In 1937, Ivan Bunin began work on his best book. For the first time the collection "Dark Alleys" was published after the end of the Second World War. This book is a collection of short tragic love stories. One of Bunin's most famous stories is Clean Monday. Analysis and summary of the work are presented in today's article.
"Dark alleys"
The analysis of Bunin's "Clean Monday" should begin with a brief history of the creation of the work. This is one of the last stories included in the Dark Alleys collection. Bunin completed work on the work Clean Monday on May 12, 1944. The story was first published in New York.
Probably, the writer was pleased with this essay. Indeed, in his diary, Bunin wrote: “I thank God for the opportunity to create Clean Monday.”
Bunin in each of his works included in the collection "Dark Alleys" reveals to the reader the tragedy and catastrophic nature of love. This feeling is beyond human control. It suddenly comes into his life, gives fleeting happiness, and then certainly causes unbearable pain.
The narration in the story "Clean Monday" by Bunin is in the first person. The author does not name his characters. Love breaks out between the two young people. They are both beautiful, wealthy, healthy and seemingly full of energy. But something is missing in their relationship.
They go to restaurants, concerts, theaters. Discuss books, performances. True, the girl often shows indifference, even hostility. “You don’t like everything,” the main character once says, but he doesn’t attach any importance to his words. A passionate romance is followed by a sudden parting - sudden for a young man, not for her. The ending is typical of Bunin's style. What caused the breakup between the lovers?
On the eve of the Orthodox holiday
The story describes their first meeting, but the story begins with events that take place some time after they met. The girl attends courses, reads a lot, otherwise leads an idle lifestyle. And it seems to be quite satisfied with everything. But this is only at first glance. He is so absorbed in his feeling, his love for her, that he does not even suspect the other side of her soul.
It is worth paying attention to the title of the story - "Clean Monday". The meaning of Bunin's story is quite deep. On the eve of the holy day, for the first time, a conversation about religiosity takes place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not suspect that the girl was attracted by everything connected with the church. In his absence, she visits Moscow monasteries, moreover, she is thinking about monasticism.
Clean Monday is the beginning of Lent. On this day, cleansing rites are held, the transition from fast food to Lenten restrictions.
Parting
One day they go to the Novodevichy Convent. By the way, this is a rather unusual route for him. Previously, they spent time exclusively in entertainment establishments. A visit to a monastery is, of course, the idea of the protagonist's beloved.
The next day, for the first time, intimacy occurs between them. And then the girl leaves for Tver, from there she sends a letter to her lover. In this message, she asks not to wait for her. She became a novice of one of the Tver monasteries, and perhaps decides to be tonsured. He will never see her again.
After he received the last letter from his beloved, the hero began to drink, sink, then nevertheless came to his senses. Once, after a long time, I saw a nun in a Moscow church, whom I recognized as my former lover. Perhaps the image of his beloved was too firmly planted in his mind, and it was not her at all? He didn't say anything to her. He turned and walked out of the temple gate. This is the summary of Bunin's Clean Monday.
Love and tragedy
The heroes of Bunin do not find happiness. In "Clean Monday", as in other works of the Russian classic, we are talking about love, which brings only bitterness and disappointment. What is the tragedy of the heroes of this story?
Probably because, being close, they did not know each other at all. Each person is a whole universe. And sometimes even relatives cannot unravel his inner world. About loneliness among people, about love, which is impossible without complete mutual understanding, Bunin said in Clean Monday. An analysis of a work of art cannot be done without characterizing the main characters. What do we know about the girl who, living in abundance and being loved, went to the monastery?
main character
When analyzing Bunin's "Clean Monday", it is worth paying attention to the portrait of a nameless girl, which the author creates at the beginning of the work. She led an idle life. She read a lot, studied music, liked to visit restaurants. But all this she did somehow indifferently, without much interest.
She is educated, well-read, enjoys immersing herself in the world of luxurious social life. She likes good cuisine, and she wonders, "how can people not be bored every day for lunch and dinner"? She calls acting skits vulgar, while the relationship with her lover ends with a visit to the theater. Bunin's heroine cannot understand what his purpose in this life is. She is not one of those who have enough to live in luxury, talk about literature and art.
The inner world of the main character is very rich. She is constantly thinking, is in a spiritual search. The girl is attracted by the surrounding reality, but at the same time she is frightened. Love becomes not a salvation for her, but a problem that terribly burdens, forces her to make the only right sudden decision.
The main character refuses worldly pleasures, and this shows her strong nature. "Clean Monday" is not the only story from the collection "Dark Alleys", in which the author paid a lot of attention to the female image.
Bunin brought to the fore the experiences of the hero. At the same time, he showed a rather controversial female character. The heroine is satisfied with the lifestyle she leads, but all sorts of details, little things, depress her. Finally, she decides to enter a convent, thereby destroying the life of the man who loves her. True, she causes suffering to herself. Indeed, in the letter that the girl sends to her lover there are the words: “May God give me the strength not to answer you.”
Main character
Little is known about how the further fate of the young man developed. He was very upset by the separation from his beloved. Disappeared in the dirtiest taverns, drank and went down. But nevertheless he came to his senses, returned to his former way of life. It can be assumed that the pain that this strange, extraordinary and somewhat exalted girl inflicted on him will never subside.
In order to find out who the writer was during his lifetime, one should only read his books. But is Ivan Bunin's biography really so tragic? Was there true love in his life?
Ivan Bunin
The first wife of the writer, Anna Tsakni, was the daughter of an Odessa Greek, editor of a popular magazine at that time. They got married in 1898. Soon a son was born who did not live even five years. The child died of meningitis. Bunin experienced the death of his son very hard. Relations between the spouses went wrong, but the wife did not give him a divorce for a long time. Even after he connected his life with Vera Muromtseva.
The writer's second wife became his "patient shadow". Muromtseva replaced his secretary, mother, friend. She did not leave him even when he began an affair with Galina Kuznetsova. Nevertheless, it was Galina Muromtseva who was next to the writer in the last days of his life. The creator of "Dark Alleys" was not deprived of love.
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Among all the stories of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, “Clean Monday” is distinguished by its small volume, in which it was possible to contain much more meaning. This story was included in the cycle "Dark Alleys", in which, according to the writer himself, he managed to write 37 times about the same thing - about love. Ivan Alekseevich thanked God for giving him strength and the opportunity to write this story, which he considered the best of his works.
As you know, Clean Monday is the first day of Lent, which comes after Maslenitsa and Forgiveness Sunday. This is the day when the soul must repent of its sins and be cleansed. The title of the story fully justifies its content: the young lover of the protagonist, a girl who is looking for herself in this life, refuses his love and goes to a monastery.
History of the creation of the story
I. A. Bunin wrote his story "Clean Monday" while in French immigration. He began work on the story in 1937. "Clean Monday" was published in 1945 in the "New Journal" in New York. In 1944, while working on the story, Bunin made the following entry:
“Hour of the night. I got up from the table - it remains to finish a few pages of Clean Monday. Turned off the light, opened the window to ventilate the room - not the slightest movement of air; full moon, the whole valley in the thinnest fog. Far on the horizon is the gentle pink gleam of the sea, silence, the soft freshness of young tree greenery, in some places the clicking of the first nightingales ... Lord, prolong my strength for my lonely, poor life in this beauty and work!
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the summary of the work of Ivan Bunin, where the author recalls his past
In a letter to P. L. Vyacheslavov, Bunin's wife V. N. Muromtseva-Bunina said that Ivan Alekseevich considers "Clean Monday" the best of all that he once wrote. The writer himself did not hide this fact.
Plot
The story is very small, it covers only a small part of the life of the characters. The main character takes care of an unusual girl. Her name is not mentioned, but the author gives an exhaustive description of both her appearance and her mental organization. The image of a young man is conveyed through the prism of their relationship. He wants love, he wants his beloved bodily, he is attracted by her beauty. However, he does not understand her soul at all, which is torn between sin and purification.
Their relationship is doomed to failure: his lover immediately warns him that she is not fit for a wife. Despite this, he does not lose hope and continues to care for her.
The story ends with the fact that after the final bodily rapprochement between them, the girl renounces the love of the young man in favor of spiritual purification and goes to the monastery.
For the main character, service to God becomes the path of purification, while the hero also grows spiritually, having experienced all the bitterness of an unexpected separation from his beloved.
In Clean Monday there is a powerful game of contrasts: bright colors - strict colors; restaurants, taverns, theaters - a cemetery, a monastery, a church; bodily closeness - tonsure. Even the beauty of the girl exudes some kind of diabolical power: she has black hair, swarthy skin, dark eyes and a mysterious soul.
Hero Prototypes
The researchers are sure that Ivan Alekseevich Bunin himself became the prototype of the main character. As for his beloved, most likely, her image is based on Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko, the woman who became Bunin's first love.
Varvara Vladimirovna was a very beautiful and educated woman, she completed a full seven-year course at the gymnasium in Yelets with a gold medal. They met Bunin in 1889, when Varvara worked as a proofreader in the Oryol Bulletin.
It was Varvara who first confessed her love to Bunin. However, she could not fully understand her feelings, constantly reproached Ivan Alekseevich for not loving her to the fullest.
In the end, in November 1894, Varvara Vladimirovna left Bunin, leaving him only a short note to say goodbye. Soon she married his best friend actor Arseny Bibikov. Varvara Vladimirovna's life was short and not too happy: she and her husband lost their 13-year-old daughter, who died of tuberculosis. In 1918, Bunin's first lover herself died from this dangerous disease. Varvara Vladimirovna became the prototype of the female images of many of Bunin's works, such as Mitina's Love and Arseniev's Life.
The main idea of the story
“Clean Monday” by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is not only a story about the tragic love of two completely different people, it is a story about the choice that every person has to make.
This is a choice between good and evil, sin and purification, idleness and modesty, earthly love and love for God.
Some researchers are sure that in the image of Bunin's beloved, not just an earthly girl appears, but all of Russia, which the writer calls on to embark on the path of purification, draw closer to God and choose a simple but meaningful life instead of idleness and fun.
The story "Clean Monday" is included in the collection "Dark Alleys", written in France in 1937-1944. Ivan Bunin emphasized that the content of the works is tragic, dedicated to the gloomy, painful and sad "alleys of love".
Bunin considered "Clean Monday" his best story and once wrote: "I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to write "Clean Monday". To get to know the work better, let's do a brief analysis of the story "Clean Monday". We also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the biography of Ivan Bunin and read the summary of Clean Monday.
The essence of the story "Clean Monday" briefly
Clean Monday is the name of the first day of Great Lent, which follows immediately after Shrovetide and Forgiveness Sunday. This day is the beginning of spiritual and physical purification, preparation for the sacraments of the coming Easter days.
The main event that changed the lives of both heroes takes place on Pure Monday. The girl makes a decision, to which she has been going for a long time: she leaves for the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and chooses the path of a novice. Clean Monday for her is the border between life in the capital, going to luxurious restaurants, entertainment, love for a man and a new destiny associated with spiritual service.
According to many researchers, and the analysis of the story "Clean Monday" confirms this, the heroine of the story personifies Russia, a complex combination of Orthodox traditions, ancient rituals, and modern culture in it. Then Pure Monday is also a symbol of the cleansing border between the festive, rampant pre-war capital life and deep, ancient, Orthodox Russia, a symbol of choosing a path on the eve of future events.
Images of the hero and heroine in the analysis of the story "Clean Monday"
The story of Ivan Bunin is a piercing and sad love story of two people whose names are not even named. He and she seem to be the perfect couple. Both are young, beautiful, in love, but for some reason happiness did not take place. From the very beginning, Bunin makes us understand that for all the external similarities, the characters are very different, their inner world is filled with different interests and dreams.
A young man from the Penza province, "indecently handsome", rich, with a light and lively character, constantly ready "for a happy smile, for a good joke." The girl is beautiful with some Indian, Persian beauty, silent, thoughtful. Beloved more than once uses the words “mysteriousness”, “mysteriousness” in relation to her. Let's continue the analysis of the story "Clean Monday".
When analyzing the images of the characters, it is important to consider what books and writers they like. The narrator recalls that he brought his beloved books by fashionable contemporary writers of a decadent orientation: Huysmans, Hoffmannsthal, Schnitzler, Andrey Bely. The girl looked through them, and about the "Fiery Angel" Bryusova said that such a pompous book is "ashamed to read." She herself loved ancient Russian chronicles and remembered many by heart, admired the story of Peter and Fevronia of Murom, and over her sofa hung a portrait of barefoot Tolstoy. After reading the summary of Clean Monday, you can pay attention to some more important details.
What else does Bunin reveal to us in the image of the heroes of the story
The heroes attended Andrei Bely's lectures together, listened to Chaliapin's speeches in trendy restaurants, went to taverns and watched the rollicking singing of gypsies. But the girl attracted her lover to other places: to look for Griboedov's house on Ordynka, to visit the cemetery at the grave of Chekhov and Ertel. The hero is surprised to learn that she visits the schismatic cemetery, goes to the Kremlin cathedrals in the morning, where she listens to how “they sing, calling to each other, then one choir, then another, and all in unison, and not by notes, but by” hooks." But telling the story, the heroine feels how far her lover is from this: “No, you don’t understand this!”
An analysis of the story “Clean Monday” shows how complex the girl’s nature is: she combines unusual beauty, an outwardly simple life full of entertainment, and a deep mind, interest in the spiritual foundations of real, ancient, pre-Petrine Rus'. For Bunin, who lives in exile, this heroine personified Russia itself, the spiritual traditions of Orthodoxy were perceived as the basis of national identity.
Having illuminated the life of the hero for a moment, giving him love, the girl leaves forever for the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. At the end of the story, a young man, two years after separation, enters the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and in the twilight one of the nuns, as if sensing his presence, fixes her dark eyes into the darkness, as if she sees her lover.
After reading the analysis of the story "Clean Monday", you better understand what Ivan Bunin's intention is - what exactly the author wanted to tell the readers. Go to the section of our site - Blog, there you will find many articles on similar topics. Take time to also read the summary of the story "Clean Monday." Read
Theme and idea, the sharpness of the conflict and the artistic features of the play
A. P. Chekhov"The Cherry Orchard".
RESPONSE PLAN
1. Origins of the play.
2. Genre features of the play.
4. Comedy conflict and its features.
5. The main images of comedy.
6. The main idea of the play.
7. The symbolic sound of the play's title.
1. A.P. Chekhov finished his play The Cherry Orchard in 1903, when the new century was knocking at the door. There was a reassessment of centuries of established values. The nobility was ruined and stratified. It was a class doomed to perish. It was replaced by a mighty force - the bourgeoisie. The dying of the nobility as a class and the arrival of the capitalists - this is the basis of the play. Chekhov understands that the new masters of life will not last long as a class, as another, young force is growing up that will build a new life in Russia.
2. The play "The Cherry Orchard" is imbued with a bright, lyrical mood. The author himself emphasized that "The Cherry Orchard" is a comedy, as he managed to combine a dramatic, sometimes tragic beginning with a comic one.
3. The main event of the play is the purchase of a cherry orchard. All the problems, experiences of the characters are built around this. All thoughts, memories are connected with him. It is the cherry orchard that is the central image of the play.
4. Truly depicting life, the writer tells about the fate of three generations, three social strata of society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie and the progressive intelligentsia. A distinctive feature of the plot is the absence of a pronounced conflict. All events take place in the same estate with permanent characters. The external conflict in the play is replaced by the drama of the characters' experiences.
5. The old world of serf Russia is personified by the images of Gaev and Ranevskaya, Vari and Firs. The world of today, the world of the business bourgeoisie, is represented by Lopakhin, the world of the undecided tendencies of the future is represented by Anya and Petya Trofimov.
6. The expectation of change is the main leitmotif of the play. All the heroes of The Cherry Orchard are oppressed by the temporality of everything that exists, the frailty of being. In their life, as in the life of contemporary Russia, “the thread connecting the days has broken”, the old has been destroyed, but the new has not yet been built, and it is not known what this new will be like. All of them unconsciously cling to the past, not realizing that it no longer exists.
Hence the feeling of loneliness in this world, the awkwardness of being. Lonely and unhappy in this life are not only Ranevskaya, Gaev, Lopakhin, but also Charlotte, Epikhodov. All the heroes of the play are closed in themselves, they are so absorbed in their problems that they do not hear, do not notice others. Uncertainty and anxiety about the future still gives rise to hope for something better in their hearts. But what is the best future? Chekhov leaves this question open... Petya Trofimov looks at life exclusively from a social point of view. There is a lot of justice in his speeches, but they do not have a concrete idea of resolving eternal issues. He has little understanding of real life. Therefore, Chekhov gives us this image in contradiction: on the one hand, he is an accuser, and on the other, he is a “stupid”, “eternal student”, “shabby gentleman”. Anya is full of hope, vitality, but she still has so much inexperience and childhood.
7. The author does not yet see a hero in Russian life who could become the real owner of the "cherry orchard", the keeper of its beauty and wealth. The title of the play carries deep ideological content. The garden is a symbol of the outgoing life. The end of the garden is the end of the outgoing generation - the nobles. But in the play the image of a new garden grows, "more luxurious than this." "The whole of Russia is our garden." And this new blooming garden, with its fragrance, its beauty, is to be cultivated by the younger generation.
31. Main themes and ideas of prose I. A. Bunina .
RESPONSE PLAN
1. A word about the writer's work.
2. The main themes and ideas of I. A. Bunin's prose:
a) the theme of the outgoing patriarchal past (“Antonov apples”);
b) criticism of bourgeois reality ("The Gentleman from San Francisco");
c) the system of symbols in the story by I. A. Bunin "The Gentleman from San Francisco";
d) the theme of love and death (“The Gentleman from San Francisco”, “Transfiguration”, “Mitina's Love”, “Dark Alleys”).
3. I. A. Bunin - Nobel Prize winner.
1. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) is called the "last classic". Bunin's reflections on the deep processes of life are poured into a perfect art form, where the originality of the composition, images, details are subject to the author's intense thought.
2. In his stories, novels, poems, Bunin shows us the whole range of problems of the late XIX - early XX century. The themes of his works are so varied that they seem to be life itself. Let's see how the themes and problems of Bunin's stories changed throughout his life.
a) The main theme of the early 1900s is the theme of Russia's passing patriarchal past. The most vivid expression of the problem of changing the system, the collapse of all the foundations of a noble society, we see in the story "Antonov apples". Bunin regrets the passing past of Russia, idealizing the noble way of life. Bunin's best memories of his former life are saturated with the smell of Antonov apples. He hopes that, together with the dying off noble Russia, the roots of the nation will still be preserved in its memory.
b) In the mid-1910s, the themes and problems of Bunin's stories began to change. He moves away from the theme of the patriarchal past of Russia to the criticism of bourgeois reality. A striking example of this period is his short story "The Gentleman from San Francisco". With the smallest details, mentioning every detail, Bunin describes luxury, which is the true life of the masters of the new time. In the center of the work is the image of a millionaire who does not even have his own name, since no one remembers him - and does he need it? This is a collective image of the American bourgeois. “Until the age of 58, his life was devoted to accumulation. Having become a millionaire, he wants to get all the pleasures that money can buy: ... he thought of holding a carnival in Nice, in Monte Carlo, where at that time the most selective society flocks, where some enthusiastically indulge in automobile and sailing races, others roulette, the third to what is commonly called flirting, and the fourth to shooting pigeons, which soar very beautifully from the cages over the emerald lawn, against the backdrop of the sea the color of forget-me-nots, and immediately knock white lumps on the ground ... "- this is a life devoid of inner content . The society of consumers has corroded everything human in itself, the ability to sympathize, condolences. The death of a gentleman from San Francisco is perceived with displeasure, because "the evening was irreparably ruined", the owner of the hotel feels guilty, gives his word that he will take "every measure in his power" to eliminate the trouble. Everything is decided by money: guests want to receive pleasure for their money, the owner does not want to lose profits, this explains the disrespect for death. Such is the moral decline of society, its inhumanity in its extreme manifestation.
c) There are a lot of allegories, associations and symbols in this story. The ship "Atlantis" acts as a symbol of civilization; the master himself is a symbol of the bourgeois well-being of a society where people eat deliciously, dress elegantly and do not care about the world around them. He doesn't interest them. They live in society, as in a case closed forever to people of a different circle. The ship symbolizes this shell, the sea - the rest of the world, raging, but in no way touching the hero and his ilk. And nearby, in the same shell, are the people who control the ship, working in the sweat of their brow at a giant firebox, which the author calls the ninth circle of hell.
There are many biblical allegories in this story. The hold of a ship can be compared to the underworld. The author alludes to the fact that a gentleman from San Francisco sold his soul for earthly goods and is now paying for it with death.
Symbolic in the story is the image of a huge, like a cliff, the devil, which is a symbol of an impending catastrophe, a kind of warning to humanity. Symbolically in the story, and the fact that after the death of the rich man the fun continues, absolutely nothing has changed. The ship sails in the opposite direction, only now with the body of the rich man in a soda box, and the ballroom music rumbles again "among the furious blizzard that swept over the buzzing, like a funeral mass ... ocean."
d) It was important for the author to emphasize the idea of the insignificance of human power in the face of the same mortal outcome for all. It turned out that everything accumulated by the master has no meaning in the face of that eternal law, to which everyone is subject without exception. Obviously, the meaning of life is not in the acquisition of wealth, but in something else, not amenable to monetary value or aesthetic wisdom. The theme of death receives a variety of coverage in Bunin's work. This is the death of Russia, and the death of an individual. Death turns out to be not only the resolver of all contradictions, but also the source of absolute, purifying power (“Transfiguration”, “Mitina's Love”).
Another of the main themes of the writer's work is the theme of love. The cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" is devoted to this topic. Bunin considered this book to be the most perfect in terms of artistic skill. “All the stories in this book are only about love, about its “dark” and most often very gloomy and cruel alleys,” wrote Bunin. The collection "Dark Alleys" is one of the last masterpieces of the great master.
3. In the literature of the Russian diaspora, Bunin is a star of the first magnitude. After being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933, Bunin became a symbol of Russian literature all over the world.
Analysis of the story by I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"
The story "Clean Monday" is surprisingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. The meeting of two people leads to the emergence of a wonderful feeling-love. But after all, love is not only joy, it is a huge torment, against which many problems and troubles seem invisible. The story described exactly how a man and a woman met. But the story begins from the point at which their relationship has already continued for a long time. Bunin pays attention to the smallest details, to how “the Moscow gray winter day was getting dark”, or to where the lovers went to dine - “to Prague”, to the Hermitage, to the Metropol” ...
The tragedy of parting is foreseen already at the very beginning of the story. The protagonist does not know what their relationship will lead to. He prefers to simply not think about it: “I didn’t know how it should end, and I tried not to think, not to think it out: it was useless - just like talking to her about it: she once and for all diverted conversations about our future.”
Why does the heroine reject talking about the future? Is she not interested in continuing a relationship with her loved one? Or does she already have some idea about her future? Judging by the way Bunin describes the main character, she appears as a very special woman, unlike many around. She studies at the courses, not realizing, however, why she needs to study. When asked why she was studying, the girl answered: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions?
The girl loves to surround herself with beautiful things, she is educated, sophisticated, smart. But at the same time, she seems somehow surprisingly detached from everything that surrounded her: “It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners outside the city.” At the same time, she knows how to enjoy life, enjoys reading, delicious food, and interesting experiences. It would seem that lovers have everything that is necessary for happiness: "We were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that in restaurants, at concerts they saw us off with their eyes." At first it may seem that the story describes a real love idyll. But in fact, everything was quite different.
It is not by chance that the main character comes up with the idea of the strangeness of their love. The girl in every possible way denies the possibility of marriage, she explains that she is not fit to be a wife. The girl cannot find herself, she is in thought. She is attracted by a luxurious, cheerful life. But at the same time she resists it, wants to find something else for herself. Contradictory feelings arise in the soul of the girl, which are incomprehensible to many young people who are accustomed to a simple and carefree existence.
The girl visits churches, Kremlin cathedrals. She is drawn to religion, to holiness, herself, perhaps not realizing why she is attracted to it. Quite suddenly, without explaining anything to anyone, she decides to leave not only her lover, but also her usual way of life. After leaving, the heroine informs in a letter about her intention to decide on the tonsure. She doesn't want to explain anything to anyone. Parting with his beloved turned out to be a difficult test for the main character. Only after a long time he was able to see her among the string of nuns.
The story is called "Clean Monday", because it was on the eve of this holy day that the first conversation about religiosity took place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not think, did not suspect about the other side of the girl's nature. She seemed quite satisfied with her usual life, in which there was a place for theaters, restaurants, and fun. The rejection of secular joys for the sake of a monastic cloister testifies to the deep inner torment that took place in the soul of a young woman. Perhaps this is precisely what explains the indifference with which she treated her usual life. She could not find a place for herself among everything that surrounded her. And even love could not help her in finding spiritual harmony.
Love and tragedy in this story go hand in hand, as, indeed, in many other works by Bunin, Love in itself is not happiness, but the most difficult test that must be endured with honor. Love is sent to people who cannot, do not know how to understand and appreciate it in time.
What is the tragedy of the main characters of the story "Clean Monday"? The fact that a man and a woman could not understand and appreciate each other properly. Each person is a whole world, a whole Universe. The inner world of the girl, the heroine of the story, is very rich. She is in thought, in a spiritual search. She is attracted and at the same time frightened by the surrounding reality, she does not find something to which she can become attached. And love appears not as salvation, but as another problem that burdened her. That is why the heroine decides to give up love.
The rejection of worldly joys and entertainment betrays a strong nature in a girl. It is in this way that she answers her own questions about the meaning of being. In the monastery, she does not have to ask herself any questions, now the meaning of life for her is love for God and serving him. Everything vain, vulgar, petty and insignificant will never touch her again. Now she can be in her solitude without worrying that it will be violated.
The story may seem sad and even tragic. To some extent, this is true. But at the same time, the story "Clean Monday" is sublimely beautiful. It makes you think about true values, about the fact that sooner or later each of us has to face a situation of moral choice. And not everyone has the courage to admit that the choice was made incorrectly.
At first, the girl lives the way many of her entourage live. But gradually she realizes that she is not satisfied not only with the lifestyle itself, but also with all the little things and details that surround her. She finds the strength to look for another option and comes to the conclusion that love for God can be her salvation. Love for God simultaneously elevates her, but at the same time makes all her actions completely incomprehensible. The main character, a man in love with her, practically breaks his life. He remains alone. But it's not even that she leaves him completely unexpectedly. She treats him cruelly, causing him to suffer and suffer. True, he suffers along with him. He suffers and suffers of his own free will. This is evidenced by the letter of the heroine: "May God give strength not to answer me - it is useless to prolong and increase our torment ...".
Lovers do not separate because of unfavorable circumstances. In fact, the reason is quite different. The reason is in the sublime and at the same time deeply unhappy girl who cannot find the meaning of existence for herself. She cannot but deserve respect - this amazing girl who was not afraid to change her fate so drastically. But at the same time, she seems to be an incomprehensible and incomprehensible person, so unlike everyone who surrounded her.
33. The theme of love in prose A.I. Kuprin . (On the example of one work.)
Option 1
Kuprin depicts true love as the highest value of the world, as an incomprehensible mystery. For such an all-consuming feeling, there is no question “to be or not to be?”, It is devoid of doubt, and therefore often fraught with tragedy. “Love is always a tragedy,” wrote Kuprin, “always struggle and achievement, always joy and fear, resurrection and death.”
Kuprin was deeply convinced that even an unrequited feeling can transform a person's life. He spoke about this wisely and touchingly in The Garnet Bracelet, a sad story about the modest telegraph official Zheltkov, who was so hopelessly and selflessly in love with Countess Vera Sheina.
The pathetic, romantic in character of figurative embodiment, the central theme of love is combined in the "Garnet Bracelet" with a carefully reproduced everyday background and embossed figures of people whose lives have not come into contact with a feeling of great love. Poor official Zheltkov, who has loved Princess Vera Nikolaevna for eight years, dying, thanks her for being "the only joy in life, the only consolation, the only thought" for him, and the assistant prosecutor, who thinks that love can be stopped by administrative measures - people of two different life dimensions. But Kuprin's living environment is not unambiguous. He especially highlights the figure of the old general Anosov, who is sure that high love exists, but it “must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world”, which knows no compromises.
"Clean Monday" Bunin I.A.
Included in the collection "Dark Alleys" is the story of I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday" was written in 1944. It combines the tragic and lyrical beginnings. In the center of the plot of the work is a love story. At the same time, for I.A. Bunin, it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but so much the feelings, emotions of the heroes of the story. This is the main feature of most of his works. They are distinguished by the presence of a lyrical plot, organized according to the associative principle.
Love for I.A. Bunin is a short-term happy period of life, which, unfortunately, always ends quickly, but for many years leaves an indelible mark on the souls of the heroes.
The plot of the story is dynamic. The actions of the characters are not fully explained, and are hardly amenable to logical interpretation. It is no coincidence that the author often uses the epithet "strange" in this work.
The hero of the story is a nobleman. The heroine belongs to the merchant class. The hero dreams of marriage, but his chosen one deliberately avoids serious conversations on this topic.
The poetic portrait of the heroine is created with the help of a number of exquisite details. This is a pomegranate velvet dress, black velvet hair and eyelashes, gold skin of the face. It is symbolic that the heroine consistently appears in clothes of three colors: in a pomegranate velvet dress and the same shoes, in a black fur coat, hat and boots on Forgiveness Sunday and in a black velvet dress on the night from Monday to Tuesday. Finally, in the final scene of the story, the image of a female figure in a white robe appears.
Of particular importance for the creation of artistic space in the work is the play of light and darkness (“It has long been dark, the trees turned pink in the frost-lit windows”, “Moscow's gray winter day was getting dark, the gas in the lanterns was coldly lit, the shop windows were warmly lit”). Such light contrasts enhance the atmosphere of mystery and mystery.
There are many symbolic details in the story: a view of the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the gate as a symbol of purification, finding the righteous path. The hero moves every evening from the Red Gate to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and back. At the end of the story, he finds himself at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. On the last evening of the proximity of the heroes in the doorway, he sees her naked in swan shoes. This scene is also symbolic: the heroine has already decided her fate, she is ready to go to a monastery and turn from a sinful secular life to a righteous life.
The story consists of four parts. At the same time, artistic time seems to complete a certain circle: from December 1912 to the end of 1914.
I.A. Bunin considered this story to be the best of all that he had ever written. The fate of the heroine in it to some extent symbolizes the fate of Russia: the writer saw the path of his native state in purification, and not in the bloody cataclysms of the revolutionary era.
