Genre orientation the works is a short novella in the style of realism, the main theme of which is reflections on love, lost, forgotten in the past, as well as broken destinies, choices and its consequences.
Compositional structure the story is traditional for a short story, consisting of three parts, the first of which tells about the arrival of the protagonist in combination with descriptions of nature and the surrounding area, the second describes his meeting with his former beloved woman, and the third part depicts a hasty departure.
The main character the story is Nikolai Alexandrovich, presented in the image of a sixty-year-old man who relies in life on common sense in the form of his own ego and public opinion.
A minor character the work is presented by Nadezhda, the former beloved of Nicholas, left by him sometime in the past, who met the hero at the end of his life. Nadezhda personifies a girl who was able to overcome the shame of being in touch with a rich man and learned to live an independent, honest life.
Distinctive feature the story is an image of the theme of love, which is presented by the author as a tragic and fatal event that has gone irrevocably along with a dear, light and beautiful feeling. Love in the story is presented in the form of a litmus test, contributing to the verification of the human personality in relation to fortitude and moral purity.
By means of artistic expression in the story are the author's use of precise epithets, vivid metaphors, comparisons and personifications, as well as the use of parallelism, emphasizing the state of mind of the characters.
The originality of the work consists in the inclusion of unexpected sharp endings, the tragedy and drama of the plot, combined with lyricism in the form of emotions, experiences and mental anguish, into the narrative by the writer.
the story consists in conveying to the reader the concept of happiness, which consists in finding spiritual harmony with one's own feelings and rethinking life values.Option 2
Bunin worked in the 19th and 20th centuries. His attitude to love was special: in the beginning, people loved each other very much, but in the end either one of the heroes dies or they part. For Bunin, love is a passionate feeling, but similar to a flash.
To analyze the work of Bunin "Dark Alleys", you need to touch on the plot.
General Nikolai Alekseevich - the main character, he comes to his hometown and meets the woman he loved many years ago. Nadezhda is the mistress of the yard, he does not recognize her right away. But Nadezhda did not forget him and loved Nicholas, even tried to lay hands on herself. The protagonist seems to feel guilty about leaving her. Therefore, he tries to apologize, saying that any feelings pass.
It turns out that Nikolai's life was not so easy, he loved his wife, but she cheated on him, and his son grew up a scoundrel and impudent. He is forced to blame himself for what he did in the past, because Nadezhda could not forgive him.
Bunin's work shows that 35 years later, the love between the heroes has not faded away. When the general leaves the city, he realizes that Nadezhda is the best thing in his life. He reflects on the life that could have been if the connection between them had not been interrupted.
Bunin put a tragedy into his work, because the beloved did not agree.
Hope was able to keep love, but this did not help create a union - she was left alone. I did not forgive Nicholas either, because the pain was very strong. And Nikolai himself turned out to be weak, did not leave his wife, was afraid of contempt and could not resist society. They could only be submissive to fate.
Bunin shows the sad story of the fate of two people. Love in the world could not resist the foundations of the old society, therefore it became fragile and hopeless. But there is also a positive feature - love brought a lot of good things to the lives of the heroes, it left its mark, which they will always remember.
Almost all of Bunin's work touches on the problem of love, and "Dark Alley" shows how important love is in a person's life. For Blok, love comes first, because it is she who helps a person to improve, change his life for the better, gain experience, and also teaches him to be kind and sensual.
Sample 3
Dark alleys are both a cycle of stories by Ivan Bunin, written in exile, and a separate story included in this cycle, and a metaphor borrowed from the poet Nikolai Ogarev and reinterpreted by the author. By dark alleys, Bunin had in mind the mysterious soul of a person, carefully preserving all feelings, memories, emotions, meetings once experienced. The author argued that everyone has such memories, which he turns to over and over again, and there are the most dear ones that rarely worry, they are safely stored in remote corners of the soul - dark alleys.
It is about such memories that Ivan Bunin's story, which was written in 1938 in exile. During the terrible wartime in the city of Grasse in France, the Russian classic wrote about love. Trying to drown out the homesickness and escape the horrors of war, Ivan Alekseevich returns to bright memories of his youth, first feelings and creative endeavors. During this period, the author wrote his best works, including the story “ Dark alleys».
The hero of Bunin, Ivan Alekseevich, a sixty-year-old man, a military man in a high rank, finds himself in the places of his youth. In the hostess of the inn he recognizes the former serf girl Nadezhda, whom he, a young landowner, once seduced and later left. Their chance meeting makes us turn to the memories that all this time were kept in those very "dark alleys". From the conversation of the main characters, it becomes known that Nadezhda never forgave her treacherous master, but she could not stop loving. And Ivan Alekseevich only thanks to this meeting realized that then, many years ago, he left not just a serf girl, but the best that fate gave him. But he never made anything else: his son is a wretch and a spender, his wife cheated and left.
One might get the impression that the story "Dark Alleys" is about retribution, but in fact it is about love. Ivan Bunin put this feeling above all else. Nadezhda, an aged single woman, is happy because all these years she has had love. And the life of Ivan Alekseevich did not work out precisely because he once underestimated this feeling and followed the path of reason.
In a short story, in addition to betrayal, the topics of social inequality, and choice, and responsibility for someone else's fate, and the topic of duty are raised. But there is only one conclusion: if you live with your heart and put love as a gift above all else, then all these problems can be solved.
Analysis of the work Dark alleys
In one of Ogarev's poems, Bunin was "hooked" by the phrase "... there was an alley of dark lindens ..." Further, the imagination drew autumn, rain, a road, and an old campaigner in a tarantass. This formed the basis of the story.
The idea was as follows. The hero of the story seduced a peasant girl in his youth. He had already forgotten about her. But life has a habit of bringing surprises. By chance, after many years, driving through familiar places, he stopped in a driveway hut. And in the beautiful woman, the mistress of the hut, I recognized that very girl.
The old soldier felt ashamed, he blushes, turns pale, mutters something like a guilty schoolboy. Life punished him for the act he had done. He married for love, but never knew the warmth of the family hearth. His wife did not love him, she cheated. And, in the end, she left him. The son grew up a scoundrel and a bum. Everything in life comes back like a boomerang.
And what about Nadezhda? She still loves her former master. She did not have a personal life. No family, no beloved husband. But at the same time she could not forgive the master. These are women who love and hate at the same time.
The soldier is immersed in memories. Mentally re-lives their relationship. They warm the soul like the sun a minute before sunset. But he does not for a second admit the thought that everything could have turned out differently. The then society would have condemned their relationship. He was not ready for this. He did not need them, this relationship. Then it was possible to put an end to the military career.
He lives as social rules and conventions dictate. He's a coward by nature. You have to fight for love.
Bunin does not allow love to flow in the family channel, to take shape in a happy marriage. Why does he deprive his heroes of human happiness? Perhaps he thinks fleeting passion is better? Is this eternal unfinished love better? She did not bring happiness to Nadezhda, but she still loves. What is she hoping for? Personally, I do not understand this, I do not share the views of the author.
The old campaigner finally regains his sight and realizes that he has lost. He talks about this with such bitterness to Nadezhda. He realized that she was the dearest, brightest person for him. But he still did not understand what trump cards he had up his sleeve. Life gave him a second chance at happiness, but he did not take advantage of it.
What meaning does Bunin put into the title of the story "Dark Alleys"? What does he mean? Dark nooks and crannies of the human soul and human memory. Each person has their own secrets. And they sometimes pop up for him in the most unexpected way. There is nothing accidental in life. Accident is a pattern well planned by God, fate or space.
Several interesting compositions
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On November 28, 1884, the famous artist Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryanskaya was born near Kharkov. His father was a sculptor, and his mother was from the Benois family. She owes her artistic development to her family
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An amazing story about how sometimes a person, without thinking about the consequences, commits bad deeds. That even Mother Nature herself protests against human malice. The author tries to convey to the reader that human anger
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- Composition The Young Generation in the play The Thunderstorm
- Review of the novel The Master and Margarita Bulgakov
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov gave the world of Russian literature a good legacy. His novels, stories, stories are read by a large number of people even today. In his work, Bulgakov loved to ridicule the power, the absurdity of the Soviet system
Before making a direct analysis of the work "Dark Alleys" by Bunin, let us recall the history of writing. The October Revolution had passed, and Bunin's attitude to this event was unequivocal - in his eyes, the revolution had become a social drama. In 1920, after emigration, the writer worked a lot, at that time the cycle "Dark Alleys" appeared, which included various short stories. In 1946, thirty-eight stories were included in the edition of the collection, the book was printed in Paris.
Although the main theme of these short stories was the theme of love, the reader learns not only about its light sides, but also about the dark ones. It is not hard to guess about this, reflecting on the title of the collection. It is important to note in the analysis of "Dark Alleys" that Ivan Bunin lived abroad for about thirty years, far from his home. He yearned for the Russian land, but the spiritual closeness with the Motherland was preserved. All this is reflected in the work we are discussing.
How Bunin presented love
It is no secret that Bunin presented the theme of love in a somewhat unusual way, not in the way that Soviet literature usually covered it. Indeed, the writer's view has a difference and its own peculiarity. Ivan Bunin perceived love as something that suddenly appeared and is very bright, as if it were a flash. But that's why love is beautiful. After all, when love flows into simple affection, feelings turn into a routine. We do not find this in the heroes of Bunin, since that very outbreak occurs between them, and then parting follows, but the bright trace of experienced feelings overshadows everything. The above is the most important thought in the analysis of the work "Dark Alleys".
Briefly about the plot
General Nikolai Alekseevich had a chance to visit the post station, where he met a woman whom he had seen 35 years ago, and with whom he had a whirlwind romance. Now Nikolai Alekseevich is elderly, and does not even immediately understand that this is Nadezhda. And the former lover became the hostess at the inn, where they once met for the first time.
It turns out that Nadezhda loved him all her life, and the general begins to make excuses to her. However, after awkward explanations, Nadezhda expresses the wise idea that everyone was young, and youth is a thing of the past, but love remains. But she reproaches her lover, because he left her alone in the most heartless way.
All these details will help make the analysis of Bunin's "Dark Alleys" more accurate. The general does not seem to regret it, but it becomes clear that he never forgot his first love. But he did not succeed with his family - his wife cheated on him, and his son grew up as a mot and shameless insolent.
What happened to first love?
It is very important to note, especially when we analyze Dark Alleys, that the feelings of Nikolai Alekseevich and Nadezhda managed to survive - they still love. When the main character leaves, he realizes that it was thanks to this woman that he felt the depth of love and saw all the colors of feelings. But he gave up his first love, and now he is reaping the bitter fruits of this betrayal.
You can recall the moment when the general hears from the coachman a comment about the mistress: she is driven by a sense of justice, but at the same time her disposition is very "cool". Having lent money to someone at interest, she demands a return on time, and who did not have time - let him answer. Nikolai Alekseevich begins to reflect on these words and draws parallels with his life. If he had not abandoned his first love, everything would have turned out differently.
What has become a hindrance to the relationship? The analysis of the work "Dark Alleys" will help us to understand the reason - let's think: the future general had to connect his life with a simple girl. How would others view this relationship and how would it affect your reputation? But in the heart of Nikolai Alekseevich, feelings did not fade away, and he could not find happiness with another woman, as well as give a proper upbringing to his son.
The main character Nadezhda did not forgive her lover, who made her suffer a lot and, as a result, she was left alone. Although we emphasize that love did not pass in her heart either. The general could not go against society and class prejudices in his youth, and the girl simply resigned herself to fate.
Few conclusions in the analysis of "Dark Alley" by Bunin
We saw how dramatic the fates of Nadezhda and Nikolai Alekseevich were. They parted, although they loved. And both were unhappy. But let us emphasize an important thought: thanks to love, they learned the power of feelings and what real experiences are. These best moments of my life remained in my memory.
As a cross-cutting motive, this idea can be traced in the work of Bunin. Although everyone can have their own idea of love, thanks to this story, you can think about how it moves a person, what it encourages, what mark it leaves in the soul.
We hope that you liked the brief analysis of Bunin's "Dark Alleys" and turned out to be useful. Read also
The story "Dark Alleys" opens, perhaps, the most famous Bunin cycle of stories, which got its name from this first, "title" work. It is known what importance the writer attached to the initial sound, the first “note” of the narrative, the timbre of which was supposed to determine the entire sound palette of the work. The lines from the poem “An Ordinary Story” by N. Ogarev became a kind of “start”, creating a special lyrical atmosphere of the story:
It was a wonderful spring
They sat on the shore
She was in the prime of life
His mustache was barely black.
Scarlet rose hips were blooming all around,
There was a dark linden alley ...
Ho, as always with Bunin, “sound” is inseparable from “image”. He, as he wrote in the notes "The Origin of My Stories", at the beginning of work on the story presented itself "some kind of high road, a troika harnessed to a tarantass, and an autumn storm." We must add to this the literary impulse, which also played a role: Bunin named “Resurrection” by L.N. Tolstoy, the heroes of this novel are young Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. All this came together in the writer's imagination, and a story was born about lost happiness, about the irreversibility of time, about lost illusions and about the power of the past over man.
The meeting of the heroes, once united in their youth by an ardent love feeling, takes place many years later in the most ordinary, perhaps even nondescript setting: in a muddy road, in an inn lying on a large roadway. Bunin does not skimp on “prosaic” details: “a tarantass covered with mud”, “simple horses”, “tails tied up from slush”. But the portrait of the man who arrived is given a detailed one, clearly calculated to arouse sympathy: "a slender old military man", with black eyebrows, white mustache, shaved chin. His appearance speaks of nobility, and a stern but tired look contrasts with the liveliness of his movements (the author notices how he “threw out” his leg from the tarantass, “ran up” onto the porch). Bunin clearly wants to emphasize the connection in the hero of vigor and maturity, youthfulness and gravity, which is very important for the general concept of the story, implicated in the desire to collide the past and the present, to strike a spark of memories that will illuminate the past with a bright light and incinerate, turn into ash what exists today.
The writer deliberately drags on the exposition: of the three and a half pages given to the story, almost a page is occupied by an “introduction”. In addition to describing a rainy day, the hero's appearance (and at the same time a detailed description of the coachman's appearance), which is supplemented with new details as the hero gets rid of his outer clothing, it also contains a detailed description of the room where the newcomer found himself. Moreover, the refrain of this description becomes an indication of cleanliness and tidiness: a clean tablecloth on the table, cleanly washed benches, a recently whitewashed oven, a new image in the corner ... The author emphasizes this, since it is known that the owners of Russian inns and hotels were not very neat and a constant feature of these places were cockroaches and dull windows covered with flies. Consequently, he wants to draw our attention to the almost uniqueness of how this establishment is maintained by its owners, or rather, as we will soon learn, by its owner.
Ho the hero remains indifferent to the environment, although later he will note cleanliness and tidiness. From his behavior and gestures it is clear that he is irritated, tired (Bunin uses the epithet tired for the second time, now applied to the entire appearance of the officer who has arrived), perhaps not very healthy (“pale thin hand”), is hostile to everything that is happening (“ hostilely ”called the owners), absent-minded (“ inattentively ”answers the questions of the hostess who appeared). And only the unexpected address of this woman to him: "Nikolai Alekseevich" - makes him seem to wake up. After all, before that, he asked her questions purely mechanically, without thinking, although he managed to take a look at her figure, to note the rounded shoulders, light legs in shabby Tatar shoes.
The author himself, as it were, in addition to the “unseeing” gaze of the hero, gives a much more poignantly expressive, unexpected, juicy portrait of a woman who entered: not very young, but still beautiful, like a gypsy, plump, but not overweight woman. Bunin deliberately resorts to naturalistic, almost anti-aesthetic details: large breasts, a triangular belly like a goose. But the anti-aesthetic image is “removed”: the breasts are hidden under a red blouse (the diminutive suffix is designed to convey a feeling of lightness), and the belly is concealed by a black skirt. In general, the combination of black and red in clothes, fluff over the lip (a sign of passion), zoomorphic comparison are aimed at emphasizing the carnal, earthly principle in the heroine.
However, it is she who will reveal - as we will see a little later - the spiritual beginning, as opposed to that mundane existence, which, without realizing it, drags along the hero, without thinking and not looking into his past. Therefore, it is she who is the first! - recognizes him. It was not for nothing that she “looked at him inquiringly all the time, squinting slightly,” and he would look at her only after she addressed him by name and patronymic. She - and not he - will give the exact number when it comes to the years that they have not seen: not thirty-five, but thirty. She will tell you how old he is now. So, she scrupulously calculated everything, which means that every year he left a notch in his memory! And this at a time when he should have never forgotten what connected them, because in the past he had - no less - a dishonorable act, however, quite common at that time - fun with a serf girl when visiting estates of friends, sudden departure ...
In a sparse dialogue between Nadezhda (this is the name of the hostess of the inn) and Nikolai Alekseevich, the details of this story are restored. And the most important thing is the different attitude of the heroes to the past. If for Nikolai Alekseevich everything that happened is “a vulgar, ordinary story” (by the way, he is ready to bring everything in his life under this measure, as if removing the burden of responsibility from a person for his actions), then for Nadezhda her love became a great test, and a great event, the only one of significance in her life. “Just as I had nothing more dear than you in the world at that time, and then it did not exist,” she will say.
For Nikolai Alekseevich, the love of a serf was only one of the episodes of his life (Nadezhda directly declares this to him: “It was as if nothing had happened for you”). She several times “wanted to lay hands on herself”, never, with her extraordinary beauty, did not marry, and was unable to forget her first love. Therefore, she refutes Nikolai Alekseevich's statement that “over the years everything goes away” (as if trying to convince himself of this, he repeats the formula that “everything goes away” several times: after all, he really wants to brush off the past, imagine everything is not enough significant event), with the words: "Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten." And she will pronounce them with unshakable confidence. However, Bunin almost never comments on her words, limiting himself to the monosyllabic “answered”, “approached”, “stopped”. Only once will he slip an indication of the "unkind smile" with which Nadezhda utters a phrase addressed to her seducer: "I have been pleased to read all the poems about all sorts of" dark alleys "."
The writer is also stingy with “historical details”. Only from the words of the heroine of the work: “The gentlemen gave me freedom soon after you,” and from the mention of the hero's appearance, which had “resemblance to Alexander II, which was so common among the military at the time of his reign,” we can form an idea that the story takes place, apparently, in the 60s or 70s of the XIX century.
But Bunin is unusually generous in commenting on the state of Nikolai Alekseevich, for whom a meeting with Nadezhda becomes a meeting with both his past and his conscience. The writer is here a "secret psychologist" in all its splendor, making it clear through gestures, intonation of voice, the hero's behavior, what is happening in his soul. If at first the only thing that interests the visitor at the inn is that “because of the stove damper, there was a sweet smell of cabbage soup” (Bunin even adds the following detail: there was a smell of “boiled cabbage, beef and bay leaf” - from which one can conclude that the guest is clearly hungry), then when he meets Nadezhda, when he recognizes her, and when he talks to her further, fatigue and absent-mindedness immediately fly away from him, he begins to look fussy, worried, talking a lot and stupidly (“muttered”, “added quickly” , "Said hastily"), which is in sharp contrast to the calm majesty of Nadezhda. Bunin three times points to the reaction of Nikolai Alekseevich's embarrassment: “he quickly straightened up, opened his eyes and blushed”, “stopped and, blushing through his gray hair, began to speak”, “blushed to tears”; emphasizes his dissatisfaction with himself with abrupt changes in position: “he resolutely walked around the room,” “frowned, walked again,” “stopping, he grinned painfully."
All this testifies to what a difficult, painful process takes place in him. But at first nothing comes to his mind except the divine beauty of a young girl (“How good you were! to brush aside what he heard, hoping to turn the conversation, if not in jest, then into the mainstream "whoever remembers the old, that ..." However, after he heard that Nadezhda could never forgive him, because one cannot forgive the one who dear - the soul, who killed her, he seems to receive his sight. He is especially shocked by the fact that to explain her feelings she resorts to the saying (obviously, especially beloved by Bunin, already once used by him in the story “Village”) “they don’t carry the dead from the churchyard”. This means that she feels dead, that she never came to life after those happy spring days, and that for her, who has known the great power of love, it is not for nothing that his question-exclamation: “You couldn't have loved me all age!” - she firmly answers: “So she could. No matter how much time passed, I lived alone, ”- there is no return to the life of ordinary people. Her love was not only stronger than death, but stronger than the life that came after what happened and which she, as a Christian, had to continue, no matter what.
And what kind of life it is, we learn from several remarks exchanged between Nikolai Alekseevich, leaving the short shelter, and the coachman Klim, who says that the innkeeper has a “ward”, that she is “getting richer” because “she gives money in growth”, that she is “cool” but “fair”, which means that she enjoys both respect and honor. But we understand how petty and insignificant for her, who fell in love once and for all, all this mercantile flickering, how much it is incompatible with what is happening in her soul. For Hope, her love is from God. It is not for nothing that she says: "What does God give to whom ... Everyone's youth passes away, but love is another matter." That is why her unpreparedness for forgiveness, while Nikolai Alekseevich really wants and hopes that God will forgive him, and even more so forgive Nadezhda, because, by all standards, he committed not such a great sin, is not condemned by the author. Although such a maximalist position runs counter to Christian doctrine. Ho, according to Bunin, a crime against love, against memory is much more serious than the sin of "rancor". And just the memory of love, of the past, in his opinion, justifies a lot.
And the fact that a true understanding of what happened is gradually awakening in the consciousness of the hero speaks in his favor. After all, the words he said at first: “I think that I have lost in you the most precious thing that I had in my life,” and the act - kissing Nadezhda's hand goodbye - does not cause him anything but shame, and even more - this shame shame, are perceived by him as fake, ostentatious. But then he begins to understand that what escaped by accident, in a hurry, perhaps even for a catchphrase, is the most genuine “diagnosis” of the past. His internal dialogue, reflecting hesitation and doubt: "Is it not true that she gave me the best moments of my life?" - ends with unshakable: “Yes, of course, the best moments. And not the best, but truly magical. " But right there - and here Bunin appears as a realist who does not believe in romantic transformations and repentance - another, sobering voice prompted him that all these reflections were "nonsense", that he could not have acted otherwise, that nothing could have been corrected at that time , not now.
So Bunin, in the very first story of the cycle, gives an idea of the unattainable height to which the most ordinary person is able to rise if his life is illuminated, albeit tragic, but with love. And short moments of this love can “outweigh” all the material benefits of future welfare, all the joys of love interests that do not rise above the level of ordinary intrigues, in general, the whole subsequent life with its ups and downs.
Bunin draws the subtlest play of states of the heroes, relying on the sound "echo", the consonance of phrases that are born, often in addition to meaning, in response to the spoken words. So, the words of the coachman Klim that if you don’t give Nadezhda the money on time, then “blame yourself”, respond like echolalia, pronouncing them aloud by Nikolai Alekseevich: “Yes, yes, blame yourself”. And then in his soul they will continue to sound like “crucifying” words. “Yes, blame yourself,” he thinks, realizing what the fault lies with him. And the ingenious formula created by the author, put into the lips of the heroine: “Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten,” was born in response to Nikolai Alekseevich’s phrase: “Everything passes. Everything is forgotten, "- previously, as if finding confirmation in a quote from the book of Job -" how you will remember the flowing water. " And more than once throughout the story, words will appear that refer us to the past, to memory: “Over the years, everything passes”; "Everyone's youth passes away"; “I called you Nikolenka, and you remember me,”; “Do you remember how everyone looked at you?” These echoing phrases seem to weave a carpet on which Bunin's formula about the omnipotence of memory will be forever imprinted.
It is impossible not to catch the obvious similarity of this story with Turgenev's "Asya". As we remember, there the hero at the end tries to convince himself that “fate disposed well, not connecting him with Asya”. He consoles himself with the thought that "probably would not be happy with such a wife." It would seem that the situations are similar: both here and there the idea of a misalliance, i.e. the possibility of marrying a woman of a lower class is initially rejected. But what is the result of this, it would seem, from the point of view of the attitudes of the right decision adopted in society? The hero of "Asi" was condemned to remain forever a "familyless booby", dragging out "boring" years of complete loneliness. Everything is in the past for him.
Nikolai Alekseevich from "Dark Alley" life turned out differently: he reached a position in society, surrounded by a family, he has a wife and children. True, as he confesses to Nadezhda, he was never happy: his wife, whom he loved “without memory,” betrayed him and abandoned him, the son, on whom great hopes were pinned, turned out to be “a scoundrel, a scoundrel, an impudent man without a heart, without honor, without conscience ... ”. Of course, it can be assumed that Nikolai Alekseevich somewhat exaggerates his sense of bitterness, his experiences, in order to somehow make amends for his guilt before Nadezhda, so that it does not hurt her so much to realize the difference in their states, the different assessment of the past. Moreover, at the end of the story, when he tries to “learn a lesson” from an unexpected meeting, to summarize what he has lived through, he, thinking, comes to the conclusion that it would still be impossible to imagine Nadezhda as the mistress of his St. Petersburg house, the mother of his children. Consequently, we understand that his wife, apparently, returned to him, and besides the scoundrel son, there are other children. But why, in this case, is he so initially irritated, bilious, gloomy, why does he have a stern and at the same time tired look? Why is this look “questioning”? Maybe this is a subconscious desire to give himself an account of how he lives? And why does he shake his head in bewilderment, as if driving away doubts from himself ... Yes, all because the meeting with Nadezhda brightly illuminated his past life. And it became clear to him that there had never been anything better in his life than those “truly magical” minutes when “the scarlet rose hips bloomed, there was a dark linden alley”, when he fervently loved passionate Nadezhda, and she recklessly gave herself to him with all recklessness youth.
And the hero of Turgenev's “Asya” cannot remember anything brighter than that “burning, tender, deep feeling” that a childish and serious girl who was not for his years gave him ...
Both of them have only “flowers of memories” left from the past - a dried geranium flower thrown from the window by Asya, a scarlet rose hip from an Ogarev poem that accompanied the love story of Nikolai Alekseevich and Nadezhda. Only for the latter it is a flower that inflicted non-healing wounds with its thorns.
So, following Turgenev, Bunin draws the greatness of the female soul, capable of loving and remembering, in contrast to the male, burdened by doubts, entangled in petty addictions, subject to social conventions. So already the first story of the cycle reinforces the leading motives of the late Bunin's work - memory, the omnipotence of the past, the significance of a single moment in comparison with a dull succession of everyday life.
"Dark alleys" are traditionally defined by Bunin's researchers as an encyclopedia of love. Yuri Maltsev lists in detail "various shades of love and its most bizarre varieties" presented in this book: "There is a sublime feeling of adoration, alien to carnal attraction" ("Natalie"), "here is animal love-function" ("Kuma"), “And the venal“ love ”of a prostitute” (“Young Lady Klara”), “There is also love-enmity (“ The steamer “Saratov” ", where the carnal attraction of the heroes to each other is combined with rivalry of characters and mutual spiritual enmity) and" love despair " ("Zoya and Valeria"), "there is love-witchcraft (" Iron Wool "), and love as joyful intoxication (" Swing "), and love-self-forgetfulness (" Cold Autumn "), and love-pity, inseparable from tenderness and compassion ”(“ Tanya ”,“ Rusya ”,“ Madrid ”,“ Three rubles ”).
Moreover, according to the researcher, “the very varieties of feelings, in turn, are split into even more subtle shades. So, for example, love-pity in the story "Business Cards" in a strange (but understandable) way is combined with the shamelessness of voluptuousness, and tenderness - with "hatred of passion and love."
However, among the forty stories of the book, there is one that deeply and convincingly reveals the other side of a person's inner life and relationships between people. Dislike. The earliest story of the cycle - "Caucasus" is devoted to this topic.
In many stories of "Dark Alleys" love, regardless of its shade and variety, appears as a painfully sweet coincidence with a loved one, complete dissolution in him. The young hero of the story "The Raven" in the demonstration of external indifference towards him by the "young, light-footed" nanny of his eight-year-old sister feels "joyful fear" of "common happiness to be near each other."
The same light serenity of happiness permeated his exclamation: "How much quivering tenderness was for us even in this one - in joint efforts to drag her, now and then touching each other's hands."
The heroine of the story "Cold Autumn", who took her beloved to war thirty years ago and survived his death, asks herself: "Yes, but what happened in my life?" And he answers to himself: “Only that cold autumn evening. And this is all that was in my life - the rest is an unnecessary dream. "
Parting with a fellow traveler, accidentally met on the ship, the hero of the story "Business Cards" kisses her "cold hand with that love that remains somewhere in the heart for life ...".
The hero of the story "Late Hour" is carried away by his memory into his past, imperceptibly transforming the story-recollection of his beloved girl into a mental conversation with her: “... I met the sparkle of your waiting eyes with joyful fright. And we sat, sat in a kind of bewilderment of happiness. With one hand I hugged you, hearing the beating of your heart, with the other I held your hand, feeling all of you through it. "
The nameless heroes of the "Caucasus" are deprived of this dissolution in each other. Each of them is self-centered. The hero "thieves" lives as a "recluse" In the numbers rented for meetings with a married woman, "from date to date with her." He is flattered that the one who comes to him is "pale with the beautiful pallor of a loving, excited woman."
However, the pallor of the heroine, and the breaking voice, and fussiness (“throwing an umbrella anywhere, hurrying to lift the veil and hug me”) are not a manifestation of love, but a fear of exposure.
The presentiment of inevitable retribution for secret dates leaves no room for another feeling in the soul of the heroine. A real person, with whom she lives from date to date, supplanted the ominous image of a “cruel, proud” husband, created by her exalted imagination, who guesses everything and is ready for decisive and terrible actions: “It seems to me ... he suspects something that he knows something , - maybe he read some of your letter, picked up the key to my table ... Now for some reason he is literally following my every step ... "
The plan of the heroes-conspirators ("to leave in the same train to the Caucasian coast and live there in some completely wild place for three or four weeks"), although it is called "ours", belongs not to both of them, but to one of them - him, not her. It was he who "knew this coast, once lived for some time near Sochi - young, lonely, - he remembered those autumn evenings among the black cypress trees, near the cold gray waves ..." for the rest of his life.
The hero is driven by a completely understandable desire to repeat the impressions he received in his youth, enriching them with the presence of a “beloved, excited woman” next to him.
Despite the hero's admission that the nervous behavior of the woman who came to him shocked him with “pity and delight,” the author does not allow him to feel the depths of these feelings of the hero. True, the obsessive, sticky fear of the heroine (for the hero, in many respects, far-fetched, ephemeral, because he will never be destined to meet her "cruel" husband-officer) will also be passed on to the hero of the story. He runs along the station and the platform, "pulling his hat over his eyes and burying his face in the collar of his coat." Sitting in the compartment, the place of a future secret meeting with her, he "immediately lowered the window curtain", "locked the door with a lock."
After the second call, the hero "froze with fear." Seeing the tall figure of her husband through the window, he "recoiled from the window, fell into the corner of the sofa." Finally, he shoves the money to the conductor who carried her things with an “icy hand”.
The forbidden relationship (which undoubtedly refers to the relationship between a single man and a married woman) in Bunin often increases the power of love, the indomitable attraction of people to each other, demolishing conventional barriers with a stream of insane, all-consuming passion that does not know logical arguments and boundaries of decency. One of Bunin's researchers sees in this even "a certain sign of authenticity, for ordinary morality, like everything established by people, turns out to be a conventional scheme, into which the element of natural life does not fit."
This is shown most powerfully in "Sunstroke": "We entered a large, but terribly stuffy, hotly heated room ... and as soon as they entered and the footman closed the door, the lieutenant rushed to her so impetuously and both of them choked so fiercely in the kiss that they remembered for many years then this minute: I have never experienced anything like this in my entire life, neither the one nor the other. "
However, the "criminality" of the position of the heroes of the "Caucasus" does not enhance their reciprocity. The haste of "thieves" meetings in the alley near the Arbat does not let the heroes go in a safe, locked compartment. Even when left alone and without haste, moving towards their dream - "south, sea", they do not feel either pacification, or tranquility, or a tide of all-consuming tenderness.
The hero is covered with ice of fear. The tightness of the heroine, tormented by suspicions, is expressed in a “pitiful” smile, the absence of the most natural gesture - the kiss of a companion - and a nervous monologue, which again falls into the dark shadow of her husband pursuing his unfaithful wife, and the threat of imminent retribution.
The constant anxiety, incessant fear and anxiety of the heroes are amplified by the cityscape. On the day of departure, "there were cold rains in Moscow," "it was dirty, gloomy." “It was a dark, disgusting evening” (and people were scurrying about “in the dark light of the station lights”), when the hero was driving to the station and everything inside him “froze from anxiety and cold”.
The hero's soul could be warmed by love for his pitifully smiling companion. But the fact of the matter is that there is no love. Therefore, the sunny morning landscapes outside the window of the train of joy in
They do not inspire the soul: "behind the muddy with dust and heated windows there was a flat scorched steppe, dusty wide roads were visible, carts drawn by oxen ... Then went the boundless expanse of naked plains with mounds and burial grounds, an intolerable dry sun, a sky like a dusty cloud ..." ...
According to Bunin, a person can be bestowed from above "the painful beauty of adoration" and "bodily rapture." (The hero of the story "Natalie" feels "two loves at once, so different and so passionate", perceiving their intertwining as a punishment of God.)
This "painful beauty of adoration" and "bodily rapture" is given to experience many heroes of "Dark Alley" in the moments of the highest rise and exacerbation of feelings. Walking after the girl he adores, creaking in silence in the snow, the hero of "Clean Monday" looks with emotion "at her little footprint, at the stars that have left new black boots in the snow." Then what happens in everyday life can be called a miracle, but which is natural for the world of people who love: "she suddenly turned around, feeling this:" Really, how you love me! " She said with quiet bewilderment, shaking her head.
The hero of the story "In a Familiar Street" did not linger in the memory of the name of his beloved ("the daughter of a clerk in Serpukhov, who left her poor family there, went to Moscow for courses"). But as a single moment ("I don't remember anything else") "poetry of memory" left! details of the tender, tender meeting with her: “there were those weak, sweetest lips in the world, there were hot tears from an excess of happiness, the heavy languor of young bodies, from which we leaned our heads on each other's shoulder, and her lips were already burning like in the heat, when I unbuttoned her blouse, I kissed the milky girl's breast with a hard, unripe strawberry tip ... ”.
The memory of the hero of the story "Rus" also retained one of the most unforgettable moments: "once she wet her feet in the rain", "and he rushed to take off her shoes and kiss her wet narrow feet - there was no such happiness in his whole life."
The hero of the story "Natalie" Meshchersky confesses, kneeling near the bed of his beloved woman: "And then you are at the ball - so tall and so terrible in your already feminine beauty, - how I wanted to die that night, delighted with my love and death! Then you are with a candle in your hand, your mourning and your integrity in it. It seemed to me that that candle in your face became a saint. "
Such immersion in the "painful beauty of adoration" and "bodily rapture" is not given to the heroes of the "Caucasus". "There was not a single day after that without ... these short meetings and desperately long, insatiable and already unbearable in their unresolved kisses." This phrase, with all the seeming "inscribed" in the plot of the "Caucasus" (short meetings, unresolved kissing) is still a memory of the hero of another story - "The Raven".
The relationship between the hero and the heroine of the "Caucasus", with all the tension of the circumstances of their meetings, is painfully monotonous.
Paradoxically, in the story of a man and a woman meeting secretly in hotel rooms, sleeping in a locked compartment, finally having a rest in the Caucasus, there is not a single kiss (“when she entered, she didn’t even kiss me”).
The story itself about the days of freedom obtained with such tricks on the blessed Caucasian land resembles not a poem about daring lovers who achieved the desired goal, but a leisurely story about spouses who were tired of living together, tired of each other: “then we went ashore,” “bathed and lay in the sun until breakfast ”; "The fever subsided", "we opened the window." The lack of dynamism is made up for by the masterfully painted landscapes of the Caucasus.
But do not forget: the narration is conducted on behalf of one of the participants in the story. Therefore, prolonged admiration of the unique views of the Caucasus at different times of the day also means switching the attention of the hero-storyteller from his companion to the wondrous beauty of the southern region. In this respect, the phrase “I woke up early, while she was asleep, before tea, which we drank at about seven, walked along the hills into the thickets, is indicative.”
In the description of the morning Caucasus, there is not even a hint that it is seen by a hotel recluse recently suppressed by fear. “The hot sun was already strong, clean and joyful. In the forests, an azure glow was shining, a fragrant mist was dispersed and melted, behind the distant wooded peaks stood the eternal whiteness of the snowy mountains ... "
The majesty and tranquility of nature are in harmony with the serene state of the hero. It is probably supported by the perception of the Caucasus as a good old acquaintance with whom a new meeting took place, and also by the absence of a neurasthenic companion nearby. (Despite the joint escape, the hero again has the right to say about himself: "young, lonely")
Little is said about the heroine: of course, she “cried”. This verb is used twice and both times reduced to oxymoric constructions. At first, the heroine sheds tears at the sight of the amazing clouds piling up over the sea: "they glowed so magnificently that she sometimes lay down on the couch ... and cried."
Another woman “cried joyfully” at the sight of yapping checkers running to the lighted window. In fact, there is no oxymoron, psychologically everything is explainable and justified. The clouds glowing magnificently in the rays of the sunset cause tears of despair: “Two more, three weeks - and Moscow again”.
The Caucasus, contrary to the "daring" plan of the heroes, did not rid them of their inner seclusion and emptiness. (Evidently, there really is nothing more depressing than a dream come true.) Surrendered to the carefree contemplation of Caucasian nature, the hero does not notice the torment of his companion.
The heroine, with masochistic persistence, continues to torment herself with a hysterical premonition of returning to her jealous husband. The Caucasus did not unite the heroes, did not bring them closer. But in the conditions of freedom of the Caucasus, which has pushed aside the cramped hotel room and compartment walls, the abyss that separates the heroes and predicts their imminent separation has become obvious.
Each of them continues to be in a world created exclusively for himself. There is no place for another in this world. This behavior is no longer typical for spouses who have become hateful to each other, but for egocentric adolescents. However, both of them are firmly held in their arms by the imperious force of indifference to others - dislike.
After the viscous, as if marking time, narration about the "hopelessly happy" Caucasian days of two unloving heroes, the ending of the story - the suicide of the officer's husband who could not find his wife who had deceived him - sounds like a bolt from the blue.
The one who kept in fear killed himself. "The executioner is the victim." A victim of the notions of officer and marital honor, a victim of the conditions accepted in society, a victim of his unbridled, "cruel" jealousy.
Judging by the pompous threatening phrase conveyed in the retelling of his wife ("I will stop at nothing, defending my honor, the honor of my husband and officer"), and the effective, execution of the threat (shaved, put on a snow-white tunic, drank a bottle of champagne, coffee and shot himself in the whiskey with two revolvers), the third unnamed hero of the "Caucasus" is moved by anything, but not love. "
It is possible that it was painful suspiciousness, unjustified jealousy and endless threats from her husband, coupled with a lack of tenderness and attention (what is usually called love) that pushed the woman, brought to a nervous breakdown, to miserable adultery in inconspicuous rooms on the Arbat.
"Dark Alleys" is a book of stories. The name is given by the opening
the book of the story of the same name and refers to the poem by N.P.
Ogareva "An Ordinary Story" (Nearby, a scarlet rosehip bloomed //
There was a dark linden alley). The source is indicated by Bunin himself in
note "The origin of my stories" and in a letter to NA Teffi. The author worked on the book from 1937 to 1944. Among
sources and implications mentioned by Bunin and numerous
criticism, we will point out the main ones: Plato's "Feast", the Old Testament story about
"Seven Egyptian executions", "Feast during the plague" by A.S. Pushkin,
"Song of Songs" ("Spring, in Judea"), "Antigone" by Sophocles
("Antigone"), "Decameron" by Boccaccio, lyrics by Petrarch, Dante
« New life"(" Swing "), Russian fairy tales" Animal milk, "
"Medvedko, Usynya, Gorynya and Dubina heroes", "The Tale of Peter and
Fevronia "," Lokis "by Prosper Merimee (" Iron Wool "),
verses by N.P. Ogareva (see above), Ya.P. Polonsky ("In one
familiar street "), A. Feta (" Cold autumn ")," Evenings on the farm
near Dikanka "(" Late Hour ")," Dead Souls "by N.V. Gogol
("Natalie"), "Noble Nest" by I. S. Turgenev ("Clean
Monday "," Turgenevsky ", in the words of Teffi, the end of" Natalie "),
"The Cliff" by I. I. Goncharov ("Business Cards", "Natalie"),
A.P. Chekhov ("Business Cards"), novels by Marcel Proust
("Late Hour"), "Spring in Fialta" by V. V. Nabokov ("Henry") and many others. dr.
There are forty stories in the book, making up three sections: in the 1st - 6
stories, in the second - 14, in the third - 20. In 15 stories
the narration is from the 1st person, in the 20s - from the 3rd, in the 5th -
there are transitions from the person of the narrator to the first person. 13
stories are named by names, nicknames or pseudonyms of women
characters, one - by the nickname of the male ("Raven"). Noting
the appearance of their heroines (they much more often "possess" names and
portrait characteristics), 12 times Bunin describes
black-haired, three times his heroines are red-brown, only once
meets ("The Raven") a blonde. 18 times events happen
in summer, 8 - in winter, 7 - in autumn, 5 - in spring. Thus, we
we see that the most common stamp of sensual
heroine (blonde) and sensual season (spring) least
used by Bunin. The author himself pointed out that the content
books are "not frivolous, but tragic."
Work on the composition continued until 1953, when the book
"Dark Alleys" included two stories: "Spring in Judea" and
"Overnight", which closed the book.
Only 11 times Bunin names his male heroes, 16 times - heroines, in
the last seven stories, the heroes do not have names at all, everything
more acquiring the features of "naked essences" of feelings and passions.
The book opens with the story "Dark Alleys". Sixty
Nikolai Alekseevich, a retired military man, “in the cold autumn
bad weather "(the most frequent time of the year in the book), stopping
relax in a private room, admits the hostess,
"Dark-haired, ... beautiful woman not for her age" (she is 48 years old) -
Hope, a former serf, her first love, which gave him “her
beauty "and so no one else and did not love, seduced
them and subsequently received free. His "legal" wife
cheated on him, the son grew up a scoundrel, and here is a chance meeting:
past happiness and past sin, and his love is the mistress and
a usurer who has not forgiven him anything. And, as off-screen, they sound
Ogarev's poetic lines, once read to Nadezhda and
the main melody of the book - failed love, sick
memory, separation.
The last story - "Lodging", becomes a mirror image
the first, with the difference that only the outlined watercolor lines
plots acquire plot density (as if written in oil)
and completeness. Autumn cold provincial Russia
replaced by the wilderness of Spain on a hot June night,
the upper room is an inn. His mistress is an old woman,
lodging for a passing Moroccan who is interested in
a young niece of "15 years old" helping the mistress
serve. It is quite remarkable that Bunin, describing a Moroccan,
points to those similar to Nikolai Alekseevich (the hero of the first
story) features of appearance: the Moroccan had “a face,
eaten by smallpox "and" in the corners upper lip curled hard
black hair. Curled the same here and there on the chin, "
Nikolai Alekseevich - "hair ... with fleece on the temples to
the corners of the eyes curled slightly ... the face with dark eyes kept
here and there traces of smallpox. " Such coincidences are hardly accidental.
Moroccan - anti ego of Nikolai Alekseevich, girl -
Nadezhda returned to her youth. Repeats at a "reduced" level
Dark Alley situation: Moroccan tries to dishonor
girl (the result of the love of Nikolai Alekseevich and Nadezhda), love
degenerates into animal passion. The only named
the creature in the last story is an animal, a dog Negro (Negro
- Moroccan, a pun rare for Bunin), and it was she
puts an end to the book about animal and human passions:
bursting into the room where the Moroccan rapes the girl, "with a stranglehold
"Rips out" his throat. " Animal passion punished by animals
same, the final chord: love, deprived of its
human (= mental and spiritual) component, brings death.
The compositional axis (axis of symmetry) of the book "Dark Alleys" is
middle (20th) story "Natalie" - the largest in volume
in the book. There is a gap between physical and mental
personified in the images of two main characters: Sonya Cherkasova, daughter
"Ulan Cherkasov" (ulan - "maternal uncle" of the protagonist,
therefore, Sonya is his cousin); and Natalie
Stankevich - Sonya's gymnasium friend who is visiting her estate.
Vitaly Petrovich Meshchersky (Vitik) - the main character comes to
summer holidays to my uncle in the estate "to seek love without romance",
to "violate the purity"
comrades. He begins an affair with 20-year-old Sonya, who
predicts that Meshchersky will immediately fall in love with her friend
Natalie, and, according to Sonya, Meshchersky “will go crazy
from love for Natalie, and will kiss with Sonya. Surname
the protagonist, perhaps, refers to Olya Meshcherskaya from "Light
breath ", the image of both ideal and carnal female
attractiveness.
Meshchersky, indeed, is torn between the "painful beauty
adoration of Natalie and ... bodily rapture of Sonya. " Here
the biographical subtext is read - Bunin's complex relationship with
G. Kuznetsova, a young writer who lived in the house of the Bunins
from 1927 to 1942, and, quite possibly, Tolstoy (hero
"The devil" is torn between love for his wife and for the country
girl Stepanida), as well as a plot from "The Idiot" (love of the book.
Myshkin to Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya at the same time).
Sonya awakens sensuality in Meshchersky. She is beautiful. She has
"Blue-lilac ... eyes", "thick and soft hair", which "casts a chestnut", she comes to Meshchersky at night for
"Exhaustingly passionate dates", which became for both "sweet
habit. " But the hero has a spiritual and spiritual attraction to
Natalie, who next to Sonya "seemed almost a teenager."
Natalie is a completely different type of woman. She has golden hair ...
black eyes ", which are called" black suns ". She
"Folded ... like a nymph" ("youthful perfection of build"), she
"Thin, strong, thoroughbred ankles." Something comes from her
"Orange, golden". Her appearance brings both light and
a sense of inevitable tragedy, accompanied by "ominous
omens ": bat hitting Meshchersky in the face,
a rose that fell out of Sonya's hair and faded in the evening. Tragedy
really comes: Natalie accidentally at night, during a thunderstorm,
sees Sonya in Meshchersky's room, after which relations with
interrupts him. Before that, they confess their love to each other,
why Meshchersky's betrayal looks inexplicable for a girl and
unforgiving. A year later, she marries a cousin
Meshchersky.
Meshchersky becomes a student in Moscow. "Next January"
"Spending Christmastide at home," he arrives on Tatyana's day at
Voronezh, where he sees Natalie with her husband at the ball. Without introducing myself,
Meshchersky disappears. After another year and a half, dies of a blow
Natalie's husband. Meshchersky arrives for the funeral service. His love for
Natalie is cleansed of everything earthly and in the church, in service time,
he cannot take his eyes off her, "as from an icon," and
the angelic nature of his love is also emphasized by the fact that,
looking at her, he sees “the monastic slenderness of her dress,
making her especially blameless. " Here is the purity of feelings
emphasized by a triple semantic relationship: an icon, a nun,
purity.
Time passes, Meshchersky finishes his courses, loses at the same time
father and mother, settles in his village, “converges with
a peasant orphan Gashey, ”she gives birth to his son. To the hero himself in this
time 26 years. At the end of June, passing through, returning from behind
border, he decides to visit Natalie, who lives a widow with
a four-year-old daughter. He asks to forgive him, says that with that
terrible stormy night loved "only ... one" her, but that
now he is related to another woman by a common child. but
they are unable to part - and Natalie becomes his "secret wife".
“In December, she dies 'in a premature birth.'
Tragic denouement: death in war or from illness, murder,
suicide, - every third plot of the book ends (13
stories), and death is most often a consequence of either
- I. The undisguised sinfulness of love-passion and betrayal-deceit:
"Caucasus" - the suicide of a husband-officer, who finds out about his wife's betrayal,
who fled south with her lover and there, in the south, in Sochi, not finding
her, letting bullets "from two revolvers" into his temples;
"Zoya and Valeria" - accidental death under the wheels of the train of the deceived
and humiliated Georges Levitsky - 5th year student
of the Faculty of Medicine, a doctor who rests in the summer cottage
Danilevsky, where a 14-year-old hunt for him "secretly"
Dr. Zoika's daughter: “she was very physically developed ...
was ... the gaze of oily blue eyes and always wet lips ...
for all the fullness of the body ... graceful coquetry of movements ", and
where he falls in love with the doctor's niece who came to visit
Valeria Ostrogradskaya, "a real Little Russian beauty",
"Strong, fine, with thick dark hair, with velvety
eyebrows, ..., with menacing eyes of the color of black blood ... with
bright shine of teeth and full cherry lips ", which
flirting with Zhorik at the same time, falls in love with Dr. Titov, a friend
of the Danilevsky family (the head of the family himself calls Titov "an impudent
gentleman ", and his wife - Klavdia Alexandrovna, although she
for 40 years, "in love with a young doctor"), and, having received
resign, at night in the park ("here I kissed you for the first time")
Zhorik, “immediately after the last minute ... abruptly and disgustingly
pushing him away ", after which the tear-stained young man on a bicycle
hurrying to the train that night - to escape to Moscow - to meet
his absurd death under the wheels of a train;
"Galya Ganskaya" - where the main character goes from 13-year-old
"Playful, graceful" girl in love with her friend
father-artist (Galya is half-orphan, her mother died), also an artist,
to a young woman, mistress of the same artist for
so that, upon learning of his departure to Italy (without her knowledge and
warnings of future separation), take a lethal dose of poison;
"Heinrich" - the murder by the husband of his unfaithful wife;
"Dubki" - a young (25-30 years old) beautiful wife, Anfisa, similar to
Spanish woman, falls in love with a 23-year-old master, invites him to
night, while her husband, the 50-year-old head Laurus, leaves for the city, but
spouse who returned from the road due to a blizzard, exposing
uninvited guest, executes his wife by faking her suicide through
hanging;
"Young Lady Klara" - the murder of a capricious prostitute by a client;
"Iron Wool" - the suicide of "a beautiful girl from a rich and
old peasant yard "," marvelous charm: face
transparent, whiter than the first snow, azure eyes, like those of the saints
adolescents ", married" at the very dawn of life "and
raped by the groom on the first wedding night "under the shrines" after
of how she told her young spouse that she had made a vow
Mother of God to be clean. She finds herself devoid of innocence
after which he runs away into the forest, where he hangs himself, mourned by the sitting
at her feet beloved - "the great bear";
"Steamer" Saratov "- murder by a deceived officer-lover (his
name is Pavel Sergeevich) his beloved, returning
back to my abandoned husband,
"Accommodation" - see above;
or - II. Sudden death occurs at the moment the heroes acquire
the highest happiness of true pure love:
"Late Hour" - the first and happy love of 19-year-old heroes
interrupted by her sudden mysterious death, which he recalls
half a century later;
"In Paris" - sudden death by blow on the 3rd day after Easter
Nikolai Platonovich - a former general who was once abandoned in
Constantinople by his wife, who accidentally met his
last true love (their happiness lasts no more
four months) - Olga Alexandrovna, a black-haired beauty "
about thirty ", working as a waitress,
"Natalie" - see above;
"Cold Autumn" - death at the front of the 1st World War in Galicia of the groom and
the memory of the only autumn farewell evening preserved
his bride throughout her long and difficult life: she
later married “a man of a rare, beautiful soul,
an elderly retired military man, who died of typhus, raised
the niece of her husband who remained in her arms (“a child of seven
months "), which, having become" completely French ", turned out to be
"Completely indifferent" to her adoptive mother - and at the end
choosing one day out of the whole course of years: “... and what
after all, it was in my life? ... only that cold autumn evening ”;
"The Chapel" is a half-page parable story that sums up all
conversations about love and death: “... my uncle is still young ... and when
very in love, they always shoot themselves ... ", - the words of a child from
children's conversation about the resting on a "hot summer day, in the field,
behind the garden of the old manor "in the" long-abandoned cemetery "
near the "crumbling chapel".
Bunin explores the path of love in all its manifestations: from
1. Natural lust: "Guest" - who came to visit friends Adam
The kitchen girl deprives Adamych of innocence on the chest in the hallway,
"Smelling like the fumes of the kitchen: muddy hair ... filled with gray
blood and like oily hands ... full beet-colored knees ”;
"Kuma" - "connoisseur and collector of ancient Russian icons", husband's friend
converges in his absence with godfather - "shining thirty
merchant beauty "lady, committing not only deception and
adultery, but also violating the purity of the spiritual connection between godparents
parents, and not even loving the godfather (“... I her ... probably
I will hate it immediately ”);
"Young lady Klara" - "Irakli Meladze, son of a rich merchant", killing
bottle the prostitute "young lady Klara" in her apartment ("the mighty
brunette "with a porous chalky face, densely covered with
powder, ... orange lips with cracks, ... wide gray
parted among flat hair of the color of wax "), after she
refuses to immediately surrender to him: "Impatient, how
boy! .. let's have another glass and let's go ... ");
through: 2. A kind of somatic catharsis, when an accidental relationship
turns out to be cleared and raised to the rank of the only and
unique love, as in the stories: "Antigone" - a student
Pavlik comes to the estate to see a wealthy uncle and aunt. His uncle
- a disabled general, looks after him and takes him in a gurney
new sister Katerina Nikolaevna (the general calls her "my
Antigone" mocking the situation of the Sofokles tragedy “Oedipus in
Colon "- Antigone accompanies her blind father - Oedipus),
"Tall, stately beauty ... with big gray eyes, all
shining with youth, strength, purity, shine of sleek
hands, matte whiteness of the face. " Pavlik dreams: if only he could take ...
evoke her love ... then say: be my wife ... "and
a day later, entering his room to exchange books (she
read by Maupassant, Octave Mirbeau), Antigone easily and unexpectedly
given to him. The next morning, her aunt discovers that her
the nephew spends the night with his hired sister, and the sister is expelled, and in
the moment of parting "he is ready ... to scream in despair";
"Business cards" - on the steamer "Goncharov" a passenger "from the 3rd
class "(" drunk, sweet face, thin legs "," abundant,
dark hair tucked away somehow "," slender as a boy ", married
for "a kind, but ... not at all interesting person")
meets and the next day "desperately" is given to the traveling 1st
class "tall, strong brunette", famous writer,
and then betrays his dream: "a schoolgirl ... most of all
dreamed of ... ordering business cards for herself, "and he, touched by her
"Poverty and simplicity", seeing off, kisses "her
cold hand with that love that remains somewhere in the heart for the whole
life";
k - 3. Deification of loved ones or spiritual take-off caused by
love: "Late hour" - the hero, remembering the deceased beloved, thinks:
“If there is a future life and we meet in it, I will be there
on my knees and kiss your feet for everything you gave me on
earth ";
"Rusya" is a hero, riding on a train with his wife past acquaintances in the young
years of places, recalls how he served "in one summer cottage"
tutor for the heroine's younger brother - Marusya Viktorovna
(Rus) - a young artist with a long black braid,
"Iconographic" "dry and hard ... hair", "a swarthy face with
small dark moles, narrow regular nose, black
eyes, black eyebrows ”and fell in love with her. And at night, already about
himself, he continues his memories - about their first closeness:
“Now we are husband and wife,” she said then, and “he no longer dared
touching her, only kissing her hands ... and ... sometimes like
something sacred ... cold chest ", and a week later was" with
shame ... kicked out of the house "by her half-mad mother,
which put Rusya before a choice: "mother or he!", but still
the hero truly loves only that, his first love. "Amata
nobis quantum amabitur nulla! » , - he says, grinning,
to his wife;
"Smaragd" - a conversation between two young heroes on a golden summer night, fragile
his dialogue - Tolya, her - Xenia (she: “I'm talking about this sky
among the clouds ... how can you not believe that there is heaven, angels,
God's throne ", he:" And golden pears on the willow ... "), and when
she, "jumping off the windowsill, runs away" after his awkward
kiss, he thinks: "stupid to the point of holiness!";
"Zoya and Valeria" - Georges wanders through the garden, around the "eternal
religiosity of the night "and he" internally, without words prays for some
heavenly mercy ... "- here is a prayer on the eve of the fatal
meetings with Valeria;
so that, finally, it ends with the story "Clean Monday".
Before us is a meeting of two personified principles, which by virtue of
the tragic dichotomy of human existence into spiritual and
corporeal cannot coexist in one life
space: “we were both rich, healthy, young and so good
themselves, that in restaurants, at concerts we were escorted
glances. " He “hails from the Penza province, ... is handsome in the south,
hot beauty, ... even "indecently handsome", inclined "to
talkativeness, to simple-hearted gaiety "," ... her beauty was
some kind of Indian ..: dark amber face, ... somewhat
ominous hair in its thickness, softly shiny as black
sable fur, eyebrows, black as velvet coal, eyes ",
"... an amazing body in its smoothness." They meet, visit
restaurants, concerts, lectures (including A. Bely), he
often visits her (“she lived alone - her widowed father,
an enlightened man of a noble merchant family, lived in retirement in
Tver "), so that, sitting" next to her in the twilight ", kiss" her hands,
legs ... ", tormented by their" incomplete proximity "-" I'm not a wife
I'm good, ”she once said in response to his talk about
marriage.
They are immersed in a real Moscow semi-bohemian-semi-cultural
life: “new books by Hoffmannsthal, Schnitzler, Tetmayer,
Przybyshevsky ", a gypsy choir in a" separate study "," skit "
Art Theater, " new story Andreeva ", but gradually
next to this familiar "sweet life" that seems to him
completely natural, a different, opposite to it appears:
she calls him to Ordynka to look for "the house where Griboyedov lived", and
later, in the evening, to another tavern, where, unexpectedly, “with
quiet light in the eyes ", recites the chronicle legend about
death of the Murom prince Peter and his wife, tempted
"Flying serpent for fornication", about their death in "one day", "in one
the coffin "of the reposed and before the death of the" one-time "
monastic tonsure, and the next day, after a skit, in
the night calls him to her, and they become close for the first time. She
says that he is leaving for Tver, and two weeks later he receives
a letter where she asks not to look for her: “I will go ... to obedience,
then, maybe ... tonsure. "
It takes "almost two years" spent in the "dirty taverns", he
comes to his senses, and in the 14th year, “under New Year"Accidentally hitting
to Ordynka, enters the Martha-Mariinsky monastery (once
she talked about her), where among the "string ... nuns or
sisters "sees her," covered with a white kerchief ", directing" gaze
dark eyes into the darkness, as if just on "him - and quietly leaves
away.
The final of "Clean Monday" resembles the final of the "Noble Nest",
Turgenevskaya Liza also goes to the monastery, but the reasons for leaving
various. For Bunin, behind the external irrationality of the act
the heroine hides a long tradition of leaving the world (accepting
monasticism by spouses) - hence the meaning of the plot she told,
very frequent in hagiographic literature. In addition, it is important that
that the heroine gives her beloved the opportunity to stay with her - she
expects him to "speak" to her on Forgiveness Sunday
language: ask for forgiveness according to Christian tradition and go with her
to service, not to a restaurant, but on Clean Monday, when
this does not happen, she kind of brings the last sacrifice to the world
- gives his beloved the most valuable thing - his virginity, so that
no longer have a way back and go to the monastery to pray for
sin is an act quite in the spirit of that spiritually troubled time.
For Liza, such heating is not yet necessary - she is closer in spirit to
living times and her departure fits well into the model
behavior of a believing girl.
It is also important here that the departure of the heroine to the Martha-Mariinsky monastery
leaves her the opportunity to return to the world - since the sisters of this
the monastery did not take a vow of celibacy. Thus, the possibility
spiritual revival of the hero is proportional to the possibility of his
connection with your beloved. That after several years
devastation, he voluntarily comes to the monastery for the service (that
which was previously impossible in his spiritual lukewarmness),
says he has changed. Perhaps all this time she was waiting from
him of such a step - and then she can return to him.
Perhaps her departure was her deliberate appeal to him -
to be reborn and horrified by the emptiness of his life? Here
Bunin has brilliantly preserved both options for the future: she is among
"Nuns and sisters," but we do not know if she is a nun (and then
connection is impossible) - or "sister", and then the path to return to
the world is real. The hero knows about this, but he is silent ...
The whole book has forty (isn't it according to the number of days in Great Lent?) Options
dialogue between the Soul and the Body, and both the Soul and the Body acquire
human forms and destinies in each of the stories,
merging in moments of high love and losing each other in minutes
falls.
3. The certificate of V.N. Murovtseva-Bunina.