Class 11 English Unit 5 Life and Love

(Rule: Use -ed to describe how someone feels. Use -ing to describe the thing causing the feeling.)

In Anton Chekhov’s story, the “Looking Glass” profoundly symbolizes Nellie’s central character traits: her deep, romantic longing to be married and her psychological habit of escaping her dull, predictable life into elaborate, dramatic fantasies.

The protagonist, Nellie, is introduced dreamily gazing into her handheld mirror on New Year’s Eve, participating in a folklore tradition to see her future husband. The mirror acts as a literal and figurative portal into her subconscious mind. Before falling asleep, she uses it to project her desires, seeing her “destined one” as clearly as if she were awake. However, the mirror also reflects the harsh truths she subconsciously fears about adulthood—sickness, desperation, and the burden of responsibility. Instead of just showing her a fairy-tale romance, the mirror forces her to confront the terrifying, exhausting reality that comes with the marriage she so desperately seeks.

Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Looking Glass” is highly relevant to the life of young people due to its initial fairy-tale quality that mimics youthful idealism. It’s as if Nellie turns herself into a distressed princess in her own mind; her imaginary husband becomes a kind of afflicted Prince Charming whom she must save. It’s interesting that her husband doesn’t even have a name in the dream. The lack of a name connects to other fairy tales for young readers in which the male love interest is an idealized archetype rather than a real person (like Prince Charming in Cinderella).

Apart from a connection to fairy tales, Chekhov’s short story masterfully underscores the ways in which young people tend to dramatize and romanticize life. It’s not uncommon for modern books, movies, and TV shows to portray young people as histrionic, overemotional, and hyperbolic. Nellie perfectly represents the ways in which young people tend to glamorize love, suffering, and tragedy, things that are actually devastating and not so enchanting in harsh reality. Since many young people are fortunate enough to have not yet personally experienced devastating hardship, they might be more inclined to invent their own drama. If their imagined scene grows too scary or overwhelming, they can, like Nellie, simply wake up, and it’ll be done with.

When discussing the relevance of “The Looking Glass” to young people, it is insightful to note that people of all ages tend to be susceptible to fantasy, exaggeration, and flights of fancy. The sensational, heavily slanted nature of modern social media suggests that youth constantly travel back and forth between reality and a curated fantasy world, much like Nellie gazing into her looking glass.

(Rule: Use “be going to” for existing plans/evidence. Use “will” for instant decisions, offers, or beliefs.)