“Review of I. Bunin’s story “Sunstroke. Space-time continuum in Bunin's story "sunstroke" Main characters and their characteristics
Varyanitsa Alena Gennadievna,
1st year master's student
Higher School of Literature, European and Oriental Languages
Space-time continuum
in Bunin's story "Sunstroke"
The category of continuum is directly related to the concepts of time and space. The term “continuum” itself means, according to I.R. Galperin, “the continuous formation of something, i.e. undifferentiated flow of movement in time and space"[Galperin:1971, 87] . However, movement can only be analyzed if you pause it and see in the decomposed parts the discrete characteristics that interact to create the idea of movement. Thus, continuum as a category of text can be imagined in the most general terms as a certain sequence of facts and events unfolding in time and space.
It is known that the sense of time for a person at different periods of his life is subjective: it can stretch or shrink. This subjectivity of sensations is used in different ways by authors of literary texts: a moment can last a long time or stop altogether, and large periods of time can flash by overnight. Artistic time- this is a sequence in the description of events that are subjectively perceived. This perception of time becomes one of the forms of depicting reality when, at the will of the author, the time perspective changes, which can shift, the past is thought of as the present, and the future appears as the past, etc.
“In his work, the writer creates a certain space in which the action takes place. This space can be large, cover a number of countries in a travel novel, or even go beyond the terrestrial planet, but it can also narrow down to the tight confines of one room” [Likhachev: 1968, 76].
“The writer in his work also creates the time in which the action of the work takes place. The work may cover centuries or just hours. Time in a work can move quickly or slowly, intermittently or continuously, be intensely filled with events or flow lazily and remain “empty,” rarely “populated” with events” [Likhachev: 1968, 79].
The category of time in a literary text is also complicated by its two-dimensionality - this is the time of the narrative and the time of the event. Therefore, temporary shifts are quite natural. Events that are distant in time can be depicted as immediately occurring, for example, in a character's retelling. Temporal doubling is a common storytelling technique in which the stories of different people, including the author of the text, intersect.
But such a bifurcation is possible without the intervention of characters in the coverage of past and present events. Space, just like time, can shift at the will of the author. Artistic space is created through the use of image perspective; this occurs as a result of a mental change in the place from which the observation is being made: a general, small plan is replaced by a large one, and vice versa.
In a literary text, spatial concepts can generally be transformed into concepts of a different plane. According to M. Yu. Lotman, artistic space is a model of the world of a given author, expressed in the language of his spatial representations [Lotman: 1988, 212].
Spatial concepts in a creative, artistic context can only be an external, verbal image, but convey a different content, not spatial. Space and time are the basic forms of being, life, precisely how such realities are recreated in non-fiction texts, in particular, in scientific ones, and in literary texts they can transform, transform into one another [Valgina: 2003, 115].
The leading role in the development of categories of artistic space and time belongs to M.M. Bakhtin, who proposed a “consistently chronotopic approach” to the study work of art. M.M. Bakhtin gave following definition developed concept: “We will call the essential interconnection of temporal and spatial relations, artistically mastered in literature, a chronotope (which literally means “time-space”)” [Bakhtin: 1975, 245].
The chronotope plays an important role, as it “determines artistic unity literary work in his relation to reality”, and also has “significant genre significance” in literature: “We can directly say that the genre and genre varieties are determined precisely by the chronotope” [Bakhtin: 1975, 247]. Thus, having originated in the teachings of M.M. Bakhtin, in research recent years chronotope is defined as the structural law of the genre.
Based on the postulates put forward, M.M. Bakhtin identified “chronotopic values of different degrees and volumes” that permeate art and literature: “Chronotope of the meeting”, “Chronotope of the road”, Real chronotope - “square” (“agora”), “Castle”, “Living room-salon”, “ Provincial town”, “Threshold” [Bakhtin: 1975, 253].
The author referred to a list of only large, comprehensive chronotopes, pointing out that “each such chronotope can include an unlimited number of small chronotopes: after all, each motif can have its own special chronotope” [Bakhtin: 1975, 261], which becomes the subject of research scientists.
MM. Bakhtin defined the main meanings of the identified chronotopes: “plot-forming” meaning (“they are the organizational centers of the main plot events of the novel”), “pictorial” meaning (“the chronotope as the primary materialization of time in space is the center of pictorial concretization, embodiment for the entire novel”) [Bakhtin :1975, 263].
MM. Bakhtin, based on the results of his study of the novelistic nature of the work, concludes that “every artistic and literary image is chronotopic. Language as a treasury of images is essentially chronotopic. The internal form of a word is chronotopic, that is, that mediating feature with the help of which the original spatial meanings are transferred to temporal relations (in the broadest sense)” [Bakhtin: 1975, 289].
In literary criticism, the problem of artistic time and space remains relevant when turning to the analysis of works.
From this position, Bunin’s story “Sunstroke,” written by him in 1925, is interesting.
The plot of the story is based on a chance meeting between a lieutenant and a young woman. Something happened to them that few are destined to experience: a flash of passion, similar in strength to sunstroke. The heroes understand that both are powerless to resist this feeling and decide on a reckless act: they get off at the nearest pier. Entering the room, the heroes give vent to the passion that gripped them:“...both were so frantically suffocated in the kiss that they remembered this moment for many years later: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives.” [Bunin: 1986, 387].
In the morning " little nameless woman "Leaves. At first, the lieutenant treated the incident very lightly and carefree, as a funny adventure, of which there were many and would continue to be in his life. But, returning to the hotel, he realizes that he cannot be in a room where he still reminds him of her. With tenderness he remembers her words spoken before leaving:“I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me. Nothing even close to what happened has ever happened to me, and there never will be again. It was as if an eclipse had hit me... Or, rather, we both got something like sunstroke...” [Bunin: 1986, 388].
What once seemed like a fleeting vision grows into something more. The lieutenant realizes that his heart is struck by love. In a short time, something happened for him that for some people lasts a lifetime. He is ready to give his life to see his"beautiful stranger" and express “how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her” .
So the story begins meeting there are two people on the ship: a man and a woman (according to Bakhtin’s terminology, this is a “chronotope of a meeting”). A certain feeling of something instantaneous, suddenly striking, and here leading to devastation of the soul, suffering, and misfortune is created. This is especially clearly felt if we compare the beginning(“After dinner, we walked out of the brightly and hotly lit dining room onto the deck and stopped at the railing. She closed her eyes, put her hand to her cheek with her palm facing outward, and laughed a simple, charming laugh.” [Bunin: 1986, 386]) and the end of the story(“The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older.” [Bunin: 1986, 392] ).
Let's consider another technique used by I.A. Bunin, is the organization of space and time.
Please note that space in the work is limited. The heroes arrive by boat, leave again by boat; then the hotel, from where the lieutenant goes to see off the stranger, and he returns there. The hero constantly makes the opposite movement. It can be assumed that this is a kind of vicious circle. The lieutenant runs out of the room, and this is understandable: staying here without her is painful, but he returns, since this room still contains traces of the stranger. Thinking about what he has experienced, the hero experiences pain and joy.
Other categories of “space” can be considered:
1. Real spaces: river, steamship, boat, hotel room, town, market.
The love story of the heroes is uniquely framed by two landscapes.“There was darkness and lights ahead. A strong, soft wind hit my face from the darkness, and the lights rushed somewhere to the side...” [Bunin: 1986, 386]. It seems that nature here becomes something pushing the heroes towards each other, contributing to the emergence of love feelings in them, promising something beautiful. And, at the same time, perhaps its description carries a motive of hopelessness, because there is something here that foreshadows the ending, where“the dark summer dawn faded far ahead, gloomily, sleepily and multi-coloredly reflected in the river, which in some places still glowed like trembling ripples in the distance beneath it, under this dawn, and the lights floated and floated back, scattered in the darkness around” [Bunin: 1986, 389 ]. One gets the impression that the heroes, emerging from “darkness ", dissolve in it again. The writer highlights only a moment in their destinies.
The “spatial” movement of lights in these landscapes is also extremely important. They seem to frame the love story of the heroes: in the first landscape they were ahead, promising happiness, and in the second - behind. Now everything has come full circle, and repeat "sailed and sailed " seems to be a hint at the monotony of the lieutenant's life without "her" (“...how can I spend the whole day now, without her, in this outback...” ).
The spaces of nature and the human world are contrasted. In describing the morning, the author uses his characteristic technique of “stringing” epithets and details that convey the feelings of the characters and give tangibility to feelings:“At ten o’clock in the morning, sunny, hot, happy, with the ringing of churches, with market on the square... little nameless woman left"[Bunin: 1986, 38 7]. The bazaar, unnoticed by the hero when he saw off the stranger, now becomes the subject of his attention. Previously, the lieutenant would not have noticed any manure among the carts, no bowls, no pots, no women sitting on the ground, and the phrase“Here are the first grade cucumbers, your honor!” would not seem to him as petty and vulgar as it does now.
2. B internal spacesswarms: hero, heroine and love.
Bunin is more interested in the hero, since it is through his eyes that we look at the world, but, oddly enough, the heroine will be the “carrier of action.” Her appearance pulls the hero out of his usual “world”, and even if he returns to it, his life will still be different.
Attentive to sounds and smells, Bunin describes the stranger through the eyes of a lieutenant at the beginning of the work. And in her portrait details appear that, in Bunin’s understanding, are characteristic of the vision of a person gripped by desire:“...the hand, small and strong, smelled of tan” , “she is strong and dark all over under this light canvas dress after a whole month of lying under the southern sun” , “.. fresh as at seventeen years old, simple, cheerful and - already reasonable” [Bunin: 1986, 386].
The author first gives a portrait of the hero almost at the very end of the story.“An ordinary officer’s face, gray from a tan, with a whitish sun-bleached mustache and bluish white eyes.” turns into the face of a suffering man and now has"excited, crazy expression" . It is interesting that the author separates the description of the characters in time: she is described at the beginning, he is described at the end of the work. I.A. Bunin focuses on how the hero ceases to be faceless only at the end of the work. It can be assumed that this is due to the fact that the lieutenant learned what love is («… a completely new feeling - that strange, incomprehensible feeling that did not exist at all while they were together, which he could not even imagine in himself, starting yesterday what he thought was just a funny acquaintance, and which it was no longer possible to tell her about now ! ». ).
The work can also highlight the space of love, because love is the main character here. At the beginning of the story, it is not clear whether this is love: “He” and “she” obey the call of the flesh. What do we think is the abundance of verbs (“rushed », « passed », « came out », « got up », « left ") may indicate a rapid change of actions. With this endless repetition of verbs of movement, the author seeks to focus the reader’s attention on the appearance of some kind of “heat” in the actions of the heroes, depicting their feeling as a disease that cannot be resisted. But at some point we begin to understand that “he” and “she” still truly loved each other. The realization of this comes to us when Bunin first looks into the future of the heroes:“The lieutenant rushed to her so impulsively and both frantically suffocated in the kiss that they remembered this moment for many years later: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives.” [Bunin: 1986, 387].
Let's consider how the category of “time” is traced in this story. We can highlight:
1. “Real” time of action: two days, yesterday and today;
2. “Psychological” time of action: past, present and future;
The system of antonyms proposed by Bunin is aimed at showing the gulf that lies between the past and the present. The room was still full of her, her presence was still felt, but the room was already empty, and she was no longer there, she had already left, she would never see her, and you would never say anything again. The ratio of contrasting sentences that connect the past and present through memory is constantly visible (“The feeling of the pleasures he had just experienced was still alive in him, but now the main thing was a new feeling”). The lieutenant needed to do something, distract himself, go somewhere, and he wanders around the city, trying to escape from the obsession, not understanding what is happening to him. His heart is too affected great love, too much happiness. Fleeting love came as a shock to the lieutenant; it changed him psychologically.
3. “Metaphysical” time of action: moment and eternity.
It’s interesting that everything that was the same yesterday seemed different to the hero. A number of details in the story, as well as the scene of the lieutenant meeting with the cab driver, help us understand author's intention. The most important thing that we discover for ourselves after reading the story “Sunstroke” is that the love that Bunin describes in his works has no future. His heroes will never be able to find happiness; they are doomed to suffer. In the end, the reader understands that love could not last, that the separation of the heroes is natural and inevitable. The author, in order to emphasize the scantiness of the time allotted to love, does not even name the names of the characters, but only describes the rapidly developing action.
It is no coincidence that the lieutenant feels deeply unhappy,"ten years older" . But he is unable to change anything - his love has no future.
On the one hand, the plot of the story is built simply, it follows a linear sequence of events, on the other hand, there is an inversion of memory episodes. The author uses this to show that psychologically the hero seems to have remained in the past and, realizing this, does not want to part with the illusion of the presence of his beloved woman. In terms of time, the story can be divided into two parts: the night spent with the woman, and the day without her. At first, an image of fleeting bliss is created - a funny incident, and in the finale an image of painful bliss - a feeling of great happiness. Gradually, the heat of the heated roofs gives way to the reddish yellowness of the evening sun, and yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they were ten years ago. Of course, the lieutenant already lives in the present, he is able to realistically assess events, but the spiritual devastation and the image of a certain tragic bliss remain.
A woman and a man, living a different life, constantly remember these moments of happiness (“...for many years later they remembered this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives...” ).
Thus, time and space outline the peculiar closed world in which the heroes find themselves. They are captive of their memories for life. Hence the successful metaphor in the title of the story: a sunstroke will be perceived not only as pain and madness, but also as a moment of happiness, a flash of lightning that can illuminate a person’s whole life with its light.
LIST OF REFERENCES USED
Galperin I.R. Text as an object of linguistic research. – M.: URSS, 2007. – 139 p.
Bakhtin M.M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel: essays on historical poetics [Text] / MM. Bakhtin // Bakhtin M.M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. - M.: Fiction, 1975. – 455 p.
Bunin I.A. Poems. Stories. / Comp. V.F. Mulenkova; Preface to the poems of O.N. Mikhailova; Preface to the stories of A.A. Sahakyants; Comment. to the poems of A.K. Baboreko and V.S. Grechaninova; Comment. to the stories of A.A. Sahakyants. – M.: Pravda, 1986. – 544 p.
Valgina N.S. Theory of the text [Text]: training manual/ N.S. Valgina. – M.: Logos, 2003. – 210 p.
Likhachev D.S. The inner world of a work of art [Text] / D. Likhachev // Questions of literature. - 1968. - No. 8. – 74 – 87 p.
Lotman Yu.M. Russian plot space novel XIX centuries [Text] / Yu.M. Lotman // Lotman Yu.M. At school poetic word: Pushkin. Lermontov. Gogol. - M.: Education, 1988. – 374 p.
The difficult life of Ivan Alekseevich left its mark on his works, but in spite of everything, the theme of love runs like a red stripe through all his work.
In 1924, Bunin began to write a series of works that were very closely related to each other. These were separate stories, each of which was an independent work. These stories are united by one theme - the theme of love. Bunin combined five of his works in that cycle: “Mitya’s Love”, “Sunstroke”, “Ida”, “Mordovian Sundress”, “The Case of Cornet Elagin”. They describe five different cases of love appearing out of nowhere. That same love that strikes to the very heart, overshadowing the mind and subjugating the will.
This article will focus on the story “Sunstroke”. It was written in 1925, when the writer was in the Maritime Alps. The writer later told Galina Kuznetsova, one of his lovers, how the story originated. She, in turn, wrote it all down in her diary.
A connoisseur of human passions, a man capable of erasing all boundaries in the face of a wave of feelings, a writer who mastered words with perfect grace, inspired by a new feeling, easily and naturally expressed his thoughts as soon as any idea arose. The stimulator could be any object, any event or natural phenomenon. The main thing is not to waste the resulting sensation, and to fully surrender to the description, without stopping, and perhaps without fully controlling yourself.
Plot of the story
The storyline of the story is quite simple, although we should not forget that the action takes place a hundred years ago, when morals were completely different, and it was not customary to write about it openly. Wonderful warm night A man and a woman meet on a ship. They are both warmed up with wine, there are magnificent views around, the mood is good and romance emanates from everywhere. They communicate, then spend the night together in a nearby hotel and leave when morning comes.
The meeting is so amazing, fleeting and unusual for both that the main characters did not even recognize each other’s names. This madness is justified by the author: “neither one nor the other has ever experienced anything like this in his entire life.”
The fleeting meeting impressed the hero so much that he could not find a place for himself after parting the next day. The lieutenant realizes that only now he understands what happiness can look like when the object of all desires is nearby. After all, for a moment, even this night, he was the most happy man on the ground. The tragedy of the situation was also added by the realization that most likely he would not see her again.
At the beginning of their acquaintance, the lieutenant and the stranger did not exchange any information; they did not even recognize each other’s names. As if dooming himself in advance to one and only communication. The young people secluded themselves with one single purpose. But this does not discredit them; they have a serious justification for their actions. The reader learns about this from the words main character. After spending the night together, she seems to conclude: “It’s as if an eclipse has come over me... Or, rather, we both got something like sunstroke...” And this sweet young woman wants to believe.
The narrator manages to dispel any illusions regarding the possible future of the wonderful couple and reports that the stranger has a family, a husband and a little daughter. A main character When he came to his senses, assessed the situation and decided not to lose such a beloved object of personal preference, he suddenly realizes that he cannot even send a telegram to his night lover. He knows nothing about her, neither name, nor surname, nor address.
Although the author did not pay attention to a detailed description of the woman, the reader likes her. I want to believe that the mysterious stranger is beautiful and smart. And this incident should be perceived as sunstroke, nothing more.
Bunin probably created the image of a femme fatale who represented his own ideal. And although there is no detail either in appearance or in the internal filling of the heroine, we know that she has a simple and charming laugh, long hair, since she wears hairpins. The woman has a strong and elastic body, strong small hands. The fact that a subtle aroma of perfume can be felt close to her can indicate that she is well-groomed.
Semantic load
In his work, Bunin did not elaborate. There are no names or titles in the story. The reader does not know what ship the main characters were on, or in what city they stopped. Even the names of the heroes remain unknown. Probably, the writer wanted the reader to understand that names and titles are not important when it comes to such a sublime feeling as falling in love and love. It cannot be said that the lieutenant and the married lady have a great secret love. The passion that flared up between them was most likely initially perceived by both as an affair during the trip. But something happened in the soul of the lieutenant, and now he finds no place for himself from the surging feelings.
From the story you can see that the writer himself is a personality psychologist. This is easy to track by the behavior of the main character. At first, the lieutenant parted with his stranger with such ease and even joy. However, after some time, he wonders what it is about this woman that makes him think about her every second, why now the whole wide world is not nice to him.
The writer managed to convey all the tragedy of unfulfilled or lost love.
Structure of the work
In his story, Bunin described, without affectation or embarrassment, a phenomenon that the common people call treason. But he was able to do it very subtly and beautifully, thanks to his writing talent. In fact, the reader becomes a witness of the greatest feeling that has just been born - love. But this happens in reverse chronological order. The standard scheme: checking in, getting acquainted, walks, meetings, dinners - all this is thrown aside. Only the acquaintance of the main characters immediately leads them to the climax in the relationship between a man and a woman. And only after parting does satisfied passion suddenly give birth to love.
“The feeling of the pleasures he had just experienced was still alive in him, but now the main thing was a new feeling.”
The author conveys feelings in detail, placing emphasis on such little things as smells and sounds. For example, the story describes in detail the morning when the market square is open, with its smells and sounds. And the ringing of bells can be heard from the nearby church. It all seems happy and bright, and contributes to unprecedented romance. At the end of the work, all the same things seem unpleasant, loud and irritable to the hero. The sun no longer warms, but scorches, and you want to hide from it.
In conclusion, one sentence should be quoted:
“The dark summer dawn faded far ahead, gloomily, sleepily and multi-coloredly reflected in the river... and the lights floated and floated back, scattered in the darkness around”
This is what reveals the author’s concept of love. Bunin himself once said that there is no happiness in life, but there are some happy moments that you need to live and appreciate. After all, love can appear suddenly and disappear forever. As sad as it may be, in Bunin’s stories the characters constantly break up. Perhaps he wants to tell us that there is great meaning in separation, because of it, love remains deep in the soul and diversifies human sensitivity. And all this really looks like sunstroke.
Nichiporov I. B.
Short story "Sunstroke" (1925)
The story was written in 1925 and, published in Sovremennye Zapiski in 1926, became one of the most remarkable phenomena of Bunin's prose of the 1920s.
The semantic core of the story, which outwardly resembles a sketch of a short love “adventure,” becomes Bunin’s deep comprehension of the essence of Eros, its place in the world of spiritual experiences of the individual. By reducing the exposition and depicting from the very first lines a sudden meeting of heroes (who are never mentioned by name), the author replaces logic series of events a scattering of psychologically rich details of the surrounding natural and objective existence - from the “warmth and smells of the summer night county town" to the characteristic "Volga panache" of a steamship approaching the pier. The mutual attraction of the heroes here appears outside the sphere of traditional psychological motivation and is likened to "madness", "sunstroke", embodying the transpersonal, irrational element of existence.
In place of progressive plot dynamics, a “moment” is put forward here, a decisive moment in the lives of the heroes, the image of which predetermines the discreteness of the narrative fabric. In the “moment” of love between the lieutenant and his companion, a bridge is thrown between three time dimensions at once: the moment of the present, the memory of the past and the intuition of the future: “Both were so ecstatically suffocated in the kiss that for many years later they remembered this moment: they had never experienced anything like it in my entire life, neither one nor the other..." (5.239). What is important here is the emphasis on the subjective and lyrical experience of time. In Bunin's prose, the compaction of chronotopic forms allows, taking into account psychological discoveries modern era, to convey the synchronicity of internal experiences (in contrast to Tolstoy’s “dialectics”), to highlight the unidentified, unconscious layers of mental life. This “moment” of physical rapprochement, inspired by spiritual feeling, becomes the culmination of the story, from it a thread stretches to the hero’s inner self-knowledge, his insights about the essence of love.
Rethinking the realistic principles of psychologism, Bunin refuses the detailed internal monologues of the characters and actively uses indirect methods of revealing spiritual impulses through the “dotted line” of “external depiction.” The very image of the “stranger” is given through abrupt metonymic details: these are, first of all, portrait strokes based on synesthesia (“the hand smelled of tan,” “the smell of her tan and canvas dress”). In general in culture Silver Age female image acquires special weight, becoming the embodiment of the secret plexuses of mental life, special sensitivity to the universal forces of Eros (V. Solovyov’s philosophical ideas about Sophia, the context of Symbolist poetry, the mysterious aura surrounding many heroines of Bunin, Kuprin, etc.). However, in Bunin this image, like the depiction of love in general, is far from the symbolist mystical “mists” and grows from the specifics of sensory existence, alluring with its incomprehensibility.
From bodily intoxication, the hero of the story gradually comes to a “belated” awareness of “that strange, incomprehensible feeling that did not exist at all while they were together, which he could not even imagine in himself...” (5.241). The experience of love reveals to the lieutenant the true “price” of everything he has lived and experienced and is refracted in the hero’s new vision of the outside world. This is that “happy”, infinitely dear, that he begins to recognize in the sounds and smells of the district Volga city, that “immeasurable happiness” that his transformed soul feels “even in this heat and in all the market smells” (5.242). However, the “immensity” of love’s delight, that which is “more necessary than life,” is antinomically combined in Bunin’s prose with the inescapable feeling of the incompatibility of this ontological completeness with the “everyday” manifestations of reality—that’s why the impression from the service in the cathedral, “where they sang loudly and cheerfully and decisively, with the consciousness of a fulfilled duty,” looking at ordinary images of people on a photographic showcase fills the hero’s soul with pain: “How wild, scary is everything everyday, ordinary, when the heart is struck ... by this terrible “sunstroke”, too much love, too much happiness..." (5.243). This character's insight contains the core of Bunin's tragic concept of love - a feeling that introduces a person to eternity and catastrophically takes him beyond the boundaries of the earthly worldview and spatio-temporal guidelines. The artistic time in the story - from the moment of love between the characters to the description of the lieutenant’s feelings in the finale - is deeply non-chronological and is subject to the general tendency towards the subjectification of object-based forms: “Both yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they were ten years ago...” (5.244).
The renewal of the narrative structure is manifested in the story not only in the reduction of the expositional part, but in the significance of leitmotiv compositional principles (throughout images of the city given through the eyes of the hero), associative moves that stand above cause-and-effect determinism. In the book “About Chekhov,” Bunin recalled one of Chekhov’s most valuable pieces of advice for himself: “In my opinion, having written a story, you should cross out its beginning and end...”.
The final Volga landscape in “Sunstroke” combines realistic authenticity with the symbolic generality of the imagery and, associated with the “fires” of the culminating moments of the character’s personal existence, gives the story an ontological perspective: “The dark summer dawn was extinguished far ahead, gloomily, sleepily and colorfully reflected in the river , still glowing here and there like trembling ripples in the distance below her, under this dawn, and the lights floated and floated back, scattered in the darkness around ... "(5.245). The expression of landscape images of the mysterious “Volga world” in the story is enhanced by the author’s hidden nostalgic feeling about a Russia lost forever, preserved by the power of memory and creative imagination. In general, the image of Russia in Bunin's emigrant short prose ("God's Tree", "Mowers"), as well as in the novel "The Life of Arsenyev", without losing living objectivity, is saturated with a sad, piercing lyrical feeling.
Thus, in the story “Sunstroke” the artistic perfection of the writer is revealed in understanding the irrational depths of the soul and the secrets of love, which was manifested in a characteristic of Russian and foreign prose of the 20th century. updating forms of psychologism, principles of plot and compositional organization. Coming into contact with many modernist experiments in this area, Bunin, with his interest in the “earthly” roots of human character, the concreteness of everyday life, inherited the peak achievements of the realistic class
More than a quarter of a century earlier, in 1899, a story by another famous Russian writer, A.P. Chekhov, “The Lady with the Dog,” was created and published. The plot of this story and the story described in “Sunstroke” have undeniable similarities. The hero of Chekhov's work, Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, meets a married lady, Anna Sergeevna, at a resort in Yalta, and like a determined...
ena” - this phrase of the writer can be used as an epigraph to all his stories about love. He talked a lot about her, beautiful, incomprehensible, mysterious. But if in early stories Bunin wrote about tragic unrequited love, but in “Sunstroke” it is mutual. And still tragic! Incredible? How can this be? It turns out it can. Let's turn to the story. The plot is simple. He and she meet on the ship. ...
Bazaar, about the greed of traders. Having paid the cab driver generously, he went to the pier and a minute later found himself on a crowded ship following the stranger. The action has come to a denouement, but at the very end of the story I. A. Bunin puts the finishing touch: in a few days the lieutenant has aged ten years. Feeling captive of love, we do not think about the inevitable moment of separation. The stronger we...
And types of love. It can be sublime and romantic, calm and gentle, stormy and frantic. And also sudden, bright, like a flash of lightning. I. A. Bunin talks about such love in the short story “Sunstroke”. The plot of this story is simple: on a ship sailing along the Volga, a lieutenant and a young woman who are returning home after a vacation in the Crimea meet. And then something happened to them...
Composition
Everything is beautiful in love - does it bring us
She is suffering or a balm.
For the sake of suffering true love
Call it bliss, O lover.
Remember from Vysotsky: “... love quietly climbed onto land and disappeared into the air before its time”? And not “forty forty,” but throughout one’s life a person tries to find the answer to the question: what is love? Sunstroke, languor of spirit or grace?
I often re-read I. Bunin's love stories. It seems to me that this particular writer tried to unravel the most inexplicable, mysterious human feeling. I really like his story “Sunstroke,” written in 1925 in the Maritime Alps. This work, like “Ida” and “The Case of Cornet Elagin,” anticipates the collection of stories “Dark Alleys.”
“All love is great happiness, even if it is not shared” - this phrase of the writer can be used as an epigraph to all his stories about love. He talked a lot about her, beautiful, incomprehensible, mysterious. But if in his early stories Bunin wrote about tragic unrequited love, then in “Sunstroke” it is mutual. And still tragic! Incredible? How can this be? It turns out it can.
Let's turn to the story. The plot is simple. He and she meet on the ship. The meeting is accidental, warmed up by wine, the warmth of the night, and a romantic mood. The heroes, having left the ship, spend the night in a hotel, and part in the morning. That's it. As we see, following Chekhov, Bunin updates the genre of the story, simplifies the event plot, and deprives the story of external entertainment. Behind a very banal plot lies internal conflict- the hero’s conflict with himself, so Bunin does not pay much attention to events, he writes about feelings.
But it’s very difficult to look into a person’s soul, into this huge and unknown world, closed from prying eyes.
What do we know about the heroes? Almost nothing. He, the lieutenant, traveling according to his needs, at first does not take this “road adventure” seriously. She leaves home in the morning, where her husband and three-year-old daughter are waiting for her. Is the woman beautiful? Bunin does not offer us a specific portrait of the stranger, but he details it. We see her small strong hand, her strong body, her hair, which she fastens with hairpins, we hear her “simple, lovely laugh,” we feel the subtle aroma of her perfume. This creates the image of a mysterious femme fatale, as if Bunin wanted to unravel the secret of female charm that has such a magical effect on a man. And he succeeded. The reader is fascinated by this stranger.
He, she, the city - everything is nameless. What is this? Generalization? Or maybe this is not all that important? The important thing is that for the reader they will simply remain a Man and a Woman with a great secret of love. It is important that the city remains the City of the Sun, happy and unsolved. It is important that Bunin, being a subtle psychologist, allows us to follow the hero’s internal state step by step. The lieutenant easily and happily parted with the stranger and returned to the hotel carefree. But something happened that the lieutenant could not imagine: his funny adventure was not forgotten! What is this? Love! But how can you convey on paper in words what a person can feel? How did Bunin manage to show “all the cataclysms that shake a fragile bodily foundation to the core, when the whole world is transformed in a person’s sensations, when sensitivity to everything around is heightened to the limit”? The writer was able to convey the hero’s painful experiences. Immediately before us there is a change in the man’s mood. At first the lieutenant feels sad, his heart contracts with “tenderness.” He tries to hide his confusion behind external bravado. Then a kind of dialogue with oneself occurs. He tries to laugh, shrug, light a cigarette, drive away sad thoughts and... he can’t. He constantly finds objects that resemble a stranger: “a hairpin, a rumpled bed,” “an unfinished cup”; he smells her perfume. This is how torment and melancholy are born. Not a trace remains of lightness and carefreeness!
The system of antonyms proposed by Bunin is aimed at showing the gulf that lies between the past and the present. “The room was still full of her,” her presence was still felt, but “the room was empty,” “and she was no longer there,” “she had already left,” “she would never see her,” and “you’ll never say anything again.” The correlation of contrasting sentences that connect the past and present through memory is constantly visible. (“The feeling of the pleasures he had just experienced was still alive in him, but now the main thing was a new feeling.”) The lieutenant needed to occupy himself with something, distract himself, go somewhere, and he wanders around the city, trying to escape from the obsession, not understanding what was happening to him after all. “His heart is struck by too much love, too much happiness.” Fleeting love came as a shock to the lieutenant; it changed him psychologically.
Bunin’s ability to acutely perceive the world through colors, sounds, and smells is well known. And in this story he did not change himself. The lyrical mood is created by a whole mass of color and sound repetitions, but they are contrasting. So, for example, in the morning (before the woman left), the splash of water, the sound of the rope on the pier, the sounds and smells of the market square, and the ringing of church bells - everything was hot, sunny, happy. All this was perceived by the hero as musical notes, in tune with the romantic mood of the heart. At the end of the story everything is the same: the pier, the market, the bells. But in the cathedral they are already singing too loudly, the smells and screams of the merchants irritate the hero, because without her “all this would have been so stupid, absurd.” The sun, hot, fiery, but “aimless,” pursues the hero, and there is nowhere to hide from its scorching rays.
It must be said that color plays a special role in the story. Yellow and gray dominate, sometimes almost black. There are, of course, many more variations of the same color range, but the main thing is still in the contrast of yellow and black. Lights and darkness. Yellow color (hot sun, yellow shallows, tan, “shining distance”) symbolizes happiness, great joy. Contrasting him with black and gray tones (darkness), Bunin shows us the emptiness and loneliness of a man who is powerless to change anything. He only begins to feel the world around him more acutely, his soul is naked, but now everything is unbearable for him. The only way to escape the scorching sun is in a cool hotel room, but there it is especially impossible not to think about her.
Another technique that I. Bunin skillfully uses is the organization of space and time. I note that the space in the story is limited and closed. The heroes arrive on a boat, leave again on a boat (alas, not together anymore); then the hotel, from where the lieutenant goes to see off the stranger, and he returns there. The hero constantly makes the opposite movement, a kind of vicious circle is obtained. The lieutenant runs out of the room, and this is understandable: staying here without her is painful, but he returns, since only this room still contains traces of the stranger. The hero experiences pain and joy when thinking about what he has experienced.
On the one hand, the plot of the story is built simply, it follows a linear sequence of events, on the other hand, there is an inversion of memory episodes. Why is this necessary? I think that psychologically the hero seems to have remained in the past and, realizing this, does not want to part with the illusion of the presence of his beloved woman. In terms of time, the story can be divided into two parts: the night spent with the woman, and the day without her. At first, an image of fleeting bliss is created - a funny incident, and in the finale an image of painful bliss - a feeling of great happiness. Gradually, “the heat of the heated roofs” gives way to the reddish yellowness of the evening sun, and “yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they were ten years ago.” Of course, the lieutenant already lives in the present, he is able to realistically assess events, but the spiritual devastation and the image of a certain tragic bliss remain. A woman and a man, already living a different life, constantly remember these moments of happiness (“for many years later they remembered this minute: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives”). Thus, time and space outline the peculiar closed world in which the heroes find themselves. They are captive of their memories for life. Hence the successful metaphor in the title of the story: sunstroke will be perceived not only as pain and madness (it is no coincidence that the lieutenant feels ten years older), but also as a moment of happiness, a “lightning” that can illuminate a person’s whole life with its light.
In conclusion, I would like to give one more quote from the story: “The dark summer dawn was extinguished far ahead, gloomily, sleepily and multi-coloredly reflected in the river... and the lights floated and floated back, scattered in the darkness around.” This phrase is Bunin's view of love. Once he said in a conversation that there is no happiness in life, “there are only lightnings of it, - appreciate them, live by them.” Love is like lightning, it flared up and went out, like lights in the darkness, alas, left behind. Why do the heroes in Bunin's stories always break up? Perhaps the writer did not want to talk about the holiday of love turning into everyday life. Perhaps separation “has a high meaning,” only in this case love remains somewhere in the heart for the rest of one’s life, therefore in Bunin’s stories, no matter how strong the love, the ending is always sad. Perhaps the writer himself was not able to fully unravel this life mystery. So what is love? Sunstroke, sleep, languor of spirit or grace?
I. A. Bunin is known for being a master of short stories. His short works are distinguished by their poignancy and emotionality. One of his favorite collections was " Dark alleys", written by him during the Second World War. These short stories excite the reader; after reading them, he begins to reflect on the mysterious power of love. The closest in composition and content is “Sunstroke,” written by the author in 1927.
Main characters
The heroes of Bunin's "Sunstroke" are an officer and a married lady. There are no names in the story, although the man tried to find out the woman's name. But she refused to name him, deciding to remain a beautiful stranger to him. The absence of names in the narrative is interesting feature a story that shows the reader that this is a story about a simple man and a simple woman.
By calling his characters nothing more than “he” and “she,” the author does not endow them with distinctive features or bright appearance. These are an ordinary man and woman who met by chance on a ship. Bunin wanted all the reader's attention to be focused on these two people, on what was happening between them. Therefore, there is no detailed description of their appearance and their acquaintance. The center of the story is just him and her.
One of the points of analysis of Bunin’s “Sunstroke” is brief description the plot of the story. The narrative begins immediately with the fact that a man and a woman who met by chance on the ship came out onto the deck. Nothing is known about them, except that he was a lieutenant, and she was married woman, returning home from Anapa.
Further in the story "Sunstroke" by Bunin, summary which we present in the article, it is said that the stranger was intoxicated by the meeting and the emotions that suddenly arose. The lieutenant suggested going ashore. The woman agrees, and they got off the ship at the next stop. They found some hotel and spent the night together. In the morning the woman was again the same as before, and told the officer about the impossibility of their further relationship. She left the city on the ship, and the man remained to wait for the next one.
And suddenly the room after her departure seemed empty to him. It became increasingly difficult for the officer to be alone; he missed her more and more. He dreamed of returning her, wanted to confess his feelings, but these were empty dreams. A man wanders around the city, trying to distract himself from thoughts of a stranger.
Tired of his experiences, the officer fell asleep. Having woken up, he slowly got ready and left on the arriving ship. True, after this sudden meeting the officer felt 10 years older. This was a summary of Bunin's "Sunstroke".
Theme of the story
The next point in the analysis of Bunin's "Sunstroke" is the determination of the theme of the work. Of course, this is a story about love and relationships. The theme of Bunin's "Sunstroke" is similar to the themes of most of his stories.
For a writer, love is not just sentimental sighs and platonic relationships. For Bunin, love is a flash, an explosion of emotions, an intensity of passions that manifests itself not only emotionally, but also physically. For Ivan Alekseevich, the sensual aspect of love, which others usually did not write about, was no less important.
But all this is not described in a vulgar manner, and the reader’s attention is focused precisely on the person’s emotions. This story is about such a flash of love, too much happiness.
Features of the composition
In the analysis of Bunin's "Sunstroke" one should consider compositional features story. The story of this unexpected attraction seems to be framed by two landscapes - darkness and lights. Small gusts of wind, approaching lights - all this only emphasizes the swiftness and spontaneity of their feelings. Darkness is a symbol of the unknown that awaits this relationship.
But besides the exciting anticipation, there was something sad in the air. A warm summer evening, dawn, the light of which is reflected in the calm ripples of water, lights... All this seems to prepare the reader for the sad ending of a chance meeting on a ship. The lights flickering ahead signify the happiness that awaits the heroes. When the officer leaves the city, they are left behind, as if to show that happy moments remained with the stranger.
But despite the small descriptions that were present in the story, the main place was occupied by the description inner world heroes. Landscapes were only supposed to frame this story, complement it beautifully. The meeting place is also quite symbolic - people met completely by chance. And then they just as easily parted and each went on his own voyage. All this only emphasizes the concept of Bunin's stories.
Means of expression
In the analysis of Bunin's "Sunstroke" it should be noted that at the very beginning a lot of verbal vocabulary is used. A quick change of actions and repetition of verbs focuses attention on the swiftness of the characters’ feelings, their sudden desire. They are in a hurry, as if they are afraid that this sudden attraction will pass. And then they will again begin to reason prudently, and not obey the call of feelings.
Enthusiastic and sentimental epithets practically never appear in the story. Because the officer and the married lady have no sublime feeling, and some kind of eclipse, sunstroke.
The inner world of the heroine
In the story “Sunstroke” by Bunin, the heroine is described as a small woman, in whose appearance everything was charming. She refuses to tell the officer her name, realizing that then all the magic of their meeting will melt away. The woman was most likely attracted to their meeting by chance.
She easily agreed to her new acquaintance’s offer to go ashore. Although at that time it was insulting for a married lady. This alone tells the reader that she can be a frivolous person.
In the morning the woman was again light and cheerful, but already guided by reason. It was she who initiated the termination of their further relationship. It turns out that the heroine easily parted with the officer. From this we can conclude that this meeting was a sunstroke for her, an adventure, but nothing more.
The inner world of the hero
For the officer, this meeting was of greater importance than for the heroine. At the very beginning, he treated this chance acquaintance as nothing more than a pleasant adventure. And when in the morning she said that they should not meet again, the man easily agreed. It would seem that he did not attach serious importance to this fleeting feeling.
But when the hero realizes that the stranger has left him forever, only then does he realize that he needed her. The storm of emotions that appeared with her departure begins to frighten him. He had never experienced anything like this before. And the rapid attraction, happiness and longing for her came together, which led to his understanding that this sunstroke was too much happiness for him.
But at the same time, the man is shown as a weak person: after all, he did not try to stop her. And I didn’t even think about fighting for my love. He could only remember this chance meeting on the ship.
Why was the story named this way?
The meeting of the heroes and their sudden attraction to each other was like a flash that appears as unexpectedly as it disappears. And the emotions they experienced from the rushing feeling were as bright as sunlight. Even at the very beginning, the heroine is surprised at how this acquaintance affected her.
The heroes were guided by desire and emotions. They seemed to be in a fever, the whole world ceased to exist for them for these brief happy moments. The meaning of Bunin's "Sunstroke" is that such a short love, in which people were guided only by desire, could not last long. After all, for a real strong relationship it is important to understand and feel the other person.
The problem of Bunin's "Sunstroke" is the complexity of relationships between people. Even though the heroes took everything lightly, the officer realizes that this eclipse was happiness for him. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was sensitive to love; in his stories he examined various aspects of its manifestation. It could last a lifetime or be as fleeting as sunstroke.
