Goalslesson: introduce students to the works of the writer on love themes; show the originality of the stories, novelty in the image psychological state person; see the ambiguity of interpretations of stories.
Methodicaltechniques: teacher's story, “analytical conversation; presenting stories; expressive reading of passages from works.
Equipmentlesson: story texts; photographs by I. Bunin, V. Muromtseva. Figure 1, Figure 2
Movelesson
1. Wordteachers
The theme of love is one of the main themes in Russian literature and one of the leading themes in the works of Ivan Bunin. In almost all works on this topic, the love story is presented through the memories of the heroes and the outcome of love is tragic. This tragic character love is emphasized by death. “Don’t you already know that love and death are inextricably linked?” - asks one of the heroes of Bunin’s stories.
The writer sees the eternal mystery of love and the eternal drama of lovers in the fact that a person is involuntary in his love passion: love is an initially spontaneous, inevitable feeling, and happiness often becomes unattainable.
Love in Bunin's works is fleeting and elusive. The heroes of his works never find eternal happiness, they can only taste the forbidden fruit, enjoy it, and then lose joy, hope and even life. Why is this happening? It's very simple. The fact is that, according to Ivan Bunin, love is happiness, and happiness is fleeting, impermanent, therefore love cannot be constant, otherwise it will become a habit, routine, and this is impossible. But, despite its short duration, love is still eternal: it forever remains in the memory of the heroes as the most vivid and beautiful memory.
2. Conversation By story "Lung" breath" Figure 2.
How is the story structured? What are the features of the composition?
(The composition of the story is closed, circular. This is its peculiarity. We learn at the very beginning of the story about tragic death young schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya. Bunin begins and ends the story with a description of the tombstone cross on Olya’s grave.)
How do the plot and plot of a story relate?
(The plot of the story is a banal everyday drama - a murder out of jealousy. The author turned this banality into a story about mysterious attractiveness, charm, femininity, embodied in the image of Olya. The center of the plot is the “light breath” of femininity. This is the main thing, according to the author, than a woman must possess, this is part of her beauty, beautiful, elusive, ephemeral and fragile. And when in contact with reality, this “light breathing” disappears, it is interrupted, as the “deceived” Olya did.
(The main thing about the heroine is “grace, elegance, lightness”, which distinguished her from all the girls at the gymnasium. Olya always seems to live with a feeling of celebration, happiness, joy. I. Bunin focuses on her eyes: “joyful, amazingly alive” “clear sparkle of eyes”, “shining eyes”, “eyes shine so immortally”, “pure gaze”. Olya is able to live without pretending, without pretense, naturally and simply. That is why she was loved so much. junior classes. She herself is still a child, internally pure, spontaneous, naive).
Which one is in charge? compositional technique does Bunin use in the story?
(The main technique is opposition. Olya, lively, impetuous, unpredictable, living in the imagination, is contrasted with the ordinariness of the real, vulgar world, represented by the inability to be natural cool lady Oli; the handsome aristocrat Malyutin, who seduced Olya, is contrasted with a plebeian Cossack officer; the ease of life and “light breathing” of the heroine is contrasted with the “strong, heavy cross” on her grave).
How do you understand the title of the story? (discussion)
On an April day, I left people.
Gone forever obediently and silently -
And yet I was not in vain in life.
I didn't die for love.
I.A. Bunin
3. Wordteachers
Let's consider another story about the versatility and diversity of manifestations of love in the story “ Sunstroke».
4. Messagestudent
The student sets out the plot of the story “Sunstroke”, while paying attention to special attention on language features works.
5 . AnalyticalconversationBycontentstory
What is special about the plot of the story?
(There is no introduction to the story, it seems that the story is “snatched” from life, the characters have neither names nor ages. These are “he” and “she”, a man and a woman).
Why doesn’t the writer give names to his characters or tell their backstory?
(For Bunin, names are not important, because the main thing is the very feeling of love, passion and what it does to a person).
What is the portrait of the heroine, what is its peculiarity?
(Bunin does not describe the heroine’s appearance, but highlights the main thing - “a simple, charming laugh”, talks about how “everything was charming about this little woman.” And after the night in the room, “She was as fresh as when she was seventeen,” “ she was still simple, cheerful and - already reasonable").
How does the stranger describe what happened to them?
(“The eclipse definitely hit me... Or, rather, we both got something like sunstroke.” The woman was the first to understand the severity of what had happened and the impossibility of continuing this too strong feeling).
What changed in the room after she left?
(“The room without her seemed somehow completely different than it had been with her. It was still full of her - and empty.” All that remained was the smell of good English cologne and an unfinished cup, “and she was no longer there...”)
What impression did this make on the lieutenant?
(The lieutenant’s heart “suddenly squeezed with such tenderness that he hurried to light a cigarette and walked back and forth around the room several times. The lieutenant laughs at his “strange adventure”, and at the same time tears well up in his eyes).
What new feelings did the lieutenant have?
(All the lieutenant’s senses seemed to be heightened. He “remembered her all, with all her slightest features, remembered the smell of her tan and canvas dress, her strong body, the lively, simple and cheerful sound of her voice.” And another new feeling, previously unexperienced, torments the lieutenant: this strange, incomprehensible feeling. He does not know “how to live the whole next day without her,” he feels unhappy).
Why is the hero trying to free himself from the feeling of love?
(“The sunstroke” that struck the lieutenant was too strong and unbearable. Both the happiness and the pain that accompanied it turned out to be unbearable).
Why is too much love dramatic and even tragic?
(It is impossible to return your beloved, but it is also impossible to live without her. The hero cannot get rid of sudden, unexpected love; “sunstroke” leaves an indelible mark on the soul).
How did the experiences of the past day affect the hero?
(The hero feels ten years older. The instantaneousness of the experience made it so acute that it seems that almost a whole life was contained in it.
Happiness in there is no life,
there are only its lightnings, -
appreciate them, live by them.
L.N. Tolstoy
6. Teacher's word
Let's turn to another story about love - “The Grammar of Love”
7. AnalyticalconversationBycontent
How do you understand the title of the story?
(The word grammar is from the scientific lexicon. The words in the title of the story are paradoxically connected. This is an oxymoron. Grammar means “the art of reading and writing letters.” Bunin’s story talks about the art of love, although is it possible to learn to love from a textbook?)
What is known about Khvoshchinsky's life?
(We learn about his life from the words of his neighbors. He is poor, considered an eccentric, “all his life he was
obsessed with love for his maid Lushka,” “adored her.”)
What role did Lushka play in Ivlev’s fate?
(Ivlev recalls the impression Khvoshchinsky’s story made on him as a child. He was “almost in love” with the “legendary Lushka”).
Do you agree with the expression: “A beautiful woman should occupy the second level; the first one belongs to a nice woman”?
What details play an important role in the story?
Wedding candles are a symbol of eternal, unquenchable love. Khvoshchinsky could not marry a serf, but he wanted this with all his soul. Wedding candles are a symbol of the union between a man and a woman, secured and sanctified by the church.
Books from Khvoshchinsky’s library reveal to Ivlev “what that lonely soul fed on, which forever shut itself off from the world in this closet and only so recently left it...”
Lushka’s necklace, “a bunch of cheap blue balls that look like stone ones,” excited Ivlev so much that his eyes “stirred with heartbeat.”
What is the content of the “Grammar of Love”?
The book consists of “short, elegant, sometimes very precise maxims” about love;
What is the value of this book?
This is the most important detail that gives the name to the whole story. Its value lies in the fact that it was dear to Khvoshchinsky and became dear to Ivlev himself as a shrine.
What allows us to say that the image of Lushka truly becomes a shrine?
The story constantly repeats words from religious vocabulary, expressions that speak of the legendary character of Lushka: Khvoshchinsky “attributed literally everything that happened in the world to Lushka’s influence: a thunderstorm sets in - it’s Lushka who sends a thunderstorm, war is declared - that means Lushka decided so, a crop failure happened - the men did not please Lushka...”; Ivlev sees “God’s tree” in the place where, according to legend, Lushka drowned herself; it seems to him that “Lushka lived and died not twenty years ago, but almost in time immemorial”; the little book “Grammar of Love” is like a prayer book; Leaving Khvoshchinsky’s estate, Ivlev remembers Lushka, her necklace and experiences a feeling “similar to what he once experienced in an Italian town when looking at the relics of a saint.” Thanks to this technique, Lushka’s life becomes like a hagiography, and her image is almost deified.
What kind of person is Khvoshchinsky - really crazy or someone who has the talent to love?
(Class discussion)
(Life with a loved one becomes a “sweet tradition”; life without a loved one turns into eternal service to that holy image that remains in memory).
Who do you think is the main character of the story?
(Class discussion)
(The main character is Khvoschinsky. His soul was illuminated by fantastic love for many years. Perhaps main character- Lushka. After all, it was she who took the “first step” in Khvoshchinsky’s life and determined his fate? Or maybe the main character is Ivlev? After all, the story of Khvoshchinsky’s love for his serf influenced Ivlev in his childhood. In his mind, Lushka was “legendary” and “she entered my life forever.” Someone else's love story became part of Ivlev's life.
What understanding of love is embodied in this story?
Love is a great value. She is always pure and chaste. But a person can only count on a moment of happiness, but this moment remains in the soul forever. Figure 3 .
8. Summing upresultslesson
Wordteachers
Thus, we can conclude that love in Bunin’s works is something elusive and natural, blinding a person, affecting him like a sunstroke. Love is a great abyss, mysterious and inexplicable, strong and painful.
9. Homemadeexercise:
prepare an essay plan on the topic “Love in the understanding of I. Bunin.”
The theme of love in the works of I. A. Bunin
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is one of the most prominent Russian writers of the twentieth century. He was excellent at both poetry and prose, as short stories, and novels. But still, I appreciate Ivan Alekseevich’s talent precisely for that part of his work that can be called the “small” genre. And I especially like Bunin’s stories, the main theme of which is love.
These works most clearly reveal the author's talent for describing everything intimate, sometimes quite unusual, for conveying ideas and thoughts. Extraordinary poetry brings sensuality to the narrative, which is so necessary for works with such themes. If you trace Bunin's entire work from beginning to end, you can divide it into periods, based on what theme he prefers in his works. I am interested in the collection “Dark Alleys,” written during the Second World War, because it is entirely devoted to the theme of love; after reading the stories from it, you can try to formulate the main idea, the author’s thought. In my opinion, the main “thesis” of Bunin’s work lies in the quote: “All love is great happiness, even if it is not divided.” But in love dramas akh collection, namely they form its basis, one can also be convinced that Bunin values only the natural, pure love, high human feeling, rejecting far-fetched false impressions. Ivan Alekseevich also in his stories inextricably connects love with death, connects the beautiful and the terrible. But this is not a far-fetched composition, the author is thus trying to show readers how close love borders on death, how close the two extremes are to each other.
The most famous stories among readers are “Sunstroke”, “ Clean Monday" and "Natalie". They all fit perfectly into the description of the tragic love story with a sad ending, but in each of them Bunin reveals to us new aspect, new look for love.
The heroes of “Sunstroke” meet completely by chance on a ship. But their fleeting attraction does not pass without a trace for both characters. She tells the lieutenant: “Nothing even similar to what happened has ever happened to me, and there never will be again. The eclipse definitely hit me... Or, rather, we both got something like sunstroke.” But this shock affects him only when he, having escorted her to the ship, returns to the hotel. His heart “squeezed with an incomprehensible tenderness,” and “he felt such pain and such uselessness with all his later life without her, that he was seized by horror and despair,” because he did not know either her name or surname. The love that the lieutenant realized too late almost destroys him; he is ready to die for one more day spent with her. But we are convinced that in fact love is a blessing, despite the fact that it ends so quickly, we understand how strong and comprehensive this feeling is.
In the short story “Clean Monday,” so beloved by the author, we are told about the hero’s unrequited love for the mysterious heroine. She is not interested in and even rejects many things accepted in their circle; her complex nature haunts the hero. The heroine’s alienation (“she doesn’t need anything: neither flowers, nor books, nor dinners, nor theaters, nor dinners outside the city...”) is explained on Forgiveness Sunday, when the heroes go together to the cemetery. We learn about her passion for antiquity, Kremlin cathedrals and monasteries. The heroine tries to find meaning and support in the world around her, but she doesn’t find it, even the hero’s love does not bring her happiness. The meaning of the title is that the heroine, not finding beauty and spirituality in the modern world, is cleansed of her previous life and goes to a monastery, where, as it seems to her, she will be happy.
The main character of the third story, Vitaly Meshchersky, turns out to be himself guilty of the love tragedy that played out between him, his cousin Sonya and her friend Natalie. The student cannot decide whether to prefer “passionate bodily intoxication” for Sonya or a sincere and sublime feeling for Natalie. Avoidance of choice ends tragic ending. The author shows us that Vitaly’s feeling for Sonya is feigned, but his love for Natalie is true, proving her superiority.
In stories about love, I. A. Bunin claims that love is a high and beautiful feeling, and a person who is capable of love is highly moral. Despite the fact that love brings not only joy and happiness, but also grief and suffering, it is a great feeling. And I completely agree with this.
For the first time in the history of Russian literature, the theme of love in Bunin’s works reveals not only the platonic, but also the physical side love relationship. The writer tries in his work to correlate what is going on in a person’s heart with the demands that society places on him, whose life is built on the relationship of purchase and sale and in which dark, wild instincts often come to the fore. Nevertheless, the author touches on the intimate side of relationships between people with extraordinary tact.
The theme of love in Bunin's works is the first bold statement that physical passion does not always come after an impulse of the soul, which in life sometimes happens the other way around. For example, this happens with the heroes of his story “Sunstroke.” Ivan Alekseevich in his works describes love in all its versatility - sometimes it appears in the guise of great joy, sometimes it turns into severe disappointment, at the same time it is both spring and autumn in a person’s life.
Early creativity
The theme of love in Bunin’s works cannot leave anyone indifferent. early period his creativity. The stories “Dawn All Night”, “In August”, “In Autumn” and several others are very short, simple, but significant. The feelings experienced by the heroes are most often ambivalent. Rarely do Bunin's characters come to harmonious relationships - their impulses much more often disappear before they really have time to arise. However, the thirst for love continues to burn in their hearts. A sad farewell to a beloved ends in dreams (“In August”), a date leaves a strong imprint on the memory, because it testifies to a touch of real feeling (“In Autumn”). And, for example, the heroine of the story “Dawn All Night” is imbued with a premonition strong love, which the young girl is ready to pour out on her future chosen one. However, disappointment comes to young heroes as quickly as the hobby itself. Bunin is extremely talented in revealing this difference between reality and dreams. After the full singing of nightingales and the spring-like tender trembling of the night in the garden, the sounds of gunfire reach Tata through his sleep. Her fiancé shoots a jackdaw, and the girl suddenly realizes that she is not capable of loving this ordinary, down-to-earth person.
“Mitya’s Love” (1924) - one of Bunin’s best works about love
In the 20s, during the period of the writer’s emigration, the theme of love in Bunin’s works was enriched with new shades. In his story “Mitya’s Love” (1924), the author consistently talks about how the spiritual development of the main character is gradually carried out, how life leads him from love to collapse. Sublime feelings This narrative closely resonates with reality. Mitya's love for Katya and his bright hopes seem to be shrouded in a vague feeling of anxiety. Dreaming of a career great actress a girl finds herself in the midst of a fake metropolitan life and cheats on her lover. Even a connection with another woman - the down-to-earth, albeit prominent Alyonka - failed to alleviate Mitya’s spiritual torment. As a result, the hero, unprotected and unprepared to face the cruel reality, decides to commit suicide.
The theme of love triangles in the works of I. Bunin
Sometimes the theme of love in Bunin’s works is revealed from the other side, they show eternal problem love triangles (husband-wife-lover). Vivid examples Such stories could include “The Caucasus”, “Ida”, “The Fairest of the Sun”. Marriage in these works becomes an insurmountable obstacle to the desired happiness. It is in these stories that the image of love as a “sunstroke” first appears, which finds its further development in the cycle " Dark alleys».
“Dark Alleys” is the writer’s most famous series of stories
The theme of love in this cycle (“Dark Alleys”, “Tanya”, “Late Hour”, “Russia”, “ Business cards", etc.) is a momentary flash, bodily pleasures to which the heroes are driven by genuine hot passion. But it doesn't end there. “Sunstroke” gradually leads the characters to inexpressible selfless tenderness, and then to true love. The author refers to images of lonely people and ordinary life. And that is why memories of the past, covered with romantic impressions, seem so wonderful for his heroes. However, even here, after people become closer both spiritually and physically, it is as if nature itself leads them to inevitable separation, and sometimes to death.
"Mr. from San Francisco" - a bold interpretation of love relationships
The skill of describing the details of everyday life, as well as the touching description of love inherent in all the stories of the cycle, reaches its apogee in 1944, when Bunin finishes work on the story “Clean Monday,” which tells about the fate of a woman who left life and love for a monastery.
And the theme of love in Bunin’s understanding was revealed especially clearly with the help of the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.” This is a story about the lowest and ugliest manifestations of a distorted great feeling. Falseness, deceit, automatism and lifelessness, which became the cause of the inability to love, are especially strongly emphasized in the images of “Mr. from San Francisco”.
Bunin himself considered love to be the feeling that frees a person from the captivity of everything superficial, makes him unusually natural and brings him closer to nature.
At all times, the theme of love has been the main one; many writers glorified the relationship between a man and a woman. Ivan Alekseevich was no exception; he writes about love in many stories. Love is the purest and brightest feeling in the world. The theme of love is eternal in any era.
In Bunin's works, the writer describes the intimate and secret things that happen between two people. The work of Ivan Alekseevich can be divided into periods. Thus, the collection “Dark Alleys,” written during the World War, is dedicated entirely to love. The collection contains so much love and warm feelings, it is simply filled with love.
Bunin believes that love is a great feeling, even if this love is unrequited. The writer believes that any love has the right to life. Also, having read the stories of Ivan Alekseevich, you can see that love in his works goes next to death. He seems to draw the line that behind a great bright feeling there can be death.
In some of his stories, Bunin writes that love is not always beautiful and sunny, and maybe the love story will end tragically. So, for example, in the story “Sunstroke” his characters meet on a ship, where a wonderful feeling flares up between them. The girl in love tells the lieutenant that the feeling that visited them was like a sunstroke that clouded their minds. She says that she has never experienced anything like this and is unlikely to ever experience it. Unfortunately, the lieutenant realizes very late how much he fell in love with the girl, because he did not even know her last name or where she lives.
The lieutenant was ready to die for one more day spent with the girl he loved so much. He was overwhelmed with feelings, but they were big and bright.
In another story, Bunin describes unrequited love young guy to a girl who doesn't pay any attention to him. Nothing pleases a girl and even a guy’s love doesn’t make her happy. At the end of the story, she goes to a monastery, where she thinks she will find happiness.
In another story, Ivan Alekseevich writes about a triangle in which a guy cannot choose between passion and love. The whole story he rushes between girls and everything ends tragically.
In Bunin's works, where he writes about love, all aspects of this feeling are described. After all, love is not only joy and happiness, but also suffering and grief. Love is a great feeling that you often have to fight for.
Essay Theme of love in the works of Bunin
The theme of love has always been and is an integral part of any work. I. A. Bunin revealed it especially clearly in his stories. The writer described love as a tragic and deep feeling; he tried to reveal to the reader all the secret corners of this strong attraction.
In Bunin’s works, such as “Dark Alleys”, “Cold Autumn”, “Sunstroke”, love is shown from several sides. On the one hand, this feeling can bring great happiness, on the other hand, a bright and ardent feeling inflicts deep wounds on a person’s soul, causing days of only suffering.
For the author, love was not just a naive feeling, it was strong and real, often accompanied by tragedy, and in some moments, death. The theme of love, in different times creative path, opened from different sides. At the beginning of his work, Bunin described love between young people as something easy, natural and open. She is beautiful and gentle, but at the same time she can be disappointing. For example, in the story “Dawn All Night” he describes the strong love of a simple girl for young man. She is ready to give all her youth and soul to her loved one, to completely dissolve in him. But reality can be cruel, and as often happens, falling in love passes and a person begins to look at many things differently. And in this work he clearly describes the breakdown of a relationship that brought only pain and disappointment.
At a certain period of his time, Bunin emigrated from Russia. It was at this time that love became a mature and deep feeling for him. He began to write about her with sadness and longing, remembering his past years of life. This is clearly reflected in the novel “Mitya’s Love,” written by him in 1924. At first everything goes well, feelings are strong and reliable, but later they will lead the main character to death. Bunin wrote not only about mutual love two young people, but in some of his works one can also find love triangle: “Caucasus” and “The Fairest of the Sun.” The happiness of some inevitably brings heartache and disappointment for the third.
Love played a special role in his great work, “Dark Alleys,” written during the war years. In it, it is depicted as great happiness, despite the fact that it ends in tragedy in the end. The love of two people who met each other in adulthood is shown in the story “Sunstroke.” It was during this period of life that they so needed to experience this true feeling. The love of a lieutenant and a mature woman was doomed in advance and could not unite them for life. But after parting, she left the sweet bitterness of pleasant memories in their hearts.
In all his stories, Bunin glorifies love, its diversity and contradictions. If there is love, a person becomes infinitely bright, manifests true beauty his inner world, values in relation to a loved one. Love in Bunin’s understanding is a true, selfless, pure feeling, even if after a sudden outbreak and attraction it can lead to tragedy and deep disappointment.
Several interesting essays
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Bunin is unique creative personality in the history of Russian literature late XIX- first half of the 20th century. His genius talent, skill as a poet and prose writer, which became classic, amazed his contemporaries and captivates us living today. His works preserve the real Russian literary language, which is now lost.
Works about love occupy a large place in Bunin’s work in exile. The writer has always been worried about the mystery of this strongest of human feelings. In 1924 he wrote the story “Mitya’s Love”, the following year - “The Case of Cornet Elagin” and “Sunstroke”. And at the end of the 30s and during the Second World War, Bunin created 38 short stories about love, which made up his book “Dark Alleys,” published in 1946. Bunin considered this book his “ the best work in the sense of conciseness, painting and literary skill.”
Love in Bunin’s depiction amazes not only with the power of artistic representation, but also with its subordination to some internal laws unknown to man. They rarely break through to the surface: most people will not experience their fatal effects until the end of their days. Such a depiction of love unexpectedly gives Bunin’s sober, “merciless” talent a romantic glow. The proximity of love and death, their conjugation were obvious facts for Bunin and were never subject to doubt. However, the catastrophic nature of existence, the fragility of human relationships and existence itself - all these favorite Bunin themes after the gigantic social cataclysms that shook Russia were filled with a new formidable meaning, as is, for example, seen in the story “Mitya’s Love”. “Love is beautiful” and “Love is doomed” - these concepts, having finally come together, coincided, carrying in the depths, in the grain of each story, the personal grief of Bunin the emigrant.
Bunin's love lyrics are not great in quantity. It reflects the poet's confused thoughts and feelings about the mystery of love... One of the main motives love lyrics– loneliness, unattainability or impossibility of happiness. For example, “How bright, how elegant spring is!..”, “A calm gaze, like the gaze of a doe...”, “At a late hour we were in the field with her...”, “Loneliness”, “Sadness of eyelashes, shining and black...” etc.
Bunin's love lyrics are passionate, sensual, saturated with a thirst for love and are always filled with tragedy, unfulfilled hopes, memories of past youth and lost love.
I.A. Bunin has a very unique view of love relationships that distinguishes him from many other writers of that time.
In Russian classical literature At that time, the theme of love always occupied an important place, with preference given to spiritual, “platonic” love
before sensuality, carnal, physical passion, which was often debunked. The purity of Turgenev's women became a household word. Russian literature is predominantly the literature of “first love”.
The image of love in Bunin’s work is a special synthesis of spirit and flesh. According to Bunin, the spirit cannot be comprehended without knowing the flesh. I. Bunin defended in his works a pure attitude towards the carnal and physical. He did not have the concept of female sin, as in “Anna Karenina”, “War and Peace”, “The Kreutzer Sonata” by L.N. Tolstoy, there was no wary, hostile attitude towards the feminine, characteristic of N.V. Gogol, but there was no vulgarization of love. His love is an earthly joy, a mysterious attraction of one sex to another.
The themes of love and death (often touching in Bunin’s works) are devoted to the works - “The Grammar of Love”, ” Easy breathing”, “Mitya’s Love”, “Caucasus”, “In Paris”, “Galya Ganskaya”, “Henrikh”, “Natalie”, “Cold Autumn”, etc. It has long been and very correctly noted that love in Bunin’s work is tragic. The writer is trying to unravel the mystery of love and the mystery of death, why they often come into contact in life, what is the meaning of this. Why does the nobleman Khvoshchinsky go crazy after the death of his beloved, the peasant woman Lushka, and then almost deifies her image (“The Grammar of Love”). Why does the young high school student Olya Meshcherskaya, who, as it seemed to her, have an amazing gift, die, just starting to blossom? easy breathing"? The author does not answer these questions, but through his works he makes it clear what is in it certain meaning human earthly life.
The complex emotional experiences of the hero of the story “Mitya’s Love” with brilliance and stunning psychological stress described by Bunin. This story caused controversy; the writer was reproached for excessive descriptions of nature and for the implausibility of Mitya’s behavior. But we already know that Bunin’s nature is not a background, not a decoration, but one of the main characters, and in “Mitya’s Love” especially. Through the depiction of the state of nature, the author surprisingly accurately conveys Mitya’s feelings, his mood and experiences.
One can call “Mitya’s Love” a psychological story in which the author accurately and faithfully embodied Mitya’s confused feelings and the tragic end of his life.
“Dark Alleys,” a book of stories about love, can be called an encyclopedia of love dramas. “She talks about the tragic and about many tender and beautiful things - I think that this is the best and most original thing that I have written in my life...” - Bunin admitted to Teleshov in 1947.
The heroes of “Dark Alleys” do not resist nature; often their actions are completely illogical and contradict generally accepted morality (an example of this is the sudden passion of the heroes in the story “Sunstroke”). Bunin’s love “on the brink” is almost a violation of the norm, going beyond the boundaries of everyday life. For Bunin, this immorality can even be said to be a certain sign of the authenticity of love, since ordinary morality turns out, like everything established by people, to be a conventional scheme into which the elements of natural, living life do not fit.
When describing risky details related to the body, when the author must be impartial so as not to cross the fragile line separating art from pornography, Bunin, on the contrary, worries too much - to the point of spasm in the throat, to the point of passionate trembling: “... it just went dark in the eyes at the sight of her pinkish body with a tan on shiny shoulders... her eyes turned black and widened even more, her lips parted feverishly” (“Galya Ganskaya”). For Bunin, everything connected with gender is pure and significant, everything is shrouded in mystery and even holiness.
As a rule, the happiness of love in “Dark Alleys” is followed by separation or death. The heroes revel in intimacy, but
it leads to separation, death, murder. Happiness cannot last forever. Natalie "died on Lake Geneva in premature birth." Galya Ganskaya was poisoned. In the story “Dark Alleys,” the master Nikolai Alekseevich abandons the peasant girl Nadezhda - for him this story is vulgar and ordinary, but she loved him “all century.” In the story "Rusya", the lovers are separated by the hysterical mother of Rusya.
Bunin allows his heroes only to taste the forbidden fruit, to enjoy it - and then deprives them of happiness, hopes, joys, even life. The hero of the story “Natalie” loved two people at once, but did not find family happiness with either one. In the story “Henry” there is abundance female images for every taste. But the hero remains lonely and free from the “women of men.”
Bunin’s love does not go into the family channel, it is not resolved happy marriage. Bunin deprives his heroes of eternal happiness, deprives them because they get used to it, and habit leads to loss of love. Love out of habit cannot be better than lightning-fast but sincere love. The hero of the story “Dark Alleys” cannot tie himself into family ties with the peasant woman Nadezhda, but having married another woman from his circle, he does not find family happiness. The wife cheated, the son was a spendthrift and a scoundrel, the family itself turned out to be “the most ordinary vulgar story.” However, despite its short duration, love still remains eternal: it is eternal in the hero’s memory precisely because it is fleeting in life.
A distinctive feature of love in Bunin’s depiction is the combination of seemingly incompatible things. It is no coincidence that Bunin once wrote in his diary: “And again, again such an unspeakable - sweet sadness from that eternal deception of another spring, hopes and love for the whole world that you want with tears
gratitude to kiss the ground. Lord, Lord, why are you torturing us like this?”
The strange connection between love and death is constantly emphasized by Bunin, and therefore it is no coincidence that the title of the collection “Dark Alleys” here does not mean “shady” at all - these are dark, tragic, tangled labyrinths of love.
About the book of stories “Dark Alleys” G. Adamovich rightly wrote: “All love is great happiness, a “gift of the gods,” even if it is not shared. That’s why Bunin’s book exudes happiness, that’s why it’s imbued with gratitude to life, to the world, in which, despite all its imperfections, happiness can happen.”
True love is great happiness, even if it ends in separation, death, and tragedy. This conclusion, albeit late, is reached by many of Bunin’s heroes who have lost, overlooked, or destroyed their love themselves. In this late repentance, late spiritual resurrection, enlightenment of the heroes lies that all-purifying melody that speaks of the imperfection of people who have not yet learned to live, recognize and value real feelings, and of the imperfection of life itself, social conditions, environment, circumstances that often interfere with truly human relationships, and most importantly - about those high emotions that leave an unfading trace of spiritual beauty, generosity, devotion and purity.
Love is a mysterious element that transforms a person’s life, giving his destiny uniqueness against the background of ordinary everyday stories, filling his earthly existence with special meaning.
This mystery of existence becomes the theme of Bunin’s story “The Grammar of Love” (1915). The hero of the work, a certain Ivlev, having stopped on the way to the house of the recently deceased landowner Khvoshchinsky, reflects on “an incomprehensible love that has turned a whole life into some kind of ecstatic life.” human life, which, perhaps, should have been the most ordinary life,” if not for the strange charm of the maid Lushka. It seems to me that the mystery lies not in the appearance of Lushka, who “was not at all good-looking,” but in the character of the landowner himself, who idolized his beloved. “But what kind of person was this Khvoshchinsky? Crazy or just some dazed, focused soul?” According to neighboring landowners. Khvoshchinsky “was known in the district as a rare smart guy. And suddenly this love fell on him, this Lushka, then unexpected death her - and everything went to dust: he shut himself up in the house, in the room where Lushka lived and died, and sat on her bed for more than twenty years...” How can this twenty-year seclusion be called? Insanity? For Bunin, the answer to this question is not at all clear.
The fate of Khvoshchinsky strangely fascinates and worries Ivlev. He understands that Lushka entered his life forever, awakening in him “a complex feeling, similar to what he once experienced in an Italian town when looking at the relics of a saint.” What made Ivlev buy from Khvoshchinsky’s heir “at an expensive price” a small book “The Grammar of Love”, which the old landowner never parted with, cherishing memories of Lushka? Ivlev would like to understand what the life of a madman in love was filled with, what he ate for many years his orphaned soul. And following the hero of the story, the “grandchildren and great-grandsons” who have heard the “voluptuous legend about the hearts of those who loved,” and along with them the reader of Bunin’s work, will try to reveal the secret of this inexplicable feeling.
An attempt to understand the nature of love feelings by the author in the story “Sunstroke” (1925). “A strange adventure” shakes the lieutenant’s soul. Having parted with a beautiful stranger, he cannot find peace. At the thought of the impossibility of meeting this woman again, “he felt such pain and the uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was overcome by horror and despair.” The author convinces the reader of the seriousness of the feelings experienced by the hero of the story. The lieutenant feels “terribly unhappy in this city.” “Where to go? What to do?" - he thinks lost. The depth of the hero's spiritual insight is clearly expressed in final phrase story: “The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older.” How to explain what happened to him? Maybe the hero came into contact with that great feeling that people call love, and the feeling of the impossibility of loss led him to realize the tragedy of existence?
Torment loving soul, the bitterness of loss, the sweet pain of memories - such unhealed wounds are left in the destinies of Bunin’s heroes by love, and time has no power over it.
The story “Dark Alleys” (1935) depicts a chance meeting of people who loved each other thirty years ago. The situation is quite ordinary: a young nobleman easily parted with the serf girl Nadezhda who was in love with him and married a woman of his circle. And Nadezhda, having received her freedom from the masters, became the owner of an inn and never got married, had no family, no children, and did not know ordinary everyday happiness. “No matter how much time passed, she lived alone,” she admits to Nikolai Alekseevich. – Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten... I could never forgive you. Just as I didn’t have anything more valuable than you in the world at that time, so I didn’t have anything later.” She could not change herself, her feelings. And Nikolai Alekseevich realized that in Nadezhda he had lost “the most precious thing he had in life.” But this is a momentary epiphany. Leaving the inn, he “remembered with shame his last words and that he kissed her hand, and was immediately ashamed of his shame.” And yet it is difficult for him to imagine Nadezhda as his wife, the mistress of the Petegbug house, the mother of his children... This gentleman attaches too much great value class prejudices in order to prefer genuine feelings to them. But he paid for his cowardice with a lack of personal happiness.
How differently the characters in the story interpret what happened to them! For Nikolai Alekseevich this is “a vulgar, ordinary story,” but for Nadezhda it is not dying memories, many years of devotion to love.
A passionate and deep feeling permeates the last, fifth book of the novel “The Life of Arsenyev” - “Lika”. It was based on the transformed experiences of Bunin himself, his youthful love for V.V. Pashchenko. In the novel, death and oblivion recede before the power of love, before the heightened sense - of the hero and the author - of life.
In the theme of love, Bunin reveals himself as a man of amazing talent, a subtle psychologist who knows how to convey the state of the soul wounded by love. The writer does not avoid complex, frank topics, depicting the most intimate human experiences in his stories. Over the centuries, many literary artists have dedicated their works to the great feeling of love, and each of them found something unique and individual about this theme. It seems to me that the peculiarity of Bunin the artist is that he considers love to be a tragedy, a catastrophe, madness, a great feeling, capable of both infinitely elevating and destroying a person.
Yes, love has many faces and is often inexplicable. This is an eternal mystery, and every reader of Bunin’s works seeks his own answers, reflecting on the mysteries of love. The perception of this feeling is very personal, and therefore someone will treat what is depicted in the book as a “vulgar story,” while others will be shocked by the great gift of love, which, like the talent of a poet or musician, is not given to everyone. But one thing is certain: Bunin’s stories telling about the most intimate things will not leave readers indifferent. Every young person will find in Bunin’s works something consonant with his own thoughts and experiences, and will touch the great mystery of love. This is what makes the author of “Sunstroke” always modern writer, arousing deep reader interest.
Abstract on literature
Topic: “The theme of love in the works of Bunin”
Completed
Student of the "" class
Moscow 2004
List of used literature
1. O.N. Mikhailov – “Russian literature of the 20th century”
2. S.N. Morozov - “The Life of Arsenyev. Stories"
3. B.K. Zaitsev - “Youth - Ivan Bunin”
4. Literary critical articles.