Included in the collection "Dark Alleys" is the story of I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday" was written in 1944. It combines the tragic and lyrical beginnings. In the center of the plot of the work is a love story. At the same time, for I.A. Bunin, it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but so much the feelings, emotions of the heroes of the story. This is the main feature of most of his works. They are distinguished by the presence of a lyrical plot, organized according to the associative principle.
Love for I.A. Bunin is a short-term happy period of life, which, unfortunately, always ends quickly, but for many years leaves an indelible mark on the souls of the heroes.
The plot of the story is dynamic. The actions of the characters are not fully explained, and are hardly amenable to logical interpretation. It is no coincidence that the author often uses the epithet "strange" in this work.
The hero of the story is a nobleman. The heroine belongs to the merchant class. The hero dreams of marriage, but his chosen one deliberately avoids serious conversations on this topic.
The poetic portrait of the heroine is created with the help of a number of exquisite details. This is a pomegranate velvet dress, black velvet hair and eyelashes, gold skin of the face. It is symbolic that the heroine consistently appears in clothes of three colors: in a pomegranate velvet dress and the same shoes, in a black fur coat, hat and boots on Forgiveness Sunday and in a black velvet dress on the night from Monday to Tuesday. Finally, in the final scene of the story, the image of a female figure in a white robe appears.
Of particular importance for the creation of artistic space in the work is the play of light and darkness (“It has long been dark, the trees turned pink in the frost-lit windows”, “Moscow's gray winter day was getting dark, the gas in the lanterns was coldly lit, the shop windows were warmly lit”). Such light contrasts enhance the atmosphere of mystery and mystery.
There are many symbolic details in the story: a view of the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the gate as a symbol of purification, finding the righteous path. The hero moves every evening from the Red Gate to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and back. At the end of the story, he finds himself at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. On the last evening of the proximity of the heroes in the doorway, he sees her naked in swan shoes. This scene is also symbolic: the heroine has already decided her fate, she is ready to go to a monastery and turn from a sinful secular life to a righteous life.
The story consists of four parts. At the same time, artistic time seems to complete a certain circle: from December 1912 to the end of 1914.
I.A. Bunin considered this story to be the best of all that he had ever written. The fate of the heroine in it to some extent symbolizes the fate of Russia: the writer saw the path of his native state in purification, and not in the bloody cataclysms of the revolutionary era.
Analysis of the work of I. Bunin "Clean Monday" in the genus-genre aspect
"Clean Monday" is one of Bunin's most remarkable and mysterious works. "Clean Monday" was written on May 12, 1944, and entered the series of short stories and short stories "Dark Alleys". At this time, Bunin was in exile in France. It was there, already at an advanced age, in France occupied by the Nazi troops, experiencing hunger, suffering, a break with his beloved, he created the cycle "Dark Alleys". Here is how he himself says about it: “I live, of course, very, very badly - loneliness, hunger, cold and terrible poverty. The only thing that saves is work.”
The collection "Dark Alleys" is a collection of stories and short stories united by one common theme, the theme of love, the most diverse, quiet, timid or passionate, secret or obvious, but still love. The author himself considered the works of the collection, written in 1937 - 1944, his highest achievement. About the book "Dark Alleys" the author wrote in April 1947: "It speaks of the tragic and of many tender and beautiful things - I think that this is the best and most beautiful thing that I have written in my life." The book was published in 1946 in Paris.
The author recognized the story "Clean Monday" as the best work of this collection.The assessment of the novel made by the author himself is well known: “I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to write “Clean Monday”.
Like the other 37 short stories in this book, the story is dedicated tothe theme of love. Love is a flash, a brief moment for which it is impossible to prepare in advance, which cannot be kept; love is beyond any laws, it seems to say:"Where I stand, it can't be dirty!" - such is Bunin's concept of love. That is how - suddenly and dazzlingly - love broke out in the heart of the hero of "Clean Monday".
The genre of this work is a novella. The turning point of the plot, which makes us rethink the content, is the unexpected departure of the heroine to the monastery.
The narration is conducted in the first person, so the feelings and experiences of the narrator are deeply revealed. The narrator is a man who must be remembering the best part of his biography, his young years and the time of passionate love. Memories are stronger than him - otherwise, in fact, this story would not exist.
The image of the heroine is perceived through two different consciousnesses: the hero, a direct participant in the described events, and the distant consciousness of the narrator, who looks at what is happening through the prism of his memory. Above these perspectives, the author's position is built up, manifesting itself in artistic integrity, the selection of material.
The worldview of the hero after the love story undergoes changes - depicting himself in 1912, the narrator resorts to irony, revealing his limitations in the perception of his beloved, his lack of understanding of the meaning of the experience, which he can only evaluate retrospectively. The general tone in which the story is written speaks of the inner maturity and depth of the narrator.
The short story "Clean Monday" has a complex spatio-temporal organization: historical time (horizontal chronotope) and universal, cosmic time (vertical chronotope).
The picture of the life of Russia in the 1910s in the short story is contrasted with ancient, age-old, real Rus', reminiscent of itself in temples, ancient rites, literary monuments, as if looking through alluvial fuss:"And now only in some northern monasteries this Rus' remains."
“The Moscow gray winter day was getting dark, the gas in the lanterns was coldly lit, the shop windows were warmly lit - and Moscow’s evening life, freeing from daytime affairs, flared up: cab sledges rushed thicker and more cheerfully, crowded diving trams rattled harder, in the dusk it was clear how from green stars hissed from the wires, - dully blackening passers-by hurried more animatedly along the snowy sidewalks ... ”, - this is how the story begins. Bunin verbally paints a picture of a Moscow evening, and in the description there is not only the author's vision, but also smell, touch, and hearing. Through this urban landscape, the narrator introduces the reader to the atmosphere of an exciting love story. The mood of inexplicable longing, mystery and loneliness accompanies us throughout the entire work.
The events of the story "Clean Monday" take place in Moscow in 1913. As already noted, Bunin draws two images of Moscow that determine the toponymic level of the text: "Moscow is the ancient capital of Holy Rus'" (where the theme "Moscow - III Rome" found its embodiment) and Moscow - early XX, depicted in specific historical and cultural realities: Red Gates, restaurants "Prague", "Hermitage", "Metropol", "Yar", "Strelna", Egorov's tavern, Okhotny Ryad, Art Theater.
These proper names immerse us in the world of celebration and abundance, unrestrained fun and subdued light. This is Moscow at night, secular, which is a kind of antithesis to another Moscow, Orthodox Moscow, represented in the story by the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Iberian chapel, St. Basil's Cathedral, Novodevichy, Zachatievsky, Chudov monasteries, Rogozhsky cemetery, Martha and Mary Convent. These two circles of toponyms in the text form a kind of rings that communicate with each other through the image of the gate. The movement of heroes in the space of Moscow is carried out from the Red Gate along the trajectory "Prague", "Hermitage", "Metropol", "Yar", "Strelna", the Art Theater.Through the gates of the Rogozhsky cemetery, they get to another toponymic circle: Ordynka, Griboedovsky lane, Okhotny Ryad, Marfo-Mariinsky monastery, Egorov's tavern, Zachatievsky and Chudov monasteries. These two Moscows are two different attitudes that fit in one given space.
The beginning of the story seems ordinary: before us is the everyday life of evening Moscow, but as soon as significant places appear in the storyMoscow, the text takes on a different meaning. The life of the heroes begins to be determined by cultural signs, it fits into the context of the history and culture of Russia. “Every evening my coachman raced me at this hour on a stretching trotter - from the Red Gates to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior,” the author continues his beginning of the story, and the plot acquires some kind of sacred meaning.
From the Red Gates to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Bunin's Moscow stretches, from the Red Gates to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the hero makes this path every evening, in his desire to see his beloved. The Red Gates and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior are the most important symbols of Moscow, and behind it the whole of Russia. One marks the triumph of imperial power, the other is a tribute to the feat of the Russian people. The first is a confirmation of the luxury and splendor of secular Moscow, the second is gratitude to God, who interceded for Russia in the war of 1812. It should be noted that the Moscow style in urban planning at the turn of the century is characterized by a strange combination and interweaving of all kinds of styles and trends. Therefore, Moscow in Bunin's text is Moscow of the Art Nouveau era. The architectural style in the text of the story follows a similar process in literature: modernist sentiments permeate the entire culture.
The characters of the story visit the Art Theater and Chaliapin's concerts. Bunin, naming the names of cult symbolist writers in Clean Monday: Hoffmannsthal, Schnitzler, Tetmayer, Pshibyshevsky and Bely, does not name Bryusov, he enters only the title of his novel into the text, thereby referring the reader to this particular work, and not to everything the writer’s work (“- Have you finished reading The Fiery Angel?
In all their splendor and typical Moscow eclecticism, Prague, Hermitage, Metropol are the famous restaurants where Bunin's heroes spend their evenings. With the mention in the text of the story about the Rogozhsky cemetery and the Yegorov tavern, where the heroes visited on Forgiveness Sunday, the narrative is filled with ancient Russian motifs. Rogozhskoye cemetery is the center of the Moscow community of Old Believers, a symbol of the eternal Russian "split" of the soul. The newly emerging symbol of the gate accompanies those entering.Bunin was not a deeply religious person. He perceived religion, in particular Orthodoxy, in the context of other world religions, as one of the forms of culture. Perhaps it is from this culturological point of view that religious motives in the text should be interpreted as a hint at the dying spirituality of Russian culture, at the destruction of ties with its history, the loss of which leads to general confusion and chaos. Through the Red Gates, the author introduces the reader to Moscow life, immerses him in the atmosphere of idle Moscow, which lost its historical vigilance in stormy fun. Through another gate - “the gate of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent” - the narrator leads us into the space of Moscow of Holy Rus': “On Ordynka, I stopped a cab at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent ... For some reason, I definitely wanted to enter there.” And here is another important toponym of this Holy Rus' - Bunin's description of the cemetery of the Novo-Devichy Convent:“Squeaking in silence through the snow, we entered the gate, walked along the snowy paths, it was light in the cemetery, marvelously drawn on the golden enamel of the sunset with gray coral of the twigs in hoarfrost, and the inextinguishable lamps scattered over the graves mysteriously glowed around us with calm, sad lights.” The state of the external natural world surrounding the heroes contributes to the concentrated and in-depth perception and awareness of the heroine of her feelings and actions, and decision-making. It seems that when she left the cemetery, she had already made a choice. The most important toponym in the Moscow text of the story is also Yegorov's tavern, with which the author introduces significant folklore and Christian realities. Here before the reader appear "Egorov's pancakes", "thick, ruddy, with different fillings." Pancakes, as you know, are a symbol of the sun - a festive and memorial food. Forgiveness Sunday coincides with the pagan holiday of Maslenitsa, also a day of commemoration of the dead. It is noteworthy that the heroes go to Egorov's tavern for pancakes after visiting the cemetery of the Novo-Devichy Convent of the graves of Bunin's beloved people - Ertel and Chekhov.
Sitting on the second floor of the tavern, Bunin's heroine exclaims: “Good! Below are wild men, and here are pancakes with champagne and the Virgin of Three Hands. Three hands! After all, this is India! » Obviously, this is a heap of symbols and associations with different cultures and different religions in one The Orthodox image of the Virgin gives us the possibility of an ambiguous interpretation of this image. On the one hand, this is the deep-rooted, blind worship of the people to their deity - the Mother of God, rooted in the pagan fundamental principle, on the other hand, worship that is ready to turn into a blind, cruel in its naivety people's rebellion, and rebellion in any of its manifestations Bunin the writer condemned.
The plot of the story "Clean Monday" is based on the unhappy love of the protagonist, which determined his whole life. A distinctive feature of many works by I.A. Bunin is the absence of happy love. Even the most prosperous story often ends tragically with this writer.
Initially, one might get the impression that “Clean Monday” has all the signs of a love story and its culmination is a night spent by lovers together.. But the storynot about this or not only about this .... Already at the very beginning of the story it is directly stated that we will unfold before us« strange Love» between a dazzling handsome man, in whose appearance there is even something« Sicilian» (however, he comes only from Penza), and« Queen of Shamakhan» (as the heroine is called by those around her), whose portrait is given in great detail: there was something in the beauty of the girl« Indian, Persian» (although her origin is very prosaic: her father is a merchant of a noble family from Tver, her grandmother is from Astrakhan). She has« dark amber face, magnificent and somewhat sinister in its thick black hair, softly shining like black sable fur, eyebrows, eyes black as velvet coal» , captivating« velvety crimson» lips tinted with dark fluff. Her favorite evening dress is also described in detail: a pomegranate velvet dress, the same shoes with gold buckles. (Somewhat unexpected in the richest palette of Bunin's epithets is the persistent repetition of the epithet velvet, which, obviously, should set off the amazing softness of the heroine. But let's not forget about« coal» , which is undoubtedly associated with hardness.) Thus, Bunin's heroes are deliberately likened to each other - in the sense of beauty, youth, charm, obvious originality of appearance
However, further Bunin cautiously, but very consistently« prescribes» difference between« Sicilian» and« Queen of Shamakhan» , which will turn out to be fundamental and ultimately lead to a dramatic denouement - eternal separation. The heroes of "Clean Monday" do not interfere with anything, they live such a prosperous life that the concept of everyday life is not very applicable to their pastime. It is no coincidence that Bunin literally bit by bit recreates a rich picture of the intellectual and cultural life of Russia in 1911-1912. (For this story, in general, the attachment of events to a certain time is very significant. Usually Bunin prefers a great temporal abstraction.) Here, as they say, on one patch, all the events are concentrated that during the first decade and a half of the 20th century. excited the minds of the Russian intelligentsia. These are new productions and skits of the Art Theatre; Andrei Bely's lectures, delivered by him in such an original manner that everyone was talking about it; the most popular stylization of historical events of the 16th century. - trials of witches and V. Bryusov's novel "The Fiery Angel"; fashion writers of the Viennese school« modern» A. Schnitzler and G. Hoffmansthal; works by Polish decadents K. Tetmayer and S. Przybyszewski; the stories of L. Andreev, who attracted everyone's attention, the concerts of F. Chaliapin ... Literary critics even find historical inconsistencies in the picture of the life of pre-war Moscow depicted by Bunin, pointing out that many of the events he cited could not occur at the same time. However, it seems that Bunin deliberately compresses time, achieving its ultimate density, materiality, tangibility.
So, every day and evening of the heroes is filled with something interesting - visiting theaters, restaurants. They should not burden themselves with work or study (it is known, however, that the heroine is studying at some courses, but she cannot really answer why she attends them), they are free, young. I would like to add: and happy. But this word can only be applied to the hero, although he is aware that, fortunately, being next to her is mixed with flour. And yet for him this is an undoubted happiness.« great happiness» , as Bunin says (and his voice in this story largely merges with the voice of the narrator).
What about the heroine? Is she happy? Is it not the greatest happiness for a woman to discover that she is loved more than life (« It's true how you love me! she said with quiet bewilderment, shaking her head.» ), that she is desirable, that they want to see her as a wife? Ho heroine this is clearly not enough! It is she who pronounces a significant phrase about happiness, which concludes a whole philosophy of life:« Our happiness, my friend, is like water in a nonsense: you pull - it puffed up, but you pull it out - there is nothing» . At the same time, it turns out that it was not invented by her, but was said by Platon Karataev, whose wisdom her interlocutor also immediately announced« Eastern» .
It is probably worth immediately paying attention to the fact that Bunin, clearly emphasizing the gesture, emphasized how the young man, in response to the words of Karataev cited by the heroine« waved his hand» . Thus, the discrepancy between the views, the perception of certain phenomena by the hero and the heroine becomes obvious. It exists in a real dimension, in the present time, therefore it calmly perceives everything that happens in it as an integral part of it. Boxes of chocolates are as much a sign of attention to him as a book; he doesn't really care where he goes« Metropol» whether to have lunch, or wander around Ordynka in search of Griboyedov's house, whether to sit at dinner in a tavern, or listen to gypsies. He does not feel the surrounding vulgarity, which is wonderfully captured by Bunin and performed« Tranblanc Poles» when partner calls out« goat» a meaningless set of phrases, and in a cheeky performance of songs by an old gypsy« with a bluish muzzle of a drowned man» and a gypsy« with a low forehead under tar bangs» . He is not very jarred by drunken people around, obtrusively obliging sex, emphasized theatricality in the behavior of people of art. And how the height of the mismatch with the heroine sounds his consent to her invitation, pronounced in English:« Ol Wright!»
All this does not mean, of course, that high feelings are inaccessible to him, that he is unable to appreciate the unusualness, uniqueness of the girl he meets. On the contrary, enthusiastic love obviously saves him from the surrounding vulgarity, and the way with which rapture and pleasure he listens to her words, how he knows how to distinguish a special intonation in them, how he is noticing even to trifles (he sees«
quiet light»
in her eyes, he pleases her«
good talkativeness»
) speaks in his favour. Not without reason, at the mention that a beloved can go to a monastery, he,«
forgetting the excitement»
, lights up and almost admits aloud that out of desperation he is able to kill someone or also become a monk. And when something really happens that only arose in the heroine’s imagination, and she decides first to obedience, and then, apparently, to tonsure (in the epilogue, the hero meets her in the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy), he first sinks and drinks himself to such a degree, which already seems to be impossible to revive, and then, albeit little by little,«
recovering»
comes back to life but somehow«
indifferent, hopeless»
, although he sobs as he passes through the places where they once were together. He has a sensitive heart: after all, immediately after the night of intimacy, when there are still no signs of trouble, he feels himself and what happened so strongly and bitterly that an old woman near the Iberian chapel addresses him with the words:«
Oh, don't kill yourself, don't kill yourself like that!»
Consequently, the height of his feelings, the ability to experience is not in doubt. The heroine herself admits this when, in a farewell letter, she asks God to give him strength.«
do not answer»
her, realizing that their correspondence will only«
it is useless to prolong and increase our torment»
. And yet the intensity of his spiritual life cannot be compared with her spiritual experiences and insights. Moreover, Bunin deliberately creates the impression that he, as it were,«
echoes»
heroine, agreeing to go where she calls, admiring what delights her, entertaining her with what, as it seems to him, can occupy her in the first place. That doesn't mean he doesn't have his own«
I»
, own individuality. Reflections and observations are not alien to him, he is attentive to changes in the mood of his beloved, he is the first to notice that their relationship is developing in such«
strange»
city like Moscow.
But still it is she who leads« party» , it is her voice that is especially distinguishable. Actually, the strength of the heroine's spirit and the choice she makes as a result become the semantic core of Bunin's work. It is her deep focus on something that is not immediately amenable to definition, for the time being hidden from prying eyes, and constitutes the disturbing nerve of the narrative, the ending of which defies any logical, worldly explanation. And if the hero is talkative and restless, if he can postpone the painful decision until later, assuming that everything will be resolved somehow by itself or, in extreme cases, not to think about the future at all, then the heroine always thinks about something of her own, which is only indirectly breaks through in her remarks and conversations. She loves to quote Russian chronicle legends, she is especially admired by the old Russian« The Tale of the Faithful Spouses Peter and Fevronia of Murom» (Bunin erroneously indicated the name of the prince - Pavel).
However, it should be noted that the text of the life is used by the author of Pure Monday in a substantially revised form. The heroine, who knows this text, according to her, thoroughly (“until then I reread what I especially like, until I learn it by heart”), mixes two completely different plot lines of the “Tale of Peter and Fevronia”: an episode of the temptation of the wife of Prince Paul, to which, in the guise of her husband, the devil-serpent appears, then killed by Paul's brother, Peter, - and the story of the life and death of Peter himself and his wife Fevronia. As a result, it seems that the “good death” of the characters in the life is in a causal relationship with the theme of temptation (cf. the heroine’s explanation: “So God tested”). Absolutely not corresponding to the actual state of affairs in life, this idea is quite logical in the context of Bunin's story: the image "composed" by the heroine herself of a woman who did not succumb to temptation, who even in marriage managed to prefer eternal spiritual kinship to "vain" bodily proximity, is psychologically close to her.
Even more interesting is what shades such an interpretation of the old Russian story brings to the image of Bunin's hero. Firstly, it is directly compared with "a serpent in human nature, very beautiful." The comparison of the hero with the devil, who temporarily took on a human form, is prepared already from the beginning of the story: “I<. >was handsome at the time<. >was even “obscenely handsome,” as a famous actor once told me<. >“The devil knows who you are, some kind of Sicilian,” he said. In the same spirit, the association with another work of the hagiographic genre can be interpreted in Clean Monday - this time introduced by a replica of the hero who quotes the words of Yuri Dolgoruky from a letter to Svyatoslav Seversky with an invitation to a "Moscow dinner". At the same time, the plot of the “Miracle of St. George” is updated and, accordingly, the motif of snake fighting: firstly, the old Russian form of the prince’s name is given - “Gyurgi”, secondly, the heroine herself clearly personifies Moscow (the hero defines the inconsistency of her actions as “Moscow whims” ). It is not surprising, by the way, that the hero in this case turns out to be more erudite than the heroine who loves antiquity: as a sybarite, he knows better everything related to "dinners" (including historical ones), and as a "serpent" - everything that concerns "serpent fighters" .
However, precisely due to the fact that the heroine of "Clean Monday" handles the Old Russian text quite freely, the hero of the story in the subtext turns out to be not only a "serpent", but also a "serpent fighter" himself: in the work he is not only "this serpent" for the heroine, but also “this prince” (as she herself is “princess”). It should be taken into account that in the real "Tale of Peter and Fevronia" Peter kills a snake in the guise of his own brother - Paul; the motif of “fratricide” in Bunin’s story takes on meaning, for it emphasizes the idea of “the two-part man, the coexistence and struggle in him of the “divine” and the “devilish”. Of course, the hero-narrator himself "does not see" these extremes in his own being and does not oppose them; all the more impossible to reproach him for any malicious intent: he plays the role of a tempter only involuntarily. It is interesting, for example, that although the heroine claims that the way of life they lead is imposed by the hero (“I, for example, often go in the mornings or in the evenings, when you don’t drag me to restaurants, to the Kremlin cathedrals”), the impression is that the initiative belongs to her. As a result, the “serpent” is put to shame, the temptation is overcome - however, the idyll does not come: a joint “blissful dormition” is impossible for the heroes. Within the framework of the "Paradise Lost" scheme, the hero embodies "Adam" and "Serpent" in one person.
Through these reminiscences, the author to some extent explains the strange behavior of the heroine of Clean Monday. She leads, at first glance, a life characteristic of a representative of the bohemian-aristocratic circle, whims and obligatory "consumption" of a variety of intellectual "food", in particular, the works of the above-mentioned Symbolist writers. And at the same time, the heroine visits churches, a schismatic cemetery, while not considering herself too religious. “This is not religiosity. I don't know what, she says. “But I, for example, often go in the mornings or in the evenings, when you don’t drag me to restaurants, to the Kremlin cathedrals, and you don’t even suspect it ...”
She can listen to church hymns. The very voicing of the words of the Old Russian language will not leave her indifferent, and she, as if spellbound, will repeat them ... And her conversations are no less "strange" than her actions. She either invites her lover to the Novodevichy Convent, then leads him along Ordynka in search of the house where Griboyedov lived (it would be more accurate to say, he has been, because in one of the Horde lanes there was the house of A.S. Griboedov’s uncle), then she talks about her visiting the old schismatic cemetery, he confesses his love for Chudov, Zachatievsky and other monasteries, where he constantly goes. And, of course, the most “strange”, incomprehensible from the point of view of everyday logic is her decision to retire to a monastery, to break all ties with the world.
Ho Bunin, as a writer, does everything to "explain" this oddity. The reason for this strange» - in the contradictions of the Russian national character, which are themselves a consequence of the location of Rus' at the crossroads of East and West. This is where the constantly accentuated clash of Eastern and Western principles comes from in the story. The eye of the author, the eye of the narrator, stops at the cathedrals built in Moscow by Italian architects, ancient Russian architecture that adopted oriental traditions (something Kyrgyz in the towers of the Kremlin wall), the Persian beauty of the heroine - the daughter of a Tver merchant, discovers a combination of incongruous in her favorite clothes (that arkhaluk Astrakhan grandmother, then a European fashionable dress), in the setting and attachments - "Moonlight Sonata" and the Turkish sofa on which she reclines. In the fight of the clock of the Moscow Kremlin, she hears the sounds of the Florentine clock. The look of the heroine also captures the "extravagant" habits of the Moscow merchants - pancakes with caviar washed down with frozen champagne. Ho and she herself are not alien to the same tastes: she orders foreign sherry for Russian navka.
No less important is the internal inconsistency of the heroine, who is depicted by the writer at a spiritual crossroads. Often she says one thing and does another: she is surprised at the gourmetism of other people, but she herself has lunch and dinner with an excellent appetite, then attends all the newfangled meetings, then does not leave the house at all, is annoyed by the surrounding vulgarity, but goes to dance the Tranblanc polka, causing universal admiration and applause, delays moments of intimacy with a loved one, and then suddenly agrees to her ...
But in the end, she still makes a decision, that only right decision, which, according to Bunin, was predetermined for Russia too - by her whole fate, her whole history. The path of repentance, humility and forgiveness.
Refusal of temptations (not without reason, agreeing to intimacy with her lover, the heroine says, characterizing his beauty: “A snake in human nature, very beautiful ...» , - i.e. refers to him the words from the legend of Peter and Fevronia - about the machinations of the devil, who sent the pious princess "a flying snake for fornication» ), which appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. before Russia in the form of uprisings and riots and served, according to the writer, as the beginning of her "cursed days» , - that was what was supposed to provide his homeland with a worthy future. Forgiveness addressed to all those who are guilty is what, according to Bunin, would help Russia to withstand the whirlwind of historical cataclysms of the 20th century. The path of Russia is the path of fasting and renunciation. Oh, that didn't happen. Russia has chosen a different path. And the writer did not get tired of mourning her fate in exile.
Probably, strict zealots of Christian piety will not find convincing the writer's arguments in favor of the heroine's decision. In their opinion, she clearly accepted him not under the influence of the grace that descended on her, but for other reasons. It will rightly seem to them that there is too little revelation and too much poetry in her adherence to church rites. She herself says that her love for church rituals can hardly be considered true religiosity. Indeed, she perceives the funeral too aesthetically (forged gold brocade, a white veil embroidered with black letters (air) on the face of the deceased, snow blinding in the frost and the brilliance of spruce branches inside the grave), she listens too admiringly to the music of the words of Russian legends (“I reread what which I especially liked, until I memorize it by heart”), is too immersed in the atmosphere that accompanies the service in the church (“the stichera are wonderfully sung there”, “puddles are everywhere, the air is already soft, somehow tenderly, sadly in the soul ...”, “ all the doors in the cathedral are open, the common people come and go all day» ...). And in this, the heroine in her own way turns out to be close to Bunin himself, who, too, in the Novodevichy Convent will see "daws that look like nuns» , "gray corals of boughs in hoarfrost", marvelously looming "on the golden enamel of sunset» , blood-red walls and mysteriously glowing lamps.
Thus, in choosing the finale of the story, it is not so much the religious attitude and position of Bunin the Christian that is important, but the position of Bunin the writer, for whose worldview a sense of history is extremely important. “The feeling of the motherland, its antiquity,” as the heroine of “Clean Monday” says about it. This is also why she refused a future that could have turned out happily, because she decided to get away from everything worldly, because the disappearance of beauty, which she feels everywhere, is unbearable for her. “Desperate cancans” and frisky Tranblanc polkas, performed by the most talented people of Russia - Moskvin, Stanislavsky and Sulerzhitsky, replaced the singing in “hooks” (what is it!), And in place of the heroes Peresvet and Oslyaby - “pale from hops, with large sweat on forehead”, almost falling down the beauty and pride of the Russian stage - Kachalov and “daring” Chaliapin.
Therefore, the phrase: “But now this Rus' has remained in some northern monasteries” - quite naturally arises in the lips of the heroine. She has in mind the irretrievably leaving feelings of dignity, beauty, goodness, for which she yearns immensely and which she hopes to find already in monastic life.
The protagonist is very hard going through the tragic ending of his relationship with the heroine. The following passage confirms this: “For a long time I drank in the dirtiest taverns, sinking more and more in every possible way ... Then I began to recover - indifferently, hopelessly.” Judging by these two quotes, the hero is a very sensitive and emotional person, capable of deep feelings. Bunin avoids direct assessments, but allows us to judge this by the state of the hero's soul, by skillfully selected external details, light hints.
We look at the heroine of the story through the eyes of the narrator in love with her. Already at the very beginning of the work, her portrait appears before us: “She had some kind of Indian, Persian beauty: a swarthy amber face, magnificent and somewhat sinister in its density hair, softly shining like black sable fur, black like velvet coal , eyes". Through the lips of the protagonist, a description of the restless soul of the heroine is conveyed, her search for the meaning of life, excitement and doubt. As a result, the image of the “spiritual wanderer” is revealed to us in its entirety.
The climax of the story is the decision of the beloved hero to go to the monastery. This unexpected twist of the plot allows us to understand the undecided soul of the heroine. Almost all descriptions of the appearance of the heroine and the world around her are given against the background of subdued light, in twilight; and only at the cemetery on Forgiveness Sunday and exactly two years after that Pure Monday, the process of enlightenment, the spiritual transformation of the lives of the heroes takes place, the artistic modification of the worldview is also symbolic, the images of the light and brilliance of the sun change. The artistic world is dominated by harmony and peace: “The evening was peaceful, sunny, with frost on the trees; on the bloody brick walls of the monastery, jackdaws resembling nuns chatted in silence, the chimes now and then played subtly and sadly on the bell tower». The artistic development of time in the story is connected with the symbolic metamorphoses of the image of light. The whole story takes place, as if in twilight, in a dream, illuminated only by a secret and a glint of eyes, silk hair, gold clasps on the main character's red weekend shoes. Evening, dusk, mystery - this is the first thing that catches your eye in the perception of the image of this unusual woman.
It is symbolically inseparable both for us and for the narrator with the most magical and mysterious time of the day. However, it should be noted that the contradictory state of the world is most often defined by the epithets calm, peaceful, quiet. The heroine, despite her intuitive sense of space and time of chaos, like Sophia, carries within herself and bestows harmony on the world. According to S. Bulgakov, the category of time as a driving image of eternity for Sophia "as if not applicable, since temporality is inextricably linked with being-non-being» and if in Sophia there is no not, then temporality is also absent: She conceives everything, has everything in herself in a single act, in the image of eternity, she is timeless, although she carries all eternity in herself;
Contradictions, oppositions begin from the first sentence, from the first paragraph:
gas was lit coldly - shop windows were warmly lit,
the day was getting dark - passers-by hurried more animatedly,
every evening rushed to her - did not know how it should all end,
did not know - and try not to think
we met every evening - once and for all she averted conversations about the future ...
for some reason I studied at courses - I rarely attended them,
it looked like she didn’t need anything - but she always read books, ate chocolate,
I didn’t understand how people wouldn’t get tired of having lunch every day - I dined myself with a Moscow understanding of the matter,
weakness was good clothes, velvet, silks - she went to courses as a modest student,
every evening she went to restaurants - she visited cathedrals and monasteries when she was not "dragged" to restaurants,
meets, allows himself to be kissed - with quiet bewilderment he is surprised: “How you love me” ...
The story is replete with numerous hints and half-hints, with which Bunin emphasizes the duality of the contradictory way of Russian life, the combination of the incongruous. In the heroine's apartment there is a "wide Turkish sofa".The all too familiar and beloved image of the Oblomov sofa appears eight times in the text.
Next to the sofa is an “expensive piano”, and above the sofa, the writer emphasizes, “for some reason there hung a portrait of barefoot Tolstoy”,apparently, the well-known work of I.E. Repin "Leo Tolstoy Barefoot", and a few pages later the heroine quotes Tolstoy's Platon Karataev's remark about happiness. With the influence of the ideas of the late Tolstoy, researchers reasonably correlate the mention of the hero of the story that the heroine “had breakfast for thirty kopecks in a vegetarian canteen on the Arbat”.
Let us once again recall that verbal portrait of her: “... When leaving, she most often put on a pomegranate velvet dress and the same shoes with gold clasps (and she went to courses as a modest student, had breakfast for thirty kopecks in a vegetarian canteen on the Arbat).” These daily metamorphoses - from morning austerity to evening luxury - reflect Tolstoy's evolution in life as he saw it - from luxury at the beginning of life to austerity in old age. Moreover, the external signs of this evolution, like those of Tolstoy, are the preferences of the Bunin heroine in clothes and food: a modest female student in the evening transforms into a lady in a pomegranate velvet dress and shoes with gold clasps; the heroine has breakfast for thirty kopecks in a vegetarian canteen, but she “dined and dined” with “a Moscow understanding of the matter.” Compare with the peasant dress and vegetarianism of the late Tolstoy, effectively and effectively contrasted with refined noble clothing and gastronomy (to which the writer paid generous tribute in his youth).
And already quite Tolstoyan, except perhaps with the inevitable gender amendments, the final departure-escape of the heroine looks from and from of this world full of aesthetically and sensually attractive temptations. She even arranges her departure in a similar way to Tolstoy, sending the hero a letter - “an affectionate but firm request not to wait for her anymore, not to try to look for her, to see her.” Compare with the telegram sent by Tolstoy to the family on October 31, 1910: “We are leaving. Don't look. Writing".
A Turkish sofa and an expensive piano are the East and the West, the barefoot Tolstoy is Russia, Rus' in its unusual, “clumsy” and eccentric appearance that does not fit into any framework.
The idea that Russia is a strange but obvious combination of two layers, two cultural patterns - "Western" and "Eastern", European and Asian, which in its appearance, as well as in its history, is located somewhere at the intersection these two lines of world historical development - this thought runs like a red thread through all fourteen pages of Bunin's story, which, contrary to the initial impression, is based on a complete historical system that touches on the most fundamental moments of Russian history for Bunin and the people of his era and the character of Russian people.
So, having found itself between two fires - the West and the East, at the point of intersection of opposing historical trends and cultural patterns, at the same time, Russia retained in the depths of its history the specific features of national life, the inexpressible charm of which for Bunin is concentrated in the annals on the one hand, and in the religious rituals, on the other. Elemental passion, randomness (East) and classical clarity, harmony (West) are combined in the patriarchal depths of the national Russian self-consciousness, according to Bunin, into a complex complex in which the main role is assigned to restraint, ambiguity - not explicit, but hidden, hidden, although -to his own deeply and thoroughly.One of the most important components of the text is its title "Clean Monday". On the one hand, it is very specific: Clean Monday is the non-church name for the first day of Great Paschal Lent.
In this heroine announces her decision to leave worldly life. On this day, the relationship of two lovers ended and the life of the hero ended. On the other hand, the title of the story is symbolic. It is believed that on Clean Monday, the soul is cleansed of everything vain and sinful. Moreover, in the story, not only the heroine, who has chosen a monastic hermitage, changes. Her act encourages the hero to introspection, makes him change, cleanse himself.
Why did Bunin call his story so, although the action of only a small, albeit important part of it falls on a clean Monday? Probably because it was this day that marked a sharp turning point from Shrovetide fun to the harsh stoicism of Lent. The situation of a sharp turning point is not just repeated many times in Clean Monday, but organizes a lot in this story.
In addition, in the word “pure”, in addition to the meaning “holy”, the meaning “filled with nothing”, “empty”, “absent” is paradoxically accentuated. And it is quite natural that at the end of the story, in the hero’s memoirs about the events of almost two years ago, it is by no means Clean Monday that appears: “unforgettable” is called here previous evening - the evening of Forgiveness Sunday.
thirty eight times "about the same" I. Bunin wrote in the cycle of stories "Dark Alleys". Simple plots, ordinary, at first glance, everyday stories. But for everyone, these are unforgettable, unique stories. Stories that are painful and acute. Life stories. Stories that pierce and torment the heart. Never forgotten. Endless stories like life and memory...
Ivan Bunin always raised the problem of love in his stories, because he knew that this feeling is fleeting, eventually leading to tragedy, since it is not eternal.
A work that deserves the attention of readers is "Clean Monday", which shows a wonderful feeling, which ultimately leads to disaster.
Between the main character and his beloved there is a flash, a spark, emotions, a rush of tenderness. The character and the heroine are pierced by love, which, as Bunin says, cannot last long, because everything beautiful has the ability to end. The lyrical hero appreciates the girl for what she is, for her magnificent figure, facial features. However, all this is carnal, not sublime. The heroine, on the contrary, has different ideas about relationships, for her love is not so much affection, but rather enjoyment and pleasure from every minute that is spent together.
She's a student. The character sometimes believes that the girl does not understand the meaning of the concept of “love”, for him there is now, here she is in front of him, the whole world is turning upside down, he doesn’t want to think about anything, only about how to get closer to the girl as soon as possible, but true spiritual values the hero does not. He is too far from those ideas of great warm feelings that usually arise between lovers. The character, if you read the text, does not understand the girl who envelops the mind of a young man with her own mystery.
Unfortunately, the story has a sad end, because Bunin does not want to give a continuation where it is impossible, where in the end everything leads to a crash, to a point of no return. There is a huge gulf between the character and the heroine: one shows interest in the girl's body, while the other brings to the fore spiritual values that are beyond the understanding of the character. And, when in the morning he opens his eyes and does not find the heroine nearby, he does not realize why she left. Why did the girl not get used to the hero? What prevented her? And she left him from the fact that she received her sight, she was convinced of the invalidity of the hero's feelings for her. Yes, there was love, but not in the direction she dreamed of.
Sometimes it happens that our desires do not coincide with real actions and deeds. It happens that a person finds his beloved, only later opening his eyes to what is really happening. But better late to understand everything than never. And Ivan Bunin makes it clear that love has such tragic ends, from which no one is immune. That's life!
Thus, the writer showed his point of view on the consequences of such a pure feeling as love. No one argues that it inspires, makes you live in a new way, but you should be prepared for the difficulties that love brings with it. The main thing is to accept as a fact that in life a person decides how to love and for what: for the beauty of the soul or body. If the first becomes important for the reader, then most likely he is on the right track. Fate favors him, because people with spiritual dreams are able not to be disappointed when the body that they once fell in love with began to crack. For them, the interest is the soul, which is mysterious and peculiar. Therefore, it is worth appreciating a lover not for appearance, but for the depth of his soul, despite how long love can last!
1944 The Second World War, like never before, has a detrimental effect on families, love and feelings in general. Bunin, being on the territory of modern Russia, perfectly understands the feelings of all soldiers, mothers and girls who are waiting for their beloved. At the same time, the theme of love is considered in his work and the author is zealously looking for answers to eternal questions.
The work "Clean Monday" is created at this time. It is noteworthy that the heroes are not given names - the author did not consider it necessary to give names, because such a story could happen many times to everyone. Instead, the man acts as a narrator, which makes it possible for the reader to hear the words first hand, feel the feelings, understand what the young man in love is guided by in his actions.
The characters are antagonists to each other: he is ardent, energetic and resembles an Italian in character, while she is more restrained in actions and words. The young lady is in the center of the universe, and the author, as it were, is attached to her. He himself writes that neither wealth, nor beautiful places, nor dinners touch her. The girl accepts all courtship, but remains cold.
During Lent, the hero notices that his companion is fascinated by monasteries. He could have noticed it sooner, however, it is quite possible that due to his focus on his feelings, he could not think about her happiness. And what can such a nature wish, which is spiritually rich, thinks about the essence of love and happiness? How much she slipped away when attempts to get closer crossed the line of decency so much that the hero no longer controlled himself!
It was not given to him to understand indirect signs that she did not want to connect her life with such a man. However, on the last night, the girl gives herself to him, which gives the illusion that they have finally become close. After that, she leaves for a monastery. In the projection of Bunin's modernity, such famous names as Stanislavsky, Andrei Bely, Moskvin are given. Appearing for a moment, they make tempting offers or help a beautiful couple have fun. However, they are of no value.
After weeks of hard drinking and idleness without his beloved, the author comes to the monastery and meets the same one there, in the guise of a nun. Bunin thus shows that, despite tempting offers that do not carry spiritual value and temporary hardships (war), Russia will find itself. As the heroine suffered, trying to understand her role, so the state was going through bad times. However, there will be that Clean Monday, which will cleanse the country of the dirt that is now on it!
Bunin writes the story in 1944, during the Second World War. As you know, during the war years, the Soviet government opened many churches, flew around Moscow with icons in order to save the city. People could turn to faith again.
The action of the story is 1912-14, a period also difficult for Russia, the pre-revolutionary years, the proximity of the war. The period when the conversion to faith is relevant and very urgent.
The main character is like a reflection of the era, she has fun, but she is not seduced and not carried away by these entertainments, she seems to see the ephemeral nature of all existence and feels the unsteady nature of her time. At the same time, Bunin specifically introduces genuine historical figures into the narrative: Stanislavsky, Moskvin, Sulerzhitsky, Bely, Kachalov - to some extent they are the face of their time. The main characters are also included in this world, moreover, they attract admiring glances, often find themselves in the spotlight, attract with their own beauty and independence.
So, she is not alien to entertainment, but when she has a free evening or morning, she visits cathedrals and temples. She studies history, and in this Bunin emphasizes the desire for roots, for the search for the true face and essence of the people. Also, the main character understands the Orthodox tradition, but does not call herself religious. This is an interesting detail, the main character appears to be more of a seeker and analyst than just a believer. She has warm feelings about religious topics, but also has deep feelings.
The same deep, but slightly peculiar feelings for the main character, to whom she allows caresses, but does not give herself completely. This manifests a certain chastity, which is not something pretense, because he is “the first and last” for her and she has no one else. Therefore, here we see to a greater extent the aspiration to save our own soul and the soul of our beloved. He often asks if she loves him and demands confirmation, doubts. However, in the final scene of the story, we see how she recognizes her lover in complete darkness, already being a nun.
Bunin describes the connection of these people as incredibly strong and rising above the everyday life of the world. The protagonist is passionate and literally sings of every detail of the heroine, admired by everything down to the footprints in the snow from her boots. The main character is more silent and thoughtful, she reflects on books and on this world. As a result, the only way out that she chooses is to go to the monastery as a search for something real, something authentic in this world.
Bunin writes about feelings between two people. They are characteristic representatives of their time, the author does not even name names and at the same time achieves an amazing effect. Many readers do not notice the absence of the names of the main characters at all.
The girl is rich and beautiful, as the narrator describes her, possessing some Indian beauty. The young man has beauty and manners, also southern, but more "Persian". He is also an accomplished person, attracting admiring glances.
The relationship between them remains almost platonic, more precisely, they allow for some physical intimacy that never reaches its logical conclusion. The heroine always tactfully pushes him away, after which they go for a walk in restaurants and theaters and so many days, or rather, nights in a row.
Nevertheless, as the reader will find out later, the heroine is not alien to Orthodox culture and even understands the subject of faith, although she never shows excessive religiosity and piety. At the same time, she can make very precise remarks that emphasize her certain detachment from this world “books, theaters and the rest” she does not seem to need at all. This fact is emphasized by the narrator himself when he describes the heroine, but one gets the impression that he is somewhat mocking the heroine.
For example, he talks about her phrase “I don’t understand how people don’t get tired of always having lunch and dinner” and after that he describes in some detail the dishes that the heroine herself liked to kiss. She had a "Moscow" taste, did not shy away from simple earthly pleasures.
When the heroine speaks of her intention to end up in a monastery, the hero also perceives such an attack as not serious and even wants to say in response that if this happens, then he himself will do so in order to recover from hard labor or something similar.
As a result, it is the heroine's intentions that turn out to be completely serious. She also takes seriously the stories about Prince Pavel of Murom and his wife.
For the heroine, the history of her country is part of her own being, Bunin mentions this “history interests her”. Moreover, in the image of the heroine, that holiness, that originality of Rus', which is now hidden under pretense and mundane, shines through. It is not surprising that when a girl eventually leaves for a monastery, she sees in these pre-revolutionary years the only way out is to turn to something real, higher than earthly and idleness.
However, she remembers her "first and last" lover. It is she who finds out in pitch darkness, being a nun.
In Leo Tolstoy's novel there are many characters and their images, which the author singles out in a special way and with skill. One of the most striking of these heroes is Kutuzov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army.
This story refers to the first works of Sholokhov. The story was written in 1925 and includes all of the author's childhood memories. The content of the story also includes the events of the civil war.
All of us have heard many fairy tales since childhood. Most of them always carry an instructive lesson. It happens that in some fairy tales this lesson needs to be looked for
This magnificent work can be called both historical and folk, because it simultaneously contains the elemental parts of these trends.
The writing
The story "Clean Monday" is surprisingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. The meeting of two people leads to the emergence of a beautiful feeling - love. But after all, love is not only joy, it is a huge torment, against which many problems and troubles seem invisible. The story described exactly how a man and a woman met. But the story begins from the point at which their relationship has already continued for a long time. Bunin pays attention to the smallest details, to how “the Moscow gray winter day was getting dark”, or to where the lovers went to dine - “to Prague”, to the Hermitage, to the Metropol.
The tragedy of parting is foreseen already at the very beginning of the story. The protagonist does not know what their relationship will lead to. He prefers to simply not think about it: “I didn’t know how it should end, and I tried not to think, not to think it out: it was useless - just like talking to her about it: she once and for all averted conversations about our future.” Why does the heroine reject talking about the future?
Is she not interested in continuing the relationship with her loved one? Or does she already have some idea about her future? Judging by the way Bunin describes the main character, she appears as a very special woman, unlike many around. She studies at the courses, not realizing, however, why she needs to study. When asked why she was studying, the girl answered: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions?
The girl loves to surround herself with beautiful things, she is educated, sophisticated, smart. But at the same time, she seems somehow surprisingly detached from everything that surrounded her: “It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners outside the city.” At the same time, she knows how to enjoy life, enjoys reading, delicious food, and interesting experiences. It would seem that lovers have everything that is necessary for happiness: "We were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that in restaurants, at concerts they saw us off with their eyes." At first it may seem that the story describes a real love idyll. But in fact, everything was quite different.
It is not by chance that the main character comes up with the idea of the strangeness of their love. The girl in every possible way denies the possibility of marriage, she explains that she is not fit to be a wife. The girl cannot find herself, she is in thought. She is attracted by a luxurious, cheerful life. But at the same time she resists it, wants to find something else for herself. Contradictory feelings arise in the soul of the girl, which are incomprehensible to many young people who are accustomed to a simple and carefree existence.
The girl visits churches, Kremlin cathedrals. She is drawn to religion, to holiness, herself, perhaps not realizing why she is attracted to it. Quite suddenly, without explaining anything to anyone, she decides to leave not only her lover, but also her usual way of life. After leaving, the heroine informs in a letter about her intention to decide on the tonsure. She doesn't want to explain anything to anyone. Parting with his beloved turned out to be a difficult test for the main character. Only after a long time he was able to see her among the string of nuns.
The story is called "Clean Monday", because it was on the eve of this holy day that the first conversation about religiosity took place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not think, did not suspect about the other side of the girl's nature. She seemed quite satisfied with her usual life, in which there was a place for theaters, restaurants, and fun. The rejection of secular joys for the sake of a monastic cloister testifies to the deep inner torment that took place in the soul of a young woman. Perhaps this is precisely what explains the indifference with which she treated her usual life. She could not find a place for herself among everything that surrounded her. And even love could not help her in finding spiritual harmony.
Love and tragedy in this story go hand in hand, as, indeed, in many other works of Bunin. Love in itself does not seem to be happiness, but the most difficult test that must be endured with honor. Love is sent to people who cannot, do not know how to understand and appreciate it in time.
What is the tragedy of the main characters of the story "Clean Monday"? The fact that a man and a woman could not understand and appreciate each other properly. Each person is a whole world, a whole universe. The inner world of the girl, the heroine of the story, is very rich. She is in thought, in a spiritual search. She is attracted and at the same time frightened by the surrounding reality, she does not find something to which she can become attached. And love appears not as salvation, but as another problem that burdened her. That is why the heroine decides to give up love.
The rejection of worldly joys and entertainment betrays a strong nature in a girl. It is in this way that she answers her own questions about the meaning of being. In the monastery, she does not have to ask herself any questions, now the meaning of life for her is love for God and serving him. Everything vain, vulgar, petty and insignificant will never touch her again. Now she can be in her solitude without worrying that it will be violated.
The story may seem sad and even tragic. To some extent, this is true. But at the same time, the story "Clean Monday" is sublimely beautiful. It makes us think about true values, about the fact that each of us sooner or later has to face the situation of moral choice. And not everyone has the courage to admit that the choice was made wrong.
At first, the girl lives the way many of her entourage live. But gradually she realizes that she is not satisfied not only with the lifestyle itself, but also with all the little things and details that surround her. She finds the strength to look for another option and comes to the conclusion that love for God can be her salvation. Love for God simultaneously elevates her, but at the same time makes all her actions completely incomprehensible. The main character, a man in love with her, practically breaks his life. He remains alone. But it's not even that she leaves him completely unexpectedly. She treats him cruelly, causing him to suffer and suffer. True, he suffers along with him. He suffers and suffers of his own free will. This is evidenced by the letter of the heroine: "May God give strength not to answer me - it is useless to prolong and increase our torment ...".
Lovers do not separate because unfavorable circumstances develop. In fact, the reason is completely different. The reason is in the sublime and at the same time deeply unhappy girl who cannot find the meaning of existence for herself. She cannot but deserve respect - this amazing girl who was not afraid to change her fate so drastically. But at the same time, she seems to be an incomprehensible and incomprehensible person, so unlike everyone who surrounded her.
In 1937, Ivan Bunin began work on his best book. For the first time the collection "Dark Alleys" was published after the end of the Second World War. This book is a collection of short tragic love stories. One of Bunin's most famous stories is Clean Monday. Analysis and summary of the work are presented in today's article.
The analysis of Bunin's "Clean Monday" should begin with a brief history of the creation of the work. This is one of the last stories included in the Dark Alleys collection. Bunin completed work on the work Clean Monday on May 12, 1944. The story was first published in New York.
Probably, the writer was pleased with this essay. Indeed, in his diary, Bunin wrote: “I thank God for the opportunity to create Clean Monday.”
Bunin in each of his works included in the collection "Dark Alleys" reveals to the reader the tragedy and catastrophic nature of love. This feeling is beyond human control. It suddenly comes into his life, gives fleeting happiness, and then certainly causes unbearable pain.
The narration in the story "Clean Monday" by Bunin is in the first person. The author does not name his characters. Love breaks out between the two young people. They are both beautiful, wealthy, healthy and seemingly full of energy. But something is missing in their relationship.
They go to restaurants, concerts, theaters. Discuss books, performances. True, the girl often shows indifference, even hostility. “You don’t like everything,” the main character once says, but he doesn’t attach any importance to his words. A passionate romance is followed by a sudden parting - sudden for a young man, not for her. The ending is typical of Bunin's style. What caused the breakup between the lovers?
The story describes their first meeting, but the story begins with events that take place some time after they met. The girl attends courses, reads a lot, otherwise leads an idle life. And it seems to be quite satisfied with everything. But this is only at first glance. He is so absorbed in his feeling, his love for her, that he does not even suspect the other side of her soul.
It is worth paying attention to the title of the story - "Clean Monday". The meaning of Bunin's story is quite deep. On the eve of the holy day, for the first time, a conversation about religiosity takes place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not suspect that the girl was attracted by everything connected with the church. In his absence, she visits Moscow monasteries, moreover, she is thinking about monasticism.
Clean Monday is the beginning of Lent. On this day, cleansing rites are held, the transition from fast food to Lenten restrictions.
One day they go to the Novodevichy Convent. By the way, this is a rather unusual route for him. Previously, they spent time exclusively in entertainment establishments. A visit to a monastery is, of course, the idea of the protagonist's beloved.
The next day, for the first time, intimacy occurs between them. And then the girl leaves for Tver, from there she sends a letter to her lover. In this message, she asks not to wait for her. She became a novice of one of the Tver monasteries, and perhaps decides to be tonsured. He will never see her again.
After he received the last letter from his beloved, the hero began to drink, sink, then nevertheless came to his senses. Once, after a long time, I saw a nun in a Moscow church, whom I recognized as my former lover. Perhaps the image of his beloved was too firmly planted in his mind, and it was not her at all? He didn't say anything to her. He turned and walked out of the temple gate. This is the summary of Bunin's Clean Monday.
The heroes of Bunin do not find happiness. In "Clean Monday", as in other works of the Russian classic, we are talking about love, which brings only bitterness and disappointment. What is the tragedy of the heroes of this story?
Probably because, being close, they did not know each other at all. Each person is a whole universe. And sometimes even relatives cannot unravel his inner world. About loneliness among people, about love, which is impossible without complete mutual understanding, Bunin said in Clean Monday. An analysis of a work of art cannot be done without characterizing the main characters. What do we know about the girl who, living in abundance and being loved, went to the monastery?
When analyzing Bunin's "Clean Monday", it is worth paying attention to the portrait of a nameless girl, which the author creates at the beginning of the work. She led an idle life. She read a lot, studied music, liked to visit restaurants. But all this she did somehow indifferently, without much interest.
She is educated, well-read, enjoys immersing herself in the world of luxurious social life. She likes good cuisine, and she wonders, "how can people not be bored every day for lunch and dinner"? She calls acting skits vulgar, while the relationship with her lover ends with a visit to the theater. Bunin's heroine cannot understand what his purpose in this life is. She is not one of those who have enough to live in luxury, talk about literature and art.
The inner world of the main character is very rich. She is constantly thinking, is in a spiritual search. The girl is attracted by the surrounding reality, but at the same time she is frightened. Love becomes not a salvation for her, but a problem that terribly burdens, forces her to make the only right sudden decision.
The main character refuses worldly pleasures, and this shows her strong nature. "Clean Monday" is not the only story from the collection "Dark Alleys", in which the author paid a lot of attention to the female image.
Bunin brought to the fore the experiences of the hero. At the same time, he showed a rather controversial female character. The heroine is satisfied with the lifestyle she leads, but all sorts of details, little things, depress her. Finally, she decides to enter a convent, thereby destroying the life of the man who loves her. In fact, she is hurting herself as well. Indeed, in the letter that the girl sends to her lover there are the words: “May God give me the strength not to answer you.”
Little is known about how the further fate of the young man developed. He was very upset by the separation from his beloved. Disappeared in the dirtiest taverns, drank and went down. But nevertheless he came to his senses, returned to his former way of life. It can be assumed that the pain that this strange, extraordinary and somewhat exalted girl inflicted on him will never subside.
In order to find out who the writer was during his lifetime, one should only read his books. But is Ivan Bunin's biography really so tragic? Was there true love in his life?
The first wife of the writer, Anna Tsakni, was the daughter of an Odessa Greek, editor of a popular magazine at that time. They got married in 1898. Soon a son was born who did not live even five years. The child died of meningitis. Bunin experienced the death of his son very hard. Relations between the spouses went wrong, but the wife did not give him a divorce for a long time. Even after he connected his life with Vera Muromtseva.
The writer's second wife became his "patient shadow". Muromtseva replaced his secretary, mother, friend. She did not leave him even when he began an affair with Galina Kuznetsova. Nevertheless, it was Galina Muromtseva who was next to the writer in the last days of his life. The creator of "Dark Alleys" was not deprived of love.
