The Looking Glass (Week 1 due to technical difficulties)

I really enjoyed reading The Looking Glass by Anton Chekhov in class, because this story has said a lot about the time period in which is was written in. The focus that really jumps out at me in the story is the fact that this girl in the reflection, Nellie, "the daughter of a landowner and general, a young and pretty girl," dreams "day and night" of getting married. This could imply two things: 1) Nellie dreams of finding her one, true love so that they can live happily ever after, or 2) Nellie wants a husband, because the main role for women back then was to get married and reproduce. Either two options really both convey that women, more or less, depend on men. The next focus that really catches my attention is that when she finally achieves her hopes and dreams of marrying this man, her "significance of life, personal happiness, career, fate," he, her marriage, and the male doctor, all let her down and slowly rip her apart. Her husband starts to become deathly ill and when she seeks help from the doctor, she realizes that he is just as sick as her husband. If one is to put this into a broader perspective, here is a woman, who was deeply dependent on a man to make her happy, currently in the position of two sick men who are depending on her to solve their problems.

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