In literature in general, and in Russian literature in particular, the problem of the relationship between man and the world around him occupies a significant place. Personality and environment, individual and society - many Russian writers of the 19th century thought about this. The fruits of these reflections were reflected in many stable formulations, for example in the well-known phrase “Wednesday has eaten.” There has been a noticeable increase in interest in this topic in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, in a turning point era for Russia. In the spirit of humanistic traditions inherited from the past, Alexander Kuprin considers this issue, using all artistic means that have become an achievement of the turn of the century.
The work of this writer was for a long time, as it were, in the shadows, overshadowed by bright representatives of his contemporaries. Today, the works of A. Kuprin are of great interest. They attract the reader with their simplicity, humanity, and democracy in the noblest sense of the word. The world of A. Kuprin’s heroes is motley and diverse. He himself lived a bright life, filled with diverse impressions - he was a military man, a clerk, a land surveyor, and an actor in a traveling circus troupe. A. Kuprin said many times that he does not understand writers who do not find anything more interesting than themselves in nature and people. The writer is very interested in human destinies, while the heroes of his works are most often not successful, successful people, satisfied with themselves and life, but rather the opposite. But A. Kuprin treats his outwardly unsightly and unlucky heroes with the warmth and humanity that has always distinguished Russian writers. In the characters of the stories " White poodle", "Taper", "Gambrinus", as well as many others, the features of " little man“However, the writer does not simply reproduce this type, but reinterprets it anew.
Let's reveal very famous story Kupri-na " Garnet bracelet", written in 1911. Its plot is based on a real event - the love of telegraph official P. P. Zheltkov for the wife of an important official, member of the State Council Lyubimov. This story is mentioned by Lyubimov’s son, the author of famous memoirs Lev Lyubimov. In life, everything ended differently than in A. Kuprin’s story -. the official accepted the bracelet and stopped writing letters; nothing more was known about him. The Lyubimov family remembered this incident as strange and curious. Under the pen of the writer, the story turned into a sad and tragic story about the life of a little man who was elevated and destroyed by love. This is conveyed through the composition of the work. It gives an extensive, leisurely introduction, which introduces us to the exhibition of the Sheiny house. The story of extraordinary love itself, the story of the garnet bracelet, is told in such a way that we see through her eyes different people: Prince Vasily, who tells it as an anecdotal incident, brother Nikolai, for whom everything in this story seems offensive and suspicious, Vera Nikolaevna herself and, finally, General Anosov, who was the first to suggest that here , maybe there lies true love, “which women dream about and which men are no longer capable of.” The circle to which Vera Nikolaevna belongs cannot admit that this is a real feeling, not so much because of the strangeness of Zheltkov’s behavior, but because of the prejudices that control them. Kuprin, wanting to convince us, the readers, of the authenticity of Zheltkov’s love, resorts to the most irrefutable argument - the hero’s suicide. In this way, the little man’s right to happiness is affirmed, and the motive of his moral superiority over the people who so cruelly insulted him, who failed to understand the strength of the feeling that was the whole meaning of his life, arises.
Kuprin's story is both sad and bright. It permeates him musical beginning- indicated as an epigraph musical composition, - and the story ends with a scene when the heroine listens to music at a tragic moment of moral insight for her. The text of the work includes the theme of the inevitability of the death of the main character - it is conveyed through the symbolism of light: at the moment of receiving the bracelet, Vera Nikolaevna sees red stones in it and thinks with alarm that they look like blood. Finally, the theme of the clash of different cultural traditions arises in the story: the theme of the east - the Mongolian blood of the father of Vera and Anna, the Tatar prince, introduces into the story the theme of love-passion, recklessness; the mention that the sisters’ mother is English introduces the theme of rationality, dispassion in the sphere of feelings, and the power of the mind over the heart. In the final part of the story, a third line appears: it is no coincidence that the landlady turns out to be a Catholic. This introduces into the work the theme of love-admiration, which in Catholicism surrounds the Mother of God, love-self-sacrifice.
A. Kuprin’s hero, a little man, faces the world of misunderstanding around him, the world of people for whom love is a kind of madness, and, faced with it, dies.
In the wonderful story "Olesya" we see poetic image a girl who grew up in the hut of an old “witch”, outside the usual norms of a peasant family. Olesya’s love for the intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, who accidentally visited a remote forest village, is a free, simple and strong feeling, without looking back or obligations, among tall pines, painted with the crimson glow of the dying dawn. The girl's story ends tragically. Olesya’s free life is invaded by the selfish calculations of village officials and the superstitions of ignorant peasants. Beaten and molested, Olesya and Manuilikha are forced to flee from the forest nest.
In Kuprin's works, many heroes have similar traits - spiritual purity, dreaminess, ardent imagination, combined with impracticality and lack of will. And they reveal themselves most clearly in love. All heroes treat women with filial purity and reverence. Willingness to give in for the sake of a beloved woman, romantic worship, knightly service to her - and at the same time underestimating oneself, disbelief in one’s own strength. Men in Kuprin's stories seem to change places with women. These are the energetic, strong-willed “Polessia sorceress” Olesya and the “kind, but only weak” Ivan Timofeevich, the smart, calculating Shurochka Nikolaevna and the “pure, sweet, but weak and pitiful” second lieutenant Romashov. All these are Kuprin’s heroes with a fragile soul, caught in a cruel world.
Kuprin’s excellent story “Gambrinus,” created in the troubled year of 1907, breathes the atmosphere of revolutionary days. The theme of all-conquering art is intertwined here with the idea of democracy, the bold protest of the “little man” against the black forces of arbitrariness and reaction. Meek and cheerful Sashka, with his extraordinary talent as a violinist and sincerity, attracts a diverse crowd of longshoremen, fishermen, and smugglers to the Odessa tavern. They greet with delight the melodies, which seem to be the background, as if reflecting public moods and events - from Russo-Japanese War to the rebellious days of the revolution, when Sashka’s violin sounds with the cheerful rhythms of “Marseilles”. In the days of the onset of terror, Sashka challenges the disguised detectives and the black-hundred “scoundrels in a fur hat,” refusing to play the monarchist anthem at their request, openly denouncing them of murders and pogroms.
Crippled by the tsarist secret police, he returns to his port friends to play for them on the outskirts the tunes of the deafeningly cheerful “Shepherd.” Free creativity, power folk spirit, according to Kuprin, are invincible.
Returning to the question posed at the beginning - “man and the world around him” - we note that in Russian prose of the early 20th century a wide range of answers to it is presented. We have considered only one of the options - the tragic collision of a person with the world around him, his insight and death, but not a senseless death, but containing an element of purification and high meaning.
The theme of love excites and excites many representatives of art and literary figures. Writers of all times have sung this feeling, its beauty, greatness and tragedy. A.I. Kuprin is one of those writers who reveals the theme of love in its various manifestations. His two works “Olesya” and “Garnet Bracelet” were written at different times, but they are united by the theme of tragic love.
In the story “Olesya” all events unfold against the backdrop of a small village lost in the forest. Olesya grew up here - a modest, trusting girl who does not know the coquetry and affectation characteristic of many city young ladies. She is natural and trusting like nature itself, among which children and early years Olesya.
Ivan Timofeevich is a representative of a completely different world. At first he is likable.
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His love for Olesya seems sincere and real. At some point, the reader rejoices at the newfound happiness of the two lovers. However, Olesya’s sincere and trusting feelings are met with indecision and caution of her chosen one. Although he is trying to help the girl, Ivan Timofeevich, brought up in a civilized, deceitful environment, is not able to fight back against prejudice. Essentially, he betrays Olesya and their love. At the same time, quiet Olesya goes to church for the sake of her lover, incurring the hatred of the villagers blinded by superstitions.
There is a sad ending in the story of A.I. Kuprin “Garnet Bracelet” A socialite, a married beauty, is bombarded with letters by a certain petty official Zheltkov. At first, the princess pays almost no attention to these signs of unrequited feelings. Letters from an anonymous admirer even irritate her, disrupting the smooth flow of life. family life Vera Sheina. However, Zheltkov’s death awakens in the woman some vague feeling of sadness and an understanding that not everything is so smooth in her married life. In the depths of her soul, Vera is aware that the real feeling only touched her lightly and passed by.
It also happens in life that it is not always possible to recognize your love. Anyone who is not given the opportunity to see the sincerity of the feelings of a person in love, who does not know how to appreciate it, loses a lot in life. Then true love passes by.
Updated: 2016-12-11
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“All love is terrible. All love is tragedy,” wrote the famous
Irish poet Oscar Wilde. After all, it’s true that love is not always a bright and selfless feeling, but sometimes it’s also real grief. She inspires some and makes them happy, while others suffer and suffer because of her. In the works of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, the theme of love is one of the most important. However, in most cases this feeling destroys the lives of the heroes.
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Subject tragic love clearly reflected in such works as “Olesya” and “Garnet Bracelet”. Let's take a closer look at them.
“Olesya” is one of the writer’s very first and favorite works. The plot of this story is based on the love story between Ivan Timofeevich, a young gentleman, and Olesya, a young witch. The heroes met completely by accident. It was then that Ivan was attracted by the “integral, original nature, mind” in the young girl, so the master begins to visit her more and more often and eventually falls in love. Olesya shared the hero’s sympathy, although she knew that she was dooming herself to misfortune. The romantic feelings that flared up in the souls of the young people were doomed from the very beginning. I believe that the reason for this was the different social statuses of the heroes. Ivan Timofeevich was an educated nobleman who lived in the city. Olesya was raised by nature itself; she was not adapted to society. The heroine was ready to make any sacrifice for the sake of her loved one. Overcoming fear, she decided to join society. The girl goes to church, but the peasants took her act for blasphemy, because they considered her a witch, and after the service they beat her severely. So at the end of the work, the love of the heroes turns into tragedy: the humiliated Olesya, together with Manuilikha, leaves the village forever. A.I. Kuprin expresses thoughts that Ivan, who grew up in a society in which money and cruelty reign, is not able to accept his way of life beloved, which is why their relationship was so tragic.
According to K. Paustovsky, “The Garnet Bracelet” is one of the most fragrant and sad stories about love. This work is about the unrequited feelings of Georgy Zheltkov for the married Vera Shein. The hero was not interested in anything in life, he existed only by love for the princess. Sometimes Zheltkov sent her anonymous letters in which he described all his feelings. On Vera Nikolaevna’s name day, Georgy gives her a gift - a gorgeous garnet bracelet, which he got from his great-grandmother. The princess's brother and husband are afraid for her reputation, so they ask Zheltkov not to appear in the princess's life again. When Georgy is deprived of his only joy, he decides to commit suicide, because his existence no longer makes sense. Zheltkov’s love was pure and sincere, did not demand anything in return. But closed in on itself, this feeling can only destroy. Only after the death of the hero does Vera realize that “the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by.” The story ends on this tragic note. The writer depicts true love, which happens “once in a thousand years.” A person gifted with such a feeling is ready for anything, even self-denial. A.I. Kuprin shows readers that love can lead to such terrible consequences as in the case of Zheltkov.
In conclusion, we can say that love is truly one of the most amazing feelings inherent in a person. It can make people happy or kill them, bring happiness or suffering. The theme of tragic love is very relevant in modern society. Unrequited love is very common, which causes people a lot of pain. It happens that people who love each other cannot be together for some reason.
Updated: 2019-04-22
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The theme of love is the most frequently touched upon in literature, and in art in general. It was love that inspired the greatest creators of all time to create immortal works.
Each person's love has its own light, its own sadness, its own happiness, its own fragrance. Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin’s favorite heroes strive for love and beauty, but they cannot find beauty in a life where vulgarity and spiritual slavery reign. Many of them do not find happiness or die in a collision with a hostile world, but with all their existence, with all their dreams, they affirm the idea of the possibility of happiness on earth.
Love is a cherished theme for Kuprin. The pages of “Olesya” and “Shulamithi” are filled with majestic and all-pervading love, eternal tragedy and eternal mystery. Love, which revives a person, reveals all human abilities, penetrates into the most hidden corners of the soul, enters the heart from the pages of “The Garnet Bracelet.” In this work, amazing in its poetry, the author glorifies the gift of unearthly love, equating it to high art.
Undoubtedly, every person in his life meets people who in one way or another influence the course of thoughts and actions. Events and phenomena that happen to us, to loved ones, and even just in the country, also have a certain impact. And each of us tries to express our feelings and experiences in our own way.
Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin expressed his experiences in his works. Almost all of the author’s works can be called autobiographical. And all because from childhood Kuprin was an impressionable person. The author forced his heroes to go through every event of his life; Kuprin’s experiences were also experienced by his heroes.
Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin dedicated many works to love and great amount lines, very different, unexpected, but never indifferent. Kuprin himself thinks about love, makes his characters think about it and talk about it. He writes about her in lyrical and pathetic tones, tender and frantic, angry and blessing. And yet, most often, love in Kuprin’s works is “strong as death,” “selfless, selfless, not expecting reward.” For many heroes, it remains “the greatest secret in the world, a tragedy.”
Kuprin’s best works dedicated to the theme of love are “Olesya”, “Shulamith”, “Garnet Bracelet”. Written in different years, they clearly reveal not only the writer’s talent, but also the development of his philosophical and moral worldview: in these works Kuprin comprehends the theme of affirmation human personality in the form of love.
There is probably no more mysterious, beautiful and all-consuming feeling, familiar to everyone without exception, than love, because from birth a person is already loved by his parents and he himself experiences, albeit unconsciously, reciprocal feelings. However, for everyone, love has its own special meaning; in each of its manifestations it is different and unique.
The works of the remarkable writer A. I. Kuprin are destined long life. His stories and stories continue to excite people of different generations. What is their inexhaustible charm? Probably, in the fact that they glorify the brightest and most beautiful human feelings, they call for beauty, kindness, humanity. The most touching and heartfelt works of Kuprin are his stories about love “The Pomegranate Bracelet”, “Olesya”, “Shulamith”. It is love that inspires the heroes, gives them a feeling of the highest fullness of life, elevates them above the gray, joyless life.
Love is revealed by the writer as a strong, passionate, all-consuming feeling that has completely taken possession of a person. It allows the heroes to reveal best qualities souls, illuminates life with the light of kindness and self-sacrifice.
- A sad love story in the story "Olesya"
In the wonderful work “Olesya” (1898), imbued with genuine humanism, Kuprin glorifies people living among nature, untouched by money-grubbing and corrupting bourgeois civilization. Against the backdrop of wild, majestic, beautiful nature, strong, original people live - “children of nature.” This is Olesya, who is as simple, natural and beautiful as nature itself. The author clearly romanticizes the image of the “daughter of the forests.” But her behavior, psychologically subtly motivated, allows her to see the real prospects of life.
Kuprin describes a remote village in the Volyn province, the outskirts of Polesie, where fate threw Ivan Timofeevich, the “master”, an urban intellectual. Fate brings him together with the granddaughter of the local sorceress Manuilikha, Olesya, who fascinates him with her extraordinary beauty. This is the beauty not of a society lady, but of a wild fallow deer living in the lap of nature.
However, it is not only appearance that attracts Ivan Timofeevich to Oles: the young man is admired by the girl’s self-confidence, pride and audacity. Having grown up in the depths of the forests and hardly communicating with people, she is accustomed to treating strangers with great caution, but having met Ivan Timofeevich, she gradually falls in love with him. He captivates the girl with his ease, kindness, and intelligence, because for Olesya all this is unusual and new. The girl is very happy when a young guest often visits her. During one of these visits, she, fortune-telling by his hand, characterizes the reader as a man “although kind, but only weak,” and admits that his kindness is “not heartfelt.” That his heart is “cold, lazy,” and to the one who “will love him,” he will bring, albeit unwittingly, “a lot of evil.” Thus, according to the young fortune teller, Ivan Timofeevich appears before us as an egoist, a person incapable of deep emotional experiences. However, in spite of everything, young people fall in love with each other, completely surrendering to this all-consuming feeling.
Endowed with unprecedented power, the soul brings harmony into the obviously contradictory relationships of people. Such a rare gift is expressed in love for Ivan Timofeevich. Olesya seems to be returning the naturalness of his experiences that he had briefly lost. Thus, the story describes the love of a realist man and romantic heroine. Ivan Timofeevich finds himself in the romantic world of the heroine, and she - in his reality.
Falling in love, Olesya shows sensitive delicacy, innate intelligence, observation and tact, instinctive knowledge of the secrets of life. Moreover, her love opens enormous power passion and dedication, reveals in her the great human talent of understanding and generosity. Olesya is ready to do anything for the sake of her love: go to church, enduring the bullying of the villagers, find the strength to leave, leaving behind only a string of cheap red beads, which are a symbol eternal love and devotion.
Love in Kuprin's works often ends in tragedy. This is the sad and poetic story of the pure, spontaneous and wise “daughter of nature” from the story “Olesya”. This amazing character combines intelligence, beauty, responsiveness, selflessness and willpower. The image of the forest witch is shrouded in mystery. Her fate is unusual, life away from people in an abandoned forest hut. The poetic nature of Polesie has a beneficial influence on the girl. Isolation from civilization allows her to preserve the integrity and purity of nature. On the one hand, she is naive because she does not know basic things, inferior in this to the intelligent and educated Ivan Timofeevich. But, on the other hand, Olesya has some kind of higher knowledge that is inaccessible to an ordinary smart person.
The image of Olesya for Kuprin is the ideal of an open, selfless, deep character. Love elevates her above those around her, giving her joy, but at the same time, making her defenseless, leading to inevitable death. Compared to great love Olesya even loses Ivan Timofeevich’s feelings for her in many ways. His love is sometimes more like a passing hobby. He understands that the girl will not be able to live outside the nature that surrounds her here, but, nevertheless, offering her his hand and heart, he implies that she will live with him in the city. At the same time, he does not think about the possibility of abandoning civilization, remaining to live for the sake of Olesya here, in the wilderness. He resigns himself to the situation, without even making attempts to change anything, challenging the current circumstances. Probably, if it were true love, Ivan Timofeevich would have found his beloved, doing everything possible for this, but, unfortunately, he never realized what he had missed.
In the story “Olesya” Kuprin depicted just such a rebirth of the soul, or rather an attempt at its rebirth.
Everything except main character, the participants in the events: “stubbornly uncommunicative peasants”, the Yarmol forest worker, Grandma Manuilikha, and the narrator Ivan Timofeevich himself (the story is told on his behalf) - are associated with a certain social environment, are constrained by its laws and are very far from perfect.
At first, Ivan Timofeevich’s spiritual limitations are invisible and veiled. He seems to be soft, responsive, sincere. Olesya, however, correctly says about her lover: “... although you are kind, you are only weak. Your kindness is not good, not heartfelt...” But Ivan Timofeevich’s weakness lies in the fact that he lacks integrity and depth of feelings. Ivan Timofeevich does not experience pain himself, but causes pain to others.
And only the earth and sky decorate the meetings of lovers: the radiance of the month “mysteriously colors the forest”, the birches are dressed in “silver, transparent covers”, the path is covered with a “plush carpet” of moss... Only merging with nature gives purity and completeness to the spiritual world.
In the love between the “savage” and the civilized hero, from the very beginning there is a feeling of doom, which permeates the narrative with sadness and hopelessness. The ideas and views of lovers turn out to be too different, which lead to separation, despite the strength and sincerity of their feelings. When the urban intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, who got lost in the forest while hunting, saw Olesya for the first time, he was struck not only by the bright and original beauty of the girl. He unconsciously felt her unusualness, her difference from ordinary village “girls”. There is something magical in Olesya’s appearance, her speech, and behavior that cannot be explained logically. This is probably what captivates Ivan Timofeevich in her, in whom admiration imperceptibly grows into love.
Olesya's tragic prophecy comes true at the end of the story. No, Ivan Timofeevich does not commit either meanness or betrayal. He sincerely and seriously wants to connect his fate with Olesya. But at the same time, the hero shows insensitivity and tactlessness, which doom the girl to shame and persecution. Ivan Timofeevich instills in her the idea that a woman should be pious, although he knows very well that Olesya in the village is considered a witch, and, therefore, visiting church could cost her life. Possessing a rare gift of foresight, the heroine for the sake of her beloved man is walking on church service, feeling evil glances at myself, hearing mocking remarks and abuse. This selfless act of Olesya especially emphasizes her bold, free nature, which contrasts with the darkness and savagery of the villagers. Beaten by local peasant women, Olesya leaves her home not only because she fears their even more cruel revenge, but also because she perfectly understands the unrealizability of her dream, the impossibility of happiness.
Love was destroyed, and lovers were separated. Violent thunderstorm at the end of the story, it intensifies the painful feeling of sorrow that engulfs the shocked reader. Olesya disappears, and only a string of simple red beads remains for the hero as a reminder of the magical feeling of love and endlessly beautiful girl, once met by him in Polesie, Rivne district.
Olesya's love is perceived by the hero as a reward, as the highest gift sent to him by God. When you read this amazing story about love, you experience a real shock, which gives rise to the desire to become truly sensitive, gentle, generous, and gives you the ability to see the world in a new way.
- Mutual and happy love in the story “Sulamith”
In an interview in 1913, Kuprin said: “We need to write not about how people have become impoverished in spirit and vulgarized, but about the triumph of man, about his strength and power.” And he deciphered his call as a desire to reflect “contempt for death, adoration of a woman with one, eternal love.” The writer searched for an image of such filling long years. On this path was created whole line works that in one way or another illuminate individual approaches to an exciting topic. Only in some of them was it implemented. Among them is the story “Shulamith” (1908), where love has no boundaries in its free, all-consuming flow.
A.I. Kuprin revealed the theme of mutual and happy love between the richest King Solomon and the poor slave Shulamith, working in the vineyards. An unshakably strong and passionate feeling lifts them above material differences, erasing the boundaries that separate lovers, once again proving the strength and power of love. The writer praises a joyful, bright feeling, devoid of jealousy, prejudice, and self-interest. He sings a true hymn to youth, flowering of feelings and beauty. The author is convinced that the love of “a poor girl from a vineyard and a great king will never pass, will not be forgotten, because it is strong, because every woman who loves is a queen, because love is beautiful!”
However, in the finale of the work, the author destroys the well-being of his heroes, killing Shulamith and leaving Solomon alone. According to Kuprin, love is a flash of light that reveals the spiritual value of the human personality, awakening in it all the best that is hidden for the time being in the depths of the soul.
You can approach the story differently: you can look for shortcomings and inaccuracies in it, distortion of biblical material, see the author’s excessive passion for the “Song of Songs” (already in the late 90s, Kuprin often quotes the “Song of Songs”, takes epigraphs from it for his works, articles, lectures). But in the story “Shulamith” it is impossible not to see the “song of triumphant love.”
This biblical legend is perceived as a hymn to love, youth and beauty. Love helps the heroine overcome her fear of death. Bleeding, she calls herself happy woman in the world and thanks her beloved for his love, beauty and wisdom, to which “she clung to her like a sweet source.” The jealousy of Queen Astiz was able to destroy her young rival, but she is powerless to kill love, the bright memory of King Solomon about the “sun-burnt Shulamith.” The tragic reflection of love that illuminated the life of the sage forces him to dictate deeply suffered lines: “Strong as death is love, and cruel as hell is jealousy: its arrows are arrows of fire.”
Much in this ancient source captivated Kuprin: the “touching and poetic” nature of the experiences, the oriental multicolor of their embodiment. The story inherited all these qualities.
The author gave equal importance to the two main characters of the story. Even before meeting Shulamith, Solomon surpassed everyone in wealth, exploits, and intelligence, but experienced bitter disappointment: “... in much wisdom there is much sorrow, and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow.” Love for Sulamith gives the king unprecedented joy and new knowledge of existence, his personal capabilities, opens up the previously unknown happiness of self-sacrifice: “Ask me for my life, I will give it with delight,” he says to his beloved. And for her the time has come for the first, genuine comprehension of everything around her and the person in herself. Merger loving souls transforms the previous existence of Solomon and Shulamith. That is why her death, accepted to save Solomon, is so beautiful and natural.
Kuprin found in the Song of Songs “the liberation of love.” The power of self-sacrifice of Solomon and Shulamith, their highest unity, surpassing unions known on earth, go back to this idea in the story. To Solomon’s offer to ascend the throne with him, Shulamith replies: “I want to be only your slave,” and becomes “the queen of Solomon’s soul.” “Shulamith” became the hymn of feelings that revive personality.
The writer, depicting the wisdom of King Solomon, emphasizes the motive of everyday searches, discoveries and knowledge, inherent in man. It is given to the king to recognize beauty common man, the strength of the passions available to him. The dramatic ending itself also acquires its high universal meaning in the eyes of the sage.
Kuprin, like Pushkin, connects love with the need for creativity. He sings a hymn not only to women and high feeling, but also poetic inspiration. It is not for nothing that in the finale, after the tragic denouement, the wise king begins to create his famous creation, the same one that formed the basis of Kuprin’s story.
- Unrequited love in the story “Garnet Bracelet”
The story “The Garnet Bracelet” (1911) picks up the theme of “Shulamith”, again returning to the glorification of the great and eternal spiritual value of man - love. However, in the new work, a man finds himself in the position of a simple and rootless character, while the role of a noble and titled hero goes to a woman. The same social barriers, partitions of class inequality, which were initially - decisively and naturally - overcome by the lovers in "Sulyamifi", now, when the author transferred the events to modern reality, have grown up between the heroes as a huge wall. Difference social status and the marriage of Princess Sheina made Zheltkov’s love unrequited, unrequited. The lot of the lover falls to “only reverence, eternal admiration and slavish devotion,” as he himself admits in his letter.
The deep feeling of the main character Zheltkov, a petty employee, a “little man” for a socialite, Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, brings him as much suffering and torment, since his love is unrequited and hopeless, as well as pleasure, since she elevates him, exciting his soul and giving him joy. It’s more likely not even love, but adoration; it is so strong and unconscious that even ridicule does not detract from it. In the end, realizing the impossibility of his beautiful dream and having lost hope of reciprocity in his love, and also largely under the pressure of those around him, Zheltkov decides to commit suicide, but even at the last moment all his thoughts are only about his beloved, and even leaving this life, he continues to idolize Vera Nikolaevna, addressing her as if to a deity: “Hallowed be your name" Only after the death of the hero does the one with whom he was so hopelessly in love realize “that the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by,” it’s a pity that it’s too late. The work is deeply tragic; the author shows how important it is not only to understand another in time, but also, looking into one’s soul, perhaps to find reciprocal feelings there. In “The Garnet Bracelet” there are words that “love must be a tragedy,” it seems that the author wanted to say that before a person realizes, spiritually reaches the level when love is happiness, pleasure, he must go through all those difficulties and adversities that are somehow associated with it.
To understand Kuprin’s attitude towards love, it is enough to understand whether love was happiness for the hero in the writer’s most powerful work, “The Garnet Bracelet.” It is based on a real event - the love of telegraph operator P.P. Yellow. to the wife of an important official, member of the State Council - Lyubimov. In life, everything ended differently than in Kuprin’s story - the official accepted the bracelet and stopped writing letters, nothing more is known about him. Under the pen of the writer, this incident is morally big man who was raised and destroyed by love. Ruined - yes, but was this love unhappy for Zheltkov? The rarest gift of lofty and unrequited love became “tremendous happiness,” the only content, the poetry of Zheltkov’s life. Zheltkov died without pain and disappointment, but with the feeling that this love was still in his life, and this calmed him. The joy of pure and noble love was imprinted in his eyes forever: “Deep importance was in his closed eyes, and his lips smiled blissfully and serenely.” For the hero, love, although it was not mutual, was the only happiness. He writes about this in his last message to Vera Nikolaevna: “I thank you from the depths of my soul for being my only joy in life, my only consolation, my only thought.”
Many will say: “If this love brought so much happiness to Zheltkov, why did he commit suicide? Why didn’t you want to live on and enjoy your love?” This is because high, noble love is always tragic. Zheltkov himself can be called “a noble knight in a small post.” After all, he did not annoy Vera Nikolaevna with his letters, did not pursue her, but gave her happiness with another person. But with this act Zheltkov awakened withered feelings in the souls of the Sheins, especially Vera Nikolaevna, because it was her “ life path true, selfless, true love crossed.”
The phenomenality of his experiences raises the image of the young man above all other characters in the story. Not only the rude, narrow-minded Tuganovsky, the frivolous coquette Anna, but also the smart, conscientious Shein, who considers love the “greatest secret,” and the beautiful and pure Vera Nikolaevna herself are in a clearly degraded everyday environment. However, this contrast is not where the main nerve of the story lies.
From the first lines there is a feeling of fading. It reads in autumn landscape, in the sad sight of empty dachas with broken glass, empty flower beds, with “degenerate” small roses, in the “grassy, sad smell” of the pre-winter. Similar to autumn nature the monotonous, seemingly drowsy existence of Vera Sheina, where familiar relationships were strengthened, convenient connections and skills. Beauty is not at all alien to Vera, but the desire for it has long been dulled. She “was strictly simple, cold with everyone and a little patronizingly kind, independent and royally calm.” The royal calm destroys Zheltkov.
Kuprin writes not about the birth of Vera’s love, but precisely about the awakening of her soul. It proceeds in the refined sphere of premonitions and acute experiences. The external course of the days goes on as usual: guests arrive for Vera’s name day, her husband ironically tells them about his wife’s strange admirer, the plan of visiting Shein and Vera’s brother, Tuganovsky, Zheltkov, matures and then is carried out at this meeting young man he is offered to leave the city where Vera lives, but he decides to leave life completely and leaves. All events respond to the growing emotional tension of the heroine.
The psychological climax of the story is Vera’s farewell to the deceased Zheltkov, their only “date” is a turning point in her internal state. On the face of the deceased she read “deep importance”, a “blissful and serene” smile, “the same peaceful expression” as “on the masks of the great sufferers - Pushkin and Napoleon.” The greatness of suffering and the peace in the feeling that caused it - Vera herself had never experienced this. “At that second she realized that the love that every woman dreams of had passed her by.” Former complacency is perceived as a mistake, an illness.
Kuprin endows his beloved heroine with much greater spiritual powers than those that caused her disappointment in herself. In the final chapter, Vera's excitement reaches its limit. To the sounds of a Beethoven sonata - Zheltkov bequeathed to listen to it - Vera seems to take into her heart everything that he suffered. He accepts and anew, in tears of repentance and enlightenment, experiences “a life that humbly and joyfully doomed itself to torment, suffering and death.” Now this life will forever remain with her and for her.
The author touches the sophisticated in a surprisingly chaste way human soul and at the same time conveys in detail the appearance and behavior of other characters in the story. And yet, from the first words, the approaching shocks of Vera Sheina are foreseen. "Disgusting weather" brings cold, hurricane wind, and then lovely sunny days come, delighting Vera Sheina. Summer has returned for a short time, which will again recede before a menacing hurricane. And Vera’s calm joy is no less fleeting. “The infinity and grandeur of the sea,” which attracts the gaze of Vera and her sister Anna, is separated from them by a terrible cliff, frightening both. Thus the “break” of the quiet is predicted family well-being Sheinykh.
The writer talks in detail about Vera's birthday efforts, Anna's gift, the arrival of guests, and conveys Shein's humorous stories with which he entertains those gathered... The leisurely narrative is often interrupted by warning signs. With an unpleasant feeling, Vera becomes convinced that thirteen people are sitting at the table - an unlucky number. In the midst of a card game, the maid brings a letter from Zheltkov and a bracelet with five grenades - five “thick red living lights.” “It’s like blood,” Vera thinks “with unexpected anxiety.” Little by little the author prepares for main topic story, to the tragedy that was provoked by the greatest mystery of love.
Love is perceived by the hero as a reward, as the highest gift sent to him by God. For the sake of the well-being and peace of mind of his beloved woman, he, without hesitation, sacrifices his life, thanking her only for the fact that she exists, because all the beauty of the earth is embodied in her.
Kuprin chose the name of the heroine not by chance - Vera. Vera remains in this vain world, when Zheltkov dies, she learned what true love is. But even in the world there remains the belief that Zheltkov was not the only person endowed with such an unearthly feeling.
The emotional wave, growing throughout the entire narrative, reaches its utmost intensity. The theme of great and purifying love is fully revealed in the majestic chords of Beethoven's brilliant sonata. Music powerfully takes possession of the heroine, and words are composed in her soul that seem to be whispered by the one who loved her more life man: “Hallowed be Thy name!..” In these last words There is both a plea for love and deep sorrow over its unattainability. This is where that great contact of souls takes place, one of which understood the other too late.
Conclusion
The connection between the stories “The Pomegranate Bracelet”, “Olesya” and “Shulamith” is obvious. All together they are a hymn to female beauty and love, a hymn to a woman who is spiritually pure and wise, a hymn to a sublime, primordial feeling. All three stories have a deeply universal human character. They raise issues that will forever trouble humanity.
Love in Kuprin's works is sincere, devoted and selfless. This is the kind of Love that everyone dreams of finding one day. Love, in the name and for which you can sacrifice anything, even own life. Love that will pass through any obstacles and barriers separating those who truly love, It will overcome evil, transforming the world and filling it bright colors, and, most importantly, will make people happy.
Love... It is difficult to name a writer or poet who would not pay tribute to this amazing feeling in his works. But from the pen of A. Kuprin came special stories and stories about love. Love as an all-consuming feeling, hopeless love, tragic love... How many twists and turns of love we encounter in his works! They make you think, reflect on the essence of this magical state of mind, and maybe even test your feelings. How sometimes we, modern young people, lack a good adviser, a wise assistant who would help us understand the truth of that feeling that we sometimes mistake for love, and then experience deep disappointment. Perhaps this is why many young contemporaries take for love something completely different from what A.I. Kuprin inspiredly wrote about.
In his works, the writer tells the reader about tender and fiery love, devoted and beautiful, lofty and tragic, “which, according to the writer, alone is more valuable than wealth, fame and wisdom, which is more valuable than life itself, because it does not even value life and is not afraid of death". Such love elevates a person above all mortals. Makes him like God. This love turns into poetry, music, the universe, eternity.
The theme of love is often touched upon in the works of A.I. Kuprina. This feeling is revealed in his works in different ways, but, as a rule, it is tragic. We can see the tragedy of love especially clearly in two of his works: “Olesya” and “Garnet Bracelet”.
The story "Olesya" - early work Kuprin, written in 1898. Here you can see the features of romanticism, because the writer shows his heroine outside the influences of society and civilizations.
Olesya is a person of pure soul. She grew up in the forest, she is characterized by naturalness, kindness, and sincerity. The heroine lives only according to the dictates of her heart, pretense and insincerity are alien to her, she does not know how to step over her true desires.
Olesya meets in her life a person from a completely different world. Ivan Timofeevich is an aspiring writer and urban intellectual. A feeling arises between the characters, which later helps to reveal the essence of their characters. Before us appears the drama of the unequal love of the characters. Olesya is a sincere girl, she loves Ivan Timofeevich with all her soul. A sincere feeling makes a girl stronger; she is ready to overcome all obstacles for her lover. Ivan Timofeevich, despite his positive qualities, is spoiled by civilization, corrupted by society. This one is kind, but weak person with a “lazy” heart, indecisive and cautious, cannot rise above the prejudices of his environment. There is some kind of flaw in his soul; he cannot completely surrender to the strong feeling that has captured him. Ivan Timofeevich is not capable of nobility, he does not know how to care for others, his soul is full of selfishness. This is especially noticeable at the moment when he confronts Olesya with a choice. Ivan Timofeevich is ready to force Olesya to choose between himself and her grandmother, he did not think about how Olesya’s desire to go to church might end, the hero gives his beloved the opportunity to convince himself of the need for their separation, and so on.
Such selfish behavior of the hero becomes the cause of a real tragedy in the life of the girl, and of Ivan Timofeevich himself. Olesya and her grandmother are forced to leave the village because they are in real danger from local residents. The lives of these heroes turn out to be largely destroyed, not to mention the heart of Olesya, who sincerely loved Ivan Timofeevich.
In this story we see the tragedy of the discrepancy between a genuine, natural feeling and a feeling that has absorbed the features of civilization.
The story “The Garnet Bracelet,” written in 1907, tells us about genuine, strong, unconditional, but unrequited love. It is worth noting that this work is based on real events from the family chronicles of the Tugan-Baranovsky princes. This story has become one of the most famous and profound works about love in Russian literature.
Before us are typical representatives of the aristocracy of the early 20th century, the Shein family. Vera Nikolaevna Sheina is a beautiful society lady, moderately happy in her marriage, lives a calm, dignified life. Her husband, Prince Shein, is a rather pleasant person, Vera respects him, she is comfortable with him, but from the very beginning the reader gets the impression that the heroine does not love him.
The calm flow of life of these characters is disturbed only by letters from an anonymous admirer of Vera Nikolaevna, a certain G.S.Zh. The heroine's brother is contemptuous of marriage and does not believe in love, so he is ready to publicly ridicule this hapless G.S.Z. But, taking a closer look, the reader understands that only this secret admirer of Princess Vera is a true treasure among the vulgar people who have forgotten how to love. “..love among people has taken such vulgar forms and has simply descended to some kind of everyday convenience, to a little fun“, - with these words of General Anosov, Kuprin conveys the current state of affairs to him.
A petty official, Zheltkov, turns out to be a fan of Vera Nikolaevna. One day a fateful meeting took place in his life - Zheltkov saw Vera Nikolaevna Sheina. He didn’t even talk to this young lady, who was still unmarried. And how dare he - they were too unequal social status. But a person is not subject to feelings of such strength, he is not able to control the life of his heart. Love captured Zheltkov so much that it became the meaning of his entire existence. From this man's farewell letter we learn that his feeling is “reverence, eternal admiration and slavish devotion.”
From the hero himself we learn that this feeling is not a consequence of mental illness. After all, he didn’t need anything in response to his emotions. Perhaps this is absolute, unconditional love. Zheltkov’s feelings are so strong that he voluntarily leaves this life, just so as not to disturb Vera Nikolaevna. After the death of the hero, at the very end of the work, the princess begins to vaguely realize that she failed to discern something very important in her life in time. It is not for nothing that at the end of the story, while listening to a Beethoven sonata, the heroine cries: “Princess Vera hugged the trunk of the acacia tree, pressed herself against it and cried.” It seems to me that these tears are the heroine’s longing for true love, which people so often forget about.
Love in Kuprin’s perception is often tragic. But perhaps only this feeling can give meaning human existence. We can say that the writer tests his heroes with love. Strong people (such as Zheltkov, Olesya) thanks to this feeling begin to glow from within, they are able to carry love in their hearts, no matter what.