Philosophical works of Bunin. Philosophical problems in creativity I

The works of I. A. Bunin are filled with philosophical issues. The main issues that concerned the writer were questions of death and love, the essence of these phenomena, their influence on human life.

The theme of death is explored most deeply by Bunin in his story “The Man from San Francisco” (1915). In addition, here the writer tries to answer other questions: what is a person’s happiness, what is his purpose on earth.

The main character of the story - a gentleman from San Francisco - is full of snobbery and complacency. All his life he strived for wealth, setting famous billionaires as an example for himself. Finally, it seems to him that the goal is close, it’s time to relax, live for his own pleasure - the hero goes on a cruise on the ship “Atlantis”.

He feels like the “master” of the situation, but that’s not the case. Bunin shows that money is a powerful force, but it is impossible to buy happiness, prosperity, life with it... The rich man dies during his brilliant journey, and it turns out that no one needs him anymore when he’s dead. He is transported back, forgotten and abandoned by everyone, in the hold of the ship.

How much servility and admiration this man saw during his life, the same amount of humiliation his mortal body experienced after death. Bunin shows how illusory the power of money is in this world. And the person who bets on them is pathetic. Having created idols for himself, he strives to achieve the same well-being. It seems that the goal has been achieved, he is at the top, for which he worked tirelessly for many years. What did you do that you left for your descendants? Nobody even remembered his name.

Bunin emphasizes that all people, regardless of their condition or financial situation, are equal before death. It is she who allows you to see the true essence of a person. Physical death is mysterious and mysterious, but spiritual death is even more terrible. The writer shows that such a death overtook the hero much earlier, when he devoted his life to accumulating money.

The theme of beauty and love in Bunin’s work is represented by very complex and sometimes contradictory situations. For a writer, love is madness, a surge of emotions, a moment of unbridled happiness, which ends very quickly, and only then is realized and understood. Love, according to Bunin, is a mysterious, fatal feeling, a passion that completely changes a person’s life.

This is exactly the meeting between the lieutenant and the beautiful stranger in Sunstroke. It was a moment of happiness that cannot be returned or resurrected. When she leaves, the lieutenant sits “under the canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older,” for this feeling suddenly arose and suddenly disappeared, leaving a deep wound in his soul. But still love is a great happiness. According to Bunin, this is the meaning of human life.

The work of I. A. Bunin solves many philosophical problems, the main of which are the problem of death and life, as well as love, which the writer equates to life itself, its meaning.

Composition: Bunin. I.A. - Miscellaneous - "Philosophical problems of one of the works of Russian literature of the twentieth century. (The meaning of life in I. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”)"

"Philosophical problems of one of the works of Russian literature of the twentieth century. (The meaning of life in I. Bunin's story "The Gentleman from San Francisco")"

Philosophical problems of one of the works of Russian literature of the twentieth century.

(The meaning of life in I. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”)

Although we are mortal, we must

will not submit to corruptible things,

but, as far as possible, rise

to immortality and live according to

with what is best in us. Aristotle.

One thousand nine hundred and fifteen. The First World War is in full swing. Its fire was fanned by no means without the participation of the “selected society”. “They say the Brians, the Milyukovs,” writes I. Bunin, “but we mean absolutely nothing. They prepare millions of people for slaughter, and we can only be indignant, nothing more. Ancient slavery? Nowadays slavery is such, in comparison with which ancient slavery is a mere trifle.” It is this civilized slavery that Bunin showed in his story “The Man from San Francisco.” The plot of the work is simple. The hero of the story, a wealthy American businessman whose name is not even mentioned, having achieved high material well-being, decides to arrange a long trip for his family. But all plans are ruined by one unforeseen circumstance - the death of the hero.

The main idea is not just a story about an American businessman. It's bigger. It would seem that the main character dies - the plot potential has been exhausted. But the boundaries of the story turn out to be much wider than the boundaries of history. The reader sees a panorama of the Gulf of Neopolitan, a sketch of a street market, images of the boatman Lorenz and the Abruzzese highlanders, and, finally, the image of “Atlantis” - a steamship returning a dead gentleman to America.

“Atlantis” closes the compositional circle of the story. If at the beginning the gentleman himself is having fun on the ship - communicating with rich people, watching the bright times of the “lovers”, then in the end the same thing happens with other passengers, and “deep below them, at the bottom of the dark hold,” stands the coffin of the gentleman who I once planned to have fun for two whole years. The coffin in the hold is a kind of verdict on a mindlessly partying society, a reminder that rich people are by no means omnipotent and do not always determine their own destiny. Wealth is by no means a guarantee of happiness. The latter is in completely different human dimensions.

A person’s independence from his social status or wealth is the main theme of the work.

In addition, the story reveals the theme of happiness. True, the gentleman and his family have a unique idea of ​​him. For the hero, happiness is to sit and look at the frescoes next to the billionaire; for his daughter, it is to marry a prince. Love, like other feelings in a “selected society,” is artificial. Proof of this is the couple specifically hired to play lovers.

The master's plans are being disrupted already in Nepal. Nature, beyond the control of the master and therefore unpredictably capricious, forces him to go to Capri.

The author describes in great detail the routine of the gentleman's existence. Three times in the story the plot movement almost stops, canceled first by a methodical presentation of the cruise route, then by a measured account of the “daily routine” on the Atlantis, and, finally, by a careful description of the order established in the Neopolitan hotel. The “graphs” and “points” of the master’s existence are mechanically lined: “firstly”, “secondly”, “thirdly”; “at eleven”, “at five”, “network hours”. In general, the regimented lifestyle of the American and his companions sets a monotonous rhythm for the description of the entire social world, forcing the reader to see the artificiality, mechanicalness and monotony of the life of a “selected society.”

An expressive contrast to the punctual world of the master is the unpredictable element of true life. Against the background of the clear routine of the hero’s existence, his death seems “illogical.” But the actions of the hotel employees and the “selected society” turn out to be even more “illogical” and unpredictable. They are clearly not happy that the death of the master interrupted their fun. The hotel owner feels guilty for failing to hide what happened. With the death of the hero, his power over people is lost. In response to the request of the wife of a gentleman from San Francisco to find the coffin, the hotel owner cynically offers a box of soda water, in which the body is delivered to the ship.

It turns out that everything he has accumulated has no meaning in front of that eternal law to which everyone, without exception, is subject. It is obvious that the meaning of life is not in acquiring wealth, but in something that cannot be valued monetaryly - worldly wisdom, kindness, spirituality.

While working on a story, the writer makes the following entry in his diary: “I cried while writing the end.” Bunin does not mourn his hero at all, but feels pain from the deadening life of the rich who decide the fate of ordinary people.

Soloukhina O.V.

Recently, in literary criticism, especially in the West, the perception of a work outside the historical and literary context, outside the knowledge of the author’s concept, relying only on one’s own emotions during reading and free associations “about”, has become “legalized.”

With this approach to a work of art, each reading differs from the previous one to the same extent as the unique individuality of the readers and the unique time with its hierarchy of values. There is nothing objective left in the work, nothing independent of the arbitrary interpretation of the reader, who has his own sympathies, moods, etc. There is no need to study “contexts”, the author’s intention, realities, or to restore the genealogy of the work. And this means nothing more than a rejection of cultural heritage - living for today and blindly indulging in this life.

In order for the meaning of the work not to be blurred, in order to preserve the historical and artistic value, it is necessary to try to get closer to the author’s program of understanding, which, of course, exists in every work, but is recognized only with a conscious desire to read the work adequately to the intention of its creator. There is a direct connection between the author's concept and the reader's insight into the meaning of the text. Guidelines for readers, among other components, are knowledge of the fundamentals of the author’s worldview, the moral and philosophical basis that is hidden behind the artistic images of each great work. The spiritual quest of the artist is dictated not by an external goal - to explore this or that subject, but by a natural predisposition to a certain area of ​​​​thought. The reader should not ignore those aspects of the writer’s spiritual self-awareness that, at first glance, did not play a fundamental role, since everything is ultimately reflected in creativity.

Bunin the artist was shaped by Russian culture, folk art, and classical literature, which he knew very well and which remained for him throughout his life a “criterion” of value. But the writer’s original national vision of the world, his penetrating knowledge of Russian history, literature, and folklore were naturally combined with a related attention to the philosophical and ethical systems of other peoples. A widely educated man, Bunin freely addressed the cultures of other countries - and these appeals left their mark on his works, influenced the creation of images, and suggested plots. A special role in the writer’s spiritual self-awareness was played by the “organic, hereditary attraction to the East,” which Gorky noted. Despite the fact that creativity researchers have repeatedly mentioned the influence of Eastern philosophical and religious systems, in particular Buddhism, on Bunin, this topic remains unexplored. And at the same time, attention to Buddhism accompanied the artist throughout his life, giving a unique tone to his worldview, the concept of life, death, and personal development. “As for Bunin,” wrote D.V. Ioannisyan, his passion for Buddhist philosophy is not a passing whim. He repeatedly returns to the development of the provisions of this teaching that are closest to him in all subsequent years.”

It is important to emphasize that the impetus for Bunin’s “path to the East” was Russia, the desire to understand its essence, predict its future, and get in touch with the past. The fascination with Buddhism was secondary, it formed part of a soul already formed by the Russian cultural tradition, but without taking it into account, much in the writer’s vision of the world will remain incomprehensible. It must be borne in mind that the philosophy of Buddhism influenced Bunin both in a positive direction (development of the theme of historical memory) and in a negative direction (ideas of fatalism in explaining human actions).

The question immediately arises: can a person with such a sensory perception of the world, one might say, with such a voluptuous attitude towards every moment of life, adhere to a philosophy whose goal is to deliver a person from suffering by extinguishing in himself all the desires of sensations that tie us to the world? Isn't there a contradiction in this? No, says Bunin. Moreover, in the story “Night” and in the religious and philosophical treatise “The Liberation of Tolstoy” he develops a view that the truths expressed by the Buddha can only be deeply felt by people of a special kind - artists who carry within themselves a “heightened sense of all-being”, to whom Bunin included both Tolstoy and himself. The feeling of the world and oneself in it is so great that it overwhelms the personality, pushing the boundaries of not only the five senses, but also one’s own life. “Yes,” said Bunin, “I feel all my ancestors in me... And further, further I feel my connection with the “beast, animals - and I have a sense of smell, and eyes, and hearing - for everything - not just human, but visceral.” — “animal.” Therefore, I love life “like an animal.” All its manifestations—I am connected with it, with nature, with the earth, with everything that is in it, under it, above it.”

The personality is so great that it cannot be contained only in itself, it is possible for it to remember what happened before birth, and memory torments with its mystery - in fact, it is these feelings that lay the first bridge to Buddhism with its concept of the chain of births and deaths. Bunin perceived Buddhism as something long awaited by his consciousness, as a secretly cherished memory of his spiritual homeland. Therefore, it is more correct to speak not about the influence of Buddhism on his work, but about the meeting of the artist’s independently formed individual views with some aspects of the teachings of Buddhism, adopted later.

In the novel “The Life of Arsenyev,” Bunin shows how, from the “beginning of days,” every contact with the world resonates with Arsenyev with a feeling of the immensity of the knowledge given to him. The perception of life is so heightened that one’s own life becomes, as it were, not enough. Memory is erased endlessly, tormented by vague memories of previous births. The writer gives his hero a feeling of belonging to the oceanic, tropical world,” which he “knew already in childhood, looking at pictures with date palms”: “In the Tambov field, under the Tambov sky, with such extraordinary force I remembered everything that I saw, what I lived once, in my former, immemorial existences, that later, in Egypt, in Nubia, in the tropics, I could only say to myself: yes, yes, all this is exactly as I first remembered thirty years ago! Much in Arsenyev’s perception can be called Buddhist - this is the absence of a sense of the beginning and end of life, and “memories” of disintegrating previous rebirths; the feeling of a single flow (“there is no nature separate from us, every slightest movement of air is the movement of our life”) and the deceptiveness of earthly laps (“the earth is always beckoning and always deceiving us”). These feelings were so long-awaited in young Arsenyev (and therefore, we can say, in Bunin), so that already in the early stories they were embodied in a painful search for an integral philosophical system.

Early Bunin is a path to oneself. His stories are quite large in volume, they contain an abundance of rhetorical constructions, and philosophical questions are addressed directly to the reader. Bunin’s movement “toward oneself” can be defined as a movement from the “boredom of life” to its self-sufficient joy, from the perception of the world as given, settled into endless rapture with every moment of one’s stay on earth.

The early stories contain all the images that will be developed later. At an early stage, the impossibility of reconciliation with death, the learned mystery of life, in a word, the questions that torment the writer with their unsolved nature, are still of a universal human nature. But gradually the writer’s searches expand and are filled with the spirit of other philosophical systems, especially the Buddhist East.

The story “Silence,” written in 1901, develops oriental motifs of merging with the world and finding peace in it: “It seems to me that someday I will merge with this eternal silence, on the threshold of which we stand, and that happiness lies only in it " Finding peace and happiness in merging with the all-existence of the world is characteristic of Buddhism and other eastern religions - Brahmaism, Hinduism. The words “eternal silence” most accurately convey the concept of this peace. Did Bunin himself realize that many of the tones of his worldview are characteristic, let’s say right away, not only of Buddhism, but also of other worldview systems - a feeling within himself of all his ancestors, faith in cycles of rebirth, a thirst for merging with the whole world, an understanding of the tragic dependence between love , desires and suffering - coincide with the ideas of Buddha's sermons? Yes, of course, judging by his statements, numerous references to teaching texts, and willing retellings of legends about the life of the Buddha. But the question arises: when did he consciously turn to Buddhism, what books did he read, is there any concrete evidence of his interest?

Probably, the impetus for turning to Buddhism was the young Bunin’s fascination with Tolstoyism and Tolstoy, whose views were close to Indian philosophy. For the first time in Bunin’s work, the words “Buddha is the teacher of humanity” are uttered by Tolstoyan Kamensky, the hero of the early story “At the Dacha” (1895). More than forty years later, in “The Liberation of Tolstoy,” Bunin will correlate his views on life, death, and the main moments of existence with Tolstoy’s “Buddhist” sayings.

Not the least role was played by the general fascination with the East, which gripped the creative intelligentsia at the turn of the century. In those years, books about the philosophies and religions of India (scientific works of Max Müller, G. Oldenberg) were intensively translated, excerpts from the Upanishads, sayings of Buddha and stories about his life were published. A whole galaxy of Russian Buddhologists appeared: F. Shcherbatskaya, S.F. Oldenburg, O.O. Rosenberg. In the works of A. Bely, A. Blok, D. Merezhkovsky, Vl. Solovyov, the question of the fate of Russia was decided depending on the victory of the East or the West, which acted as moral and ethical categories with symbolic meaning.

There were also social reasons for Bunin’s turn to Buddhism: they were in the social conditions of the early 20th century. Researchers have repeatedly written about the tragic moods of the Russian intelligentsia during the years of reaction after the 1905 revolution. Awareness of the imperfection of existence, the need for a new state of affairs and the complete impossibility of somehow changing reality - is it not this spiritual state of part of the Russian intelligentsia that can explain the attraction to mysticism, to Eastern religions, which preached deliverance from the hardships of life not through social changes, but by extinguishing yourself of all aspirations, renunciation of all activities? These sentiments greatly worried M. Gorky, who in his articles of 1905-1910 passionately called for getting rid of the “Asian pessimism” that had overwhelmed the literary circles of Russia, and to revive “stubborn faith in truth, the eternal thirst for justice, revolutionary fervor and boundless courage.”

Bunin, as can be judged from his works and archival materials, perceived Buddhism from a specifically artistic point of view, accepting and using everything that was closest to his nature, worldview and without going into those most complex speculative positions regarding which Buddhologists, according to F. Shcherbatsky, “ wandering in the dark."

From quotes and echoes in Bunin’s works, one can determine that he loved to read most of all from the vast Buddhist literature. These are books that Bunin never parted with: Sutta-Nipata, the most ancient part of the Buddhist canon, and G. Oldenberg’s study “Buddha. His life, teaching and community."

The trip to Ceylon, which lasted from mid-December 1910 to mid-April 1911, was decisive for the formation of the artist’s views. Recognizing oneself, coming face to face with the philosophy to which he was predisposed since childhood, realizing its significance for his life - this is both the internal motive that prompted Bunin to take this journey and its result.

In the State Oryol Museum I.S. Turgenev, where most of Bunin’s archive is kept, there are dozens of books, guidebooks, notebooks with translations made by V.N. Muromtseva-Bunina and the nephew of the writer N.A. Pusheshnikov. Bunin carefully prepared for each of his trips. His travel notes about Ceylon - only a few yellowed sheets have survived - are vivid visual impressions, a desire to record what he saw objectively, impartially. True, the writer cannot resist sending his nephew lilac-blue petals of the sacred flower from the altar of Buddha with the request: “Save.”

The study of geography, history and literature of the countries of the Buddhist East quickly responded. It was after the trip that Bunin began to freely, from memory, quote the sayings of Buddha. In 1912, he signed one of his photographs with the words of a slightly paraphrased Buddhist sutta: “May all beings be happy, both weak and strong, both visible and invisible, both born and unborn.”

Bunin saw and experienced a lot during the trip. His letters from Ceylon were, as never before, “imbued with strength and passion.” He will remember this trip all his life. Ceylon will now forever be included in his Works - this is the city of the “King of Kings”, and “The Night of Renunciation”, and “Gothami”, and “Compatriot”, and other stories. Five years later, in 1915, Bunin writes in his diary: “A quiet, warm day. I'm trying to sit down and write. The heart and head are quiet, empty, lifeless. Sometimes complete despair. Is this the end for me as a writer? I just want to write about Ceylon...”

During a three-week voyage across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon, Bunin experienced rare moments in life when everything insignificant goes away and a person is close to comprehending the truth. Bunin's spiritual revolution is similar to Tolstoy's Arzamas horror. But for Bunin, the comprehension of truth occurred not through horror, melancholy and incredible fear, but through joyful communion.

The hero of the story “Compatriot” (1916) Zotov made a similar journey, and the shock he experienced forever connected his life with the East: “... after all, it was we, the Aryans, who climbed into the tropics after Tibet, who gave birth to this terrifying in its immutable wisdom teaching...” And then he passionately begins to assure that ““all the power lies in” what he had already seen and felt the Indian tropics, perhaps thousands of years ago, through the eyes and soul of his infinitely long-ago ancestor... he experienced extraordinary feelings on the way here... “The spectacle of a new world, new heavens was opening up before me, but it seemed to me... that I had already seen them once”... the feverish breath of our terrible Ancestral Home reached us.”

It is known that there was a real prototype of Zotov and the hero of one of Veresaev’s “Non-fictional stories”. But, according to V.N. Afanasyev, Bunin endowed Zotov with traits “coming from the worldview characteristic of the author himself.” Romain Rolland, having read the stories “Compatriot” and “Brothers,” writes to his correspondent: “His (Bunin’s - O.S.) consciousness itself, I feel, is permeated (against his own will) by the spirit of vast, incomprehensible Asia.”

In 1925-1926, Bunin returned to the lyrical and philosophical short stories that were characteristic of the beginning of his journey, and created two stories inspired by his trip to Ceylon - “Many Waters” and “Night”, in which the system of his philosophical views, translated into an artistic form. “Many Waters” - a record of the thoughts and feelings that the hero-author experienced during a three-week voyage across the Indian Ocean - Bunin called one of his “best writings.” All the hero’s attention is focused on his inner state: “... it seemed that the soul of all humanity, the soul of millennia was with me and in me.” The hero of the story “Many Waters” expands the boundaries of memory; he, comprehending that one life that “performs its mysterious journey through our bodies,” joins eternal life, eternal time, or rather, even the absence of time, to All-Being.

The story “Night” is autobiographical. Bunin wrote about this in “The Liberation of Tolstoy.” This story is also significant in that it shows the constancy of Bunin’s thoughts, the connection between his early works and his later ones. The situations reproduced in the stories “Fog” (1901) and “Night” (1925) coincide in many details. But in his early story, Bunin posed questions that tormented him with the lack of answers, but now he strives to fully understand his perception of life, his worldview. The action (the action of thought) in both stories takes place in the dead of night, before dawn. Why is the state that engulfs the heroes of the stories only possible at night, in the early morning hours? The hero of “The Fog” does not know: “I don’t understand the silent secrets of this night, just like I don’t understand anything in life.” The hero of “Night” answers: “What is night? The fact that the slave of time and space is free for a certain period of time, that his earthly assignment, his earthly name, title have been removed from him, and that if he is awake, a great temptation is in store for him: fruitless “philosophizing,” a fruitless desire for understanding, then there is a profound misunderstanding; a misunderstanding of neither the world, nor oneself surrounded by it, nor one’s beginning, nor one’s end.”

Not everyone, however, is given the opportunity to touch the “great secret of the world.” This requires a certain mental attitude - a feeling of sadness and loneliness - and a certain sensitivity of nature. The hero of “Night” very sincerely expresses his idea of ​​the world as an endless stream of being. Let us emphasize again that the author’s own sense of the world seems to find support in Buddhist philosophy. “My birth is in no way my beginning,” writes Bunin, then quotes the words of Buddha: “I remember that once, myriads of years ago, I was a kid.” And he continues: “And I myself experienced a similar thing... But it is so likely that my ancestors lived precisely in the Indian tropics. How could they, who passed on to their descendants so many times and finally passed on to me almost the exact shape of the ear, chin, eyebrow arches, how could they not also pass on their thinner, weightless flesh, associated with India? There are those who are “madly” afraid of snakes and spiders, that is, contrary to their minds, but this is a feeling of some kind of former existence, a dark memory that, for example, the ancient ancestor of the feared person was constantly in danger of death from a cobra, a scorpion, a tarantula.” And he adds quite definitely: “My ancestor lived in India.”

But this is exactly what Bunin’s hero asked himself in his early stories, with the torment of bewilderment and disbelief in his own feelings: “Where was I before that time in which my quiet infancy was foggy?

Nowhere, I answer myself...

No. I don’t believe this, just as I don’t believe and will never believe in death, in destruction. Better to say: I don’t know. And your ignorance is also a mystery” (“At the Source of Days”).

L-ra: Russian literature. - 1984. - No. 4. - P. 47-59.

Throughout his creative activity, Bunin created poetic works. Bunin's original, unique artistic style cannot be confused with the poems of other authors. The writer's individual artistic style reflects his worldview.

Bunin responded to complex questions of existence in his poems. His lyrics are multifaceted and deep in philosophical questions of understanding the meaning of life. The poet expressed the mood of confusion, disappointment and at the same time knew how to fill his poems with inner light, faith in life, in the greatness of beauty. His lyrical hero has a holistic worldview and radiates a joyful, cheerful attitude towards the world.

Bunin lived and worked at the turn of two centuries: XIX and XX. At this time, modernist movements were rapidly developing in literature and art. During this period, many poets were looking for unusual and new forms to express their thoughts and feelings and were engaged in word creation. Quite often, experiments in the field of form and content shocked readers. Bunin remained faithful to the traditions of Russian classical poetry, which were developed by Fet, Baratynsky, Tyutchev, Polonsky and many others. He wrote realistic lyric poetry and did not strive to experiment with words. The wealth of Russian language and material in Bunin’s contemporary world was quite enough for the poet.

The lyrics of I. A. Bunin reflect the theme of memory, the past, the mystery of time as a philosophical category:

The blue wallpaper has faded,

The images and daguerreotypes were removed.

The only color left there is blue,

Where they hung for many years.

The heart forgot, it forgot

Much that was once loved!

Only those who are no longer there

An unforgettable trace has been left.

These lines contain the idea of ​​the transience of time, the every second change of the universe and the person in it. Only memory preserves our loved ones.

I. A. Bunin, in his subtle, masterfully polished philosophical poems, expressed the idea of ​​​​the cosmic nature of the soul of each individual person. Philosophical themes of the connection between man and nature, life and death, good and evil took the main place in I. Bunin’s lyrics. The poet writes about the universal significance of the scientific discoveries of the brilliant researcher Giordano Bruno, who at the moment of execution proclaimed:

I'm dying because I want to.

Scatter, executioner, scatter my ashes, despicable one!

Hello Universe, Sun! Executioner! -

He will scatter my thoughts throughout the Universe!

Bunin the philosopher felt the continuity of existence, the eternity of matter, and believed in the power of creation. Human genius turns out to be equal to the boundless and eternal cosmos. Bunin could not come to terms with the necessity of leaving life, of condemning every person to death. According to the recollections of friends and relatives, he did not believe that he would disappear forever:

The day will come when I will disappear.

And this room is empty

Everything will be the same: table, bench.

Yes, the image is ancient and simple.

In his poems, Bunin tried to find the harmony of the world, the meaning of human existence. He affirmed the eternity and wisdom of nature, defined it as an inexhaustible source of beauty. Bunin's life is always inscribed in the context of nature. He was confident in the rationality of all living things and argued “that there is no nature separate from us, that every slightest movement of air is the movement of our own life.”

Landscape lyrics gradually become philosophical. In a poem, the main thing for the author is thought. Many of the poet’s poems are devoted to the theme of life and death:

My spring will pass, and this day will pass,

But it's fun to wander around and know that everything passes,

Meanwhile, the happiness of living will never die,

While the dawn brings out the dawn above the earth

And young life will be born in its turn.

In his lyrical work, Bunin comes to the idea of ​​human responsibility to the past, present and future. Not a single person comes into this world without a goal; living among people, everyone leaves their mark. This idea is confirmed in the poem “Pskov Forest”, where the question is asked: “Are we worthy of our heritage?” Bunin believed that life is worth living only for creation, love and beauty. The poet, having traveled almost the whole world and read thousands of books in search of answers to the “eternal” questions of existence, did not believe in supernatural miracles, but believed in the mind and will of a person capable of changing the world for the better.

The theme of love and death in I. A. Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing”

The story “Easy Breathing” was written by I. Bunin in 1916. It reflected the philosophical motives of life and death, the beautiful and the ugly, which were the focus of the writer’s attention. In this story, Bunin develops one of the leading problems for his work: love and death. In terms of artistic mastery, “Easy Breathing” is considered the pearl of Bunin’s prose.

The narrative moves in the opposite direction, from the present to the past, the beginning of the story is its ending. From the first lines, the author immerses the reader in the sad atmosphere of the cemetery, describes the grave of a beautiful girl, whose life was absurdly and terribly interrupted in the prime of her life: “In the cemetery, above its clay embankment, there stands a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth.

April, gray days; The monuments of the spacious county cemetery are still visible far away through the bare trees, and the cold wind rings and rings at the foot of the cross.

A rather large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the cross itself, and in the medallion is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes.

This is Olya Meshcherskaya.”

Bunin makes us feel sorrow at the sight of the grave of a fifteen-year-old girl, bright and beautiful, who died at the very beginning of spring. It was the spring of her life, and she was in it like an unblown bud of a beautiful flower in the future. But a fabulous summer will never come for her. Young life and beauty have disappeared, now eternity hangs over Olya: “the cold wind rings and rings,” without stopping, “like a porcelain wreath” on her grave.

The author introduces us to the life of the heroine of the story, high school student Olya Meshcherskaya, at fourteen and fifteen years old. Throughout her appearance one can see admiring surprise at the extraordinary changes that are happening to her. She quickly became prettier, turning into a girl, her soul was filled with energy and happiness. The heroine is stunned, she still doesn’t know what to do with herself, new and so beautiful, so she simply gives in to the impulses of youth and carefree fun. Nature presented her with an unexpected gift, making her light, cheerful, and happy. The author writes that the heroine was distinguished “in the last two years from the entire gymnasium by her grace, elegance, dexterity, and the clear sparkle of her eyes.” Life is delightfully seething in her, and she happily settles into her new beautiful appearance, trying out its possibilities.

I can’t help but remember the story “Violets,” written by Bunin’s friend and talented Russian prose writer A. I. Kuprin. It talentedly depicts the explosive awakening of the youth of seventh-grader cadet Dmitry Kazakov, who, due to surging feelings, cannot prepare for the exam, with emotion, collects violets outside the walls of the educational building. The young man does not understand what is happening to him, but out of happiness he is ready to embrace the whole world and fall in love with the first girl he meets.

Bunin's Olya Meshcherskaya is a kind, sincere and spontaneous person. With her happiness and positive energy, the girl charges everything around her and attracts people to her. Girls from the junior classes of the gymnasium run after her in a crowd, for them she is an ideal.

The last winter of Olya’s life seemed to specially turn out to be so beautiful: “The winter was snowy, sunny, frosty, the sun set early behind the tall spruce forest of the snowy gymnasium garden, invariably fine, radiant, promising frost and sun for tomorrow, a walk on Sobornaya Street; skating rink in the city garden, pink evening, music and this crowd gliding in all directions on the skating rink, in which Olya Meshcherskaya seemed the most carefree, the happiest.” But only seemed. This psychological detail points to the awakening of natural forces, characteristic of the youth of every person, when the mind is still asleep and does not control the feelings. Inexperienced, inexperienced Olya easily flies through life like a butterfly to a flame. And misfortune is already following in her wake. Bunin managed to fully convey the tragedy of this dizzying flight.

Freedom of judgment, absence of fear, manifestation of intense joy, demonstration of happiness are considered defiant behavior in society. Olya doesn’t understand how annoying she is to others. Beauty, as a rule, causes envy, misunderstanding, and does not know how to defend itself in a world where everything exceptional is persecuted.

In addition to the main character, the story features four more images, one way or another connected with the young schoolgirl. This is the head of the gymnasium, Olya’s class lady, Olya’s father’s acquaintance Alexey Mikhailovich Milyutin and a certain Cossack officer.

None of them treat the girl as a human being, or even make an attempt to understand her inner world. The boss, out of duty, reproaches Meshcherskaya for her woman’s hairstyle and shoes. An elderly man, Milyutin took advantage of Olya’s inexperience and seduced her. Apparently, a casual admirer, a Cossack officer, mistook Meshcherskaya’s behavior for frivolity and licentiousness. He shoots a girl at a train station and kills her. A fifteen-year-old girl is far from a fatal temptress. She, a naive schoolgirl, shows him a piece of paper from her notebook-diary. Like a child, she does not know a way out of a love situation and tries to isolate herself from an annoying admirer with her own childish and confused notes, presenting them as a kind of document. How could you not understand this? But, having committed a crime, an ugly, plebeian-looking officer blames the girl he killed for everything.

Bunin understood love primarily only as passion that flared up suddenly. And passion is always destructive. Bunin's love walks next to death. The story “Easy Breathing” is no exception. This was the great writer’s concept of love. But Bunin claims: death is not omnipotent. The short but bright life of Olya Meshcherskaya left a mark on many souls. “The little woman in mourning,” the cool lady Olya, often comes to the grave, remembering her “pale face in the coffin” and the conversation that she once unwittingly overheard. Olya told her friend that the main thing in a woman is “easy breathing”: “But I have it,” listen to how I inhale, “I really do?”

The theme of the meaning of life in I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”

The theme of criticism of bourgeois reality is reflected in Bunin's work. One of the best works on this topic can rightfully be called the story “Mr. from San Francisco,” which was highly appreciated by V. Korolenko. The idea to write this story came to Bunin while working on the story “Brothers,” when he learned about the death of a millionaire who had come to rest on the island of Capri. At first the writer called the story “Death on Capri,” but later renamed it. It is the gentleman from San Francisco with his millions who becomes the focus of the writer’s attention.

Describing the insane luxury of the lives of the rich, Bunin takes into account every little detail. And he doesn’t even give the gentleman a name, no one remembers this man, he has no face and soul, he’s just a bag of money. The writer creates a collective image of a bourgeois businessman, whose whole life is the accumulation of money. Having lived to the age of 58, he finally decided to get all the pleasures that could be bought: “... he thought of holding the carnival in Nice, in Monte Carlo, where at this time the most selective society flocks, where some enthusiastically indulge in automobile and sailing races , others for roulette, others for what is commonly called flirting, and others for shooting pigeons.” All his life this gentleman saved money, never rested, became “decrepit”, unhealthy and devastated. It seems to him that he has “just started life.”

In Bunin's prose there is no moralizing or denunciation, but the author treats this hero with sarcasm and causticity. He describes his appearance, habits, but there is no psychological portrait, because the hero has no soul. Money took his soul. The author notes that over many years the master has learned to suppress any, even weak, manifestations of the soul. Having decided to have fun, the rich man cannot imagine that his life could end at any moment. Money crowded out his common sense. He is sure that as long as they exist, he has nothing to fear.

Bunin, using the technique of contrast, depicts the external solidity of a person and his internal emptiness and primitiveness. In describing the rich man, the writer uses comparisons with inanimate objects: a bald head like ivory, a doll, a robot, etc. The hero does not speak, but speaks several lines in a hoarse voice. The society of wealthy gentlemen in which the hero moves is just as mechanical and soulless. They live by their own laws, trying not to notice ordinary people, whom they treat with disgusting contempt. The meaning of their existence comes down to eating, drinking, smoking, enjoying pleasure and talking about them. Following the travel program, the rich man visits museums and examines monuments with the same indifference. The values ​​of culture and art are an empty phrase for him, but he paid for the excursions.

The steamship Atlantis, on which the millionaire is sailing, is depicted by the writer as a diagram of society. It has three tiers: at the top is the captain, in the middle are the rich, and at the bottom are the workers and service personnel. Bunin compares the lower tier to hell, where tired workers throw coal into hot furnaces day and night in terrible heat. A terrible ocean is raging around the ship, but people trusted their lives to a dead machine. They all consider themselves masters of nature and are confident that if they have paid, then the ship and the captain are obliged to deliver them to their destination. Bunin shows the thoughtless self-confidence of people living in the illusion of wealth. The name of the ship is symbolic. The writer makes it clear that the world of the rich, in which there is no purpose and meaning, will one day disappear from the face of the earth, like Atlantis.

The writer emphasizes that everyone is equal in the face of death. The rich man, who decided to get all the pleasures at once, suddenly dies. His death does not cause sympathy, but a terrible commotion. The hotel owner apologizes and promises to sort everything out quickly. Society is outraged that someone dared to ruin their vacation and remind them of death. They feel disgust and disgust towards their recent companion and his wife. The corpse in a rough box is quickly sent into the hold of the steamer.

Bunin draws attention to the sharp change in attitude towards the dead rich man and his wife. The obsequious hotel owner becomes arrogant and callous, and the servants become inattentive and rude. A rich man who considered himself important and significant, having turned into a dead body, is not needed by anyone. The writer ends the story with a symbolic picture. The steamer, in the hold of which a former millionaire lies in a coffin, sails through the darkness and blizzard in the ocean, and the Devil, “as huge as a cliff,” watches him from the rocks of Gibraltar. It was he who got the soul of the gentleman from San Francisco, it is he who owns the souls of the rich.

The writer raises philosophical questions about the meaning of life, the mystery of death, and the punishment for the sin of pride and complacency. He predicts a terrible end to a world where money rules and there are no laws of conscience.

The theme of the extinction of “noble nests” in I. A. Bunin’s story “Antonov Apples”

The theme of the village and the life of nobles on their family estates was one of the main ones in the work of Bunin the prose writer. Bunin made his mark as a creator of prose works in 1886. At the age of 16, he wrote lyrical and romantic stories, in which, in addition to describing the youthful impulses of the soul, social issues were already outlined. The story “Antonov Apples” and the story “Sukhodol” are dedicated to the process of disintegration of noble nests in Bunin’s works.

Bunin knew the life of the Russian village well. He spent his childhood and youth on the Butyrka farm in an impoverished noble family. Almost nothing remains of the once glorious Bunin family. In the story “Antonov Apples,” the writer piece by piece collects his dear memories of his former life.

The narrative alternates between beautiful landscapes and portrait sketches. Under Bunin's pen, everything comes to life. Here, in festive clothes, is “a young elder, pregnant, with a wide, sleepy face and as important as a Kholmogory cow.” Here is a “consumptive, cheerful tradesman” selling all sorts of things with jokes and jokes. A flock of boys walking “in twos and threes, finely shuffling their bare feet, and looking sideways at a shaggy shepherd dog tied to an apple tree.” Then suddenly “a fabulous picture appears: as if in a corner of hell, a crimson flame is burning near a hut, surrounded by darkness, and someone’s black silhouettes, as if carved from ebony wood, are moving around the fire.”

Russian estates were a patriarchal subsistence economy: everything was owned. Life far from the capitals, long winters and poor roads encouraged landowners to invent entertainment themselves, to search for or create “food for the soul.” Thus, over many years of existence, a unique Russian estate culture was created, which the author recalls with regret. Reading old books in thick leather bindings, playing the clavichord, singing in the living room in the evenings. In the interiors of the estate, the author sees “aristocratically beautiful heads in ancient hairstyles meekly and femininely lowering their long eyelashes onto sad and tender eyes.” The writer lovingly describes every feature of the former estate life and the furnishings of the house. This includes old mahogany furniture with inlays, heavy curtains, mirrors in beautiful frames, blue glass in the windows. The author admires the poetry of this passing world.

The narration in the story “Antonov Apples” is told from the perspective of the lyrical hero, who recalls early autumn on the estate. Pictures of village life appear before us one after another. The narrator admires nature, the beauty of the earthly world, men pouring picked apples, and is carried away by memories into the distant past. The image of fragrant Antonov apples is key in the story. This is a symbol of simple village life.

Nature and people - everything delights the storyteller-barchuk. During the day - a riot of beautiful nature, at night - a sky full of stars and constellations, which the hero never tires of admiring: “How cold, dewy and how good it is to live in the world!”

The prose written by the poet is unique in its artistry and depth. Bunin painted with words like a brilliant artist with paints. By nature, the writer was endowed with extraordinary acuity of senses: vision, hearing and smell that exceeded human capabilities. That is why, reading Bunin’s stories, we hear birds, wind and rain, see the smallest details of the world around us that we ourselves would not notice, and smell many smells. “The subtle aroma of fallen leaves and the smell of Antonov apples.” The author glorifies the wisdom of nature, its eternal renewal and beauty.

Bunin said more than once that he was not interested in peasants and nobles separately, but in “the soul of the Russian people in general.” The writer had a sincere interest in people, regardless of their class. He argued that the contradictions between the peasant and the master had long been smoothed out. Now this is one Russian people. In the village, many men became richer than their former landowners. With nostalgia, the author recalls a special type of relationship in estates, when the peasants and the master and his family represented one whole: they lived together, had weddings, were born and died. Sometimes they were even related to each other by family ties. With special respect, the author writes about the “harrier-white” old men and women who lived for a hundred years in the rich village of Vyselki. Bunin is painfully sorry for this crumbling idyll.

Manor culture in Rus' took centuries to develop, but collapsed surprisingly quickly. Maybe they came up with something better, more progressive? No. Bunin wrote that “the kingdom of small estates is coming, impoverished to the point of beggary.” But even in this form, the estate still retains many of its former features, although the peasants sing “hopeless” songs.

The story is permeated with love for the land, for the homeland, for the glorious people of past generations, respect and reverence for the history of one’s country and its people.

Psychologism of Bunin's prose in the story “Clean Monday”

The story “Clean Monday” is part of Bunin’s series of stories “Dark Alleys”. This cycle was the last in the author’s life and took eight years of creativity. The cycle was created during the Second World War. The world was collapsing, and the great Russian writer Bunin wrote about love, about the eternal, about the only force capable of preserving life in its highest purpose.

The cross-cutting theme of the cycle is love in all its many faces, the merging of the souls of two unique, inimitable worlds, the souls of lovers.

The story “Clean Monday” contains the important idea that the human soul is a mystery, and especially the female soul. And that every person is looking for his own path in life, often doubting, making mistakes, and happiness - if he finds it.

Bunin begins his story by describing a gray winter day in Moscow. By evening, life in the city became livelier, the residents were freed from the worries of the day: “... the cabbies' sleighs rushed thicker and more vigorously, the crowded, diving trams rattled more heavily - in the dusk one could already see how red stars hissed from the wires, - they hurried along the sidewalks more animatedly blackened passers-by." The landscape prepares the reader to perceive the story of “strange love” between two people whose paths tragically diverged.

The story is striking in its sincerity in describing the hero’s great love for his beloved. Before us is a kind of confession of a man, an attempt to remember long-ago events and understand what happened then. Why did the woman, who said that she had no one except her father and him, leave him without explanation? The hero on whose behalf the story is told evokes sympathy and sympathy. He is smart, handsome, cheerful, talkative, madly in love with the heroine, ready to do anything for her. The writer consistently recreates the history of their relationship.

The image of the heroine is shrouded in mystery. The hero remembers with adoration every feature of her face, hair, dresses, all her southern beauty. It’s not for nothing that at the actors’ “cabbage show” at the Art Theater, the famous Kachalov enthusiastically calls the heroine the Shamakhan queen. They were a wonderful couple, both beautiful, rich, healthy. Outwardly, the heroine behaves quite normally. She accepts her lover’s advances, flowers, gifts, goes with him to theaters, concerts, and restaurants, but her inner world is closed to the hero. She is a woman of few words, but sometimes expresses opinions that her friend does not expect from her. He knows almost nothing about her life. With surprise, the hero learns that his beloved often visits churches and knows a lot about the services there. At the same time, she says that she is not religious, but in churches she is fascinated by chants, rituals, solemn spirituality, some kind of secret meaning that is not found in the bustle of city life. The heroine notices how her friend is burning with love, but she herself cannot answer him in the same way. In her opinion, she is also not fit to be a wife. Her words often contain hints about monasteries where one can go, but the hero does not take this seriously.

In the story, Bunin immerses the reader in the atmosphere of pre-revolutionary Moscow. He lists the numerous temples and monasteries of the capital, and together with the heroine admires the texts of ancient chronicles. Here are also given memories and reflections on modern culture: the Art Theatre, an evening of poetry by A. Bely, an opinion on Bryusov’s novel “The Fire Angel”, a visit to Chekhov’s grave. Many heterogeneous, sometimes incompatible phenomena make up the outline of the heroes’ lives.

Gradually, the tone of the story becomes more and more sad, and in the end - tragic. The heroine decided to break up with the man who loved her and leave Moscow. She is grateful to him for his true love for her, so she arranges a farewell and later sends him a final letter asking him not to look for her.

The hero cannot believe in the reality of what is happening. Unable to forget his beloved, for the next two years he “disappeared for a long time in the dirtiest taverns, became an alcoholic, sinking more and more in every possible way. Then he began to recover little by little - indifferent, hopeless...” But still, on one of those similar winter days, he drove along those streets where they had been together, “and he kept crying and crying...”. Obeying some feeling, the hero enters the Martha and Mary Convent and in the crowd of nuns he sees one of them with deep black eyes, looking somewhere into the darkness. It seemed to the hero that she was looking at him.

Bunin does not explain anything. Whether it was really the hero's beloved remains a mystery. But one thing is clear: there was great love, which first illuminated and then turned a person’s life upside down.

“Eternal” themes in I. A. Bunin’s cycle “Dark Alleys” (happiness and tragedy of love, the connection of man with the natural world)

Bunin's short story cycle "Dark Alleys" includes 38 stories. They differ in genre, in creating the characters of the heroes, and reflect different layers of time. The author wrote this cycle, the last in his life, for eight years, during the First World War. Bunin wrote about eternal love and the power of feelings at a time when the world was collapsing from the bloodiest war in history known to him. Bunin considered the book “Dark Alleys” to be “the most perfect in craftsmanship” and ranked it among his highest achievements. This is a memoir book. The stories contain the love of two people and at the same time the author’s declaration of love for Russia, admiration for her mysterious deep soul.

The running theme of the cycle is love in all its diversity. Love is understood by the author as the greatest priceless gift that no one can take away. A person is truly free only in love.

The stories “Clean Monday”, “Muse”, “Rus”, “Raven”, “Galya Ganskaya”, “Dark Alleys” are perfect in skill, written with enormous artistic power and emotionality.

Bunin’s love stories often unfold somewhere on an estate, a “noble nest”, the fragrant atmosphere of which is perfectly conveyed by the author. The alleys of a beautiful garden in the story “Natalie” serve as the backdrop for emerging love. Bunin describes in detail and lovingly the interior of the house, the landscapes of Russian nature, which he especially missed in emigration.

Love is the greatest intensity of mental strength, so the story has a tense plot. Student Vitaly Meshchersky, who comes to visit, suddenly finds himself involved in a strange relationship with two women. Cousin Sonya seduces him, but at the same time wants him to pay attention to her friend from the gymnasium, Natalie. Meshchersky is amazed by Natalie's sublime spiritual beauty, he truly falls in love with her. The student rushes between earthly and heavenly love. Placed in a situation of choice, Meshchersky tries to combine carnal pleasures with Sonya with his adoration of Natalie.

Bunin was always alien to moralizing. He considered each of these feelings to be happiness. But there are three heroes, a conflict arises with a tragic ending. On Sonya’s part, the relationship with Meshchersky was just a whim of a spoiled girl, so in the future Bunin excludes her from the story. Natalie finds Meshchersky at Sonya's, and a breakup occurs. Unable to make a choice in time, the hero ruined both his and Natalie’s lives. Their paths diverge for a long time, but the hero suffers and torments himself with memories. Without love, the life of the heroes turns into an empty, ghostly existence; dreams and beauty disappear from it.

Bunin was convinced that love is a tragic feeling, and there is retribution for it. He believed that even in love a person is lonely, that this is a strong but short-lived feeling. But at the same time, the writer glorifies love. Life itself is unthinkable without it. His heroine says: “...Is there such a thing as unhappy love? Doesn’t the most sorrowful music in the world give happiness?”

The purpose of the story “Clean Monday” is to convince the reader that the human soul is a mystery, and especially the female soul. Every person searches for his own path in life, often doubting and making mistakes.

Bunin masterfully uses descriptions of nature in order to convey the feelings and thoughts of the lyrical characters. He begins his story with a landscape that prepares the reader to perceive the love story of two people whose paths mysteriously and tragically diverged. The story is stunning in its sincerity and truthfulness. Before us is a kind of confession of a man, an attempt to remember long-ago events and understand what happened then. The hero on whose behalf the story is told evokes sympathy and sympathy. He is smart, handsome, madly in love with the heroine, ready to do anything for her. He is trying to answer the painful question: why did the woman, who said that she had no one except her father and him, leave him without explanation?

Bunin's heroine is mysterious and magical. The hero remembers with adoration every feature of her face, hair, dresses, her oriental beauty. No wonder the famous actor Kachalov enthusiastically calls the heroine the Shamakhan queen. Outwardly, the heroine behaves like an ordinary woman. She accepts the hero's courtship, bouquets of flowers, gifts, goes out into the world, but her inner world remains mysterious and full of secrets for the hero. She doesn't talk much about her life. Therefore, it is a revelation for the hero that his beloved often attends church and knows a lot about services in temples. Her words often contain hints about monasteries where one can go, but the hero does not take this seriously. The hero's ardent feelings do not go unnoticed. The heroine sees that her friend is in love, but she herself cannot reciprocate his feelings. The author hints that for her there are stronger and more important things than respect for someone else's passion.

Little by little, the tone of the story becomes more and more sad, and in the end - tragic. The heroine decided to break up with the man who loved her and leave her hometown. She is grateful to him for his strong and genuine feelings, so she arranges a farewell and later sends him a final letter asking him not to look for a meeting again. The departure of his girlfriend shocks the hero, causes him severe trauma, and deeply wounds his heart. The hero cannot believe in the reality of what is happening. Over the next two years, he “disappeared for a long time in the dirtiest taverns, became an alcoholic, falling deeper and deeper in every possible way. Then he began to recover little by little - indifferent, hopeless...” He drove along the same roads to places that were memorable only for the two of them, “and he kept crying and crying...”.

One day, drawn by a strange premonition, the hero enters the Martha and Mary Convent and in the crowd of nuns he sees a girl with bottomless black eyes looking into the darkness. It seemed to the hero that she was looking at him. The reader is left perplexed: whether this was really the hero’s beloved or not. The author makes one thing clear: great love first illuminated and then turned a person’s whole life upside down. And this gain was a hundred times stronger than the loss of his beloved.

The writer in the “Dark Alleys” series makes the reader think about the complexity of relationships in human society, the meaning of beauty and happiness, the transience of time and the great responsibility for the fate of another person.

Artistic features of I. A. Bunin’s story “Village”

After the revolution of 1905, Bunin was one of the first to feel the changes that had come 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 Village,” 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 tragedy of the solution to the love theme in A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Garnet Bracelet”

The mystery of love is eternal. Many writers and poets have tried unsuccessfully to unravel it. Russian word artists dedicated the best pages of their works to the great feeling of love. Love awakens and incredibly enhances the best qualities in a person’s soul, making him capable of creativity. The happiness of love cannot be compared with anything: the human soul flies, it is free and full of delight. The lover is ready to embrace the whole world, move mountains, powers are revealed in him that he did not even suspect about.

Kuprin owns wonderful works about love. These are the stories “Shulamith”, “Pomegranate Bracelet”, “Helen”, “Sentimental Romance”, “Violets”. The theme of love is present in almost every work of the writer, reflecting one of its forms.

Kuprin glorifies love as a miracle; in his works he treats a woman as a goddess. This was inherent in Russian culture and literature of the 19th – early 20th centuries. Kuprin represents love as a kind of force that completely embraces and absorbs a person. But at the same time it gives people great joy. A lover is ready to do anything for the sake of love, does not want to lose it, no matter what it is, and thanks God for this priceless gift.

The writer shows what happens to people in whose souls a pure and bright feeling flares up, but they live in a society where vulgar, hypocritical, perverted concepts and spiritual slavery reign.

The love story of a minor official of the control chamber Zheltkov does not leave the reader indifferent. At first sight, he falls in love with the girl he sees in the circus box. He understands that this girl is from high society, but there are no class boundaries for love. Zheltkov’s enormous feeling is inexplicable and impossible in this society, but the young man is sure that from this moment his life belongs to his chosen one.

Kuprin talks about unearthly love that can completely change a person. Zheltkov finds the most enthusiastic words when thinking about his beloved. He believes that “there is nothing in the world like her, there is nothing better, there is no beast, no plant, no star, no person more beautiful” and more tender than her. The hero learns that the girl’s name is Vera Nikolaevna. Soon she marries Prince Shein, a rich and calm man. Unable to get closer, Zheltkov sometimes sends Princess Vera ardent letters, to which she does not pay attention. Over time, the relationship with her husband turns into even friendly ones, but there is no passion in them.

Due to class prejudices, Zheltkov’s love remains unrequited and hopeless. Now he sends Vera greeting cards on holidays, without ceasing to love her madly. One day, on her birthday, Vera receives a gift from Zheltkov - a garnet bracelet that once belonged to his mother. This is the only valuable thing the young man owns. In the note, he asks not to be offended by his insolence and to accept the gift.

Vera Nikolaevna tells her husband everything, but thoughts are already arising in her soul that she may have her own secret. The woman is surprised by the tenacity of this secret admirer, who has been constantly reminding himself of himself for seven years. She begins to realize that in her life there is no great love capable of sacrifices and accomplishments. But in society people do without love; moreover, strong manifestations of feelings are considered indecent and despised. With his letters and gifts, Zheltkov disgraces a decent married woman. Those around him mock the young man’s feelings as something unworthy.

Offended by the interference in their personal lives, Vera’s brother and husband find Zheltkov and demand that he stop reminding himself of himself. Zheltkov laughs: they want him to stop loving Vera, but love cannot be taken away. Kuprin's hero chooses to commit suicide, since love has become his whole life. He dies happy, having fulfilled the will of his beloved woman to leave her alone. Zheltkov wants Vera to be happy, so that lies and slander do not affect her bright image.

Shocked Vera Nikolaevna sees Zheltkov for the first time in a coffin with a calm smile on her face. She finally understands that “the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by.” Beethoven's Sonata, which Zheltkov asks to listen to in his letter, helps Vera understand the soul of this man. He ends his dying letter to her with the words: “Hallowed be Thy name!”

Kuprin idealizes love, considers it stronger than death. Such strong, true love, according to General Anosov, “happens once every thousand years.” In the story, the writer showed a simple, “small”, but great man, as the miracle of love made him.

The problem of love and betrayal in L. N. Andreev’s story “Judas Iscariot”

The famous Russian writer of the Silver Age L. Andreev remained in the history of Russian literature as the author of innovative prose. His works were distinguished by deep psychologism. The author tried to penetrate into such depths of the human soul where no one had looked. Andreev wanted to show the real state of affairs, tore off the cover of lies from the usual phenomena of the social and spiritual life of man and society.

The life of Russian people at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries gave little reason for optimism. Critics reproached Andreev for incredible pessimism, apparently for the objectivity of showing reality. The writer did not consider it necessary to artificially create blissful pictures, to give evil a decent appearance. In his work, he revealed the true essence of the immutable laws of social life and ideology. Evoking a barrage of criticism against himself, Andreev risked showing a person in all his contradictions and secret thoughts, revealed the falsity of any political slogans and ideas, and wrote about doubts in matters of the Orthodox faith in the form in which the church presents it.

In the story “Judas Iscariot” Andreev gives his version of the famous gospel parable. He said that he wrote “something on the psychology, ethics and practice of betrayal.” The story examines the problem of the ideal in human life. Jesus is such an ideal, and his disciples must preach his teachings, bring the light of truth to the people. But Andreev makes the central hero of the work not Jesus, but Judas Iscariot, an energetic, active and full of strength man.

To complete the perception of the image, the writer describes in detail the memorable appearance of Judas, whose skull was “as if cut from the back of the head with a double blow of a sword and put back together again, it was clearly divided into four parts and inspired distrust, even anxiety... Judas’s face also doubled.” The eleven disciples of Christ look expressionless against the background of this hero. One eye of Judas is alive, attentive, black, and the other is motionless, like a blind one. Andreev draws the readers’ attention to Judas’s gestures and manner of behavior. The hero bows low, arching his back and stretching his lumpy, scary head forward, and “in a fit of timidity” closes his living eye. His voice, “sometimes courageous and strong, sometimes noisy, like an old woman’s,” sometimes thin, “unfortunately thin and unpleasant.” When communicating with other people, he constantly grimaces.

The writer also introduces us to some facts from the biography of Judas. The hero got his nickname because he came from Kariot, lives alone, left his wife, has no children, apparently God does not want offspring from him. Judas has been a wanderer for many years, “he lies everywhere, makes faces, vigilantly looks out for something with his thief’s eye; and suddenly leaves suddenly.”

In the Gospel, the story of Judas is a short story of betrayal. Andreev shows the psychology of his hero, tells in detail what happened before and after the betrayal and what caused it. The theme of betrayal did not arise by chance for the writer. During the first Russian revolution of 1905–1907, he observed with surprise and contempt how many traitors suddenly appeared, “as if they had come not from Adam, but from Judas.”

In the story, Andreev notes that the eleven disciples of Christ constantly argue among themselves, “who paid more love” in order to be closer to Christ and ensure their future entry into the kingdom of heaven. These disciples, who would later be called apostles, treated Judas with contempt and disgust, just like other vagabonds and beggars. They are deep in questions of faith, engaged in self-contemplation and have isolated themselves from people. L. Andreev’s Judas does not have his head in the clouds, he lives in the real world, steals money for a hungry harlot, saves Christ from an aggressive crowd. He plays the role of mediator between people and Christ.

Judas is shown with all the advantages and disadvantages, like any living person. He is smart, modest, and always ready to help his companions. Andreev writes: “...Iscariot was simple, gentle and at the same time serious.” Shown from all sides, the image of Judas comes to life. He also has negative traits that arose during his time of wandering and searching for a piece of bread. This is deceit, dexterity and deceit. Judas is tormented by the fact that Christ never praises him, although he allows him to conduct business and even take money from the common treasury. Iscariot declares to his disciples that it is not they, but he who will be next to Christ in the kingdom of heaven.

Judas is intrigued by the mystery of Christ; he feels that something great and wonderful is hidden under the guise of an ordinary person. Having decided to betray Christ into the hands of the authorities, Judas hopes that God will not allow injustice. Until the death of Christ, Judas follows him, every minute expecting that his tormentors will understand who they are dealing with. But a miracle does not happen; Christ suffers beatings from the guards and dies like an ordinary person.

Coming to the apostles, Judas notes with surprise that on this night, when their teacher died a martyr's death, the disciples ate and slept. They grieve, but their lives have not changed. On the contrary, now they are no longer subordinates, but each independently intends to bring the word of Christ to people. Judas calls them traitors. They did not defend their teacher, did not recapture him from the guards, did not call the people to their defense. They “crowded together like a bunch of frightened lambs, not interfering with anything.” Judas accuses the disciples of lying. They never loved the teacher, otherwise they would have rushed to help and died for him. Love saves without doubt.

John says that Jesus himself wanted this sacrifice and his sacrifice is beautiful. To which Judas angrily replies: “Is there such a beautiful sacrifice as you say, beloved disciple? Where there is a victim, there is an executioner, and there are traitors! Sacrifice means suffering for one and shame for all.<…>Blind people, what have you done with the land? You wanted to destroy her, you will soon kiss the cross on which you crucified Jesus!” Judas, in order to finally test his disciples, says that he is going to Jesus in heaven to persuade him to return to earth to the people to whom he brought light. Iscariot calls on the apostles to follow him. Nobody agrees. Peter, who was about to rush, also retreats.

The story ends with a description of Judas' suicide. He decided to hang himself on the branch of a tree growing over the abyss, so that if the rope broke, he would fall onto the sharp stones and surely ascend to Christ. Throwing a rope onto a tree, Judas whispers, turning to Christ: “So meet me kindly. I am very tired". The next morning, Judas' body was taken from the tree and thrown into a ditch, cursing him as a traitor. And Judas Iscariot, the Traitor, remained forever in the memory of people.

This version of the gospel story caused a wave of criticism from the church. Andreev’s goal was to awaken people’s consciousness, to make them think about the nature of betrayal, about their actions and thoughts.

The theme of the search for the meaning of life, the problem of pride and freedom in M. Gorky’s story “Chelkash”

The beginning of M. Gorky's creative career occurred during a period of crisis in the social and spiritual life of Russia. According to the writer himself, he was pushed to write by the terrible “poor life” and the lack of hope among people. Gorky saw the reason for the current situation primarily in man. Therefore, he decided to offer society a new ideal of a Protestant man, a fighter against slavery and injustice.

The writer showed the psychology of outcast people in a new way. He does not feel sorry for his heroes, does not idealize them, and does not pin any hopes on them. Gorky shows their independence from society, contempt for the rich, and love of freedom. Each story describes the dramatic situation of the life of an ordinary person in a cruel world. All the heroes are people with a broken fate, but who do not want to humiliate themselves and lie. They strive to escape from the “stuffiness” of the surrounding gloomy reality, they protest, but their anarchic rebellion is meaningless. A “well-fed” society is indifferent to the poor.

The hero of M. Gorky's story, Grishka Chelkash, feels great in the port, where, together with his partners, he trades in theft. He is "an inveterate drunkard and a clever, brave thief." Chelkash stands out from the crowd of port ragamuffins with his appearance. It looks like a bird of prey, a steppe hawk. Peering vigilantly at passers-by, he precisely searches for the victim. Chelkash is looking for Mishka, with whom he is going to “do business,” but finds out that his leg was crushed and he was taken to the hospital. Upset Chelkash meets a village guy Gavrila, to whom he introduces himself as a fisherman. The thief skillfully conducts a heart-to-heart conversation and gains the trust of a new acquaintance.

Gorky with great skill gives portraits of the characters, shows their psychology, and the story itself is a small drama that plays out between two people. Gavrila openly tells Chelkash her story. It turns out that he is in extreme need, he needs money, otherwise he will not be able to manage the farm in the village. Girls don’t marry a poor guy, and he doesn’t know how to make quick money in the village. Chelkash invites the guy to become his partner, but does not say what kind of work awaits the naive villager. To begin with, the thief takes him to dinner. Gavrila is amazed that they give Chelkash a loan. This inspires confidence in what appears to be a “crook” in appearance. Gavrila gets drunk, and Chelkash “envied and regretted this young life, laughed at her and was even upset for her, imagining that she could once again fall into hands like his... The little one was sorry, and the little one was needed.”

In the story, Gorky uses the technique of contrast and draws two psychological portraits. The author even uses the description of the night sea and clouds as a psychological landscape: “There was something fatal in this slow movement of air masses.”

At night, Chelkash invites Gavrila to go “to work” in a boat. The guy, moving his oars, already guesses that they are not sailing to fish. Frightened, Gavrila asks to let him go, but Chelkash laughingly takes away his passport so that he does not run away. Having stolen something “cubic and heavy,” Chelkash returns to the boat, telling Gavrila that he earned half a thousand during the night. Next, the theme of temptation by money develops. Chelkash is glad that they got away from the guards and, feeling emotional, tells Gavrila about his childhood in the village, about his wife, parents, military service and how proud his father was of him. He chose his own destiny, he is a brave man and loves freedom.

On the Greek ship, the heroes give away the goods and receive money. Seeing the mountain of pieces of paper, Gavrila grabs his share of the money with trembling hands. Now he already imagines himself as the first rich man in the village. Seeing Gavrila’s excitement, Chelkash thinks that greed is in the country boy’s blood. Already on the shore, Gavrila cannot control himself and attacks Chelkash, demanding to give him all the money. “Trembling with excitement, acute pity and hatred for this greedy slave,” Chelkash gives the money, for which Gavrila humbly thanks him. Chelkash thinks that he would never have become so low and greedy, losing his mind because of money. Gavrila admits that he wanted to kill Chelkash, then the thief takes all his money, and when he turns to leave, a stone thrown by Gavrila flies at his head. The wounded Chelkash is bleeding, but with contempt he gives the money to Gavrila, who asks him for forgiveness. Chelkash leaves, leaving money on the sand. Gavrila picks them up and walks in the opposite direction with firm steps. Waves and rain wash away the blood on the sand, nothing more reminds of the drama between two people.

Gorky praised the spiritual greatness of man. Chelkash won the psychological duel with Gavrila. Gavrila will probably settle down in society, but no one needs people like Chelkash. This is the romantic pathos of the story.

Both in prose and in poetry, Bunin adhered to the pessimistic Ivanovich Tyutchev Fedor (1803 - traditions. Perhaps the longest was 1873) the influence of F. Tyutchev's philosophical lyrics on him. Tyutchev's motive of disharmony of love and death was heard as a desire to realize the general harmony of the world, the motive of the frailty of existence - an affirmation of the eternity and incorruptibility of nature, which contains the source of eternal harmony and beauty.

In Bunin's poetry, philosophical lyrics occupied one of the key places. Looking into the past, the writer sought to grasp the “eternal” laws of the development of science, peoples, and humanity. This was the meaning of his appeal to distant civilizations of the past - Slavic and Eastern.

The basis of Bunin’s philosophy of life is the recognition of earthly existence as only a part of eternal cosmic history, in which the life of man and humanity is dissolved. His lyrics intensify the feeling of the fatal confinement of human life in a narrow time frame, the feeling of man’s loneliness in the world. In creativity there arises a motive of non-stop movement towards the secrets of the world:

Once upon a time, above a heavy barge (1916) Once upon a time, above a heavy barge With a wide-bottomed stern, Many days in the bright azure the rigging swayed above me. . . It's time, it's time for me to throw dry land, Breathe more freely and fully, And again baptize my naked soul In the font of the sky and seas!

The contradictory experiences of the lyrical hero were most clearly manifested in the deeply philosophical motives of dreams and souls. The “bright dream”, “winged”, “intoxicating”, “enlightened happiness” are sung. However, such a sublime feeling carries a “heavenly secret” and becomes “foreign to the earth.”

Bunin responded to complex questions of existence in his poems. His lyrics are multifaceted and deep in philosophical questions of understanding the meaning of life. The poet expressed the mood of confusion, disappointment and at the same time knew how to fill his poems with inner light, faith in life, in the greatness of beauty. His lyrical hero has a holistic worldview and radiates a joyful, cheerful attitude towards the world.

I. A. Bunin’s lyrics reflect the theme of memory, the past, the mystery of time as a philosophical category: The blue wallpaper has faded, the images and daguerreotypes have been removed. Only the blue color remained there, Where they hung for many years. The heart has forgotten, it has forgotten Much that it once loved! Only those who are no longer there have an unforgettable trace.

These lines contain the idea of ​​the transience of time, the every second change of the universe and the person in it. Only memory preserves our loved ones.

I. A. Bunin, in his subtle, masterfully polished philosophical poems, expressed the idea of ​​​​the cosmic nature of the soul of each individual person. Philosophical themes of the connection between man and nature, life and death, good and evil took the main place in I. Bunin’s lyrics.

The poet writes about the universal significance of the scientific discoveries of the brilliant researcher Giordano Bruno, who at the moment of execution proclaims: I am dying - because I want to. Scatter, executioner, scatter my ashes, despicable one! Hello Universe, Sun! Executioner! - He will scatter my thought throughout the Universe!

Bunin the philosopher felt the continuity of existence, the eternity of matter, and believed in the power of creation. Human genius turns out to be equal to the boundless and eternal cosmos. Bunin could not come to terms with the necessity of leaving life, of condemning every person to death. According to the recollections of friends and relatives, he did not believe that he would disappear forever:

v The day will come - I will disappear. v And this room is empty. v Everything will be the same: table, bench. v Yes, an image, ancient and simple.

In his poems, Bunin tried to find the harmony of the world, the meaning of human existence. He affirmed the eternity and wisdom of nature, defined it as an inexhaustible source of beauty. Bunin's life is always inscribed in the context of nature.

He was confident in the rationality of all living things and argued “that there is no nature separate from us, that every slightest movement of air is the movement of our own life.”

Landscape lyrics gradually become philosophical. In a poem, the main thing for the author is thought. Many of the poet’s poems are devoted to the theme of life and death:

My spring will pass, and this day will pass, But it’s fun to wander and know that everything passes, Meanwhile, the happiness of living will never die, Until the dawn breaks over the earth And young life is born in its turn.

In his lyrical work, Bunin comes to the idea of ​​human responsibility to the past, present and future. Not a single person comes into this world without a goal; living among people, everyone leaves their mark. This idea is confirmed in the poem “Pskov Forest”, where the question is asked: “Are we worthy of our heritage? »

Pskov Forest In the distance it is dark and the thickets are stern. Under the red mast, under the pine tree I stand and hesitate on the threshold Into a forgotten but dear world. Are we worthy of our heritage? I will be too scared there, Where the paths of lynxes and bears lead to fairy tale paths. Where the grain turns red on the viburnum, Where the rot is covered with red moss And the berries are foggy blue, On the dry juniper.

Bunin believed that life is worth living only for creation, love and beauty. The poet, having traveled almost the whole world and read thousands of books in search of answers to the “eternal” questions of existence, did not believe in supernatural miracles, but believed in the mind and will of a person capable of changing the world for the better.