The theme of love in the short story Clean Monday. Help!!! As soon as possible!!! Why does Bunin believe that love is a “brief guest on earth”? (based on the stories "Sunstroke", "Dark Alleys", "Clean Monday")
The theme of love in the story
Story " Clean Monday"was written in May 1944, when the writer was already in old age and was in exile. The story was included in the series “Dark Alleys”, entirely dedicated to love. Thus, main topic The story “Clean Monday” is also love, multifaceted, mysterious and mysterious. The story involves only two characters: he and she. Even though their names are hidden, we can see how their relationship develops. The author portrays his heroes as young, beautiful, rich and full of strength, which involuntarily evokes sympathy among the reader. However, external similarities are emphasized by internal differences.
He is a passionate young man, blinded by his love. It does not have the depth that is characteristic of main character. Visiting her every evening, visiting restaurants and concerts with her, he does not even notice how absorbed she is in other values. In his eyes, it’s just her mystery, strangeness and originality. He spends all his time recklessly, since he is quite wealthy and is not forced to think about anything. The only thing that has consumed his thoughts since they met is the uncertainty of the relationship. This love sometimes seems “strange” to him or “not love” at all.
She, in turn, is silent and reserved. There is something strange in her behavior that defies logic. Sometimes she attends some lectures and says that she likes history. He never thought about why she came to Moscow and rented an apartment overlooking the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. To him, these are just “fads.” And this is exactly where it lay main secret girls. The heroine was seriously interested in religion, church rituals, admired monasteries, and loved visiting cathedrals. Perhaps that is why she liked Moscow - the city of cathedrals and Kremlin towers. After living there for some time, she became even more convinced of her desire to take monastic vows and enter a monastery.
However, the hero never fully understood what was going on in his beloved’s soul. They spent the night of Clean Monday together, and then she disappeared from his life forever. After some time, he received a letter from Tver, in which she explained her action with love for the church and asked, if possible, not to look for her and try to forget. For young man, who sincerely loved and believed in reciprocity, this was a difficult test. He tried to get through it by visiting taverns and drinking alcohol. Over time, the pain subsided, but did not leave him. Once it even seemed to him that he saw her among the singing nuns of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent.
In almost all the stories in the cycle " Dark alleys"love is doomed. It does not develop into real earthly happiness. So in the story “Clean Monday,” love appears as a great sacrament, an incomprehensible riddle, bringing both happiness and torment. This story is considered one of the best in creativity
Bunin's tragic love story forms the basis of the story "Clean Monday". Two people suddenly meet, and beauty and beauty flare up between them. pure feeling. Love brings not only joy, lovers experience enormous torment that torments their souls. The work by Ivan Bunin describes a meeting between a man and a woman, which made them forget about all their problems.
The author begins his story not from the very beginning of the novel, but immediately from its development, when the love of two people reaches its climax. I. Bunin perfectly describes all the details of this day: the Moscow day was not only winter, but, according to the author’s description, dark and gray. The lovers dined at different places: today it could be “Prague”, and tomorrow they ate at the “Hermitage”, then it could be “Metropol”, or some other establishment.
From the very beginning of Bunin’s work, there is a premonition of some kind of misfortune, great tragedy. Main character tries not to think about what will happen tomorrow, about what this relationship might lead to. He understood that he shouldn’t talk about the future with someone who was so close to him. After all, she simply did not like these conversations and she did not answer any of his questions.
But why didn’t the main character want to, like many girls, dream about the future and make plans? Maybe this is a momentary attraction that should end soon? Or does she already know everything that is about to happen to her in the future? Ivan Bunin describes his heroine as if she were a perfect woman who cannot be compared with other beautiful female images.
The main character is studying in courses, not understanding how she manages to do this later in life. The Bunin girl is well educated, she has a sense of sophistication and intelligence. Everything in her house should be beautiful. But the world she is not at all interested, she moves away from him. From her behavior it seemed that she was indifferent to theaters, and to flowers, and to books, and to dinners. And this indifference does not prevent her from completely immersing herself in life and enjoying it, reading books and getting impressions.
The beautiful couple seemed ideal to the people around them; they were even watched as they went. And there was something to envy! Young, beautiful, rich - all these characteristics suited this couple. This happy idyll turns out to be strange, since the girl does not want to become the wife of the main character. This makes you think about the sincerity of the lover’s and the man’s feelings. For all his questions, the girl finds only one explanation: she does not know how to be a wife.
It is clear that the girl does not understand what her purpose in life is. Her soul is tossing: a luxurious life attracts her, but she wants something else. That is why she constantly arrives in thoughts and reflections. The feelings that the girl experiences are incomprehensible to her, and the main character cannot understand them either.
She is attracted to religion, the girl goes to church with pleasure, and admires holiness. The heroine herself cannot understand why this attracts her so much. One day she decides to important step- cut my hair into a nun. Without telling her lover anything, the girl leaves. After a while, the main character receives a letter from her, where the young woman reports her action, but she doesn’t even try to explain.
Main character finds it difficult to cope with the actions of his beloved woman. One day he was able to see her by chance among the nuns. It is no coincidence that Bunin gives his work the title “Clean Monday”. The day before this day, the lovers had a serious conversation about religion. The main character was surprised for the first time by the thoughts of his bride, they were so new and interesting to him.
External contentment with life hid the depth of this nature, her subtlety and religiosity, her constant torment, which brought the girl to the monastery of a nun. Deep internal searches also help explain the young woman’s indifference to social life. She did not see herself among everything that surrounded her. Happy and mutual love does not help her find harmony in her soul. In that Bunin's story love and tragedy are inseparable. Love is given to the heroes as a kind of test that they have to pass.
The love tragedy of the main characters lies in the fact that they could not fully understand each other and could not correctly evaluate the individuals who had found their soul mate. Bunin, with his story “Clean Monday”, affirms the idea that every person is a huge and richest world. The inner world of a young woman is rich spiritually, but her thoughts and reflections do not find support in this world. Love for the main character is no longer a salvation for her, but the girl sees this as a problem.
The heroine’s strong will helps her to leave love, to abandon it, to abandon it forever. In her monastery spiritual search stops, the young woman develops new affection and love. The heroine finds the meaning of life in love for God. Everything petty and vulgar now does not concern her; now no one disturbs her loneliness and peace.
Bunin's story is both tragic and sad. Moral choice stands before every person and must be done correctly. The heroine chooses her life path, and the main character, continuing to love her, cannot find himself in this life. His fate is sad and tragic. The young woman’s act towards him is cruel. They both suffer: the hero because of the act of his beloved, and she of her own free will.
1. Images of the main characters.
2. Moral quest heroines.
3. Tragic ending works.
I. A. Bunin considered the story “Clean Monday” one of his best works. In fact, one cannot treat this story with indifference. The plot of the story is relatively simple. It's about about love. But the love story is completely extraordinary. In general, in Bunin’s work we encounter a special perception of it. This wonderful feeling most often does not bring joy, does not make people happy, on the contrary, it makes them suffer and suffer. Love becomes a test of fate and at the same time a punishment from above. In the story “Clean Monday” we encounter just such a situation when love does not bring happiness.
The story contains many everyday details. The writer describes in sufficient detail the lives of the main characters. They are young, beautiful, rich. “We were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that people stared at us in restaurants and at concerts.”
They can be called real darlings of fate. Hardships and sorrows are not familiar to them. We know that the lovers often went to dinner at Prague, the Hermitage, and the Metropol. Young people could simply enjoy every day they live. But everything happens completely differently. Almost immediately, at the very beginning of the story, we begin to anticipate a tragic outcome. The author does not say this directly. It only gives readers the opportunity to pay attention to what is unsaid, to what is only implied. It is very important that the main character does not know where his relationship with the girl is leading. However, the young man believes that it is better not to think about it. He is more pragmatic, prefers to live for today, to get as much joy as possible from the present. And the girl flatly refuses to talk about the future. “I didn’t know how this was going to end, and I tried not to think, not to speculate: it was useless, just like talking to her about it: she once and for all stopped talking about our future...” says the narrator.
The main character of the story from the very beginning seems strange, unlike the others. She is taking courses. But, apparently, he does not have a clear idea of why he is doing this. It is no coincidence that she very vaguely answers the question of why she is studying. The girl says: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions? There is a very important philosophical subtext hidden in this answer. The heroine tries to find the meaning of life, but she fails. Perhaps this is why she decides to find salvation in religion and goes to a monastery.
The main character loves beautiful things. She seems smart, able to carry on a conversation on any topic. But on the other hand, she is almost completely immersed in her inner world. And the outside world seems less interesting to her: “It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no lunches, no theaters, no dinners outside the city...” The girl leads a lifestyle that seems to be accepted in society. But she herself wants something different. The main character cannot help but think about how amazing and incomprehensible their relationship is. The girl does not think about marriage, does not want to become a wife and mother. She's honest about it. The main character is simultaneously drawn to a luxurious life and denies it. This contradiction in her nature seems strange and incomprehensible.
The girl is characterized by an interest in religion. She visits churches, she is drawn to the Kremlin cathedrals. But at the same time, she cannot be called particularly devout, because she leads a secular lifestyle, without limiting herself in anything. However, quite unexpectedly, the girl goes to a monastery. She doesn't explain anything to anyone. He simply leaves his usual life and his loved one. The girl’s action was completely unexpected for the young man. He cannot understand the behavior of his beloved. And in Once again thinks about her action, without finding an explanation for it. The heroes of the story separated for a very long time. The young man saw his beloved only two years later. What does the title of the story tell us? The young man found out about the girl’s religiosity on the eve of Clean Monday. Previously, he had never even thought about the fact that his beloved was so interested in religion. This behavior of a young girl seems to us readers to be an amazing discovery. Maybe the heroine considers her life sinful, and wants to find salvation for her soul in the monastery. After all, the girl’s life was full of entertainment, she visited theaters, restaurants, and had a lot of fun.
The heroine finds the strength to abandon everything that was familiar and dear to her. Instead of fun and joy, she chooses life in a monastery. However, if we remember that the girl was indifferent to what surrounded her, you won’t be surprised at her action. Even love did not keep the girl from becoming a nun. What was love for her? Something temporary, unimportant, vain? The ending of the story remains open.
“Clean Monday” is tragic in its essence. He stands apart in Bunin’s work, because here the lovers do not part due to the ill will of fate. The girl chooses her own path. Nobody and nothing bothered the young people. They could be happy, completely dissolving in each other. But it turned out differently. Maybe the main character was not able to understand and appreciate such a beautiful and sublime feeling? Or there was no place for love in her soul at all, because the heroine seems to live in her own own world. We don’t know what is most important to her, but we can only guess.
In fact, little is known about the main character and it is difficult to understand her. You can perceive her mental torment as evidence of internal dissatisfaction real life. But maybe, on the contrary, she long ago determined what the meaning of her life was. And gradually I walked towards the desired result. Usual life did not attract the girl, she expected something more. Religion turned out to be more important for her than usual activities and joys. And in this regard, love for a man seemed to the girl less important than love for God.
Of course, only an extraordinary nature can refuse the usual worldly joys. The girl is certainly a strong and extraordinary person. She is looking for her own meaning in life. And going to the monastery seems to her the right decision, because now the vanity is simple and vulgar life won't make any difference at all.
The story cannot but evoke feelings of sadness in the reader. But at the same time, the story makes you think about how unique, inimitable and incomprehensible a person can be to others. This is exactly what the main character is. She is unlike anyone else. She has her own own choice. And the girl makes the decision on her own, without asking anyone for advice, without needing the approval of others. However, one cannot help but admit that the main character is not so ideal. After all, her act turned out to be a cruel blow for the young man. He suffers from separation from his beloved. Surprisingly, we learn that the girl is also experiencing separation pain. After all, in the letter she writes: “May God give me the strength not to answer me - it is useless to prolong and increase our torment...”. So why did the girl choose her path? Why did she decide to ruin the life of her beloved? It can be concluded that she felt unhappy. And she decided to break with the world in order to forever forget about everything connected with it.
Bunin's story "Clean Monday" tells us about the complexity human life. The role of this work in Russian literature is very great. Thanks to him, we got the opportunity to learn about how tragic the ending of a love story can be.
“Clean Monday” I.A. Bunin considered his best work. Largely due to its semantic depth and ambiguity of interpretation. The story occupies an important place in the “Dark Alleys” cycle. The time of its writing is considered to be May 1944. During this period of his life, Bunin was in France, far from his homeland, where the Great Patriotic War.
In this light, it is unlikely that the 73-year-old writer devoted his work only to the theme of love. It would be more correct to say that through the description of the relationship between two people, their views and worldviews, the truth is revealed to the reader modern life, its tragic background and the urgency of many moral problems.
At the center of the story is the story of the relationship between a quite wealthy man and a woman, between whom feelings for each other develop. They have an interesting and pleasant time visiting restaurants, theaters, taverns, and many others. etc. The narrator and the main character in one person are drawn to her, but the possibility of marriage is immediately ruled out - the girl clearly believes that she is not suitable for family life.
One day on the eve of Clean Monday on Forgiveness Sunday, she asks to pick her up a little earlier. After which they go to Novodevichy Convent, visit the local cemetery, walk among the graves and remember the funeral of the archbishop. The heroine understands how much the narrator loves her, and the man himself notices the great religiosity of his companion. The woman talks about life in a monastery and herself threatens to go to the most remote of them. True, the narrator does not attach much importance to her words.
The next day in the evening, at the girl’s request, they go to a theatrical skit. A rather strange choice of place - especially considering that the heroine does not like and does not recognize such gatherings. There she drinks champagne, dances and has fun. After which the narrator brings her home at night. The heroine asks the man to come up to her. They are finally getting closer.
The next morning the girl reports that she is leaving for Tver for a while. After 2 weeks, a letter arrives from her in which she says goodbye to the narrator and asks not to look for her, since “I won’t return to Moscow, I’ll go to obedience for now, then maybe I’ll decide to take monastic vows.”
The man fulfills her request. However, he does not disdain spending time in dirty taverns and taverns, indulging in an indifferent existence - “he got drunk, sinking in every possible way, more and more.” Then he comes to his senses for a long time, and two years later he decides to go on a trip to all the places that he and his beloved visited on that Forgiveness Sunday. At some point, the hero is overcome by a kind of hopeless resignation. Arriving at the Marfo-Maryinsky monastery, he finds out that there is a service going on there and even goes inside. Here, in last time the hero sees his beloved, who is participating in the service along with other nuns. At the same time, the girl does not see the man, but her gaze is directed into the darkness, where the narrator stands. After which he quietly leaves the church.
Story composition
The composition of the story is based on three parts. The first serves to introduce the characters, describe their relationships and pastimes. The second part is dedicated to the events of Forgiveness Sunday and Clean Monday. The shortest, but semantically important third part completes the composition.
Reading the works and moving from one part to another, one can see the spiritual maturation of not only the heroine, but also the narrator himself. At the end of the story, we are no longer a frivolous person, but a man who has experienced the bitterness of parting with his beloved, capable of experiencing and comprehending his actions of the past.
Considering that the hero and the narrator are one person, you can see changes in him even with the help of the text itself. The hero's worldview after sad story love changes dramatically. Talking about himself in 1912, the narrator resorts to irony, showing his limitations in the perception of his beloved. Only physical intimacy is important, and the hero himself does not try to understand the woman’s feelings, her religiosity, outlook on life, and much more. etc.
In the final part of the work we see a narrator and a man who understands the meaning of the experience. He evaluates his life retrospectively and the overall tone of writing the story changes, which speaks of the inner maturity of the narrator himself. When reading the third part, one gets the impression that it was written by a completely different person.
By genre features Most researchers classify “Clean Monday” as a short story, because at the center of the plot there is a turning point that forces a different interpretation of the work. We are talking about the heroine leaving for a monastery.
Novella I.A. Bunin is distinguished by a complex spatio-temporal organization. The action takes place at the end of 1911 - beginning of 1912. This is confirmed by the mention of specific dates and textual references to real historical figures that were known and recognizable at the time. For example, the heroes first meet at a lecture by Andrei Bely, and at a theatrical skit the artist Sulerzhitsky appears before the reader, with whom the heroine dances.
Time range small work wide enough. There are three specific dates: 1912 is the time of the plot events, 1914 is the date last meeting heroes, as well as a certain “today” of the narrator. The entire text is filled with additional time references and references: “the graves of Ertel, Chekhov”, “the house where Griboyedov lived”, pre-Petrine Rus' is mentioned, Chaliapin’s concert, the schismatic Rogozhskoe cemetery, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky and much more. It turns out that the events of the story fit into the general historical context and turn out to be not just a specific description of the relationship between a man and a woman, but represent an entire era.
It is no coincidence that a number of researchers call to see in the heroine the image of Russia itself, and to interpret her act as the author’s call not to follow a revolutionary path, but to seek repentance and do everything to change the life of the whole country. Hence the title of the short story “Clean Monday”, which, like the first day of Lent, should become Starting point on the way to better things.
Main characters in the story “Clean Monday” there are only two. This is the heroine and the narrator himself. The reader never learns their names.
At the center of the work is the image of the heroine, and the hero is shown through the prism of their relationship. The girl is smart. He often says philosophically wisely: “Our happiness, my friend, is like water in delirium: if you pull it, it’s inflated, but if you pull it out, there’s nothing.”
Opposite essences coexist in the heroine; there are many contradictions in her image. On the one hand, she likes luxury, Savor, visiting theaters, restaurants. However, this does not interfere with the internal craving for something different, significant, beautiful, religious. She's addicted literary heritage, and not only domestic, but also European. Often quoted famous works world classics, hagiographic literature tells about ancient rites and funeral.
The girl categorically denies the possibility of marriage and believes that she is not fit to be a wife. The heroine is looking for herself, often in thought. She is smart, beautiful and wealthy, but the narrator was convinced every day: “it looked like she didn’t need anything: no books, no lunches, no theaters, no dinners outside the city...” In this world she is constantly and to some extent pores pointlessly searching for oneself. She is attracted to luxurious happy life, but at the same time she is disgusted with her: “I don’t understand how people won’t get tired of this all their lives, having lunch and dinner every day.” True, she herself “had lunch and dinner with a Moscow understanding of the matter. Her only obvious weakness was good clothes, velvet, silk, expensive fur...” Exactly like this controversial image the heroines are created by I.A. Bunin in his work.
Wanting to find something different for herself, she visits churches and cathedrals. The girl manages to break out of her usual environment, albeit not thanks to love, which turns out to be not so sublime and omnipotent. Faith and withdrawal from worldly life help her find herself. This act confirms the strong and strong-willed character of the heroine. This is how she responds to her own thoughts about the meaning of life, understanding the futility of the one she leads into secular society. In the monastery, the main thing for a person becomes love for God, service to him and people, while everything vulgar, base, unworthy and ordinary will no longer bother her.
The main idea of the story by I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"
In this work, Bunin brings to the fore the history of the relationship between two people, but the main meanings are hidden much deeper. It is impossible to interpret this story unambiguously, since it is simultaneously dedicated to love, morality, philosophy, and history. However, the main direction of the writer’s thought comes down to questions of the fate of Russia itself. According to the author, the country must be cleansed of its sins and reborn spiritually, as the heroine of the work “Clean Monday” did.
Ivan Bunin is known to many readers as brilliant writer and poet. For my creative career the writer created great amount poems, stories, novellas and novels. They are all imbued deep meaning and have an interesting and exciting plot. The collection of short stories “Dark Alleys” gained particular popularity. All works from it tell about love. For the writer himself, this feeling evokes conflicting emotions - happy and sad at the same time. To talk about love in more detail, Bunin wrote “Clean Monday”. shows how ambiguous and deep it is.
The strangeness of love between the characters of the story
Love is not only the joy of meetings, but also the torment of parting, this is also shown by analysis. Bunin wrote “Clean Monday” to show the depth of feelings of his characters. The writer didn’t even give them names, because the story is told by the hero himself, and the image of the heroine is so complex, multifaceted and mysterious that she doesn’t need a name. Even at the beginning of the work, it becomes clear that the lovers will have no future. This is a beautiful, young full of strength and steam energy, but they are too different.
A man is fixated on his feelings, and this prevents him from knowing better spiritual world to your beloved. They spend a lot of time together, have a picnic, go to restaurants, visit the theater, but the girl seems too distant. The heroine is in search of her true purpose - this is exactly what the analysis shows. Bunin composed “Clean Monday” to talk about the fact that sooner or later every person will have to decide what to do next, to determine whether he has chosen the right path. The girl does not want to talk about the future, categorically denies the possibility of marriage, and says that she is not ready to become a wife. The man understands that this is not normal, but still agrees with the oddities of his beloved.
Finding your place in this world
The heroine cannot find herself - this is also shown by the analysis. Bunin wrote “Clean Monday” to show soul feelings girls. She did everything that was accepted in society: she studied, dressed beautifully, attended the theater, met with her loved one. But deep down, the woman realized that all this was not what she needed. This is what explains the main character’s detachment and her reluctance to talk about a future together with her lover. She always did everything the way everyone else did, but that didn’t suit her.
Painful separation
Conflicting feelings increasingly arise in the girl’s soul; she can no longer live simply and carefree, like most young people. The decision to radically change her life has long been brewing for the heroine, and the analysis speaks to this. It was not in vain that Bunin chose Clean Monday for turning point in the fate of the characters. On the first day of Lent, the girl decides to devote herself to serving God. The heroine makes a man suffer from separation, but she herself suffers from this.
The story "Clean Monday" is mainly devoted to strong personality a girl who was not afraid to do differently from everyone else, to dramatically change her life and find the meaning of her existence.
