One of the most widely known works of I.A. Bunin is undoubtedly the story "Easy breathing". It can be assumed that the impetus for writing it was the writer's trip to Capri, where during a walk the writer saw a tombstone with a medallion in a small cemetery. It depicted a very young and unusually beautiful girl with a happy expression on her face. The tragedy of this terrible inconsistency, apparently, struck the writer so much that he decided to "revive" the heroine on the pages of his prose.
The image of “light breathing”, which organizes the whole story, is taken from an old book that the main character Olya Meshcherskaya reads, retelling to her friend the episode that especially struck her. It says that a woman should be able to be beautiful and the most important thing in her is just “easy breathing”. The heroine joyfully concludes that she has it and that only happiness awaits her in life. However, fate decrees otherwise.
The central character of this story is the schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya. She is famous for her beauty, sweet spontaneity, charming naturalness. “She was not afraid of anything - neither ink stains on her fingers, nor a flushed face, nor disheveled hair, nor a knee that became naked when she fell on the run,” the author of the story writes lovingly about her. In Olya there is even something from Natasha Rostova - the same love of life, the same openness to the whole world. No one danced better than Olya, did not skate, no one was looked after like that. This young creature with bright, lively eyes seemed to be created only for happiness.
But one Cossack officer, who sought closeness with her and was refused, cuts off this young beautiful life with one shot.
This ending is too tragic, and sometimes you want to reproach the writer for such a painful end. But let's think about it: did the shot really kill the heroine? Maybe the officer just pulled the trigger, and the tragedy happened much earlier?
Indeed, reading the story, one wonders why, besides Olya, in this provincial town there is not a single person who is at least somewhat worthy of being depicted with the same admiration. The rest of the characters simply leave us indifferent, like, for example, Meshcherskaya's friend, or they are disgusted. Such is the friend of Olya's father, fifty-six-year-old Malyutin. The whole city seems to be saturated with a suffocating atmosphere of vulgarity, inertness and debauchery. Indeed, how can you explain Olya's behavior? Yes, she is charming, sweet, natural, but when reading the scene where Meshcherskaya admits to the head of the gymnasium that she is already a woman, you involuntarily become embarrassed by such a terrible split personality: on the one hand, Olya is perfection itself, on the other, she is just a girl who knew too early the joy of carnal pleasures. These contradictory images of the same heroine do not give an unambiguous understanding of her character, and sometimes an almost hooligan thought comes to mind: is it Olya Lola, introduced by Bunin into literature long before the author of Lolita?
In my opinion, the motives of the actions of the heroine of Easy Breath are very difficult to assess from a logical point of view. They are irrational, "uterine". Revealing the image of such an ambiguous heroine as Meshcherskaya, one should not be afraid to consider different and even opposite points of view. Above we said that the fate and character of Olya is the product of the inert provincial environment where she grew up. Now, faced with the striking inconsistency of the heroine, one can assume a completely different thing.
Bunin, as you know, although he is considered the last classic of critical realism, still does not fully follow his principles of depicting reality. To say that Meshcherskaya is just a product of the environment that corrupts and kills young innocence means, in my opinion, to consider the story too straightforward, thereby impoverishing the original author's intention. Correct society, and there will be no vices - so they said in the 19th century, but in the 20th they are increasingly not looking for reasons, saying that the world is unknowable. Meshcherskaya is like that, and nothing more. As another argument, we can recall Bunin's stories about love, in particular - where the actions of the characters are also very difficult to motivate. They seem to be controlled by some kind of blind, unreasoning force, spontaneously giving people happiness with grief in half. In general, Bunin is characterized by just such a worldview. Let us recall the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco", in which fate manages the hero's life in the most unexpected way, without giving any explanations. In the light of these considerations, it is possible to make a judgment about Olya that is opposite and to some extent balancing our first conclusions: the writer, in the form of a schoolgirl unlike any other, wanted to show the true nature of a woman who is completely dominated by blind, “uterine” instincts. The conviction that life disposes of us solely at its own discretion is perfectly illustrated by the example of a young girl who knew life too early and died untimely because of that.
Probably, it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question of who Olya really is, what problems she raises in this story, and it is hardly necessary. You can penetrate deeper into the image of the main character, better understand the specifics and problems of the story and try to reconcile the two opposing points of view outlined above, by thinking about the title. “Light breathing”, which “dispersed forever in this cold wind”, is, in my opinion, a figurative expression of what is spiritual, truly human in a person. A charming and at the same time depraved schoolgirl, a stupid and evil officer who killed her, a provincial town with all its deformities - all this will remain on sinful earth, and this spirit that lived in Olya Meshcherskaya will fly up to incarnate again into something and remind us that in addition to our vain and petty thoughts and deeds, there is something else in the world that is beyond our control. This, in my opinion, is the enduring significance of the outstanding story of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.
This story allows us to conclude that it belongs to the novel genre. The author managed to convey in a short form the life story of the schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya, but not only her. According to the definition of the genre, a short story in a unique, small, concrete event should recreate the whole life of the hero, and through it - the life of society. Ivan Alekseevich, through modernism, creates a unique image of a girl who is still dreaming of true love.
Not only Bunin wrote about this feeling ("Easy breathing"). The analysis of love was carried out, perhaps, by all the great poets and writers, very different in character and worldview, therefore, many shades of this feeling are presented in Russian literature. Opening the work of another author, we always find something new. Bunin also has his own. In his works, tragic endings are not uncommon, ending in the death of one of the heroes, but it is more bright than deeply tragic. We come across a similar ending after reading Easy Breath.
First impression
At first glance, the events seem messy. The girl plays love with an ugly officer, far from the circle to which the heroine belonged. In the story, the author uses the so-called method of "proof from the return", because even with such vulgar external events, love remains something untouched and bright, does not touch everyday dirt. Arriving at Olya's grave, the class teacher asks herself how to combine all this with a clear look at "that terrible thing" that is now associated with the name of the schoolgirl. This question does not require an answer, which is present in the entire text of the work. They are permeated through Bunin's story "Easy breathing".
The character of the main character
Olya Meshcherskaya seems to be the embodiment of youth, thirsty for love, a lively and dreamy heroine. Her image, contrary to the laws of public morality, captivates almost everyone, even the lower grades. And even the guardian of morals, teacher Olya, who condemned her for early growing up, after the death of the heroine comes to the cemetery to her grave every week, constantly thinks about her and at the same time even feels "like all people devoted to a dream", happy.
The peculiarity of the character of the main character of the story is that she longs for happiness and can find it even in such an ugly reality in which she had to find herself. Bunin uses "light breathing" as a metaphor for naturalness, vital energy. the so-called "lightness of breath" is invariably present in Olya, surrounding her with a special halo. People feel this and therefore are drawn to the girl, while not even being able to explain why. She infects everyone with her joy.
contrasts
Bunin's work "Light Breath" is built on contrasts. From the very first lines, a double feeling arises: a deserted, sad cemetery, a cold wind, a gray April day. And against this background - a portrait of a schoolgirl with lively, joyful eyes - a photograph on the cross. Olya's whole life is also built on contrast. Cloudless childhood is contrasted with the tragic events that took place in the last year of the life of the heroine of the story "Light Breath". Ivan Bunin often emphasizes the contrast, the gap between the real and the apparent, the internal state and the outside world.
Storyline
The plot of the work is quite simple. The happy young schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya first becomes the prey of her father's friend, an elderly voluptuary, after which she becomes a living target for the aforementioned officer. Her death inspires a classy lady - a lonely woman - to "serve" her memory. However, the apparent simplicity of this plot is violated by a striking contrast: a heavy cross and lively, joyful eyes, which involuntarily makes the reader's heart shrink. The simplicity of the plot turned out to be deceptive, since the story "Light Breath" (Ivan Bunin) is not only about the fate of a girl, but also about the unfortunate fate of a classy lady who is used to living someone else's life. Olya's relationship with the officer is also interesting.
Relationship with an officer
The already mentioned officer, according to the plot of the story, kills Olya Meshcherskaya, involuntarily misled by her game. He did this because he was close to her, believed that she loved him, and could not survive the destruction of this illusion. Not every person can evoke such a strong passion in another. This speaks of Olya's bright personality, says Bunin ("Easy Breath"). The act of the main character was cruel, but, as you might guess, having a special character, she intoxicated the officer unintentionally. Olya Meshcherskaya was looking for a dream in a relationship with him, but she could not find it.
Is Olya to blame?
Ivan Alekseevich believed that birth is not the beginning, and therefore death is not the end of the existence of the soul, the symbol of which is the definition used by Bunin - "light breathing". Its analysis in the text of the work allows us to conclude that this concept is souls. She does not disappear without a trace after death, but returns to the source. About this, and not only about the fate of Olya, the work "Light Breath".
It is not by chance that Ivan Bunin drags out the explanation of the causes of the death of the heroine. The question arises: "Maybe she is to blame for what happened?" After all, she is frivolous, flirting now with the high school student Shenshin, then, albeit unconsciously, with her father's friend Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduced her, then for some reason promises the officer to marry him. Why did she need all this? Bunin ("Easy breathing") analyzes the motives of the heroine's actions. Gradually it becomes clear that Olya is beautiful, like an element. And just as immoral. She strives in everything to reach the depth, to the limit, to the innermost essence, and the opinion of others is not interested in the heroine of the work "Easy Breath". Ivan Bunin wanted to tell us that in the actions of the schoolgirl there is neither a sense of revenge, nor a meaningful vice, nor firmness of decisions, nor the pain of remorse. It turns out that the feeling of fullness of life can be fatal. Tragic (like a classy lady) even unconscious longing for her. Therefore, every step, every detail of Olya's life threatens with disaster: prank and curiosity can lead to serious consequences, to violence, and a frivolous game with other people's feelings can lead to murder. Bunin leads us to such a philosophical thought.
"Light breath" of life
The essence of the heroine is that she lives, and not just plays a role in the play. This is also her fault. To be alive without observing the rules of the game means to be doomed. The environment in which Meshcherskaya exists is completely devoid of a holistic, organic sense of beauty. Life here is subject to strict rules, the violation of which leads to inevitable retribution. Therefore, the fate of Olya turns out to be tragic. Her death is natural, Bunin believes. "Easy breathing", however, did not die with the heroine, but dissolved in the air, filling it with itself. In the finale, the thought of the immortality of the soul sounds like this.
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. He pays great attention 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, stands out among her classmates with a cheerful disposition and a clear love of 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 naturally pleasant 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 the cool lady Olga Meshcherskaya, a dreamy lady living in her fictional ideal world, coming to Olya's grave every holiday and silently watching her 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.
After studying the analysis of the story "Light Breath" you will undoubtedly be interested in other works related to Ivan Alekseevich Bunin:
- "Sunstroke", analysis of Bunin's story
- "Cuckoo", a summary of Bunin's work
The story "Light Breath", written in 1916, is deservedly considered one of the pearls of Bunin's prose - the image of the heroine is so concisely and vividly captured in it, the feeling of beauty is so reverently conveyed. What is “light breathing”, why has this phrase become a common noun for a long time to denote human talent - the talent to live? To understand this, let's analyze the story "Easy breathing".
Bunin's narrative builds on contrasts. Already from the first lines, the reader has some kind of dual feeling: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, a cold wind that “rings and rings a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross.” Here is the beginning of the story: “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay embankment, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth ... A rather large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the very cross, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes " . Olya Meshcherskaya's whole life is described by the principle of contrast: a cloudless childhood and adolescence are contrasted with the tragic events of Olya's last year. The author everywhere emphasizes the gap between the apparent and real, external and internal state of the heroine. The plot of the story is extremely simple. The young, recklessly happy beauty high school student Olya Meshcherskaya becomes first the prey of an elderly voluptuary, and then a living target for the Cossack officer deceived by her. The tragic death of Meshcherskaya inspires a frenzied, withering "service" to her memory a lonely little woman - a classy lady. The seeming simplicity of the plot of the story is violated by the opposition: a heavy cross and joyful, lively eyes, which makes the reader's heart shrink anxiously. It will haunt us throughout the story of the short life of Olya Meshcherskaya. The simplicity of the plot is deceptive: after all, this is a story not only about the fate of a young girl, but also about the bleak fate of a classy lady who is used to living someone else's life, shining with reflected light - the light of Olya Meshcherskaya's "living eyes".
Bunin believed that the birth of a person is not his beginning, which means that death is not the end of the existence of his soul. The soul - its symbol and is "light breathing" - does not disappear forever. She is the best, real part of life. The heroine of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya, became the embodiment of this life. The girl is so natural that even the outward manifestations of her existence cause rejection by some and admiration by others: “But she was not afraid of anything - no ink spots on her fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair, no knee that got naked when she fell on the run. Without any of her worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that distinguished her so much in the last two years from the whole gymnasium came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear gleam in her eyes ... ”At first glance, we have before us an ordinary schoolgirl - a beautiful, prosperous and a little windy girl, the daughter of wealthy parents, who expects a brilliant party.
But our attention is constantly and persistently directed to some hidden springs of Olya's life. To do this, the author drags out the explanation of the reasons for the death of the heroine, as if generated by the very logic of the girl's behavior. Maybe she herself is to blame? After all, she flirts with high school student Shenshin, flirts, albeit unconsciously, with Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduces her, for some reason promises a Cossack officer to marry him. For what? Why does she need all this? And gradually we understand that Olya Meshcherskaya is beautiful, as the elements are beautiful. And just as immoral as she is. She wants to reach the limit in everything, to the depth, to the innermost essence, regardless of the opinions of others. In Olya's actions there is no meaningful vice, no sense of revenge, no pain of repentance, no firmness of decisions. It turns out that a wonderful feeling of fullness of life can be fatal. Even the unconscious longing for her (like a classy lady) is tragic. Therefore, every detail, every step of Olya's life threatens with disaster: curiosity and prank can lead to violence, a frivolous game with other people's feelings - to murder. Olya Meshcherskaya lives, and does not play the role of a living being. This is her essence. This is her fault. To be maximally alive without observing the rules of the game means to be maximally doomed. After all, the environment in which Meshcherskaya was destined to appear is completely devoid of an organic, integral sense of beauty. Here, life is subject to strict rules, for the violation of which you have to pay. Olya, accustomed not only to teasing fate, but simply to bravely go towards new sensations and impressions in their entirety, did not have a chance to meet a person who would appreciate not only her bodily beauty, but also spiritual generosity and brightness. After all, Olya really had a “light breath” - a thirst for some special, unique fate, worthy only of the elect. The teacher, unable to save her student, recalls her words, accidentally overheard during the break. Among the detailed description of female beauty and the semi-childish “fitting” of this description to her own appearance, the phrase about “easy breathing” sounds so unexpectedly, understood by the girl literally: “... But do you know the main thing? - easy breath! But I have it - you listen to me sigh ... ”The author leaves the world not the beauty of the girl, not her experience, but only this never-opened opportunity. She, according to Bunin, cannot completely disappear, just as the craving for beauty, fortunately, for perfection cannot disappear: “Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”
"Easy breathing" in Bunin's view is the ability to enjoy life, to accept it as a bright gift. Olya Meshcherskaya captivated those around her with her generous and fierce love of life, but in the meager world of a small town, unfortunately for her, there was no person who could protect her “light breath” from the “cold spring wind”.
The first impression of the story "Easy Breath" brought me into a state of some kind of incomprehensible feeling, bewilderment, a feeling of unfinished events, as if some secret of the author had eluded me. I wanted to re-read it again, go deeper, understand the secret meaning of the work and trace the techniques used by I. Bunin to achieve the effect of mystery. To do this, you need to analyze the story.
Let's start with the history of creation. I. Bunin's story is written on the eve of the First World War. During this period, the situation in the country is quite tense. And the questions of "life", "death" and "meaning of life" were widely discussed in journalism. The old theories are being replaced by new ones. The most popular was the theory of "living life", which was preached by the famous realist writer V. Veresaev. In his opinion, to live a “living life” means to follow nature, to be imbued with a sense of the inexhaustible intrinsic value of life. Its meaning is in itself, it in itself is of the greatest value, regardless of its content. These theories and disputes are reflected in some of Bunin's stories, including the story "Light Breath".
Bunin writes about the idea as follows: “One winter I wandered into a small cemetery in Capri and came across a grave cross with a photographic portrait on a convex porcelain medallion of some little girl with unusually lively and joyful eyes. I immediately made this girl in my mind Russian, Olya Meshcherskaya, and, dipping a pen in an inkwell, began to invent a story with that delightful speed that happened in some of the happiest moments of my writing.
The plot itself (storyline) is very trivial. A provincial schoolgirl, the story of her fall into sin, indicated by just one phrase addressed to the head of the gymnasium, and a few excerpts from the diary, dissolute, in fact, and such a short life, and a nightmarish ending - the murder of a girl by a Cossack officer, whose heart was broken by Olya. It is noteworthy that this entire storyline, despite all the tragedy, is presented in a calm tone, as if by the way. And the feeling of tragedy does not remain at all in the finale.
Bunin called his story "Easy breathing". The title sets you up for the perception of something light, bright, joyful. How can breathing be light? After all, this is something initially light, familiar. Breathing is given by nature, it is natural for every person and is not a difficult job. However, the author wanted to emphasize that light breathing is something elusive and very short-lived.
In the story, “easy breathing” turns from an ordinary detail of a portrait into a “leitmotif, a “musical” key, the main lyrical theme, which is reinforced by the use of other words with the root “dykh-”: “the field air is blowing freshly”, “a study that breathed so well on frosty days with the warmth of a brilliant Dutch woman", "took only one deep breath". This motif from the first lines bursts into the story with a "cold wind" and "rings a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross", not at all corresponding to the mood of the initial chord of the story: "light breathing" and a cemetery.
Bunin compares the main character - Olya Meshcherskaya - with "easy breathing", because Olya lived her whole short but bright life as if in one breath - "light breathing". This is evidenced by the following lines: "without any worries and efforts somehow imperceptibly came to her everything that so distinguished her from the whole gymnasium - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear sparkle in her eyes, "" she began to flourish, develop by leaps and bounds," "she rushed like a whirlwind around the assembly hall from chasing after her and blissfully squealing first-graders", "and there was already talk that she was windy" - nature gave her what many would like to have.
The author even gives the name of his heroine harmonious and light. Olya Meshcherskaya ... Let's remember Paustovsky. Meshchery is denseness, untouchedness. When applied to the main character, this means the "denseness" of consciousness, its underdevelopment and at the same time originality. Phonosemantic assessment of the name shows that the image of the word gives the impression of something good, beautiful, simple, safe, kind, strong, bright. Against her background, death seems absurd and does not look sinister. It is no coincidence that I. Bunin begins the story with a message about the death of Olya, this deprives this fact of the murder of emotional coloring. So the reader is puzzled not by the result of life, but by the dynamics of life itself, Olya's story.
The image of the boss is opposed to the image of Olya Meshcherskaya. Unlike the boss, the girl cares little about how others perceive her. In addition, the opposition lies in the appearance of the heroines, hairstyles are compared. Olya Meshcherskaya draws attention to the "smooth parting in milky, neatly ruffled hair", which, apparently, takes a lot of time to create. And Olya, having learned that her boss is calling her, preens in just a few seconds: “She stopped with a run, took only one deep breath, straightened her hair with a quick and already familiar female movement.” And this is already familiar to her. The boss is annoyed by Olya's frivolous behavior, her simple and cheerful answers.
The image of a cool lady is presented to the reader at the end of the story. The author pays much attention to the image of a classy lady. She doesn't have a name. The reader meets "a little woman in mourning, in black kid gloves, with an ebony umbrella" heading towards the cemetery. The author's choice of details-symbols said everything about this woman. She goes to Olya's grave, does not take her eyes off the oak cross, which from the very beginning symbolizes the common life cross. The little woman does not just look at the cross, she carries the cross of life. She cannot be happy. Her mourning is not so much mourning for Olya, but evidence that the life of a classy lady is an endless mourning.
We learn about Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin from the diary of Olya Meshcherskaya: "he is fifty-six years old, but he is still very handsome and always well dressed." Malyutin, who is Olya's grandfather, enters into a sexual relationship with the child, thereby violating social norms. Malyutin committed a crime, but for the hero this is a deliberate overstepping of boundaries, which he motivates with literary allusions and flirtations. I would like to ask the question: what was this man thinking about, how could he afford to take such a rash, mean step? After all, he was a friend and neighbor of the father of this young girl, which means that he knew Olya for a long time and she was almost like his own. The motivation of his behavior is revealed through the portrait. In her diary, Olya several times emphasizes the youthfulness (pseudo-youth) of the hero, and this youthfulness is depicted on the rise: first Olya notes that Malyutin is “still very handsome”, and then describes the “very young” black eyes. Olya also notes "... was He was very lively and behaved like a gentleman with me, he joked a lot that he had been in love with me for a long time. These actions of Malyutin do not at all correlate with his old age! The name and patronymic of the hero significantly coincides with the name and patronymic of the sovereign ancestor of that very “young tsar”, whose portrait the girl “really liked”; and his last name - Malyutin - provokes the reader to recall the favorite of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Malyuta Skuratov.
The image of the schoolboy Shenshin is mentioned only once in the story “...her gymnasium fame has imperceptibly strengthened, and rumors have already begun that she is windy, that she cannot live without admirers, that the schoolboy Shenshin is madly in love with her, that as if she were his loves, but is so changeable in dealing with him that he attempted suicide...” Shenshin expected constancy from Olya and could not forgive her changeable nature. For I.A. Bunin, this image is important. Many details of Shenshin's image remain unknown to the reader, for example, the author does not give accurate information about the hero's suicide, but relies on rumors that circulate in the gymnasium.
I.A. Bunin describes the events in the story "Light Breath" through the eyes of several participants at once. On five pages, he covers the life of Olya Meshcherskaya from different points of view.
The short story by I.A. Bunin "Easy Breath" has long been an example of an unusual, "inverted" construction of the composition. As you know, the first to note this feature and tried to explain it back in the 20s. 20th century L.S. Vygotsky in one of the chapters of his book "The Psychology of Art"
The composition of the work has a ring structure, i.e. is a story within a story. The "frame" is the description of the cemetery and one of the graves (beginning) and the woman who visits this grave, reflecting on the fate of the girl buried here (end). The fate of the girl is at the center of the story. The story about her also has a non-standard composition: the plot of the story, the reasons for the internal drama of Olya Meshcherskaya become clear after the tragic death of the girl.
The plot of the story, moved to the end, illuminates the whole story in a new way, which makes it possible to feel it especially sharply. Only at the end of the story is it revealed that Olya Meshcherskaya is not empty and dissolute, but unhappy and cruel, primarily towards herself. And death, perhaps, is exactly what she was striving for.
A feature of the composition of "Light Breath" is its mismatch with the disposition (the chronological order of events). If you highlight the semantic parts of the text, it turns out that each part breaks off at the moment of the highest emotional stress. At the beginning of the work, it should be noted the interweaving of contrasting motifs of life and death. The description of the city cemetery, the monotonous ringing of a porcelain wreath create a sad mood. Against this background, the portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes is especially expressive. The next sentence (This is Olya Meshcherskaya) is separated into a separate paragraph. In Bunin's story, the mentioned name does not yet mean anything, but we are already involved in the action. Many questions arise: "Who is this girl? What is the cause of her death?" The author deliberately hesitates to answer, maintaining the intensity of perception.
The main compositional technique that Bunin uses is antithesis, that is, opposition. The author uses it from the very first lines: the theme of life and death prevails at the beginning of the story. Bunin begins with a description of the cross: "heavy, strong," a symbol of death. He contrasts clear, sunny April days with gray days (gloomy, inanimate). Instead of fresh flowers, there is a porcelain wreath on the grave, personifying lifelessness, death. All this gloomy description is contradicted by the image of Olya Meshcherskaya: "A rather large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the very cross, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes. This is Olya Meshcherskaya." Bunin does not say directly that this is the grave of Olya Meshcherskaya, as if he does not want to associate this cheerful and cheerful girl with the cemetery, with death.
When describing the life of a girl in a gymnasium, the author again turns to the antithesis: "as a girl, she did not stand out in the crowd of brown gymnasium dresses," but unlike her peers, who were very careful about their appearance and face, she "was not afraid of anything - not ink spots on the fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair, no bloated knee when falling on the run. Bunin constantly emphasizes that Olya Meshcherskaya was the best in everything: in skating, in dancing, she was looked after like no other schoolgirl. No one else was loved by the lower classes as much as her! Olya's life - cheerful, without worries, constantly on the move - does not correspond in any way with the image of the cemetery. She swept through this life like a whirlwind, a bright star. He even contrasts Malyutin and the Cossack officer. Malyutin is a handsome elderly man, and the Cossack officer does not stand out in any way.
Bunin constantly emphasizes her eyes: "clear sparkle of eyes", "shining eyes". Light is a symbol of life. He introduces a rhetorical question: "Is it possible that under him is the one whose eyes shine so immortally from this convex porcelain medallion on the cross, and how to combine with this pure look that terrible thing that is now connected with the name of Olya Meshcherskaya?" Even after death, the eyes shine "immortally".
The author distracts the reader from seemingly significant events, clutters them up with words. For example, the word "shot" is extinguished by the author among the description of an officer and a platform, a crowd of people, a train that has just arrived. Thus, our attention is persistently directed to some secret springs of Olya's life.
The motive of a woman runs like a red thread through the entire story of I. A. Bunin.
Let us first dwell on its verbal incarnations. The words woman and female are mentioned 7 times in the story. For the first time this word is heard in a conversation between Olya Meshcherskaya and the school principal. "It's a woman's hairstyle!" - the boss says reproachfully. "... I am a woman," Olya answers her. Then this word is mentioned in Olya's diary: "Today I have become a woman!" After Olya's death, a "little woman" comes to her grave - a cool lady (the word "woman" is mentioned 3 times ). And, finally, at the end of the story, the words of Olya herself are again quoted about "what beauty a woman should have." Following the use of this motive in the story, we can conclude that Olya Meshcherskaya in her actions is guided by the desire to become a woman, but the transformation into a woman turns out to be completely different from what the girl imagined. The author reveals to us not only the beauty of the girl, of course, not her experience, but only these undeveloped wonderful opportunities. They, according to the author, cannot disappear, just as the craving for beauty, fortunately, for perfection, never disappears.
Beauty and death, love and separation - the eternal themes that have received such a touching and enlightened embodiment in the work of I. A. Bunin, excite us today:
And it comes to me
The light of your smile
Not a plate, not a crucifix
Before me so far -
Institute dress
And shining eyes.
©2015-2019 site
All rights belong to their authors. This site does not claim authorship, but provides free use.
Page creation date: 2018-01-30
