, free to envision her body, all the secrets of her
body...
This to me offers a
distinctly female point of view on the adulterous relationship that Anna has, combining
the sense of shame with also a kind of exultation. Note how the sense of shame is given
a "richness" that suggests that Anna does not entirely view this affair as a negative
thing. Also, we see Anna's desperation and her assumption that her lover does not love
her in return but is free to fantasise about her.
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