Mister san francisco attitude of death. gentleman from san francisco

Henrik Ibsen's poem "Letter in Verse", which was published in Russia in 1909, six years before the story appeared.

"You saw and remember, of course,

On the ship, a zealous living spirit,

And common work, calm and careless,

Command words, clear and simple<...>

But still, against all odds, one day

It can happen so among the rapids,

What's on board for no apparent reason

Everyone is confused about something, sigh, suffer<...>

And why? Then that secret rumor

Sowing doubts in a shocked spirit,

Scurries around the ship in an obscure noise, -

Everyone dreams: the corpse is hidden in the hold of the ship ...

The superstition of sailors is known:

He just needs to wake up

It is omnipotent..."

gentleman from san francisco

A gentleman from San Francisco, who is never mentioned by name in the story, since, as the author notes, no one remembered his name either in Naples or Capri, he is sent with his wife and daughter to the Old World for two whole years in order to to have fun and travel. He worked hard and is now rich enough to afford such a vacation.

At the end of November, the famous Atlantis, which looks like a huge hotel with all amenities, sets sail. Life on the ship is measured: they get up early, drink coffee, cocoa, chocolate, take baths, do gymnastics, walk along the decks to stimulate their appetite; then - go to the first breakfast; after breakfast they read the newspapers and calmly wait for the second breakfast; the next two hours are devoted to rest - all decks are lined with long reed chairs, on which travelers lie, covered with rugs, looking at the cloudy sky; then - tea with cookies, and in the evening - that which is the main goal of this entire existence - dinner.

A fine orchestra exquisitely and tirelessly plays in a huge hall, behind the walls of which the waves of a terrible ocean go with a roar, but decollete ladies and men in tailcoats and tuxedos do not think about it. After dinner, dancing begins in the ballroom, the men in the bar smoke cigars, drink liquors, and they are served by Negroes in red coats.

Finally, the ship arrives in Naples, the family of the gentleman from San Francisco stays in an expensive hotel, and here their life also flows according to routine: early in the morning - breakfast, after - visiting museums and cathedrals, second breakfast, tea, then - cooking for dinner and in the evening - a hearty dinner. However, December in Naples turned out to be rainy this year: wind, rain, dirt on the streets. And the family of the gentleman from San Francisco decides to go to the island of Capri, where, as everyone assures them, it is warm, sunny and lemons bloom.

A small steamboat, rolling on the waves from side to side, transports a gentleman from San Francisco with his family, who are seriously suffering from seasickness, to Capri. The funicular takes them to a small stone town on top of a mountain, they settle in a hotel, where they are warmly welcomed by everyone, and they are preparing for dinner, already fully recovered from seasickness. Having dressed before his wife and daughter, the gentleman from San Francisco goes to the cozy, quiet reading room of the hotel, opens the newspaper - and suddenly the lines flash before his eyes, the pince-nez flies off his nose, and his body, wriggling, slides to the floor. Another guest who was present at the same time of the hotel, screaming, runs into the dining room, everyone jumps up from their seats, the owner tries to calm the guests, but the evening is already irreparably ruined.

The gentleman from San Francisco is transferred to the smallest and worst room; his wife, daughter, servants stand and look at him, and now what they expected and feared has happened - he is dying. The wife of a gentleman from San Francisco asks the owner to allow the body to be transferred to their apartment, but the owner refuses: he appreciates these rooms too much, and tourists would begin to avoid them, since the whole of Capri would immediately become aware of what had happened. The coffin is also unavailable here - the owner can offer a long crate of soda bottles.

At dawn, the cabman carries the body of the gentleman from San Francisco to the pier, the steamboat transports him through the Gulf of Naples, and the same "Atlantis", on which he arrived with honor in the Old World, is now carrying him, dead, in a tarred coffin, hidden from the living. deep down in the black hold. Meanwhile, on the decks, the same life continues as before, everyone has breakfast and dinner in the same way, and the ocean, which is worried behind the windows of the portholes, is still terrible.

First of all, the epigraph from the Apocalypse attracts attention: "Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!" According to the Revelation of John the Theologian, Babylon, "the great harlot, has become a dwelling place of demons and a haven for every unclean spirit ... woe, woe to you, Babylon, strong city! for in one hour your judgment has come" (Revelation, 18). So, already from the epigraph, a through motive of the story begins - the motive of death, death. It later appears in the name of the giant ship - "Atlantis", the lost mythological continent - thus confirming the imminent death of the ship.

The main event of the story is the death of a gentleman from San Francisco, quick and sudden, in one hour. From the very beginning of the journey, he is surrounded by a mass of details that portend or remind of death. First, he is going to go to Rome to listen to the Catholic prayer of repentance there (which is read before death), then the steamer "Atlantis", which is a dual symbol in the story: on the one hand, the steamer symbolizes a new civilization, where power is determined by wealth and pride, then is that from which Babylon perished. Therefore, in the end, the ship, and even with that name, must sink. On the other hand, "Atlantis" is the personification of heaven and hell, and if the first is described as a "modernized" paradise (waves of spicy smoke, radiance of light, cognacs, liqueurs, cigars, joyful vapors, etc.), then the engine room is directly called the underworld: "its last, ninth circle was like the underwater womb of a steamboat, - the one where the gigantic fireboxes deafly cackled, devouring the breasts of coal with their red-hot throats, with a roar thrown (cf. "plunge into fiery hell." - A.Ya.) in them drenched in acrid, dirty sweat and naked to the waist, purple from the flames ...

The gentleman from San Francisco has lived his whole life in intense and meaningless work, postponing "real life" and all pleasures for the future. And just at the moment when he decides to finally enjoy life, death overtakes him. This is precisely death, its triumph. Moreover, death triumphs already during life, for the very life of rich passengers of a luxurious ocean-going steamer is terrible as death, it is unnatural and meaningless. The story ends with the scary material details of the earthly life of the corpse and the figure of the Devil, "huge as a cliff," watching from the rocks of Gibraltar a steamer passing by (by the way, the mythical continent Atlantis was located and sank to the bottom of the ocean just near Gibraltar).

"Terrible" in fact was the first touch of Death, which was never realized by a person in whose soul "for a long time there was no ... any mystical feelings." After all, as Bunin writes, the intense rhythm of his life did not leave "time for feelings and reflections." However, there were still some feelings, or rather, sensations, though the simplest, if not base ... The writer repeatedly points out that the gentleman from San Francisco is animated only at the mention of the tarantella performer (his question, asked "in an expressionless voice" , about her partner: is he not her husband - just gives out hidden excitement), only imagining how she, "swarthy, with simulated eyes, like a mulatto, you are in a flowery outfit /.../ is dancing", only anticipating "love young Neapolitan women, albeit not entirely disinterested", only admiring the "living pictures" in the brothels, or so frankly looking at the famous blonde beauty that his daughter becomes embarrassed. He feels despair only when he begins to suspect that life is slipping out of his control: he came to Italy to enjoy, and here it is fog, rains and terrifying pitching ... But he is given pleasure to dream about a spoonful of soup and a sip of wine.

And for this, as well as for the whole life lived, in which there were self-confident efficiency, and cruel exploitation of other people, and the endless accumulation of wealth, and the conviction that everyone around was called to serve him, to prevent his slightest desires, to carry his things, for the absence of any living principle, Bunin executes him. And he executes cruelly, one might say, mercilessly.

The death of a gentleman from San Francisco shocks with its ugliness, repulsive physiology. Now the writer makes full use of the aesthetic category of "ugly" so that a disgusting picture is forever imprinted in our memory, when "his neck tensed, his eyes bulged, his pince-nez flew off his nose ... He rushed forward, wanted to take a breath of air - and groaned wildly; the lower his jaw dropped /.../, his head fell on his shoulder and rolled around, /... / - and his whole body, writhing, raising the carpet with his heels, crawled to the floor, desperately fighting with someone. But this was not the end: "he was still fighting. He persistently fought against death, for no reason did he want to succumb to it, which so unexpectedly and rudely fell on him. He shook his head, wheezed, as if stabbed to death, rolled his eyes, like a drunk ... ". The hoarse gurgling continued to be heard from his chest later, when he was already lying on a cheap iron bed, under coarse woolen blankets, dimly lit by a single light bulb. Bunin does not spare repulsive details in order to recreate a picture of the pitiful, disgusting death of a once powerful man whom no amount of wealth can save from subsequent humiliation. And only when a particular gentleman from San Francisco disappears, and “someone else” appears in his place, overshadowed by the grandeur of death, he allows himself a few details that emphasize the significance of what has happened: “slowly (...) pallor flowed over the face of the deceased, and his features began to thin, brighten. And later, the dead person is also granted genuine communion with nature, which he was deprived of, which he never felt the need for, being alive. We remember well what the gentleman from San Francisco aspired to and "aided" for the rest of his life. Now, in the cold and empty room, "the stars looked at him from the sky, the cricket sang with sad carelessness on the wall."

But it seems that while depicting the further humiliations that accompanied the posthumous earthly "existence" of the gentleman from San Francisco, Bunin even contradicts the truth of life. The reader may wonder why, for example, the owner of the hotel considers the money that the wife and daughter of the deceased guest could give him in gratitude for transferring the body to the bed of a luxurious room, a trifle? Why does he lose the remnants of respect for them and even allow himself to "besiege" Madame when she begins to demand what is rightfully due to her? Why is he in such a hurry to "say goodbye" to the body, even without giving his relatives the opportunity to purchase a coffin? And now, on his orders, the body of a gentleman from San Francisco is immersed in a long box of English soda water, and at dawn, secretly, a drunk cab rushes down to the pier to hastily load onto a small steamboat, which will hand over his burden to one from port warehouses, after which it will again be on the Atlantis. And there, a black tarred coffin will be hidden deep in the hold, in which it will remain until returning home.

But such a state of affairs is really possible in a world where Death is perceived as something shameful, obscene, "unpleasant", violating the orderly order, like mauvais ton (bad taste, bad upbringing), capable of spoiling the mood, unsettling. It is no coincidence that the writer chooses a verb that should not be consistent with the word death: "done." "If there hadn't been a German in the reading room /.../ - not a single soul from the guests would have known what he had done." Consequently, death in the perception of these people is something that should be "hushed up", hidden, otherwise "offended faces", claims and "spoiled evening" cannot be avoided. That is why the owner of the hotel is in such a hurry to get rid of the deceased, that in a world of distorted ideas about what is proper and improper, about decent and indecent (it is indecent to die like this, at the wrong time, but it is decent to invite an elegant couple, "play love for good money", satiated idlers, you can hide the body in a bottle box, but you can’t have guests break their exercise). The writer insistently emphasizes the fact that, if there were no undesirable witness, well-trained servants "instantly, in reverse, would have dashed off by the legs and head of the gentleman from San Francisco to hell," and everything would have gone according to routine. And now the owner has to apologize to the guests for the inconvenience caused: he had to cancel the tarantella, turn off the electricity. He even makes monstrous promises from a human point of view, saying that he will take "all measures in his power" to eliminate the trouble. that he can oppose something to inexorable death, that it is in his power to "correct" the inevitable.)

The writer "rewarded" his hero with such a terrible, unenlightened death in order to once again emphasize the horror of that unrighteous life, which could only end in this way. Indeed, after the death of a gentleman from San Francisco, the world felt relieved. A miracle happened. The very next day, the morning blue sky “became rich”, “peace and tranquility again settled on the island”, ordinary people poured into the streets, and the city market was decorated with his presence by the handsome Lorenzo, who serves as a model for many painters and, as it were, symbolizes beautiful Italy. Everything in him is in stark contrast to the gentleman from San Francisco, although he, too, like that old man! And his calmness (he can stand in the market from morning to evening), and his unselfishness ("he brought and already sold for a pittance two lobsters caught at night"), and the fact that he is a "carefree reveler" (his idleness acquires moral value according to compared to the fussy readiness of the American to consume pleasures). He has "regal habits", while the slowness of the gentleman from San Francisco seems lethargic, and he does not need to dress and preen specially - his tatters are picturesque, and his red woolen beret is smartly lowered over his ear as always.

But to an even greater extent, the peaceful procession from the mountain heights of two Abruzzo highlanders confirms the grace that has descended on the world. Bunin deliberately slows down the pace of the narrative so that the reader can open the panorama of Italy with them and enjoy it - "a whole country, joyful, beautiful, sunny, stretched under them: and the rocky humps of the island, which almost all lay at their feet, and that fabulous blue , in which he swam, and the radiant morning vapors over the sea to the east, under the dazzling sun, which was already warming hot, rising higher and higher, and the misty azure, still in the morning unsteady massifs of Italy, its near and distant mountains /. ../". The stop along the way that these two people make is also important - in front of the illuminated by the sun, in a crown, golden-rusty from bad weather, a snow-white statue of the Madonna. To her, "the immaculate intercessor of all those who suffer," they offer "humbly joyful praise." But also the sun. And morning. Bunin makes his characters children of nature, pure and naive... And this stop, which turns an ordinary descent from the mountain into a long journey even longer, makes it meaningful (again, in contrast to the senseless accumulation of impressions that should have crowned the journey of Mr. from San Francisco).

Bunin openly embodies his aesthetic ideal in ordinary people. Even before this apotheosis of natural, chaste, religious life, which arises shortly before the end of the story, his admiration for the naturalness and uncomplicatedness of their existence was visible. First, almost all of them were honored to be named. Unlike the unnamed "master," his wife, "Mrs.," his daughter, "Miss," and the impassive owner of a hotel in Capri, the ship's captain—the servants, the dancers, have names! Carmella and Giuseppe splendidly dance the tarantella, Luigi bitingly mimics the English speech of the deceased, and old Lorenzo allows visiting foreigners to admire him. But it is also important that death equated the swaggering gentleman from San Francisco with mere mortals: in the hold of the ship, he is next to infernal machines serviced by naked people "drenched in caustic, dirty sweat"!

But Bunin is not so unambiguous as to confine himself to a direct contrast between the horrors of capitalist civilization and the natural modesty of an unpretentious life. With the death of the gentleman, social evil disappeared from San Francisco, but cosmic, indestructible evil remained, the one whose existence is eternal because the Devil is vigilantly watching him. Bunin, who is usually not inclined to resort to symbols and allegories (the exception is his stories created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries - "Pass", "Fog", "Velga", "Hope", where romantic symbols of faith in the future, overcoming , perseverance, etc.), here he perched on the rocks of Gibraltar the Devil himself, who did not take his eyes off the ship leaving into the night, and "by the way" remembered a man who lived on Capri two thousand years ago, "indescribably vile in satisfying his lust and for some reason had power over millions of people, inflicted cruelty on them beyond measure.

According to Bunin, social evil can be temporarily eliminated - who was "everything" became "nothing", what was "above" turned out to be "below", but cosmic evil, embodied in the forces of nature, historical realities, cannot be eliminated. And the guarantee of this evil is darkness, a boundless ocean, a furious blizzard, through which a steadfast and majestic ship passes heavily, on which the social hierarchy is still preserved: below the vents of hellish furnaces and slaves chained to them, above - elegant lush halls, an endlessly lasting ball , a multilingual crowd, the bliss of languid melodies...

But Bunin does not paint this world as socially two-dimensional; for him, there are not only exploiters and exploited in it. The writer does not create a socially accusatory work, but a philosophical parable, and therefore he makes a small correction. Above all, above the luxurious cabins and halls, lives the "overweight driver of the ship", the captain, he "sits" above the whole ship in "cozy and dimly lit chambers." And he is the only one who knows for sure about what is happening - about a couple of lovers hired for money, about a gloomy cargo that is at the bottom of the ship. He is the only one who hears the "heavy howls of a siren strangled by a storm" (for everyone else, as we remember, it is drowned out by the sounds of an orchestra), and this disturbs him, but he calms himself, placing his hopes in technology, in the achievements of civilization, just as those who sail on the steamer believe in him, convinced that he has "power" over the ocean. After all, the ship is "huge", it is "steady, firm, majestic and terrible", it was built by the New Man (these capital letters used by Bunin to designate both the man and the Devil are noteworthy!), And behind the wall of the captain's cabin there is a radio room where the telegraph operator receives any signals from all parts of the world. In order to confirm the "omnipotence" of the "pale-faced telegrapher", Bunin creates a kind of halo around his head: a metal half-hoop. And to complete the impression, it fills the room with "a mysterious rumble, trembling and dry crackle of blue lights bursting around ...". But before us is a false saint, just like the captain - not a commander, not a driver, but only a "pagan idol", which they used to worship. And their omnipotence is false, just as all civilization is false, covering up its own weakness with external attributes of fearlessness and strength, persistently driving away thoughts of the end from itself. It is just as false as all this tinsel splendor of luxury and wealth, which are not able to save a person either from death, or from the gloomy depths of the ocean, or from universal anguish, a symptom of which can be considered the fact that the charming couple, magnificently demonstrating boundless happiness, "long ago I got bored (...) pretending to be tormented by my blissful torment. The formidable mouth of the underworld, in which "terrible in their concentration forces" are seething, is open and awaits its victims. What forces did Bunin mean? Perhaps this is the anger of the enslaved - it is no coincidence that Bunin emphasized the contempt with which the gentleman from San Francisco perceives the true people of Italy: "greedy, garlic-smelling people" living in "miserable, moldy stone houses stuck on top of each other near the water , near the boats, near some rags, tins and brown nets. But, of course, it is also a technique ready to get out of subordination, only creating the illusion of security. It is not for nothing that the captain is forced to reassure himself by the proximity of the telegraph operator's cabin, which in fact only looks "as if armored."

Perhaps the only thing (besides the chastity of the natural world of nature and people close to it) that can resist the pride of the New Man with the old heart is youth. After all, the only living person among the puppets that inhabit ships, hotels, resorts is the daughter of a gentleman from San Francisco. And even if she also does not have a name, but for a completely different reason than her father. In this character for Bunin, everything that distinguishes youth from satiety and fatigue brought by the years lived has merged. She is all in anticipation of love, on the eve of those happy meetings, when it doesn’t matter if your chosen one is good or bad, it’s important that he is standing next to you and you “listen to him and don’t understand from excitement what he (...) says” , thrilled by the "inexplicable charm", but at the same time stubbornly "pretending to look intently into the distance." (Bunin clearly demonstrates condescension towards such behavior, stating that “it doesn’t matter what exactly awakens a girl’s soul, whether it’s money, fame, or nobility of the family,” it is important that she is able to awaken.) The girl almost falls into fainting when she thinks she saw the crown prince of an Asian state she liked, although it is known for certain that he cannot be in this place. She is able to be embarrassed, intercepting immodest glances, with which her father escorts beauties. And the innocent frankness of her clothes clearly contrasts with only her father's youthful attire and with the rich outfit of her mother. Only her longing squeezes her heart when her father confesses to her that in a dream he saw a man who looked like the owner of a hotel in Capri, and at that moment she was visited by a "feeling of terrible loneliness." And only she sobs bitterly, realizing that her father is dead (her mother's tears instantly dry up as soon as she receives a rebuff from the owner of the hotel).

In emigration, Bunin creates the parable "Youth and Old Age", summing up his thoughts about the life of a person who has embarked on the path of profit and acquisition. "God created heaven and earth... Then God created man and said to man: you, man, will live thirty years in the world, you will live well, you will rejoice, you will think that God created and made everything in the world for you alone "Are you satisfied with that? And the man thought: so good, but only thirty years of life! Oh, not enough ... Then God created the donkey and said to the donkey: you will carry waterskins and packs, people will ride you and beat you on the head with a stick. Are you satisfied with such a term? And the donkey sobbed, wept and said to God: why do I need so much? Give me, God, only fifteen years of life. - And add fifteen to me, said the man to God, - please, add from his share! - And so God did, agreed. And the man left forty-five years of life ... Then God created the dog and also gave him thirty years of life. You, God said to the dog, will always live evil, you will guard the master's wealth, not trust anyone else , you will lie at passers-by, you will not sleep at night from anxiety... And ... the dog even howled: oh, I will have half of such a life! And again the man began to ask God: add me this half! And again, God added to him ... Well, then God created the monkey, gave her thirty years of life too, and said that she would live without labor and without care, only her face would be very bad ... bald, wrinkled, bare eyebrows They climb on the forehead, and everything ... will try to be looked at, and everyone will laugh at her ... And she refused, asked for only half ... And the man begged for himself this half too ... The man his own lived for thirty years as a human being - he ate, drank, fought in the war, danced at weddings, loved young women and girls. And for fifteen years he worked as a donkey, amassing wealth. And fifteen dogs kept their wealth, kept lying and getting angry, did not sleep at night. And then he became so ugly, old, like that monkey. And everyone shook their heads and laughed at his old age ... "

The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" can be considered a full-blooded canvas of life, later folded into tight rings of the parable "Youth and Old Age". But already in it, a harsh sentence was passed on the donkey man, the dog man, the monkey man, and most of all, the New Man with an old heart, who established such laws on earth, the entire earthly civilization, chained itself in the shackles of false morality.

In the spring of 1912, the whole world was informed about a collision with an iceberg of the largest passenger ship, the Titanic, about the terrible death of more than one and a half thousand people. This event sounded a warning to mankind, intoxicated with scientific success, convinced of its limitless possibilities. The huge Titanic for some time became a symbol of this power, but its immersion in the waves of the ocean, the self-confidence of the captain who did not heed the danger signals, the inability to withstand the elements, the helplessness of the crew once again confirmed the fragility and insecurity of man in the face of cosmic forces. Perhaps I.A. Bunin perceived this catastrophe most sharply, seeing in it the result of the activity of the “pride of a New Man with an old heart”, which he wrote about in his story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” three years later, in 1915 .

…….And no one knew either what this couple had long been bored with pretending to suffer their blissful torment to shamelessly sad music, nor what stands deep, deep below them, at the bottom of the dark hold, in the neighborhood of the gloomy and sultry bowels ship, heavily overcoming the darkness, the ocean, the blizzard ......
After a long struggle with impudent death, which came so unexpectedly and suppressed with its power, it seemed such a meaningful and wonderful life, gentleman from San Francisco, or rather the soul of the gentleman from San Francisco, rebelled for a long time because of such injustice, and because of that being a man, he did so much to be a significant and respected person, gain wealth and go on a cruise with the whole family. It seemed to him that if there is money, and he had it, since he always aspired to it, then death is also subject to them. But it was all wrong. Slowly, the gentleman from San Francisco began to realize the truths that he had forgotten in the pursuit of false well-being.
When his body was placed in the hold, the gentleman from San Francisco was already ready for this and meekly accompanied him as the last worldly value, but something delayed him on deck, and he stopped in his thoughts, despite the fact that his body continued carry. By this moment, he literally saw the light: he already understood that expensive outfits cannot replace the craving for beauty, that the society of rich people is very rarely sincere and warm, that living the life he lived, one cannot achieve respect, that everything in his life was played and bought. The gentleman from San Francisco was offended and bitter that in the world where he lived, there was a lie, and that even that beautiful, seemingly ideal pair of lovers was nothing more than a pair of actors. Now, after death, he saw more than he could see in life, including the souls of people: in the entire crew of the Atlantis, he saw only masks, behind which there is either deadening of the soul, or eating sadness and sadness. All of them were similar, all these people relied on material wealth. What for? And because none of them knew what the deceased gentleman from San Francisco found out, none of them knew that what they were striving for was a mirage of happiness, warm and inviting, that everyone wants to master. The gentleman from San Francisco, having lost the material part of his life, that is, his body and money, felt that part of life, which is usually referred to as spiritual. He felt that not all bankers' wives were happy, and that behind the sweet and cheerful smile of most of the ladies there were scary things in places: depressive and gloomy thoughts, and sometimes even thoughts about suicide. His soul, wandering around the decks through the passengers of the ship, even more disappointed in the life she lived, went down into the bowels of the ship, to where her body rested.
In the hold, the soul of the gentleman from San Francisco felt more comfortable, because up there, everything was the same as before, only the gentleman from San Francisco himself became different. It is believed that after death, a person ceases to exist, but this is not so, after death, some people only begin to live, since their earthly life did not leave anything behind. What could the gentleman from San Francisco remember? Maybe a wedding? The birth of a daughter? But no, at that time his thoughts were completely different .... Only now, he fully understood that the goals that you set for yourself are not always correct and do not always lead to a good result, and that you need to always keep your life under control and at least sometimes think about what will happen in a year or two. The soul sat next to the body and understood that it was already too late to change something, and the people from above did not know what wise judgments were almost at the very bottom of the ship ....

The Gentleman from San Francisco was written in 1915. During this difficult period, during the First World War, people rethought established values, perceived the world around them and themselves differently, tried to understand the causes of the disaster, in search of a way out of such a difficult situation.

Such a work is “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, where the author talks about the main values ​​​​of life that need to be followed, which will bring salvation and peace.
Observing the life of a wealthy American and his family members, we see that in the way of life, thoughts and actions of these people there is some kind of flaw that turns the latter into the living dead.

Of course, the life of the hero from San Francisco is quite prosperous, since he is rich and respected, he has a family. Working all his life, achieving the intended goal - wealth, the master notices that he has come a long way and has practically caught up with those who were once his model.

The author shows that having lived for fifty-eight years and having achieved his goal, the master did not live one way or another, but only existed, devoid of all the charms of life. Finally, he decided to take a break and enjoy life. What does it mean to him to "enjoy life"?

Living surrounded by the illusions of society, the master is blind, he does not have his own thoughts, feelings, desires, he follows the desires of society and the environment.

The hero, having a lot of money, compares himself with the ruler of the world, as he can afford a lot, but all this is not able to make a person happy, warm his soul.

Having wealth, the master missed the main thing in his life - true love, family, Oprah in life. He does not love his wife, and she does not love him, the daughter, although mature for a bride, is not married, guided by the same principles as her father. The author notes that during this cruise the whole family hoped to meet a rich groom for their daughter.

During the action of the work, the writer shows the isolation of the hero's personality from real life, the falsity of his values ​​and ideals. The culmination of the process is the death of the hero, which puts everything in its place, showing the hero his place. As it turned out, money and wealth do not play any role when it comes to real love, recognition and respect. No one remembered the name of the hero after death, as, however, they did not remember during his lifetime either.

The hero's body also returned home on the steamer "Atlantis", but already in the hold, among the boxes of all kinds of rubbish. This is the summary of the hero's life. From the work we see that the writer rejects the ideals of the bourgeois world, considers them leading to destruction. The truth for the writer is that which stands above human ambitions and delusions, and this is, first of all, nature, which is eternal and unchanging, keeps the laws of the Universe, as well as the highest human values ​​- honesty, trust, justice, love, etc. .

If a person violates all this, then he inevitably strives for death, like a society that preaches such values. It is for this reason that the lines from the Apocalypse became the epigraph of the work: "Woe to you, Babylon, strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come."

Bunin's story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" tells that everything depreciates before the fact of death. Human life is subject to decay, it is too short to waste it in vain, and the main idea of ​​this instructive story is to comprehend the essence of human existence. The meaning of the life of the hero of this story lies in his belief that everything can be bought with the available wealth, but fate decided otherwise. We offer an analysis of the work "The Gentleman from San Francisco" according to the plan, the material will be useful in preparing for the exam in literature in grade 11.

Brief analysis

Year of writing– 1915

History of creation- In a shop window, Bunin accidentally drew attention to the cover of Thomas Mann's book "Death in Venice", this was the impetus for writing the story.

Subject– The opposites that surround a person everywhere are the main theme of the work - this is life and death, wealth and poverty, power and insignificance. All this reflects the philosophy of the author himself.

Composition– The problematics of “The Gentleman from San Francisco” includes both philosophical and socio-political character. The author reflects on the frailty of life, on the attitude of a person to spiritual and material values, from the point of view of various strata of society. The plot of the story begins with the journey of the master, the climax is his unexpected death, and in the denouement of the story the author reflects on the future of mankind.

Genre- A story that is a meaningful parable.

Direction- Realism. In the story of Bunin, it acquires a deep philosophical meaning.

History of creation

The history of the creation of Bunin's story dates back to 1915, when he saw the cover of the book by Thomas Mann. After that, he visited his sister, remembered the cover, for some reason she caused him to associate with the death of one of the Americans on vacation, which happened during a vacation in Capri. Immediately, a sudden decision came to him to describe this incident, which he did in the shortest possible time - the story was written in just four days. With the exception of the deceased American, all other facts in the story are completely fictitious.

Subject

In The Gentleman from San Francisco, the analysis of the work allows us to highlight main idea of ​​the story, which consists in the author's philosophical reflections on the meaning of life, on the essence of being.

Critics enthusiastically reacted to the creation of the Russian writer, interpreting the essence of the philosophical story in their own way. Theme of the story- life and death, poverty and luxury, in the description of this hero, who lived his life in vain, reflects the worldview of the whole society, divided into classes. High society, possessing all material values, having the opportunity to buy everything that is only for sale, do not have the most important thing - spiritual values.

On the ship, a dancing couple, depicting sincere happiness, is also a fake. These are actors who have been bought to play love. There is nothing real, everything is artificial and feigned, everything is bought. And the people themselves are false and hypocritical, they are faceless, which is what the meaning of the name this story.

And the master has no name, his life is aimless and empty, he does not bring any benefit, he only enjoys the benefits created by representatives of another, lower class. He dreamed of buying everything that was possible, but did not have time, fate decreed in its own way, and took his life from him. When he dies, no one remembers him, he only causes inconvenience to others, including his family.

The bottom line is that he died - that's all, he does not need any wealth, luxury, power and honor. He doesn't care where he lies - in a luxurious inlaid coffin, or in a simple soda box. Life was in vain, he did not experience real, sincere human feelings, did not know love and happiness, in the worship of the golden calf.

Composition

The storytelling is divided into two parts: how a gentleman sails on a ship to the coast of Italy, and the journey of the same gentleman back, on the same ship, only already in a coffin.

In the first part, the hero enjoys all the possible benefits that money can buy, he has all the best: a hotel room, gourmet meals, and all the other delights of life. The gentleman has so much money that he planned a trip for two years, together with his family, wife and daughter, who also do not deny themselves anything.

But after the climax, when the hero is overtaken by sudden death, everything changes dramatically. The owner of the hotel does not even allow to put the corpse of the gentleman in his room, having allocated for this purpose the cheapest and most inconspicuous. There is not even a decent coffin in which the gentleman can be put, and he is put in an ordinary box, which is a container for some products. On the ship, where the gentleman was blissful on deck among high society, his place is only in the dark hold.

Main characters

Genre

"The Gentleman from San Francisco" can be summed up as genre story a, but this story is filled with deep philosophical content, and differs from other Bunin's works. Usually, Bunin's stories contain a description of nature and natural phenomena, striking in their liveliness and realism.

In the same work there is a main character, around whom the conflict of this story is tied. Its content makes us think about the problems of society, about its degradation, which has turned into a spiritually mercantile creature, worshiping only one idol - money, and renounced everything spiritual.

The whole story is subject philosophical direction, and in plot plan is an instructive parable that gives a lesson to the reader. The injustice of a class society, where the lower part of the population vegetates in poverty, and the cream of high society senselessly burns life, all this, in the end, leads to a single finale, and in the face of death everyone is equal, both poor and rich, no one can buy it off money.

Bunin's story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is rightfully considered one of the most outstanding works in his work.

Artwork test

Analysis Rating

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