Looking Glass Reflection


This past week, we closely examined “The Looking Glass” by Anton Chekhov, a narrative about Nellie, a young girl dreaming of the horrifying life that she may see in the future. The story begins with her gazing longingly through the looking glass, seeing the man she hopes to marry along with the life she’s envisioning herself to have. It starts as a beautiful arrangement, a man with a gentle and smiling face and strong feelings of love and devotion. However, the vision soon morphs into something horrifying; it was a life where her husband becomes ill and she’s doing everything to save him with no success as the doctor she went to had fallen sick himself.

Throughout this tale, Nellie consistently turns the attention back to herself. She is worried about how she will take care of herself when her husband is gone and how she is supposed to plan his funeral. She is extremely rude to the ill doctor solely because she cannot bear to think of her husband leaving her. This brings about questions of gender roles as Nellie is portrayed as a weak and needy woman who is questioning how her life will be after the death of her husband and possibly her children. She seems completely dependent on others, especially her dying husband.

There is also very strong imagery throughout the whole narrative. The author uses a very dull and gray tone to portray a somber atmosphere. In the beginning, all of the images in the looking glass are against a gray background. Her reflection is also gray. At the end of the narrative, she is running through the dark and frozen landscape.


At the end of the story, we see a change in Nellie. She awakes with a start, one looking glass at her feet and the other on the table. She has tear stained cheeks and is relieved to realize it was all a dream. The important detail from the last paragraph is that there was no longer a gray background. Maybe Nellie realized that she doesn’t need a husband and this ideal life to be happy after all.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 4, 2017 at 12:52 PM

    Hi there! I like how you discussed gender roles amongst the relationship in both the aspects of Nellie as a wife and mother, and as a member in society. I think it's important to separate the two from her roles in the family and society because there is a division between financial responsibility in both. As dependent as she may seem in the beginning of the text, she shows strength among the struggle later on in the story, which goes a long way.

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  2. UnknownSeptember 4, 2017 at 6:31 PM

    I think there is definitely a theme of selfishness present throughout the short story. She doesn't seem to care that her husband is suffering of this illness. Rather, she only seems to care because it means she will be alone again. Even when talking about his burial, Nellie refers to it as a burden. So, I really liked when you said "Nellie consistently turns the attention back to herself." I think that is a big part of this story that not many people have pointed out yet.

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