The problems raised in Oles's work. Moral and social problems in Kuprin's story - any essay on the topic

History of creation

A. Kuprin’s story “Olesya” was first published in 1898 in the newspaper “Kievlyanin” and was accompanied by a subtitle. "From memories of Volyn." It is curious that the writer first sent the manuscript to the magazine “Russian Wealth”, since before that in this magazine Kuprin’s story “Forest Wilderness”, also dedicated to Polesie, had already been published. Thus, the author hoped to create a continuation effect. However, “Russian Wealth” for some reason refused to publish “Olesya” (perhaps the publishers were not satisfied with the size of the story, because by that time it was the author’s largest work), and the cycle planned by the author did not work out. But later, in 1905, “Olesya” was published in an independent publication, accompanied by an introduction from the author, which told the story of the creation of the work. Later, the full-fledged “Polessia Cycle” was released, the pinnacle and decoration of which was “Olesya”.

The author's introduction is preserved only in the archives. In it, Kuprin said that while visiting a friend of the landowner Poroshin in Polesie, he heard from him many legends and fairy tales related to local beliefs. Among other things, Poroshin said that he himself was in love with a local witch. Kuprin will later tell this story in the story, at the same time including in it all the mysticism of local legends, the mysterious mystical atmosphere and piercing realism of the situation surrounding him, the difficult fate of the Polesie inhabitants.

Analysis of the work

Plot of the story

Compositionally, “Olesya” is a retrospective story, that is, the author-narrator returns in memories to the events that took place in his life many years ago.

The basis of the plot and the leading theme of the story is the love between the city nobleman (panych) Ivan Timofeevich and the young resident of Polesie, Olesya. Love is bright, but tragic, since its death is inevitable due to a number of circumstances - social inequality, the gap between the heroes.

According to the plot, the hero of the story, Ivan Timofeevich, spends several months in a remote village, on the edge of Volyn Polesie (the territory called Little Russia in tsarist times, today the west of the Pripyat Lowland, in northern Ukraine). A city dweller, he first tries to instill culture in the local peasants, treats them, teaches them to read, but his studies are unsuccessful, since people are overcome by worries and are not interested in either enlightenment or development. Ivan Timofeevich increasingly goes into the forest to hunt, admires the local landscapes, and sometimes listens to the stories of his servant Yarmola, who talks about witches and sorcerers.

Having gotten lost one day while hunting, Ivan ends up in a forest hut - the same witch from Yarmola’s stories lives here - Manuilikha and her granddaughter Olesya.

The second time the hero comes to the inhabitants of the hut is in the spring. Olesya tells fortunes for him, predicting a quick, unhappy love and adversity, even a suicide attempt. The girl also shows mystical abilities - she can influence a person, instilling her will or fear, and stop bleeding. Panych falls in love with Olesya, but she herself remains distinctly cold towards him. She is especially angry that the gentleman stands up for her and her grandmother in front of the local police officer, who threatened to disperse the inhabitants of the forest hut for their alleged sorcery and harm to people.

Ivan falls ill and does not come to the forest hut for a week, but when he comes, it is noticeable that Olesya is happy to see him, and the feelings of both of them flare up. A month of secret dates and quiet, bright happiness passes. Despite the obvious and realized inequality of lovers by Ivan, he proposes to Olesya. She refuses, citing the fact that she, a servant of the devil, cannot go into church, and therefore, get married, entering into a marriage union. Nevertheless, the girl decides to go to church to please the gentleman. Local residents, however, did not appreciate Olesya’s impulse and attacked her, beating her severely.

Ivan hurries to the forest house, where the beaten, defeated and morally crushed Olesya tells him that her fears about the impossibility of their union have been confirmed - they cannot be together, so she and her grandmother will leave their home. Now the village is even more hostile towards Olesya and Ivan - any whim of nature will be associated with its sabotage and sooner or later they will kill.

Before leaving for the city, Ivan goes into the forest again, but in the hut he finds only red olesin beads.

Heroes of the story

Olesya

The main character of the story is the forest witch Olesya (her real name is Alena - says grandmother Manuilikha, and Olesya is the local version of the name). A beautiful, tall brunette with intelligent dark eyes immediately attracts Ivan's attention. The girl's natural beauty is combined with a natural intelligence - despite the fact that the girl does not even know how to read, she has, perhaps, more tact and depth than the city girl.

Olesya is sure that she is “not like everyone else” and soberly understands that for this dissimilarity she can suffer from the people. Ivan doesn't really believe in unusual abilities Olesya, believing that there is more than a centuries-old superstition here. However, he cannot deny the mysticism of Olesya’s image.

Olesya is well aware of the impossibility of her happiness with Ivan, even if he makes a strong-willed decision and marries her, so it is she who boldly and simply manages their relationship: firstly, she exercises self-control, trying not to impose herself on the gentleman, and secondly, she decides to separate , seeing that they are not a couple. Savor would be unacceptable for Olesya, her husband would inevitably become burdened with her after the lack of common interests became clear. Olesya does not want to be a burden, to tie Ivan hand and foot and leaves on her own - this is the heroism and strength of the girl.

Ivan Timofeevich

Ivan is a poor, educated nobleman. City boredom leads him to Polesie, where at first he tries to do some business, but in the end the only activity left is hunting. He treats legends about witches as fairy tales - a healthy skepticism is justified by his education.

(Ivan and Olesya)

Ivan Timofeevich - sincere and a kind person, he is able to feel the beauty of nature, and therefore Olesya at first interests him not as beautiful girl, but as an interesting personality. He wonders how it happened that nature itself raised her, and she came out so tender and delicate, unlike the rude, uncouth peasants. How did it happen that they, religious, although superstitious, are ruder and tougher than Olesya, although she should be the embodiment of evil. For Ivan, meeting Olesya is not a lordly pastime and a difficult summer love adventure, although he understands that they are not a couple - society in any case will be stronger than their love and will destroy their happiness. The personification of society in in this case it doesn’t matter - be it the blind and stupid peasant force, be it the city dwellers, Ivan’s colleagues. When he thinks of Oles as future wife, in a city dress, trying to make small talk with his colleagues - he simply reaches a dead end. The loss of Olesya for Ivan is as much a tragedy as finding her as a wife. This remains outside the scope of the story, but most likely Olesya’s prediction came true in full - after her departure he felt bad, even to the point of thinking about intentionally leaving this life.

Final conclusion

The culmination of events in the story occurs on a big holiday - Trinity. This is not a coincidence; it emphasizes and intensifies the tragedy with which Olesya’s bright fairy tale is trampled by people who hate her. There is a sarcastic paradox in this: the servant of the devil, Olesya, the witch, turns out to be more open to love than the crowd of people whose religion fits into the thesis “God is Love.”

The author's conclusions sound tragic - it is impossible for two people to be happy together when the happiness for each of them individually is different. For Ivan, happiness is impossible apart from civilization. For Olesya - in isolation from nature. But at the same time, the author argues, civilization is cruel, society can poison relations between people, destroy them morally and physically, but nature cannot.

The story “Olesya” was written by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin in 1898.

Kuprin spent 1897 in Polesie, Rivne district, where he served as estate manager. Observations of the unique life of local peasants, impressions of meeting majestic nature gave Kuprin rich material for creativity. A series of so-called “Polesie stories” was conceived here, which subsequently included the stories “On the Wood Grouses”, “Wilderness of the Forest”, “Silver Wolf” and one of best works writer - the story "Olesya".

This story is the embodiment of the writer’s dream about a wonderful person, about a free and healthy life in fusion with nature. Among the eternal forests, permeated with light, fragrant with lilies of the valley and honey, the author finds the heroine of his most poetic story.

The story of the short, but beautiful in its sincerity and completeness of love between Olesya and Ivan Timofeevich is covered in romance. The romantic intonation can be discerned already at the very beginning behind the outwardly calm description of the life and customs of the Polesie peasants, and the well-being of Ivan Timofeevich in the unusual setting of a remote village. Then the hero of the story listens to Yarmola’s stories about the “witchers” and about the witch living nearby.

Ivan Timofeevich could not help but find the “fairytale hut on chicken legs” lost in the swamps, where Manuilikha and the beautiful Olesya lived.

The writer surrounds his heroine with mystery. No one knows and will never know where Manuilikha and her granddaughter came from to the Polesie village and where they disappeared forever. This unsolved mystery is the special attractive power of Kuprin’s prose poem. Life for a moment merges with a fairy tale, but only for a moment, because the cruel circumstances of life destroy the fairy-tale world.

In love, selfless and honest, the characters of the story's heroes are revealed most fully. Having grown up in the forests, close to nature, Olesya does not know calculation and cunning, selfishness is alien to her - everything that poisons relationships between people in the “civilized world”. Olesya’s natural, simple and sublime love makes Ivan Timofeevich forget for a while the prejudices of his environment, awakens in his soul all the best, bright, humane. And that’s why it’s so bitter for him to lose Olesya.

Olesya, who has the gift of providence, feels the inevitability tragic end short of your happiness. She knows that their happiness in the stuffy, cramped city, which Ivan Timofeevich could not renounce, is impossible. But all the more humanly valuable is her self-denial, her attempt to reconcile her way of life with what is alien to her.

Kuprin is merciless in his depiction of the inert, downtrodden peasant masses, terrible in their dark anger. He speaks the bitter truth about those ruined by centuries of slavery human souls. He speaks with pain and anger, does not justify, but explains the ignorance of the peasants, their cruelty.

The best pages of Kuprin's work and Russian prose in general include landscape fragments of the story. The forest is not a background, but a living participant in the action. The spring awakening of nature and the birth of the heroes' love coincide because these people (Olesya - always, her lover - only for a short time) live the same life with nature, obey its laws. They are happy as long as they maintain this unity.

There was a lot of naivety in the understanding of happiness, which is possible only in isolation from civilization. Kuprin himself understood this. But the ideal of love as the highest spiritual force will continue to live in the mind of the writer.

It is known that Kuprin rarely came up with plots; life itself suggested them in abundance. Apparently, the plot of “Olesya” had roots in reality. At least it is known that at the end of its life path the writer confessed to one of his interlocutors, speaking about the Polesie story: “All this happened to me.” The author managed to melt vital material into a unique wonderful work art.

Konstantin Paustovsky, an excellent writer, a true connoisseur and admirer of Kuprin’s talent, wrote very correctly: “Kuprin will not die until human heart will be stirred by love, anger, joy and the spectacle of the deadly tempting land allotted to our lot for life.”

Kuprin cannot die in the memory of people - just as the angry power of his “Duel”, the bitter charm “ Garnet bracelet", the stunning picturesqueness of his "Listrigons", just as his passionate, intelligent and spontaneous love for man and for his native land cannot die.

Kuprin's biography was full of various events that gave the writer rich food for his literary works. The story “The Duel” is rooted in that period of Kuprin’s life when he acquired the experience of a military man. The desire to serve in the army was passionate and literary in my youth. Kuprin finished cadet corps and Moskovskoye Aleksandrovskoye military school. Over time, service and the ostentatious, elegant side of an officer’s life turned out to be its wrong side: tiresomely monotonous classes in “literature” and practicing gun techniques with soldiers dull from drill, drinking in a club and vulgar affairs with regimental libertines. However, it was these years that gave Kuprin the opportunity to comprehensively study provincial military life, as well as get acquainted with the impoverished life of the Belarusian outskirts, the Jewish town, and the morals of the “low-ranking” intelligentsia. The impressions of these years were, as it were, a “reserve” for many years to come (Kuprin gleaned material for a number of stories and, first of all, the story “The Duel” during his officer service). Work on the story “The Duel” in 1902 – 1905 was dictated by the desire to implement a long-conceived idea - to “enough” of the tsarist army, this concentration of stupidity, ignorance, and inhumanity.

All the events of the story take place against the backdrop of army life, without ever going beyond it. Perhaps this was done in order to emphasize the importance and real need to at least think about the problems that are shown in the story. After all, the army is a stronghold of autocracy, and if there are shortcomings in it, then we must strive to eliminate them. Otherwise, all the importance and exemplary nature of the existing system is a bluff, an empty phrase, and there is no “Great Power”.

The main character, Second Lieutenant Romashov, will have to realize the horror of army reality. The choice of the author of the work is not accidental: after all, Romashov is in many ways very close to Kuprin: both of them graduated from military school and enlisted in the army. From the very beginning of the story, the author of the work sharply immerses us in the atmosphere of army life, painting a picture of company exercises: practicing service at a post, lack of understanding of what is required of them by some soldiers (Khlebnikov, carrying out the orders of an arrested person; Mukhamedzhinov, a Tatar who poorly understands the Russians and, as a result, incorrectly following orders). It is not difficult to understand the reasons for this misunderstanding. Khlebnikov, a Russian soldier, simply does not have any education, and therefore for him everything said by Corporal Shapovalenko is nothing more than an empty phrase. In addition, the reason for such misunderstanding is a sharp change in the situation: just as the author of the work abruptly immerses us in this kind of situation, so many recruits had no idea about military affairs before, did not communicate with military people, everything is new for them: “They still did not know how to separate jokes and examples from the real requirements of the service and fell into one extreme or the other.” Mukhamedzhinov does not understand anything due to his nationality, and that too a big problem for the Russian army - they are trying to “bring everyone under the same brush”, without taking into account the characteristics of each nation. After all, these features are innate and cannot be eliminated by any training, especially by shouting or physical punishment.

In general, the problem of “assault” appears very clearly in this story. This is the apotheosis of social inequality. Of course, we must not forget that corporal punishment for soldiers was abolished only in 1905. But in this case we are no longer talking about punishment, but about mockery: “Non-commissioned officers brutally beat their subordinates for an insignificant mistake in literature, for a lost leg while marching - they beat him to the blood, knocked out his teeth, smashed his eardrums with blows to the ear, and knocked him to the ground with his fists.” Would a person with a normal psyche behave this way? Moral world everyone who enters the army changes radically and, as Romashov notes, is far from better side. So even Captain Stelkovsky, commander of the fifth company, the best company in the regiment, an officer who always “possessed patient, cool and confident persistence,” as it turned out, also beat soldiers (as an example, Romashov cites how Stelkovsky knocks out a soldier’s teeth along with his horn, who gave the wrong signal into this same horn). That is, there is no point in envying the fate of people like Stelkovsky.

The fate of ordinary soldiers causes even less envy. After all, they do not even have the basic right to choose: “You cannot hit a person who cannot answer you, who does not have the right to raise his hand to his face to protect himself from a blow. He doesn’t even dare to tilt his head.” The soldiers must endure all this and cannot even complain, because they know very well what will happen to them then: “But the soldiers barked in unison that they were “exactly so, happy with everything.” When they asked the first company, Romashov heard the sergeant major of his company behind him, Rynda, saying in a hissing and threatening voice:

- Someone make a claim to me! I’ll make such a claim to him later!”

In addition to the fact that the privates are subjected to sysexample beatings, they are also deprived of their means of subsistence: the small salary that they receive, they give almost all of it to their commander. And this same money is spent by gentlemen officers on all sorts of gatherings in bars with drinks, dirty play(again, with money), and in the company of depraved women. Of course, every person has the right to rest. But this vacation dragged on for a long time and took a very perverted form.

Having officially left serfdom 40 years ago and putting it on great amount human lives, Russia at the beginning of the century had a model of such a society in the army, where the officers were exploitative landowners, and ordinary soldiers were serf slaves. Army sysExample essay destroys itself from the inside. It does not sufficiently perform the function assigned to it. After all, if we look at those people who protect us, that is, at ordinary soldiers, then surely in the eyes of most of them we will see a reflection of the same words that soldier Khlebnikov said about himself: “I can’t do it anymore, ... ... I can’t, master, more... Oh, Lord... They beat me, they laugh... the platoon commander asks for money, the detached one screams... Where can I get it? ...Oh, Lord, Lord!”

Those who try to go against this system will face a very difficult fate. In fact, it is useless to fight such a “machine” alone; it “absorbs everyone and everything.” Even attempts to understand what is happening plunges people into shock: Naznansky, who is constantly ill and went on a drinking binge (obviously, thereby trying to hide from the prevailing reality), is, finally, the hero of Romashov’s story. For him, every day the glaring facts of social injustice, all the ugliness of the system, become more and more noticeable. He, with his characteristic self-criticism, also finds in himself the reasons for this state of affairs: he became part of the “machine”, mixed with this common gray mass of people who understand nothing and lost people. Romashov is trying to isolate himself from them: “He began to retire from the company of officers, had lunch for the most part at home, didn't go to school at all dance evenings to the meeting and stopped drinking.” He “seemed to have matured, become older and more serious over the years.” last days" This “growing up” was not easy for him: he went through social conflict, struggle with himself (after all, Romashov was very fond of talking about himself in the third person), he was even close to the thought of suicide (he clearly imagined the picture depicting him dead body, with a note in his hands and a crowd of people gathered around him).

Analyzing the position of the Khlebnikovs in the Russian army, the way of life of the officers and looking for ways out of such a situation, Romashov comes to the idea that an army without war is absurd, and, therefore, in order for there not to be this monstrous phenomenon of “army”, but its there shouldn’t be, people need to understand the unnecessaryness of war: “Let’s say, tomorrow, let’s say, this very second this thought came to everyone’s minds: Russians, Germans, British, Japanese... And now it’s not more war, there are no officers and soldiers, everyone has gone home.” I am also close to a similar idea: to solve such global problems in the army, in order to solve global problems in general, it is necessary that the need for change is understood by the majority of people, since small groups of people, and even more so a few, are unable to change the course of history.

Appearing during Russo-Japanese War and in the context of the growth of the first Russian revolution, the work caused a huge public outcry, since it undermined one of the main pillars of the autocratic state - the inviolability of the military caste. The problems of “The Duel” go beyond the traditional war story. Kuprin touches on the issue of the causes of social inequality between people, and on possible ways to liberate a person from spiritual oppression, and on the problem of relationships between the individual and society, the intelligentsia and the people. The plot of the work is built on the vicissitudes of the fate of an honest Russian officer, whom the conditions of army barracks life make him think about the wrong relationships between people. Feeling spiritual decline pursues not only Romashov, but also Shurochka. The comparison of two heroes, who are characterized by two types of worldviews, is generally characteristic of Kuprin. Both heroes strive to find a way out of the impasse, while Romashov comes to the idea of ​​​​protesting against bourgeois prosperity and stagnation, and Shurochka adapts to it, despite the outward ostentatious rejection. The author’s attitude towards her is ambivalent; he is closer to Romashov’s “reckless nobility and noble lack of will.” Kuprin even noted that he considers Romashov to be his double, and the story itself is largely autobiographical. Romashov is a “natural man”, he instinctively resists injustice, but his protest is weak, his dreams and plans are easily destroyed, because they are immature and ill-conceived, often naive. Romashov is close Chekhov's heroes. But the emerging need for immediate action strengthens his will to actively resist. After meeting with the soldier Khlebnikov, “humiliated and insulted,” a turning point occurs in Romashov’s consciousness; he is shocked by the man’s readiness to commit suicide, in which he sees the only way out of a martyr’s life. The sincerity of Khlebnikov’s impulse especially clearly indicates to Romashov the stupidity and immaturity of his youthful fantasies, which only aimed to “prove” something to others. Romashov is shocked by the power of Khlebnikov’s suffering, and it is the desire to sympathize that makes the second lieutenant think about fate for the first time common people. However, Romashov’s attitude towards Khlebnikov is contradictory: conversations about humanity and justice bear the imprint of abstract humanism, Romashov’s call for compassion is in many ways naive.

In “The Duel” Kuprin continues the tradition psychological analysis L. N. Tolstoy: in the work one can hear, in addition to the protesting voice of the hero himself, who saw the injustice cruel and stupid life, and the author of the work’s accusatory voice (Nazansky’s monologues). Kuprin uses Tolstoy's favorite technique - the technique of substituting a reasoner for the main character. In “The Duel,” Nazansky is the bearer of social ethics. The image of Nazansky is ambiguous: his radical mood (critical monologues, literary work of premonition of a “radiant life”, anticipation of future social upheavals, hatred of the way of life of the military caste, the ability to appreciate the high, pure love, to feel the spontaneity and beauty of life) comes into conflict with his own way of life. The only salvation from moral death is for the individualist Nazansky and for Romashov to escape from all social ties and obligations.

Since childhood, Antoine dreamed of becoming a pilot. But the career of a military pilot did not appeal to him. He didn't want to kill people and hated wars. Therefore, Exupery entered a civilian school. After graduating from college, Antoine began flying postal planes. His job was to deliver letters to and from South America. Exupery was proud and happy when he managed to bring the plane on time, despite the fog and thunderstorm. Happy that he won the battle with the elements and managed to deliver letters on time, these precious news that connect people. If the mail is not late, it means that the mother will not worry about her son while spending

Russian writer Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin wrote many works. They are still popular today, causing excitement among people of different ages, because the author chose love as the main theme of his works. At one of the lessons we also got acquainted with one of his stories. It was called . This is probably his most touching work, on which schoolchildren write an essay, revealing the image of Olesya, raising the topic of friendship, love and relationships. So today we are writing based on Olesya’s story, revealing the relationships of the characters, where there is he and she and their love, and the rest is not important. But will the heroes survive the test? Will they carry their love to the end?

He and she in Kuprin's story Olesya

Kuprin's work Olesya is not just a story, it is a hymn dedicated to the true feeling of love. In the story, he and she are the main characters and main topic works. Here Kuprin sang a pure and bright feeling that every person can experience. Olesya’s love for her hero turned out to be truly great, for which the girl was ready to do anything. But Ivan Timofeevich’s love was hardly pure and great. Or maybe he was just a very weak person, not ready to make sacrifices and do anything for the sake of his beloved.

The heroes of the story are very different. He is a city dweller who came to the village to study morals and life. She grew up in the forest and was the granddaughter of a witch. He is a writer, educated, kind, but at the same time, a weak person. She is an original, childishly naive, free nature with a bright mind and very strong.

They fell in love with each other. But the problem was that the characters differed not only in their class, but also in their love for each other. If he was attracted by the girl’s beauty, her femininity and naivety, then the girl saw all the hero’s shortcomings. She recognized them and accepted him for who he is, despite the fact that their feeling was doomed. She loved very much, so she went to church for Ivan Timofeevich, knowing that this trip would end in tragedy. And here main character turned out to be incapable of sacrifices and actions for the sake of his beloved. After all, he had a presentiment of misfortune and even had an impulse to stop his beloved, but no. I restrained myself and what do we have? Because of his weakness, fear, fear of getting married, the girl suffered, and their love ended in separation. Olesya and her grandmother were forced to leave their home in the forest and flee away from their native lands, where they had long been unwelcome.

Literature lesson in 11th grade “Are the problems raised by A.I. Kuprin relevant in the story “Olesya”?

Lesson objectives:

educational:

Teach the ability to reason and think critically given topic;

Practice the ability to conduct a discussion and defend your point of view; developing:

Develop skills independent work with literature and other sources of information;

Develop monologue and dialogic speech of students;

Systematize previously acquired knowledge and use it during the discussion;

educational:

To develop the ability to distinguish between good and evil;

Develop general cultural norms (sensitive, respectful attitude towards people)

Type of lesson: discussion.

Type of lesson: obtaining new knowledge based on existing knowledge.

Teaching methods: reproductive, problem-based.

Equipment: instructions, expert evaluation sheets, “disputants” signs.

Students are divided into 3 groups: 1) “disputants” - businessman, psychologist, housewife, businesswoman, pensioner, 11th grade student; 2) experts evaluating the answers of the “disputants”; 3) spectators.

Teacher: Hello! Today we are finishing our study of Kuprin’s works, we have to discuss the following question: are the problems raised in the story “Olesya” relevant? We will learn to debate. But we can, you say. But think about how any of our arguments go in class? And here it is, as in Pushkin’s poem:

The deaf man called the deaf man to court.

The deaf man shouted: “They killed my cow!”

“Have mercy! - the deaf man cried back to him. –

This wasteland was owned by the late grandfather!

The judge decided: “So that there is no debauchery,

Marry the fellow - even if it’s the girl’s fault!”

And that's when we sit down to " round table", it turns out to be a conversation of the "deaf", because everyone tries to say something of their own, without listening to others. Everyone is shouting - it’s unclear, either at each other, or at the essence of the issue, and it turns out that the statement “truth is born in a dispute” is not about us. Let's try to do this properly. To do this, let's get acquainted with the rules of disputes. We read the memo.

Memo “How to conduct a discussion.”

1. When entering into a discussion, it is necessary to introduce the subject of the dispute.

2. Listen carefully to the speaker.

3. In a dispute, avoid a tone of superiority and respect the opinions of your comrades.

3. Ask questions competently and clearly.

4. Give arguments.

5. Formulate not only the main conclusions, but also intermediate ones.

6. Each participant has the right and opportunity to speak.

7. Don't repeat yourself!

8. You cannot criticize people - only their opinions and positions.

9. Participants have the right to change their position under the influence of facts and arguments.

Why do you think people argue and debate?

Student: The purpose of discussion is not to win, but to find agreement.

Teacher: So let's get started. In the last lesson we analyzed Kuprin’s story “Olesya”. Please remember the history of its creation.

Student: An artistic statement of the spiritual fullness and moral beauty of a person from the people were the works created by Kuprin between 1898 and 1901 based on the material of Polesie impressions. In the spring and summer of 1897 Kuprin traveled through Ukrainian Polesie, served in the Volyn region as a manager of a small estate, then was a hunter and fisherman.

For Kuprin, this trip was a kind of “creative business trip”, which pursued a completely obvious goal - to tell others about what he saw and experienced. In the Polesie cycle there is a tendency to contrast village life life of a capitalist city, which looks like a crowd of hungry and poor people, bourgeois satiety and bourgeois prosperity - synonymous with social inequality of people. This trend is reflected in the pages of the story “Olesya” - perhaps the most significant work Polesie cycle (1898).

Teacher: What is the plot of "Olesya"?

Student: City intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, an aspiring writer, comes to Polesie and meets a girl-witch living in the forest with her grandmother. Olesya and Ivan fell in love with each other, but cannot be together due to reasons: difference in status, upbringing, life experience finally, the tragic outcome of their relationship predicted by the heroine. Ivan Timofeevich encourages Olesya to go to church, after which the dark village men and the women, considering her a witch, beat her half to death and force the unfortunate woman to leave her native place. And the “beloved” almost instantly comes to terms with what happened.

Teacher: Reveal the images of both heroes.

Student: Olesya is unfamiliar with life in society, with so-called civilization. She values ​​free will, natural impulses, and the skills of witchcraft, passed down in their family from grandmother to mother, from mother to granddaughter. The heroine is beautiful, strong, healthy, smart and kind, she is an exceptional person. The portrait of a girl given by Kuprin is an expression of her rich inner world. She has everything - determination, authority, naivety, and even slyness, and all this is elusive, unusual, exciting.

Student: Kuprin gives a characterization of Ivan Timofeevich through the mouth of the heroine of the story. During fortune telling, Olesya says to Poroshin: “Although you are a kind person, you are only weak... Your kindness is not good, not heartfelt. You do not like to take over people by your word, but although you don’t want to, you obey them.”

Teacher: Okay, let's turn to the problems of the story.

Student: Firstly, this is the theme of love. The writer shows how in an exceptional situation the eternal, universal meaning of the high feeling of making a person beautiful is revealed. Kuprin is looking for real life people filled with a holy feeling of love, capable of rising above the surrounding vulgarity and lack of spirituality, ready to give everything without demanding anything in return. "Olesya" - anthem female beauty and love, a hymn to a woman, spiritually pure and wise, a hymn to a sublime primordial feeling

Student: Secondly, in the story, Kuprin expressed his conviction that only far from civilization, from a capitalist city, can one find a person capable of loving unselfishly and devotedly. Only in unity with nature, in preserving naturalness, is a person able to achieve spiritual purity and nobility.

Student: I would highlight one more problem: the dramatic fate of a person endowed with extraordinary abilities and superpowers. Such a person can help people, but he himself always remains lonely and misunderstood by society. Olesya is an example of this.

Teacher: You outlined the range of problems absolutely correctly. How do you understand the meaning of the word “relevant”?

Student: Important, essential for the present moment.

Teacher: Are the problems raised by Kuprin relevant; are they in tune to modern man? I invite 6 people who wish to participate in the discussion. Take your seats, assign roles, who will speak on whose behalf. Reminders are in front of you. Start thinking about the question. I appoint another 6 as experts. You need to carefully monitor the progress of the discussion and record the data in the evaluation table. Is the task clear?

The third group is the audience. So, is Kuprin’s understanding of love relevant? Is it acceptable for our contemporaries? I would like to speak out on this issue...

Businessman: The situation described in the story does not seem dramatic to me at all: no one died, the characters simply parted, as often happens in life. Both knew from the very beginning that they were too different. In parting, Olesya thanks Ivan for the brief happiness, and he long years keeps the memory of her tender and generous love. That is, the tragic aspect that readers, critics, and contemporaries of Kuprin saw is unacceptable to me.

Psychologist: By the way, in “The Garnet Bracelet” one of the characters says: “Love should be a tragedy... The greatest secret in the world.” We are talking about a real feeling - about the kind of love that can transform an imperfect person. Olesya returns to her chosen one, albeit not for long, the lost naturalness and acuteness of emotions. In this Kuprin saw the true meaning of love - to spiritually transform a person.

Businesswoman: Is it possible to change it? weak person? You are convinced of this! I, like my colleague (businessman), believe that Kuprin’s understanding of love is not relevant today. Why self-sacrifice in the name of a feeling that is initially doomed? I’m generally surprised that such an intelligent, decisive, strong-willed girl could fall in love and want to connect her life with a person who would eventually become like a stone around her neck.

At the same time, the very image of Olesya, despite its exoticism and romance, is very modern, especially the girl’s qualities such as independence, independence, the desire to increase her intellectual level, to learn something (she constantly asks Ivan about some scientific things ), in a word, to develop, to improve oneself, to have a strong character - all this is very important for modern woman. Olesya clearly knows what she wants in life, she is purposeful, she is able to achieve her goal.

Housewife: No, after all, you know, this is too pragmatic a position, no matter how we sort our chosen ones into categories - whether he is weak or not weak, whether he can provide for his family or not - everyone in their hearts wants to meet just such a love, in the spirit of Kuprin - beautiful , all-consuming, devoid of doubt “to be or not to be.” Maybe they just don’t talk about it out loud. Films about love, books about love are still popular, Internet sites are simply screaming about it.

Teacher: But most often it’s all a fake, a surrogate for a real feeling.

Housewife: Yes, the fact of the matter is that love is easy to find, there are no problems in dating, but everyone wants special love - real love, which you really don’t see often. Kuprin's work makes us yearn for this.

11th grade student: I agree with you. True love, according to Kuprin, is the basis of everything earthly. Love must be based on high sincere

feelings, strive for the ideal. Love stronger than death and elevates little man over the vain world of injustice and malice. Now you will say: these are lofty words, but, as has already been said, everyone dreams of such love. Isn't that right?

Businesswoman: The meaning of life is not limited to love. There is also a fascinating interesting job, faithful friends, books, music, traveling the world, exploring the unsolved. IN modern life There are just a lot of opportunities to realize yourself as an individual. And Kuprin’s heroes are fixated on one thing: Olesya, this one, Zheltkov from “Garnet Bracelet”. He himself said that nothing else interests him in life. And if he had something else in his life, would he have ended his journey so unworthily?

Pensioner: Let's not disturb the unfortunate HSG. I will still try to convince you with words famous playwright 17th century by J.-B. Moliere:

The day would fade in my soul, and darkness would come again,

If only we would banish love from the earth.

Only he knew bliss who passionately touched the heart,

And whoever didn’t know love doesn’t care

That he didn’t live...

The real feeling will come to you, and just like Olesya, you will be able to neglect principles, friends, and, if necessary, work for the sake of your chosen one.

Businessman: You are all right in your own way. I listen to you and understand that what we are talking about will always be relevant and, in general, I agree that real love it is dramatic, it brings suffering, you have to make some efforts of the soul, heart, sacrifice something. But all this is worth it so that your loved one is nearby, or if you can’t be together, like the heroes of Kuprinov’s story, then so that he is happy.

Psychologist: Yes, it’s surprising that after the tragic ending, the bright atmosphere of “Olesya” does not fade. Reading the writer’s works, you feel a particularly subtle, deep and sensitive awareness of everything that exists. It seems that the writer knows what you are worried about and is trying to help you, guiding you on the right path. After all, the world in which we live is sometimes so polluted with lies, meanness and vulgarity that we sometimes need a charge positive energy to resist the sucking quagmire. Who will show us the source of purity? In my opinion, Kuprin has such talent. He, like a master grinding a stone, reveals wealth in our souls that we ourselves did not know about. Thus, Kuprin’s problem of love is still relevant.

Teacher: You formulated this very well: that is, if a work has such a strong impact on us, makes us think, then it is relevant for us. Is the sound of the story’s other problem – “man and nature” – modern? Only in unity with nature, living far from civilization, can a person become a perfect person; city ​​life doesn't make people happy.

Pensioner: I certainly agree with this. Most city dwellers strive for the city, buying and building houses in villages. Why are we so eager to go to the country, to go out into nature? Because we feel good there, our souls rest. In short, nature attracts the vast majority of people. And at one time, my peers, on the contrary, tended to go to the city, the villages were emptying.

Housewife: Well, yes, people are attracted by fresh air, a more or less clean environment, and they take civilization and all the amenities of city life with them. What country cottage is not equipped with a satellite dish, laptop, etc.? There is no talk of spiritual improvement here. The Japanese have special days for contemplating nature, they call it a holiday of admiring sakura, a moment of finding harmony with oneself and nature.

Teacher: Don't shy away from "Olesya."

11th grade student: Yes, Kuprin showed such a natural person in the image of Olesya. She lives in complete detachment from people, but in harmony with the inhabitants of the Polesie thickets - birds, animals. All primordial, innate, opportunities lost in society develop freely in Oles, not constrained by the chains of conventions that city life imposes. The heroine is sincere in any motive. But at the same time, she is attracted by civilization: Olesya asks Ivan Timofeevich about St. Petersburg, is interested in knowledge from different areas. And having fallen in love, she is ready to follow her lover into the city. So, probably, Kuprin was wrong. I am sure that for a modern person it is important to live in a city, study at higher educational institutions, go to theaters, museums, and there should be a lot more that is given to a person for full development.

Businesswoman: Agree! I wouldn’t be able to live away from the city for long either. I just can't understand it! What is this strange belief - only nature can make a person beautiful - and where did it come from? If we all go into the wilderness, on the contrary, we will turn into savages.

Psychologist: In general, the concept of natural man is not new. It appeared back in the 18th century. The French writer and philosopher Rousseau wrote about this. And in Russian literature his followers were the sentimentalists and Nikolai Karamzin. Nature played a big role in their works. By the way, did you notice landscape sketches in Kuprin's story?

Businesswoman: Still would! I missed them, mortal boredom!

Pensioner: That's in vain. You young people don’t know how to notice beauty itself. When I read the description of the spring forest, I kept remembering my dacha, how I would go in the spring, breathe in the fresh air that smelled of the cold forest delights... After all, we are nowhere without nature. In nature, a person really becomes better, calmer, kinder, stops fussing, and thinks about the eternal. Nature heals the soul.

Psychologist: Yes, indeed, the beauty of nature continues to excite us. However, Rousseauist tendencies and Kuprin’s beliefs are still not entirely acceptable to us, since it is difficult for a modern person to completely break away from civilization.

Teacher: It is interesting that the problem of “man and nature” - I am speaking in general - continues to remain relevant. People are looking for balance, striving for unity with nature and still cannot find it?

Psychologist: Perhaps because this is an ideal that is unattainable, but one must strive for it..

Teacher: Okay, now we come to discussing problem 3.

Housewife: Can I start? Today Olesya would find a worthy use for her gift. Just look at how many advertisements there are on poles and in newspapers: I predict the future, remove damage, improve health, bewitch my husband, etc.! How popular are witches and fortune tellers now! They are not driven out, they are not feared - on the contrary, people always go to them for advice or to solve a problem. Well, admit it, probably every second person has gone to a fortune teller.

Businessman: Well, yes, it happened. I must admit, I am somewhat superstitious. When I started a business, I was advised to go get a financial forecast for my private enterprise.

Fate apparently favored me, everything worked out. But I wouldn't say what the fortune teller did to me good impression– she was more interested in how much I would pay her.

11th grade student: But the heroine of the story, Kuprina, is very honest and selfless, she is ready to help people just like that, if they turn to her. I still think that clairvoyants and fortune tellers who have some extraordinary abilities, such as seeing a person’s future, should not use their gift for financial purposes.

Businesswoman: Why will they exist then?

11th grade student: I will again compare with Olesya. She did not at all set herself the goal of making money through clairvoyance. Since childhood, she was accustomed to being content with little, with what she had, which cannot be said about her stingy and greedy grandmother. This habit of Olesya is to be content with little, to take care of material values just to support himself - this also appeals to the author.

Apparently, people turned to Olesya (this was not often, apparently, since they were afraid of the “witchers”), she helped them. Olesya is calm about her ability to see the future and heal. But sometimes it seems that she seems to be burdened by her gift - after all, many truths are revealed to her in the behavior and actions of people and especially her lover. There is a feeling that she is not happy about this.

Pensioner: What truths? Do you seriously believe that a person can predict the future? Even Ivan himself says that Olesya did not “speak” the blood, but simply skillfully pressed the vein above the cut - this can be done not only by a doctor, but by any person familiar with first aid. As for predictions of the future, I will say this: despite the fact that the girl for a long time lived away from people, she learned their nature well - often hypocritical and cowardly. It was not difficult for her to figure out Ivan Timofeevich and foresee that he would not have the strength to love the witch.

Psychologist: There is certainly truth in your words. Modern fortune tellers and clairvoyants hardly all have extraordinary sensory abilities, they just know human nature very well, they know people. They are real psychologists, and skillfully use this for their own purposes. They always say what a person wants to hear. That's why people go to them.

Teacher: What else do you think makes our contemporaries turn to fortune tellers?

Psychologist: Probably mental anxiety, inability to cope with the problem on one’s own, simply hopelessness, loss of hope for the best, lack of self-confidence. And you know, these are just diseases of our time.

Pensioner: Yes, I couldn't agree more. But then it turns out that this people live bad, but good for fortune tellers. But we are thinking about the fate of a person with extraordinary abilities, who does not have a good relationship with society. Do you think Olesya is hated only because she is a fortune teller and is allegedly connected with the devil?

Businessman: I think not only because of this. Let me start with this: who are these village inhabitants? A dark, uneducated mass, “primitive natures,” as Ivan says, a drunken crowd following only animal instincts, people accustomed to humiliating themselves before the authorities, but in their circle they are despotic, rude, and dishonest. And could Olesya - sincere, conscientious, kind - find with them mutual language? Remember Katerina from Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” - the same story. Society rejects people who are too correct or something. It considers them strange, abnormal.

Housewife: Well, please don’t compare ours modern society with the villagers of Polesie at the end of the 19th century. And it is not society that rejects people like Olesya and Katerina, but they reject him. But in general, I also noticed that to the conscientious, decent person, a lover of truth, who is not used to adapting to everyone, has a much more difficult life in this world. He seems to be rooting for everyone, sees evil around him, fights injustice, but thereby only causes anger and rejection, misunderstanding of others, why is he always fussing?

Pensioner: That's for sure! I once made a remark on a tram to young people who were swearing, and I was no longer happy: they almost threw me off the tram.

Businessman: And I stood up for the girl who was being pestered by two scum.

Teacher: Then the eternal question: what to do? How to be in this life a lover of truth, an honest, decent person, “a ray of light in dark kingdom»?

Pupil: How to do what? We must all try to be decent.

Housewife: We must take care of such people.

Businesswoman: In the end, what have we come to? Today, fortune tellers, witches, sorceresses and others are not considered extraordinary people; they are a common occurrence. But a decent, moral person who cannot accept some immoral laws of society is still an exceptional phenomenon. And just like in the 19th century, so in the 21st the fate of such a person sometimes develops dramatically. Perform moral noble deeds Sometimes it’s not easy, but it’s definitely necessary. Otherwise, society will definitely deteriorate. And how to resist its negative phenomena, Russian literature teaches us this.

Teacher: Let's end on this optimistic note and give the floor to the experts.

Experts speak out.

Evaluation table for experts

Panelists

Speaks clearly, in complete sentences

Speaks convincingly and convincingly

Listens carefully to others

Speaks on topic

Encourages everyone to participate

Leads Interesting Facts

Demeanor

Knows the subject of conversation well, is competent

Businessman

Businesswoman

Pensioner

11th grade student

Psychologist

Housewife

Teacher: and now I ask the participants in the discussion to come up with what they would change during their conversation.

Has your opinion changed during the discussion?

Pupil: For me, 3 the problem was revealed deeper, its vision appeared in a different – ​​true light. We probably understood what Kuprin really wanted to say.

Teacher: What new things have you learned or understood? Thanks to whom did you understand this? What did the discussion give you?