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 initial sound, the first “note” of the narrative, the timbre of which was to determine the entire sound palette of the work. Lines from N. Ogarev's poem " ordinary story”:
It was a wonderful spring
They were sitting on the beach
She was in her prime,
His mustache was barely black.
Around the wild rose scarlet bloomed,
There was an alley of dark lindens...
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 himself with “some big road, a troika harnessed to a tarantass, and autumn bad weather. It is necessary to add to this a literary impulse, which also played a role: Bunin named “Resurrection” by L.N. Tolstoy, the heroes of this novel are the young Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. All this came together in the writer's imagination, and a story was born about lost happiness, about the irretrievability of time, about lost illusions and about the power of the past over a person.
The meeting of heroes united once in their youth by hot love feeling, takes place many years later in the most ordinary, perhaps even nondescript setting: in a mudslide, in an inn lying on a large roadway. Bunin does not skimp on “prosaic” details: “a tarantass thrown with mud”, “simple horses”, “tails tied up from slush”. On the other hand, the portrait of the arrived man is given a detailed one, obviously calculated to arouse sympathy: “a slender old military man”, with black eyebrows, a white mustache, and a shaved chin. His appearance speaks of nobility, and a strict but tired look contrasts with the liveliness of his movements (the author notices how he “thrown” his leg out of the tarantass, “ran up” to the porch). Bunin clearly wants to emphasize the connection in the hero of vivacity and maturity, youthfulness and sedateness, which is very important for general design a story driven by the desire to bring past and present together, to strike a spark of memories that will illuminate bright light the past will incinerate, turn into ashes what exists today.
The writer deliberately drags out the exposition: out of the three and a half pages given to the story, almost a page is occupied by the “introduction”. In addition to describing the 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 outerwear, it also contains detailed description rooms where the visitor found himself. Moreover, the refrain of this description is an indication of cleanliness and neatness: a clean tablecloth on the table, cleanly washed benches, a recently whitewashed stove, new image in the corner ... The author focuses on this, since it is known that the owners of Russian inns and hotels did not differ in accuracy and constant sign of these places there were cockroaches and dim windows infested with flies. Therefore, he wants to draw our attention to the almost uniqueness of how this institution is maintained by its owners, or rather, as we will soon find out, by its owner.
Ho the hero remains indifferent to environment, although later he will note cleanliness and tidiness. It can be seen from his behavior and gestures that he is annoyed, tired (Bunin uses the epithet tired for the second time, now in relation to the whole appearance of the officer who arrived), perhaps not very healthy (“pale thin hand”), hostile to everything that happens (“ 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, note rounded shoulders, light legs in worn Tatar shoes.
The author himself, as if in addition to the “unseeing” look of the hero, gives a much more sharply expressive, unexpected, juicy portrait of the woman who entered: not very young, but still beautiful, like a gypsy, plump, but not heavy woman. Bunin deliberately resorts to naturalistic, almost anti-aesthetic details: big breasts, triangular, like a goose, belly. But the defiant anti-aestheticism of the image is “removed”: the breasts are hidden under a red blouse (the diminutive suffix is intended to convey a feeling of lightness), and the belly is hidden by a black skirt. In general, the combination of black and red in clothes, fluff above the lip (a sign of passion), zoomorphic comparison are aimed at emphasizing the carnal, earthly beginnings in the heroine.
However, it is she who will manifest - as we will see a little later - the beginning of the spiritual, as opposed to that mundane existence, which, without realizing it, the hero drags out, without thinking or peering into his past. Therefore, she is the first! - recognizes him. No wonder she “all the time looked inquisitively at him, squinting slightly,” and he peers at her only after she turns to him by name and patronymic. She - and not he - will name the exact number when it comes to the years that they did not see each other: not thirty-five, but thirty. She will tell you how old he is now. It means that everything was scrupulously calculated by her, which means that every year left a notch in her memory! And this is at a time when it was he who should never forget 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 friends' estates, a sudden departure...
In a mean dialogue between Nadezhda (that is the name of the hostess of the inn) and Nikolai Alekseevich, the details of this story are restored. And most importantly - the different attitude of the characters to the past. If for Nikolai Alekseevich everything that happened is “a vulgar, ordinary story” (however, he is ready to bring everything in his life under this measure, as if removing the burden of responsibility for his actions from a person), then for Nadezhda her love became and a great trial, and a great event, the only one of significance in her life. “Just as I didn’t have anything more valuable than you in the world at that time, so then it wasn’t,” she says.
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, on the other hand, several times “wanted to lay hands on herself”, never married, despite her extraordinary beauty, and never managed to forget her first love. Therefore, she refutes Nikolai Alekseevich’s statement that “everything passes over the years” (he, as if trying to convince himself of this, repeats the formula that “everything passes” several times: after all, he really wants to brush aside the past, to 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 herself to the monosyllabic “answered”, “came up”, “suspended”. Only once does he slip an indication of an “evil smile”, with which Nadezhda utters a phrase addressed to her seducer: “I was deigned to read all the poems about all sorts of“ dark alleys ””.
The writer is just as 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 “a resemblance to Alexander II, which was so common among the military at the time of his reign,” we can get an idea that The story takes place in the 60s or 70s. XIX years V.
On the other hand, 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 brilliance, making it clear through gestures, intonation of voice, the behavior of the hero, 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 such a detail: the smell of “boiled cabbage, beef and bay leaf” was felt, from which we can conclude that the guest is clearly hungry), then when meeting with Nadezhda, when recognizing her, when talking with her, fatigue and absent-mindedness instantly fly off him, he begins to look fussy, worried, talking a lot and stupidly (“muttered”, “added a patter” , “said hastily”), which is in sharp contrast to the calm majesty of Nadezhda. Bunin three times indicates the reaction of Nikolai Alekseevich's embarrassment: “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 by abrupt changes in position: “resolutely walked around the room”, “frowning, he walked again”, “stopping, painfully grinned”.
All this testifies to what a difficult, painful process takes place in him. But at first, nothing pops up in his memory except the divine beauty of a young girl (“How good you were! ... What a camp, what eyes! ... How everyone looked at you”) and the romantic atmosphere of their rapprochement, and he is inclined brush aside what he heard, hoping to turn the conversation, if not in jest, then into the mainstream of “whoever remembers the old, to that ...” However, after he heard that Nadezhda could never forgive him, because you can’t forgive someone who took away the most dear - the soul, who killed her, he seemed to see clearly. He is especially shocked, apparently, by the fact that, to explain her feeling, she resorts to the saying (obviously, especially beloved by Bunin, already once used by him in the story “The Village”) “they don’t carry the dead from the graveyard.” This means that she feels dead, that she never came to life after those happy spring days and what for her, who knew great power love - not without reason to his question-exclamation: “After all, you couldn’t love me all the time!” - she replies firmly: “So she could. No matter how much time passed, everything lived by one, ”- there is no return to life ordinary people. Her love was not just stronger than death, A stronger than that life that came after what happened and which she, as a Christian, had to continue, no matter what.
And what kind of life this is, we learn from a few remarks exchanged between Nikolai Alekseevich, who is leaving the short shelter, and the coachman Klim, who says that the landlady of the inn has a “mind chamber”, that she is “getting richer”, because “she gives money at interest”, that she is “cool”, but “fair”, which means that she enjoys both respect and honor. Ho, we understand how small and insignificant for her, who fell in love once and for all, all this mercantile flickering, how inconsistent it is with what is happening in her soul. For Nadezhda, her love is from God. No wonder she says: “What God gives to whom ... Youth passes for everyone, 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 Nadezhda will forgive him, because, by all standards, he committed not such a great sin, is not condemned by the author. Although such a maximalist position is contrary to Christian doctrine. Ho, according to Bunin, a crime against love, against memory - is much more serious than the sin of "vindictiveness". And just the memory of love, of the past, in his opinion, justifies a lot.
And what gradually awakens in the mind of the hero true understanding what happened, speaks in his favor. After all, at first the words he said: “I think that I also lost in you the most precious thing that I had in my life,” and the deed - kissed Nadezhda’s hand goodbye - cause him nothing but shame, and even more - the shame of this shame, they are perceived as false, ostentatious. But then he begins to understand that what escaped by chance, in a hurry, perhaps even for a red word, 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 minutes of my life?” - ends with an unshakable: “Yes, of course, the best minutes. And not the best, but truly magical.” But right there - and here Bunin acts as a realist who does not believe in romantic transformations and repentance - another, sobering voice told him that all these thoughts were “nonsense”, that he could not do otherwise, that even then it was impossible to fix anything , 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 in the event that his life is illuminated, albeit tragic, but with love. And the short moments of this love are able to “outweigh” all the material benefits of future well-being, all the pleasures of love interests that do not rise above the level of ordinary intrigues, in general, all subsequent life with its ups and downs.
Bunin draws the subtlest modulations of the states of the characters, 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 it on yourself”, they respond, like echolalia, when Nikolai Alekseevich says them aloud: “Yes, yes, blame yourself.” And then in his soul they will continue to sound like words “crucifying” him. “Yes, blame yourself,” he thinks, realizing what kind of fault lies with him. And the ingenious formula created by the author, put into the mouth of the heroine: “Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten,” was born in response to the phrase of Nikolai Alekseevich: “Everything passes. Everything is forgotten”, - earlier, as if confirmed in a quote from the book of Job - “as you will remember the water that has flowed”. And more than once during the story there will be words that refer us to the past, to memory: “Everything passes with age”; “youth is passing away for everyone”; “I called you Nikolenka, and you remember me how”; “remember how everyone looked at you”, “how can you forget this”, “well, what to remember”. These echoing phrases seem to weave a carpet on which Bunin's formula about the omnipotence of memory will be imprinted forever.
It is impossible not to catch the obvious similarity of this story with Turgenev's Asya. As we remember, even 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 he would not be happy with such a wife." It would seem that the situations are similar: both here and there the idea of misalliance, i.e. the possibility of marrying a woman of a lower class is initially rejected. Ho what is the result of this, it would seem, from the point of view of the attitudes of the correct decision adopted in society? The hero of "Asia" turned out to be condemned forever to remain a "familyless bobyl", dragging out "boring" years of utter loneliness. He's all in the past.
Nikolai Alekseevich from “Dark Alleys” had a different life: he reached a position in society, was surrounded by a family, he had a wife and children. True, as he confesses to Nadezhda, he was never happy: the wife whom he loved "without memory" cheated and left him, the son who was assigned big hopes, turned out to be “a scoundrel, a spendthrift, an insolent person without a heart, without honor, without a conscience ...”. Of course, it can be assumed that Nikolai Alekseevich somewhat exaggerates his feeling of bitterness, his feelings, in order to somehow make amends for Nadezhda, so that it would not be so painful for her to realize the difference in their states, different assessments of the past. Moreover, at the end of the story, when he tries to “learn a lesson” from unexpected meeting, to sum up what he has lived, he, reflecting, 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. Therefore, we understand that his wife, apparently, returned to him, and besides the scoundrel son, there are other children. But why, then, is he so initially irritated, bilious, gloomy, why does he have a strict and at the same time tired look? Why is this look “questioning”? Perhaps this is a subconscious desire to still be aware 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 him past life. And it became clear to him that there had never been anything in his life better than those “truly magical” moments when “the scarlet rose hips bloomed, an alley of dark lindens stood”, when he passionately loved passionate Nadezhda, and she recklessly gave herself to him with all recklessness youth.
And the hero of Turgenev's "Asia" cannot remember anything brighter than that "burning, tender, deep feeling" that a childish and serious girl gave him ...
Both of them had only “flowers of memories” left from the past - a dried geranium flower thrown from Asya’s window, a scarlet wild rose from Ogarev’s poem that accompanied love story Nikolai Alekseevich and Nadezhda. Only for the latter is a flower that inflicted non-healing wounds with its thorns.
So, following Turgenev, Bunin draws greatness female soul, able to love and remember, in contrast to the male, weighed down by doubts, entangled in petty predilections, subject to social conventions. So already the first story of the cycle consolidates the leading motifs of Bunin's late work - memory, the omnipotence of the past, the significance of a single moment compared to the dull succession of everyday life.
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 to determine the entire sound palette of the work. A kind of "beginning", creating a special lyrical atmosphere of the story, were the lines from N. Ogarev's poem "An Ordinary Tale":
It was a wonderful spring
They were sitting on the beach
She was in her prime,
His mustache was barely black.
Around the wild rose scarlet bloomed,
There was an alley of dark lindens...
Ho, as always with Bunin, “sound” is inseparable from “image”. To him, as he wrote in the notes “The Origin of My Stories”, at the beginning of work on the story, “some kind of big road, a troika harnessed to a tarantass, and autumn bad weather” presented themselves. It is necessary to add to this a literary impulse, which also played a role: Bunin named “Resurrection” by L.N. Tolstoy, the heroes of this novel are the young Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova. All this came together in the writer's imagination, and a story was born about lost happiness, about the irretrievability of time, about lost illusions and about the power of the past over a person.
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 mudslide, in an inn lying on a large roadway. Bunin does not skimp on “prosaic” details: “a tarantass thrown with mud”, “simple horses”, “tails tied up from slush”. On the other hand, the portrait of the arrived man is given a detailed one, obviously calculated to arouse sympathy: “a slender old military man”, with black eyebrows, a white mustache, and a shaved chin. His appearance speaks of nobility, and a strict but tired look contrasts with the liveliness of his movements (the author notices how he “thrown” his leg out of the tarantass, “ran up” to the porch). Bunin clearly wants to emphasize the connection in the hero of vivacity and maturity, youthfulness and sedateness, which is very important for the overall idea 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 ashes what exists Today.
The writer deliberately drags out the exposition: out of the three and a half pages given to the story, almost a page is occupied by the “introduction”. In addition to describing the rainy day, the appearance of the hero (and at the same time a detailed description of the appearance of the coachman), which is supplemented with new details as the hero is freed from outer clothing, it also contains a detailed description of the room where the visitor found himself. Moreover, the refrain of this description is an indication of cleanliness and tidiness: a clean tablecloth on the table, cleanly washed benches, a recently whitewashed stove, a new image in the corner ... The author focuses on this, since it is known that the owners of Russian inns and hotels were not neat and cockroaches and dim windows infested with flies were a constant feature of these places. Therefore, he wants to draw our attention to the almost uniqueness of how this institution is maintained by its owners, or rather, as we will soon find out, by its owner.
Ho the hero remains indifferent to the environment, although later he notes cleanliness and tidiness. It can be seen from his behavior and gestures that he is annoyed, tired (Bunin uses the epithet tired for the second time, now in relation to the whole appearance of the officer who arrived), perhaps not very healthy (“pale thin hand”), hostile to everything that happens (“ 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, note rounded shoulders, light legs in worn Tatar shoes.
The author himself, as if in addition to the “unseeing” look of the hero, gives a much more sharply expressive, unexpected, juicy portrait of the woman who entered: not very young, but still beautiful, like a gypsy, plump, but not heavy woman. Bunin deliberately resorts to naturalistic, almost anti-aesthetic details: large breasts, a triangular belly, like a goose's. But the defiant anti-aestheticism of the image is “removed”: the breasts are hidden under a red blouse (the diminutive suffix is intended to convey a feeling of lightness), and the belly is hidden by a black skirt. In general, the combination of black and red in clothes, fluff above the lip (a sign of passion), zoomorphic comparison are aimed at emphasizing the carnal, earthly beginnings in the heroine.
However, it is she who will manifest - as we will see a little later - the beginning of the spiritual, as opposed to that mundane existence, which, without realizing it, the hero drags out, without thinking or peering into his past. Therefore, she is the first! - recognizes him. No wonder she “all the time looked inquisitively at him, squinting slightly,” and he peers at her only after she turns to him by name and patronymic. She - and not he - will name the exact number when it comes to the years that they did not see each other: not thirty-five, but thirty. She will tell you how old he is now. It means that everything was scrupulously calculated by her, which means that every year left a notch in her memory! And this is at a time when it was he who should never forget 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 friends' estates, a sudden departure...
In a mean dialogue between Nadezhda (that is the name of the hostess of the inn) and Nikolai Alekseevich, the details of this story are restored. And most importantly - the different attitude of the characters to the past. If for Nikolai Alekseevich everything that happened is “a vulgar, ordinary story” (however, he is ready to bring everything in his life under this measure, as if removing the burden of responsibility for his actions from a person), then for Nadezhda her love became and a great trial, and a great event, the only one of significance in her life. “Just as I didn’t have anything more valuable than you in the world at that time, so then it wasn’t,” she says.
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, on the other hand, several times “wanted to lay hands on herself”, never married, despite her extraordinary beauty, and never managed to forget her first love. Therefore, she refutes Nikolai Alekseevich’s statement that “everything passes over the years” (he, as if trying to convince himself of this, repeats the formula that “everything passes” several times: after all, he really wants to brush aside the past, to 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 herself to the monosyllabic “answered”, “came up”, “suspended”. Only once does he slip an indication of an “evil smile”, with which Nadezhda utters a phrase addressed to her seducer: “I was deigned to read all the poems about all sorts of“ dark alleys ””.
The writer is just as 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 “a resemblance to Alexander II, which was so common among the military at the time of his reign,” we can get an idea that The action of the story takes place, apparently, in the 60s or 70s of the XIX century.
On the other hand, 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 brilliance, making it clear through gestures, intonation of voice, the behavior of the hero, 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 such a detail: the smell of “boiled cabbage, beef and bay leaf” was felt, from which we can conclude that the guest is clearly hungry), then when meeting with Nadezhda, when recognizing her, when talking with her, fatigue and absent-mindedness instantly fly off him, he begins to look fussy, worried, talking a lot and stupidly (“muttered”, “added a patter” , “said hastily”), which is in sharp contrast to the calm majesty of Nadezhda. Bunin three times indicates the reaction of Nikolai Alekseevich's embarrassment: “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 by abrupt changes in position: “resolutely walked around the room”, “frowning, he walked again”, “stopping, painfully grinned”.
All this testifies to what a difficult, painful process takes place in him. But at first, nothing pops up in his memory except the divine beauty of a young girl (“How good you were! ... What a camp, what eyes! ... How everyone looked at you”) and the romantic atmosphere of their rapprochement, and he is inclined brush aside what he heard, hoping to turn the conversation, if not in jest, then into the mainstream of “whoever remembers the old, to that ...” However, after he heard that Nadezhda could never forgive him, because you can’t forgive someone who took away the most dear - the soul, who killed her, he seemed to see clearly. He is especially shocked, apparently, by the fact that, to explain her feeling, she resorts to the saying (obviously, especially beloved by Bunin, already once used by him in the story “The Village”) “they don’t carry the dead from the graveyard.” This means that she feels dead, that she never came to life after those happy spring days, and that for her, who knew the great power of love, it was not for nothing that he answered his question-exclamation: “After all, you couldn’t love me all the time!” - she replies firmly: “So she could. No matter how much time passed, she lived all the same, ”there is no return to the life of ordinary people. Her love turned out to be not just 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 this is, we learn from a few remarks exchanged between Nikolai Alekseevich, who is leaving the short shelter, and the coachman Klim, who says that the landlady of the inn has a “mind chamber”, that she is “getting richer”, because “she gives money at interest”, that she is “cool”, but “fair”, which means that she enjoys both respect and honor. Ho, we understand how small and insignificant for her, who fell in love once and for all, all this mercantile flickering, how inconsistent it is with what is happening in her soul. For Nadezhda, her love is from God. No wonder she says: “What God gives to whom ... Youth passes for everyone, 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 Nadezhda will forgive him, because, by all standards, he committed not such a great sin, is not condemned by the author. Although such a maximalist position is contrary to Christian doctrine. Ho, according to Bunin, a crime against love, against memory - is much more serious than the sin of "vindictiveness". 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 gradually awakens in the mind of the hero speaks in his favor. After all, at first the words he said: “I think that I also lost in you the most precious thing that I had in my life,” and the deed - kissed Nadezhda’s hand goodbye - cause him nothing but shame, and even more - the shame of this shame, they are perceived as false, ostentatious. But then he begins to understand that what escaped by chance, in a hurry, perhaps even for a red word, is the most genuine “diagnosis” of the past. His internal dialogue, reflecting hesitation and doubt: “Isn’t it true that she gave me the best moments of my life?” - ends with an unshakable: “Yes, of course, the best minutes. And not the best, but truly magical.” But right there - and here Bunin acts as a realist who does not believe in romantic transformations and repentance - another, sobering voice told him that all these thoughts were “nonsense”, that he could not do otherwise, that even then it was impossible to fix anything , 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 the short moments of this love are able to “outweigh” all the material benefits of future well-being, all the pleasures of love interests that do not rise above the level of ordinary intrigues, in general, all subsequent life with its ups and downs.
Bunin draws the subtlest modulations of the states of the characters, 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 it on yourself”, they respond, like echolalia, when Nikolai Alekseevich says them aloud: “Yes, yes, blame yourself.” And then in his soul they will continue to sound like words “crucifying” him. “Yes, blame yourself,” he thinks, realizing what kind of fault lies with him. And the ingenious formula created by the author, put into the mouth of the heroine: “Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten,” was born in response to the phrase of Nikolai Alekseevich: “Everything passes. Everything is forgotten”, - earlier, as if confirmed in a quote from the book of Job - “as you will remember the water that has flowed”. And more than once during the story there will be words that refer us to the past, to memory: “Everything passes with age”; “youth is passing away for everyone”; “I called you Nikolenka, and you remember me how”; “remember how everyone looked at you”, “how can you forget this”, “well, what to remember”. These echoing phrases seem to weave a carpet on which Bunin's formula about the omnipotence of memory will be imprinted forever.
It is impossible not to catch the obvious similarity of this story with Turgenev's Asya. As we remember, even 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 he would not be happy with such a wife." It would seem that the situations are similar: both here and there the idea of misalliance, i.e. the possibility of marrying a woman of a lower class is initially rejected. Ho what is the result of this, it would seem, from the point of view of the attitudes of the correct decision adopted in society? The hero of "Asia" turned out to be condemned forever to remain a "familyless bobyl", dragging out "boring" years of utter loneliness. He's all in the past.
Nikolai Alekseevich from “Dark Alleys” had a different life: he reached a position in society, was surrounded by a family, he had a wife and children. True, as he admits to Nadezhda, he was never happy: the wife whom he loved "without memory" cheated and left him, the son, on whom high hopes were placed, turned out to be "a scoundrel, a waste, an insolent person without a heart, without honor, without conscience ...”. Of course, it can be assumed that Nikolai Alekseevich somewhat exaggerates his feeling of bitterness, his feelings, in order to somehow make amends for Nadezhda, so that it would not be so painful for her to realize the difference in their states, different assessments of the past. Moreover, at the end of the story, when he tries to “learn a lesson” from an unexpected meeting, to sum up what he has lived, he, reflecting, 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. Therefore, we understand that his wife, apparently, returned to him, and besides the scoundrel son, there are other children. But why, then, is he so initially irritated, bilious, gloomy, why does he have a strict and at the same time tired look? Why is this look “questioning”? Perhaps this is a subconscious desire to still be aware 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 in his life better than those “truly magical” moments when “the scarlet rose hips bloomed, an alley of dark lindens stood”, when he passionately loved passionate Nadezhda, and she recklessly gave herself to him with all recklessness youth.
And the hero of Turgenev's "Asia" cannot remember anything brighter than that "burning, tender, deep feeling" that a childish and serious girl gave him ...
Both of them have only “flowers of memories” left from the past - a dried geranium flower thrown from Asya's window, a scarlet wild rose from Ogarev's poem that accompanied the love story of Nikolai Alekseevich and Nadezhda. Only for the latter 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 with doubts, entangled in petty predilections, subject to social conventions. So already the first story of the cycle consolidates the leading motifs of Bunin's late work - memory, the omnipotence of the past, the significance of a single moment compared to the dull succession of everyday life.
The theme of love in literature found its most complete disclosure in A. Bunin's cycle of stories "Dark Alleys". The entire cycle consists of thirty-eight stories. All the stories in the collection are united by the theme of unhappy love. In his stories, he shows love frankly and boldly. Bunin's love is in a sense criminal, it transcends the norm, goes beyond the ordinary. In his work, love is a special synthesis of spirit and flesh.
Spirit is high and beautiful love that penetrates souls and binds them to each other. And the love of the flesh, in a different way, carnal pleasures. Such love gives only physical pleasure. As an example, let's analyze Bunin's story "Dark Alleys".
The story "Dark Alleys" was written by Bunin in exile, under the influence of the poem "An Ordinary Tale". The plot is based on the meeting of two elderly people after many years of separation. More precisely, the story refers to thirty years.
From the time they last meeting passed already whole life which they lived separately. In his youth, Nikolai Alexandrovich left Nadezhda, who later received her freedom and became the mistress of the inn.
The meeting of the main characters raises a whole storm of feelings, memories and experiences. After a conversation with Nadezhda, Nikolai Aleksandrovich understands that the past cannot be returned. He leaves soon. Leaving, he realizes that if he had not abandoned this maid, he could now have a happy family.
So the composition of the story can be divided into three compositional parts: the arrival of the hero at the inn, the meeting of former lovers, reflections on the way after the meeting.
The first part of the work is an episode showing the meeting of lovers, how they recognize each other. This episode shows portrait characteristic heroes. The social difference between the characters is also shown.
The second part of the work is the main part. Here we see a description of the feelings, emotions and experiences of the characters. Social restrictions are dropped. Now the characters appear before each other not as a hotel owner and a soldier, but as a man and woman in love. This part allows you to get to know the characters better. The author clearly shows us how the characters relate to this love. Nadezhda has never been married, she saved herself for her lover. And Nikolai married another woman and was devoted to her, just like he was betrayed by his son.
The third part of the work is the departure of Nicholas. For him, social norms are important, which he cannot neglect. But at the same time, he is tormented by thoughts that his life could be much better if he stayed with her.
All Bunin's stories are permeated with unhappy love that goes beyond the ordinary. Whether it is sincere love or only passion, but she is always unhappy. The heroes of the stories are forced to leave for one reason or another. This may be a difference in social strata, age, or simply a forced separation. One way or another, according to Bunin, love remains a drama, and sometimes a tragedy.
Updated: 2017-10-29
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Immediately after the revolution of 1917, Bunin created a number of journalistic articles, where he opposed the Bolsheviks. In 1918, he moved from Moscow to Odessa, and in early 1920 he left Russia forever.
The Bunins settled in Paris, where life began "on other shores" - in a state of mental decline, with the bitterness of a break with their homeland. The writer's works were published in the newspapers Vozrozhdenie and Rus. Bunin headed the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists.
In exile, the writer creates stories mainly about Russian life - full of deep psychology and subtle lyrics, develops the genre of philosophical and psychological short stories (" Dark alleys"). He combined his stories into the collections "Mitya's Love" (1925), " Sunstroke"(1927), "The Shadow of a Bird" (1931).
Bunin's prose continues the traditions of I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharova and L.N. Tolstoy. The economical and efficient use of artistic means, visual imagery and psychological insight - these are the features of Bunin's style. Some of his stories, thanks to the perfection of form, belong to the best works of world short stories. K.G. Paustovsky wrote that everything is heard in Bunin's language: "... from ringing copper solemnity to the transparency of flowing spring water, from measured chasing to intonations of amazing softness, from light melody to slow peals of thunder."
Bunin expressed his understanding of the world and his place in it in a characteristic note dating back to that time: “And day after day goes by - and the secret pain of their steady loss does not leave them - steady and meaningless, because they go in inaction, everything is only in anticipation of action and what - something else ... And the days and nights go by, and this pain, and all the vague feelings and thoughts, and the vague consciousness of myself and everything around me is my life, which I do not understand. And further: “We live by what we live, only to the extent that we comprehend the price of what we live. Usually this price is very small: it rises only in moments of delight - the delight of happiness or unhappiness, a vivid consciousness of gain or loss; more - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory. Such a “poetic transformation of the past in memory” is Bunin’s work of the emigrant period, in which the writer seeks salvation from the boundless feeling of loneliness.
Painfully experiencing what happened to Russia and his rejection from her, he tries to find an explanation and solace in referring to the events of world history that could be correlated with Russian ones: the death of powerful ancient civilizations, kingdoms (“City of the King of Kings”). And now, away from Russia, painfully thinking about it, "fiercely", as he said, tormented, Bunin turns to memory, highlighting it among spiritual values: "We live by everything that we live, only to the extent that we understand the value of what we live. Usually this price is very small: it rises only in moments of ecstasy of happiness or unhappiness, a vivid consciousness of gain or loss; yet - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory.
In his memory, the image of Russia arose in its long past times, the recent past and the present.. Such a combination of plans at different times was salutary for him. It allowed Bunin, still not accepting Russian modernity, to find that native, bright, eternal that gave him hope: a birch forest in the Oryol region, songs sung by mowers ("Mowers", 1921), Chekhov ("Penguins", 1929 ). Memory allowed him to connect modern Russia, where "the end has come, the limit of God's forgiveness", with timeless, eternal values. In addition to eternal nature, love remained such an eternal value for Bunin, which he sang in the story "Sunstroke" (1925), the story "Mitya's Love" (1925), the book of stories "Dark Alleys" (1943), love is always tragic, "beautiful and doomed. All these themes - life, death, nature, love - by the end of the 20s. formed the basis of his stories about Russia, how he remembered it and how dear he was to his blood.
In 1927, Bunin began to write the novel "The Life of Arseniev", which has become another artistic autobiography from the life of the Russian nobility, along with such classic works as “Family Chronicle” and “Childhood of Bagrov-grandson” by S. Aksakov, “Childhood”, “Boyhood”, “Youth” by L. Tolstoy. The events of childhood, adolescence, life in the village, studying at the gymnasium (80-90s of the XIX century) are seen in him with double vision: through the eyes of the schoolboy Alexei Arsenyev and through the eyes of Bunin, who created the novel in the 20s-30s. 20th century Speaking of Russia, "which perished before our eyes in such a magically short time," Bunin overcomes the thought of the end and death with the entire artistic structure of his novel. Such overcoming is in Bunin's landscapes, in that love for Russia and its culture, which is felt in every episode and situation of the novel: Bunin even called the hero's father Alexander Sergeevich. The horror of the end and death is overcome by the author's lyrical confession, from which it becomes clear how the formation of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century took place. And, of course, the fifth, last chapter of Arseniev's Life, which is called Lika, and in which Bunin recalls how back in 1889, when he was working in the Orlovsky Vestnik, he was "smitten by unfortunately, a long love." And this love was not destroyed by time...
The power of love, overcoming the darkness and chaos of life, became the main content of the book "Dark Alleys", written during the Second World War. All 38 short stories that made it up are about love, most often unrequited and tragic. Bunin's understanding of love was reflected here: "All love is a great happiness, even if it is not divided." The book "Dark Alleys" also includes the story "Clean Monday", which Bunin considered the best of all that he had written. “I thank God,” he said, “that he gave me the opportunity to write Clean Monday.”
Behind the simple plot of the story, the presence of some kind of hidden significance is felt. It turned out to be an allegorical, symbolically expressed idea about the historical path of Russia. Therefore, the heroine of the story is so mysterious, embodying not the idea of \u200b\u200blove-passion, but longing for moral ideal, the combination of eastern and western principles is so significant in it as a reflection of this combination in the life of Russia. Her unexpected, at first glance, departure to the monastery symbolizes the "third way" that Bunin chose for Russia. He prefers the path of humility, curbing the elements, and sees this as an opportunity to go beyond the bounds of Western and Eastern doom, the path of great suffering, in which Russia will atone for its sin and go on its own path.
A cycle of stories called "Dark Alleys" is dedicated to the eternal theme of any kind of art - love. They say about "Dark Alleys" as a kind of encyclopedia of love, which contains the most diverse and incredible stories about this great and often contradictory feeling.
And the stories that were included in Bunin's collection amaze with their diverse plots and extraordinary style, they are the main assistants of Bunin, who wants to portray love at the peak of feelings, tragic love, but from this - and perfect.
Feature of the cycle "Dark Alleys"
The phrase itself, which served as the name for the collection, was taken by the writer from the poem "An Ordinary Tale" by N. Ogaryov, which is dedicated to first love, which did not have the expected continuation.
In the collection itself there is a story with that name, but this does not mean that this story is the main one, no, this expression is the personification of the mood of all stories and stories, a common elusive meaning, a transparent, almost invisible thread connecting the stories with each other.
A feature of the cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" can be called moments when the love of two heroes for some reason can no longer continue. Often the executioner of the passionate feelings of Bunin's heroes is death, sometimes unforeseen circumstances or misfortunes, but most importantly, love is never given to come true.
This is the key concept of Bunin's idea of earthly love between two. He wants to show love at its peak, he wants to emphasize its real wealth and highest value, the fact that she does not need to turn into life circumstances, like a wedding, marriage, life together ...
Female images of "Dark Alleys"
Particular attention should be paid to unusual female portraits, which are so rich in "Dark Alleys". Ivan Alekseevich writes out images of women with such grace and originality that the female portrait of each story becomes unforgettable and truly intriguing.
Bunin's skill consists in several precise expressions and metaphors that instantly draw in the reader's mind the picture described by the author with many colors, shades and nuances.
The stories "Rus", "Antigone", "Galya Ganskaya" are an exemplary example of various, but vivid images Russian woman. The girls whose stories are created by the talented Bunin are somewhat reminiscent of the love stories they experience.
We can say that the key attention of the writer is directed precisely to these two elements of the cycle of stories: women and love. And love stories are just as rich, unique, sometimes fatal and masterful, sometimes so original and incredible that it’s hard to believe in them.
Male images in "Dark Alleys""Weak-willed and insincere, and this also causes the fatal course of all love stories.
Feature of love in "Dark Alleys"
The stories of "Dark Alleys" reveal not only the theme of love, they reveal the depths of the human personality and soul, and the very concept of "love" is presented as the basis of this difficult and not always happy life.
And love does not have to be mutual in order to bring unforgettable impressions, love does not have to turn into something eternal and relentlessly ongoing in order to please and make a person happy.
Bunin shrewdly and subtly shows only "moments" of love, for the sake of which it is worth experiencing everything else, for the sake of which it is worth living.
"Clean Monday" story
The story "Clean Monday" is a mysterious and not fully understood love story. Bunin describes a pair of young lovers who, it would seem, look perfect for each other, but the catch is that they inner worlds have nothing in common.
The image of a young man is simple and logical, while the image of his beloved is inaccessible and complex, striking her chosen one with its inconsistency. One day she says that she would like to go to a monastery, and this causes complete bewilderment and misunderstanding for the hero.
And the end of this love is as complex and incomprehensible as the heroine herself. After intimacy with a young man, she silently leaves him, then asks him not to ask anything, and soon he learns that she has gone to the monastery.
She made a decision in Clean Monday when there was closeness between lovers, and the symbol of this holiday is a symbol of her purity and torment, from which she wants to get rid.
The story "Dark alleys" gave the name to the entire collection of the same name by I. A. Bunin. It was written in 1938. All the novels of the cycle are connected by one theme - love. The tragic and even catastrophic nature of love is revealed by the author. Love is a gift. She is beyond human control. It would seem a banal story about a meeting of elderly people who in their youth passionately loved each other. A simple plot of the story - a rich young handsome landowner seduces and then leaves the maid. But it is Bunin who manages to tell with the help of this uncomplicated artistic move about simple things in an exciting and impressive way. A short work - an instant flash of memory of bygone youth and love.
There are only three compositional parts of the story:
Parking at the inn of a gray-haired military man,
sudden meeting with ex-lover,
Reflections of the military on the way a few minutes after the meeting.
Pictures of dull everyday life and everyday life appear at the beginning of the story. But in the hostess of the inn, Nikolai Alekseevich recognizes the beautiful maid Nadezhda, whom he betrayed thirty years ago: “he quickly straightened up, opened his eyes and blushed.” Since then, a whole life has passed, and everyone has their own. And it turns out that both main characters are lonely. Nikolai Alekseevich has social weight and well-being, but is unhappy: his wife "changed, left me even more insultingly than I did you," and his son grew up a scoundrel "without a heart, without honor, without a conscience." Nadezhda turned from a former serf into the owner of a “private room” at the post office “mind chamber. And everyone, they say, is getting richer, cool ... ”, but she never got married.
And yet, if the hero is tired of life, then she is still beautiful and light, full of vitality his former lover. He once refused love and spent the rest of his life without it, and therefore without happiness. Nadezhda, all her life, loves him alone, to whom she gave "her beauty, her fever", whom she once called "Nikolenka". As before, love lives in her heart, but she does not forgive Nikolai Alekseevich. Although it does not descend to accusations and tears.
Analysis of the story "Easy breathing"
The theme of love occupies one of the leading places in the writer's work. In mature prose, there are noticeable trends in understanding the eternal categories of being - death, love, happiness, nature. Often he describes "moments of love", which have a fatal character, a tragic coloring. great attention he devotes to female characters, mysterious and incomprehensible.
The beginning of the novel "Light Breath" creates a feeling of sadness and sadness. The author prepares the reader in advance for the fact that the tragedy of human life will unfold on the following pages.
The main character of the novel Olga Meshcherskaya, a schoolgirl girl, stands out very much among her classmates with her cheerful disposition and obvious love to life, she is not at all afraid of other people's opinions, and openly challenges society.
In the last winter, many changes took place in the girl's life. At this time, Olga Meshcherskaya was in the full bloom of her beauty. There were rumors about her that she could not live without admirers, but at the same time she treated them very cruelly. In her last winter, Olya completely devoted herself to the joys of life, she went to balls and went to the skating rink every evening.
Olya always tried to look good, she wore expensive shoes, expensive combs, perhaps she would have dressed in the latest fashion if all the gymnasium girls did not wear uniforms. The headmistress of the gymnasium made a remark to Olga about her appearance, that such jewelry and shoes should be worn by an adult woman, and not by a simple student. To which Meshcherskaya openly declared that she has the right to dress like a woman, because she is her, and none other than the director's brother Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin is to blame for this. Olga's answer can be fully regarded as a challenge to the society of that time. A young girl without a shadow of modesty puts on things that are not for her age, behaves like a mature woman and at the same time openly argues her behavior with rather intimate things.
Olga's transformation into a woman took place in the summer at the dacha. When the parents were not at home, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, a friend of their family, came to visit them at the dacha. Despite the fact that he did not find Olya's father, Malyutin nevertheless stayed at a party, explaining that he wanted it to dry out properly after the rain. In relation to Olya, Alexei Mikhailovich behaved like a gentleman, although the difference in their age was huge, he was 56, she was 15. Malyutin confessed his love to Olya, said all kinds of compliments. During tea drinking, Olga felt bad and lay down on the couch, Alexei Mikhailovich began to kiss her hands, talk about how he was in love, and then kissed her on the lips. Well, what happened next happened. We can say that on the part of Olga it was nothing more than an interest in mystery, the desire to become an adult.
After that there was tragedy. Malyutin shot Olga at the train station and explained this by saying that he was in a state of passion, because she showed him her diary, which described everything that happened, and then Olgino's attitude to the situation. She wrote that she was disgusted with her boyfriend.
Malyutin acted so cruelly because his pride was hurt. He was no longer a young officer, and even a bachelor, it was natural for him to amuse himself with the fact that a young girl expressed her sympathy for him. But when he found out that she felt nothing for him but disgust, it was like a bolt from the blue. He himself used to push women away, and then they pushed him away. The society was on the side of Malyutin, he justified himself by the fact that Olga herself allegedly seduced him, promised to become his wife, and then left him. Since Olya had a reputation as a heartbreaker, no one doubted his words.
The story ends with cool lady Olga Meshcherskaya, a dreamy lady living in her fictional ideal world, comes to Olya's grave every holiday and watches her silently for several hours. For the lady Olya is the ideal of femininity and beauty.
Here, “easy breathing” is an easy attitude to life, sensuality and impulsiveness that were inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya.
Bunin's cycle of short stories "Dark Alleys" is the best written by the author in his entire creative career. Despite the simplicity and accessibility of Bunin's style, the analysis of the work requires special knowledge. The work is studied in the 9th grade at the lessons of literature, its detailed analysis will be useful in preparing for the exam, writing creative papers, test items drawing up a story plan. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with our version of the analysis of “Dark Alleys” according to the plan.
Brief analysis
Year of writing– 1938.
History of creation The story was written in exile. Homesickness, bright memories, escape from reality, war and famine - served as an impetus for writing the story.
Subject- love lost, forgotten in the past; broken fates, Theme Of Choice And Its Consequences.
Composition- traditional for a short story, a story. Comprises three parts: the arrival of the general, a meeting with a former lover and a hasty departure.
Genre- short story (novella).
Direction- realism.
History of creation
In "Dark Alleys" the analysis will be incomplete without the history of the creation of the work and knowledge of some details of the writer's biography. In N. Ogaryov's poem "An Ordinary Tale" Ivan Bunin borrowed the image of dark alleys. This metaphor impressed the writer so much that he endowed it with his own special meaning and made it the title of a cycle of stories. All of them are united by one theme - bright, fateful, memorable for a lifetime of love.
The work, included in the cycle of stories of the same name (1937-1945), was written in 1938, when the author was in exile. During the Second World War, hunger and poverty persecuted all the inhabitants of Europe, French city Grasse is no exception. That's where everything is written. the best works Ivan Bunin. Return to memories of great times youth, inspiration and creative work gave strength to the author to survive the separation from his homeland and the horrors of war. These eight years away from home have become the most productive and most important in creative career Bunin. Mature age, wonderful beauty landscapes, rethinking historical events And life values- became the impetus for the creation of the main work word master.
In the most terrible times, the best, subtle, poignant stories about love were written - the cycle "Dark Alleys". In the soul of every person there are places where he looks infrequently, but with special trepidation: the brightest memories, the most “dear” experiences are stored there. It was these “dark alleys” that the author had in mind when giving the title to his book and story of the same name. The story was first published in New York in 1943 in the Novaya Zemlya edition.
Subject
Leading theme- the theme of love. Not only the story “Dark Alleys”, but all the works of the cycle are based on this wonderful feeling. Bunin, summing up his life, was firmly convinced that love is the best thing that can be given to a person in life. It is the essence, the beginning and the meaning of everything: tragic or happy story- there is no difference. If this feeling flashed through a person's life, it means that he did not live it in vain.
Human destinies, the irreversibility of events, the choice that had to be regretted are the leading motives in Bunin's story. The one who loves always wins, he lives and breathes his love, it gives him the strength to move on.
Nikolai Alekseevich, who made his choice in favor of common sense, only at the age of sixty he understands that his love for Nadezhda was the best event in his life. The theme of choice and its consequences is clearly revealed in the plot of the story: a person lives his life with the wrong people, remains unhappy, fate returns the betrayal and deceit that he allowed in his youth in relation to a young girl.
The conclusion is obvious: happiness consists in living in harmony with your feelings, and not in defiance of them. The problem of choice and responsibility for one's own and others' fate is also touched upon in the work. The issue is broad enough, despite the small volume of the story. It is interesting to note the fact that in Bunin's stories, love and marriage are practically incompatible: emotions are swift and vivid, they arise and disappear as quickly as everything in nature. social status has no meaning where love reigns. It equalizes people, makes meaningless ranks and estates - love has its own priorities and laws.
Composition
Compositionally, the story can be divided into three parts.
The first part: the arrival of the hero at the inn (descriptions of nature and the surrounding area predominate here). Meeting with a former lover - the second semantic part - mainly consists of a dialogue. In the last part, the general leaves the inn - running from his own memories and his past.
Main events- the dialogue between Nadezhda and Nikolai Alekseevich is built on two absolutely opposite views on life. She lives with love, finding consolation and joy in it, keeps the memories of her youth. In the mouth of this wise woman the author puts the idea of the story - what the work teaches us: "everything passes, but not everything is forgotten." In this sense, the characters are opposite in their views, old general several times mentions that “everything passes”. This is how his life passed, meaningless, joyless, wasted. Criticism took the cycle of stories enthusiastically, despite its courage and frankness.
Main characters
Genre
Dark alleys belongs to the genre of the story, some researchers of Bunin's work tend to consider them short stories.
The theme of love, unexpected abrupt endings, tragic and dramatic plots - all this is typical for Bunin's works. It should be noted that the lion's share of lyricism in the story - emotions, past, experiences and spiritual quest. General lyrical direction - distinguishing feature Bunin's stories. The author has a unique ability - in small epic genre fit a huge time period, reveal the soul of the character and make the reader think about the most important thing.
The artistic means used by the author are always varied: accurate epithets, vivid metaphors, comparisons and personifications. The technique of parallelism is also close to the author, quite often nature emphasizes state of mind characters.
