In literature in general, and in Russian literature in particular, the problem of the relationship of a person with the world around him occupies a significant place. Personality and environment, individual and society - many Russians thought about this 19th writers century. The fruits of these reflections were reflected in many stable formulations, for example, in famous phrase"Wednesday for-eat." There has been a marked increase in interest in this topic in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, in an era that was a turning point for Russia. In the spirit of humanistic traditions inherited from the past, Alexander Kuprin considers this issue, using all the artistic means that became the achievement of the turn of the century.

The work of this writer was for a long time as if in a shadow, it was obscured prominent representatives contemporaries. Today, the works of A. Kuprin are of great interest. They attract the reader with their simplicity, humanity, democracy in the noblest sense of the word. The world of A. Kuprin's heroes is colorful and varied. He himself lived a bright life filled with diverse impressions - he was a military man, a clerk, a land surveyor, and an actor in a traveling circus troupe. A. Kuprin said many times that he does not understand writers who do not find anything more interesting in nature and people than themselves. The writer is very interested human fates, while the heroes of his works are most often not successful, successful, satisfied with themselves and life people, but rather the opposite. But A. Kuprin treats his outwardly unsightly and unlucky heroes with that warmth and humanity that has always distinguished Russian writers. In the characters of the stories "White Poodle", "Taper", "Gambrinus", as well as many others, the features of " little man”, however, the writer does not simply reproduce this type, but rethinks it.

We will reveal very famous story Kupri-on " Garnet bracelet", written in 1911. Its plot is based on a real event - the love of telegraph official P.P. Zheltkov for his wife important official, member State Council Lyubimov. This story is mentioned by the son of Lubimo-Voy, the author famous memories Lev Lyubimov. In life, everything ended differently than in the story of A. Kuprin, -. the official accepted the bracelet and stopped writing letters, nothing more was known about him. In the Lyubimov family, this incident was remembered as strange and curious. Under the pen of the writer, the story turned into a sad and tragic story about the life of a little man who was elevated and destroyed by love. This is transmitted through the composition of the work. It gives an extensive, unhurried introduction, which introduces us to the exposition of the Scheny's house. The very story of extraordinary love, the story of the garnet bracelet, is told in such a way that we see it through the eyes of different people: Prince Vasily, who tells it as an anecdotal incident, brother Nikolai, for whom everything in this story is seen as offensive and suspicious, Vera Nikolaevna herself and, finally, General Anosov, who was the first to suggest that here maybe lies real love, "which women dream of and which men are no longer capable of." The circle to which Vera Nikolaevna belongs cannot admit that this is a real feeling, not so much because of the strange behavior of Zheltkov, but because of the prejudices that rule them. Kuprin, wishing to convince us readers of the authenticity of Zheltkov's love, resorts to the most irrefutable argument - the hero's suicide. Thus, the right of the little man to happiness is affirmed, while the motive of his moral superiority over the people who so cruelly offended him, who failed to understand the strength of the feeling that made up the whole meaning of his life, arises.

Kuprin's story is both sad and bright. It is permeated by a musical beginning - the epigraph indicates musical composition, - and the story ends with a scene when the heroine listens to music at a tragic moment of moral insight for her. The text of the work includes the theme of the inevitability of the death of the protagonist - it is conveyed through the symbolism of light: at the moment of receiving the bracelet, Vera Nikolaevna sees red stones in it and anxiously thinks that they look like blood. Finally, the theme of the collision of various cultural traditions arises in the story: the theme of the east - the Mongolian blood of the father of Vera and Anna, the Tatar prince, introduces the theme of love-passion, recklessness into the story; the mention that the mother of the sisters is an Englishwoman introduces the theme of rationality, impassibility in the sphere of feelings, the power of the mind over the heart. In the final part of the story, a third line appears: it is no coincidence that the landlady turns out to be a Catholic. This introduces into the work the theme of love-worship, which in Catholicism is surrounded mother of God, love-self-sacrifice.

The hero of A. Kuprin, a small man, collides with the world of non-understanding around him, the world of people for whom love is a kind of madness, and, having collided with it, dies.

In the wonderful story "Olesya" we see the poetic image of a girl who grew up in the hut of an old "sorceress", outside the usual norms. peasant family. Olesya's love for the intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, who accidentally drove into a remote forest village, is a free, simple and strong feeling, without looking back and obligations, among the tall pines, painted with a crimson reflection of the dying dawn. The story of the girl ends tragically. IN free life Olesya is invaded by the selfish calculations of village officials, and the superstitions of dark peasants. Beaten and os-meyannaya, Olesya is forced to flee with Manuilikha from the forest nest.

In the works of Kuprin, many heroes have similar features - this is spiritual purity, dreaminess, ardent imagination, combined with impracticality and lack of will. And they are most clearly revealed in love. All the heroes treat the woman with her sons pure and reverent. Readiness to fight for the sake of a beloved woman, romantic worship, chivalrous service to her - and at the same time underestimating oneself, disbelief in one's own strengths. Men in Kuprin's stories seem to change places with women. These are the energetic, strong-willed "Polesye witch" Olesya and the "kind, but only weak" Ivan Timofeevich, the smart, prudent Shurochka Nikolaevna and the "pure, sweet, but weak and pathetic" Lieutenant Romashov. All these are Kuprin's heroes with a fragile soul, caught in a cruel world.

The atmosphere of revolutionary days breathes in Kuprin's excellent story "Gambrinus", created in the alarming year 1907. The theme of all-conquering art is woven here with the idea of ​​democracy, the bold protest of the “little man” against the black forces of arbitrariness and reaction. Meek and merry Sashka outstanding talent violinist and sincerity attracts a diverse crowd of port loaders, fishermen, smugglers to the Odessa tavern. They enthusiastically meet melodies, which, as it were, are a background, as if reflecting public moods and events - from Russo-Japanese War until the rebellious days of the revolution, when Sashkin's violin sounds with the cheerful rhythms of Marseilles. In the days of the onset of terror, Sashka challenges disguised detectives and black-hundred "scoundrels in a hat", refusing to play the monarchist anthem at their request, openly denouncing them for murders and pogroms.

Crippled by the tsarist secret police, he returns to his port friends to play for them on the outskirts of the melody of the deafeningly cheerful "Shepherd". Free creativity, power folk spirit, according to Kuprin, are invincible.

Returning to the question posed at the beginning - "man and the world around him", - we note that in Russian prose of the beginning of the 20th century a wide range of answers to it is presented. We have considered only one of the options - the tragic collision of the individual with the world around him, his insight and death, but the death is not meaningless, but contains an element of purification and high meaning.

The theme of love in the story "Garnet Bracelet"

"Unrequited love does not humiliate a person, but elevates him." Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich

According to many researchers, “everything is masterfully written in this story, starting with its title. The title itself is surprisingly poetic and sonorous. It sounds like a line of a poem written in iambic trimeter.

The story is based on a real case. In a letter to the editor of the journal “The World of God” F. D. Batyushkov, Kuprin wrote in October 1910: “Do you remember this? - sad story the little telegraph official P.P. Zholtikov, who was hopelessly, touchingly and selflessly in love with Lyubimov's wife (D.N. is now the governor in Vilna). While only came up with an epigraph ... " (L. Van Beethoven. Son No. 2, op. 2. Largo Appassionato). Although the work is based on real events, the ending of the story - Zheltkov's suicide - is the writer's creative conjecture. Kuprin did not accidentally complete his story tragic ending, he needed such an ending to more strongly shade the power of Zheltkov's love for a woman almost unfamiliar to him - a love that happens "once in a thousand years."

The work on the story had a strong influence on state of mind Alexander Ivanovich. “Recently I told a good actress,” he wrote in a letter to F. D. Batyushkov in December 1910, “I’m crying about the plot of my work, I’ll say one thing that I haven’t written anything more chaste yet.”

The main character of the story is Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina. The action of the story takes place in the Black Sea resort in the fall, namely on September 17 - the day of the name day of Vera Nikolaevna.

The first chapter is an introduction, whose task was to prepare the reader for the desired perception of subsequent events. Kuprin describes nature. In describing nature, Kuprin has many sounds, colors, and especially smells. landscape in the highest degree emotional and unlike anyone else. Thanks to the description of the autumn landscape with its deserted dachas and flower beds, you feel the inevitability of the withering of the surrounding nature, the withering of the world. Kuprin draws a parallel between the description of the autumn garden and the internal state of the main character: coldish autumn landscape fading nature is similar in essence to the mood of Vera Nikolaevna Sheina. According to him, we predict her calm, impregnable character. Nothing attracts her in this life, perhaps that is why the brightness of her being is enslaved by routine and dullness.

The author describes main character like this: “... went to her mother, a beautiful Englishwoman, with her tall flexible figure, gentle, but cold and proud face, beautiful, although rather big hands, and that charming sloping of the shoulders, which can be seen in old miniatures ... ". Vera could not be imbued with a sense of beauty to the world around her. She was not a natural romantic. And, seeing something out of the ordinary, some peculiarity, I tried (albeit involuntarily) to ground it, to compare it with the outside world. Her life flowed slowly, measuredly, quietly, and, it would seem, satisfied the principles of life, without going beyond them.

The husband of Vera Nikolaevna was Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein. He was the leader of the nobility. Vera Nikolaevna married the prince, an exemplary, quiet person like herself. Vera Nikolaevna's former passionate love for her husband turned into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship. The couple, despite their high position in society, barely making ends meet. Since she had to live above her means, Vera, imperceptibly for her husband, saved money, remaining worthy of her title.

On the day of the name day, Vera's closest friends come to visit. According to Kuprin, "Vera Nikolaevna Sheina always expected something happy, wonderful from the name day." She arrived first younger sister- Anna Nikolaevna Friesse. “She was half a head shorter, somewhat broad in the shoulders, lively and frivolous, a mocker. Her face is of a strongly Mongolian type with rather noticeable cheekbones, with narrow eyes ... captivated by some elusive and incomprehensible charm ... ". She was the complete opposite of Vera Nikolaevna. The sisters loved each other very much. Anna was married to a very rich and very stupid person, who did absolutely nothing, but was listed at some charitable institution. She could not stand her husband, Gustav Ivanovich, but she gave birth to two children from him - a boy and a girl. Vera Nikolaevna really wanted to have children, but she did not have them. Anna constantly flirted in all the capitals and resorts of Europe, but she never cheated on her husband.

On the name day, the younger sister presented Vera with a little notebook in amazing binding. Vera Nikolaevna liked the gift very much. As for Vera's husband, he gave her earrings made of pear-shaped pearls. writer kuprin story love

The guests arrive in the evening. All actors, with the exception of Zheltkov, the main character in love with Princess Sheina, Kuprin gathers the Shein family at the dacha. The princess receives expensive gifts from the guests. The name day celebration was fun until Vera notices that there are thirteen guests. Since she was superstitious, this alarms her. But so far, there are no signs of trouble.

Among the guests, Kuprin singles out the old General Anosov, a comrade-in-arms of the father of Vera and Anna. The author describes him like this: “A fat, tall, silver old man, he was heavily climbing off the footboard ... He had a large, rough, red face with a fleshy nose and with that good-naturedly majestic, slightly contemptuous expression in his narrowed eyes ... which is characteristic of courageous and ordinary people…”

Also present at the name day was Vera's brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky. He always defended his opinion and was ready to stand up for his family.

Traditionally, the guests played poker. Vera did not join the game: she was called by the maid, who handed her a package.. Unfolding the package, Vera discovers a case containing a gold bracelet with stones and a note. “... a gold, low-grade, very thick ... on the outside, all completely covered ... with garnets” bracelet. He looks like a tasteless trinket next to the expensive elegant gifts that guests gave her. The note tells about the bracelet, that it is a family jewel that has magic power and what is the most expensive thing that the donor has. At the end of the letter were the initials G.S.Zh., and Vera realized that this was the secret admirer who had been writing to her for seven years. This bracelet becomes a symbol of his hopeless, enthusiastic, selfless, reverent love. Thus, this person is somehow trying to connect himself with Vera Nikolaevna. It was enough for him only that her hands touched his gift.

Looking at the thick red grenades, Vera felt alarmed, she felt something unpleasant approaching, she saw some kind of omen in this bracelet. It is no coincidence that she immediately compares these red stones with blood: “Just like blood!” she exclaims. The tranquility of Vera Nikolaevna was disturbed. Vera considered Zheltkov "unfortunate", she could not understand the tragedy of this love. The expression "happy unhappy person" turned out to be somewhat contradictory. Indeed, in his feeling for Vera, Zheltkov experienced happiness.

Until the guests leave, Vera decides not to talk about the gift to her husband. Meanwhile, her husband entertains guests with stories in which there is very little truth. Among these stories is the story of an unfortunate lover in Vera Nikolaevna, who allegedly sent passionate letters to her every day, and then became a monk, after dying, bequeathed to Vera two buttons and a bottle of perfume with his tears.

And only now do we learn about Zheltkov, despite the fact that he main character. None of the guests has ever seen him, does not know his name, only it is known (judging by the letters) that he serves as a petty official and some kind of mysteriously always knows where he is and what Vera Nikolaevna is doing. Almost nothing is said about Zheltkov himself in the story. We learn about it thanks to small details. But even these minor details used by the author in his narrative testify to a lot. We understand that the inner world of this extraordinary person was very, very rich. This man was not like the others, he was not mired in a miserable and dull everyday life, his soul aspired to the beautiful and sublime.

Evening comes. Many guests are leaving, leaving General Anosov, who talks about his life. He tells his love story, which he will remember forever - short and simple, which, in retelling, seems like just a vulgar adventure of an army officer. “I don’t see true love. And I didn’t see it in my time!” - says the general and gives examples of ordinary, obscene unions of people concluded for one reason or another. “Where is the love? Love disinterested, selfless, not waiting for a reward? The one about which it is said - "strong as death"? .. Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No comforts of life, calculations and compromises should concern her.” It was Anosov who formulated the main idea of ​​the story: "Love must be ..." and to some extent expressed Kuprin's opinion.

Anosov talks about similar to such love tragic cases. The conversation about love led Anosov to the story of a telegraph operator. At first he suggested that Zheltkov was a maniac, and only then he decided that Zheltkov’s love was real: “... maybe your life path, Vera, crossed exactly the kind of love that women dream of and that men are no longer capable of.

When only Vera's husband and brother remained in the house, she spoke about Zheltkov's gift. Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich treated Zheltkov's gift extremely dismissively, laughed at his letters, mocked his feelings. The garnet bracelet causes stormy indignation in Nikolai Nikolayevich, it is worth noting that he was extremely annoyed by the act of the young official, and Vasily Lvovich, by virtue of his character, took it more calmly.

Nikolai Nikolaevich is worried about Vera. He does not believe in pure platonic love Zheltkov, suspecting him of the most vulgar adultery. If she accepted the gift, Zheltkov would brag to his friends, he could hope for something more, he would give her expensive gifts: "... a diamond ring, a pearl necklace ...", wasting government money, and subsequently everything could have ended court, where the Sheins would be called as witnesses. The Shein family would have fallen into a ridiculous position, their name would have been disgraced.

Vera herself did not give letters special meaning, did not have feelings for her mysterious admirer. She was somewhat flattered by his attention. Vera thought that Zheltkov's letters were just an innocent joke. She does not attach the same importance to them that her brother Nikolai Nikolayevich does.

Husband and brother of Vera Nikolaevna decide to give a gift secret admirer and ask him never to write to Vera again, to forget about her forever. But how to do this if they did not know either the name, or the surname, or the address of the admirer of the Faith? Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich find a fan by their initials in the lists of city employees. Now they become aware that the mysterious G.S.Zh. is a petty official Georgy Zheltkov. Vera's brother and husband go to his house for an important conversation with Zheltkov, who subsequently decides the whole fate of Georgy.

Zheltkov lived under a roof in one poor house: “The spit-stained staircase smelled of mice, cats, kerosene and washing ... The room was very low, but very wide and long, almost square in shape. Two round windows, quite similar to ship portholes, barely illuminated her. Yes, and all of it was similar to the wardroom of a cargo steamer. Along one wall stood a narrow bed, along the other a very large and wide sofa, covered with a beautiful tattered Teke carpet, in the middle - a table covered with a colored Little Russian tablecloth. Such an accurate detailed description of the atmosphere in which Zheltkov lives, Kuprin notes for a reason, the author shows the inequality between Princess Vera and the petty official Zheltkov. Between them there are insurmountable social barriers and barriers of class inequality. It is different social status and Vera's marriage make Zheltkov's love unrequited.

Kuprin develops the theme of the “little man”, traditional for Russian literature. Official with funny last name Yolks, quiet and inconspicuous, not only grows into tragic hero, he, by the power of his love, rises above petty fuss, life's conveniences, decency. He turns out to be a man in no way inferior in nobility to aristocrats. Love lifted him up. Love gives Zheltkov "tremendous happiness." Love has become suffering, the only meaning of life. Zheltkov did not demand anything for his love, his letters to the princess were just a desire to speak out, to convey his feelings to his beloved being.

Once in Zheltkov's room, finally, Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich see Vera's admirer. The author describes him as follows: “... he was tall, thin, with long fluffy, soft hair ... very pale, with a gentle girlish face, with blue eyes and a stubborn childish chin with a dimple in the middle; he must have been about thirty, thirty-five…” Zheltkov, as soon as Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich introduced themselves, became very nervous and frightened, but after a while he calmed down. The men return Zheltkov his bracelet with a request not to repeat such things again. Zheltkov himself understands and admits that he did something stupid by sending Vera a garnet bracelet.

Zheltkov confesses to Vasily Lvovich that he has been in love with his wife for seven years. Vera Nikolaevna, by some whim of fate, once seemed to Zheltkov an amazing, completely unearthly creature. And a strong, vivid feeling flared up in his heart. He was always at some distance from his beloved, and, obviously, this distance contributed to the strength of his passion. He could not forget the beautiful image of the princess, and he was not at all stopped by the indifference on the part of his beloved.

Nikolai Nikolayevich gives Zheltkov two options further action: either he forever forgets Vera and never writes to her again, or, if he does not give up the persecution, measures will be taken against him. Zheltkov asks to call Vera to say goodbye to her. Although Nikolai Nikolaevich was against the call, Prince Shein allowed it to be done. But the conversation did not go well: Vera Nikolaevna did not want to talk to Zheltkov. Returning to the room, Zheltkov looked upset, his eyes were filled with tears. He asked permission to write to Vera Farewell letter, after which he will disappear from their lives forever, and again Prince Shein allows this to be done.

Relatives of Princess Vera recognized in Zheltkovo noble man: brother Nikolai Nikolaevich: “I immediately guessed a noble person in you”; husband Prince Vasily Lvovich: "this man is incapable of deceiving and lying knowingly."

Returning home, Vasily Lvovich tells Vera in detail about the meeting with Zheltkov. She was alarmed and uttered the following phrase: "I know that this man will kill himself." Vera already had a premonition of the tragic outcome of this situation.

The next morning, Vera Nikolaevna reads in the newspaper that Zheltkov committed suicide. The newspaper wrote that the death occurred due to the waste of public money. So the suicide wrote in a posthumous letter.

Throughout the story, Kuprin is trying to inspire readers with “the concept of love on the verge of life”, and he does this through Zheltkov, for him love is life, therefore, there is no love - there is no life. And when Vera's husband persistently asks to stop love, his life also stops. But is love worthy of losing life, losing everything that can be in the world? Everyone must answer this question for himself - does he want this, what is more precious to him - life or love? Zheltkov answered: love. Well, what about the price of life, because life is the most precious thing we have, it is we who are so afraid of losing it, and on the other hand, love is the meaning of our life, without which it will not be life, but will be an empty sound. I involuntarily recall the words of I. S. Turgenev: “Love ... stronger than death and fear of death.

Zheltkov complied with Vera's request to "stop this whole story" in the only way possible for him. That same evening, Vera receives a letter from Zheltkov.

Here is what the letter said: “... It so happened that nothing interests me in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people - for me, all life lies only in you ... My love is not illness, not a manic idea, it is a reward from God... If you ever think of me, then play the L. van Beethoven sonata. Son No. 2, op. 2. Largo Appassionato ... "Zheltkov also deified his beloved in a letter, his prayer was addressed to her:" May your name". However, with all this, Princess Vera was an ordinary earthly woman. So her deification is a figment of the imagination of poor Zheltkov.

It is a pity that in life he was not interested in anything but her. I think you can’t live like this, you can’t just suffer and dream about your beloved, but inaccessible. Life is a game, and each of us is obliged to play our role, to have time to do it in such a short period of time, to have time to become positive or villain, but in no case remain indifferent to everything except her, the only, beautiful one.

Zheltkov thinks that this is his destiny - to love madly, but unrequitedly, that it is impossible to escape from fate. If not for this latter, then he would undoubtedly have tried to do something, to escape from a feeling doomed to death.

Yes, I think I should have run. Run without looking back. Set yourself a long-term goal and plunge headlong into work. I had to force myself to forget my crazy love. It was necessary to at least try to avoid its tragic outcome.

With all his desire, he could not be in control of his soul, in which too great place took the form of a princess. Zheltkov idealized his beloved, he did not know anything about her, therefore he painted in his imagination a completely unearthly image. And this also shows the eccentricity of his nature. His love could not be tarnished, stained precisely because it was too far from real life. Zheltkov never met his beloved, his feelings remained a mirage, they were not connected with reality. And in this regard, the enamored Zheltkov appears before the reader as a dreamer, romantic and idealist out of touch with life.

He endowed best qualities a woman about whom he knew absolutely nothing. Perhaps if fate had given Zheltkov at least one meeting with the princess, he would have changed his mind about her. At the very least, she would not seem to him an ideal being, absolutely devoid of flaws. But, alas, the meeting was impossible.

Anosov said: "Love must be a tragedy ...", if you approach love with just such a yardstick, then it becomes clear - Zheltkov's love is just that. He easily puts his feelings for the beautiful princess above all else. In essence, life itself has no special value for Zheltkov. And, probably, the reason for this is the lack of demand for his love, because the life of Mr. Zheltkov is not decorated with anything other than feelings for the princess. At the same time, the princess herself lives a completely different life, in which there is no place for the enamored Zheltkov. And she does not want the flow of these letters to continue. The princess is not interested in her unknown admirer, she is fine without him. All the more surprising and even strange is Zheltkov, who consciously cultivates his passion for Vera Nikolaevna.

Can Zheltkov be called a sufferer who lived his life uselessly, giving himself up as a victim of some amazing soulless love? On the one hand, he appears to be just that. He was ready to give his life to his beloved, but no one needed such a sacrifice. The garnet bracelet itself is a detail that even more clearly emphasizes the entire tragedy of this man. He is ready to part with family heirloom, an ornament passed down by women of his family. Zheltkov is ready to give the only jewel to a completely stranger woman, and she did not need this gift at all.

Can Zheltkov's feelings for Vera Nikolaevna be called madness? Prince Shein answers this question in the book: “... I feel that I am present at some enormous tragedy of the soul, and I cannot play around here ... I will say that he loved you, but was not at all crazy ... ". And I agree with his opinion.

The psychological culmination of the story is Vera's farewell to the deceased Zheltkov, their only "date" - a turning point in her internal state. On the face of the deceased, she read “deep importance, ... as if, before parting with life, he had learned some deep and sweet secret that resolved his whole human life”, “blissful and serene” smile, “peace”. “At that moment, she realized that the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by.”

You can immediately ask the question: - did Vera love anyone at all. Or the word love in its understanding is nothing but the concept of marital duty, marital fidelity, and not feelings for another person. Vera probably loved only one person: her sister, who was everything to her. She did not love her husband, not to mention Zheltkov, whom she had never seen alive.

But was it necessary for Vera to go look at the dead Zheltkov? Perhaps it was an attempt to somehow assert herself, not to torment herself for the rest of her life with remorse, to look at the one she refused. To understand that in her life there will be nothing like this. From what we pushed off, we came to that - before he was looking for meetings with her, and now she came to him. And who is to blame for what happened - he himself or his love.

Love dried him up, took away all the best that was in his nature. But she gave nothing in return. Therefore, the unfortunate person has nothing else to do. Obviously, by the death of the hero, Kuprin wanted to express his attitude towards his love. Zheltkov, of course, is a unique person, very special. Therefore, it is very difficult for him to live among ordinary people. It turns out that there is no place for him on this earth. And this is his tragedy, and not his fault at all.

Of course, his love can be called a unique, wonderful, amazingly beautiful phenomenon. Yes, such a disinterested and amazing pure love is very rare. But still, it's good that it happens this way. After all, such love is coming hand in hand with tragedy, it breaks a person's life. And the beauty of the soul remains unclaimed, no one knows about it and does not notice it.

When Princess Sheina came home, she fulfills Zheltkov's last wish. She asks her pianist friend Jenny Reiter to play something for her. Vera has no doubt that the pianist will perform exactly the place in the sonata that Zheltkov asked for. Her thoughts and music merged into one, and she heard as if the verses ended with the words: "Hallowed be thy name."

"Hallowed be Thy name" - sounds like a refrain in the last part of the "Garnet Bracelet". A man has passed away, but love has not gone away. It seemed to dissipate in the surrounding world, merging with Beethoven's sonata No. 2 Largo Appassionato. Under passionate sounds music, the heroine feels the painful and beautiful birth of a new world in her soul, feels a sense of deep gratitude to the person who has placed love for her above everything in his life, even above life itself. She understands that he has forgiven her. In this tragic note the story ends.

However, despite the sad denouement, Kuprin's hero is happy. He believes that the love that illuminated his life is a truly wonderful feeling. And I no longer know if this love is so naive and reckless. And maybe she really is worth it to give her life and desire for life for her. After all, she is beautiful like the moon, pure like the sky, bright like the sun, constant like nature. Such is the knightly romantic love Zheltkov to Princess Vera Nikolaevna, who swallowed up his whole being. Zheltkov passes away without complaints, without reproaches, saying, as a prayer: "Hallowed be thy name." It is impossible to read these lines without tears. And it is not clear why tears roll from the eyes. Either this is just pity for the unfortunate Zheltkov (after all, life could be beautiful for him too), or admiration for the magnificence of the great feeling of a small person.

I so wish that this fairy tale about the all-forgiving and strong love, created by I. A. Kuprin. I so wish that cruel reality could never defeat our sincere feelings, our love. We must multiply it, be proud of it. love, true love, it is necessary to study diligently, as the most painstaking science. However, love does not come if you wait for its appearance every minute, and at the same time, it does not flare up from nothing.

Composition

The theme of love in the works of Kuprin (based on the story Garnet Bracelet) Love has thousands of aspects and each of them has its own light, its own sadness, its own happiness and its own fragrance. K. Paustovsky. Among the stories of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, the Pomegranate Bracelet occupies a special place. Paustovsky called it one of the most fragrant, languid and saddest love stories.

One of the main characters, the poor shy official Zheltkov, fell in love with Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, the wife of Vasily Shein, marshal of the nobility. He considered her inaccessible and then did not even try to meet her. Zheltkov wrote letters to her, collected forgotten things and watched her at various exhibitions and meetings. And now, eight years after Zheltkov first saw and fell in love with Vera, he sends her a gift with a letter in which he presents a garnet bracelet and bows before her. I mentally bow to the ground of the furniture you sit on, the parquet floor you walk on, the trees you touch in passing, the servants you talk to. Vera told her husband about this gift, and in order not to get into a ridiculous situation, they decided to return the garnet bracelet. Vasily Shein and his wife's brother asked Zheltkov not to send letters and gifts to Vera anymore, but they allowed him to write last letter, in which he apologizes and says goodbye to Vera. Let me be ridiculous in your eyes and in the eyes of your brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich.

Leaving, I say in delight: Hallowed be thy name. Zheltkov had no purpose in life, he was not interested in anything, he did not go to theaters, did not read books, he lived only in love for Vera. She was the only joy in life, the only consolation, the only thought. And now, when the last joy in life is taken away from him, Zheltkov commits suicide. Modest clerk Zheltkov is better and cleaner than people secular society, such as Vasily Shein and Nikolai. nobility of soul common man, his ability for deep feelings is opposed to callous, soulless strong of the world this.

As you know, Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, a writer, was a psychologist. He transferred his observations of human nature to literature, which enriched and diversified it. Reading his works, you feel a particularly subtle, deep and sensitive awareness of everything. It seems that the writer knows what you are going through and tries to help you, directs you to Right way. After all, the world in which we live is sometimes so polluted with lies, meanness and vulgarity that sometimes we need a boost of positive energy to resist the sucking quagmire. Who will show us the source of purity? In my opinion, Kuprin has such a talent. He, like a master grinding a stone, reveals wealth in our souls, which we ourselves did not know about. In his works, to reveal the characters of the characters, he uses the technique psychological analysis, portraying a spiritually liberated person as the main character, trying to endow him with all those wonderful qualities that we admire in people. In particular, sensitivity, understanding of others and a demanding, strict attitude towards oneself. There are many examples of this: engineer Bobrov, Olesya, G. S. Zheltkov. All of them carry what we call high moral perfection. They all love disinterestedly, forgetting themselves.

In the story Garnet Bracelet, Kuprin, with all the strength of his craftsmanship, develops the idea of ​​true love. He does not want to put up with vulgar, practical views on love and marriage, drawing our attention to these problems quite in an unusual way, equaling the perfect feeling. Through the mouth of General Anosov, he says: ... People in our time have forgotten how to love! I don't see true love. Yeah, I didn't see it at the time either. What is this Challenge Is it really that what we feel is not true, but we have calm moderate happiness with the person we need. What moreAccording to Kuprin, Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No comforts of life, calculations and compromises should concern her. Only then can love be called a real feeling, completely true and moral.

I still cannot forget what impression Zheltkov's feelings made on me. How much he loved Vera Nikolaevna that he could commit suicide! This is madness! Loving Princess Sheina for seven years with hopeless and polite love, he, never meeting her, speaking of his love only in letters, suddenly commits suicide! Not because the brother of Vera Nikolaevna is going to turn to power, and not because they returned his gift, a garnet bracelet. (He is a symbol of deep fiery love and at the same time a terrible bloody sign of death.) And, probably, not because of the fact that he squandered government money. For Zheltkov, there was simply no other way out. He loved married woman so that he could not stop thinking about her even for a minute, to exist without remembering her smile, look, the sound of her gait. He himself says to Vera's husband: There remains only one death ... You want, I will accept it in any form. The terrible thing is that Vera Nikolaevna's brother and husband, who came to demand that their family be left alone, pushed him to this decision. They turned out to be, as it were, indirect culprits of his death. They had the right to demand peace, but on the part of Nikolai Nikolaevich it was unacceptable, even a ridiculous threat to appeal to the authorities. How can power forbid a person to love!

Kuprin's ideal is selfless love, self-denying, not waiting for a reward, one for which you can give your life and endure anything. It was this kind of love, which happens once in a thousand years, that Zheltkov loved. This was his need, the meaning of life, and he proved this: I did not know any complaint, no reproach, no pain of self-love, I have only one prayer before you: Hallowed be Your name. These words, with which his soul was filled, are felt by Princess Vera in the sounds of Beethoven's immortal sonata. They cannot leave us indifferent and instill in us an unbridled desire to strive for the same incomparably pure feeling. Its roots go back to morality and spiritual harmony in man.

Princess Vera did not regret that this love, which every woman dreams of, passed her by. She cries because her soul is overwhelmed with admiration for sublime, almost unearthly feelings.

A person who could love so much must have some special worldview. Although Zheltkov was only a small official, he turned out to be above social norms and standards. Such people as they are elevated by human rumor to the rank of saints, and a bright memory lives about them for a long time.

Other writings on this work

The recognized master of love prose is Alexander Kuprin, the author of the story "Garnet Bracelet". “Love is selfless, selfless, not waiting for a reward, the one about which it is said “strong as death.” Love, for which to accomplish any feat, to give one's life, to endure torment is not labor at all, but one joy, ”such love touched an ordinary middle-class official Zheltkov.

He once and for all fell in love with Vera. And not ordinary love, but the one that happens once in a lifetime, divine. Faith does not attach importance to the feelings of her admirer, lives full life. She marries a quiet, calm, good man from all sides, Prince Shein. And her quiet, calm life begins, not overshadowed by anything, neither sadness nor joy.

A special role is assigned to Vera's uncle, General Anosov. In his mouth, Kuprin puts the words that are the theme of the story: “... maybe your life path, Verochka, was crossed by exactly the kind of love that women dream of and that men are no longer capable of.” Thus, in his story, Kuprin wants to show the story of love, albeit unrequited, but nonetheless, this unrequitedness has not become less strong and has not turned into hatred. According to General Anosov, any person dreams of such love, but not everyone gets it. And Vera, in her family life there is no such love. There is another thing - respect, mutual, for each other. Kuprin, in his story, sought to show readers that such sublime love is already a thing of the past, there are only a few people left, such as the telegraph operator Zheltkov, who are capable of it. But many, the author emphasizes, are not at all able to understand the deep meaning of love.

And Vera herself does not understand that she is destined to be loved by fate. Of course, she is a lady of a certain position in society, a countess. Maybe, happy outcome such love could not be. Kuprin probably himself understands that Vera is not able to connect her life with the "little" man Zheltkov. Although it still leaves her one chance to live the rest of her life in love. Vera missed her chance to be happy.

The idea of ​​the work

The idea of ​​the story "Garnet Bracelet" is faith in the power of a true, all-consuming feeling, which is not afraid of death itself. When they try to take away the only thing from Zheltkov - his love, when they want to deprive him of the opportunity to see his beloved, then he decides to die voluntarily. Thus, Kuprin is trying to say that life without love is meaningless. This is a feeling that does not know temporary, social and other barriers. No wonder the name of the main one is Vera. Kuprin believes that his readers will wake up and understand that not only material values rich man, but rich inner world, soul. The words of Zheltkov “Hallowed be thy name” run like a red thread through the whole story - this is the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe work. Every woman dreams of hearing such words, but big love only by the Lord and not by all.

In literature in general, and in Russian literature in particular, the problem of man's relationship with the world around him occupies a significant place. Personality and environment, individual and society - many Russian writers of the 19th century thought about this. The fruits of these reflections were reflected in many stable formulations, for example, in the well-known phrase "the environment is stuck." Interest in this topic noticeably intensified in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in an era that was a turning point for Russia. In the spirit of humanistic traditions inherited from the past, Alexander Kuprin considers this issue, using all the artistic means that became the achievement of the turn of the century. The work of this writer was for a long time, as it were, in the shadows, he was overshadowed by the bright representatives of his contemporaries. Today, the works of A. Kuprin are of great interest. They attract the reader with their simplicity, humanity, democracy in the noblest sense of the word. The world of A. Kuprin's heroes is colorful and varied. He himself lived a bright life filled with diverse impressions - he was a military man, a clerk, a land surveyor, and an actor in a traveling circus troupe. A. Kuprin said many times that he does not understand writers who do not find anything more interesting in nature and people than themselves. The writer is very interested in human destinies, while the heroes of his works are most often not lucky, prosperous, satisfied with themselves and life people, but rather the opposite. But A. Kuprin treats his outwardly unsightly and unlucky heroes with the warmth and humanity that have always distinguished Russian writers. In the characters of the stories "White Poodle", "Taper", "Gambrinus", as well as many others, the features of a "little man" are guessed, but the writer does not just reproduce this type, but rethinks it. Let's reveal a very famous story by Kuprin "Garnet Bracelet", written in 1911. Its plot is based on a real event - the love of telegraph official P.P. Zheltkov for the wife of an important official, member of the State Council Lyubimov. This story is mentioned by the son of Lyubimova, the author of famous memoirs, Lev Lyubimov. In life, everything ended differently than in the story of A. Kuprin - the official accepted the bracelet and stopped writing letters, nothing more was known about him. In the Lyubimov family, this incident was remembered as strange and curious. Under the writer's pen, the story turned into a sad and tragic story about the life of a little man, who was exalted and destroyed by love. This is transmitted through the composition of the work. It gives an extensive, unhurried introduction, which introduces us to the exposition of the Scheins' house. The very story of extraordinary love, the story of the garnet bracelet, is told in such a way that we see it through the eyes of different people: Prince Vasily, who tells it as an anecdotal incident, brother Nikolai, for whom everything in this story is seen as offensive and suspicious, Vera Nikolaevna herself and, finally, , General Anosov, who was the first to suggest that here, perhaps, true love lies, "which women dream about and which men are no longer capable of." The circle to which Vera Nikolaevna belongs cannot admit that this is a real feeling, not so much because of the strange behavior of Zheltkov, but because of the prejudices that rule them. Kuprin, wanting to convince us readers of the authenticity of Zheltkov's love, resorts to the most irrefutable argument - the hero's suicide. Thus, the right of the little man to happiness is affirmed, and at the same time, the motive of his moral superiority over the people who so cruelly offended him, who failed to understand the strength of the feeling that made up the whole meaning of his life, arises. Kuprin's story is both sad and bright. It is permeated with a musical beginning - a piece of music is indicated as an epigraph - and the story ends with a scene when the heroine listens to music at a tragic moment of moral enlightenment for her. The text of the work includes the theme of the inevitability of the death of the protagonist - it is conveyed through the symbolism of light: at the moment of receiving the bracelet, Vera Nikolaevna sees red stones in it and thinks with alarm that they look like blood. Finally, the theme of the clash of different cultural traditions arises in the story: the theme of the east - the Mongolian blood of Vera and Anna's father, the Tatar prince, introduces the theme of love-passion, recklessness into the story; the mention that the sisters' mother is an Englishwoman introduces the theme of rationality, dispassion in the sphere of feelings, the power of reason over the heart. In the final part of the story, a third line appears: it is no coincidence that the landlady turns out to be a Catholic. This introduces into the work the theme of love-worship, which in Catholicism surrounds the Mother of God, love-self-sacrifice. The hero of A. Kuprin, a small man, faces the world of misunderstanding around him, the world of people for whom love is a kind of madness, and, having faced it, dies. In the wonderful story "Olesya" we see the poetic image of a girl who grew up in the hut of an old "sorceress", outside the usual norms of a peasant family. Olesya's love for the intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, who accidentally drove into a remote forest village, is a free, simple and strong feeling, without looking back and obligations, among tall pines, painted with a crimson reflection of the dying dawn. The girl's story ends tragically. Olesya's free life is invaded by the mercenary calculations of village officials and the superstitions of dark peasants. Beaten and ridiculed, Olesya is forced to flee the forest nest with Manuilikha. In the works of Kuprin, many heroes have similar features - this is spiritual purity, dreaminess, ardent imagination, combined with impracticality and lack of will. And they are most clearly revealed in love. All the heroes treat the woman with filial purity and reverence. Readiness to fight for the sake of a beloved woman, romantic worship, chivalrous service to her - and at the same time underestimating oneself, disbelief in one's own strengths. Men in Kuprin's stories seem to change places with women. These are the energetic, strong-willed "Polesye witch" Olesya and the "kind, but only weak" Ivan Timofeevich, the smart, prudent Shurochka Nikolaevna and the "pure, sweet, but weak and pathetic" lieutenant Romashov. All these are Kuprin's heroes with a fragile soul, caught in a cruel world. The atmosphere of revolutionary days breathes in Kuprin's excellent story "Gambrinus", created in the alarming year 1907. The theme of all-conquering art is woven here with the idea of ​​democracy, the bold protest of the "little man" against the black forces of arbitrariness and reaction. Meek and cheerful Sashka, with his outstanding talent as a violinist and sincerity, attracts a diverse crowd of port loaders, fishermen, and smugglers to the Odessa tavern. With delight they meet the melodies, which, as it were, are a background, as if reflecting public moods and events - from the Russian-Japanese war to the rebellious days of the revolution, when Sasha's violin sounds with the cheerful rhythms of the Marseillaise. In the days of the onset of terror, Sashka challenges the disguised detectives and the Black Hundred "scoundrels in a hat", refusing to play the monarchical anthem at their request, openly denouncing them for murders and pogroms. Crippled by the tsarist secret police, he returns to his port friends to play for them on the outskirts of the melody of the deafeningly cheerful "Shepherd". Free creativity, the strength of the national spirit, according to Kuprin, are invincible. Returning to the question posed at the beginning - “man and the world around him”, we note that Russian prose of the early 20th century presents a wide range of answers to it. We considered only one of the options - the tragic collision of the individual with the world around him, his insight and death, but the death is not meaningless, but contains an element of purification and high meaning.