Why was the original name Death on Capri? An acute sense of the crisis of civilization in the story of I
(continuation)
I.L. Sholpo,
teacher of Russian language and literature
Candidate of Philological Sciences
The third lesson, which is called " Satirical parable “Mr. from San Francisco”: the absurdity of life or the absurdity of death?”, begins with a conversation on the questions: “What impression did the story make on you? What does the epigraph taken from the Apocalypse suggest? Why doesn't the writer call the main characters by name? How should we understand the words that the hero has “just started life”? What does the gentleman from San Francisco mean by the concept of “life”? Why does I. A. Bunin describe in detail everyday life on the ship? What is this life like? What becomes the subject of the writer’s satire?”
After this we refer to the table. Once completed, it looks something like this:
Images of ship and ocean
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The next stage of the lesson is a conversation about the life and death of the hero in Italy: “Is life in Naples different from life on the ship? What is the significance of the repeated reference to “trumpet sounds” and gongs – on the ship and in the Italian hotel? At what point in the story does the turning point occur? Why is it said “what did he do” about what happened to the gentleman from San Francisco in the reading room? How and why does a “terrible incident” change the attitude of the hotel staff towards the hero and his family? What details of the posthumous fate of the gentleman from San Francisco are especially ridiculous and humiliating?
Students are asked to compare two portraits of a gentleman from San Francisco (“Dry, short, awkwardly cut ... strong bald head” and “Greyish, already dead face... beauty that has long been fitting for him"), paying attention to color adjectives. How does death transform a hero? What is the meaning of this transformation?
The final stage of the lesson is a generalization: “Why are pictures of the morning in Capri, a scene with Italian highlanders, introduced into the story? How do they relate to all the other episodes in the story? What's it like symbolic meaning the picture painted in the last paragraph? How does the ending of the story relate to the epigraph? What is the parable meaning of the story?
Homework: written completion of the table “Fabula and Plot” based on I. A. Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing”. Assignment based on options: analysis of I. A. Bunin’s stories “Sunstroke”, “ Cold autumn», « Clean Monday” according to the questions given by the teacher (in this case, the texts of all three stories are read by all students). (Tasks are presented in descending order of difficulty.)
« Sunstroke»: What struck you in the story, perhaps caused bewilderment? What did you expect from the story when you read the first page? Were your expectations met? Can you convey in a few words what happened to the characters? What is the mood of the story and the state of the characters at the beginning of the story? What do they set up or what questions do the words “and the heart sank blissfully and terribly”; “For many years later they remembered this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives”? Why is the morning of the next day called happy? What word becomes the key word that conveys the state of the lieutenant upon parting? When does the narrative break occur? What “strange, incomprehensible feeling that did not exist at all while they were together” does I. A. Bunin write about? Why did it come only when the heroes broke up? What torments the hero the most? What would change if the heroine told the lieutenant her first and last name? Why does the author describe in such detail the day the lieutenant spent in county town waiting for the ship? Does the hero experience happiness or suffering? Why does he feel ten years older at the end of the story? Why of the two definitions of what happened given by the heroine (“ sunstroke" and "eclipse") was the first chosen as the title of the story?
« Clean Monday »: What was your first feeling after reading the story? Why don't the heroes have names? What impression did the hero and heroine make on you? What is the atmosphere at the beginning of the story and by what means is it created? What feeling is the main one in a story about the relationships between the characters? What words can be called key words? What causes the hero’s happiness and torment? How are episodes related to religion and the life of Moscow bohemia combined in the story? Does the heroine fit into them equally organically? Why, deciding to be intimate with her beloved, did the heroine “lifelessly order” him to let go of the carriage (our italics – I.Sh.)? Why does the hero wait at the bedroom door “with his heart sinking as if over an abyss”? What does a night spent together become for the heroes? Why is it that in the morning, when his passion has found resolution, when he has achieved what he so desired, the hero is close to despair? Why doesn’t I. A. Bunin explain the motives for the heroine’s action? Does it seem unexpected to you? What are the leading colors in this story? How does their relationship in the depiction of the world and the heroine change throughout the narrative? Compare the ending of the story with the ending of Turgenev’s novel “ Noble nest" What do they have in common and what is the difference?
« Cold autumn»: Which lines of the story excited you the most? Why don't the heroes have names? What intonation will the story have? How do you imagine the park on that cold autumn night that the heroine talks about, and the windows of the house that shine “very specially, like autumn”? What meaning does Fet’s poem in it give to the story? What cultural associations does it evoke? How is it told about historical events, influenced the lives of the characters, and about people’s reactions to them? Why does the heroine call the word “killed” a strange word? Why does the author talk about the daughter of the heroine’s nephew? What kind of girl do you imagine, and what kind of heroine do you imagine? What worlds do they belong to? Why is the story called “Cold Autumn”? What is the author's feeling in the finale? The heroine says that she will not survive the death of her fiancé: does this come true?
I. Bunin is one of the few figures of Russian culture appreciated abroad. In 1933 he was awarded Nobel Prize in literature "For the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose." One can have different attitudes towards the personality and views of this writer, but his mastery in the field belles lettres undoubtedly, therefore his works are at least worthy of our attention. One of them, “Mr. from San Francisco,” received such a high rating from the jury awarding the most prestigious prize in the world.
An important quality for a writer is observation, because from the most fleeting episodes and impressions you can create a whole work. Bunin accidentally saw the cover of Thomas Mann’s book “Death in Venice” in a store, and a few months later, when he came to visit his cousin, he remembered this title and connected it with an even older memory: the death of an American on the island of Capri, where the author himself was vacationing. This is how one of Bunin’s best stories turned out, and not just a story, but a whole philosophical parable.
This literary work was enthusiastically received by critics, and the writer’s extraordinary talent was compared with the gift of L.N. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov. After this, Bunin stood with venerable experts on words and human soul in one row. His work is so symbolic and eternal that it will never lose its philosophical focus and relevance. And in the age of the power of money and market relations, it is doubly useful to remember what a life inspired only by accumulation leads to.
What is the story about?
The main character, who does not have a name (he is just a gentleman from San Francisco), spent his whole life increasing his wealth, and at the age of 58 he decided to devote time to rest (and at the same time to his family). They set off on the ship Atlantis on their entertaining journey. All passengers are immersed in idleness, but the service staff works tirelessly to provide all these breakfasts, lunches, dinners, teas, card games, dances, liqueurs and cognacs. The stay of tourists in Naples is also monotonous, only museums and cathedrals are added to their program. However, the weather is not kind to tourists: December in Naples turned out to be stormy. Therefore, the Master and his family rush to the island of Capri, pleasing with warmth, where they check into the same hotel and are already preparing for routine “entertainment” activities: eating, sleeping, chatting, looking for a groom for their daughter. But suddenly the death of the main character bursts into this “idyll”. He died suddenly while reading a newspaper.
And this is where it opens up to the reader main idea the story that in the face of death everyone is equal: neither wealth nor power can save you from it. This Gentleman, who only recently wasted money, spoke contemptuously to the servants and accepted their respectful bows, is lying in a cramped and cheap room, respect has disappeared somewhere, his family is being kicked out of the hotel, because his wife and daughter will leave “trifles” at the box office. And so his body is taken back to America in a soda box, because even a coffin cannot be found in Capri. But he is already traveling in the hold, hidden from high-ranking passengers. And no one really grieves, because no one can use the dead man’s money.
Meaning of the name
At first, Bunin wanted to call his story “Death on Capri” by analogy with the title that inspired him, “Death in Venice” (the writer read this book later and rated it as “unpleasant”). But after writing the first line, he crossed out this title and named the work by the “name” of the hero.
From the first page, the writer’s attitude towards the Master is clear; for him, he is faceless, colorless and soulless, so he did not even receive a name. He is the master, the top of the social hierarchy. But all this power is fleeting and fragile, the author reminds. The hero, useless to society, who has not done a single good deed in 58 years and thinks only of himself, remains after death only an unknown gentleman, about whom they only know that he is a rich American.
Characteristics of heroes
There are few characters in the story: the gentleman from San Francisco as a symbol of eternal fussy hoarding, his wife, depicting gray respectability, and their daughter, symbolizing the desire for this respectability.
- The gentleman “worked tirelessly” all his life, but these were the hands of the Chinese, who were hired by the thousands and died just as abundantly in heavy service. Other people generally mean little to him, the main thing is profit, wealth, power, savings. It was they who gave him the opportunity to travel, live at the highest level and not care about those around him who were less fortunate in life. However, nothing saved the hero from death; you can’t take the money to the next world. And respect, bought and sold, quickly turns into dust: after his death nothing changed, the celebration of life, money and idleness continued, even there was no one to worry about the last tribute to the dead. The body travels through authorities, it is nothing, just another piece of luggage that is thrown into the hold, hidden from “decent society.”
- The hero's wife lived a monotonous, philistine life, but with chic: without any special problems or difficulties, no worries, just a lazily stretching string of idle days. Nothing impressed her; she was always completely calm, probably having forgotten how to think in the routine of idleness. She is only concerned about the future of her daughter: she needs to find her a respectable and profitable match, so that she too can comfortably float with the flow all her life.
- The daughter did her best to portray innocence and at the same time frankness, attracting suitors. This is what interested her most. A meeting with an ugly, strange and uninteresting man, but a prince, plunged the girl into excitement. Perhaps this was one of the last strong feelings in her life, and then the future of her mother awaited her. However, some emotions still remained in the girl: she alone foresaw trouble (“her heart was suddenly squeezed by melancholy, a feeling of terrible loneliness on this strange, dark island”) and cried for her father.
Main topics
Life and death, routine and exclusivity, wealth and poverty, beauty and ugliness - these are the main themes of the story. They immediately reflect the philosophical orientation author's intention. He encourages readers to think about themselves: are we not chasing something frivolously small, are we getting bogged down in routine, missing out on true beauty? After all, a life in which there is no time to think about oneself, one’s place in the Universe, in which there is no time to look at the surrounding nature, people and notice something good in them, is lived in vain. And you can’t fix a life you’ve lived in vain, and you can’t buy a new one for any money. Death will come anyway, you can’t hide from it and you can’t pay off it, so you need to have time to do something really worthwhile, something so that you will be remembered kind words, and not indifferently thrown into the hold. Therefore, it is worth thinking about everyday life, which makes thoughts banal and feelings faded and weak, about wealth that is not worth the effort, about beauty, in the corruption of which lies ugliness.
The wealth of the “masters of life” is contrasted with the poverty of people who live equally ordinary lives, but suffer poverty and humiliation. Servants who secretly imitate their masters, but grovel before them to their faces. Masters who treat their servants as inferior creatures, but grovel before even richer and more noble persons. A couple hired on a steamship to play passionate love. The Master's daughter, feigning passion and trepidation to lure the prince. All this dirty, low pretense, although presented in a luxurious wrapper, is contrasted with the eternal and pure beauty of nature.
Main problems
The main problem of this story is the search for the meaning of life. How should you spend your short earthly vigil not in vain, how to leave behind something important and valuable for others? Everyone sees their purpose in their own way, but no one should forget that a person’s spiritual baggage is more important than material. Although at all times they have said that in modern times all eternal values have been lost, every time this is not true. Both Bunin and other writers remind us, readers, that life without harmony and inner beauty is not life, but a miserable existence.
The problem of the transience of life is also raised by the author. After all, the gentleman from San Francisco spent his mental strength, made money and made money, postponing some simple joys, real emotions for later, but this “later” never began. This happens to many people who are mired in everyday life, routine, problems, and affairs. Sometimes you just need to stop, pay attention to loved ones, nature, friends, and feel the beauty in your surroundings. After all, tomorrow may not come.
The meaning of the story
It is not for nothing that the story is called a parable: it has a very instructive message and is intended to give a lesson to the reader. The main idea of the story is the injustice of class society. Most of it survives on bread and water, while the elite waste their lives mindlessly. The writer states the moral squalor of the existing order, because most of the “masters of life” achieved their wealth by dishonest means. Such people bring only evil, just as the Master from San Francisco pays and ensures the death of Chinese workers. The death of the main character emphasizes the author's thoughts. No one is interested in this recently so influential man, because his money no longer gives him power, and he has not committed any respectable and outstanding deeds.
The idleness of these rich people, their effeminacy, perversion, insensitivity to something living and beautiful proves the accident and injustice of their high position. This fact is hidden behind the description of the leisure time of tourists on the ship, their entertainment (the main one is lunch), costumes, relationships with each other (the origin of the prince whom the main character’s daughter met makes her fall in love).
Composition and genre
"The Gentleman from San Francisco" can be seen as a parable story. What is a story (a short work in prose containing a plot, a conflict and having one main storyline) is known to most, but how can you characterize the parable? A parable is a small allegorical text that guides the reader on the right path. Therefore, the product in plot-wise and in form it is a story, and in philosophical, substantive terms it is a parable.
Compositionally, the story is divided into two large parts: the journey of the Master from San Francisco from the New World and the stay of the body in the hold on the way back. The culmination of the work is the death of the hero. Before this, describing the steamship Atlantis and tourist places, the author gives the story an anxious mood of anticipation. In this part, a sharply negative attitude towards the Master is striking. But death deprived him of all privileges and equated his remains with luggage, so Bunin softens and even sympathizes with him. It also describes the island of Capri, its nature and local people; these lines are filled with beauty and understanding of the beauty of nature.
Symbols
The work is replete with symbols that confirm Bunin’s thoughts. The first of them is the steamship Atlantis, on which an endless celebration of luxurious life reigns, but there is a storm outside, a storm, even the ship itself is shaking. So at the beginning of the twentieth century, the whole society was seething, experiencing a social crisis, only the indifferent bourgeois continued the feast during the plague.
The island of Capri symbolizes real beauty (that’s why the description of its nature and inhabitants is covered in warm colors): a “joyful, beautiful, sunny” country filled with “fairy blue”, majestic mountains, the beauty of which cannot be conveyed in human language. The existence of our American family and people like them is a pathetic parody of life.
Features of the work
Figurative language and bright landscapes are inherent in Bunin’s creative style; the artist’s mastery of words is reflected in this story. At first, he creates an anxious mood, the reader expects that, despite the splendor of the rich environment around the Master, something irreparable will soon happen. Later, the tension is erased by natural sketches written in soft strokes, reflecting love and admiration for beauty.
The second feature is the philosophical and topical content. Bunin castigates the meaninglessness of the existence of the elite of society, its spoiling, disrespect for other people. It was because of this bourgeoisie, cut off from the life of the people and having fun at their expense, that two years later a bloody revolution broke out in the writer’s homeland. Everyone felt that something needed to be changed, but no one did anything, which is why so much blood was shed, so many tragedies happened in those difficult times. And the theme of searching for the meaning of life does not lose relevance, which is why the story still interests the reader 100 years later.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!Questions for the lesson
2. Find the symbols in the story. Think about what specific and general meaning they have in the story.
3. For what purpose did Bunin give his ship the name “Atlantis”?
From December 1913, Bunin spent six months in Capri. Before that, he traveled to France and other European cities, visited Egypt, Algeria, and Ceylon. The impressions from these travels were reflected in the stories and stories that made up the collections “Sukhodol” (1912), “John the Weeper” (1913), “The Cup of Life” (1915), and “The Master from San Francisco” (1916).
The story “Mr. from San Francisco” continued the tradition of L.N. Tolstoy, who portrayed illness and death as the most important events that reveal the true value of an individual. Along with the philosophical line, Bunin’s story developed social issues associated with a critical attitude towards lack of spirituality, towards the exaltation of technical progress to the detriment of internal improvement.
The creative impetus for writing this work was given by the news of the death of a millionaire who came to Capri and stayed at a local hotel. Therefore, the story was originally called “Death on Capri.” The change of title emphasizes that the author’s focus is on the figure of a nameless millionaire, fifty-eight years old, sailing from America on vacation to blessed Italy.
He devoted his entire life to the unbridled accumulation of wealth, never allowing himself relaxation or rest. And only now, a person who neglects nature and despises people, having become “decrepit”, “dry”, unhealthy, decides to spend time among his own kind, surrounded by the sea and pine trees.
It seemed to him, the author sarcastically notes, that he “had just started life.” The rich man does not suspect that all that vain, meaningless time of his existence, which he has taken beyond the brackets of life, must suddenly end, end in nothing, so that he is never given the opportunity to know life itself in its true meaning.
Question
What is the significance of the main setting of the story?
Answer
The main action of the story takes place on the huge steamship Atlantis. This is a kind of model of bourgeois society, in which there are upper “floors” and “basements”. Upstairs, life goes on as in a “hotel with all the amenities,” measured, calm and idle. There are “many” “passengers” who live “prosperously”, but there are many more – “a great multitude” – of those who work for them.
Question
What technique does Bunin use to depict the division of society?
Answer
The division has the character of an antithesis: rest, carelessness, dancing and work, “unbearable tension” are opposed; “the radiance… of the palace” and the dark and sultry depths of the underworld”; “gentlemen” in tailcoats and tuxedos, ladies in “rich” “charming” “toilets” and drenched in acrid, dirty sweat and naked people to the waist, crimson from the flames.” Gradually a picture of heaven and hell is being built.
Question
How do “tops” and “bottoms” relate to each other?
Answer
They are strangely connected to each other. “Good money” helps to get to the top, and those who, like “the gentleman from San Francisco,” were “quite generous” to people from the “underworld”, they “fed and watered... from morning to evening they served him, warning him of the slightest desire, protected his cleanliness and peace, carried his things...".
Question
Drawing a unique model of bourgeois society, Bunin operates with a number of magnificent symbols. What images in the story have symbolic meaning?
Answer
Firstly, the ocean steamer with a significant name is perceived as a symbol of society "Atlantis", on which a nameless millionaire is sailing to Europe. Atlantis is a sunken legendary, mythical continent, a symbol of a lost civilization that could not resist the onslaught of the elements. Associations also arise with the Titanic, which sank in 1912.
« Ocean, who walked behind the walls of the ship, is a symbol of the elements, nature, opposing civilization.
It is also symbolic captain's image, “a red-haired man of monstrous size and bulk, resembling... a huge idol and very rarely appearing to people from his mysterious chambers.”
Symbolic image of the title character(for main character the one whose name is in the title of the work may not be the main character). The gentleman from San Francisco is the personification of a man of bourgeois civilization.
He uses the underwater “womb” of the ship to the “ninth circle”, speaks of the “hot throats” of gigantic furnaces, makes the captain appear, a “red worm of monstrous size”, similar “to a huge idol”, and then the Devil on the rocks of Gibraltar; The author reproduces the “shuttle”, meaningless cruising of the ship, the formidable ocean and the storms on it. The epigraph of the story, given in one of the editions, is also artistically capacious: “Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!”
The richest symbolism, the rhythm of repetition, the system of allusions, the ring composition, the condensation of tropes, the most complex syntax with numerous periods - everything speaks of possibility, of the approach, finally, of inevitable death. Even the familiar name Gibraltar takes on its ominous meaning in this context.
Question
Why is the main character deprived of a name?
Answer
The hero is simply called “master” because that is his essence. At least he considers himself a master and revels in his position. He can allow himself “solely for the sake of entertainment” to go “to the Old World for two whole years”, can enjoy all the benefits guaranteed by his status, believes “in the care of all those who fed and watered him, served him from morning to evening, warning his slightest desire,” can contemptuously throw at the ragamuffins through clenched teeth: “Get out!”
Question
Answer
Describing the gentleman’s appearance, Bunin uses epithets that emphasize his wealth and his unnaturalness: “silver mustache”, “golden fillings” of teeth, “strong bald head” is compared to “old ivory”. There is nothing spiritual about the gentleman, his goal - to become rich and reap the fruits of this wealth - was realized, but he did not become happier because of it. The description of the gentleman from San Francisco is constantly accompanied by the author's irony.
In depicting his hero, the author masterfully uses the ability to notice details(I especially remember the episode with the cufflink) and using contrast, contrasting the external respectability and significance of the master with his internal emptiness and squalor. The writer emphasizes the deadness of the hero, the likeness of a thing (his bald head shone like “old ivory”), a mechanical doll, a robot. That is why he fiddles with the notorious cufflink for so long, awkwardly and slowly. That’s why he doesn’t utter a single monologue, and his two or three short, thoughtless remarks are more like the creaking and crackling of a wind-up toy.
Question
When does the hero begin to change and lose his self-confidence?
Answer
“Mister” changes only in the face of death, humanity begins to appear in him: “It was no longer the gentleman from San Francisco who was wheezing - he was no longer there, but someone else.” Death makes him human: his features began to become thinner and brighter...” “Deceased”, “deceased”, “dead” - this is what the author now calls the hero.
The attitude of those around him changes sharply: the corpse must be removed from the hotel so as not to spoil the mood of other guests, they cannot provide a coffin - only a soda box (“soda” is also one of the signs of civilization), the servants, who fawned over the living, laugh mockingly over the dead. At the end of the story there is a mention of “the body of the dead old man from San Francisco returning home to his grave on the shores of the New World” in a black hold. The power of the “master” turned out to be illusory.
Question
How are the other characters in the story described?
Answer
Equally silent, nameless, mechanized are those who surround the gentleman on the ship. In their characteristics, Bunin also conveys lack of spirituality: tourists are busy only with eating, drinking cognacs and liqueurs, and swimming “in the waves of spicy smoke.” The author again resorts to contrast, comparing their carefree, measured, regulated, carefree and festive lifestyle with the hellishly intense work of the watchmen and workers. And in order to reveal the falsehood of an ostensibly beautiful vacation, the writer depicts a hired young couple who imitate love and tenderness for the joyful contemplation of an idle public. In this pair there was a “sinfully modest girl” and “a young man with black, as if glued-on hair, pale with powder,” “resembling a huge leech.”
Question
Why are such episodic characters as Lorenzo and the Abruzzese mountaineers introduced into the story?
Answer
These characters appear at the end of the story and are outwardly in no way connected with its action. Lorenzo is “a tall old boatman, a carefree reveler and a handsome man,” probably the same age as the gentleman from San Francisco. Only a few lines are dedicated to him, but he is given a sonorous name, unlike the title character. He is famous throughout Italy and has repeatedly served as a model for many painters.
“With a regal demeanor” he looks around, feeling truly “royal”, enjoying life, “showing off with his rags, a clay pipe and a red wool beret lowered over one ear.” The picturesque poor man, old Lorenzo, will live forever on the canvases of artists, but the rich old man from San Francisco was erased from life and forgotten before he could die.
The Abruzzese highlanders, like Lorenzo, personify the naturalness and joy of being. They live in harmony, in harmony with the world, with nature. The mountaineers give praise to the sun and morning with their lively, artless music. These are the true values of life, in contrast to the brilliant, expensive, but artificial imaginary values of the “masters”.
Question
What image summarizes the insignificance and perishability of earthly wealth and glory?
Answer
This is also an unnamed image, in which one recognizes the once powerful Roman emperor Tiberius, who recent years lived his life in Capri. Many “come to look at the remains of the stone house where he lived.” “Humanity will forever remember him,” but this is the glory of Herostratus: “a man who was unspeakably vile in satisfying his lust and for some reason had power over millions of people, inflicting cruelties on them beyond all measure.” In the word “for some reason” there is an exposure of fictitious power and pride; time puts everything in its place: it gives immortality to the true and plunges the false into oblivion.
The story gradually develops the theme of the end of the existing world order, the inevitability of the death of a soulless and spiritual civilization. It is contained in the epigraph, which was removed by Bunin only in the last edition in 1951: “Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!” This biblical phrase, reminiscent of Belshazzar's feast before the fall of the Chaldean kingdom, sounds like a harbinger of great disasters to come. The mention in the text of Vesuvius, the eruption of which destroyed Pompeii, reinforces the ominous prediction. Sharp feeling the crisis of a civilization doomed to oblivion is coupled with philosophical reflections on life, man, death and immortality.
Bunin's story does not evoke a feeling of hopelessness. In contrast to the world of the ugly, alien to beauty (Neapolitan museums and songs dedicated to Capri nature and life itself), the writer conveys the world of beauty. The author's ideal is embodied in the images of the cheerful Abruzzese highlanders, in the beauty of Mount Solaro, it is reflected in the Madonna who decorated the grotto, in the sunniest, fabulously beautiful Italy, which rejected the gentleman from San Francisco.
And then it happens, this expected, inevitable death. In Capri, a gentleman from San Francisco dies suddenly. Our premonition and the epigraph of the story are justified. The story of placing the gentleman in a soda box and then in a coffin shows all the futility and meaninglessness of those accumulations, lusts, and self-delusion with which the main character existed until that moment.
A new reference point for time and events arises. The death of the master, as it were, cuts the narrative into two parts, and this determines the originality of the composition. The attitude towards the deceased and his wife changes dramatically. Before our eyes, the hotel owner and the bellboy Luigi become indifferently callous. The pitifulness and absolute uselessness of the one who considered himself the center of the universe is revealed.
Bunin raises questions about the meaning and essence of existence, about life and death, about the value of human existence, about sin and guilt, about God's judgment for the criminality of acts. The hero of the story does not receive justification or forgiveness from the author, and the ocean rumbles angrily as the steamer returns with the coffin of the deceased.
Final word teachers
Once upon a time, Pushkin, in a poem from the period of southern exile, romantically glorified the free sea and, changing its name, called it “ocean”. He also painted two deaths at sea, turning his gaze to the rock, “the tomb of glory,” and ended the poems with a reflection on goodness and the tyrant. Essentially, Bunin proposed a similar structure: the ocean - a ship, “kept by whim,” “a feast during the plague” - two deaths (of a millionaire and Tiberius), a rock with the ruins of a palace - a reflection on the good and the tyrant. But how everything was rethought by the writer of the “iron” twentieth century!
With epic thoroughness, accessible to prose, Bunin paints the sea not as a free, beautiful and capricious element, but as a formidable, ferocious and disastrous element. Pushkin's “feast during the plague” loses its tragedy and takes on a parodic and grotesque character. The death of the hero of the story turns out to be unmourned by people. And the rock on the island, the emperor’s refuge, this time becomes not a “tomb of glory”, but a parody monument, an object of tourism: people dragged themselves across the ocean here, Bunin writes with bitter irony, climbed the steep rock on which lived a vile and depraved monster, dooming people to countless deaths. Such a rethinking conveys the disastrous and catastrophic nature of the world, which finds itself, like the steamship, on the edge of the abyss.
Literature
Dmitry Bykov. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. // Encyclopedia for children “Avanta+”. Volume 9. Russian literature. Part two. XX century M., 1999
Vera Muromtseva-Bunina. Bunin's life. Conversations with memory. M.: Vagrius, 2007
Galina Kuznetsova. Grasse diary. M.: Moscow worker, 1995
N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments in Russian literature. 11th grade. I half of the year. M.: VAKO, 2005
D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the 20th century. 11th grade program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001
E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 20th century. SP.: Parity, 2002
In the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco,” I. Bunin very vividly and in detail depicts the world of luxury and prosperity, the world of rich people who can afford everything. One of them - a gentleman from San Francisco - is the main character. In his actions, 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 the eye when reading is that nowhere in the story is the name of the hero mentioned or his inner world is depicted.
Who is this gentleman from San Francisco? In the very first lines, the author writes that “no one remembered his 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 hero is mentioned. It is 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 description of appearance. The hero is presented as a solid, respectable, wealthy man who is able to buy 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, paying great attention to appearance and actions, does the writer not show the inner world, the psychology of the hero? This is all because the gentleman from San Francisco simply does not have inner world, souls. He devoted his entire life to making a fortune and creating capital. The hero worked hard and did not enrich himself spiritually. And by the time he reaches maturity, having acquired a fortune, he does not know what to do with himself, because he is unspiritual. 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 task of his existence comes down to satisfying physiological needs for sleep, food, clothing. The hero doesn't even try to change anything. And his death goes 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.
