The Looking-Glass

            I read the story "The Looking-Glass" by Anton Chekov. It was about a landowner's daughter who desperately wanted to be married. She looks in the mirror and after a while, she falls asleep. She dreams that she has a husband, but that her husband is sick with typhus. She goes to the doctor and begs him to come over and treat her husband, but the doctor himself is sick and lethargic. Although he goes over to her house to treat her husband, the doctor is unable to save him. In the end, the daughter realizes that she won't be able to live forever with her husband, and that she must face the pain of his death at some point.
          This was a simple story, but it was good nonetheless. I thought it was very ironic that the girl was so focused on and obsessed with getting a husband; but when she finally dreamed of her ideal husband, she dreamed of his death. This story was written by a Russian author, so he may have been trying to impart the message that the Russian culture is overly focused on marrying girls off instead of encouraging them to form their own personalities and identities. The major symbolism in the story was the looking glass or the mirror. It stood for the reflection that the girl saw, in a figurative sense. When she saw herself, she simultaneously saw her desire to be married.
          The story was interesting to me, but it wasn't necessarily a mind-blowing concept. I wouldn't really recommend this story to anyone in particular.