Collection of stories “Dark Alleys” by I.A. Bunin wrote far from his homeland, being in France and worrying about the consequences October revolution And difficult years First World War. The works included in this cycle are filled with motifs tragic fate person, the inevitability of events and longing for native land. Central theme collection of short stories “Dark Alleys” is a love that turns out to be closely connected with suffering and fatal outcome.
Central to understanding the writer's intention is story of the same name collection "Dark Alleys". It was written in 1938 under the influence of a poem by N.P. Ogarev’s “An Ordinary Tale”, where the image of dark alleys is used, as well as philosophical thoughts L.N. Tolstoy that happiness in life is unattainable, and a person only catches its “lightnings” that need to be appreciated.
Analysis of the work by I.A. Bunin "Dark Alleys"
The plot of the work is based on the meeting of two already elderly people after many years of separation. To be precise, the story talks about 35 years since the last breakup. Nikolai Alekseevich arrives at the inn, where the owner Nadezhda meets him. The woman calls the hero by name, and he recognizes his former lover in her.
Since then, a whole life has passed, which the loved ones were destined to spend separately. The whole point is that Nikolai Alekseevich in his youth left a beautiful maid, who then received her freedom from the landowner and became the mistress of the inn. The meeting of two heroes raises a whole storm of feelings, thoughts and experiences inside them. However, the past cannot be returned and Nikolai Alekseevich leaves, imagining how life could have turned out differently if he had not neglected Nadezhda’s feelings. He is sure that he would be happy, he thinks about how she would become his wife, mother of children and mistress of the house in St. Petersburg. True, all this will remain the hero’s pipe dreams.
Thus, in the story “Dark Alleys” there are three main plot points:
- The hero's stop at the inn
- Meeting of former lovers
- Reflections on the way after the incident
The first part of the work is an episode before the characters recognize each other. It prevails here portrait characteristic characters. It is the social difference between people that is significant. For example, Nadezhda addresses the visitor “Your Excellency,” but the hero allows himself “Hey, who’s there.”
The pivotal moment is the meeting that marks the second part of the plot. Here we see a description of feelings, emotions and experiences. Social boundaries are dropped, allowing for greater knowledge characters, contrast their thoughts. For the hero, a meeting with Nadezhda is a rendezvous with his conscience. The reader understands that she has retained her inner integrity. Nikolai Alekseevich, on the contrary, feels his life is useless, aimless, he sees only its ordinariness and vulgarity.
The third part of the story is the actual departure and conversation with the coachman. Social boundaries are important for the hero, which he cannot neglect even for the sake of high feelings. Nikolai Alekseevich is ashamed of his words and revelations, and regrets that he kissed the hand of the owner of the inn and his former lover.
This plot structure makes it possible to imagine love and old feelings like a flash that unexpectedly illuminated the ordinary and boring life of Nikolai Alekseevich. A story based on the hero's memories is artistic device, which allows the author to talk about familiar things in a more exciting way and make an additional impression on the reader.
In the text of the work there are no instructive intonations, condemnation of the actions of the heroes or, conversely, manifestations of pity for them. The narration is based on a description of the feelings and emotions of the characters, which are revealed to the reader and it is he who has to evaluate what happened.
Characteristics of the main characters of the story “Dark Alleys”
The image of Nadezhda appears in a positive light. We don't learn much about her from the story, but it's enough to draw certain conclusions. The heroine is a former serf, who is now the mistress of a state-owned postal station. Having grown old, she continues to look beautiful, feel light and “beyond her age.” Nadezhda was able to get a good job in life thanks to her intelligence and honesty. The coachman, in a conversation with Nikolai Alekseevich, notes that she is “getting rich, giving money on interest,” i.e. on loan. The heroine is characterized by practicality and enterprise.
She had to go through a lot. The feelings from Nikolai Alekseevich’s act were so strong that Nadezhda admits that she wanted to commit suicide. However, she was able to overcome difficulties and become stronger.
The woman continues to love, but she failed to forgive the betrayal of her beloved. She boldly declares this to Nikolai Alekseevich. The wisdom of Nadezhda evokes the reader’s sympathy. For example, to the general’s attempts to justify his past actions, she replies that youth passes for everyone, but love never does. These words of the heroine also say that she knows how and can truly love, but this does not bring her happiness.
The image of Nikolai Alekseevich is in many ways contrasted with Nadezhda. He is a nobleman and a general, a representative high society. Did good career, but in his personal life the hero is unhappy. His wife left him, and his son grew up to be an insolent and dishonest man. The hero looks tired, while he ex-lover full of strength and desire to act. He once gave up love a long time ago and never got to know it, spending his whole life without happiness and pursuing false goals. "Everything passes. Everything is forgotten” - this is the hero’s position in relation to happiness and love.
Nikolai Alekseevich is already about 60 years old, but when he meets Nadezhda, he blushes like a young man. The soldier remembers with shame that he abandoned his beloved, but does he have the strength to correct what happened? No. The hero again chooses the easiest path and leaves.
The character’s spiritual weakness, the inability to distinguish true feelings from “a vulgar, ordinary story” dooms him and Nadezhda to suffering. Nikolai Alekseevich can only remember the past, his love, which “gave him the best moments of his life.”
The love between Nadezhda and Nikolai Alekseevich turns out to be doomed, and the history of their relationship is full of drama. Why did everything happen like this? There are several reasons. This is also the weakness of the hero, who pushed away his loved one and did not see the future in his feelings for her. This is also the role of prejudices in society, which exclude the possibility of a relationship, and especially a marriage, between a nobleman and an ordinary maid.
The difference in views on love also predetermined the dramatic destinies of the heroes. If for Nadezhda, feelings for a loved one mean being true to yourself, driving force, inspiring and helping her in life, then for Nikolai Alekseevich love is a moment, a past story. The irony is that it was this moment, this part of my life associated with my ex-lover, that became the best moment in all my years.
Immediately after the 1917 revolution, Bunin created a number of journalistic articles in which he spoke out against the Bolsheviks. In 1918, he moved from Moscow to Odessa, and at the beginning of 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 breaking 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, filled with deep psychology and subtle lyricism, and develops the genre of philosophical and psychological short stories (“Dark Alleys”). He combined his stories into the collections “Mitya’s Love” (1925), “ Sunstroke"(1927), "Shadow of a Bird" (1931).
Bunin's prose continues the traditions of I.S. Turgeneva, I.A. Goncharova and L.N. Tolstoy. Economical and effective use of artistic means, visual imagery and psychological penetration - these are the features of Bunin's style. Some of his stories, due to the perfection of their form, belong to the best works of world short fiction. K.G. Paustovsky wrote that in Bunin’s language one can hear everything: “... from copper-ringing solemnity to the transparency of flowing spring water, from measured precision to intonations of amazing softness, from a light melody to slow rolls of thunder.”
Bunin expressed his understanding of the world and his place in it in a characteristic note dating back to that time: “And days after days go by - and the secret pain of their steady loss does not leave - steady and meaningless, for they go on in inaction, all only in anticipation of action and what - and then again... And 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 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 misfortune, the vivid consciousness of gain or loss; also - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory.” Bunin’s work appears as such a “poetic transformation of the past in memory” emigrant period, in it the writer seeks salvation from the boundless feeling of loneliness.
Painfully experiencing what happened to Russia and his isolation from it, he tries to find an explanation and reassurance in turning to events in world history that could be correlated with Russian ones: the death of powerful ancient civilizations and kingdoms (“City of the King of Kings”). And now, far from Russia, painfully thinking about it, “fiercely,” as he said, tormented, Bunin turns to memory, especially highlighting it among spiritual values: “We live with everything 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, happiness or misfortune, a vivid consciousness of gain or loss; still - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory.”
In his memory the image of Russia arose in its bygone times, the recent past and the present.. This combination of different plans was saving for him. It allowed Bunin, without still accepting Russian modernity, to find that dear, bright, eternal thing that gave him hope: the birch forest in the Oryol region, the songs that the mowers sing (“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. Besides eternal nature, love remained such an eternal value for Bunin, which he sang in the story “Sunstroke” (1925), the story “Mitya’s Love” (1925), and the book of short 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, as he remembered it and what was dear to him.
In 1927, Bunin began writing the novel “The Life of Arsenyev”, which became another artistic autobiography from the life of the Russian nobility along with such classic works as “Family Chronicle” and “Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson” by S. Aksakov, “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth” by L. Tolstoy. The events of childhood, adolescence, life in the village, studying at the gymnasium (80-90s of the 19th century) are seen in it with double vision: through the eyes of the high school student Alexei Arsenyev and through the eyes of Bunin, who created the novel in the 20-30s. XX century Speaking about Russia, “which perished before our eyes in such a magically short period of time,” Bunin, with the entire artistic structure of his novel, overcomes the thought of the end and death. 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 most important writers of the 20th century took place. And, of course, the victory over the “end” was the fifth and final chapter of “The Life of Arsenyev,” which is called “Lika” and in which Bunin recalls how back in 1889, when he worked at the Orlovsky Vestnik, he was “struck by to great misfortune, 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 the 38 short stories that make it up are about love, most often unrequited and tragic. Bunin’s understanding of love is reflected here: “All love is great happiness, even if it is not shared.” 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, “for giving me the opportunity to write “Clean Monday.”
Behind the simple plot of the story one senses the presence of some hidden significance. It turned out to be an allegorically, symbolically expressed thought about the historical path of Russia. That is why the heroine of the story is so mysterious, embodying not the idea of love-passion, but longing for moral ideal, the combination of eastern and western principles is so significant in it as a reflection of this combination in the life of Russia. Her unexpected, at first glance, departure to the monastery symbolizes the “third path” that Bunin chose for Russia. He gives preference to the path of humility, curbing the elements and sees in this an opportunity to go beyond the limits 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 series of stories called “Dark Alleys” is dedicated to the eternal theme of any type of art - love.“Dark Alleys” is spoken of 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 are included in Bunin’s collection are stunning with their varied plots and extraordinary style; they are the main assistants of Bunin, who wants to portray love at the peak of feelings, tragic love, but therefore perfect.
Feature of the cycle “Dark Alleys”
The very phrase that served as the title for the collection was taken by the writer from the poem “An Ordinary Tale” by N. Ogarev, which is dedicated to first love, which never had the expected continuation.
In the collection itself there is a story with the same name, but this does not mean that this story is the main one, no, this expression is the personification of the mood of all the stories and tales, a common elusive meaning, a transparent, almost invisible thread connecting the stories with each other.
A special feature of the series of stories “Dark Alleys” can be called moments when the love of two heroes for some reason cannot 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 allowed 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 blossoming, he wants to emphasize its true richness and highest value, the fact 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 the unusual female portraits that “Dark Alleys” are so rich in. Ivan Alekseevich paints images of women with such grace and originality that female portrait each story becomes unforgettable and truly intriguing.
Bunin's skill lies in several precise expressions and metaphors that instantly paint in the reader's mind the picture described by the author with many colors, shades and nuances.
Stories “Rusya”, “Antigone”, “Galya Ganskaya” are an exemplary example of different, but bright images Russian woman. The girls, whose stories were created by the talented Bunin, partly resemble the love stories that they experience.
We can say that the writer’s key attention is directed precisely to these two elements of the cycle of stories: women and love. And the love stories are just as intense, unique, sometimes fatal and willful, 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 determines the fatal course of all love stories.
The peculiarity 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” appears as the basis of this difficult and not always happy life.
And love doesn't have to be mutual to bring unforgettable experience, love does not have to turn into something eternal and tirelessly ongoing in order to please and make a person happy.
Bunin insightfully and subtly shows only the “moments” of love, for the sake of which everything else is worth experiencing, for which it is worth living.
The story "Clean Monday"
The story "Clean Monday" is a mysterious, and not completely clear story love. Bunin describes a pair of young lovers who seem to be ideally suited to each other, but the catch is that their inner worlds have nothing in common.
The image of the young man is simple and logical, and the image of his beloved is unattainable 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 in the hero.
And the end of this love is as complex and incomprehensible as the heroine herself. After intimacy with the young man, she silently leaves him, then asks him not to ask anything, and soon he finds out that she has gone to a monastery.
She made the decision in Clean Monday, when intimacy occurred between lovers, and the symbol of this holiday is a symbol of her purity and torment, 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 short stories in the cycle are connected by one theme - love. The author reveals the tragic and even catastrophic nature of love. Love is a gift. It is beyond the control of man. It would seem a banal story about a meeting of elderly people in their youth who passionately loved each other. The simple plot of the story is that a rich young handsome landowner seduces and then abandons his maid. But it is Bunin who manages to tell with the help of this simple artistic move about simple things exciting and impressive. A short work is 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 a former lover,
Reflections of a military man on the road a few minutes after the meeting.
Pictures of dull everyday life and everyday life appear at the beginning of the story. But in the owner 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.” A whole life has passed since then, and everyone has their own. And it turns out that both main characters are lonely. Nikolai Alekseevich has social weight and structure, but is unhappy: his wife “cheated on me, abandoned me even more insultingly than I abandoned you,” and his son grew up as a scoundrel “without a heart, without honor, without a conscience.” Nadezhda from a former serf turned into the owner of a “private room” at the Uma Palata postal station. And everyone, they say, is getting rich, cool...", but she never got married.
And yet, if the hero is tired of life, then she is still beautiful and light, full vitality his ex-lover. He once gave up love and spent the rest of his life without it, and therefore without happiness. Nadezhda has loved him all her life, to whom she gave “her beauty, her fever,” whom she once called “Nikolenka.” Love still lives in her heart, but she does not forgive Nikolai Alekseevich. Although he does not stoop 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 tendencies to comprehend the eternal categories of existence - death, love, happiness, nature. He often describes “moments of love” that have a fatal nature and a tragic overtones. Much attention he devotes attention to female characters who are mysterious and incomprehensible.
The beginning of the novel “Easy Breathing” 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 in the following pages.
The main character of the novel Olga Meshcherskaya, a high school student, stands out very much among her classmates with her cheerful disposition and obvious love of life, she is not at all afraid of other people’s opinions, and openly challenges society.
During the last winter, many changes occurred 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 fans, but at the same time she treated them very cruelly. In her last winter, Olya completely surrendered to the joys of life, she attended balls and went to the skating rink every evening.
Olya always strived to look good, she wore expensive shoes, expensive combs, perhaps she would have dressed in the latest fashion if all the high school students did not wear uniforms. The headmistress of the gymnasium made a remark to Olga about her appearance, that it was appropriate to wear such jewelry and shoes adult woman, and not a simple student. To which Meshcherskaya openly stated that she has the right to dress like a woman, because she is one, and none other than the brother of the headmistress herself, 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 inappropriate for her age, behaves like a mature woman and at the same time openly argues for her behavior with rather intimate things.
Olga's transformation into a woman took place in the summer at the dacha. When my parents were not at home, Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin, a friend of their family, came to visit them at their dacha. Despite the fact that he did not find Olya’s father, Malyutin still stayed as a guest, explaining that he wanted it to dry out properly after the rain. In relation to Olya, Alexey Mikhailovich behaved like a gentleman, although the difference in their ages was huge, he was 56, she was 15. Malyutin confessed his love to Olya and said all kinds of compliments. During the tea party, Olga felt bad and lay down on the ottoman, Alexey Mikhailovich began to kiss her hands, talk about how he was in love, and then kissed her on the lips. Well, then what happened happened. We can say that on Olga’s part it was nothing more than an interest in the secret, a desire to become an adult.
After this there was a tragedy. Malyutin shot Olga at the 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 single; he naturally was pleased to console himself with the fact that the young girl expressed her sympathy for him. But when he found out that she felt nothing but disgust for him, it was like a bolt from the blue. He himself usually pushed women away, but here they pushed him away. Society was on Malyutin’s side; he justified himself by saying that Olga 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 cool lady Olga Meshcherskaya, a dreamy lady living in her imaginary ideal world, comes to Olya’s grave every holiday and silently watches her for several hours. For lady Olya, the ideal of femininity and beauty.
Here “light breathing” means an easy attitude to life, sensuality and impulsiveness, which were inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya.
I. A. Bunin is the first of the Russian writers to receive Nobel Prize, who achieved popularity and fame at the world level, having fans and associates, but... deeply unhappy, because since 1920 he was cut off from his homeland and yearned for it. All stories from the emigration period are imbued with a feeling of melancholy and nostalgia.
Inspired by the lines of the poem “An Ordinary Tale” by N. Ogarev: “The scarlet rose hips were blooming all around / There was an alley of dark linden trees,” Ivan Bunin conceived the idea of writing a cycle of love stories about subtle human feelings. Love is different, but it is always a strong feeling that changes the lives of heroes.
The story “Dark Alleys”: summary
The story “Dark Alleys,” the same name in the cycle and the main one, was published on October 20, 1938 in the New York edition of “ New land». 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 throughout her life. After the affair, the girl received her freedom, began to earn her own living, and now owns an inn and “gives money on interest.” Nikolai Alekseevich ruined Nadezhda’s life, but was punished: his beloved wife abandoned him as vilely as he himself had once done, and his son grew up to be a scoundrel. The heroes part, now forever, Nikolai Alekseevich understands what kind of love he missed. However, the hero cannot even in his thoughts 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 extremely pleasant, because the poetic language of the author is also manifested in prose.
Image and characteristics of the main character (Nikolai)
The image of Nikolai Alekseevich evokes antipathy: this man does not know how to love, he sees only himself and public opinion. He is afraid of himself, of Nadezhda, no matter what happens. But if everything is outwardly decent, you can do as you please, for example, break the heart of a girl for whom no one will stand up. Life punished the hero, but did not change him, did not add strength of spirit. His image personifies habit, the routine of life.
Image and characteristics of the main character (Nadezhda)
Much stronger is Nadezhda, who was able to survive the shame of an affair with the “master” (although she wanted to kill herself, she came out of this state), and also managed to learn to earn money on her own, and in an honest way. Coachman Klim notes the woman’s intelligence and fairness; she “gives money on interest” and “gets rich,” but does not profit from the poor, but is guided by justice. Nadezhda, despite the tragedy of her love, kept it in her heart for many years, forgave her offender, but did not forget. Its image is the soul, the 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 beautiful feeling. It becomes eternal, because it remains forever in the memory of both heroes; it was the most precious and brightest thing in their lives, although it is 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 stunning and bright feeling, which is a kind of litmus test that tests a human personality for strength of spirit and moral purity. Nadezhda 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:
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The cycle of stories by the outstanding Russian writer Ivan A “Dark Alleys” consists of 38 works. They reflect different layers of time and differ in the methods of creating images and genres. The writer created the last cycle of stories in his life during the Second World War, in last years own life. At a time when the established world was collapsing from a bloody war, he wrote about the power of feelings and eternal love. He considered his book “Dark Alleys” to be one of his most outstanding works and considered it the most perfect in artistic skill. The cycle of stories “Dark Alleys” is a memoir book in which the author, through people’s declaration of love for each other, confesses his own love for Russia and admires its deep mysterious soul.
The running theme of all the stories in the cycle is love, a great feeling in all its manifestations. The author considers love to be the greatest priceless gift that no one can take away from a person. Therefore, people are truly free only in love.
“Dark Alleys” is one of the stories in the cycle, which gave the title to the entire collection. This story was written in 1938. In it, as in other stories, main theme is love. The author reveals to the reader the catastrophic and tragic nature of love. Love is a gift from above that is beyond human control. The story “Dark Alleys” is, at first glance, a banal story about a meeting of elderly people who, in their youth, loved each other very much. A young, rich and handsome landowner seduces and after a while abandons his maid. But with the help of a simple plot, they managed to tell an impressive and exciting story about seemingly simple things. This work is just a short flash of memories of lost love and youth. The story has only three compositional parts:
- Parking at the inn of an elderly military man.
- A sudden meeting of this military man with his former lover.
- Reflections of the hero of the story about the meeting.
At the beginning of the story, we are presented with pictures of routine and everyday dullness. But suddenly, in the owner of the inn, tired Nikolai Alekseevich recognizes his young love - the beautiful Nadezhda, who served as his maid. He betrayed this girl thirty years ago. Nikolai Alekseevich “quickly straightened up, opened his eyes and blushed.” A whole life has passed since they broke up. It turned out that both heroes remained lonely. Although Nikolai Alekseevich has weight in society and is quite comfortable in life, he is unhappy. His wife “cheated on him, abandoned me even more insultingly than I left you,” and his son has grown very much bad person"without heart, without honor, without conscience."
And Nadezhda, who said goodbye to her masters and turned from a former serf into the owner of a private hotel opened at the post station. Nadezhda is a “mind chamber.” And everyone, they say, is getting rich, cool.” But... She never got married. If the hero of the story is already tired of life, then his former lover is still beautiful, light and full of vitality. Nikolai Alekseevich once voluntarily renounced love, and his punishment for this was complete loneliness for the rest of my life, without a loved one and without happiness. Nadezhda, in the same way, all her life loved only one person, to whom she gave “her beauty, her fever,” whom she once called “Nikolenka.” Love for this man still lives in her heart, but she still does not forgive Nikolai Alekseevich...
A series of stories called “Dark Alleys” is dedicated to the eternal theme of any type of art - love. “Dark Alleys” is spoken of 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 are included in Bunin’s collection are stunning with their varied plots and extraordinary style; they are the main assistants of Bunin, who wants to portray love at the peak of feelings, tragic love, but therefore perfect.
Feature of the cycle “Dark Alleys”
The very phrase that served as the title for the collection was taken by the writer from the poem “An Ordinary Tale” by N. Ogarev, which is dedicated to first love, which never had the expected continuation.
In the collection itself there is a story with the same name, but this does not mean that this story is the main one, no, this expression is the personification of the mood of all the stories and tales, a common elusive meaning, a transparent, almost invisible thread connecting the stories with each other.
A special feature of the series of stories “Dark Alleys” can be called moments when the love of two heroes for some reason cannot 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 allowed 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 blossoming, he wants to emphasize its true richness and highest value, the fact 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 the unusual female portraits that “Dark Alleys” are so rich in. Ivan Alekseevich paints images of women with such grace and originality that the female portrait of each story becomes unforgettable and truly intriguing.
Bunin's skill lies in several precise expressions and metaphors that instantly paint in the reader's mind the picture described by the author with many colors, shades and nuances.
The stories “Rusya”, “Antigone”, “Galya Ganskaya” are an exemplary example of different but vivid images of a Russian woman. The girls, whose stories were created by the talented Bunin, partly resemble the love stories that they experience.
We can say that the writer’s key attention is directed precisely to these two elements of the cycle of stories: women and love. And the love stories are just as intense, unique, sometimes fatal and willful, sometimes so original and incredible that it’s hard to believe in them.
The male characters in “Dark Alleys” are weak-willed and insincere, and this also determines the fatal course of all love stories.
The peculiarity of love in “Dark Alleys”
The stories of “Dark Alleys” reveal not only the theme of love, they reveal the depths human personality both souls 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 tirelessly ongoing in order to please and make a person happy.
Bunin insightfully and subtly shows only the “moments” of love, for the sake of which everything else is worth experiencing, for which it is worth living.
The story "Clean Monday"
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.
Image young man simple and logical, and the image of his beloved is unattainable 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 in the hero.
And the end of this love is as complex and incomprehensible as the heroine herself. After intimacy with the young man, she silently leaves him, then asks him not to ask anything, and soon he finds out that she has gone to a monastery.
She made the decision on Clean Monday, when intimacy between lovers occurred, and the symbol of this holiday is a symbol of her purity and torment, which she wants to get rid of.
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