Still from the film " Garnet bracelet"(1964)
In August, vacation on the suburban seaside resort was spoiled by bad weather. The empty dachas were sadly wet in the rain. But in September the weather changed again, sunny days. Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina did not leave her dacha - renovations were going on in her house - and now she is enjoying the warm days.
The princess's name day is coming. She is glad that it fell during the summer season - in the city they would have had to give a ceremonial dinner, and the Sheins “barely made ends meet.”
Princess Vera, whose former passionate love for her husband had long since turned into a feeling of strong, faithful, true friendship, tried with all her might to help the prince refrain from complete ruin.
Her younger sister Anna Nikolaevna Friesse, the wife of a very rich and very stupid man, and her brother Nikolai come to Vera’s name day. Towards evening, Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein brings the rest of the guests.
A package with a small jewelry case addressed to Princess Vera Nikolaevna is brought in the midst of simple country entertainment. Inside the case is a gold, low-grade blown bracelet, covered with garnets, which surround a small green stone.
When Vera... turned the bracelet in front of the light of an electric light bulb, then in them, deep under their smooth egg-shaped surface, lovely thick red living lights suddenly lit up.
In addition to the garnet bracelet, a letter is found in the case. An unknown donor congratulates Vera on Angel's Day and asks to accept a bracelet that belonged to his great-grandmother. The green pebble is a very rare green garnet that conveys the gift of providence and protects men from violent death. The author of the letter reminds the princess how seven years ago he wrote her “stupid and wild letters.” The letter ends with the words: “Your humble servant G.S.Zh. before death and after death.”
Prince Vasily Lvovich at this moment demonstrates his humorous home album, opened on the “story” “Princess Vera and the telegraph operator in love.” “It’s better not to,” Vera asks. But the husband still begins a commentary on his own drawings, full of brilliant humor. Here is the girl Vera receiving a letter with kissing doves, signed by telegraph operator P.P.Zh. Here is young Vasya Shein returning to Vera wedding ring: “I do not dare to interfere with your happiness, and yet it is my duty to warn you: telegraph operators are seductive, but insidious.” But Vera marries the handsome Vasya Shein, but the telegraph operator continues to persecute him. Here he is, disguised as a chimney sweep, entering Princess Vera’s boudoir. So, having changed clothes, he enters their kitchen as a dishwasher. Finally, he is in a madhouse.
After tea the guests leave. Whispering to her husband to look at the case with the bracelet and read the letter, Vera goes to see off General Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov. Old General whom Vera and her sister Anna call grandfather, asks the princess to explain what is true in the prince’s story.
G.S.Zh. pursued her with letters two years before her marriage. Obviously, he constantly watched her, knew where she went at the evenings, how she was dressed. He did not serve at the telegraph office, but in “some government institution little official." When Vera, also in writing, asked not to bother her with his persecutions, he fell silent about love and limited himself to congratulations on holidays, like today, on her name day. Inventing a funny story, the prince replaced the initials of the unknown admirer with his own.
The old man suggests that the unknown person may be a maniac.
Or maybe, Verochka, yours life path crossed exactly the kind of love that women dream of and that men are no longer capable of.
Vera finds her brother Nikolai very irritated - he also read the letter and believes that his sister will find herself in a “ridiculous position” if she accepts this ridiculous gift. Together with Vasily Lvovich, he is going to find the fan and return the bracelet.
The next day they find out the address of G.S.Zh. It turns out to be a blue-eyed man “with a gentle girlish face” of about thirty, thirty-five, named Zheltkov. Nikolai returns the bracelet to him. Zheltkov does not deny anything and admits the indecency of his behavior. Having discovered some understanding and even sympathy in the prince, he explains to him that he loves his wife, and this feeling will kill only death. Nikolai is indignant, but Vasily Lvovich treats him with pity.
Is he to blame for love and is it possible to control such a feeling as love - a feeling that has not yet found an interpreter.
Zheltkov admits that he squandered government money and is forced to flee the city, so that they will no longer hear about him. He asks Vasily Lvovich for permission to write his last letter to his wife. Having heard her husband’s story about Zheltkov, Vera felt “that this man would kill himself.”
In the morning, Vera learns from the newspaper about the suicide of the control chamber official G.S. Zheltkov, and in the evening the postman brings his letter.
Zheltkov writes that for him his whole life lies only in her, in Vera Nikolaevna. This is the love with which God rewarded him for something. As he leaves, he repeats in delight: “Hallowed be Thy name.” If she remembers him, then let her play the D major part of Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 2”, he thanks her from the bottom of his heart for being his only joy in life.
Vera is going to say goodbye to this man. The husband fully understands her impulse and lets his wife go.
Zheltkov’s coffin stands in the middle of his poor room. His lips smile blissfully and serenely, as if he had learned a deep secret. Vera lifts his head, places a large red rose under his neck and kisses his forehead. She understands that the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by. In the evening, Vera asks a pianist she knows to play Beethoven’s “Appassionata” for her, listens to the music and cries. When the music ends, Vera feels that Zheltkov has forgiven her.
Retold
There are many questions in the world that will forever concern humanity. Alexander Kuprin, in his story “The Garnet Bracelet,” reflects on one of these questions: does there exist true love and what is it?
On one of the pages of the story there is the following phrase: “And I want to say that people in our time have forgotten how to love! I don't see true love. I haven’t seen it in my time either!” Is the author right?
The heroine of the story, Vera, receives letters from a gentleman unknown to her. He's in love with her. Vera’s grandfather, Anosov, once said in a conversation with his granddaughter: “Perhaps true love is flying past you now.” But Vera is married. She doesn't have strong feelings. So maybe they don't exist? Then let's imagine: you don't have a car, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And is it possible to say that something does not exist in the world without knowing what it is? “... is it really possible to control such a feeling as love, a feeling that has not yet found an interpreter,” writes Kuprin.
Okay, let's imagine for a moment that love doesn't exist. Then how can we describe what we feel for our mother, how can we explain why the soul cannot find peace without another person, why some business, some work attracts us so much? There is only one explanation - love. If you feel good, if your heart doesn’t need anyone else, then this is true love. After all, we feel truly happy only when our soul is calm, when we show interest in something.
...I love you - I will love you forever.Curse my passion
Merciless souls
Cruel hearts!..
N. M. Karamzin.
What does he value in modern world Human? Money, power... These base goals are pursued by society. When pronouncing the word “love”, they mean only animal instincts, physical need. People have become robots, and the slightest manifestation of feelings and emotions seems funny and naive. The spiritual values of society are dying... But there are still people who have not lost the ability to have high feelings. And glory to those who love or have ever loved, because love is a feeling that lifts you to the heights of life, lifts you to the skies...
Which of the heroes of A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Garnet Bracelet” believes in true love? Anna Nikolaevna? No, it's unlikely. She married a very rich man, gave birth to two children... But she can’t stand her husband, ridicules him contemptuously and is sincerely glad when someone distracts Gusilav Ivanovich from her. Anna does not love her husband, she is simply satisfied with her own position: beautiful, rich... And she can flirt without any special consequences.
Or, for example, Anna Nikolaevna’s brother, Nikolai. He almost married a rich and beautiful lady. But “the lady’s husband did not want to give her a divorce.” Most likely, Nikolai Nikolaevich did not believe in a real feeling, because otherwise he would not have broken up his family. Nikolai Nikolaevich is cold and his attitude towards Zheltkov, the way he treats him, proves that Bulash-Tugomovsky is not able to understand high feelings.
Unlike Nikolai, Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein, Vera Nikolaevna’s husband, understands and even accepts the telegraph operator’s love for his wife. If at first Vasily Lvovich tracks down the manifestation of any feelings, then after meeting with G.S.Zh., after Shein realized that Zheltkov really truly, unselfishly, selflessly loved Vera Nikolaevna, he begins to believe that sincere feeling exists: “...is he to blame for love, and is it really possible to control such a feeling as love...”
General Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov was once married. But he himself admits that this marriage was not built on true love. “...People in our time have forgotten how to love,” he says to Vera Nikolaevna. “I don’t see real love. And I didn’t see it in my time!” Another story from the life of the general that he tells is about a Bulgarian girl. As soon as they met, passion instantly flared up, and, as the general himself says, he “fell in love immediately - passionately and irrevocably.” And when he had to leave those places, they swore to each other “eternal mutual love". Was there love? No, and Anosov does not deny this. He says: “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world. No life’s conveniences, calculations or compromises should concern her.” And perhaps, if Anosov truly loved the Bulgarian girl, he would do everything just to stay close to her.
Anosov told a couple of stories about a feeling more like devotion than true love. And these are just two cases of “true love” that Anosov recognized throughout his long life.
He believes that every woman dreams of “single, all-forgiving, ready for anything, modest and selfless” love. And women are not at all to blame for the fact that “people’s love has taken such vulgar forms and has simply descended to some kind of everyday convenience, to a little entertainment.”
General Anosov believes that women (probably as stronger and more romantic creatures) are capable, unlike men, “of strong desires, heroic deeds, to tenderness and adoration before love."
Apparently, Princess Vera Nikolaevna was mistaken about what real feeling is. She is sure that she loves Vasily as before, but her “former passionate love for her husband has long turned into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship.” This is undoubtedly a good feeling, but it is not real love.
The only hero of the story who experiences a sincere feeling is Zheltkov. His beloved is tall, with a gentle, but cold and proud face, the beautiful Vera Nikolaevna. He loves the princess with a disinterested, pure, perhaps slavish love. This love is real. She is eternal: “I know,” says Zheltkov, “that I can never stop loving her...” His love is hopeless. “I am not interested in anything in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people - for me, my whole life ends only in you,” writes Zheltkov to Vera Nikolaevna. For Zheltkov, there is no one more beautiful than Sheina.
Perhaps Vera’s life path was crossed by the love that women dream about. Having lost Zheltkov, the princess realized that “the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by.”
Quite often, others do not accept and even condemn those who believe in love. “Fools,” they say, “why love, suffer, worry, if you can live calmly and carefree.” They believe that the one who truly loves sacrifices himself. Perhaps these people are right. But they will never experience those happy moments of love, as they are cold and insensitive...
"Garnet Bracelet"
Story by A.I. Kuprin's "Garnet Bracelet", published in 1910, is one of the most poetic works of art Russian literature of the 20th century. It opens with an epigraph referring the reader to famous work J1. van Beethoven - sonata "Appassionata". To this same musical theme the author returns at the end of the story. The first chapter is an extensive landscape sketch, revealing the contradictory variability of the natural elements. In it A.I. Kuprin introduces us to the image of the main character - Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, the wife of the leader of the nobility. At first glance, a woman’s life seems calm and carefree. Despite the financial difficulties, Vera and her husband have an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding in their family. Only one small detail alarms the reader: on her name day, her husband gives Vera earrings made of pear-shaped pearls. Doubt involuntarily creeps in that the heroine’s family happiness is so strong, so indestructible.
On Sheina’s name day, her younger sister comes to visit her, who, like Pushkin’s Olga, who sets off the image of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, sharply contrasts with Vera both in character and in appearance. Anna is frisky and wasteful, and Vera is calm, reasonable and economical. Anna is attractive but ugly, while Vera is endowed with aristocratic beauty. Anna has two children, but Vera has no children, although she passionately desires to have them. Important artistic detail, revealing Anna’s character is the gift she gives to her sister: Anna brings Vera a small notebook made from an old prayer book. She enthusiastically talks about how she carefully selected leaves, clasps and a pencil for the book. Faith, the very fact of altering the prayer book into notebook seems blasphemous. This shows the integrity of her nature and emphasizes how much more seriously the older sister takes life. We will soon learn that Vera graduated from the Smolny Institute - one of the best educational institutions for women in noble Russia, and her friend is famous pianist Zhenya Reiter.
Among the guests who arrived for the name day, General Anosov is an important figure. It is this man, wise in life, who has seen danger and death in his lifetime, and therefore knows the value of life, who tells in the story several stories about love, which can be described in artistic structure works as inserted novellas. Unlike the vulgar family stories narrated by Prince Vasily Lvovich, Vera’s husband and the owner of the house, where everything is distorted and ridiculed, turns into a farce, the stories of General Anosov are filled with real life details. This is how a dispute arises in the story about what true love is. Anosov says that people have forgotten how to love, that marriage does not at all imply spiritual closeness and warmth. Women often get married to get out of care and be the mistress of the house. Men are tired of single life. A significant role in marriages is played by the desire to continue the family line, and selfish motives often turn out to be not last place. “Where is the love?” - asks Anosov. He is interested in the kind of love for which “to accomplish any feat, to give one’s life, to go to torment is not work at all, but one joy.” Here, in the words of General Kuprin, in essence, reveals his concept of love: “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world. No life conveniences, calculations or compromises should concern her.” Anosov talks about how people become victims of their love feelings, about love triangles, which exist contrary to all meaning.
Against this background, the story examines the love story of telegraph operator Zheltkov for Princess Vera. This feeling flared up when Vera was still free. But she did not reciprocate his feelings. Contrary to all logic, Zheltkov did not stop dreaming about his beloved, wrote tender letters to her, and even sent her a gift for her name day - a gold bracelet with garnets that looked like droplets of blood. An expensive gift forces Vera’s husband to take measures to stop the story. He, together with the princess's brother Nikolai, decides to return the bracelet.
The scene of Prince Shein's visit to Zheltkov's apartment is one of key scenes works. A.I. Kuprin appears here as a genuine master-artist in creating psychological portrait. The image of the telegraph operator Zheltkov is typical of Russian classical literature of the 19th century century image little man. A notable detail in the story is the comparison of the hero’s room with the wardroom of a cargo ship. The character of the inhabitant of this humble dwelling is shown primarily through gesture. In the scene of the visit of Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich, Zheltkov either rubs his hands in confusion, or nervously unbuttons and fastens the buttons of his short jacket (and this detail becomes repetitive in this scene). The hero is excited, he is unable to hide his feelings. However, as the conversation progresses, when Nikolai Nikolaevich voices a threat to turn to the authorities in order to protect Vera from persecution, Zheltkov suddenly transforms and even laughs. Love gives him strength, and he begins to feel that he is right. Kuprin focuses on the difference in mood between Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich during the visit. Vera's husband, seeing his opponent, suddenly becomes serious and reasonable. He tries to understand Zheltkov and says to his brother-in-law: “Kolya, is he really to blame for love and is it possible to control such a feeling as love - a feeling that has not yet found an interpreter.” Unlike Nikolai Nikolaevich, Shane allows Zheltkov to write to Vera farewell letter. A huge role in this scene for understanding the depth of Zheltkov’s feelings for Vera is played by a detailed portrait of the hero. His lips become white, like those of a dead man, his eyes fill with tears.
Zheltkov calls Vera and asks her for a small thing - for the opportunity to see her at least occasionally, without appearing in front of her. These meetings could have given his life at least some meaning, but Vera refused him this too. Her reputation and the peace of her family were more valuable to her. She showed cold indifference to Zheltkov’s fate. The telegraph operator found himself defenseless against Vera’s decision. The strength of love and maximum spiritual openness made him vulnerable. Kuprin constantly emphasizes this defenselessness with portrait details: a child’s chin, a gentle girl’s face.
In the eleventh chapter of the story, the author emphasizes the motive of fate. Princess Vera, who never read newspapers for fear of getting her hands dirty, suddenly unfolds the very sheet on which the announcement of Zheltkov’s suicide was printed. This fragment of the work is intertwined with the scene in which General Anosov says to Vera: “...Who knows? “Maybe your path in life, Verochka, has been crossed by exactly the kind of love that women dream about and that men are no longer capable of.” It is no coincidence that the princess recalls these words again. It seems that Zheltkov was really sent to Vera by fate, and she could not discern selfless nobility, subtlety and beauty in the soul of a simple telegraph operator.
A unique plot structure in the works of A.I. Kuprin lies in the fact that the author gives the reader peculiar signs that help to predict further development narratives. In “Oles” this is the motive of fortune-telling, in accordance with which all further relationships between the characters develop; in “The Duel” it is the officers’ conversation about a duel. In “The Garnet Bracelet,” the sign foreshadowing the tragic outcome is the bracelet itself, the stones of which look like droplets of blood.
Having learned about Zheltkov’s death, Vera understands what she had a presentiment tragic outcome. In his farewell message to his beloved, Zheltkov does not hide his all-consuming passion. He literally deifies Faith, turning to her the words from the prayer “Our Father...”: “Hallowed be the Your name».
In literature " Silver Age“God-fighting motives were strong. Zheltkov, deciding to commit suicide, commits the greatest Christian sin, because the church prescribes to endure any spiritual and physical torment sent to a person on earth. But with the entire course of development of the plot, A.I. Kuprin justifies Zheltkov’s action. Not by chance main character The story's name is Vera. For Zheltkov, thus, the concepts of “love” and “faith” merge together. Before his death, the hero asks the landlady to hang a bracelet on the icon.
Looking at the late Zheltkov, Vera is finally convinced that there was truth in Anosov’s words. By his action, the poor telegraph operator was able to reach the heart of the cold beauty and touch her. Vera brings Zheltkov a red rose and kisses him on the forehead with a long, friendly kiss. Only after death did the hero receive the right to attention and respect for his feelings. Only with his own death did he prove the true depth of his experiences (before that, Vera considered him crazy).
Anosov's words about eternal, exclusive love become the running theme of the story. IN last time they are remembered in the story when, at Zheltkov’s request, Vera listens to Beethoven’s second sonata (“Appassionata”). At the end of the story by A.I. Kuprin sounds another repetition: “Hallowed be Thy name,” which is no less significant in the artistic structure of the work. He once again emphasizes the purity and sublimity of Zheltkov’s attitude towards his beloved.
Putting love on a par with such concepts as death, faith, A.I. Kuprin emphasizes the importance of this concept for human life as a whole. Not all people know how to love and remain faithful to their feelings. The story “The Garnet Bracelet” can be considered as a kind of testament to A.I. Kuprin, addressed to those who are trying to live not with their hearts, but with their minds. Their life, correct from the point of view of a rational approach, is doomed to a spiritually devastated existence, for only love can give a person true happiness.