Understanding of love in the works of Kuprin and Bunin. The theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin (School essays)

The theme of love occupies a special place in the works of Bunin and Kuprin. Of course, writers described this feeling in different ways and discovered new aspects of its manifestation. There are also similar features: they talk about both an all-consuming passion and a tragic feeling that does not stand the test of life situations. The theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin shows it in all its diversity, allowing us to see new facets of this feeling.

A game of contrasts

The theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin is often shown by contrasting the characters of the main characters. If we analyze their works, we can note that in most of them one of the lovers has a stronger character and is ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of their feelings. The other side turns out to be weaker in character, for which public opinion or personal ambitions are more important than feelings.

This can be seen in the example of the heroes of Bunin's story "Dark Alleys". Both heroes met by chance and remembered the time when they were in love. The heroine, Nadezhda, carried love throughout her life - she never met someone who could outshine the image of Nikolai Alekseevich. He got married, however, without having strong feelings for his wife, but he didn’t regret it much. To think that the innkeeper could become his wife, the mistress of the house - for him it was unthinkable. And if Nadezhda was ready to do anything to be with her beloved and continued to love him, then Nikolai Alekseevich is shown as a person for whom social status and public opinion are more important.

The same contrast can be seen in Kuprin’s work “Olesya”. The Polesie witch is shown as a girl with a warm heart, capable of great feeling, ready to sacrifice not only her well-being, but also the peace of her loved ones for the sake of her lover. Ivan Timofeevich is a man of a gentle character, his heart is lazy, incapable of experiencing love of the strength that Olesya had. He did not follow the call of his heart, its movement, so he only had the girl’s beads as a souvenir of this love.

Love in the works of Kuprin

Despite the fact that both writers considered a bright feeling to be a manifestation of goodness, nevertheless, they describe it slightly differently. The theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin has various manifestations; if you read their works, you can understand that most often the relationships they describe have differences.

Thus, A.I. Kuprin most often talks about tragic love, sacrificial love; for a writer, true love certainly had to be accompanied by life’s trials. Because a strong and all-consuming feeling could not bring happiness to the beloved. Such love could not be simple. This can be seen in his works, such as “Olesya”, “Garnet Bracelet”, “Shulamith”, etc. But for the heroes, even such love is happiness, and they are grateful that they had such a strong feeling.

Love in Bunin's stories

For writers, a bright feeling is the most beautiful thing that could happen to a person. Therefore, the theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin occupied a special place, which is why their works worried readers so much. But they each understood it in their own way. In the works of I. A. Bunin, love is a flash of emotions, a happy moment that suddenly appears in life, and then ends just as abruptly. Therefore, in his stories, the characters evoke conflicting feelings among readers.

Thus, the story “Sunstroke” shows a flash of love, a moment of love that illuminated the lives of two people for a brief moment. And after they broke up, the main character felt many years older. Because this fleeting love took away all the best that was in him. Or in the story “Dark Alleys,” the main character continued to love, but was never able to forgive her lover’s weaknesses. And he, although he understood that she had given him her best years, continued to believe that he had done the right thing. And if in Kuprin’s work, love was certainly tragic, then in Bunin it is shown as a more complex feeling.

The unusual side of a bright feeling

Although love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin is a sincere, real relationship between two people, sometimes love can be completely different. This is precisely the side shown in the story “The Mister from San Francisco.” Although this work is not about love, in one episode it is said that one happy couple walked around the ship and everyone, looking at her, saw two lovers. And only the captain knew that they were hired specifically to play a strong feeling.

It would seem, what could this have to do with the theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin? This also happens - this also applies to actors who play lovers on stage, and to such couples who were hired on purpose. But it also happens that a real feeling can arise between such artists. On the other hand, someone, looking at them, gains hope that he will also have love in his life.

The role of details in the description

The description of the feeling of love in both A.I. Kuprin and I.A. Bunin occurs against the background of a detailed description of the everyday life of the heroes. This allows us to show how strong feelings flow in simple life. How can the characters’ attitude towards familiar things and phenomena change? And some details of the characters’ everyday life allow us to better understand the characters’ personalities. The writers managed to organically combine everyday life and bright feeling.

Can everyone feel

In the essay “The Theme of Love in the Works of Bunin and Kuprin” it is also worth noting that only strong people can experience a real feeling, sacrifice everything for their beloved and love him all their lives. After all, why can’t the heroes of their works be together? Because a strong personality falls in love with someone who cannot experience a feeling of equal strength. But thanks to this contrast, the love of such heroes looks even stronger and sincere. A. I. Kuprin and I. A. Bunin wrote about a bright feeling in its various manifestations, so that readers would understand that whatever love there is, it is happiness that it happened in life, and a person should be grateful for what he has He has the ability to love.

Love in reasoning has limitless meaning. Many people express it in their own way. The skill of transformation excites the mind. What are the transitions and expressions of Kuprin and Bunin’s feelings in their works. The beauty of the word, bewitching at once, permeates the lines of such famous works as “Garnet Bracelet” and “Dark Alleys”.

Both poets characterize love as a sacrificial, light, evaporating, floating and vulnerable feeling “from the word of an evil tongue and the depravity of speech.” The main characters of the works experience the feelings of their creators, they are the embodiment of lonely and unbridled love, the frantic power of attraction and rejection, unquestioning decisions, madness and at the same time lightness. What is love according to Kuprin and Bunin? And what is their role?

Many poets of the 18-19 centuries of Golden Rus', such as Pushkin, M.V. Lermontov and other poets of that time built a similar meaning of the embodiment of the white bird of love, hope and calmness.

The reminder of this “caste of poets” is not accidental. Since for many years the greatest poets of Russian poetry and lyricism have tried to build a certain algorithm for the manifestation of love in their works, no matter how rude it may sound. Kuprin and Bunin were not afraid of showing unbridled love and exposing it to the public; without any restrictions, the reader accepts this feeling and experiences it together with the poet and the heroes of the works. The theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin has 3 aspects in its style:

1. Exemplary import
2. Theoretically-textured
3. Allegorical-matophoric;

Each of these aspects is connected by one similar thing - they all have a single goal in their own way, they connect the unique feeling of love in the work with a feeling of sacrifice, affection, warmth of penetration. But there are also differences between the styles of manifestation of love and its passage through the reader. To understand this, let's remember Kuprin's work "The Garnet Bracelet" where the heroine realizes that she missed the feeling of love. And Kuprin’s tough love, from which the hero suffers, sacrifices himself, but remains completely true to his feeling, never gives up his position and tries to analyze the aspect of his passion, the object is always elevated to the heart, the strategic position of courier and arthropy in the allegorical description.

In Bunin, the superficial theme of love is revealed in the same way as in Kuprin, but the inner meaning is not revealed in the same way as in the heroes of “Kuprin Stories”. Windy sensuality and unlimitedness can be seen in almost every work. But “Dark Alleys” is a kind of exception to the theme of manifestations of love.

It seems that the poet is trying to show both the light and dark sides of the manifestation of “love fun”. In some places the theme of love touches the reader’s soul, and in others it touches the body. For Bunin and Kuprin, it was important that their heroes and readers felt the torment of sacrificial love not only in their souls, but also in their bodies. To make this whole feeling seem similar in our time. Therefore, the manifestation of love in the works of both authors is still a relevant topic to this day.

“Love is the same as before: sacrificial, prosaic, tragic, real, imbued with anxiety and emotions, heartbreaking magic of body and soul. And lying has a happy ending,” said the 19th century Russian publicist Arsentiy Gudelman Banshtorden. It was the theme of love between Kuprin and Bunin in prose and lyrics that helped a person gain an understanding of that time, to feel the hero through and through, the feelings that tore apart both body and soul.

“The equality of feelings of allegorical love and their tender care, feelings of unreliability, anxiety and childish impressionability, loss, separation and restoration again,” is the love expression of Kuprin and Bunin. “Percurte adre as ad aspra” - the passage of love like light is the truth of the works of these greatest Russian lyric writers.

I.Introduction……………………………………………………………3

II Main part

1.Biographical information. I.A.Bunin. 4

A.I.Kuprin 6

2. Philosophy of love in the understanding of A.I. Kuprin………………….9

3.The theme of love in the works of I. A. Bunin. 14

4.Image of love in the works of modern authors. 19

III Conclusion. 26

IV.Literature………………………………………………………..27

I.Introduction

The theme of love is called the eternal theme. Over the centuries, many writers and poets have dedicated their works to the great feeling of love, and each of them found something unique and individual in this theme: V. Shakespeare, who sang the most beautiful, most tragic story of Romeo and Juliet, A.S. Pushkin and his famous poems: “I loved you: love can still be...”, the heroes of M.A. Bulgakov’s work “The Master and Margarita,” whose love overcomes all obstacles on the path to their happiness. This list can be continued and supplemented by modern authors and their heroes who dream of love: Roman and Yulka by G. Shcherbakova, simple and sweet Sonechka by L. Ulitskaya, heroes of stories by L. Petrushevskaya, V. Tokareva.

The purpose of my essay: to explore the theme of love in the works of 20th century writers I.A. Bunin, A.I. Kuprin and contemporary writers, 21st century authors L. Ulitskaya, A. Matveeva.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

1) get acquainted with the main stages of the biography and creativity of these writers;

2) reveal the philosophy of love in the understanding of A.I. Kuprin (based on the story “The Garnet Bracelet” and the story “Olesya”);

3) identify the features of the depiction of love in the stories of I.A. Bunin;

4) present the work of L. Ulitskaya and A. Matveeva from the point of view of continuing the traditions of the love theme in Russian literature.

II Main part

1.Biographical information. I.A. Bunin (1870 – 1953).

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a wonderful Russian writer, poet and prose writer, a man of great and complex destiny. He was born in Voronezh into an impoverished noble family. I spent my childhood in the village. Early on he learned the bitterness of poverty and worrying about a piece of bread.

In his youth, the writer tried many professions: he served as an extra, a librarian, and worked in newspapers.

At the age of seventeen, Bunin published his first poems, and from that time on he forever linked his destiny with literature.

Bunin's fate was marked by two circumstances that did not pass unnoticed for him: being a nobleman by birth, he did not even receive a high school education. And after leaving his native shelter, he never had his own home (hotels, private apartments, living as a guest and out of favor, always temporary and other people’s shelters).

In 1895 he came to St. Petersburg, and by the end of the last century he was already the author of several books: “To the End of the World” (1897), “Under the Open Air” (1898), a literary translation of “The Song of Hiawatha” by G. Longfellow, poems and stories.

Bunin deeply felt the beauty of his native nature, had an excellent knowledge of the life and customs of the village, its customs, traditions and language. Bunin is a lyricist. His book “Under the Open Air” is a lyrical diary of the seasons, from the first signs of spring to winter landscapes, through which the image of the homeland close to the heart appears.

Bunin's stories of the 1890s, created in the traditions of realistic literature of the 19th century, open up the world of village life. The author truthfully talks about the life of an intellectual - a proletarian with his spiritual turmoil, about the horror of the senseless vegetation of people “without family or tribe” (“Halt”, “Tanka”, “News from the Motherland”, “Teacher”, “Without Family or Tribe”, "Late at night") Bunin believes that with the loss of beauty in life, the loss of its meaning is inevitable.

Over the course of his long life, the writer traveled to many countries in Europe and Asia. Impressions from these trips served as material for his travel sketches (“Shadow of the Bird,” “In Judea,” “Temple of the Sun,” and others) and short stories (“Brothers” and “The Master from San Francisco”).

Bunin did not accept the October Revolution decisively and categorically, rejecting as “bloody madness” and “general madness” any violent attempt to rebuild human society. He reflected his feelings in his diary of the revolutionary years, “Cursed Days,” a work of furious rejection of the revolution, published in exile.

In 1920, Bunin went abroad and fully experienced the fate of an emigrant writer.

Few poems were written in the 20-40s, but among them were lyrical masterpieces - “And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn...”, “Mikhail”, “The bird has a nest, the beast has a hole...”, “ Rooster on a church cross." The book of Bunin, the poet, “Selected Poems,” published in 1929 in Paris, confirmed the author’s right to one of the first places in Russian poetry.

Ten new books of prose were written in exile - “Rose of Jericho” (1924), “Sunstroke” (1927), “Tree of God” (1930), etc., including the story “Mitya’s Love” (1925). This story is about the power of love, with its tragic incompatibility between the carnal and the spiritual, when the hero’s suicide becomes the only “deliverance” from the everyday life.

From 1927 to 1933, Bunin worked on his largest work, “The Life of Arsenyev.” In this “fictional autobiography,” the author reconstructs Russia’s past, his childhood and youth.

In 1933, Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize “for the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in artistic prose.”

By the end of the 30s, Bunin increasingly felt homesick; during the Great Patriotic War, he rejoiced at the successes and victories of the Soviet and allied troops. I greeted the victory with great joy.

During these years, Bunin created stories included in the collection “Dark Alleys”, stories only about love. The author considered this collection to be the most perfect in craftsmanship, especially the story “Clean Monday”.

In exile, Bunin constantly revised his already published works. Shortly before his death, he asked that his works be published only according to the latest author's edition.

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin (1870-1938) is a talented writer of the early 20th century.

Kuprin was born in the village of Narovchatovo, Penza region, into the family of a clerical employee.

His fate is surprising and tragic: early orphanhood (his father died when the boy was one year old), continuous seventeen-year seclusion in government institutions (orphanage, military gymnasium, cadet corps, cadet school).

But gradually Kuprin’s dream matured of becoming “a poet or novelist.” Poems written by him at the age of 13-17 have been preserved. Years of military service in the provinces gave Kuprin the opportunity to learn the everyday life of the tsarist army, which he later described in many works. In the story “In the Darkness”, the stories “Psyche” and “On a Moonlit Night”, written during these years, artificial plots still predominate. One of the first works based on personally experienced and seen was a story from army life “From the Distant Past” (“Inquiry”) (1894)

With “Inquiry” begins a chain of works by Kuprin related to the life of the Russian army and gradually leading to the stories “Duel” “Overnight” (1897), “Night Shift” (1899), “Army Ensign” (1897), “Campaign” (1901) ) etc. In August 1894, Kuprin retired and went on a journey through the south of Russia. He unloads barges with watermelons on the Kyiv piers, and organizes an athletic society in Kyiv. In 1896, he worked for several months at one of the factories in Donbass, in Volyn he served as a forest inspector, an estate manager, a psalm-reader, was engaged in dentistry, played in a provincial troupe, worked as a land surveyor, and became close with circus performers. Kuprin's stock of observations is supplemented by persistent self-education and reading. It was during these years that Kuprin became a professional writer, gradually publishing his works in various newspapers.

In 1896, the story “Moloch” was published, based on Donetsk impressions. The main theme of this story - the theme of Russian capitalism, Moloch - sounded unusually new and significant. The author tried to express the idea of ​​​​the inhumanity of the industrial revolution using allegory. Almost until the end of the story, the workers are shown as patient victims of Moloch; they are often compared to children. And the result of the story is logical - an explosion, a black wall of workers against the background of flames. These images were intended to convey the idea of ​​popular rebellion. The story “Moloch” became a landmark work not only for Kuprin, but for all Russian literature.

In 1898, the story “Olesya” was published, one of the first works in which Kuprin appears to readers as a magnificent artist of love. The theme of beautiful, wild and majestic nature, which was previously close to him, is firmly included in the writer’s work. The tender, generous love of the forest “witch” Olesya is contrasted with the timidity and indecisiveness of her beloved, the “city” man.

In St. Petersburg magazines, Kuprin published the stories “Swamp” (1902), “Horse Thieves” (1903), “White Poodle” (1904) and others. In the heroes of these stories, the author admires the perseverance, loyalty in friendship, and incorruptible dignity of ordinary people. In 1905, the story “The Duel,” dedicated to M. Gorky, was published. Kuprin wrote to Gorky, “Everything bold and violent in my story belongs to you.”

Attention to all manifestations of living things, vigilance of observations are distinguished by Kuprin’s stories about animals “Emerald” (1906), “Starlings” (1906), “Zaviraika 7” (1906), “Yu-Yu”. Kuprin writes about the love that illuminates human life in the stories “Shulamith” (1908), “Pomegranate Bracelet” (1911), depicting the bright passion of the biblical beauty Shulamith and the tender, hopeless and selfless feeling of the little official Zheltkov.

The variety of subjects was suggested to Kuprin by his life experience. He rises in a hot air balloon, in 1910 he takes a flight on one of the first airplanes in Russia, studies diving and descends to the seabed, and is proud of his friendship with Balaklava fishermen. All this decorates the pages of his works with bright colors and a spirit of healthy romance. The heroes of Kuprin's novels and stories are people of various classes and social groups of Tsarist Russia, from millionaire capitalists to tramps and beggars. Kuprin wrote “about everyone and for everyone”...

The writer spent many years in exile. He paid heavily for this mistake in life - he paid with severe homesickness and creative decline.

“The more talented a person is, the more difficult it is for him without Russia,” he writes in one of his letters. However, in 1937 Kuprin returned to Moscow. He publishes the essay “Native Moscow”, and new creative plans are ripening for him. But Kuprin’s health was undermined, and in August 1938 he died.

2. Philosophy of love in the understanding of A. I. Kuprin

“Olesya” is the artist’s first truly original story, written boldly and in his own way. “Olesya” and the later story “River of Life” (1906) were considered by Kuprin to be among his best works. “Here is life, freshness,” the writer said, “the struggle with the old, outdated, impulses for the new, the better.”

“Olesya” is one of Kuprin’s most inspired stories about love, man and life. Here the world of intimate feelings and the beauty of nature are combined with everyday pictures of the rural outback, the romance of true love is combined with the cruel morals of the Perebrod peasants.

The writer introduces us to the atmosphere of harsh village life with poverty, ignorance, bribes, savagery, and drunkenness. The artist contrasts this world of evil and ignorance with another world of true harmony and beauty, painted just as realistically and fully. Moreover, it is the bright atmosphere of great true love that inspires the story, infecting with impulses “toward a new, better.” “Love is the brightest and most understandable reproduction of my Self. It is not in strength, not in dexterity, not in intelligence, not in talent... individuality is not expressed in creativity. But in love,” - so, clearly exaggerating, Kuprin wrote to his friend F. Batyushkov.

The writer was right about one thing: in love the whole person, his character, worldview, and structure of feelings are revealed. In the books of great Russian writers, love is inseparable from the rhythm of the era, from the breath of time. Starting with Pushkin, artists tested the character of their contemporary not only through social and political actions, but also through the sphere of his personal feelings. A true hero became not only a person - a fighter, activist, thinker, but also a person of great feelings, capable of deeply experiencing, loving with inspiration. Kuprin in “Oles” continues the humanistic line of Russian literature. He tests the modern man - the intellectual of the end of the century - from the inside, with the utmost measure.

The story is built on a comparison of two heroes, two natures, two world relationships. On the one hand, Ivan Timofeevich is an educated intellectual, a representative of urban culture, and quite humane; on the other hand, Olesya is a “child of nature,” a person who has not been influenced by urban civilization. The balance of natures speaks for itself. Compared to Ivan Timofeevich, a man of a kind but weak, “lazy” heart, Olesya rises with nobility, integrity, and proud confidence in her strength.

If in his relationships with Yarmola and the village people Ivan Timofeevich looks brave, humane and noble, then in his interactions with Olesya the negative sides of his personality also appear. His feelings turn out to be timid, the movements of his soul are constrained and inconsistent. “Tearful expectation”, “subtle apprehension”, and the hero’s indecision highlight the wealth of soul, courage and freedom of Olesya.

Freely, without any special tricks, Kuprin draws the appearance of the Polesie beauty, forcing us to follow the richness of shades of her spiritual world, always original, sincere and deep. There are few books in Russian and world literature where such an earthly and poetic image of a girl living in harmony with nature and her feelings would appear. Olesya is Kuprin’s artistic discovery.

A true artistic instinct helped the writer reveal the beauty of the human personality, generously endowed by nature. Naivety and authority, femininity and proud independence, “flexible, agile mind”, “primitive and vivid imagination”, touching courage, delicacy and innate tact, involvement in the innermost secrets of nature and spiritual generosity - these qualities are highlighted by the writer, drawing the charming appearance of Olesya, an integral, original, free nature, which flashed as a rare gem in the surrounding darkness and ignorance.

Revealing the originality and talent of Olesya, Kuprin touched upon those mysterious phenomena of the human psyche that are being unraveled by science to this day. He speaks of the unrecognized powers of intuition, premonitions, and the wisdom of thousands of years of experience. Realistically comprehending Olesya’s “witchcraft” charms, the writer expressed the fair conviction “that Olesya had access to that unconscious, instinctive, foggy, strange knowledge obtained by chance experience, which, being centuries ahead of exact science, lives on, mixed with funny and wild beliefs, in the dark, closed masses of the people, passed on like the greatest secret from generation to generation.”

In the story, for the first time, Kuprin’s cherished thought is so fully expressed: a person can be beautiful if he develops, and not destroys, the physical, spiritual and intellectual abilities given to him by nature.

Subsequently, Kuprin will say that only with the triumph of freedom will a person in love be happy. In “Oles” the writer revealed this possible happiness of free, unfettered and unclouded love. In fact, the flowering of love and human personality constitutes the poetic core of the story.

With an amazing sense of tact, Kuprin makes us relive the anxious period of the birth of love, “full of vague, painfully sad sensations,” and its happiest seconds of “pure, complete, all-consuming delight,” and long joyful meetings of lovers in a dense pine forest. The world of spring, jubilant nature - mysterious and beautiful - merges in the story with an equally beautiful outpouring of human feelings.

The bright, fairy-tale atmosphere of the story does not fade even after the tragic ending. Over everything insignificant, petty and evil, true, great earthly love triumphs, which is remembered without bitterness - “easily and joyfully.” The final touch of the story is typical: a string of red beads on the corner of the window frame among the dirty disorder of a hastily abandoned “hut on chicken legs.” This detail gives compositional and semantic completeness to the work. A string of red beads is the last tribute to Olesya’s generous heart, the memory of “her tender, generous love.”

The cycle of works about love between 1908 and 1911 ends with “The Garnet Bracelet.” The creative history of the story is curious. Back in 1910, Kuprin wrote to Batyushkov: “Do you remember, this is the sad story of the little telegraph official P.P. Zheltkov, who was so hopelessly, touchingly and selflessly in love with Lyubimov’s wife (D.N. - now the governor in Vilno).” We find further decoding of the real facts and prototypes of the story in the memoirs of Lev Lyubimov (son of D.N. Lyubimov). In his book “In a Foreign Land,” he says that “Kuprin drew the outline of the “Garnet Bracelet” from their “family chronicle.” “Members of my family served as prototypes for some of the characters, in particular, for Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein - my father, with whom Kuprin was on friendly terms.” The prototype of the heroine - Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina - was Lyubimov's mother - Lyudmila Ivanovna, who, indeed, received anonymous letters, and then a garnet bracelet from a telegraph official who was hopelessly in love with her. As L. Lyubimov notes, it was “a curious case, most likely of an anecdotal nature.

Kuprin used an anecdotal story to create a story about real, great, selfless and selfless love, which “is repeated only once every thousand years.” Kuprin illuminated the “curious incident” with the light of his ideas about love as a great feeling, equal in inspiration, sublimity and purity only to great art.

In many ways, following the facts of life, Kuprin nevertheless gave them a different content, interpreted the events in his own way, introducing a tragic ending. Everything ended well in life, suicide did not happen. The dramatic ending, fictionalized by the writer, gave extraordinary strength and weight to Zheltkov’s feelings. His love conquered death and prejudice, it raised Princess Vera Sheina above the vain well-being, love sounded like the great music of Beethoven. It is no coincidence that the epigraph to the story is Beethoven's Second Sonata, the sounds of which are heard in the finale and serve as a hymn to pure and selfless love.

And yet “Garnet Bracelet” does not leave such a bright and inspired impression as “Olesya”. K. Paustovsky subtly noticed the special tone of the story, saying about it: “the bitter charm of the “Garnet Bracelet.” Indeed, “The Garnet Bracelet” is permeated with a lofty dream of love, but at the same time it contains a bitter, mournful thought about the inability of contemporaries to have great real feelings.

The bitterness of the story is also in Zheltkov’s tragic love. Love won, but it passed by as some kind of ethereal shadow, coming to life only in the memories and stories of the heroes. Perhaps too real - the everyday basis of the story interfered with the author's intention. Perhaps Zheltkov’s prototype, his nature, did not carry within itself that joyfully majestic force that was necessary to create the apotheosis of love, the apotheosis of personality. After all, Zheltkov’s love concealed not only inspiration, but also inferiority associated with the limitations of the very personality of the telegraph official.

If for Olesya love is part of being, part of the multicolored world surrounding her, then for Zheltkov, on the contrary, the whole world narrows down to love, which he admits in his suicide letter to Princess Vera. “It happened,” he writes, “that I am not interested in anything in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people - for me, my whole life lies only in you.” For Zheltkov, there is only love for a single woman. It is quite natural that losing her becomes the end of his life. He has nothing left to live for. Love did not expand or deepen his connections with the world. As a result, the tragic ending, along with the hymn of love, also expressed another, no less important thought (although, perhaps, Kuprin himself was not aware of it): one cannot live by love alone.

3.The theme of love in the works of I. A. Bunin

In the theme of love, Bunin reveals himself as a man of amazing talent, a subtle psychologist who knows how to convey the state of the soul wounded by love. The writer does not avoid complex, frank topics, depicting the most intimate human experiences in his stories.

In 1924 he wrote the story “Mitya’s Love”, the following year - “The Case of Cornet Elagin” and “Sunstroke”. And in the late 30s and during the Second World War, Bunin created 38 short stories about love, which made up his book “Dark Alleys,” published in 1946. Bunin considered this book his “best work in terms of conciseness, painting and literary skill "

Love in Bunin’s depiction amazes not only with the power of artistic representation, but also with its subordination to some internal laws unknown to man. They rarely break through to the surface: most people will not experience their fatal effects until the end of their days. Such a depiction of love unexpectedly gives Bunin’s sober, “merciless” talent a romantic glow. The proximity of love and death, their conjugation were obvious facts for Bunin and were never subject to doubt. However, the catastrophic nature of existence, the fragility of human relationships and existence itself - all these favorite Bunin themes after the gigantic social cataclysms that shook Russia were filled with a new formidable meaning, as is, for example, seen in the story “Mitya’s Love”. “Love is beautiful” and “Love is doomed” - these concepts, having finally come together, coincided, carrying in the depths, in the grain of each story, the personal grief of Bunin the emigrant.

Bunin's love lyrics are not great in quantity. It reflects the poet's confused thoughts and feelings about the mystery of love... One of the main motives of love lyrics is loneliness, inaccessibility or impossibility of happiness. For example, “How bright, how elegant spring is!..”, “Calm gaze, like the gaze of a doe...”, “At a late hour we were in the field with her...”, “Loneliness”, “Sadness of eyelashes, shining and black...” and etc.

Bunin's love lyrics are passionate, sensual, saturated with a thirst for love and are always filled with tragedy, unfulfilled hopes, memories of past youth and lost love.

I.A. Bunin has a unique view of love relationships that distinguishes him from many other writers of that time.

In Russian classical literature of that time, the theme of love always occupied an important place, and preference was given to spiritual, “platonic” love over sensuality, carnal, physical passion, which was often debunked. The purity of Turgenev's women became a household word. Russian literature is predominantly the literature of “first love”.

The image of love in Bunin’s work is a special synthesis of spirit and flesh. According to Bunin, the spirit cannot be comprehended without knowing the flesh. I. Bunin defended in his works a pure attitude towards the carnal and physical. He did not have the concept of female sin, as in “Anna Karenina”, “War and Peace”, “The Kreutzer Sonata” by L.N. Tolstoy, there was no wary, hostile attitude towards the feminine, characteristic of N.V. Gogol, but there was no vulgarization of love. His love is an earthly joy, a mysterious attraction of one sex to another.

The works devoted to the theme of love and death (often touching in Bunin’s works) are “The Grammar of Love”, “Easy Breathing”, “Mitya’s Love”, “Caucasus”, “In Paris”, “Galya Ganskaya”, “Henry”, “Natalie”, “Cold Autumn”, etc. It has long been and very correctly noted that love in Bunin’s work is tragic. The writer is trying to unravel the mystery of love and the mystery of death, why they often come into contact in life, what is the meaning of this. Why does the nobleman Khvoshchinsky go crazy after the death of his beloved, the peasant woman Lushka, and then almost deifies her image (“Grammar of Love”). Why does the young high school student Olya Meshcherskaya, who, as it seemed to her, have the amazing gift of “easy breathing”, die, just starting to blossom? The author does not answer these questions, but through his works he makes it clear that this has a certain meaning in earthly human life.

The heroes of “Dark Alleys” do not resist nature; often their actions are completely illogical and contradict generally accepted morality (an example of this is the sudden passion of the heroes in the story “Sunstroke”). Bunin’s love “on the brink” is almost transgressing the norm, going beyond the boundaries of everyday life. For Bunin, this immorality can even be said to be a certain sign of the authenticity of love, since ordinary morality turns out, like everything established by people, to be a conventional scheme into which the elements of natural, living life do not fit.

When describing risque details related to the body, the author must be impartial so as not to cross the fragile line that separates art from pornography. Bunin, on the contrary, worries too much - to the point of a spasm in her throat, to the point of passionate trembling: “... her eyes simply darkened at the sight of her pinkish body with a tan on her shiny shoulders... her eyes turned black and widened even more, her lips parted passionately "("Galya Ganskaya"). For Bunin, everything connected with gender is pure and significant, everything is shrouded in mystery and even holiness.

As a rule, the happiness of love in “Dark Alleys” is followed by separation or death. The heroes revel in intimacy, but it leads to separation, death, and murder. Happiness cannot last forever. Natalie "died on Lake Geneva in premature birth." Galya Ganskaya was poisoned. In the story “Dark Alleys,” the master Nikolai Alekseevich abandons the peasant girl Nadezhda - for him this story is vulgar and ordinary, but she loved him “all century.” In the story "Rusya", the lovers are separated by the hysterical mother of Rusya.

Bunin allows his heroes only to taste the forbidden fruit, to enjoy it - and then deprives them of happiness, hopes, joys, even life. The hero of the story “Natalie” loved two people at once, but did not find family happiness with either one. In the story “Henry” there is an abundance of female characters for every taste. But the hero remains lonely and free from the “women of men.”

Bunin's love does not go into the family channel and is not resolved by a happy marriage. Bunin deprives his heroes of eternal happiness, deprives them because they get used to it, and habit leads to loss of love. Love out of habit cannot be better than lightning-fast but sincere love. The hero of the story “Dark Alleys” cannot tie himself into family ties with the peasant woman Nadezhda, but having married another woman from his circle, he does not find family happiness. The wife cheated, the son was a spendthrift and a scoundrel, the family itself turned out to be “the most ordinary vulgar story.” However, despite its short duration, love still remains eternal: it is eternal in the hero’s memory precisely because it is fleeting in life.

A distinctive feature of love in Bunin’s depiction is the combination of seemingly incompatible things. The strange connection between love and death is constantly emphasized by Bunin, and therefore it is no coincidence that the title of the collection “Dark Alleys” here does not mean “shady” at all - these are dark, tragic, tangled labyrinths of love.

True love is great happiness, even if it ends in separation, death, and tragedy. This conclusion, albeit late, is reached by many of Bunin’s heroes who have lost, overlooked, or destroyed their love themselves. In this late repentance, late spiritual resurrection, enlightenment of the heroes lies that all-purifying melody that speaks of the imperfection of people who have not yet learned to live. Recognize and cherish real feelings, and about the imperfections of life itself, social conditions, the environment, circumstances that often interfere with truly human relationships, and most importantly, about those high emotions that leave an unfading trace of spiritual beauty, generosity, devotion and purity. Love is a mysterious element that transforms a person’s life, giving his destiny uniqueness against the background of ordinary everyday stories, filling his earthly existence with special meaning.

This mystery of existence becomes the theme of Bunin’s story “The Grammar of Love” (1915). The hero of the work, a certain Ivlev, having stopped on the way to the house of the recently deceased landowner Khvoshchinsky, reflects on “an incomprehensible love that turned an entire human life into some kind of ecstatic life, which, perhaps, should have been the most ordinary life,” if not for the strange charm of the maid Lushki. It seems to me that the mystery lies not in the appearance of Lushka, who “was not at all good-looking,” but in the character of the landowner himself, who idolized his beloved. “But what kind of person was this Khvoshchinsky? Crazy or just some dazed, focused soul?” According to neighboring landowners. Khvoshchinsky “was known in the district as a rare clever man. And suddenly this love fell on him, this Lushka, then her unexpected death - and everything went to dust: he shut himself up in the house, in the room where Lushka lived and died, and sat on her bed for more than twenty years...” What can you call it? is this a twenty year seclusion? Insanity? For Bunin, the answer to this question is not at all clear.

The fate of Khvoshchinsky strangely fascinates and worries Ivlev. He understands that Lushka entered his life forever, awakening in him “a complex feeling, similar to what he once experienced in an Italian town when looking at the relics of a saint.” What made Ivlev buy from Khvoshchinsky’s heir “at an expensive price” a small book “The Grammar of Love”, which the old landowner never parted with, cherishing memories of Lushka? Ivlev would like to understand what the life of a madman in love was filled with, what his orphaned soul was fed for many years. And following the hero of the story, the “grandchildren and great-grandsons” who have heard the “voluptuous legend about the hearts of those who loved,” and along with them the reader of Bunin’s work, will try to reveal the secret of this inexplicable feeling.

An attempt to understand the nature of love feelings by the author in the story “Sunstroke” (1925). “A strange adventure” shakes the lieutenant’s soul. Having parted with a beautiful stranger, he cannot find peace. At the thought of the impossibility of meeting this woman again, “he felt such pain and the uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was overcome by the horror of despair.” The author convinces the reader of the seriousness of the feelings experienced by the hero of the story. The lieutenant feels “terribly unhappy in this city.” "Where to go? What to do?" - he thinks lost. The depth of the hero’s spiritual insight is clearly expressed in the final phrase of the story: “The lieutenant was sitting under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older.” How to explain what happened to him? Maybe the hero came into contact with that great feeling that people call love, and the feeling of the impossibility of loss led him to realize the tragedy of existence?

The torment of a loving soul, the bitterness of loss, the sweet pain of memories - such unhealed wounds are left in the destinies of Bunin's heroes by love, and time has no power over it.

It seems to me that the peculiarity of Bunin, the artist, is that he considers love to be a tragedy, a catastrophe, madness, a great feeling, capable of both infinitely elevating and destroying a person.

4.Image of love in the works of modern authors.

The theme of love is one of the most important themes in modern Russian literature. Much has changed in our lives, but man with his boundless desire to find love and penetrate its secrets remains the same.

In the 90s of the twentieth century, the totalitarian regime was replaced by a new democratic government that declared freedom of speech. Against the background of this, the sexual revolution somehow naturally and not too noticeably took place. A feminist movement also appeared in Russia. All this led to the emergence of the so-called “women’s prose” in modern literature. Women writers mainly address what most concerns readers, i.e. to the theme of love. “Women’s novels” come first - the sugary-sentimental melodramas of the “women’s series.” According to literary critic V.G. Ivanitsky, “women’s novels” are fairy tales repainted in modern tones and transplanted into modern settings. They have an epic, pseudo-folklore nature, smoothed out as much as possible and simplified. That's what's in demand! This literature is built on proven clichés, traditional cliches and stereotypes of “femininity” and “masculinity” - stereotypes that are so hateful to any person with taste.”

In addition to this low-quality literary production, which is undoubtedly the influence of the West, there are wonderful and brilliant authors who write serious and deep works about love.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya belongs to a family with its own traditions, with its own history. Both of her great-grandfathers, Jewish artisans, were watchmakers and were subjected to pogroms more than once. Watchmakers - artisans - gave their children an education. One grandfather graduated from Moscow University in 1917, Faculty of Law. Another grandfather - Commercial School, Conservatory, served 17 years in camps in several stages. He wrote two books: on demography and music theory. He died in exile in 1955. Parents were research assistants. L. Ulitskaya followed in their footsteps and graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University with a degree in biology and genetics. She worked at the Institute of General Genetics, committed a crime before the KGB - she read and reprinted some books. This was the end of his scientific career.

She wrote her first story, “Poor Relatives,” in 1989. She cared for her sick mother, gave birth to sons, and worked as a director at the Jewish Theater. She wrote the stories “Sonechka” in 1992, “Medea and Her Children”, “Merry Funeral”, in recent years she has become one of the brightest phenomena of modern prose, attracting both readers and critics.

“Medea and Her Children” - a family chronicle. The story of Medea and her sister Alexandra, who seduced Medea’s husband and gave birth to his daughter Nina, is repeated in the next generation, when Nina and her niece Masha fall in love with the same man, which ultimately leads Masha to commit suicide. Are children responsible for the sins of their fathers? In one of her interviews, L. Ulitskaya speaks about the understanding of love in modern society:

“Love, betrayal, jealousy, suicide for love reasons - all these things are as ancient as man himself. These are truly human actions - animals, as far as I know, do not commit suicide because of unhappy love; in extreme cases, they will tear apart a rival. But every time has generally accepted reactions - from confinement in a monastery to a duel, from stoning to ordinary divorce.

People who grew up after the great sexual revolution sometimes think that everything can be agreed upon, prejudices can be abandoned, and outdated rules can be despised. And within the framework of mutually granted sexual freedom, save the marriage and raise children.

I have met several such unions in my life. I suspect that in such contractual relationships, one of the spouses is still the secretly suffering party, but has no choice but to accept the proposed conditions. As a rule, such contractual relationships sooner or later fall apart. And not every psyche can withstand what “an enlightened mind agrees to”

Anna Matveeva was born in 1972 in Sverdlovsk. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of USU.. But, despite her youth, Matveeva is already a famous prose writer and essayist. Her story “Dyatlov Pass” reached the finals of the Ivan Petrovich Belkin Literary Prize. The story “St. Helena Island,” included in this collection, was awarded the international literary prize “Lo Stellato” in 2004, which is awarded in Italy for the best story.

She worked at Oblastnaya Gazeta, as a press secretary (Gold - Platinum - Bank).

She won the Cosmopolitan magazine short story competition twice (1997, 1998). She has published several books. She has been published in the magazines “Ural” and “New World”. Lives in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Matveeva’s stories, one way or another, are built around the “female” theme. Judging by external parameters, it seems that the author’s attitude to this issue is skeptical. Her heroines are young women with a masculine mentality, strong-willed, independent, but, alas, unhappy in their personal lives.

Matveeva writes about love. “And it presents the plot, not in some metaphorical or metaphysical way, but one to one, without shunning elements of melodrama. She is always curious to compare her rivals - how they look, how they dress. It is also interesting to evaluate the subject of rivalry, and with a woman’s eye rather than a writer’s eye. In her stories, it often happens that people who are well acquainted meet after passing the first distance in life - from youth to youth. Here the author is interested in who succeeded and who became a failure. Who has “aged” and who not so much, who has acquired a marketable appearance, and who, on the contrary, has declined. It seems that all of Matveeva’s heroes are her former classmates, whom she “meets” in her own prose.”

Another characteristic feature. Anna Matveeva’s heroes differ from the traditional “little people” of compassionate Russian prose in that they are not poor at all, but, on the contrary, earn money and lead a corresponding lifestyle. And since the author is precise in details (expensive clothing lines, tour attractions), the texts acquire a certain glossiness

However, in the absence of “professional rightness,” Anna Matveeva’s prose has the rightness of naturalness. In fact, melodrama is very difficult to write; you can’t achieve anything with hard work: you need to have a special gift for storytelling, the ability to “revive” the hero and then properly provoke him. The young writer fully possesses such a bouquet of abilities. The little story “Pas de Trois”, which gives the title to the whole book, is pure melodrama.

The heroine named Katya Shirokova, one of the performers of the pas de trois against the backdrop of Italian antiquities and modern landscapes, soars in the sky of her love for a married man. It was no coincidence that she ended up in the same tour group as her chosen one, Misha Idolov and his wife Nina. Expectation of an easy and final victory over the old one - she is already 35! - the wife should end in Rome, the beloved city - with daddy's money. In general, A. Matveeva’s heroes do not know material problems. If they get tired of their native industrial landscape, they immediately leave for some foreign country. Sit in the Tuileries - “on a thin chair whose legs rest on the sand, lined with pigeon feet” - or take a walk in Madrid, or even better (poor Katya’s option, defeated by her old wife) - give up on Capri, live there for a month - another .

Katya, she is a nice—by definition of a rival—an intelligent girl, and also a future art critic, who continually pesters dear Misha with her erudition. (“I still really want to show you the Baths of Caracalla.” - “Caracal what?”). But the dust shaken out of the old books into the young head did not bury the natural mind. Katya is able to learn and understand people. She also copes with the difficult situation into which she found herself due to the selfishness of her youth and lack of parental love. Despite all her material well-being, in the spiritual sense Katya, like many children of the new Russians, is an orphan. She is exactly that fish soaring in the sky. Misha Idolov “gave her what her mother and father had denied her. Warmth, admiration, respect, friendship. And only then – love.”

However, she decides to leave Misha. “You are so much better than me, and him, by the way, too, that it would be wrong...” - “How long ago have you begun to evaluate actions from this point of view?” - Nina mimicked.

“When I have children,” Katya thought, lying in the bed of the Pantalon Hotel, “it doesn’t matter whether they are a boy or a girl, I will love them. It is so simple".

In someone else's husband she looks for a father, and in his wife she finds, if not a mother, then an older friend. Although, as it turns out, Nina at her age also contributed to the destruction of Katya’s family. Alexey Petrovich, Katya's father, is her first lover. “My daughter, Nina thought, will very soon become an adult, she will definitely meet a married man, fall in love with him, and who can guarantee that this man will not turn out to be Katya Shirokova’s husband?.. However, this is not the worst option...”

The nice girl Katya becomes an unexpected and therefore more effective instrument of retribution. She refuses the Idol, but her impulse (equally noble and selfish) no longer saves anything. “Looking at her, Nina suddenly felt that she didn’t need Misha Idolov now - even in the name of Dashka. She will not be able to sit next to him as before, hug him awake, and a thousand more time-forged rituals will never happen again. The fast-paced tarantella ends, the last chords sound, and the trio, united by common days, breaks up for bright solo performances.”

“Pas de Trois” is a small elegant story about the education of feelings. All her heroes are quite young and recognizably modern new Russian people. Its novelty lies in the emotional tone in which the eternal problems of the love triangle are solved. No exaltation, no tragedies, everything is everyday - businesslike, rational. One way or another, you have to live, work, give birth and raise children. And don’t expect holidays and gifts from life. Moreover, they can be bought. Like a trip to Rome or Paris. But sadness about love - humbly - muffled - still sounds in the ending of the story. Love that constantly happens, despite the stubborn opposition of the world. After all, for him, both today and yesterday, she is a kind of surplus, only a brief and sufficient flash for the birth of a new life. The quantum nature of love resists being turned into a constant and convenient source of warmth.”

If in the story the truth of everyday life, the usual low truths, triumphs, then in the stories - elevating deception. Already the first of them - “Supertanya”, playing on the names of Pushkin’s heroes, where Lensky (Vova), naturally, dies, and Evgeny, as it should, at first rejects the married girl in love - ends with the victory of love. Tatyana waits for the death of her rich and cool, but unloved husband and unites with her dear Eugenik. The story sounds ironic and sad, like a fairy tale. “Eugenik and Tanya seem to have disappeared into the damp air of the great city, their traces disappear in St. Petersburg courtyards, and only Larina, they say, has their address, but rest assured, she will not tell it to anyone...”

Light irony, gentle humor, a condescending attitude towards human weaknesses and shortcomings, the ability to compensate for the discomfort of everyday existence through the efforts of the mind and heart - all this, of course, attracts and will attract the widest reader. Anna Matveeva was initially not a guild writer, although today’s literature exists mainly thanks to such fiction writers who are briefly tied to their time. The problem, of course, is that its potential mass reader does not buy books today. Those who read romance portable novels in paperbacks do not live up to Matveeva’s prose. They need a rougher drug. The stories that Matveeva tells have happened before, are happening now and will always happen. People will always fall in love, cheat, and be jealous.

III.Conclusion

Analyzing the works of Bunin and Kuprin, as well as modern authors - L. Ulitskaya and A. Matveeva, I came to the following conclusions.

Love in Russian literature is portrayed as one of the main human values. According to Kuprin, “individuality is not expressed in strength, not in dexterity, not in intelligence, not in creativity. But in love!

Extraordinary strength and sincerity of feeling are characteristic of the heroes of the stories of Bunin and Kuprin. Love seems to say: “Where I stand, it cannot be dirty.” The natural fusion of the frankly sensual and the ideal creates an artistic impression: the spirit penetrates the flesh and ennobles it. This, in my opinion, is the philosophy of love in the true sense.

The creativity of both Bunin and Kuprin is attracted by their love of life, humanism, love and compassion for people. Convexity of the image, simple and clear language, precise and subtle drawing, lack of edification, psychologism of the characters - all this brings them closer to the best classical tradition in Russian literature.

L. Ulitskaya and A. Matveeva - masters of modern prose - also

alien to didactic straightforwardness, their stories and stories contain a pedagogical charge that is so rare in modern fiction. They remind not so much of the fact that “know how to cherish love”, but of the complexity of life in a world of freedom and seeming permissiveness. This life requires great wisdom, the ability to look at things soberly. It also requires greater psychological security. The stories that modern authors have told us about are certainly immoral, but the material is presented without disgusting naturalism. Emphasis on psychology rather than physiology. This involuntarily reminds us of the traditions of great Russian literature.

Literature

1. Agenosov V.V. Russian literature of the twentieth century. - M.: Drofa, 1997.

2.Bunin I.A. Poems. Stories. Stories. - M.: Bustard: Veche, 2002.

3Ivanitsky V.G. From women's literature to the “women's novel.” - Social Sciences and Modernity No. 4, 2000.

4.Krutikova.L.V.A. I. Kuprin. - Leningrad., 1971.

5. Kuprin A.I. Stories. Stories. – M.: Bustard: Veche, 2002.

6. Matveeva A Pa – de – trois. Stories. Stories. – Ekaterinburg, “U-Factoria”, 2001.

7.Remizova M.P. Hello, young prose... - Banner No. 12, 2003.

8. Slavnikova O.K. Forbidden Fruit - New World No. 3, 2002. .

9. Slivitskaya O.V. On the nature of Bunin’s “external depiction”. – Russian literature No. 1, 1994.

10Shcheglova E.N. L. Ulitskaya and her world. - Neva No. 7, 2003 (p. 183-188)

The theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin, two Russian writers dating back to the first half of the 20th century, is common in their works. The heroes of their stories and stories are characterized by extraordinary sincerity and strength of feeling. It subjugates all human thoughts. However, the theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin is almost always revealed tragically. The main characters are invariably doomed to suffer. In order to preserve their feeling, they should part forever. We see such an ending in all the stories of Ivan Alekseevich. The theme of tragic love is explored in great detail.

Love in the works of Bunin

The heroes of his works live in anticipation of love. They strive to find it and often die, burned by it. This feeling in his works is selfless, selfless. It requires no reward. About such love you can say: “Strong as death.” It will be a joy, not a misfortune, for her to go to the torment.

For Bunin, love does not last long - in marriage, in family, in everyday life. This is a dazzling short flash that illuminates to the very depths of the hearts and souls of lovers. A tragic ending, death, oblivion, suicide is inevitable.

Ivan Alekseevich created a whole series of stories dedicated to describing the various shades of this feeling. You probably won’t find a single work in it with a happy ending. The feeling described by the author, one way or another, is short-lived and ends, if not tragically, then at least dramatically. One of the most famous stories in this series is “Sunstroke.”

In it, the heroine goes to a monastery, and the hero suffers from longing for her. He loved this girl with all his soul. However, in spite of everything, his feeling for her remains a bright spot in his life, albeit with an admixture of something mysterious, incomprehensible, bitter.

The love of the heroes of the works "Olesya" and "Garnet Bracelet"

The theme of love is the main theme in Kuprin's work. Alexander Ivanovich created many works dedicated to this feeling. In the story “Olesya” by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, the heroine fell in love with a “kind, but only weak” person. The theme of tragic love in Kuprin’s work is also revealed in his other work, “The Garnet Bracelet.”

The author tells the story of a certain poor employee Zheltkov, describing his feelings for the wealthy married princess Vera Nikolaevna. For him, the only way out is suicide. Before committing it, he says, like a prayer, the words: “Hallowed be thy name.” In Kuprin's works, the heroes may seem unhappy. However, this is only partly true. They are happy simply because they once had love in their lives, and this is the most wonderful feeling. Thus, the theme of tragic love in Kuprin’s work has a life-affirming connotation. Olesya from the story of the same name regrets only that she does not have a child left from her beloved. Zheltkov dies while pronouncing a blessing on his beloved woman. These are romantic and beautiful love stories that are so rare in real life...

The heroes of Kuprin's works are dreamy individuals endowed with a passionate imagination. However, they are also laconic and impractical. These traits are fully revealed after they pass the test of love.

So, for example, Zheltkov did not talk about love for Vera, thereby dooming himself to torment and suffering. However, he could not hide his feeling, so he wrote letters to her. Zheltkov from the story “The Garnet Bracelet” experienced an unrequited, sacrificial feeling that completely took possession of him. It would seem that this is a minor official, an unremarkable person. However, he had a truly enormous gift - he knew how to love. He subordinated his entire being, his entire soul to this feeling. When her husband asked him not to bother her with his letters anymore, Zheltkov decided to die. He simply could not imagine existing without the princess.

Description of nature, contrast between love and life

For Kuprin, the description of nature plays a very important role. It is the background against which events take place. In particular, the love that broke out between Ivan Timofeevich and Olesya is presented against the backdrop of a spring forest. The theme of love in the works of Bunin and Kuprin is characterized by the fact that in the works of these authors, high feelings are powerless before ambition, calculation and the cruelty of life. After a collision with everyday life, it disappears. Instead, all that remains is a feeling of satiety.

Love passes by

In the works of these authors, everyday life and love, everyday life and this high feeling cannot be combined. However, it also happens that people, without noticing their happiness, pass by it. And from this side the theme is revealed. For example, the heroine of “The Pomegranate Bracelet,” Princess Vera, late notices Zheltkov’s feelings for her, but at the end of the work she learns what all-consuming, selfless love means. For a brief moment it illuminated her life.

Human imperfection and life-affirming moments

There is probably something in man himself that prevents us all from noticing goodness and beauty. This is selfishness, which is often expressed in the desire to be happy at any cost, even if the other person suffers from it. In the works of Kuprin and Bunin we find all these reflections. However, despite the drama present in them, one can also see something life-affirming in the stories and stories. A high feeling helps the characters of Kuprin and Bunin to go beyond the circle of vulgarity and everyday life that surrounds them. And it doesn’t matter that it’s only for a moment, that the price of this moment is often a whole life.

Finally

So, we have answered the question of how the topic is revealed. In conclusion, we note that the stories and stories of these authors teach us the ability to discern a real feeling, to be able not to miss it and not to hide it, because one day it may be too late. Both Bunin and Kuprin believe that love is given to a person in order to illuminate his life, to open his eyes.

It can be noted that both authors, in works dedicated to this feeling, most often resort to the technique of contrast. In their stories and stories they contrast two lovers. These are different people both morally and spiritually. In addition, they often have a big difference in social status.

Topic: Love in the works of Kuprin and Bunin 5.00 /5 (100.00%) 1 vote

Many writers have written about love, almost everyone. And each work showed his personal worldview, emphasizing its originality and originality. This happened with both the famous Russian writers. Each of them showed their own view of love.
And love is the most beautiful and noble. We see this in the story “The Garnet Bracelet”. In “The Garnet Bracelet” the gift of great love seems to be “tremendous happiness”, the only meaning of existence for Zheltkov. The poor official Zheltkov differs from the other heroes in the strength and subtlety of his experiences. Zheltkov's romantic love for Princess Vera Nikolaevna ends tragically. A poor official dies blessing his beloved woman before dying, he says, “Hallowed be thy name.” The heroes of the stories are always dreamy individuals with a passionate imagination, but at the same time they are impractical and not verbose. These traits are most clearly revealed when the heroes undergo tests of love. Zhelktov is silent about his love for Princess Vera, voluntarily dooming himself to suffering and torment.
In love, love is not only the feelings of a man and a woman, but also love for nature, for the Motherland. All stories about love have a unique plot and original characters. But they are all united by one common “core”: the suddenness of love insight, the passion and short duration of the relationship, the tragic end. For example, in the story “Dark Alleys” we are presented with pictures of everyday life and everyday dullness. But suddenly, in the owner of the inn, Nikolai Alekseevich recognizes his young love, the beautiful Nadezhda. He betrayed this girl thirty years ago. A whole life has passed since they broke up. It turned out that both heroes remained lonely. Although Nikolai Alekseevich is quite triple in life, he is unhappy. His wife cheated on him and left him. The son grew up to be a very bad person, “without a heart, without honor, without a conscience.”