The theme of tragic love in Bunin's works. Why is love in Bunin’s works a tragic feeling (Bunin I

Bunin wrote a lot about love, its tragedies and rare moments of true happiness.” These works are marked by an extraordinary poeticization of human feelings, they revealed the writer’s wonderful talent, his ability to penetrate into the intimate depths of the heart, with their unknown and unknown laws.

For Bunin, true love has something in common with the eternal beauty of nature, therefore only such a feeling of love is beautiful, which is natural, not false, not invented; for him, love and existence without it are two hostile lives, and if it dies

Love, that other life, is no longer needed.

Exalting love, Bunin does not hide the fact that it brings not only joy and happiness, but also very often conceals torment, grief, disappointment, and death. In one of his letters, he himself explained exactly this motive in his work and not only explained, but convincingly proved: “Don’t you still know that love and death are inextricably linked? Every time I experienced a love catastrophe - and there were many of these love catastrophes in my life, or rather, almost every love of mine was a catastrophe - I was close to suicide.”

Bunin told the story of tragic love in a short story « Sunstroke" A chance acquaintance on a ship, an ordinary “road adventure”, a “fleeting meeting”. But how did all this random and fleeting end for the heroes? “Nothing even similar to what happened has ever happened to me, and there never will be again. The eclipse definitely hit me. Or, rather, we both got something like sunstroke,” admits the lieutenant’s companion. But this blow has not yet touched the hero.

Having seen off his friend and carefreely returned to the hotel, he suddenly felt that his heart “squeezed with an incomprehensible tenderness” at the memory of her. When he realized that he had lost her forever (after all, he didn’t even know her first and last name), “he felt such pain and such uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was overcome by horror and despair.” And again Bunin’s motif intensifies the tragedy of a person: love and death are always nearby. Struck, as if by a blow, by this unexpected love, the lieutenant is ready to die, just to return this dear and beloved creature to him: “He, without hesitation, would die tomorrow, if by some miracle he could return her, spend another “To spend this day only to express to her and somehow prove, convince her how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her.”

Collection of stories " Dark alleys"can be called an encyclopedia of love dramas. The writer created it during the Second World War (1937-1944). Later, when the book was published and readers were shocked by the “eternal drama of love,” Bunin admitted in one of his letters: “She talks about the tragic and many tender and beautiful things,” I think this is the best and most original thing I have written in my life.” And although in many stories the love that the writer spoke about is tragic, Bunin claims that all love is great happiness, even if it ends in separation, death, or tragedy. Many of Bunin’s heroes come to this conclusion, having lost, overlooked, or destroyed their love themselves.

But this insight, enlightenment comes to the heroes too late, as, for example, to Vitaly Meshchersky, the hero of the story “Natalie”. Bunin told the story of student Meshchersky’s love for the young beauty Natalie Stankevich, about their breakup, about long loneliness. The tragedy of this love lies in the character of Meshchersky, who feels sincere and sublime feeling, and to the other - “passionate bodily intoxication”, both seem to him to be love. But it is impossible to love two at once. Physical attraction to Sonya quickly passes, but great, true love for Natalie remains for life. Only for a short moment were the heroes given the true happiness of love, but the author ended the idyllic union of Meshchersky and Natalie with the untimely death of the heroine.

In stories about love, I. A. Bunin affirmed true spiritual values, the beauty and greatness of a person capable of great, selfless feeling, he portrayed love as a high, ideal, beautiful feeling, despite the fact that it brings not only joy and happiness, but more often - grief, suffering, death.

"THE PERSUASION OF HAPPINESS"

Among Bunin's works there are stories in which the epic, romantic beginning is expanded - the whole life of the hero comes into the writer's field of vision (“The Cup of Life”). Bunin is a fatalist, irrationalist; his works are characterized by the pathos of tragedy and skepticism. Bunin's work echoes the modernists' concept of the tragedy of human passion. 1? Like the Symbolists, Bunin’s appeal to eternal themes love, death and nature. The cosmic flavor of the writer’s works, the permeation of his images with the voices of the Universe, brings his work closer to Buddhist ideas. Bunin's works synthesize all these concepts.

Bunin's concept of love is tragic. Moments of love, according to Bunin, become the pinnacle of a person’s life. Only by loving can a person truly feel another person, only feeling justifies high demands on himself and his neighbor, only a lover is able to overcome his selfishness. The state of love is not fruitless for Bunin’s heroes; it elevates souls. One example of an unusual interpretation of the theme of love is the story “Chang's Dreams.” The story is written in the form of a dog's memories. The dog feels the inner devastation of the captain, his master. The image of “distant hard-working people” (Germans) appears in the story. Based on a comparison with their way of life, the writer talks about possible ways of human happiness:

1. Labor to live and reproduce without experiencing the fullness of life.

2. Endless love, which is hardly worth devoting yourself to, because there is always the possibility of betrayal.

3. The path of eternal thirst, search, in which, however, according to Bunin, there is also no happiness.

The plot of the story seems to be opposed to the mood of the hero. Through real facts, a dog’s faithful memory breaks through, when there was peace in the soul, when the captain and the dog were happy. Moments of happiness are highlighted. Chang carries the idea of ​​loyalty and gratitude. This, according to the writer, is the meaning of life that a person is looking for.

Bunin's love is most often sad and tragic. A person is not able to resist it, the arguments of reason are powerless against it, for there is nothing similar to love in strength and beauty. The writer surprisingly accurately defines love, comparing it to sunstroke. This is the title of the story about the unexpected, impetuous, “crazy” romance of a lieutenant with a woman he accidentally met on the ship, who does not leave her name or address. The woman leaves, saying goodbye forever to the lieutenant, who at first perceives this story as a random, non-binding affair, a charming road accident. Only over time does he begin to feel “insoluble torment,” experiencing a feeling of bereavement. He tries to fight with his condition, he performs some actions, fully aware of their absurdity and uselessness. He is ready to die only in order to somehow miraculously return her, to spend one more day with her.

At the end of the story, the lieutenant, sitting under a canopy on the deck, feels ten years older. Bunin's wonderful story expresses with great power the uniqueness and beauty of love, which a person is often unaware of. Love is a sunstroke, the greatest shock that can radically change a person’s life, making him either the happiest or the most unhappy.

Bunin's work is characterized by an interest in ordinary life, the ability to reveal the tragedy of life, and the richness of the narrative with details. Bunin is considered to be the successor of Chekhov's realism. Bunin's realism differs from Chekhov's in its extreme sensitivity. Like Chekhov, Bunin addresses eternal themes. For Bunin, nature is important, however, in his opinion, the highest judge of a person is human memory. It is memory that protects Bunin’s heroes from inexorable time, from death.

Bunin's favorite heroes are endowed with an innate sense of the beauty of the earth, an unconscious desire for harmony with the world around them and with themselves. This is the dying Averky from the story “The Thin Grass.” Having worked as a farm laborer all his life, having experienced a lot of torment, grief and anxiety, this peasant has not lost his kindness, the ability to perceive the beauty of nature, or a sense of the high meaning of existence. Memory constantly returns Averky to those “distant twilight on the river” when he was destined to meet “that young, dear one who now looked at him indifferently and pitifully with senile eyes.” A short, humorous conversation with a girl, filled with deep meaning for them, could not be erased from their memory by either the years they had lived or the trials they had endured.

Love is the most beautiful and bright thing that the hero had throughout his long, difficult life. But, thinking about this, Averky remembers both the “soft twilight in the meadow” and the shallow creek, turning pink from the dawn, against the background of which a girl’s figure can barely be seen, surprisingly in harmony with the beauty of the starry night. Nature, as it were, participates in the hero’s life, accompanying him in both joy and sorrow. The distant twilight on the river at the very beginning of life is replaced by autumn melancholy, the expectation of imminent death. Averky’s condition is close to the picture of fading nature. “Dying, the grass dried out and rotted. The threshing floor became empty and bare. A mill in a deserted field became visible through the vines. The rain sometimes gave way to snow, the wind howled through the holes of the barn, angry and cold.”

In October 1939, Bunin settled in Grasse at the Villa Jeannette and lived here throughout the war. Here he wrote the book “Dark Alleys” - stories about love, as he himself said, “about its “dark” and most often very gloomy and cruel alleys.” This book, according to Bunin, “talks about the tragic and many tender and beautiful things - I think that this is the best and most original thing I have written in my life.”

Bunin followed his own path, did not join any fashionable literary movements or groups, as he put it, “did not throw out any banners” and did not proclaim any slogans. Critics noted Bunin's powerful language, his art of raising “everyday phenomena of life” into the world of poetry. For him there were no “low” topics unworthy of the poet’s attention.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died on the night of November 8, 1953 in the arms of his wife in terrible poverty. In his memoirs, Bunin wrote: “I was born too late. If I had been born earlier, my writing memories would not have been like this. I wouldn’t have to go through... 1905, then the First World War, followed by the 17th year and its continuation, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler... How not to envy our forefather Noah! Only one flood befell him...”

Bunin was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris, in a crypt, in a zinc coffin.

You are a thought, you are a dream. Through the smoky snowstorm
Crosses are running - arms outstretched.
I listen to the pensive spruce -
A melodious ringing... Everything is just thoughts and sounds!
What lies in the grave, is that you?
Marked by separations and sadness
Your difficult path. Now they are gone.
Crosses store only ashes.
Now you are a thought. You are eternal.

Ivan Bunin is rightfully considered the singer of love. Before his works, no one spoke about this feeling as he was able to say. The author believed that love is always happiness, regardless of whether it is divided or not. His numerous works from different, often opposing

The parties evaluate this feeling, each time depicting its new sides - tenderness, passion, sting, venality, etc.

Bunin's most vivid stories about love are collected in the collection “Dark Alleys,” which became somewhat innovative. In each short story or essay, the author conveyed the theme of love frankly, directly, with authentic clarity. However, the images turned out to be surprisingly light and elusive. The collection contains works that are completely different from each other; they differ in plots and characters. But through the entire book, like lightning, a love illumination passes through. Bunin portrays love as passionate, but

Short-term, with an invariably tragic epilogue. The author believed that true love itself, which poets have sung for centuries, is like a flash and attempts to prolong it lead to its fading. This is exactly what we are talking about in the work “Sunstroke”, where the tragedy of love was precisely its reciprocity, which prolongs this feeling and all that can happen is the transformation of the most beautiful of feelings into everyday life.

Another feature of Bunin’s depiction of love is perfection and harmony, which is not destroyed by petty squabbles. But she is always tragic and maybe that is why she was given a very short sentence? At the same time, the author depicts the completion of love not as a tragedy, but as a science, human experience. Now it’s clear what to expect and what to strive for. The past feeling leaves in the soul the light of a beacon, to which the heroes go year after year throughout their lives.

Bunin made a kind of revolution in the description of love, and contrary to the traditions of the 19th century, he depicted it from all sides, both from the side of the spirit and from the side of the flesh. The author was not afraid of some frankness when describing physical attractions. At the same time, heroes are not condemned, since true love must be in harmony with nature itself, and, according to the writer, everything that is natural is beautiful.

What is characteristic of Bunin’s stories is not the possibility and inability of his characters to be together. This allows a person to repeatedly comprehend the mystery of love, again and again feeling its dazzling flash.

Essays on topics:

1. “The first sign of love is reverence. We idolize the one with whom we are in love, and this is absolutely fair, because nothing in the world...
2. All love is great happiness, even if it is not shared. This phrase, like no other, is most suitable for a collection of stories...
3. Mitya is very much in love with Katya, a sweet, young girl who studies at a theater school. Katya is also in love with Mitya, but...
4. The theme of love in the work of each poet becomes a kind of reflection of his inner world. It inspires someone, on the contrary, it clips the wings of someone, someone...

Many of IA Bunin’s works are devoted to the theme of love, in particular the cycle of stories “Dark Alleys,” which is rightly called the pinnacle of the writer’s creativity. But a strange feeling remains after reading these works of his - sadness, sympathy for the heroes, their tragic, unfulfilled fate. The heroes die, break up, commit suicide - they are all unhappy. Why is this happening? Love is shown by the writer as a powerful force that can turn a person’s life around. The lieutenant, the heroes of the story “Sunstroke,” did not think about it at all, having, as I say, a light affair with an attractive fellow traveler. But. having parted

with her, he suddenly realizes that he cannot forget her, that seeing the heroine again is “more necessary than LIFE” for him. With deep psychologism, the writer reveals the hero’s inner experiences, his spiritual maturation. The lieutenant feels the peace and serenity of the surrounding life - and this only intensifies his suffering: “Probably, I’m the only one so terribly unhappy in this city.” Bunin often resorts to such techniques as antithesis (contrast) and oxymoron (a combination of incompatible concepts) in order to more clearly reveal the inner world of the hero, who feels extraordinary joy in everything and at the same time torment, tearing his heart, happiness in his soul and tears in his eyes . With tears in his eyes, he fell asleep, and in the evening, sitting on the deck of the ship, he felt ten years older. The hero is in the power of love, his feelings do not depend on him, but they transform him spiritually - this is Pushkin’s awakening of the soul, which is more important than a person’s entire worldview. Mitya, the hero of the story “Mitya’s Love,” is jealous and suffers, feeling Katya’s disdain for him, some kind of falseness in her behavior, which she herself does not even realize yet. He is waiting for a letter from her, and how painfully the author shows this expectation, and how quickly Mitya’s joy gives way to the expectation of the next message, even more painful. Moreover, physiology does not replace love, and the episode with Alenka convincingly proves this - the power of love is in the harmony of the carnal and spiritual, in its spiritual significance. And so vivid, so painful is Mitya’s suffering, having received the news of Katya’s betrayal and their inevitable breakup, that he shoots himself “with pleasure” just to stop this pain that is tearing his heart apart. Of course, such intensity of passions is incompatible with ordinary life, because in life there is often so much dirt, rough prose of everyday life, petty calculations, lust that kill love. The victim of this was Olya Meshcherskaya, the heroine of the story “Easy Breathing,” whose pure soul was ready for love and was waiting for extraordinary happiness. Submitting to social prejudices, Nikolai Alekseevich, the hero of the story “Dark Alleys,” abandons Nadezhda. - and he himself does not see happiness in his future destiny. I will remember the heroine of the story for the rest of my life. Cold autumn"a farewell evening with the groom, who was later killed in the war. And her entire future life is simply existence, everyday prose, and in her soul there is only a cold farewell evening and poetry that her beloved reads to her. Therefore, I think it can be argued that in the image of I.A. Bunina's love is such a rise in spirit

shi, which is not given to everyone, but which everyone who has experienced this will never forget.

^ Why is the love of the heroes in the story by I.A. Bunin " Clean Monday"called "weird"?

The story "Clean Monday", written in 1944. - one of the author's favorite stories. I.A. Bunin recounts the events of the distant past from the narrator - a young wealthy man with no special occupation. The hero is in love, and the heroine, as he sees her, makes a strange impression on the reader. She is good-looking, loves luxury, comfort, expensive restaurants, and at the same time she is a “modest student” and has breakfast in a vegetarian canteen on Arbai. She has a very critical attitude towards many fashionable works of literature known to people. And she's clearly not that in love with the hero. how he would like it. To his proposal of marriage, she replies that she is not fit to be a wife. "Strange love!" - the hero thinks about this. The heroine’s inner world is revealed completely unexpectedly for him: it turns out that she often goes to churches, is deeply passionate about religion and church rituals. For her, this is not just religiosity - it is the need of her soul, her sense of homeland, antiquity, which is internally necessary for the heroine. The hero believes, “This is just “Moscow whims,” he cannot understand her and is deeply disappointed by her choice, when after their only night of love she decides to leave and then go to a monastery. For him, the collapse of love is a catastrophe of a lifetime, unthinkable suffering. For her, the power of faith, the preservation of her inner world turned out to be higher than love, she decides to devote herself to God, renouncing everything worldly. The author does not reveal the reasons for it. moral choice, what influenced her decision - social circumstances or moral and religious quests, but it clearly shows that the life of the soul is not subject to reason. This is especially emphasized in the episode last date heroes in the Marfo-Marninsky monastery. The heroes of the Armed Forces see as much as they feel each other, THEY do not control their feelings: the hero “for some reason” wanted to go to the temple, the heroine was internally shocked by his presence. This the riddle, the mystery of human sensations is one of the inherent properties of love in Bunin’s depiction, a tragic and powerful force that can turn a person’s whole life upside down.

^ Why does the main character of I. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” have no name or psychology?

In the story “Mr. and I San Francisco,” I. Bunin very vividly and in detail depicts the world of luxury and prosperity, the world of rich people who can afford themselves. One of them - a gentleman from San Francisco - is the main character. In his attitude, appearance, and demeanor, the author shows the vices of the “golden” circle to which the character belongs. But the most striking feature that immediately catches your eye when reading is this. that nowhere in the story is the name of the hero mentioned and her inner world is not depicted.

Who is this gentleman from San Francisco? In the very first lines, the author writes that “no one remembered her name either in Naples or Capri.”

It would seem that the main thing character, the main events of the work unfold around him, and suddenly not even the name of the first character is mentioned. It's immediately obvious That the writer is dismissive of the character. The appearance and actions of the gentleman are described in great detail: tuxedo, underwear and even large gold teeth. Much attention is paid to the details of the external description. The hero is presented as a solid, respectable, wealthy man who is able to buy everything. whatever he wants. The story shows how the hero visits cultural monuments, but he is indifferent to everything, he is not interested in art. The author deliberately describes in detail how the characters eat, drink, dress, and talk. Bunin laughs at this “artificial” life.

Why, while paying great attention to appearance and actions, does the writer not show the inner world? hero's psychology? This is all because the gentleman from San Francisco simply has no inner peace. souls. He devoted his entire life to making a fortune and creating capital. The hero worked in duty and did not enrich himself spiritually. And by the time he reaches maturity, having made a fortune, he doesn’t know what to do with himself, because he’s soulless. His life is scheduled by the hour; there is no place for culture or soul in it. The hero's inner world is empty and needs only external impressions. The gentleman from San Francisco lacks any purpose in life. The whole purpose of his existence comes down to the satisfaction of his fnziolo! ical needs for sleep, food, clothing. The hero doesn't even try to change anything. L his death pass.np

unnoticed by everyone, only his wife and daughter feel sorry for him. And returning home in a box in the luggage compartment speaks vividly of his place among people.

And Bunin in the story shows complete disgust and contempt for such people. He ridicules their measured, minute-by-minute life, exposes their vices, depicts the emptiness of the inner world and the absence of any spirituality. The author sincerely hopes that such people will gradually disappear along with their shortcomings, and there will be no “gentlemen from San Francisco” left in the world.

^ Is it possible to call the story “Mr. from San Francisco” by I.A. Bunin a work of symbolism?

ii In 1915, Bunin wrote his story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.” The title alone creates an impression of uncertainty, even mystery, in the reader. Indeed, throughout the entire work, the author did not use either his first or last name - nothing that would indicate his personality, because personality is something individual, inherent only to this person. But. After reading just a few lines, we understand that it could not have been otherwise: he was one of many, like everyone else. The main thing is that he wanted to be like that. The first half of his life he did not live, he only worked. He worked only to spend the rest of his days with dignity. Worthy in a hundred sense - it is so. as is customary, as all people in his circle do. It was fashionable in the world to begin your enjoyment of life with a trip to Europe. And, naturally, our master immediately went there. He began his journey on the huge liner Atlantis. In my opinion, the image of this ship is very symbolic. Respectable and wealthy Americans go on vacation to Europe on it and, as we learn at the end of the work, they return on it. The name of the ship itself is unusual, because Atlantis is an island. On it, people get for money what is called happiness in the world.

But Atlantis is a dead island; the souls of the people inhabiting it drowned in vulgarity and gluttony. The gentleman himself from San Francisco did not seem to live. His death shows us this. In the world in which he exists, money decides everything: if you have money, you are given respect and honor. If not, you're not

you can exist in it. For Bunin, someone who does not have his own inner world cannot exist in this real one. And if he doesn't exist, why does he need a name?

I believe that Bunin’s story can be considered a realistic work, in which, however, symbols play a large role. The ship "Atlantis", a pair of "lovers" hired for money, a burning furnace mouth, a devil watching the ship, people without a name - these are symbols of the author's contemporary world, standing on the edge of inevitable death.

"Mr. from San Francisco"

a typical hero of the early 20th century?

In I. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” we learn the story of a man who embodied the image of a typical capitalist. Working long and hard, he achieved a lot and went on vacation to Europe with his family. However, there was no rest because “the weather was not good” and “the mood was bad.”

The author says at the very beginning of the story that in his youth a gentleman from San Francisco set himself the goal of achieving the well-being of the richest people. And by the end of his life he achieved his goal. He entered the circle of people who are commonly called the “elite.” But Bunin repeatedly emphasizes that the gentleman’s lifestyle was a blind copy of the lifestyle of this “elite.” The “elite,” unfortunately, is not an intellectual one, where it is customary to have one’s own views and opinions, but a financial “elite,” where a person is valued only by his money. For the gentleman from San Francisco, the trip gave hope for a “happy meeting” with the billionaire while inspecting the frescoes, which very much characterizes his views on values human qualities. So, people of this circle used to relax, traveling in Europe and Asia. And the gentleman from San Francisco went to Europe only because everyone else did. His entire vacation was planned in advance according to a given pattern.

Bunin describes in sufficient detail the daily routine on the ship "Atlantis". It all came down to food, entertainment and "working up an appetite." The second gentleman from San Francisco also took part in

life in ship life on an equal basis with everyone else. And life in Italy was not very diverse: breakfast, sightseeing. lunch and so on. But the weather seemed to oppose the recall of the family from San Francisco. It rained often, it was damp and cold. The receptionist answered questions about the weather that there had been no weather in December for a long time, although he had been repeating this phrase for several years.

In a word, in the story “Gentlemen from San Francisco.. Bunin does not hide his indifference to his hero, notifying us of this in the very first sentences. that no one remembered his name anywhere. Describing his appearance in detail, the writer stamps on his hero the slightest movements of the soul, any thoughts. He simply doesn't have them. since he is a collection of images of rich people, which in itself denies the possibility of the existence of a personality for the gentleman from San Francisco. He is not a fully formed person, but only a cast. His world is a Tat steamship - a hotel with all the amenities, built according to a plan, devoid of thought and impulse of the soul. And such a person cannot even have elementary psychologism, an inner world that is imputed to the image of a rich man.

^ Why does Satin defend Luka in a dispute with the night shelters? (but M. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths”)

Gorky's play “At the Depths” - philosophical work. The main conflict of the play is a dispute about the truth. What is necessary for a person) I a Finding the meaning of life: cruel truth or compassion?

Satin in Maxim Gorky’s play “At the Depths” is Luke’s ideological opponent. Although it was the old man who led him to think, Satin adheres to other principles and raises the thought of the value of man to an unattainable height: “Man is free!”

And even though Satin is more a man of words than of body, his speech and understanding testify that faith in life, the very spark of life, has not gone out “in the sun.” In one of his aphorisms, Satin acts as a fierce opponent of Luke: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters. Truth is the God of a free man."

The views and worldview of both characters are very important. With the appearance of Luka, the inhabitants of the flophouse began to think, search, they wanted a brighter life, when they... probably understood from CMJ i but.

If you don't push the wheel, it won't roll. It was at Luke’s suggestion that Satin, in his reflections, came to the conclusion about the significance of the human claim. He went further than Luke because he chose a more direct and honest path. It was Satin who managed to embrace man and reject Luke’s false humanism: “Man is the truth!” But, having come to the right conclusions, Satin remained the individualist he was before.

A person cannot change immediately; it takes time. This is how it happens in life. There are times when Luke with his consolation is needed. encouragement, attention to others, but there are also moments WHEN only Satin’s decisive word will carry the truth to the human heart.

Luke and Satin are philosophers, so they understand each other. And one is simply obliged to protect the other.

^ Does Grigory Melekhov have a future? (based on the epic novel by M.A. Sholokhov “ Quiet Don»)

The main characters of the epic novel M.A. Sholokhov “Quiet Don” Grigory Melekhov is a tragic figure of a turning point for Russia. Usually his story is viewed as a search for peaceful happiness and rushing from the Reds to the Whites, then to Fomin’s gang, and then attempts to escape from everyone to another life. But this does not exhaust the essence of his character. First of all, he has a pronounced desire for freedom in his actions and decisions. His love for Aksinya, impossible according to the rules of public morality, eventually became so important for him that he, a Cossack, leaves his home to become a farm laborer on Listnitsky’s estate. What a strong will it was necessary to have in order to ignore public opinion and commit an act impossible for a Cossack, which would disgrace him in the eyes of the entire village. But happiness with the woman he loved turned out to be more important and dearer to him. Having suffered a lot, having seen war and violence, Gregory, it would seem, got used to this life. But he is not a “man of war,” unlike Mitka Korshunov and Koshevoy, for whom the element of struggle with its “extremes” and mercilessness is natural. He is tired of the war, he realizes the futility of choosing between two camps - red and white. He notices what others are indifferent to: he spoke to Shtokman about inequality among the Red Army soldiers - the commissar “is all in

Zhu climbed in,” and “Vanek” is in wraps, he doesn’t even have enough for boots, but this is just the beginning new government, “and if they strengthen, where will equality go?” But he feels just as alien, an uneducated man “from the plow” among white officers. And in the end, he, the destroyer of the foundations of the family, once capable of giving up everything and leaving with someone else’s wife for someone else’s bread, becomes a defender and zealot for the idea of ​​home, family, hearth. He understands that Russia is looking for a new destiny - and does not regret Nicholas I, the “shitty tsar” who abandoned power, does not sympathize with the generals leading White movement - in his opinion, they are “blind” who know nothing about the people. For Gregory, the main thing is to return to himself, to the origins of life, to his native steppe, songs, conversations with his mother, to caring for children. All the most valuable things that remain in his life. - this is love for Aksinya. And it is no coincidence that when he buries her, struck by a stray bullet, he sees above him, raising his eyes, the black dazzling disk of the sun in the black sky. And his last value is his son. with whom he sees on the banks of the Don, near his home. The ending of the novel is open, but it does not reduce the tragedy of the hero’s fate, his doom before the future.

I.A. Bunina

composition

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is rightly called the greatest writer of the 20th century century. From his pen came wonderful poems, novels and stories. The most important topic in the works of I.A. Bunin's theme was love. The cycle of stories “Dark Alleys”, created by the writer already in exile, during the Second World War, is entirely dedicated to her. This collection is a kind of summing up. Written at the end of his life, it collected Bunin’s innermost thoughts and feelings, his experiences and beliefs, embodied in short stories amazing in form and content.

The main idea of ​​“Dark Alleys” can be formulated as follows: “All love is happiness, even if it is unrequited and brings suffering.” Let's take for example two stories from the cycle - “Clean Monday” and “Cold Autumn”.

In the first work, the relationship between a man and a woman is placed at the center of the plot. The main character is in love with the heroine, he pampers her with gifts, flowers, trips to expensive restaurants and theaters, although he feels that all this is of little interest to the young woman:

A man loves a woman passionately, with all his heart, love for her becomes the meaning of his existence. There is a kind of alienation in the heroine, she is more interested in spiritual life rather than material wealth, even the hero’s love does not bring her satisfaction. She loves ancient temples, singers, and the ringing of bells, so literally overnight the young woman disappears from his life. Having tried everything that worldly life can give a person, and not finding purity and true spirituality in it, the heroine decides to abandon the past and goes to a monastery, where, as she thinks, she can find peace of mind and become happy. The hero does not understand her choice, and he continues to live, feeling only the constant pain of loss:

Bunin shows how separation literally “knocks down” the hero, driving him crazy. Speaking about a young man after breaking up with a girl, he notes the purposelessness of his existence. A handsome, rich and intelligent man, he finds himself in mental isolation after his beloved leaves. With all this, the author proves how much love can mean to a person. Love is life itself, which means its loss is equivalent to the loss of the meaning of existence.

In the story “Cold Autumn” we have a love story that lasts a lifetime. The theme of love here is closely related to the theme of death. It should be noted that in his works Bunin often brings these two motifs together, as if wanting to emphasize that in terms of its significance in a person’s life, love is on a par with death, and just like death, it represents for him one of the greatest mysteries. The main character of “Cold Autumn” sees off her fiancé to the First World War and says that she will not be able to survive his death... Nevertheless, she experiences not only the death of her lover, but also the revolution of 1917, emigration, wanderings through the endless cities of Europe, where she Nobody needed her companions, earning a living through hard work, lonely old age. But, despite the fact that the heroine’s life was full of events, she only remembers that cold autumn evening when she said goodbye to her beloved. The composition of the story is structured in such a way as to confirm the importance of this moment for the woman. If the description of the farewell evening in September 1914 takes up most of the work, then the story of the heroine’s wanderings after it is only one paragraph. She herself says:

And after many years, the heroine awaits death as a joyful moment of meeting her first and only love, which became the main “event” in her life, which helped her survive in an endless series of losses, disappointments and insults.

The theme of love occupies perhaps the main place in Bunin’s work. This topic allows the writer to correlate what is happening in a person’s soul with the phenomena of external life, with the requirements of a society that is based on the relationship of purchase and sale and in which wild and dark instincts sometimes reign. Bunin was one of the first in Russian literature to speak not only about the spiritual, but also about the physical side of love, touching with extraordinary tact the most intimate, hidden aspects of human relationships. Bunin was the first to dare to say that physical passion does not necessarily follow a spiritual impulse, that in life it happens the other way around (as happened with the heroes of the story “Sunstroke”). And no matter what plot moves the writer chooses, love in his works is always a great joy and a great disappointment, a deep and insoluble mystery, it is both spring and autumn in a person’s life.

Over the years, Bunin spoke about love with varying degrees of frankness. In his early prose, the heroes are young, open and natural. In such stories as “In August”, “In Autumn”, “Dawn All Night”, everything is extremely simple, brief and significant. The feelings that the heroes experience are dual, colored in halftones. And although Bunin talks about people who are alien to us in appearance, way of life, relationships, we immediately recognize and understand in a new way our own feelings of happiness, expectations of deep spiritual turns. The rapprochement of Bunin's heroes rarely achieves harmony; more often it disappears as soon as it arises. But the thirst for love burns in their souls. A sad farewell to my beloved ends with dreams (“In August”): “Through tears I looked into the distance, and somewhere I dreamed of sultry southern cities, a blue steppe evening and the image of some woman who merged with the girl I loved...” . The date is memorable because it testifies to a touch of genuine feeling: “Whether she was better than others whom I loved, I don’t know, but that night she was incomparable” (“In Autumn”). And the story “Dawn All Night” talks about the premonition of love, about the tenderness that a young girl is ready to pour out on her future chosen one. At the same time, it is common for youth not only to get carried away, but also to quickly become disappointed. Bunin shows us this painful gap between dreams and reality for many. After a night in the garden, full of nightingale whistles and spring trepidation, young Tata suddenly, through her sleep, hears her fiancé shooting jackdaws, and realizes that she does not at all love this rude and ordinary-down-to-earth man.

And yet in the majority early stories Bunin's desire for beauty and purity remains the main, genuine movement of the heroes' souls. In the 20s, already in exile, Bunin wrote about love, as if looking back into the past, peering into a bygone Russia and those people who no longer exist. This is exactly how we perceive the story “Mitya’s Love” (1924). Here Bunin consistently shows how the spiritual formation of the hero occurs, leading him from love to collapse. In the story, life and love are closely intertwined. Mitya’s love for Katya, his hopes, jealousy, vague forebodings seem to be shrouded in special sadness. Katya, dreaming of an artistic career, got caught up in the false life of the capital and cheated on Mitya. His torment, from which his connection with another woman, the beautiful but down-to-earth Alenka, could not save him, led Mitya to suicide. Mitya’s insecurity, openness, unpreparedness to confront harsh reality, and inability to suffer make us feel more acutely the inevitability and unacceptability of what happened.

A number of Bunin's stories about love describe a love triangle: husband - wife - lover ("Ida", "Caucasus", "The Fairest of the Sun"). An atmosphere of the inviolability of the established order reigns in these stories. Marriage turns out to be an insurmountable obstacle to achieving happiness. And often what is given to one is mercilessly taken away from another. In the story “Caucasus,” a woman leaves with her lover, knowing for sure that from the moment the train departs, hours of despair begin for her husband, that he will not be able to stand it and will rush after her. He is really looking for her, and not finding her, he guesses about the betrayal and shoots himself. Already here the motif of love as a “sunstroke” appears, which has become a special, ringing note of the “Dark Alleys” cycle.

The stories in the “Dark Alleys” cycle are similar to the prose of the 20s and 30s by the motif of memories of youth and homeland. All or almost all stories are told in the past tense. The author seems to be trying to penetrate the depths of the characters’ subconscious. In most of the stories, the author describes bodily pleasures, beautiful and poetic, born of true passion. Even if the first sensual impulse seems frivolous, as in the story “Sunstroke,” it still leads to tenderness and self-forgetfulness, and then to true love. This is exactly what happens with the heroes of the stories “Dark Alleys”, “Late Hour”, “Rusya”, “Tanya”, “ Business cards", "In one familiar street." The writer writes about lonely people and ordinary lives. That is why the past, overshadowed by young, strong feelings, is depicted as a truly finest hour, merging with the sounds, smells, and colors of nature. It’s as if nature itself leads to the spiritual and physical rapprochement of people who love each other. And nature itself leads them to inevitable separation, and sometimes to death.

The skill of describing everyday details, as well as a sensual description of love is inherent in all the stories in the cycle, but the story “Clean Monday”, written in 1944, is not just a story about great secret love and the mysterious female soul, but a kind of cryptogram. Too much in the psychological line of the story and in its landscape and everyday details seems like an encrypted revelation. The accuracy and abundance of details are not just signs of the times, not just nostalgia for Moscow lost forever, but a contrast between East and West in the soul and appearance of the heroine, leaving love and life for a monastery.

Bunin's heroes greedily seize moments of happiness, grieve if it passes by, and lament if the thread connecting them with their loved one breaks. But at the same time, they are never able to fight with fate for happiness, to win an ordinary everyday battle. All stories are stories about escaping life, even for a brief moment, even for one evening. Bunin's heroes can be selfish and unconsciously cynical, but they still lose what is most precious to them - their loved ones. And they can only remember the life they had to give up. Therefore, Bunin’s love theme is always permeated with the bitterness of loss, parting, and death. All love stories end tragically, even if the heroes survive. After all, at the same time they lose the best, valuable part of the soul, lose the meaning of existence and find themselves alone.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin especially stands out among Russian writers and poets. This is, of course, no coincidence. The future writer received an excellent education.

His creative activity began in his early years, when the boy was only 8 years old. The son of a noble family was born in the city of Voronezh in October 1870. He received his first education at home, and at the age of 11, little Ivan became a pupil of the Yeletsk district gymnasium, where he studied for only 4 years.

Further training was carried out under the watchful guidance of his elder brother. The boy studied the works of domestic and world classics with particular interest. In addition, Ivan devoted a lot of time to self-development. Literature always interested Bunin, and from childhood the boy determined his destiny. This choice was quite deliberate.

Ivan Bunin wrote his first poem at the age of eight, and serious works appeared a little later, when the young talent had barely reached the age of seventeen. During the same period, his first printed love debut took place.

When Ivan was 19 years old, the family moved to the city of Orel. Here the future writer and poet began to do correctional work in a local newspaper. This activity brought young Bunin not only his first experience, but also his first true love. His chosen one was Varvara Pashchenko, she worked in the same publishing house. Office romance was not approved by Ivan's parents, so the young lovers had to leave the city, to Poltava. But even there, the couple failed to build a relationship similar to a family one. This union, so disliked by parents on both sides, fell apart. But the author carried many personal experiences throughout his life and showed them in his works.

The first collection of poems was published in 1891, when the writer turned 21. A little later, the country saw other masterpieces of the young poet, each verse was filled with special warmth and tenderness.

Love for Varvara inspired the young poet; each of his poems soulfully conveyed the sincere feelings of two hearts in love. When the relationship broke up, the young writer met the daughter of the famous revolutionary, Anna Tsakni, who in 1898 became his legal wife.

In this marriage, Ivan Alekseevich had a son, but the child died at the age of five, and soon the young couple separated. Literally a year later, the poet began to cohabit with Vera Muromtseva, but only in 1922 did the couple officially marry.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was famous poet, translator, prose writer. He traveled a lot, and these trips endowed the talented man with new knowledge, which he inspiredly used in his poetry and prose.

In the 20s of the last century he had to emigrate to France. This was a forced measure, justified by the socio-political situation in Russia. In a foreign country, he continued to write and publish journalistic articles of interesting content, compose new poems on the theme of love and simply live, because he was no longer destined to return to his homeland.

In 1933, Ivan Alekseevich was awarded Nobel Prize. He was given a monetary reward for the development of Russian classical prose. This money solved many of the problems of the impoverished nobleman. And Bunin transferred part of the money as help to emigrants and writers in need.

Bunin survived World War II. He was proud of the courage and exploits of the Russian soldiers, whose courage made it possible to win this terrible battle. This was the most significant event for every person, and the famous writer could not help but react to such great feats of our people.

The great Russian poet, the last classic who glorified Russia of the 19th-20th centuries in his works, died in 1953 in Paris.

Many of Bunin’s works openly addressed the topic great love and tragedy. A man who lived for many years with different women was able to extract from these relationships many frank feelings, which he managed to convey in detail in his work.

The bright works of Ivan Alekseevich do not leave any reader indifferent. They reveal the whole secret of true love, glorify excellent images of women and human soul. He conveys to the reader sincere love and hatred, tenderness and rudeness, happiness and tears of sorrow...

All these feelings are familiar to many romantics, because love never brings exclusively pleasant emotions. Real relationships are built on different sensations that are experienced by two lovers, and if they can endure all the trials sent by fate, true happiness, love and fidelity await them.

The writer caught this essence during the period love relationship with his common-law and then legal wife, Vera Muromtseva.

Ivan Alekseevich wrote many works dedicated to love and devotion: “Mitya’s Love”, “Easy Breathing”, “Dark Alleys” (a collection of stories) and other works.

"Sunstroke" - a story of passion

An atypical attitude towards love is captured in Bunin’s famous story “Sunstroke”. The slightly ordinary and somewhat ordinary plot turned out to be exciting for the reader.

In this work, the main character is a young and pretty woman who is legally married. During road trip, she meets a young lieutenant who was famous for his passion for fleeting romances. This is a selfish and self-confident young man.

Getting to know married woman aroused instinctive interest in the lieutenant. He knew practically nothing about her, only that she had a beloved husband and a little daughter who was awaiting her mother’s return from Anapa. The young officer managed to arouse interest in himself, and their chance acquaintance ended in an intimate relationship in a hotel room. In the morning, the travelers parted and never met again.

It would seem that this is where the love story ended, but the main meaning of the work, which Ivan Bunin wanted to convey to the reader, is revealed in further events.

A married lady, after waking up in a hotel room, hurried to leave for her hometown, and at parting, she said a mysterious phrase to a random lover: “it was something like sunstroke.” What did she mean?

The reader can draw his own conclusion. Perhaps the young woman was afraid of continuing the relationship with her lover. At home, a large family, a child, marital responsibilities and everyday life were waiting for her. Or maybe she was inspired by this night of love? A tender and sudden connection with a strange man radically changed the young lady’s established lifestyle and left only pleasant memories that will become the most highlight in her everyday life?

Experiences extraordinary feelings and main character works. A young and quite sophisticated lover experienced unknown feelings on a night of love with a charming stranger. This chance meeting radically changed his life, only now he realized what true love is. This wonderful feeling brought him pain and suffering, now, after a single night with a married woman, he could not imagine his future without her. His heart was filled with sadness, all his thoughts were about his beloved, but such a stranger...

The writer presented the feeling of love as carnal and spiritual harmony. Having found it, the soul of the protagonist seemed to be reborn.

Bunin valued sincere and true love, but he always exalted this magical feeling as temporary happiness, often with a tragic end.

In another work by Ivan Alekseevich, called “Mitya’s Love,” we experience similar feelings, filled with the pangs of jealousy of the main character. Mitya was seriously in love with the beautiful girl Ekaterina, but, as fate would have it, they faced a long separation. The guy was going crazy, unable to stand the agonizing days of waiting. His love was sensual and sublime, truly spiritual and special. Carnal feelings were secondary, because, as you know, physical love cannot bring true romance sincere happiness and peace.

The heroine of this story, Katya, was seduced by another man. Her betrayal tore Mitya's soul apart. He tried to find love on the side, but these attempts could not calm the pain in the heart of the young man in love.

One day, he had a date with another girl, Alena, but the meeting only brought disappointment. Her words and actions simply destroyed the romantic world of the protagonist; their physiological relationship was perceived by Mitya as something vulgar and dirty.

Terrible mental anguish, pain from hopelessness, from the inability to change one’s fate and return the woman he loved, gave rise to an idea that, as it seemed to the main character, was the only way out of the current situation. Mitya decided to commit suicide...

Ivan Bunin boldly criticized love and showed it to the reader in a variety of situations. His work leaves a special mark on the reader’s thoughts. After reading another story, you can think about the meaning of life, reconsider your attitude towards seemingly ordinary things, which are now beginning to be perceived in a completely different light.

The rather impressive story “Easy Breathing” tells the story of the fate of a young girl Olga Meshcherskaya. About Us early years believes in true and sincere love, but soon a harsh reality awaits the heroine, filled with pain and human selfishness.

The young lady is inspired by the world around her, she sees in her interlocutor a kindred spirit, completely trusting the hypocritical words of a vile deceiver who has fallen for an inexperienced and very young girl. This man is already in adulthood, so he quickly managed to seduce Olga, who had never been conquered before. This inhumane and treacherous attitude disgusted the young heroine with herself, the people around her and the whole world.

The tragic story ends with a scene in the cemetery, where among the grave flowers the cheerful and still alive eyes of the young beauty Olga are clearly visible in the photograph...

Love is a strange feeling, experienced in different ways. It brings incredible joy and happiness, and then abruptly changes its direction and transports the person in love into a world of terrible pain, disappointment and tears...

This theme was quite clearly sung in his intriguing and often tragic works by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. To feel the love experiences and passion of the main characters, you need to read for yourself the stories of the great Russian writer and poet, who gave the world many magnificent creative masterpieces on the theme of love!

The problem of deep human feelings is very important for a writer, especially for one who feels subtly and experiences vividly. Therefore it plays a significant role. He dedicated many pages of his creations to her. True feeling and the eternal beauty of nature are often consonant and equivalent in the writer’s works. The theme of love in Bunin’s work runs alongside the theme of death. Strong feelings are not only joyful, they often disappoint a person, become the cause of torment and torment, which can lead to deep depression and even death.

The theme of love in Bunin's works is often associated with the theme of betrayal, because death for the writer is not only a physical state, but also a psychological category. The one who betrayed his own or others’ strong feelings died forever for them, although he continues to drag out his miserable physical existence. Life without love is boring and uninteresting. But not every person is able to experience it, just as not everyone is tested by it.

An example of how the theme of love is expressed in Bunin’s work is the story “Sunstroke” (1925).

It was exactly reminiscent in its strength of the feeling that gripped the lieutenant and the little tanned woman on the deck of the steamer. He suddenly invited her to get off at the nearest pier. They went ashore together.

To describe the passionate feelings that the characters experienced when they met, the author uses the following epithets: “impulsively”, “frenziedly”; verbs: “rushed”, “choked”. The narrator explains that their feelings were also strong because the heroes had never experienced anything like this in their lives. That is, feelings are endowed with exclusivity and uniqueness.

The morning together at the hotel is described as follows: sunny, hot, happy. This happiness is shaded by the ringing of bells, enlivened by a bright bazaar on the hotel square with a variety of smells: hay, tar, the complex aroma of Russian county town. Portrait of the heroine: small, stranger, like a seventeen-year-old girl (you can roughly estimate the heroine’s age - about thirty). She is not prone to embarrassment, is cheerful, simple and reasonable.

She tells the lieutenant about the eclipse, the strike. The hero does not yet understand her words; the “blow” has not yet shown its effect on him. He sees her off and returns still “carefree and easy” to the hotel, as the author says, but something is already changing in his mood.

To gradually increase anxiety, the description of the room was used: empty, not like that, strange, a cup of tea that she had not drunk. The feeling of loss is enhanced by the still lingering smell of her English cologne. The verbs describe the lieutenant's growing excitement: his heart clenched with tenderness, he hurries to light a cigarette, he slaps himself on the tops of his boots, he walks back and forth around the room, a phrase about a strange adventure, there are tears in his eyes.

Feelings are growing and require release. The hero needs to isolate himself from their source. He covers the unmade bed with a screen, closes the windows so as not to hear that market noise that he liked so much at first. And he suddenly wanted to die to come to the city where she lives, but realizing that this was impossible, he felt pain, horror, despair and the complete uselessness of his further life without her.

The problem of love is most clearly expressed in the forty stories of the cycle, which form an entire encyclopedia of feelings. They reflect their diversity, which occupies the writer. Of course, tragedy is more common on the pages of the series. But the author sings of the harmony of love, the fusion, the inseparability of the male and female principles. Like a true poet, the author is constantly looking for it, but, unfortunately, he does not always find it.

About love reveal to us his non-trivial approach to their description. He listens to the sounds of love, peers into its images, guesses silhouettes, trying to recreate the fullness and range of complex nuances of the relationship between a man and a woman.

An essay on the works of I. A. Bunin using the examples of the stories “Cold Autumn” and “Sunstroke”.

The theme of love in the stories of I. A. Bunin

Love has always occupied a key position in the work of many writers. This is how it was with I. A. Bunin. In his works, she is assigned a special role: love is always tragic, it reveals the innermost, even what a person would like to hide from everyone. About this amazing feeling, capable of bringing both great happiness and extreme suffering, I. A. Bunin wrote a series of stories “Dark Alleys”, each of which understands Bunin’s love from different sides.

In the story “Cold Autumn” main character fell in love with a man who soon died in the war. He knew that this could happen, and advised his beloved to live without him, to be happy in the world while he waited for her on the other side. The heroine lives, gets married, takes care of her husband’s nephew, but in her own twilight she understands that the time that has passed since the death of her true love cannot be called life, it is only existence. The heroine asks herself: “Yes, and what happened in my life? Only that cold autumn evening.” She's ready to die because death better than life without love. The story ends with a very strong phrase: “I lived, I was happy, now I’ll come back soon.” She is not afraid of death, she waits for it as salvation, the opportunity to finally be with her loved one, even if not in this life.

Also clearly the tragedy of love in the perception of I. A. Bunin is shown in his separate story “Sunstroke”. This is the story of two already mature people who met each other precisely at that moment in life when they needed this meeting. There are no accidents in Bunin's work, it was fate. But the heroes are not teenagers, the woman is bound by obligations, and although the reader sees that this is true love, this meeting leads to absolutely nothing. The heroes get off the ferry in order to be together for at least a few hours, however, parting with the one whom he has already fallen in love with, the lieutenant no longer knows what to do in this city. “It was all so stupid, so ridiculous that he fled from the market.” Nothing makes sense anymore. “The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older.” The love of the heroes is mutual, their feelings are sincere, but their meeting leads nowhere, leaving in the heart the sweet bitterness of the feelings they experienced.

“All love is great happiness, even if it is not shared,” says I. A. Bunin. In his understanding, love is a spontaneous feeling, a person cannot control it, but without it life is empty and meaningless. It’s better to burn with love, break your heart, but fall in love, than not experience this feeling at all!