Composition
Bunin's cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" includes 38 stories. They differ in terms of genre, in creating characters of heroes, reflect different layers of time. This cycle, the last in his life, the author wrote for eight years, during the First World War. Bunin wrote about eternal love and the power of feelings at a time when the world was collapsing from the bloodiest war in the history known to him. Bunin considered the book "Dark Alleys" to be "the most perfect in terms of skill" and ranked it among his highest achievements. This is a memory book. In the stories, the love of two people and at the same time a declaration of the author's love for Russia, admiration for her mysterious deep soul.
The theme of the cycle is love in all its diversity. Love is understood by the author as the greatest priceless gift that no one can take away. Man is truly free only in love.
The stories "Clean Monday", "Muse", "Rus", "Raven", "Galya Ganskaya", "Dark Alleys" are perfect in skill, written with great artistic power and emotionality.
Often, Bunin's love stories unfold somewhere in the estate, a "noble nest", the fragrant atmosphere of which is beautifully conveyed by the author. The alleys of the beautiful garden in the story "Natalie" serve as a backdrop for emerging love. Bunin describes in detail and with love the interior of the house, the landscapes of Russian nature, which he especially missed in exile.
Love is the greatest incandescence of spiritual strength, so the story has a tense plot. Visiting student Vitaly Meshchersky suddenly finds himself involved in a strange relationship with two women. Cousin Sonya seduces him, but at the same time wants him to pay attention to her friend from the gymnasium Natalie. Meshchersky is struck by the sublime spiritual beauty of Natalie, he truly falls in love with her. The student is torn between earthly and heavenly love. Put in a situation of choice, Meshchersky tries to combine carnal pleasures with Sonya with the adoration of Natalie.
Bunin has always been alien to moralizing. He considered each of these feelings happiness. But there are three heroes, a conflict arises with a tragic ending. On the part of Sonya, relations with Meshchersky were only a whim of a spoiled girl, therefore, in the future, Bunin excludes her from the story. Natalie finds Meshchersky at Sonya, there is a break. Unable to make a choice in time, the hero broke both himself and Natalie's life. Their paths diverge for a long time, but the hero suffers and torments himself with memories. Without love, the life of heroes turns into an empty ghostly vegetation, dreams and beauty leave it.
Bunin was convinced that love is a tragic feeling, and retribution follows. He believed that a person is lonely in love, that this is a strong, but short-lived feeling. But at the same time, the writer glorifies love. Life itself is unthinkable without it. His heroine says: “... Is there an unhappy love? Doesn't the most mournful music in the world give happiness?
The purpose of the story "Clean Monday" is to convince the reader that the human soul is a mystery, and especially the female one. Each person is looking for his own path in life, often doubting, making mistakes. Bunin skillfully uses the description of nature in order to convey the feelings and thoughts of lyrical heroes. He begins his story with a landscape that prepares the reader for the perception of the love story of two people whose paths mysteriously and tragically parted. The story is amazing with sincerity and truthfulness. Before us is a kind of confession of a man, an attempt to recall old events and understand what happened then. The hero, on behalf of whom the story is being told, evokes sympathy and sympathy. He is smart, handsome, madly in love with the heroine, ready for anything for her. He is trying to answer the tormenting question: why did the woman, who said that she had no one besides her father and him, leave him without explanation?
The heroine of Bunin is mysterious and magical. The hero adoringly remembers every feature of her face, hair, dresses, her oriental beauty. No wonder the famous actor Kachalov enthusiastically calls the heroine the Queen of Shamakhan. Outwardly, the heroine behaves like an ordinary woman. She accepts the hero's courtship, bouquets of flowers, gifts, goes out into the world, but her inner world remains mysterious and full of secrets for the hero. She talks little about her life. Therefore, a revelation for the hero is the fact that his beloved often attends church, knows a lot about services in churches. In her words, there are often hints of monasteries where you can go, but the hero does not take this seriously. The passionate feelings of the hero do not go unnoticed. The heroine sees that her friend is in love, but she herself cannot reciprocate. The author hints that there are stronger and more important things for her than respect for someone else's passion.
Little by little, the tone of the story becomes more and more sad, and at the end - tragic. The heroine decided to part with the man who loves her and leave her hometown. She is grateful to him for strong and genuine feelings, so she arranges a farewell and later sends him a last letter asking him not to look for a meeting again. The departure of a girlfriend shocks the hero, inflicts severe injury on him, and deeply hurts his heart. The hero can not believe the reality of what is happening. Over the next two years, he “disappeared for a long time in the dirtiest taverns, drank himself, sinking more and more in every possible way. Then he gradually began to recover - indifferently, hopelessly ... ". He traveled the same roads through places memorable only for the two of them "and kept crying, crying ...".
One day, driven by a strange foreboding, the hero enters the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and among the crowd of nuns sees a girl with bottomless black eyes looking into the darkness. It seemed to the hero that she was looking at him. The reader is left at a loss: was it really the hero's beloved or not. The author makes one thing clear: great love first illuminated, and then turned the whole life of a person upside down. And this acquisition was a hundred times stronger than the loss of a beloved.
The writer in the cycle "Dark Alleys" makes the reader think about the complexity of relationships in human society, the meaning of beauty and happiness, the transience of time and the great responsibility for the fate of another person.
Other writings on this work
"Unforgettable" in the cycle of stories by I. A. Bunin "Dark Alleys" "Dark Alleys" (writing history) Analysis of the story by I. A. Bunin "The Chapel" (From the cycle "Dark Alleys") Every love is a great happiness, even if it is not divided (according to the story by I.A. Bunin "Dark Alleys") Bunin's heroes live under a rock star The unity of the cycle of stories by I. A. Bunin "Dark Alleys" Ideological and artistic originality of Bunin's book "Dark Alleys" Love in the works of I. A. Bunin The motive of love "like a sunstroke" in the prose of I. A. Bunin Features of the theme of love in the cycle of I. A. Bunin "Dark Alleys". Poetry and tragedy of love in I. A. Bunin's story "Dark Alleys" The problem of love in the story of I. A. Bunin "Dark alleys" Review of the story by I.A. Bunin "Raven" The originality of the disclosure of the love theme in one of the works of Russian literature of the XX century. (I.A. Bunin. "Dark alleys".)I. A. Bunin is the first of the Russian writers who received the Nobel Prize, who achieved popularity and fame at the world level, has fans and associates, but ... deeply unhappy, because since 1920 he was cut off from his homeland and yearned for her. All the stories of the period of emigration are imbued with a sense of melancholy and nostalgia.
Inspired by the lines of the poem “An Ordinary Tale” by N. Ogarev: “All around the scarlet rose hips bloomed / There was an alley of dark lindens,” Ivan Bunin had the idea to write a cycle of love stories about subtle human feelings. Love is different, but it is always a strong feeling that changes the lives of the characters.
The story "Dark Alleys": a summary
The story "Dark Alleys", of the same name to the cycle and being the main one, was published on October 20, 1938 in the New York edition of "New Earth". The main character, Nikolai Alekseevich, accidentally meets Nadezhda, whom he seduced and abandoned many years ago. For the hero then it was just an affair with a serf girl, but the heroine seriously fell in love and carried this feeling through her whole life. After the novel, the girl got her freedom, began to earn her own living herself, currently owns an inn and "gives money on interest." Nikolai Alekseevich ruined Nadezhda's life, but was punished: his beloved wife left him as meanly as he himself had once done, and his son grew up a scoundrel. The heroes part, now forever, Nikolai Alekseevich understands what kind of love he missed. However, the hero, even in his thoughts, cannot overcome social conventions and imagine what would have happened if he had not abandoned Nadezhda.
Bunin, "Dark Alleys" - audiobook
Listening to the story "Dark Alleys" is unusually pleasant, because the poetic nature of the author's language is also manifested in prose.
The image and characteristics of the protagonist (Nikolai)
The image of Nikolai Alekseevich causes antipathy: this person does not know how to love, he sees only himself and public opinion. He is afraid of himself, of Hope, no matter what happens. But if everything is outwardly decent, you can do whatever you like, for example, break the heart of a girl for whom no one will intercede. Life punished the hero, but did not change him, did not add firmness of spirit. His image personifies the habit, everyday life.
The image and characteristics of the main character (Hope)
Much stronger is Nadezhda, who was able to survive the shame of an affair with a “master” (although she wanted to lay hands on herself, she got out of this state), and also managed to learn how to earn money on her own, and in an honest way. The coachman Klim notes the mind and justice of a woman, she “gives money at interest” and “gets richer”, but does not profit from the poor, but is guided by justice. Hope, despite the tragedy of her love, kept her in her heart for many years, forgave her offender, but did not forget. Her image is the soul, sublimity, which is not in origin, but in personality.
The main idea and main theme of the story "Dark Alleys"
Love in Bunin's "Dark Alleys" is a tragic, fatal, but no less important and wonderful feeling. It becomes eternal, because it remains forever in the memory of both heroes, it was the most precious and bright in their lives, although gone forever. If a person has ever loved like Nadezhda, he has already experienced happiness. Even if this love ended tragically. The life and fate of the heroes of the story "Dark Alleys" would be completely empty and gray without such a bitter and sick, but still amazing and bright feeling, which is a kind of litmus test that tests a human personality for strength of mind and moral purity. Hope passes this test, but Nikolai does not. This is the idea of the work. You can read more about the theme of love in the work here:
Genre focus The work is a short novel in the style of realism, the main theme of which is reflections on love, lost, forgotten in the past, as well as broken destinies, choices and their consequences.
Composition structure The story is traditional for a short story, consisting of three parts, the first of which tells about the arrival of the protagonist in combination with descriptions of nature and the surrounding area, the second describes his meeting with his former beloved woman, and the third part depicts a hasty departure.
main character story is Nikolai Alexandrovich, presented in the form of a sixty-year-old man, based in life on common sense in the form of his own ego and public opinion.
minor character The work presents Nadezhda, the former beloved of Nikolai, left by him sometime in the past, who met the hero at the end of his life path. Hope personifies a girl who was able to overcome the shame of being associated with a rich man and learned to live an independent, honest life.
Distinctive feature The story is an image of the theme of love, which is presented by the author as a tragic and fatal event that has gone forever along with a dear, bright and wonderful feeling. Love in the story is presented in the form of a litmus test, which helps to test the human personality in relation to fortitude and moral purity.
By means of artistic expression in the story are the author's use of precise epithets, vivid metaphors, comparisons and personifications, as well as the use of parallelism, emphasizing the state of mind of the characters.
The originality of the work consists in the inclusion by the writer in the narrative of unexpected abrupt endings, the tragedy and drama of the plot, combined with lyricism in the form of emotions, experiences and mental anguish.
the story consists in conveying to the readership the concept of happiness, which consists in finding spiritual harmony with one's own feelings and rethinking life values.Option 2
Bunin worked in the 19th and 20th centuries. His attitude to love was special: in the beginning, people loved each other very much, but in the end, either one of the heroes dies or they part. For Bunin, love is a passionate feeling, but similar to a flash.
To analyze Bunin's work "Dark Alleys", you need to touch on the plot.
General Nikolai Alekseevich is the main character, he comes to his hometown and meets a woman whom he loved many years ago. Nadezhda is the mistress of the yard, he does not recognize her immediately. But Nadezhda did not forget him and loved Nikolai, even tried to lay hands on herself. The protagonist seems to feel guilty for leaving her. Therefore, he tries to apologize, saying that any feelings pass.
It turns out that Nikolai's life was not so easy, he loved his wife, but she cheated on him, and his son grew up a scoundrel and insolent. He is forced to blame himself for what he did in the past, because Nadezhda could not forgive him.
Bunin's work shows that after 35 years, the love between the characters has not faded away. When the general leaves the city, he realizes that Hope is the best thing in his life. He reflects on the life that could have been if the connection between them had not been interrupted.
Bunin put tragedy into his work, because the lovers did not get along.
Hope was able to keep love, but this did not help create an alliance - she was left alone. I didn’t forgive Nikolai either, because the pain was very strong. And Nikolai himself turned out to be weak, did not leave his wife, was afraid of contempt and could not resist society. They could only be submissive to fate.
Bunin shows the sad story of the fate of two people. Love in the world could not resist the foundations of the old society, therefore it became fragile and hopeless. But there is also a positive feature - love brought a lot of good things to the lives of the heroes, it left its mark, which they will always remember.
Almost all of Bunin's work touches on the problem of love, and "Dark Alleys" show how important love is in a person's life. For Blok, love comes first, because it helps a person to improve, change life for the better, gain experience, and also teaches to be kind and sensual.
Sample 3
Dark alleys is both a cycle of stories by Ivan Bunin written in exile, and a separate story included in this cycle, and a metaphor borrowed from the poet Nikolai Ogaryov and rethought by the author. Under the dark alleys, Bunin meant the mysterious soul of a person, carefully keeping all the feelings, memories, emotions, meetings once experienced. The author claimed that everyone has such memories that he refers to again and again, and there are the most precious ones that are rarely disturbed, they are securely stored in the remote corners of the soul - dark alleys.
It is about such memories that the story of Ivan Bunin, which was written in 1938 in exile. In a terrible wartime in the city of Grasse in France, a Russian classic wrote about love. Trying to drown out the longing for the Motherland and escape from the horrors of war, Ivan Alekseevich returns to the bright memories of his youth, first feelings and creative endeavors. During this period, the author wrote his best works, including the story "Dark Alleys".
Bunin's hero Ivan Alekseevich, a sixty-year-old man, a high-ranking military man, finds himself in the places of his youth. In the hostess of the inn, he recognizes the former serf girl Nadezhda, whom he, a young landowner, once seduced, and later left. Their chance meeting makes us turn to the memories that have been kept in those very “dark alleys” all this time. From the conversation of the main characters, it becomes known that Nadezhda never forgave her treacherous master, but she could not stop loving either. And Ivan Alekseevich only thanks to this meeting realized that then, many years ago, he left not just a serf girl, but the best that fate had given him. But he didn’t gain anything else: the son is a spendthrift and a spender, his wife cheated and left.
You might get the impression that the story "Dark Alleys" is about retribution, but in fact it is about love. Ivan Bunin put this feeling above all else. Nadezhda, an aged single woman, is happy because she has had love all these years. And the life of Ivan Alekseevich did not work out precisely because he once underestimated this feeling and followed the path of reason.
In a short story, in addition to betrayal, themes of social inequality, and choice, and responsibility for someone else's fate, and the theme of duty are raised. But there is only one conclusion: if you live with your heart and put love as a gift above all else, then all these problems can be solved.
Analysis of the work Dark Alleys
In one of Ogarev's poems, Bunin was "hooked" by the phrase "... there was an alley of dark lindens ..." Further, the imagination painted autumn, rain, a road, and an old campaigner in a tarantass. This formed the basis of the story.
The idea was this. The hero of the story in his youth seduced a peasant girl. He had already forgotten about her. But life tends to bring surprises. By chance, after many years, passing through familiar places, he stopped in a passing hut. And in a beautiful woman, the mistress of the hut, I recognized the same girl.
The old military man felt ashamed, he blushes, turns pale, mumbles something like a delinquent schoolboy. Life punished him for his deed. He married for love, but never knew the warmth of the family hearth. His wife didn't love him, she cheated on him. And, in the end, she left him. The son grew up a scoundrel and a loafer. Everything in life comes back like a boomerang.
What about Hope? She still loves the former master. She didn't have a personal life. No family, no beloved husband. But at the same time she could not forgive the master. These are the women who both love and hate at the same time.
The military is immersed in memories. Mentally re-lives their relationship. They warm the soul like the sun a minute before sunset. But he does not for a second admit the thought that things could have turned out differently. The then society would have condemned their relationship. He wasn't ready for this. He didn't need them, these relationships. Then it was possible to put an end to the military career.
He lives as social rules and principles dictate. He is a coward by nature. You have to fight for love.
Bunin does not allow love to flow along the family channel, to take shape in a happy marriage. Why does he deprive his heroes of human happiness? Perhaps he thinks that fleeting passion is better? Better this eternal unfinished love? She did not bring happiness to Nadezhda, but she still loves. What does she hope for? Personally, I do not understand this, I do not share the views of the author.
The old campaigner finally begins to see clearly and realizes what he has lost. This is what he says with such bitterness to Nadezhda. He realized that she was the dearest, brightest person for him. But he never understood what cards he had up his sleeve. Life gave him a second chance at happiness, but he did not take advantage of it.
What meaning does Bunin put into the title of the story "Dark Alleys"? What does he mean? Dark corners of the human soul and human memory. Every person has their own secrets. And they sometimes pop up for him in the most unexpected way. There is nothing accidental in life. Chance is a pattern well planned by God, fate or the cosmos.
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Abstract
The collection of short stories "Dark Alleys" by Ivan Bunin, the winner of the most prestigious Nobel Prize in the world, is rightfully considered the standard of love prose. Bunin was the only writer of his time who dared to speak so openly and beautifully about the relationship between a man and a woman - about love that can last only a moment, or maybe a lifetime ... "Dark Alleys" shock with its frankness and exquisite sensuality. This is perhaps one of the best books of Russian literature of the twentieth century.
Ivan Bunin
Dark alleys
Late hour
Gorgeous
Antigone
Business Cards
Zoya and Valeria
Galya Ganskaya
river inn
"Madrid"
Second coffee pot
Cold autumn
Steamboat "Saratov"
One hundred rupees
Clean Monday
Spring in Judea
Ivan Bunin
Dark alleys
Dark alleys
In a cold autumn storm, on one of the big Tula roads, flooded with rain and cut by many black ruts, to a long hut, in one connection of which there was a state postal station, and in the other a private room where you could relax or spend the night, dine or ask for a samovar , a tarantass with a half-raised top rolled up, thrown with mud, a trio of fairly simple horses with their tails tied up from the slush. On the goats of the carriage sat a strong peasant in a tightly belted coat, serious and dark-faced, with a sparse resin beard, resembling an old robber, and in the carriage was a slender old military man in a large cap and in a gray Nikolaev greatcoat with a beaver stand-up collar, still black-browed, but with white mustaches, which were connected with the same sideburns; his chin was shaved, and his whole appearance had that resemblance to Alexander II, which was so common among the military at the time of his reign; his eyes were also inquiring, stern and at the same time tired.
When the horses stopped, he threw his leg in a military boot with a flat top out of the tarantass and, holding the hem of his greatcoat with his hands in suede gloves, ran up to the porch of the hut.
- To the left, Your Excellency! the coachman shouted rudely from the goat, and he, bending slightly on the threshold from his tall stature, went into the porch, then into the upper room to the left.
It was warm, dry and tidy in the upper room: a new golden image in the left corner, under it a table covered with a clean, harsh tablecloth, cleanly washed benches behind the table; the kitchen stove, which occupied the far right corner, was again white with chalk, closer stood something like an ottoman, covered with piebald blankets, resting with its blade against the side of the stove, behind the stove damper, sweetly smelling of cabbage soup - boiled cabbage, beef and bay leaves.
The visitor threw off his overcoat on the bench and turned out to be even slimmer in one uniform and boots, then he took off his gloves and cap and with a tired look ran his pale, thin hand over his head - his gray hair, combed at the temples, slightly curled to the corners of his eyes, his handsome elongated face with dark eyes kept in some places small traces of smallpox. There was no one in the room, and he shouted hostilely, opening the door to the entrance hall:
- Hey, who's there!
Immediately afterwards, a dark-haired woman, also black-browed and also still beautiful beyond her age, resembling an elderly gypsy, with dark fluff on her upper lip and along her cheeks, light in walking, but plump, with large breasts under a red blouse, with triangular belly, like a goose's, under a black woolen skirt.
“Welcome, Your Excellency,” she said. - Would you like to eat, or will you order a samovar?
The visitor glanced briefly at her rounded shoulders and light legs in worn red Tatar shoes and curtly, inattentively answered:
- Samovar. Is the hostess here or do you work?
“Mistress, Your Excellency.
“You mean you keep it?”
- Yes sir. Herself.
- What is it? A widow, or something, that you yourself are doing business?
“Not a widow, Your Excellency, but you have to live with something. And I love to manage.
- So. So. This is good. And how clean, nice you have.
The woman kept looking at him inquisitively, squinting slightly.
“And I love cleanliness,” she replied. - After all, she grew up under the masters, how not to be able to behave decently, Nikolai Alekseevich.
He straightened up quickly, opened his eyes and blushed.
– Hope! You? he said hastily.
“I am Nikolai Alekseevich,” she replied.
- My God, my God! he said, sitting down on the bench and looking straight at her. - Who would have thought! How many years have we not seen each other? Thirty-five years?
- Thirty, Nikolai Alekseevich. I'm forty-eight now, and you're under sixty, I think?
“Like this… My God, how strange!”
"What's strange, sir?"
- But everything, everything ... How can you not understand!
His fatigue and absent-mindedness disappeared, he got up and resolutely walked along the room, looking at the floor. Then he stopped and, blushing through his gray hair, began to say:
“I don’t know anything about you since then. How did you get here? Why didn't she stay with the masters?
- The gentlemen gave me my freedom soon after you.
- Where did you live then?
“A long story, sir.
- Married, you say, was not?
- No, it wasn't.
- Why? With the beauty that you had?
- I couldn't do it.
Why couldn't she? What do you want to say?
- What is there to explain. Remember how much I loved you.
He blushed to tears and, frowning, walked again.
“Everything passes, my friend,” he muttered. - Love, youth - everything, everything. The story is vulgar, ordinary. Everything passes over the years. How does it say in the book of Job? "How will you remember the water that has flowed."
- What does God give to whom, Nikolai Alekseevich. Youth passes for everyone, but love is another matter.
He lifted his head and paused, smiling painfully.
- After all, you could not love me all the time!
“So she could. No matter how much time passed, all lived one. I knew that you were gone for a long time, that it was as if there was nothing for you, but ... It’s too late to reproach now, but it’s true that you left me very heartlessly - how many times I wanted to lay hands on myself from resentment from one, already not to mention everything else. After all, there was a time, Nikolai Alekseevich, when I called you Nikolenka, and you remember me? And I was deigned to read all the poems about all sorts of "dark alleys," she added with an unkind smile.
- Oh, how good you were! he said, shaking his head. How hot, how beautiful! What a camp, what eyes! Do you remember how everyone looked at you?
- I remember, sir. You were also very good. And after all, I gave you my beauty, my fever. How can you forget that.
- A! Everything passes. Everything is forgotten.
Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten.
“Go away,” he said, turning away and going to the window. – Leave, please.
And, taking out a handkerchief and pressing it to his eyes, he added quickly:
If only God would forgive me. And you seem to have forgiven.
She walked to the door and paused.
- No, Nikolai Alekseevich, I didn’t forgive. Since our conversation touched upon our feelings, I will say frankly: I could never forgive you. Just as there was nothing more precious than you in the world at that time, so it was not later. That's why I can't forgive you. Well, what to remember, the dead are not carried from the churchyard.
“Yes, yes, there’s nothing to it, order the horses to be brought in,” he answered, moving away from the window with a stern face. “I’ll tell you one thing: I have never been happy in my life, don’t think, please. Sorry that maybe I offend your pride, but I will say frankly - I loved my wife without a memory. And she changed, left me even more insultingly than I did you. He adored his son - while he was growing up, what hopes he did not place on him! And a scoundrel, a wast, an insolent one, without a heart, without honor, without a conscience, came out ... However, all this is also the most ordinary, vulgar story. Be well, dear friend. I think that I have lost in you the most precious thing that I had in my life.
Immediately after the revolution of 1917, Bunin created a number of journalistic articles, where he opposed the Bolsheviks. In 1918, he moved from Moscow to Odessa, and in early 1920 he left Russia forever.
The Bunins settled in Paris, where life began "on other shores" - in a state of mental decline, with the bitterness of a break with their homeland. The writer's works were published in the newspapers Vozrozhdenie and Rus. Bunin headed the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists.
In exile, the writer creates stories mainly about Russian life - full of deep psychology and subtle lyrics, develops the genre of philosophical and psychological short stories ("Dark Alleys"). He combined his stories into the collections Mitina's Love (1925), Sunstroke (1927), Bird's Shadow (1931).
Bunin's prose continues the traditions of I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharova and L.N. Tolstoy. The economical and efficient use of artistic means, visual imagery and psychological insight - these are the features of Bunin's style. Some of his stories, thanks to the perfection of form, belong to the best works of world short stories. K.G. Paustovsky wrote that everything is heard in Bunin's language: "... from ringing copper solemnity to the transparency of flowing spring water, from measured chasing to intonations of amazing softness, from a light melody to slow peals of thunder."
Bunin expressed his understanding of the world and his place in it in a characteristic note dating back to that time: “And day after day goes by - and the secret pain of their steady loss does not leave them - steady and meaningless, because they go in inaction, everything is only in anticipation of action and what - something else ... And the days and nights go by, and this pain, and all the vague feelings and thoughts, and the vague consciousness of myself and everything around me is my life, which I do not understand. And further: “We live by what we live, only to the extent that we comprehend the price of what we live. Usually this price is very small: it rises only in moments of delight - the delight of happiness or unhappiness, a vivid consciousness of gain or loss; more - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory. Such a “poetic transformation of the past in memory” is Bunin’s work of the emigrant period, in which the writer seeks salvation from the boundless feeling of loneliness.
Painfully experiencing what happened to Russia and his rejection from her, he tries to find an explanation and solace in referring to the events of world history that could be correlated with Russian ones: the death of powerful ancient civilizations, kingdoms (“City of the King of Kings”). And now, away from Russia, painfully thinking about it, "fiercely", as he said, tormented, Bunin turns to memory, highlighting it among spiritual values: "We live by everything that we live, only to the extent that we understand the value of what we live. Usually this price is very small: it rises only in moments of ecstasy of happiness or unhappiness, a vivid consciousness of gain or loss; yet - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory.
In his memory, the image of Russia arose in its long-gone times, the recent past and the present.. Such a combination of plans at different times was salutary for him. It allowed Bunin, still not accepting Russian modernity, to find that native, bright, eternal that gave him hope: a birch forest in the Oryol region, songs sung by mowers ("Mowers", 1921), Chekhov ("Penguins", 1929 ). Memory allowed him to connect modern Russia, where "the end has come, the limit of God's forgiveness", with timeless, eternal values. In addition to eternal nature, love remained such an eternal value for Bunin, which he sang in the story "Sunstroke" (1925), the story "Mitya's Love" (1925), the book of stories "Dark Alleys" (1943), love is always tragic, "beautiful and doomed. All these themes - life, death, nature, love - by the end of the 20s. formed the basis of his stories about Russia, how he remembered it and how dear he was to his blood.
In 1927, Bunin began to write the novel "The Life of Arseniev", which has become another artistic autobiography from the life of the Russian nobility, along with such classic works as “Family Chronicle” and “Childhood of Bagrov-grandson” by S. Aksakov, “Childhood”, “Boyhood”, “Youth” by L. Tolstoy. The events of childhood, adolescence, life in the village, studying at the gymnasium (80-90s of the XIX century) are seen in him with double vision: through the eyes of the schoolboy Alexei Arsenyev and through the eyes of Bunin, who created the novel in the 20s-30s. 20th century Speaking of Russia, "which perished before our eyes in such a magically short time," Bunin overcomes the thought of the end and death with the entire artistic structure of his novel. Such overcoming is in Bunin's landscapes, in that love for Russia and its culture, which is felt in every episode and situation of the novel: Bunin even called the hero's father Alexander Sergeevich. The horror of the end and death is overcome by the author's lyrical confession, from which it becomes clear how the formation of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century took place. And, of course, the fifth, last chapter of Arseniev's Life, which is called Lika, and in which Bunin recalls how back in 1889, when he was working in the Orlovsky Vestnik, he was "smitten by unfortunately, a long love." And this love was not destroyed by time...
The power of love, overcoming the darkness and chaos of life, became the main content of the book "Dark Alleys", written during the Second World War. All 38 short stories that made it up are about love, most often unrequited and tragic. Bunin's understanding of love was reflected here: "All love is a great happiness, even if it is not divided." The book "Dark Alleys" also includes the story "Clean Monday", which Bunin considered the best of all that he had written. “I thank God,” he said, “that he gave me the opportunity to write Clean Monday.”
Behind the simple plot of the story, the presence of some kind of hidden significance is felt. It turned out to be an allegorical, symbolically expressed idea about the historical path of Russia. Therefore, the heroine of the story is so mysterious, embodying not the idea of love-passion, but longing for a moral ideal, the combination of eastern and western principles is so significant in her as a reflection of this combination in the life of Russia. Her unexpected, at first glance, departure to the monastery symbolizes the "third way" that Bunin chose for Russia. He prefers the path of humility, curbing the elements, and sees this as an opportunity to go beyond the bounds of Western and Eastern doom, the path of great suffering, in which Russia will atone for its sin and go on its own path.
A cycle of stories called "Dark Alleys" is dedicated to the eternal theme of any kind of art - love. They say about "Dark Alleys" as a kind of encyclopedia of love, which contains the most diverse and incredible stories about this great and often contradictory feeling.
And the stories that were included in Bunin's collection amaze with their diverse plots and extraordinary style, they are the main assistants of Bunin, who wants to portray love at the peak of feelings, tragic love, but from this - and perfect.
Feature of the cycle "Dark Alleys"
The phrase itself, which served as the name for the collection, was taken by the writer from the poem "An Ordinary Tale" by N. Ogaryov, which is dedicated to first love, which did not have the expected continuation.
In the collection itself there is a story with that name, but this does not mean that this story is the main one, no, this expression is the personification of the mood of all stories and stories, a common elusive meaning, a transparent, almost invisible thread connecting the stories with each other.
A feature of the cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" can be called moments when the love of two heroes for some reason can no longer continue. Often the executioner of the passionate feelings of Bunin's heroes is death, sometimes unforeseen circumstances or misfortunes, but most importantly, love is never given to come true.
This is the key concept of Bunin's idea of earthly love between two. He wants to show love at the peak of its heyday, he wants to emphasize its real wealth and highest value, that it does not need to turn into life circumstances, like a wedding, marriage, life together ...
Female images of "Dark Alleys"
Particular attention should be paid to unusual female portraits, which are so rich in "Dark Alleys". Ivan Alekseevich writes out images of women with such grace and originality that the female portrait of each story becomes unforgettable and truly intriguing.
Bunin's skill consists in several precise expressions and metaphors that instantly draw in the reader's mind the picture described by the author with many colors, shades and nuances.
The stories "Rus", "Antigone", "Galya Ganskaya" are an exemplary example of various, but vivid images of a Russian woman. The girls whose stories are created by the talented Bunin are somewhat reminiscent of the love stories they experience.
We can say that the key attention of the writer is directed precisely to these two elements of the cycle of stories: women and love. And love stories are just as rich, unique, sometimes fatal and masterful, sometimes so original and incredible that it’s hard to believe in them.
Male images in "Dark Alleys""Weak-willed and insincere, and this also causes the fatal course of all love stories.
Feature of love in "Dark Alleys"
The stories of "Dark Alleys" reveal not only the theme of love, they reveal the depths of the human personality and soul, and the very concept of "love" is presented as the basis of this difficult and not always happy life.
And love does not have to be mutual in order to bring unforgettable impressions, love does not have to turn into something eternal and relentlessly ongoing in order to please and make a person happy.
Bunin shrewdly and subtly shows only "moments" of love, for the sake of which it is worth experiencing everything else, for the sake of which it is worth living.
"Clean Monday" story
The story "Clean Monday" is a mysterious and not fully understood love story. Bunin describes a pair of young lovers who seem to be perfect for each other on the outside, but the catch is that their inner worlds have nothing in common.
The image of a young man is simple and logical, while the image of his beloved is inaccessible and complex, striking her chosen one with its inconsistency. One day she says that she would like to go to a monastery, and this causes complete bewilderment and misunderstanding for the hero.
And the end of this love is as complex and incomprehensible as the heroine herself. After intimacy with a young man, she silently leaves him, then asks him not to ask anything, and soon he learns that she has gone to the monastery.
She made the decision on Clean Monday, when there was an intimacy between lovers, and the symbol of this holiday is a symbol of her purity and torment, from which she wants to get rid of.
The story "Dark alleys" gave the name to the entire collection of the same name by I. A. Bunin. It was written in 1938. All the novels of the cycle are connected by one theme - love. The tragic and even catastrophic nature of love is revealed by the author. Love is a gift. She is beyond human control. It would seem a banal story about a meeting of elderly people who in their youth passionately loved each other. A simple plot of the story - a rich young handsome landowner seduces and then leaves the maid. But it is Bunin who manages to tell with the help of this uncomplicated artistic move about simple things in an exciting and impressive way. A short work - an instant flash of memory of bygone youth and love.
There are only three compositional parts of the story:
Parking at the inn of a gray-haired military man,
A sudden meeting with an ex-lover,
Reflections of the military on the way a few minutes after the meeting.
Pictures of dull everyday life and everyday life appear at the beginning of the story. But in the hostess of the inn, Nikolai Alekseevich recognizes the beautiful maid Nadezhda, whom he betrayed thirty years ago: “he quickly straightened up, opened his eyes and blushed.” Since then, a whole life has passed, and everyone has their own. And it turns out that both main characters are lonely. Nikolai Alekseevich has social weight and well-being, but is unhappy: his wife "changed, left me even more insultingly than I did you," and his son grew up a scoundrel "without a heart, without honor, without a conscience." Nadezhda turned from a former serf into the owner of a “private room” at the post office “mind chamber. And everyone, they say, is getting richer, cool ... ”, but she never got married.
And yet, if the hero is tired of life, then his former lover is still beautiful and light, full of vitality. He once refused love and spent the rest of his life without it, and therefore without happiness. Nadezhda, all her life, loves him alone, to whom she gave "her beauty, her fever", whom she once called "Nikolenka". As before, love lives in her heart, but she does not forgive Nikolai Alekseevich. Although it does not descend to accusations and tears.
Analysis of the story "Easy breathing"
The theme of love occupies one of the leading places in the writer's work. In mature prose, there are noticeable trends in understanding the eternal categories of being - death, love, happiness, nature. Often he describes "moments of love", which have a fatal character, a tragic coloring. He pays great attention to female characters, mysterious and incomprehensible.
The beginning of the novel "Easy Breath" creates a feeling of sadness and sadness. The author prepares the reader in advance for the fact that the tragedy of human life will unfold on the following pages.
The main character of the novel Olga Meshcherskaya, a high school girl, stands out among her classmates with a cheerful disposition and a clear love of life, she is not at all afraid of other people's opinions, and openly challenges society.
In the last winter, many changes took place in the girl's life. At this time, Olga Meshcherskaya was in the full bloom of her beauty. There were rumors about her that she could not live without admirers, but at the same time she treated them very cruelly. In her last winter, Olya completely devoted herself to the joys of life, she went to balls and went to the skating rink every evening.
Olya always tried to look good, she wore expensive shoes, expensive combs, perhaps she would have dressed in the latest fashion if all the gymnasium girls did not wear uniforms. The headmistress of the gymnasium made a remark to Olga about her appearance, that such jewelry and shoes should be worn by an adult woman, and not by a simple student. To which Meshcherskaya openly declared that she has the right to dress like a woman, because she is her, and none other than the director's brother Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin is to blame for this. Olga's answer can be fully regarded as a challenge to the society of that time. A young girl without a shadow of modesty puts on things that are not for her age, behaves like a mature woman and at the same time openly argues her behavior with rather intimate things.
Olga's transformation into a woman took place in the summer at the dacha. When the parents were not at home, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, a friend of their family, came to visit them at the dacha. Despite the fact that he did not find Olya's father, Malyutin nevertheless stayed at a party, explaining that he wanted it to dry out properly after the rain. In relation to Olya, Alexei Mikhailovich behaved like a gentleman, although the difference in their age was huge, he was 56, she was 15. Malyutin confessed his love to Olya, said all kinds of compliments. During tea drinking, Olga felt bad and lay down on the couch, Alexei Mikhailovich began to kiss her hands, talk about how he was in love, and then kissed her on the lips. Well, what happened next happened. We can say that on the part of Olga it was nothing more than an interest in mystery, the desire to become an adult.
After that there was tragedy. Malyutin shot Olga at the train station and explained this by saying that he was in a state of passion, because she showed him her diary, which described everything that happened, and then Olgino's attitude to the situation. She wrote that she was disgusted with her boyfriend.
Malyutin acted so cruelly because his pride was hurt. He was no longer a young officer, and even a bachelor, it was natural for him to amuse himself with the fact that a young girl expressed her sympathy for him. But when he found out that she felt nothing for him but disgust, it was like a bolt from the blue. He himself used to push women away, and then they pushed him away. The society was on the side of Malyutin, he justified himself by the fact that Olga herself allegedly seduced him, promised to become his wife, and then left him. Since Olya had a reputation as a heartbreaker, no one doubted his words.
The story ends with the fact that the classy lady Olga Meshcherskaya, a dreamy lady living in her fictional ideal world, comes to Olya's grave every holiday and watches her silently for several hours. For the lady Olya is the ideal of femininity and beauty.
Here, “easy breathing” is an easy attitude to life, sensuality and impulsiveness that were inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya.