Bunin in the village story story. Bunin's concept of Russian life in the story "Village"

The story “The Village” became one of the most outstanding works of the writer I. Bunin. Bunin worked on the “village” cycle from 1900 to 1910. The writer set himself the task of depicting all the events taking place in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Bunin wanted to show the Russian people as they are, without idealizing or softening them. Village life, well known to the writer, was chosen as material for psychological analysis.

The action takes place in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Kuzma and Tikhon Krasov are brothers born in the village of Durnovka. When they were young, the brothers were engaged in trade. After a serious quarrel, Tikhon and Kuzma stopped maintaining relations. Their paths diverged. Tikhon opened a tavern and a shop, bought plots of land and bread from landowners for next to nothing. Having become rich, he could even afford to buy a manor estate. But financial success did not make Tikhon happier. His wife gave birth to stillborn children. The spouses had no heirs. As old age approached, Tikhon realized that his life, despite all his efforts, had been lived in vain, and he began to drink.

Kuzma is sharply different from his brother. Since childhood, he dreamed of getting an education. Having learned to read and write, Kuzma became interested in literature and tried to write stories and poems. He even managed to publish a book. However, Kuzma quickly realized how imperfect his work was. Writing did not bring any income. Over time, Kuzma, like his brother, became disillusioned with life and started drinking. He increasingly began to think about committing suicide or living out his life in a monastery.

In their old age, both brothers realized that they could not live with each other, which led them to reconciliation. Tikhon appointed his brother as manager of the estate. Returning to his native Durnovka, Kuzma felt relief for a while and began to fulfill his new professional duties. However, Kuzma soon realized that even on the estate he was bored and sad. Tikhon visited him too rarely and discussed with him mainly business issues. A silent cook, Avdotya, lived in the house and did not pay any attention to Kuzma. The presence of the silent woman only increased the feeling of loneliness.

One day Kuzma learned the secret of the cook Avdotya. His brother once had a relationship with this woman because of Tikhon’s desire to have a child that his legal wife could not give birth to. Avdotya was never able to get pregnant. When her fellow villagers became aware of her connection with Krasov, the woman was disgraced. Now not a single man in the village will marry her. Tikhon wanted to atone for his guilt before Avdotya and find her a good husband. Having learned what kind of man his brother was preparing to be the cook's husband, Kuzma refused to participate in organizing the wedding. Avdotya's future husband does not even spare his own father. The old man is forced to endure beatings. The cook immediately resigned herself to her fate. Kuzma also had to agree with Tikhon.

The wedding took place in February. Avdotya was crying. Kuzma, who blessed the bride, could not hold back his tears. The guests did not pay attention to the crying Avdotya and behaved as they usually behave at a village wedding: they drank vodka and had fun.

Characteristics

Krasov brothers

Kuzma and Tikhon have different values ​​in life. Tikhon is sure that money is a person’s only joy. Kuzma is looking for his happiness in education. When youth is left behind, the brothers realize that they have chosen false ideals. Tikhon was able to earn a lot of money and become a respectable and respected person. He did not receive only one thing - immortality, which people find in their children at the end of their lives. When Tikhon is gone, everything that he created will be destroyed, and the memory of him will be erased.

Kuzma was also able to fulfill his dream by receiving an education. But “learning” did not bring him any material wealth, fame, or respect. Summing up their lives, the brothers come to a sad conclusion. They both find themselves at a dead end in life, and both are not needed by their country and their people.

Cook Avdotya

Avdotya's life is subject to the ruthless principles of village life. Tikhon used the unfortunate woman for his own interests. Krasov understood that as a result, Avdotya would be forced to give up the child and would forever remain disgraced and alone. However, this could not stop the prudent businessman. The “atonement” for guilt became an even greater grief for the cook than the shame that she had to endure.

Avdotya's submission turned her into a slave and victim of circumstances. Resistance is not typical for a disgraced cook. Avdotya’s religiosity and downtroddenness force her to agree with everything that happens to her, to accept all troubles as inevitable blows of fate and the will of God. At the same time, Avdotya closes herself off from the whole world, becoming silent and indifferent. The cook was used to being treated poorly. In Kuzma she sees another master whose will she is obliged to carry out. Avdotya does not notice that the new manager needs sympathy no less than she does.

Analysis of the work

The Russian people evoke the author's sympathy, despite all their rudeness and lack of education. Bunin does not seek to humiliate or ridicule the main characters: Tikhon - for his passion for money, Kuzma - for his desire to receive an education that is completely unnecessary for him. On the contrary, the author considers it necessary to show readers that both Krasovs are not deprived of talents. The brothers are different from their indifferent fellow villagers, who live endless binges and fights. The Krasovs have goals and life guidelines that they fiercely defend. You shouldn’t laugh at Avdotya, who is humiliated to the point of losing her human dignity. There were too many women like her in pre-revolutionary Russia.

The cause of all troubles
The background of the story is pictures of dull village life. The author is trying to understand and answer the question for himself: why do such talented and kind people live their lives so mediocrely? At the end of the story, Bunin finds the answer to his question: his compatriots are to blame for all their troubles. Laziness, inherent in Russian people by nature, forces him to live by inertia.

Poverty, drunkenness and fights are not perceived by the residents of Durnovka as something depressing. This is how their fathers and grandfathers lived, which means it simply cannot be any other way. Having found the answer to the question “Who is to blame?”, the author immediately asks the question “What to do?” The guilty do not recognize themselves as guilty. Not a single inhabitant of the village ever thought about how to start living better.

To look at the Russian people from different angles, Bunin delves into research into history, politics, economics and religion. The author does not deny that among the lazy masses there are people like Kuzma and his brother. Bunin is trying to trace how the lives of these two unlike other people will turn out. Two lines of life develop in different directions until they converge at one point. Both brothers, having not found the long-awaited happiness in the ways that they considered the only true ones, drown their grief in alcohol. The author concludes that every Russian person is doomed to disappointment, despite his talents. To change the situation, changes are needed not at the level of one individual destiny, but at a more global level. The inevitability of revolution is the author’s second conclusion.

5 (100%) 3 votes

Bunin worked on the story in 1909-1910, and in March - November 1910 the work was published in the magazine "Modern World", causing the most controversial reviews with its sharpness and passionate polemics. Understanding the life and existence of the Russian village during the revolution of 1905-1907, the writer expressed deep insights about the Russian character, the psychology of the peasantry, the metaphysics of the Russian rebellion, and ultimately - a prophecy about Russia that came true in a historical perspective. Village depicted Durnovka appears in the story as a symbolic image of Russia as a whole: “Yes, it’s all a village...!” - notes one of the heroes. The image of Russia and the Russian soul, in its “light and dark, but almost always tragic foundations,” is revealed in an extensive system of characters, multifunctional landscape images, as well as in the general architectonics of the work.

The largely antithetical images of the brothers Tikhon and Kuzma Krasov are put forward at the center of the character system. Their destinies, with all their individual differences, are fused in the dark depths of the family legend about their great-grandfather, grandfather and father: depicted already in the first lines, it reveals the sometimes terrifying irrationality of the Russian character and sets the basic tone for the further narrative. Minor, episodic characters also play a significant role in the story, embodying, as, for example, in the cases of Deniska or Sery, the brightest types, as if snatched by the author from the depths of the district environment.

An essential feature of the consciousness of the Krasov brothers is their ability, rising above individual phenomena of reality, to see in them the influence of global historical forces and philosophical laws of existence. The artistic character of Tikhon, who by the will of fate became the owner of the impoverished “Durnovsky estate,” is interesting due to the extraordinary combination of a practical business mind and deep intuitions of a psychological and national-historical level. The family drama leads the hero to the tragic self-awareness of a person who has fallen out of the family “chain”: “Without children, a person is not a person. So, some kind of selection...”

Such an individual worldview gives rise to a whole complex of complex, “confused” thoughts of the hero about the life of the people. Repeatedly using the form of Tikhon’s inappropriately direct speech, the author, through the sad and piercing gaze of his character, reveals the tragic paradoxes of national reality, for example, in the cases of the painful poverty of a county town, “famous throughout Russia for its grain trade,” or with difficult thoughts about the specifics of the Russian mentality : “We are a wonderful people! A motley soul. Now a pure dog man, now sad, pitiful, tender, crying over himself...” The author’s lyricism, so characteristic of Bunin’s early prose, goes here into the depths of the artistic text, giving way to an outwardly objective epic manner , dissolves in the heartfelt internal monologues of the characters.

Shocked by the godless reality of Russian life, Tikhon's soul plunges into a process of painful self-discovery. Particularly noteworthy is the depiction of the hero’s “stream of consciousness,” unfolding on the verge of sleep and reality. Acutely feeling that “reality was alarming,” “that everything was doubtful,” he mercilessly records the ulcers of national existence: the loss of the spiritual foundations of existence (“We have no time for religion, pigs!”), Russia’s isolation from European civilization (“And we have everything enemies to each other..."). For Tikhon, “thoughts about death” that appear in a discrete psychological picture become a severe test of his entire life for strength and meaningfulness.

In the thirst for the “uneveryday,” which is especially evident in the hero’s parable story about the cook who wore out an elegant scarf inside out, Tikhon balances between the desire to join the spiritual knowledge of the immortality of the soul (the episode of visiting the cemetery) and the disastrous rapture of the elements of the brewing rebellion (“at first I was delighted by the revolution, fascinated by murder"), "Durnov's" destructiveness, which ultimately becomes one of the points of rapprochement between the Krasov brothers.

At the same time, Kuzma’s life path is depicted in the story, in contrast to his enterprising brother, who was an “anarchist”, a poet of the “Nadsonian” persuasion, whose “complaints about fate and need” reflected the painful wanderings of the Russian spirit, which, with tragic consequences for itself, replaced positive spiritual content with debilitating self-flagellation. No less sharply than Tikhon’s, in Kuzma’s thoughts, his speeches, and disputes with Balashkin, critical assessments of the disastrous aspects of the national character are heard (“is there anyone fiercer than our people?”, “if you read history, your hair will stand on end,” etc.). Kuzma subtly captures among the masses the increase in “fermentation”, vague moods, and social confrontation (the scene in the carriage). Shrewdly seeing in Denisk the emerging “new type” of a lumpen, spiritually rootless “proletarian,” Kuzma, through force, however, blesses Young for a murderous marriage and thereby demonstrates his complete powerlessness to resist the absurdity of Russian life sliding towards the fatal line.

The picture of national reality on the eve of revolutionary chaos is complemented by a whole series of mass scenes (either rioting, or peasants “walking” at the tavern), as well as a remarkable gallery of minor and episodic characters. This is the utopian consciousness of Gray (“as if everyone was waiting for something”), manifested in the episode of the fire and in the scene with the drowned hog, echoing the plot twists and turns of the story by M. Gorky “Ice Breaker”, and the future performer of revolutionary violence “revolutionary” Denisk, who carries with him the book “The Role of the Proletariat in Russia.” On the other hand, this is a largely mysterious image of Young, whose fate (from the story with Tikhon to the final wedding) is an example of the cruelest “Durnovsky” mockery of beauty, which is definitely visible in the symbolic scene of violence against the heroine committed by the bourgeoisie. Among the episodic characters, attention is drawn to the individualized images of the “Durnovsky” men, in whose rebellion the author sees a manifestation of the same Russian thirst to overcome the hated “everyday life,” as well as the thoughtless adherence to the general inertia of the people’s unrest (“an order was issued to make a riot,” “the men rebelled a little not throughout the county"). In this row are Makarka the Wanderer, and Ivanushka from Basov, and the guard Akim: each of them in his own way - some in mysterious “prophecies”, some through immersion in the elements of folk mythology, some in devout “prayerful” fanaticism - embodies the unquenchable longing of the Russian man according to the highest, transtemporal.

A characteristic feature of the compositional organization of the story was the predominance of a static panoramic image of reality over linear plot dynamics. Associated with this is the significant artistic role of flashbacks, inserted episodes and symbolic scenes, which sometimes contain parable potential, as well as detailed landscape descriptions, rich in expressive details. Among the most important “inserted” episodes in the story can be attributed to the obscene anecdote told with rapture by workers Zhmykh and Oska about the Christian burial of a dog “in the church fence,” an anecdote that provided an example of the unstoppable desacralization of religious values ​​in the common people’s consciousness, the decline of the authority of spiritual authorities in the era inter-revolutionary unrest. In other inserted episodes, the fates of background characters and facets of national consciousness are highlighted from an unexpected angle, for example, in the case of the daughter-in-law “ruining pies” at the “funeral” of Ivanushka from Basov, who has not yet died, or in a similar situation with the purchase of an expensive coffin for a “fallen man” Lukyana. The loss of Russian people's reverent attitude towards death is revealed in Bunin's story in a pointed, almost grotesque form and marks the strengthening of destructive tendencies in the people's character.

The artistic functions of landscape descriptions are varied. The main part of the work is dominated by social landscapes, sometimes giving in a condensed form a panorama of the “cave times” of county life. Thus, through the eyes of Tikhon, with generous detail, a fragment of a village landscape is depicted, where the appearance of a peasant completes the general moral spirit of the impoverished peasantry:

“Roughly sticking out on a bare pasture was a wild-colored church. Behind the church, a shallow clay pond under a dung dam glittered in the sun - thick yellow water, in which stood a herd of cows, constantly defecating their needs, and a naked man soaping his head.”

"There's knee-deep mud all around, there's a pig lying on the porch<...>The old mother-in-law constantly throws grips, bowls, and rushes at her daughters-in-law..."

On the other hand, Bunin’s deeply lyrical feeling of district Russia with the unique rhythms of its life breaks through in “convex” detail:

“In the cathedral they rang for the all-night vigil, and under this measured, thick ringing, the district, Saturday, the soul ached unbearably.”

As the author and his characters deepen their understanding of not only the social, but also the mystical foundations of border Russian reality, the texture of landscape images changes. In the landscape descriptions given through Kuzma’s eyes, the concrete social background increasingly develops into a transtemporal generalization, saturated with apocalyptic overtones:

“And again the black darkness opened up deeply, raindrops sparkled, and on the wasteland, in the deathly blue light, the figure of a wet, thin-necked horse was cut out.”

“Durnovka, covered with frozen snow, so distant to the whole world on this sad evening in the middle of the steppe winter, suddenly terrified him.”

In the final symbolic landscape, which accompanies the description of the absurdist-colored episode of Young’s wedding, these apocalyptic notes intensify, marking the author’s sad prophecies about Russian history heading towards disastrous darkness:

“The blizzard at dusk was even more terrible. And they drove the horses home especially vigorously, and the loud-mouthed wife of Vanka the Red stood in the front sleigh, danced like a shaman, waved a handkerchief and shouted at the wind, into the violent dark mud, into the snow flying into her lips and the wolf's voice drowning her out..."

Thus, in the story “The Village” a deeply tragic canvas of national life unfolded on the eve of upheavals. The author’s words, speeches and internal monologues of many characters capture the most complex twists of the Russian soul, which received a capacious psychological and historiosophical understanding in the work. The epic breadth and objectivity of the story contain the author’s passionate, painfully piercing lyricism.

He was one of the first to feel the changes in the life of Russia, namely the mood of the post-revolutionary village, and reflected them in his stories and stories, especially in the story “The Village,” which was published in 1910.
On the pages of the story, the author paints a terrifying picture of the poverty of the Russian people. Bunin wrote that this story marked “the beginning of a whole series of works that sharply depicted the Russian soul, its peculiar interweavings, its light and dark, but almost always tragic foundations.”
The originality and strength of Bunin's story is the show of the dark sides of peasant life, the stupidity of villagers, and the poverty of the everyday life of men. Bunin in his work relied on real facts of reality. He knew the life of the village well and was able to give in his story a vivid and truthful picture of the life of the peasants.
Critics noted that in the story “The Village” there is no cross-cutting plot action and no clear conflict. The narrative alternates between scenes of everyday village life and episodes of clashes between men and the village rich. A wonderful artist, Bunin gives a number of portrait sketches of men and describes their housing. Many landscapes in the story are filled with the philosophical thought of the author, on whose behalf the story is told.
Bunin shows the life of the Russian village through the eyes of the brothers Tikhon and Kuzma Krasov, the main characters of the story. The true appearance of the village arises as a result of lengthy conversations and disputes between Tikhon and Kuzma. The picture of life in the village is bleak, there is no hope of revival among the dead fields and gloomy sky. The whole vast Russia rests on the peasant. How does he live, what does he think about? The author in his story tells the bitter truth. The villagers are rude savages, little different from their livestock - stupid, greedy, cruel, dirty and downtrodden.
Bunin brilliantly tells the story of the Krasov family in a few paragraphs: “The Krasovs’ great-grandfather, nicknamed a gypsy by the courtyard, was hunted down by greyhounds by captain Durnovo. The gypsy took his mistress from him, from his master.” Further, just as simply and calmly outwardly, Bunin describes the fact that the Gypsy started running. “You shouldn’t run from greyhounds,” the author laconically notes.
At the center of the story is the biography of the two Krasov brothers. Tikhon is a powerful man. His only goal is to get rich. Tikhon Krasov “finished off” the ruined master of Durnovka and bought the estate from him. The second brother, Kuzma Krasov, is a weak-willed dreamer, a self-taught intellectual. Against the background of the biography of the Krasovs, Bunin unfolds a broad canvas of the life of the Russian peasantry.
The brothers exchange opinions and talk about the causes of the plight in the countryside. It turns out that here there is “one and a half arshins of black soil, and what a lot!” And five years don’t go by without hunger.” “The city is famous throughout Russia for its grain trade - a hundred people in the whole city eat this bread to their fill.” Bunin's men were robbed not only financially, but also spiritually. There are more than one hundred million illiterate people in the country, people live as in “cave times”, among savagery and ignorance.
Many Durnovites are mentally retarded people who do not understand what is happening around them. For example, worker Koshel once visited the Caucasus, but could not tell anything about it except that there was “a mountain upon a mountain.” Koshel’s mind is poor, he pushes away everything new and incomprehensible, but he believes that he recently saw a witch.
The teacher in Durnovka is a soldier who looks like an ordinary man, but he “talked such nonsense that I had to shrug my shoulders.” His children's education consisted of instilling the strictest army discipline. The author shows us the peasant Gray, “the most poor and idle in the whole village.” He had a lot of land - three acres, but he became completely impoverished.
What prevents Gray from establishing his economy? In better times, Gray managed to build a new brick hut, but in winter it was necessary to heat it, and Gray burned the roof, and then sold the hut. He doesn’t want to work, he sits in his unheated hut, there are holes in the roof, and his children are afraid of a burning splinter, as they are used to living in the dark.
The mental limitations of the peasants give rise to manifestations of senseless cruelty. A man can “kill a neighbor because of a goat” or strangle a child in order to take away a few kopecks. Akim, a rabid, evil man, would gladly shoot singing nightingales with a gun.
“An unhappy people, first of all, unhappy...” laments Kuzma Krasov.
Bunin was sure that the peasants were only capable of rebellion, spontaneous and senseless. The story describes how one day men rebelled almost throughout the entire district. The landowners sought protection from the authorities, but “the whole riot ended with the men screaming throughout the district, burning and destroying several estates and falling silent.”
Bunin was accused of exaggerating, not knowing the village, and hating the people. The writer would never have created such a poignant work if his soul had not worried about his people and the fate of his homeland. In the story “The Village” he showed everything dark and wild that prevents the country and people from developing.

The story "The Village", published in 1910, caused great controversy and was the beginning of Bunin's enormous popularity. This work, like the writer’s work as a whole, affirmed the realistic traditions of Russian classical literature. The story captures the richness of observations and colors, the strength and beauty of the language, the harmony of the drawing, the sincerity of tone and truthfulness. Despite the fact that Durnovka and the district town were chosen as the setting for the story, the scope of life in it is much wider and larger-scale. The “village” is filled with rumors, disputes, conversations on trains, in bazaars, at gatherings, and in inns. There are many characters in it who create the impression of a seething, polyphonic crowd. The heroes of the story are trying to understand their surroundings, to find some kind of support point that will help them stay in this powerful flow, to survive not only physically, but also spiritually. The general picture of life created by Bunin in “The Village” is marked by a high degree of artistic and historical authenticity. The idea of ​​Bunin's story is based on the wide and varied experience of Russian literature. Bunin's Durnovka is all of Russia, as the story says. The title is expressive, the generalization is binding and meaningful. Bunin believes that the village forms the national basis of the country and predetermines its development. The story "The Village" shocked me with the merciless truth about the catastrophic lot of the Russian village, presented "in its motley and current everyday life." At the center of the story are Tikhon and Kuzma, two siblings who adhere to different positions in life. In “Village,” brothers Tikhon and Kuzma Krasov express different sides of the “Russian soul.” Tikhon Krasov is an energetic and resourceful acquirer, a cruel, unscrupulous Russian man who bought up the Durnovka bar from the ruined people and took their place in the modern village. Tikhon firmly believed that the most durable and reliable thing in the world is money, which gives prosperity, well-being, and confidence in the future. In order to achieve his goal, Tikhon subordinated his entire life to the pursuit of wealth. On this path, he has to make deals with his conscience and be tough towards his fellow villagers. His temperamental, unbridled temper is most revealed in the episode of the rape of Young. The successful man Tikhon Krasov, who raped Molodaya, his farmhand, and then washed away the sin by marrying her to the dissolute Deniska - a genetic stamp of the age-old lordly fun: attaching his courtyard mistresses to the poor peasants who were favored on this occasion. Marriage for profit does not bring Tikhon family happiness, for he is even deprived of the joy of fatherhood. He has no heirs to whom he could pass on the wealth accumulated over his entire life. The fate of the Krasov brothers is predetermined by the historical cycle of degeneration of Durnovka and the Durnovites. Illegitimate, dead babies are a reminder of approaching death, the finitude of life. And life with its constant fear of death becomes a gradual dying for Tikhon Krasov. The hero's personal drama is aggravated by social discord, when seemingly unshakable foundations collapse. Tikhon Krasov is deeply amazed that in the fertile black earth region there can be hunger, ruin and poverty. The history of the rise of Tikhon Krasov can serve as a kind of result of half a century of development of bourgeois relations in the Russian village. This result did not justify anyone's hopes. The situation of the peasant poor has become even worse, and the Durnovsky peasants, as throughout Russia, are ready to start a hunger riot, and the “ceiling” of life for the richest man in Durnovka remains depressingly low. Neither outbreaks of peasant uprisings, nor glimpses of the people's mind, nor the change of Durnovka's owners changed, from Bunin's point of view, the fundamental foundations of national life. Bunin's own subject of research was the centuries-old deposits of the old in consciousness and in everyday life, which weighed like a curse over the entire agricultural system of Russia. This determined the artistic and historical concept of Bunin’s “village”. Kuzma Krasov has a different understanding of life. This hero is presented to the reader as a truth-seeker, a people's poet who is trying to understand and comprehend the tragedy of his people, their misfortune and guilt. Condemning the atrocities of the ruling circles, Kuzma painfully perceives the poverty, backwardness, darkness of the peasantry, and their inability to rationally organize their lives. Kuzma is an image of broad generalization. This is a type of Russian talented self-taught person, a type of Russian truth-seeker, whose tragically sad life personifies the sad fate of hundreds and thousands of talented Russian people who have not found their way, the use of their powers. His mental interests fade away in the everyday life of Russian life. After all his wanderings, Kuzma returns to his brother in Durnovka and actually comes to terms with what is. The “merciless truth” of Bunin’s story was based on its author’s deep knowledge of the “peasant kingdom.” In it, Bunin shows the life of the peasantry on the eve of the first Russian revolution, the events of which completely destroy the usual course of life in the village. The heroes of the story are trying to understand their surroundings, to find a foothold for themselves. But the turbulent events of the beginning of the century not only aggravate the social problems of the village, but also destroy normal human relationships and lead the heroes of “The Village” to a dead end. Bunin not only saw and depicted the working class, he perceived the proletarian only as a peasant, “spoiled”, “corrupted” by the city. This is exactly how the writer portrays the ridiculous Deniska, who has already been to Tula and is carrying “little books” in his suitcase and pockets - the songbook “Marusya”, “The Wife is a Lecher”. Not only Deniska, but also all the other people of the “new village” are portrayed sharply negatively by Bunin. The attitude towards “rebels” from among the peasants is especially uncompromising. The writer shows how quickly they capitulate to those they tried to rebel against. Some of the “rebels” meekly capitulate to their masters; others, like Mosquito, die an absurd death; still others, such as Vanka Krasny, move away from the places where they tried to “stir up the people.” The revolution was over, the people who tried to support it in the village turned out to be incapable of prolonged protest, everything in the peasant’s life remained as before. Bunin emphasizes the randomness, surprise, senselessness, cruelty and aimlessness of the peasant revolt in Durnovka, symbolizing Russia. Bunin's story "The Village" is terrible with its fierce rejection of popular activity, popular anger against the conditions of savage existence. Bunin, with his inherent talent and detailed knowledge of the village, reflected its weakness, its centuries-old downtroddenness and backwardness, the unthinkability of the situation that has developed in it. In Bunin's picture of village life, the rupture of social and family relations occurs as if in parallel and simultaneously.

MBOU "Borisov Secondary School No. 1 named after Hero of the Soviet Union A.M. Rudogo"

Teacher of Russian language and literature Galutskikh Natalya Andreevna

Language of the story by I.A. Bunin "Village"

O.S. Akhmanov does not differentiate the concept of style and language, believing that “style is one of the differential varieties of language, a linguistic subsystem with a unique vocabulary, phraseological combinations, phrases and constructions, differing from other varieties mainly in the expressive-evaluative properties of its constituent elements and usually associated with certain areas of speech use.

The language of "The Village" is condensed, economical and brief; it is as close as possible to expressive conversational speech. The form of speech is predominantly dialogical; even when it is conducted in the third person, it is ready to move or turns into an oral, emotionally charged statement. Rustic Rus' speaks in Bunin as if it were itself and on its own behalf. The characters in “The Village” think and speak in familiar, set phrases drawn from the arsenal of folk phraseology, commonly used, close to a proverb, proverb, joke, saying, etc.

The role of phraseological units is only partly to give the characters’ speech the greatest expressiveness; least of all is it related to the individualization of speech characteristics. On the contrary, the dominant function of phraseological units is aimed at destroying sharp individual specificity: Bunin strives to convey the national character of the thoughts and words of the characters, and, if possible, give them a single - historical and national - symbolic meaning.

The speech aphorism of Bunin's characters either completely repeats folk phraseological units, or represents variations on familiar folk forms. Folklorization of artistic speech serves for Bunin as a way to achieve its exotericism. His characters speak a common and at the same time poetic language of folk wisdom, containing well-established speech formulas of national consciousness and psychology.

Thus, when talking about the style of the story “The Village”, we will have in mind the writing style, the ideological and artistic characteristics of the writer. Considering the language of the story “The Village”, we will pay more attention to the language of the heroes of the work.

The language of "The Village" differs significantly from the earlier stories.

Undoubtedly, within the framework of the overall plan, one of the greatest difficulties for the writer was the individualization of the characters’ speech and some “dilution” of the dialogue, so that the language of the story as a whole was not too thick and tart. Naturally, the main opportunity for this was the use of author's digressions and landscape inserts.

Bunin well individualized the speech of the Krasov brothers. Both of them are peasants, they spent part of their lives together, and then their paths diverged for a long time. Kuzma wandered, at one time lived in the city, was engaged in self-education. The environment in which he lived from an early age left an indelible imprint on him; in some ways he remained a peasant, but in others he ceased to be one.

Having become rich, Tikhon Krasov to a certain extent moved away from the peasantry. He even left Durnovka and settled in an inn, which he rented not far from the village. He, like Kuzma, also occupies a certain intermediate social position. In his psychology, thinking, and everyday practice, he is far from a peasant. I.A. Bunin needed to be “divided” so that, along with similar elements of colloquial speech, there were features that distinguished the language of one from the language of another.

Kuzma's social quest developed in him a need for long speeches. He loves and knows how to talk. When Kuzma makes his accusatory speeches before Tikhon or argues with Balashkin, his language is almost literary, for he operates mainly with ready-made concepts, sayings, proverbs, which he cites as evidence of the misfortune and guilt of the Russian people. In everyday conversation, Kuzma, along with literary figures of speech, also comes across colloquial words, such as: “especially”, “maybe”, “not long”, “if only”, “at first”. However, Kuzma uses colloquial words very rarely, with selection: for example, he uses the local word “handobit” - instead of “equips”. And Kuzma’s colloquial words are the kind that don’t really grate on the ear. Bunin himself describes Kuzma’s speech this way: “He had a way of minting syllables.” Kuzma is verbose and, as a rule, he gets excited when talking, so most often he speaks in short phrases, jumping from subject to subject.

When the brothers' points of view converge on any issue, there is a convergence in their manner of expressing their thoughts. And, on the contrary, when they disagree, Kuzma’s great erudition, his broader outlook and ability to generalize appear more clearly.

Having decided to marry Young and brushing aside Kuzma’s objections, Tikhon says: “Keep in mind: pound water - there will be water. My word is sacred forever and ever. Since I said it, I will do it. I will not light a candle for my sin, but I will do good, even though they gave me one mite, so that the Lord will remember me for this mite” (1, III, 124). Tikhon’s speech is figurative and strong, but it is clear that he learned his beliefs from church sermons. Kuzma answers him no less forcefully and figuratively: “Remember, brother... Remember, our song is sung and no candles will save you and me” (1, III, 128).

To Tikhon’s remark, in the style of Church Slavonic speech, Kuzma responds “in a secular way,” based on his unique understanding of the situation of the Russian peasant. Leaning towards the fact that the people are more unhappy than guilty, and thereby taking a step towards the truth, Kuzma, however, painfully admits that for him, even though he himself is from the peasants, the peasant soul is darkness.

N.I. Volynskaya examines in great detail the psychological dialogues of the Krasov brothers. The first dialogic scene of Tikhon's meeting and conversation with Kuzma is one of the elements of the plot (after reconciliation with his brother, Kuzma settles in Durnovka). The brothers' dialogue is preceded by a detailed description of the provincial tavern and Kuzma's appearance. The brothers' conversation indicates their complete internal opposites, different attitudes towards people and life, and reveals their view of the Russian people. The contrast between Tikhon and Kuzma is also revealed in their speech style. If Kuzma’s speech is more passionate and accusatory, then Tikhon’s speech is firmer, calmer. He uses a lot of proverbs and sayings that correspond to his psychology: “And I would be glad to go to heaven, but sins are not allowed in” (1, III, 344), “If you read it, you won’t have enough in your pocket” (1, III, 37). Tikhon speaks about the concrete, his desire for generalizations is imperceptible, and there is no stylistic discrepancy in his speech.

In Kuzma’s statements, discussions about the Tatar-Mongols and Slavophiles are combined with colloquial, dialect vocabulary. In the structure of his phrases one can feel the desire to clearly explain everything not only to his brother, but also to himself, to pronounce and understand every thought to the end.

In the first dialogic scene, Bunin does not consistently and in detail convey the entire conversation of the brothers. He confines himself only to milestone moments, and sometimes resorts to a new technique: he partially retells some moment in their conversation, which is largely dictated by the writer’s desire for maximum brevity and generality.

The author's remarks (small in volume) give characteristic gestures, favorite poses, movements that indicate the experiences of the characters. Thus, Tikhon, who grieves over his useless life, often “sighs” (1, III, 33), “frowns” (1, III, 35), “drums his fingers on the table” (1, III, 34), etc. Kuzma's range of feelings is more varied and complex. He says “strictly” (1, III, 35), “energetically” (1, III, 35), surprised, “raises his eyebrows” (1, III, 33), “slams his palm on the table” (1, III, 35 ). The author's remarks not only indirectly express the feelings of the characters, but also contain the author's emotional and evaluative beginning. It is clear that the writer’s sympathy is on the side of Kuzma, and not Tikhon.

Kuzma’s character emerges more fully and deeply in his second dialogue with Tikhon. This scene gives a powerful impetus to the further development of the action. Tikhon repents of the “sin” he committed against Molodaya and follows his brother’s advice to help the offended woman with money, and then hire her to Kuzma as a cook. In the second dialogue, Kuzma speaks mainly. Instead of Tikhon’s direct speech, the author briefly reports the content of his confession, that is, the author’s principle remains leading, which is why we noted this fact earlier, the share of improperly direct speech is so large. This is someone else's speech, directly included in the author's narrative, merging with it and not delimited from it. It is conducted on behalf of the author, retains all its features, but does not stand out against the background of the author’s speech. Essentially, Kuzma, paying little attention to Tikhon’s sometimes mocking and sometimes confirming remarks interrupting him, pronounces a long monologue. Particularly important for understanding the ideological meaning and artistic structure of the story is the entire third dialogue of the Krasov brothers, immersed in an emotional atmosphere, in the last part of the story “Village”. Here the results of the Krasovs’ past life are summed up and the feeling of its futility is given unusually clearly. Having been antagonists all their lives, Tikhon and Kuzma now express approximately the same thoughts about their personal lives, about the historical doom of the Russian people. And the scene-ending picture of Young’s wedding with Deniska, which is the denouement of the plot of the story, embodies in figurative form only what has already been expressed in the dialogue.

Striving for generality, Bunin does not convey in detail the entire conversation between the brothers. Just as before, he compresses it, concentrates the speakers’ remarks and conveys individual parts in the form of the author’s retelling: “And Tikhon Ilyich turned the conversation to action. Apparently, he was lost in thought just now, in the middle of the story, only because he remembered something much more important than executions - some business” (1, III, 121).

Unlike previous dialogues, in the last one Bunin strives to note more what is common in the speech characteristics of the brothers than what is different. The most important thing for a writer is to show what is typical of the linguistic manner of a certain social environment - the bourgeois stratum of society. And yet, in the speech of Tikhon and Kuzma, the individual clearly emerges. Kuzma is more categorical in his assessment of his personal fate and the life of his brother (“Remember: our song with you is sung... Do you hear? We are Durnovites!” (1, III, 123) than in his conclusions about the people. The speech of Tikhon, indulging in bitter reflections, becomes more and more emotionally colored. Vivid figurative expressions and comparisons appear in it. So, for example, he calls his life a “golden cage”, compares it with a cook’s scarf, worn inside out to holes throughout his life, so that it does not fade and on a holiday it is possible I would like to enjoy its flowery side: “And the holiday came - only rags remained... So here I am... with my life” (1, III, 125).

The author's remarks to the words of the characters, which indicate the feelings they experience, also make the dialogue more emotional. Thus, Kuzma listens to Tikhon “almost with fear” (1, III, 121), looks at him with “suffering eyes” (1, III, 123), the elder Krasov’s eyes are “stopped, crazy” (1, III, 121). Compared to previous scenes, the dialogic pattern here has become even subtler and more varied.

We examined some of the most important dialogic scenes in Bunin’s story “The Village” and came to the conclusion: dialogue is the most basic and defining component of the entire ideological and artistic structure of the work.

List of used literature

1. Bunin, I.A. Collected works in 9 volumes/ I.A.Bunin. – M.: Artist. lit., 1965. – 503 p.
2. Bunin, I.A. Favorites / I.A.Bunin. – M.: Artist. lit., 1970. – 496 p.
3. Bunin, I.A. Memoirs / I.A.Bunin. – Paris, 1937. – 371 p.
4. Afanasyev, V.N. I.A.Bunin. Essay on creativity: Educational manual / V.N. Afanasiev. – M., 1966. – 383 p.
5. Akhmanova, O.S. Dictionary of linguistic terms / O.S. Akhmanova. – M., 1966. – 606 p.
6. Blagasova, G.M. On the rhythmic-melodic structure and style of I.A. Bunin’s story “Village” / G.M. Blagasova // Problems of methods, genre and style in Russian literature: interuniversity. Sat. scientific works – M., 1997. – 162 p.
7. Kolobaeva, L.A. Prose by I.A. Bunina: To help teachers, high school students and applicants / L.A. Kolobaeva. – Moscow: Moscow State University Publishing House, 2000. – P. 15-20.
8. Kucherovsky, N.M. I. Bunin and his prose (1887-1917) / N.M. Kucherovsky. – Tula: Priokskoe book. publishing house, 1980. – 390 p.