The recurring gray color amplifies the despondency and lack of excitement that Dmitri has had thanks to his dejected marriage. The hotel room and Anna are both powerful emblems in Dmitri’s life, but they have that tint of sorrow, marked by the gray, that he possibly needs. This sadness transforms into an emotion intrinsic to human reality, and maybe he needs to enter the gray area to confront both the ambiguity of their future and the complex morality of adultery. Could the gray possibly fade out of Dmitri’s life after he finds contentment with Anna that can last past the subsequent summer?
Of course, there is no definitive answer, no way that the romantic ideal that Dmitri and Anna harbor in their hearts can ever be fully manifested, but only as it is engendered in “The Lady with the Dog” — as an innate transfiguration of love, a beacon of hope. Without aptly weaving setting and location into the fabric of the storyline, there is no way of demonstrating that despite any foreboding turmoil, maybe “the most complicated and difficult” part of their journey is only the