Looking glass analysis (week 1)

In the short story, The looking glass, Chekhov engages in the idea of a selfish women who is obsessed with getting married. Nellie is very obsessed calling her husband, “ the destined one”, and that her husband is everything to her. The dream that Nellie was an escape from her reality of being alone. She wants to live her life in sheer bliss and having husband means she doesn’t have to worry about anything.
As the story continues with her looking through the looking glass, the author describes it to be a grey background on a cold winter night. It skips ahead to her trying to get a doctor to take care of her dying husband and again the author makes Nellie seem self-centered and only wanting the doctor to cure her dying  husband so she doesn’t have to worry about anything like money or how she and her kids are going to live. She talks about the stresses of their financial situation  and racking their brains about how to avoid the courts. Nellie also shows love and devotion to her husband in the since she will be there for him in sickness and in health. She takes no for an answer from the doctor and only wanting to save her husband.
Towards the end of the story, Nellie realizes that being alone might not be so bad and that she can be happy without a husband.  The author made the whole short story seem like a dream  and the author shows that by mentioning how Nellie sighs in relief of it being a dream. Her sighing relief show that she is content with her life now and the whole thing was no more than a dream. Whether she pursues her dream or not is up to her and maybe down the line she will get married and have a happy family.


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