Analysis of Bunin’s work “Easy Breathing. Easy breath

06.05.2019

When it comes to stories about love, the first person remembered is Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Only he could so tenderly and subtly describe a wonderful feeling, so accurately convey all the shades that exist in love. His story" Easy breath", the analysis of which is presented below, is one of the pearls of his work.

Heroes of the story

Analysis " Easy breathing"we need to start with brief description characters. The main character is Olya Meshcherskaya, a high school student. A spontaneous, carefree girl. She stood out among other high school students with her beauty and grace; already at a young age she had many fans.

Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin, a fifty-year-old officer, a friend of Olga's father and brother of the head of the gymnasium. A single, pleasant-looking man. Seduced Olya, thought she liked him. He was proud, therefore, having learned that the girl was disgusted with him, he shot at her.

Head of the gymnasium, sister Malyutin. A gray-haired but still youthful woman. Strict, unemotional. She was irritated by the liveliness and spontaneity of Olenka Meshcherskaya.

Cool lady heroine. An elderly woman whose dreams have replaced reality. She came up with lofty goals and devoted herself to thinking about them with all passion. It was precisely this dream that Olga Meshcherskaya became for her, associated with youth, lightness and happiness.

The analysis of “Easy Breathing” needs to be continued summary story. The narrative begins with a description of the cemetery where high school student Olya Meshcherskaya is buried. A description of the expression in the girl’s eyes is immediately given - joyful, amazingly alive. The reader understands that the story will be about Olya, who was a cheerful and happy schoolgirl.

It goes on to say that until the age of 14, Meshcherskaya was no different from other high school students. She was a pretty, playful girl, like many of her peers. But after she turned 14, Olya blossomed, and at 15 everyone already considered her a real beauty.

The girl differed from her peers in that she was not bothered by her appearance, did not care that her face turned red from running, and her hair became disheveled. No one danced at balls with such ease and grace as Meshcherskaya. No one was looked after as much as she was, and no one was loved by the first-graders as much as she was.

In her last winter, they said that the girl seemed to have gone crazy with fun. She dressed up like a grown woman and was the most carefree and happy at that time. One day the head of the gymnasium called her to her. She began to scold the girl for acting frivolously. Olenka, not at all embarrassed, makes a shocking confession that she has become a woman. And the boss’s brother, her father’s friend, Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin, is to blame for this.

And a month after this frank conversation, he shot Olya. At the trial, Malyutin justified himself by saying that Meshcherskaya herself was to blame for everything. That she seduced him, promised to marry him, and then said that she was disgusted with him and let him read her diary, where she wrote about it.

Her cool lady comes to Olenka’s grave every holiday. And he spends hours thinking about how unfair life can be. She remembers a conversation she once heard. Olya Meshcherskaya told her beloved friend that she had read in one of her father’s books that the most important thing in a woman’s beauty is light breathing.

Features of the composition

The next point in the analysis of “Easy Breathing” is the features of the composition. This story is distinguished by the complexity of the chosen plot structure. At the very beginning, the writer already shows the reader the end of the sad story.

Then he goes back, quickly running through the girl's childhood and returning to the heyday of her beauty. All actions quickly replace each other. The girl’s description also speaks to this: she becomes more beautiful “by leaps and bounds.” Balls, skating rinks, running around - all this emphasizes the lively and spontaneous nature of the heroine.

There are also sharp transitions in the story - here, Olenka makes a bold confession, and a month later an officer shoots at her. And then April came. Such a quick change in the time of action emphasizes that everything happened quickly in Olya’s life. That she took actions without thinking at all about the consequences. She lived in the present without thinking about the future.

And the conversation between friends at the end reveals to the reader the most main secret Oli. This is that she was breathing lightly.

The image of the heroine

In the analysis of the story "Easy Breathing" it is important to talk about the image of Olya Meshcherskaya - a young, lovely girl. She differed from other high school students in her attitude to life and her view of the world. Everything seemed simple and understandable to her, and she greeted every new day with joy.

Perhaps that is why she was always light and graceful - her life was not constrained by any rules. Olya did what she wanted, without thinking about how it would be accepted in society. For her, all people were just as sincere and good, which is why she so easily admitted to Malyutin that she had no sympathy for him.

And what happened between them was curiosity on the part of a girl who wanted to become an adult. But then she realizes that it was wrong and tries to avoid Malyutin. Olya considered him as bright as she herself was. The girl did not think that he could be so cruel and proud that he would shoot at her. It is not easy for people like Olya to live in a society where people hide their feelings, do not enjoy every day and do not strive to find the good in people.

Comparison with others

In the analysis of the story “Easy Breathing” by Bunin, it is no coincidence that the boss and classy lady Olya is mentioned. These heroines are the complete opposites of the girl. They lived their lives without being attached to anyone, putting rules and dreams at the forefront of everything.

They did not live the real bright life that Olenka lived. That is why they have a special relationship with her. The boss is annoyed by the girl’s inner freedom, her courage and willingness to stand up to society. The cool lady admired her carefreeness, happiness and beauty.

What is the meaning of the name

In analyzing the work “Easy Breathing,” you need to consider the meaning of its title. What was meant by easy breathing? What was meant was not the breathing itself, but rather the carefree, spontaneity in expressing feelings that was inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya. Sincerity has always fascinated people.

It was brief analysis“Easy Breathing” by Bunin, a story about easy breathing - about a girl who loved life, learned sensuality and the power of sincere expression of feelings.

The theme of love occupies one of the leading places in the writer’s work. In mature prose, there are noticeable tendencies to comprehend the eternal categories of existence - death, love, happiness, nature. He often describes “moments of love” that have a fatal nature and a tragic overtones. Much attention he pays female characters, mysterious and incomprehensible.

The beginning of the novel “Easy Breathing” creates a feeling of sadness and sadness. The author prepares the reader in advance for the fact that the tragedy of human life will unfold in the following pages.

The main character of the novel, Olga Meshcherskaya, a high school student, stands out very much among her classmates with her cheerful disposition and obvious love of life, she is not at all afraid of other people's opinions, and openly challenges society.

During the last winter, many changes occurred in the girl’s life. At this time, Olga Meshcherskaya was in the full bloom of her beauty. There were rumors about her that she could not live without fans, but at the same time she treated them very cruelly. In her last winter, Olya completely surrendered to the joys of life, she attended balls and went to the skating rink every evening.

Olya always strived to look good, she wore expensive shoes, expensive combs, perhaps she would have dressed in the latest fashion if all the high school students did not wear uniforms. The headmistress of the gymnasium made a remark to Olga about appearance that such jewelry and shoes should be worn adult woman, and not a simple student. To which Meshcherskaya openly stated that she has the right to dress like a woman, because she is one, and none other than the brother of the headmistress herself, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, is to blame for this. Olga's answer can be fully regarded as a challenge to the society of that time. A young girl, without a shadow of modesty, puts on things that are inappropriate for her age, behaves like a mature woman and at the same time openly argues for her behavior with rather intimate things.

Olga's transformation into a woman took place in the summer at the dacha. When my parents were not at home, Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin, a friend of their family, came to visit them at their dacha. Despite the fact that he did not find Olya’s father, Malyutin still stayed as a guest, explaining that he wanted it to dry out properly after the rain. In relation to Olya, Alexey Mikhailovich behaved like a gentleman, although the difference in their ages was huge, he was 56, she was 15. Malyutin confessed his love to Olya and said all kinds of compliments. During the tea party, Olga felt bad and lay down on the ottoman, Alexey Mikhailovich began to kiss her hands, talk about how he was in love, and then kissed her on the lips. Well, then what happened happened. We can say that on Olga’s part it was nothing more than an interest in the secret, a desire to become an adult.

After this there was a tragedy. Malyutin shot Olga at the station and explained this by saying that he was in a state of passion, because she showed him her diary, which described everything that happened, and then Olgino’s attitude to the situation. She wrote that she was disgusted with her boyfriend.

Malyutin acted so cruelly because his pride was hurt. He was no longer a young officer, and also single; he naturally was pleased to console himself with the fact that the young girl expressed her sympathy for him. But when he found out that she felt nothing but disgust for him, it was like a bolt from the blue. He himself usually pushed women away, but here they pushed him away. Society was on Malyutin’s side; he justified himself by saying that Olga allegedly seduced him, promised to become his wife, and then left him. Since Olya had a reputation as a heartbreaker, no one doubted his words.

The story ends with the fact that Olga Meshcherskaya’s classy lady, a dreamy lady living in her imaginary ideal world, comes to Olya’s grave every holiday and silently watches her for several hours. For lady Olya, the ideal of femininity and beauty.

Here “light breathing” means an easy attitude to life, sensuality and impulsiveness, which were inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya.

Type: Ideological and artistic analysis of the work

Thirty-three years away from his homeland - that’s how long Ivan Alekseevich Bunin spent abroad. The last thirty-three years of his generally long life. They were not easy for the writer - nostalgia tormented Bunin every day. That is why the action of most of the writer’s works created abroad takes place at home, in Russia. A special place among them is occupied by stories dedicated to love themes.

The pearl of the creative heritage of I.A. Bunin's story “Easy Breathing” is rightfully considered. The feeling of beauty is so tenderly conveyed here, the image is so vividly captured main character, endowed tragic fate…

In addition, the construction and composition of the work itself is unusual. This story is completely broken chronological framework, the text is replete with contrasts, without which it would probably be impossible to understand the author’s intention.

So, from the very first lines of the story there is an ambivalent feeling. On the one hand, the reader is presented with a picture depicting a cemetery, “spacious... the monuments are still visible far away through the bare trees, and the cold wind rings and rings the porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross.” On the other hand, “a photographic portrait of a high school student with joyful, amazingly lively eyes.” Life and death, joy and sadness - this is the symbol of the fate of the main character of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya.

Next, the author describes the girl’s childhood. More precisely, he moves from the story about the heroine’s cloudless childhood and adolescence to the tragic events of the last year she lived: “Without any of her worries or efforts and somehow imperceptibly, everything that so distinguished her in the last two years from the entire gymnasium came to her, - grace, elegance, dexterity, clear sparkle of the eyes.” Olya really stood out from the crowd of high school students and others external beauty, but also with its spontaneity. The heroine was not afraid to be funny, she was not afraid that her hair would become disheveled, her knees would become exposed when she fell, or her fingers would get dirty. Perhaps that is why children from junior classes– Olya was sincere and natural in her actions. Perhaps that is why the heroine had the most fans.

Olya Meshcherskaya was considered flighty: “Last winter Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun.” The author clearly shows the difference between the apparent, external and true, internal state of the heroine: the half-childish state of a schoolgirl running around during recess and her shocking admission that she is already a woman.

Further in the story are given brief information that a month after the conversation in the room of a classy lady, “a Cossack officer, ugly and plebeian in appearance, who had ... nothing in common with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged, shot her.” At the trial, this officer stated that Olya seduced him (she, a young schoolgirl, seduced him, a fifty-year-old man!), promised to be his wife, but at the station she admitted that she had never loved him and had not thought about marrying him. Then the heroine gave the Cossack a page from her diary to read, where she described her condition and the events of that memorable day when she was close to this officer: “I don’t understand how this could happen, I’m crazy, I never thought I was like this! Now I have only one way out... I feel such disgust for him that I can’t get over it!” Despite these words, it seems to me that Olya was not completely aware of the seriousness of what was happening, her soul is pure and innocent, she is still just a child with pretensions to “adulthood.”

Bunin endows the story “Easy Breathing” with a complex composition: from the fact of the heroine’s death to a description of her childhood, then to the recent past and its origins. In the finale, the writer seems to return to the first lines of his story, to “ April days" He describes "a little woman in mourning, wearing black kid gloves, and carrying an ebony umbrella." This is the cool lady Olya Meshcherskaya, who goes to her grave every Sunday and “peers for hours at her face.”

It seems to me that the image of a classy lady in this story is not at all accidental. He seems to set off Olya, contrasts with her. The teacher, unlike the main character of the story, lives in fiction, which replaces her real life. In fact, the cool lady is the last link that closes the chain of people who are extremely indifferent to Olya. A picture of the spiritual poverty of the environment Meshchersky Bunin draws masterfully, very convincingly. The idea that in a monotonous, soulless world pure impulses are doomed brings a tragic tone to the story.

Why does a cool lady go to Olya’s grave? Olya’s death captivated her with a new “dream”. The teacher recalls “Oli’s pale face in the coffin” and the fact that she once overheard the heroine’s conversation with her friend. Olya Meshcherskaya told her friend that she read in her father’s book about “what kind of beauty a woman should have”: “There, you know, it says so much that you can’t remember everything... but the main thing is, do you know what? Easy breath! But I have it...”

Indeed, the main character had a light, natural breath - a thirst for some special, unique destiny. It is no coincidence, in my opinion, that Olya’s cherished dream is mentioned at the end of the story. Meshcherskaya’s inner burning is genuine and could evoke a great feeling. But this was prevented by Olya’s mindless fluttering through life and her vulgar surroundings. The author shows us the girl’s undeveloped wonderful capabilities, her enormous potential. All this, according to Bunin, cannot disappear, just as the craving for beauty, happiness, perfection, and easy breathing will never disappear...

Bunin called his story "Easy Breathing." How can breathing be easy? After all, this is already something initially easy, familiar. Breathing is given by nature, it is natural for every person. All people are accustomed to breathing, and for no one is breathing difficult work. Light breathing is something elusive and very short-lived.

The personification of “easy breathing” is Olya Meshcherskaya. Her image is contrasted with another: the image of the gentleman from San Francisco. The gentleman from San Francisco planned out his whole life day by day, he always knew (or at least thought he knew) when, where and what he would do, he clearly imagined his future and planned to start " real life"only after fifty-eight years. All his fifty-eight years he did not live, but existed according to a strictly established routine. His life did not happen because he thought too much, trying to foresee everything. He killed his soul and became incapable enjoy the beauty of nature, from artistic values. The gentleman from San Francisco opposed himself to nature, fenced himself off from it, but in this contradiction nature won, and man turned out to be pitiful and useless to anyone.

Olya Meshcherskaya was “one of the pretty, rich and happy girls.” “Without any worries or effort, somehow imperceptibly came to her everything that so distinguished her from the entire gymnasium - grace, elegance, dexterity, the clear sparkle of her eyes” - nature gave her what many would like to have. Olya herself was a part of nature: she did not try to restrain her movements and feelings, did not hide her emotions. Olya stood out among the “crowd of brown school dresses” because she knew how to find joy in every day. Probably, not many people were able to notice that the winter was “snowy, sunny, frosty”; not many could cheer up the fact that “the sun set early behind the tall spruce forest of the gymnasium garden, invariably fine, radiant, promising frost and sun for tomorrow ".

Olya considered other people to be the same as her. Therefore, she notices around her only the beautiful features of what surrounds her. She notices that the boss, although gray-haired, is youthful, that her office is “extraordinarily clean and large,” and that she notices “the warmth of a shiny Dutch dress and the freshness of lilies of the valley on the desk.” Walking into this “unusually clean and large office,” she did not think that she would be scolded there. All she notices about Malyutin is that although he is fifty-six years old, “he is still very handsome and always well dressed, and his eyes are very young, black, and his beard is gracefully divided into two long parts and completely silver.”

Olya’s elegance, elegance, and dexterity reflected the same graceful, beautiful spiritual world, she was not capable of any vile act. Olya thought that other people were just like her, that their pleasant appearance and good clothes reflected the same pure soul as hers. She tried to find out as much as possible more peace, which she loved, brought her every day great amount impressions, meetings, feelings that she could not help but “go crazy with fun.” Olya was cheerful, happy with life and naive, so she did not think that the world around her might not actually be as beautiful as she imagined it to be. She never thought that the people she liked could turn out to be scoundrels and take advantage of her beauty, youth, and naivety.

Striving to learn and experience as much as possible, Olya did not notice that what was natural for her was against the rules established in society. The schoolgirls had to be restrained in their movements - and she “rushed like a whirlwind from the first-graders chasing her”, it was necessary to drown in the “crowd of brown dresses” - but she had a woman’s hairstyle, expensive combs in her hair and “shoes worth twenty rubles”, it is necessary was to be modest - but she declared that she was “already a woman, not a high school student.” When Olya realized that she was mistaken about Malyutin, that he forced her to do something that was not allowed by the rules, she became disgusted not only with Malyutin, but also with herself.

"I never thought I was like this!" Yes, Olya didn’t think, she just lived. I.A. Bunin said that he “was always attracted by the image of a woman brought to the limit of her “uterine essence.” “Only we call it the womb, but I called it light breathing. Such naivety and ease in everything, both in audacity and in death, is “easy breathing,” not thinking.”

After Olya’s death, her cool lady began visiting her grave. For what? Maybe because she realized that Olya Meshcherskaya short life lived a more interesting life than she did. After all, a cool lady is “an elderly girl who has been living for a long time with some kind of fiction that replaces her real life.” The boss and the cool lady scolded Olya for her hairstyle, behavior, clothes because they didn’t have what she had: neither beautiful hair, no graceful movements, no youth. They didn't know how to rejoice snowy winter and the shining sun. Their essence was only enough for them to sit at their desk with knitting in their hands and gray hair.

If all people were as pure, naive, beautiful as Olya was, and if everyone knew how to enjoy every day, then everyone would be happy. But not everyone has easy breathing. Olya was too different from the society in which she lived. People envied her, did not understand her joy, her happiness, but she did not understand people. Olya was unable to live by the laws by which society lived. The light breath had to dissipate “in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind,” because it cannot be tied to the earth.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin

"Easy breath"

The exposition of the story is a description of the grave of the main character. What follows is a summary of her story. Olya Meshcherskaya is a prosperous, capable and playful schoolgirl, indifferent to the instructions of the class lady. At the age of fifteen she was a recognized beauty, had the most admirers, danced the best at balls and was the best at skating. There were rumors that one of the high school students in love with her attempted suicide because of her frivolity.

In the last winter of her life, Olya Meshcherskaya “went completely crazy with fun.” Her behavior prompts the boss to make another remark, reproaching her, among other things, for dressing and acting not like a girl, but like a woman. At this point, Meshcherskaya interrupts her with a calm message that she is a woman and her father’s friend and neighbor, the boss’s brother Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, is to blame for this.

A month after this conversation, an ugly Cossack officer shot Meshcherskaya on the station platform among a large crowd of people. He announced to the bailiff that Meshcherskaya was close to him and vowed to be his wife. That day, accompanying him to the station, she said that she had never loved him and offered to read a page from her diary, which described how Malyutin seduced her.

From the diary it followed that this happened when Malyutin came to visit the Meshcherskys and found Olya alone at home. Her attempts to occupy the guest and their walk in the garden are described; Malyutin's comparison of them with Faust and Margarita. After tea, she pretended to be unwell and lay down on the ottoman, and Malyutin moved over to her, first kissed her hand, then kissed her on the lips. Further, Meshcherskaya wrote that after what happened next, she felt such disgust for Malyutin that she was unable to survive it.

The action ends at the cemetery, where every Sunday her classy lady, who lives in an illusory world that replaces reality for her, comes to the grave of Olya Meshcherskaya. The subject of her previous fantasies was her brother, a poor and unremarkable ensign, whose future seemed brilliant to her. After the death of her brother, Olya Meshcherskaya takes his place in her mind. She goes to her grave every holiday, does not take her eyes off the oak cross for hours, remembers the pale face in the coffin among the flowers and once overheard the words that Olya spoke to her beloved friend. She read in one book what kind of beauty a woman should have - black eyes, black eyelashes, longer than usual arms, but the main thing is light breathing, and she (Oli) has it: “...listen to how I sigh, “Isn’t it true?”

Meshcherskaya Olga was a noisy and cheerful schoolgirl from a wealthy family. Very playful and carefree. By the age of 15 she began to look prettier. Gorgeous hair, slender legs, thin waist and the figure of a mature woman made her a beauty. Everything was easy and playful for her. Olenka danced best at balls, was a favorite among little first-year girls, was an excellent ice skater and was a real headache for the classy lady and boss.

One frosty winter morning she was called back to the headmistress of the gymnasium, and she began to scold her for her pranks. Because she wears a grown-up woman’s hairstyle and very expensive shoes, although she herself is still a girl. Olga Meshcherskaya objects to her, saying that she is no longer a girl and blames her father’s friend, 56-year-old Malyutin Alexei Mikhailovich, for this.

In the summer, when Olga’s parents and brother left and left her alone, a Cossack officer Malyutin came to visit her father. He was very annoyed that he did not find his friend, but Olga received him and entertained him. He joked with her a lot and said that he had been in love with her for a long time. After tea, when a slightly tired Olga lay down on the ottoman, he sat down next to her and began showering her with compliments and kissing her hand. Olga covered her face with a scarf, and Malyutin kissed her on the lips through this scarf. Olga did not understand how it could happen what happened, that she could be like this and that she now feels disgusted with him.

A month after Olga confessed to her head of the gymnasium, the brave Cossack officer Aleksey Mikhailovich Malyutin shoots Olga on the station platform. During the trial, Malyutin stated that Meshcherskaya lured him, that she had an intimate relationship with him and promised to marry him, and at the station she stated that she never loved him and all the talk about marriage was simply a mockery of him.

In the cemetery, on a clay embankment, there is a cross with a convex medallion pressed into it with a photograph of Olga Meshcherskaya. Olga's cool lady comes every Sunday and on holidays. She also remembers Olya’s conversation with her friend, which she once overheard. Olga shares her impressions of the book she read, taken from her father. It describes what it should be beautiful woman. In addition to describing external qualities, it was written that a beauty should have easy breathing, and she had it.