The Lady with the pet Dog

In class, Professor Sexson said that out of the two versions of The Lady with the Pet Dog, it is likely that most people will enjoy Joyce carol Oates' version more because it is more modern. However, after reading both versions, I actually liked Chekhov's version more. True, Oates' version is more modern and uses a more common and relateable language, but Chekhov's version seems to be written more beautifully, with a more colorful and intriguing language. Although both of the tales involve adultery, there is something mysteriously beautiful abou the story. The idea of seeing someone on the street and wondering how your life would be different if you only got to know them better is intriguing. We are surrounded be thouands of people, but rarely give a second glance to any of them, except for the select few that we already know. A simple hello and the opportunity of a blossoming friendship could change lives drastically, but the abscence of that hello leaves for pondering the unknown, the aspect of "what could have been".
Each version of the story is told from a slightly different point of view. Chekhov's version focuses more on the man's point of view, while Oates' version focuses more on the woman. Despite theses differences, both tales involve an epiphany. In the first version, the man learns to truly fall in love for the first time. "Anna Sergeyevna and he loved each other as people do who are very close and intimate, like man and wife, like tender friends: it seemed to them that Fate itself had meant them for one another, and they could not understand why he had a wife and she a husband: and it was as though they were a pair of migratory birds, male and female, caught and forced to live in different cages. They forgave each other for what they wer ashamed of in their past, they forgave everything in the present, and felt that this love of theirs had altered them both." I love the way Chekhov uses language, and even though the second story is more modern, the first is more interesting to me.
The second story also involves an epiphany, but this time it involves her coming to love herself. In the story, she has self-loathing and suicidal thoughts, but in the end she finally overcomes these notions.