Subject analysis: "Clean Monday", Bunin I. A

For I. A. Bunin, the feeling of love is always a secret, great, unknowable and not subject to the human mind. In his stories, whatever love is: strong, real, mutual - it never reaches marriage. He stops her at the highest point of pleasure and immortalizes in prose.

From 1937 to 1945 Ivan Bunin writes an intriguing work, later it will be included in the collection "Dark Alleys". At the time of writing the book, the author emigrated to France. Thanks to the work on the story, the writer was somewhat distracted from the black streak passing through his life.

Bunin said that Clean Monday is the best work that he has written:

I thank God for giving me the opportunity to write Clean Monday.

Genre, direction

Clean Monday is written in the direction of realism. But before Bunin, they did not write about love like that. The writer finds the only words that do not trivialize feelings, but each time they re-discover the emotions familiar to everyone.

The work "Clean Monday" is a short story, a small piece of everyday life, somewhat similar to a story. The only difference can be found in plot and compositional construction. The genre of the short story, in contrast to the story, is characterized by the presence of a certain turn of events. In this book, such a turn is a change in the heroine's outlook on life and a sharp change in her lifestyle.

The meaning of the name

Ivan Bunin clearly draws a parallel with the title of the work, making the main character a girl who rushes between opposites and does not yet know what she needs in life. She changes for the better from Monday, and not just the first day of a new week, but a religious celebration, that turning point, which is marked by the church itself, where the heroine goes to cleanse herself of the luxury, idleness and bustle of her former life.

Maundy Monday is the first holiday of Great Lent on the calendar, leading to Forgiveness Sunday. The author draws out the thread of the heroine's crucial life: from various fun and unnecessary fun, to the adoption of religion, and departure to a monastery.

The essence

The story is told in the first person. The main events are as follows: the narrator every evening visits a girl who lives opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, for whom he has strong feelings. He is immensely chatty, she is very silent. There was no intimacy between them, and this keeps him at a loss, and some kind of expectation.

For a certain time, they continue to go to theaters, spend evenings together. Forgiveness Sunday is approaching, and they are going to the Novodevichy Convent. On the way, the heroine talks about how she was at the schismatic cemetery yesterday, and describes with admiration the rite of burial of the archbishop. The narrator did not notice any early religiosity in her, and therefore listened attentively, with burning loving eyes. The heroine notices this, and is amazed at how much he loves her.

In the evening they go to a skit, after which the narrator escorts her home. The girl asks to let the coachmen go, which she had not done before, and go up to her. It was just their evening.

In the morning, the heroine says that she is leaving for Tver, for a monastery - there is no need to wait or look for her.

The main characters and their characteristics

The image of the main character can be viewed from several perspectives of the narrator: a young man in love evaluates the chosen one as a participant in the events, he also sees her in the role of a person who only recalls the past. His views on life after falling in love, after passion - change. By the end of the novel, the reader now sees his maturity and depth of thought, but at first the hero was blinded by his passion and did not see the character of his beloved behind her, did not feel her soul. This is the reason for his loss and the despair into which he plunged after the disappearance of the lady of the heart.

The name of the girl cannot be found in the work. For the narrator, this is just the one - the unique one. The heroine is an ambiguous nature. She has education, sophistication, intelligence, but at the same time she is removed from the world. She is attracted by an unattainable ideal, to which she can strive only within the walls of the monastery. But at the same time, she fell in love with a man and cannot just leave him. The contrast of feelings leads to an inner conflict, which we can catch a glimpse of in her tense silence, in her desire for quiet and secluded corners, for meditation and loneliness. The girl still cannot understand what she needs. She is seduced by a gorgeous life, but at the same time, she resists it, and tries to find something else that will illuminate her path with meaning. And in this honest choice, in this loyalty to oneself, there is great strength, there is great happiness, which Bunin described with such pleasure.

Topics and problems

1. The main theme is love... It is she who gives a person meaning in life. For the girl, the divine revelation became the guiding star, she found herself, but her chosen one, having lost the woman of his dreams, went astray.
2. The problem of misunderstanding. The whole essence of the tragedy of the heroes is a misunderstanding of each other. The girl, feeling love for the narrator, does not see anything good in this - for her this is a problem, and not a way out of a confused situation. She is looking for herself not in the family, but in the service and spiritual vocation. He sincerely does not see this and is trying to impose on her his vision of the future - the creation of marriage bonds.
3. Selection theme also present in the novel. Every person has a choice, and everyone decides for himself what to do right. The main character chose her own path - going to a monastery. The hero continued to love her, and could not come to terms with her choice, because of this he could not find inner harmony, find himself.
4. Also, I. A. Bunin can be traced the theme of a person's purpose in life... The main character does not know what she wants, but she feels her calling. It is very difficult for her to understand herself, and because of this, the narrator also cannot fully understand her. However, she goes to the call of her soul, vaguely guessing the destination - the destiny of the higher powers. And that is very good for both of them. If a woman made a mistake and got married, she would forever remain unhappy and blame the one who led her astray. And a man would suffer from undivided happiness.
5. The problem of happiness. The hero sees him in love with the lady, but the lady moves along a different coordinate system. She will find harmony only when she is alone with God.

the main idea

The writer writes about true love that ends up breaking up. The heroes make such decisions themselves, they have complete freedom of choice. And the meaning of their actions is the idea of ​​the whole book. Each of us must choose exactly the love that we can worship without complaint throughout our lives. A person must be true to himself and the passion that lives in his heart. The heroine found the strength to go to the end and, despite all the doubts and temptations, to reach the cherished goal.

The main idea of ​​the novel is a fervent appeal for honest self-determination. There is no need to be afraid that someone will not understand or condemn your decision, if you are sure that this is your calling. In addition, a person must be able to resist those obstacles and temptations that prevent him from hearing his own voice. Our fate depends on whether we can hear it, and our own fate, and the position of those to whom we are dear.

Interesting? Keep it on your wall!

Maundy Monday is considered the beginning of the fast, this is the first day after Shrovetide, on which many of the Lord's servants begin to fast. It was not by chance that Bunin chose such a title for his story: here is the observance of fasting, which obliges a person not only to himself, but also to the Lord, here is also the adoption of a decision that changes your whole life, placing a person in an honest framework of existence, which he is for himself “ invented "once. Bunin shows with what feelings, with what impatience, with what renunciation of the world and attachment to everyday life she meets her clean Monday. Let's try to more fully reveal the meaning of the name "Clean Monday". The author could call the story "cleansing", "rebirth", and everything would be this pure Monday. Fasting presupposes proof of faith in a human god, through the denial of one's physical needs, a new discovery of oneself, the discovery of one's true spiritual world, that is, rebirth. The heroine was eventually reborn, found her true self, without suffering, as he did about the loss of those physical (earthly) connections. Her soul found the place that she thinks was destined for her, and calmed down.

Let's try to understand for ourselves what feelings lie at the heart of the work. In the relationship between the hero and the heroine, one can immediately trace, from the first pages, what their whole union rests on: “... As for my love, you know very well that, apart from my father and you, I have no one in the world. In any case, you are my first and last. Is this not enough for you? But enough about that ... ". She made a reservation: besides them, she has a god, there is her inner spiritual world, with which she eventually retired. But she understands everything, this is enough for him, he is only able to see in himself “... at that time he was beautiful for some reason southern, hot beauty, was even“ indecently beautiful ”, in her“ ... but she had some kind of beauty then Indian, Persian ... "and even in the surrounding majestic things" ... and something Kyrgyz in the tips of the towers on the Kremlin walls ... "" what he wants to see. A handsome man surrounded by beautiful things is happy for a while by definition, and he also believes in his love for her. And there is no love! When she let him know that he was waiting for happiness, but could not wait, that happiness is like water in delirium - soon "... pull it out - there is nothing." As nothing turned out after their night. He dismissed it: "Oh, God bless her, with this Eastern wisdom!" You might think that he is really blinded by love, but no, and later this will prove completely. He could not hear her spiritual impulse in any way. She was so happy when they were at the Novodevichy Convent: "It's true, how you love me!" But he is blind and deaf. When she invites him to visit another monastery: “I laughed:
- Back to the monastery?
- No, that's me ... "

For him, she is just a toy, an ornament, with which he is pleased to appear in the world, he likes to admire her. Even when she directly told him that she would go to a monastery (in Yegorov's tavern), he did not react in any way, all his thoughts at that moment were from excitement not caused by love, but what - he himself does not know - and it seems that he is worried exactly this is. And the last thing that proves that this is not blind love, but it is incomprehensible what kind of feeling is that with blind love jealousy is cruel and boundless, where was she when the heroine wrote out a “pretzel” with Sulerzhitsky, when Kachalov insulted him in her presence: “And what is this handsome man? I hate. " The sense of ownership, of aesthetic superiority is what makes the hero think that he loves. She doesn’t like him, it immediately becomes clear from her hints, from her conversations. "... Who knows what love is?" She tries in vain to draw his attention to her inner world, first with invitations to churches, to monasteries, then she tried to arouse jealousy in him, and remained a mystery to him, even tried to prepare him for parting. This is what the problematic of the story is: she is a thing for him, a toy, very expensive jewelry, she tries to open herself to someone at least, and all against the background of the fact that both of them are looking for love that does not exist (young people know how to fall in love, does not know how to love ).

Bunin, it seems to me, stands on the side of the heroine, prepares the reader for the future denouement: first she visits the cemetery, then the temples, they eat pancakes on Shrovetide, which means that purification will take place on Clean Monday. A skillfully constructed composition of the story, based on the contradictions between his and her world: the beauty of churches and cemeteries - the dirt of taverns, drunkenness on skits. She manages to live in his world, for example, she sometimes smokes a lot, has fun, and he is a stranger in her world. Her world is imbued with the spirit of divine meaning: "Lord, the lord of my belly ...", "... And on two kliros there are two choirs, also all Peresvet ...", "There was a city of Murom in the Russian land ...", etc. Comparing the two worlds, from which the author himself chooses the world of the heroine. In the end, he is even forbidden to enter the church, but for money the doors are opened, apparently so that he understands its secret.

Now, if I were a singer and sang on the stage, I would respond to the applause with a friendly smile and slight bows to the right and left, up and to the ground, and I would imperceptibly but carefully kick the train away so as not to step on it ...

These memories suddenly visit the hero, although he cannot comprehend them. She remained a secret for him, he never saw this train, and she played, but not on stage, but in life ... The only thing he could understand was the calmness she had acquired, and let go of his love, went into his mundane life.

Theme and idea, severity of the conflict and artistic features of the play

A. P. Chekhova"The Cherry Orchard".

ANSWER PLAN

1. The origins of the play.

2. Genre features of the play.

4. The conflict of comedy and its features.

5. Basic images of comedy.

6. The main idea of ​​the play.

7. The symbolic sound of the title of the piece.

1. AP Chekhov finished his play "The Cherry Orchard" in 1903, when the new century was knocking at the door. There was a reassessment of established values ​​for centuries. The nobility was ruined and stratified. It was a class doomed to perish. It was replaced by a powerful force - the bourgeoisie. The dying of the nobility as a class and the arrival of the capitalists are the basis of the play. Chekhov understands that the new masters of life will not hold out for long as a class, since another, young force is growing up, which will build a new life in Russia.

2. The play "The Cherry Orchard" is imbued with a light, lyrical mood. The author himself emphasized that "The Cherry Orchard" is a comedy, since he was able to combine the dramatic, sometimes tragic, beginning with the comic.

3. The main event of the play is the purchase of a cherry orchard. All the problems and experiences of the heroes are built around this. All thoughts, memories are associated with him. It is the cherry orchard that is the central image of the play.

4. Truthfully portraying life, the writer tells about the fate of three generations, three social strata of society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie and the progressive intelligentsia. A distinctive feature of the plot is the absence of a pronounced conflict. All events take place in the same estate with permanent characters. The external conflict in the play is replaced by the drama of the characters' experiences.

5. The old world of serf Russia is personified by the images of Gayev and Ranevskaya, Vary and Firs. The world of today, the world of the business bourgeoisie, is represented by Lopakhin, the world of undecided future trends - by Anya and Petya Trofimov.

6. Expectation of change is the main theme of the play. All the heroes of The Cherry Orchard are oppressed by the temporality of all that exists, the frailty of being. In their life, as in the life of contemporary Russia, the “connecting thread” has been broken for days, the old has been destroyed, and the new has not yet been built, and it is not known what this new will be. All of them unconsciously grab onto the past, not realizing that it is no longer there.

Hence the feeling of loneliness in this world, awkwardness of being. Lonely and unhappy in this life are not only Ranevskaya, Gaev, Lopakhin, but also Charlotte, Epikhodov. All the heroes of the play are closed in themselves, they are so absorbed in their own problems that they do not hear, do not notice others. Uncertainty and anxiety about the future still give rise to hope for something better in their hearts. But what is the best future? Chekhov leaves this question open ... Petya Trofimov looks at life exclusively from a social point of view. There is much that is fair in his speeches, but they do not have a concrete idea of ​​the solution of eternal questions. He has little understanding of real life. Therefore, Chekhov gives us this image in contradiction: on the one hand, he is an accuser, and on the other, he is a "fool," "an eternal student," "a shabby gentleman." Anya is full of hope, vitality, but there is still so much inexperience and childhood in her.

7. The author does not yet see a hero in Russian life who could become the real owner of the "cherry orchard", the keeper of its beauty and wealth. The very title of the play carries a deep ideological content. The garden is a symbol of a passing life. The end of the garden is the end of a generation of outgoing nobles. But in the play the image of a new garden grows, "more luxurious than this." "All Russia is our garden." And this new blooming garden, with its fragrance, its beauty, is to be grown by the young generation.

31. The main themes and ideas of prose I. A. Bunina .

ANSWER PLAN

1. A word about the work of the writer.

2. The main themes and ideas of I. A. Bunin's prose:

a) the theme of the leaving patriarchal past ("Antonov apples");

b) criticism of bourgeois reality ("Mister from San Francisco");

c) the system of symbols in the story of I. A. Bunin "The Lord from San Francisco";

d) the theme of love and death ("Mister from San Francisco", "Transfiguration", "Mitya's love", "Dark alleys").

3. I. A. Bunin - Nobel Prize Laureate.

1. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) is called “the last classic”. Bunin's reflections on the deep processes of life are poured into a perfect artistic form, where the originality of the composition, images, details are subordinated to the tense author's thought.

2. In his stories, stories, poems, Bunin shows us the whole range of problems of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The themes of his works are so diverse that they seem to be life itself. Let's trace how the subject matter and problems of Bunin's stories changed throughout his life.

a) The main theme of the early 1900s is the theme of the leaving patriarchal past of Russia. The most vivid expression of the problem of changing the system, the collapse of all foundations of the noble society, we see in the story "Antonov apples". Bunin regrets the passing past of Russia, idealizing the noble way of life. Bunin's best memories of his former life are saturated with the smell of Antonov apples. He hopes that along with the dying noble Russia, the roots of the nation will nevertheless remain in her memory.

b) In the mid-1910s, the themes and problems of Bunin's stories began to change. He moves away from the theme of Russia's patriarchal past to criticism of bourgeois reality. A striking example of this period is his story "The Lord of San Francisco". With the smallest details, mentioning every detail, Bunin describes the luxury that is the true life of the gentlemen of the new era. In the center of the work is the image of a millionaire who does not even have his own name, since no one remembered it - and does he really need it? This is a collective image of the American bourgeois. “Until the age of 58, his life was devoted to accumulation. Having become a millionaire, he wants to get all the pleasures that money can buy: ... he thought to hold the carnival in Nice, in Monte Carlo, where at this time the most selective society flocks, where some indulge in automobile and sailing races with passion, others roulette, the third to what is commonly called flirting, and the fourth to the shooting of pigeons, which soar very beautifully from the cages above the emerald lawn, against the background of a sea of ​​forget-me-not colors, and immediately knock white lumps on the ground ... "- this is a life devoid of inner content ... The consumer society has etched everything human in itself, the ability to sympathy, condolences. The death of the gentleman from San Francisco is perceived with displeasure, because "the evening was irreparably ruined", the hotel owner feels guilty, gives his word that he will take "all measures in his power" to eliminate the trouble. Money decides everything: guests want to get pleasure for their money, the owner does not want to lose profit, this explains the disrespect for death. Such is the moral decline of society, its inhumanity in its extreme manifestation.

c) There are a lot of allegories, associations and symbols in this story. The ship "Atlantis" acts as a symbol of civilization; the lord himself is a symbol of the bourgeois well-being of society, where people eat deliciously, dress exquisitely and do not care about the world around them. They are not interested in him. They live in society, as in a case, closed forever for people of another circle. The ship symbolizes this shell, the sea - the rest of the world, raging, but in no way touching the hero and those like him. And next to it, in the same shell, are the people who control the ship, working in the sweat of their brow at a giant furnace, which the author calls the ninth circle of hell.

There are many biblical allegories in this story. The hold of a ship can be compared to the underworld. The author hints that the gentleman from San Francisco sold his soul for earthly goods and is now paying for it with death.

The image of a huge, like a cliff, devil is symbolic in the story, which is a symbol of an impending catastrophe, a kind of warning to humanity. Symbolically in the story, the fun continues after the death of the rich man, absolutely nothing has changed. The ship sails in the opposite direction, only this time with the body of a rich man in a soda box, and ballroom music thunders again "amid a furious blizzard sweeping over the ocean humming like a funeral mass ..."

d) It was important for the author to emphasize the idea of ​​the insignificance of the power of man in the face of the same mortal outcome for all. It turned out that everything accumulated by the master has no meaning before the eternal law to which everyone without exception is subject. Obviously, the meaning of life is not in acquiring wealth, but in something else that does not lend itself to monetary evaluation or aesthetic wisdom. The theme of death receives diverse coverage in Bunin's work. This is both the death of Russia and the death of an individual. Death turns out to be not only the resolver of all contradictions, but also the source of absolute, purifying power ("Transfiguration", "Mitya's love").

Another of the main themes of the writer's work is the theme of love. The cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" is devoted to this topic. Bunin considered this book to be the most perfect in artistic skill. “All the stories in this book are only about love, about its“ dark ”and most often very gloomy and cruel alleys,” wrote Bunin. The collection "Dark Alleys" is one of the last masterpieces of the great master.

3. In the literature of the Russian diaspora, Bunin is a star of the first magnitude. After being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933, Bunin became a symbol of Russian literature all over the world.

Analysis of the story of I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"

The story "Clean Monday" is surprisingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. The meeting of two people leads to the emergence of a wonderful feeling-love. But love is not only joy, it is a huge torment, against the background of which many problems and troubles seem imperceptible. The story described exactly how a man and a woman met. But the story begins from the moment at which their relationship has lasted for a long time. Bunin draws attention to the smallest details, to how “the gray Moscow winter day was getting dark”, or to where the lovers went to have dinner - “to Prague, to the Hermitage, to the Metropol” ...
The tragedy of parting is sensed at the very beginning of the story. The main character does not know what their relationship will lead to. He prefers not to think about this simply: “I didn’t know how this should end, and I tried not to think, not to think out: it was useless - just like talking to her about it: she once and for all took away conversations about our future”.
Why does the heroine reject talk about the future? Is she not interested in continuing a relationship with a loved one? Or does she already have some idea of ​​her future? Judging by the way Bunin describes the main character, she appears as a very special woman, not like many around. She studies in courses, not realizing, however, why she needs studies. When asked why she studies, the girl answered: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions? "
The girl loves to surround herself with beautiful things, she is educated, sophisticated, smart. But at the same time, she seems to be somehow surprisingly detached from everything that surrounded her: "It seemed as if she did not need anything: no flowers, no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners outside the city." At the same time, she knows how to enjoy life, enjoys reading, delicious food, interesting impressions. It would seem that lovers have everything that is necessary for happiness: "We were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that in restaurants, at concerts we were watched." At first, it may seem that the story describes a real love idyll. But in reality, everything was completely different.
It is no accident that the main character comes up with the idea of ​​the strangeness of their love. The girl in every possible way denies the possibility of marriage, she explains that she is not suitable for a wife. The girl cannot find herself, she is in thought. She is attracted to a luxurious, cheerful life. But at the same time she resists her, wants to find something else for herself. In the soul of a girl, conflicting feelings arise that are incomprehensible to many young people who are accustomed to a simple and carefree existence.
The girl visits churches, Kremlin cathedrals. She is drawn to religion, to holiness, herself, perhaps, not realizing why she is attracted by this. Quite suddenly, without explaining anything to anyone, she decides to leave not only her lover, but also her usual way of life. After leaving, the heroine informs in a letter of her intention to decide on tonsure. She doesn't want to explain anything to anyone. Parting with his beloved turned out to be an ordeal for the protagonist. Only after a long time he was able to see her among the line of nuns.
The story is called "Clean Monday" because it was on the eve of this holy day that the first conversation about religiosity took place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not think, did not suspect about the other side of the girl's nature. She seemed quite content with the usual life, in which there was a place for theaters, restaurants, fun. The rejection of secular joys for the sake of a monastic monastery testifies to the deep inner torments that took place in the soul of the young woman. Perhaps this is precisely what explains the indifference with which she treated her usual life. She could not find a place for herself among everything that surrounded her. And even love could not help her in finding spiritual harmony.
Love and tragedy in this story go hand in hand, as, incidentally, in many other works of Bunin Love itself does not seem to be happiness, but a hardest test that must be endured with honor. Love is sent to people who cannot, do not know how to understand and appreciate it in time.
What is the tragedy of the main characters of the story "Clean Monday"? The fact that a man and a woman could not understand and appreciate each other properly. Each person is the whole world, the whole Universe. The inner world of the girl, the heroine of the story, is very rich. She is in thought, in a spiritual search. She is attracted and at the same time frightened by the surrounding reality, she does not find something to which she can become attached. And love appears not as salvation, but as yet another problem that weighed upon it. That is why the heroine decides to give up love.
Refusal of worldly joys and entertainment gives out a strong nature in a girl. This is how she answers her own questions about the meaning of being. In the monastery, she does not have to ask herself any questions, now the meaning of life for her is love for God and service to him. Everything vain, vulgar, petty and insignificant will never touch her again. Now she can be in her loneliness without worrying that it will be disturbed.
The story may seem sad and even tragic. To some extent, this is true. But at the same time, the story "Clean Monday" is sublimely beautiful. It makes us think about true values, about the fact that sooner or later each of us will have to face a situation of moral choice. And not everyone has the courage to admit that the choice was made incorrectly.
At first, the girl lives the way many of her entourage live. But gradually she realizes that she is not satisfied not only with the lifestyle itself, but also with all the little things and details that surround her. She finds the strength to look for another option and comes to the conclusion that love for God can be her salvation. Love for God simultaneously elevates her, but at the same time makes all her actions completely incomprehensible. The main character, a man in love with her, practically breaks his life. He remains alone. But the point is not even that she leaves him completely unexpectedly. She treats him cruelly, making him suffer and torment. True, he suffers with him. He suffers and suffers of his own free will. This is evidenced by the letter of the heroine: "May God give me the strength not to answer me - it is useless to prolong and increase our torment ...".
Lovers are not separated because of unfavorable circumstances. In fact, the reason is quite different. The reason is in a sublime and at the same time deeply unhappy girl who cannot find the meaning of existence for herself. She cannot but deserve respect - this amazing girl who was not afraid to change her destiny so dramatically. But at the same time, she seems to be an incomprehensible and incomprehensible person, so unlike everyone who surrounded her.

33. The theme of love in prose A.I. Kuprin ... (On the example of one piece.)

Option 1

Kuprin depicts true love as the highest value of the world, as an incomprehensible secret. For such an all-consuming feeling, there is no question "to be or not to be?" "Love is always a tragedy," wrote Kuprin, "always struggle and achievement, always joy and fear, resurrection and death."
Kuprin was deeply convinced that even an unrequited feeling can transform a person's life. He wisely and touchingly told about this in The Pomegranate Bracelet, a sad story about a modest telegraph official Zheltkov, who was so hopelessly and selflessly in love with Countess Vera Sheina.
The central theme of love, which is pathetic and romantic in character, is figuratively embodied in the "Pomegranate Bracelet" with carefully reproduced everyday background and relief outlined figures of people whose life has not come in contact with a feeling of great love. Poor official Zheltkov, who has loved Princess Vera Nikolaevna for eight years, dying, thanks her for the fact that she was for him “the only joy in life, the only consolation, a single thought,” and the assistant prosecutor, who thinks that love can be suppressed by administrative measures - people of two different life dimensions. But Kuprin's living environment is never unambiguous. He especially highlighted the figure of the old general Anosov, who is sure that high love exists, but it “must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world ”, which knows no compromises.

The story "Clean Monday" is surprisingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. The meeting of two people leads to the emergence of a wonderful feeling-love. But love is not only joy, it is a huge torment, against the background of which many problems and troubles seem imperceptible. The story described exactly how a man and a woman met. But the story begins from the moment at which their relationship has lasted for a long time. Bunin draws attention to the smallest details, to how “Moscow's gray winter day was getting dark,” or to where the lovers went to have dinner - “to Prague, to the Hermitage, to the Metropol.

The tragedy of parting is sensed at the very beginning of the story. The main character does not know what their relationship will lead to. He simply prefers not to think about this: “I didn’t know how this should end, and I tried not to think, not to think out: it was useless - just like talking to her about it: she once and for all took away conversations about our future”. Why does the heroine reject talk about the future?

Is she not interested in continuing the relationship with her loved one? Or does she already have some idea of ​​her future? Judging by the way Bunin describes the main character, she appears as a very special woman, not like many around. She studies in courses, not realizing, however, why she needs studies. When asked why she studies, the girl answered: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions? ”.

The girl loves to surround herself with beautiful things, she is educated, sophisticated, smart. But at the same time, she seems somehow surprisingly detached from everything that surrounded her: “It seemed as if she did not need anything: no flowers, no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners outside the city." At the same time, she knows how to enjoy life, enjoys reading, delicious food, interesting impressions. It would seem that lovers have everything they need to be happy: “We were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that we were watched in restaurants and at concerts”. At first, it may seem that the story describes a real love idyll. But in reality, everything was completely different.

It is no accident that the main character comes up with the idea of ​​the strangeness of their love. The girl in every possible way denies the possibility of marriage, she explains that she is not suitable for a wife. The girl cannot find herself, she is in thought. She is attracted to a luxurious, cheerful life. But at the same time she resists her, wants to find something else for herself. In the soul of a girl, conflicting feelings arise that are incomprehensible to many young people who are accustomed to a simple and carefree existence.

The girl visits churches, Kremlin cathedrals. She is drawn to religion, to holiness, herself, perhaps, not realizing why she is attracted by this. Quite suddenly, without explaining anything to anyone, she decides to leave not only her lover, but also her usual way of life. After leaving, the heroine informs in a letter of her intention to decide on tonsure. She doesn't want to explain anything to anyone. Parting with his beloved turned out to be an ordeal for the protagonist. Only after a long time he was able to see her among the line of nuns.

The story is called “Clean Monday” because it was on the eve of this holy day that the first conversation about religiosity took place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not think, did not suspect about the other side of the girl's nature. She seemed quite content with the usual life, in which there was a place for theaters, restaurants, fun. The rejection of secular joys for the sake of a monastic monastery testifies to the deep inner torments that took place in the soul of the young woman. Perhaps this is precisely what explains the indifference with which she treated her usual life. She could not find a place for herself among everything that surrounded her. And even love could not help her in finding spiritual harmony.

Love and tragedy in this story go hand in hand, as, indeed, in many other works of Bunin. Love in itself does not seem to be happiness, but the hardest test that must be endured with honor. Love is sent to people who cannot, do not know how to understand and appreciate it in time.

What is the tragedy of the main characters of the story "Clean Monday"? The fact that a man and a woman could not understand and appreciate each other properly. Each person is the whole world, the whole Universe. The inner world of the girl, the heroine of the story, is very rich. She is in thought, in a spiritual search. She is attracted and at the same time frightened by the surrounding reality, she does not find something to which she can become attached. And love appears not as salvation, but as yet another problem that weighed upon it. That is why the heroine decides to give up love.

Refusal of worldly joys and entertainment gives out a strong nature in a girl. This is how she answers her own questions about the meaning of being. In the monastery, she does not have to ask herself any questions, now the meaning of life for her is love for God and service to him. Everything vain, vulgar, petty and insignificant will never touch her again. Now she can be in her loneliness without worrying that it will be disturbed.

The story may seem sad and even tragic. To some extent, this is true. But at the same time, the story "Clean Monday" is sublimely beautiful. It makes you think about true values, about the fact that each of us sooner or later has to face a situation of moral choice. And not everyone has the courage to admit that the choice was made wrong.

At first, the girl lives the way many of her entourage live. But gradually she realizes that she is not satisfied not only with the lifestyle itself, but also with all the little things and details that surround her. She finds the strength to look for another option and comes to the conclusion that love for God can be her salvation. Love for God simultaneously elevates her, but at the same time makes all her actions completely incomprehensible. The main character, a man in love with her, practically breaks his life. He remains alone. But the point is not even that she leaves him completely unexpectedly. She treats him cruelly, making him suffer and torment. True, he suffers with him. He suffers and suffers of his own free will. This is evidenced by the letter of the heroine: "May God give me the strength not to answer me - it is useless to prolong and increase our torment ...".

Lovers are not separated because of unfavorable circumstances. In fact, the reason is quite different. The reason is in a sublime and at the same time deeply unhappy girl who cannot find the meaning of existence for herself. She cannot but deserve respect - this amazing girl who was not afraid to change her destiny so dramatically. But at the same time, she seems to be an incomprehensible and incomprehensible person, so unlike everyone who surrounded her.

Analysis of the story of I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"

Bunin considered his most perfect creation to be the book "Dark Alleys" - a cycle of stories about love. The book was written during the Second World War, when the Bunin family was in an extremely difficult situation. The writer made an attempt in this book with an unprecedented artistic courage: he wrote "about the same thing" thirty-eight times (this is the number of stories in the book). However, the result of this amazing constancy is striking: the sensitive reader each time experiences the recreated picture, it would seem, knowingly known to him as absolutely new, and the acuteness of the "details of feeling" communicated to him is not only not dulled, but, it seems, only intensifies.

The short story "Clean Monday", which is part of the cycle "Dark Alleys", was written in 1944. IA Bunin considered this work one of his best stories: “I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to write“ Clean Monday ”. In the center of the plot of the work is a love story. Love for I.A. Bunina is a short-term happy period of life, which, unfortunately, always ends quickly, but leaves an indelible mark on the soul for many years. However, it would be a mistake to believe that Bunin dedicated his work only to the theme of love. It is more correct to say that through the description of the relationship between two people, their views and worldviews, the truth of modern life, its tragic background and the urgency of many moral problems are revealed to the reader.

The plot of the story is dynamic. The actions of the heroes are not fully explained, and they hardly lend themselves to logical interpretation. It is no coincidence that the author often uses the epithet "strange" in this work. Compositionally, the story consists of four parts. The first is the presentation of the characters, a description of their relationship and pastime. The second part is devoted to the events of Forgiveness Sunday. The third part is Clean Monday. The shortest, but meaningfully important fourth part, which completes the composition. At the same time, artistic time seems to describe a circle: from December 1912 to the end of 1914.

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 experienced the bitterness of parting with his beloved, able to experience and reflect on his past actions. Considering that the hero and the narrator are one person, you can even see the changes in him with the help of the text itself. The hero's worldview after a sad love story 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 feelings of a woman, her religiosity, outlook on life. In the final part of the work, we see a narrator - a man who understands the meaning of the experience he is experiencing. He evaluates his life retrospectively and the general tone of the story changes, which speaks of the inner maturity of the narrator himself. The peculiarity of the composition of the story is that the plot does not coincide with the plot - we learn about the acquaintance with the heroine from the words of the narrator. The culmination of the work is the love physical intimacy of the heroes on the first day of Great Lent (a great sin).

The alignment of the characters in the work is quite interesting. In the center of the story is the heroine, the hero, as it were, with her: shown through the prism of their relationship. She makes up the meaning of his life: "... I was incredibly happy with every hour spent with her." They do not even have names, although this is not immediately noticed - the narration is so easy, interesting, exciting. The absence of a name is, perhaps, more characteristic of the heroine, because her spiritual appearance is too complex, elusive, she is mysterious, enigmatic. We hear the whole story as if firsthand, the hero himself tells it. The girl is smart. He often speaks philosophically wisely: “Our happiness, my friend, is like water in delirium: if you pull it out, it’s puffed up, but when you pull it out, there’s nothing.” A poetic portrait of the heroine is created using a number of exquisite details. These are garnet velvet dresses, black velvet hair and eyelashes, gold facial skin. It is symbolic that the heroine consistently appears in clothes of three colors: in a pomegranate velvet dress and the same shoes, in a black fur coat, a hat and boots on Forgiveness Sunday and in a black velvet dress on Monday night. Finally, in the final scene of the story, the image of a female figure in a white robe appears.

Opposite essences coexist in the heroine, there are many contradictions in her image. On the one hand, she is attracted by a luxurious, cheerful life, but at the same time she is disgusted with her: “I don’t understand how people will not get tired of this all their lives, to have lunch and dinner every day.” True, she herself “ate lunch and dinner with a Moscow understanding of the matter. Her obvious weakness was only good clothes, velvet, silk, expensive fur ... ". However, this does not interfere with the inner craving for something different, significant, beautiful, religious. The girl categorically denies the possibility of marriage, believes that she is not suitable for a wife. The heroine is looking for herself, often in thought. She is beautiful and prosperous, but the narrator was convinced every day: “it seemed as if she didn’t need anything: no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners outside the city ...” In this world, she is constantly and for some time meaningless looking for himself. Wanting to find something else for herself, she visits churches and cathedrals. The primordial Russian soul is hidden behind the visible European gloss. The text traces the heroine's throwing between cleansing and the fall. We can see this in the description of the lips and cheeks: "Black fluff above the lip and pink amber of the cheeks." The girl manages to escape from the familiar environment, albeit not thanks to love, which turns out to be not so sublime and omnipotent. Faith and withdrawal from worldly life helps her to find herself. Such an act confirms the strong and strong-willed character of the heroine. This is how she responds to her own reflections on the meaning of life, realizing the uselessness of the one she leads in a secular society. In a monastery, the main thing for a person is love for God, serving him and people, while everything vulgar, base, unworthy and ordinary will no longer bother her.

The story of I.A. Bunin is distinguished by a complex spatio-temporal organization. The action takes place in 1911 - 1914. This is confirmed by the mention of specific dates and textual references to real historical figures who were known and recognizable at that time. For example, the heroes first meet at a lecture by Andrei Bely, and at a theatrical skit in front of the reader appears the art worker Sulerzhitsky, with whom the heroine is dancing. The entire text is filled with additional temporary landmarks and references: “the graves of Ertel, Chekhov,” “the house where Griboyedov lived,” mentions pre-Petrine Rus, Shalyapin’s concert, the schismatic Rogozhskoye cemetery, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, and much more. It turns out that the events of the story fit into the general historical context, turn out to be not just a concrete description of the relationship between a man and a woman, but personify 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 to go not in a revolutionary way, but to seek repentance and do everything to change the life of an entire country. Hence the title of the work "Clean Monday", which, as the first day of Great Lent, should become the starting point on the path to the best.

The play of light and darkness is of particular importance for the creation of an artistic space in a work. At the very beginning of the work, the author uses words for dark shades eight times in describing a Moscow winter evening. (“It was already dark for a long time, they turned pink behind the trees in the frost-lit windows”, “The Moscow gray winter day was darkening, the gas in the lanterns was coldly lit, the shop windows were warmly illuminated”). There are also dark tones in the description of the heroine. Only after the girl left for the monastery, the author prefers light colors. In the last paragraph, the word "white" is used four times, indicating the idea of ​​the story, that is, the rebirth of the soul, the transition from sin, the blackness of life to spiritual moral purity. IA Bunin in color shades conveys the idea, the idea of ​​the story. Using dark and light shades, alternating and combining them. The writer depicts the rebirth of the soul of the protagonist.

There are many symbolic details in the story: a view of the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the gate as a symbol of purification, finding the righteous path. Every evening the hero moves from the Red Gate to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and back. In the end of the story, he finds himself at the gates of the Martha-Mariinsky monastery. On the last evening of the closeness of the heroes in the doorway, he sees her naked in swan's shoes. This scene is also symbolic: the heroine has already decided her fate, she is ready to go to a monastery and from a sinful secular life to turn to a righteous life. Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" also has its own hidden meaning, the beginning of which is constantly learned by the heroine. It symbolizes the beginning of a different path for the heroine, a different path for Russia; what is not yet realized, but what the soul is striving for, and the sound of the "sublimely prayerful, imbued with deep lyricism" of the work fills the Bunin text with a presentiment of this.

In terms of genre features, most researchers attribute "Clean Monday" to a short story, because in the center of the plot there is a turning point, which forces one to interpret the work in a different way. We are talking about the departure of the heroine to the monastery.
In this work, Bunin brings to the fore the history of relations between two people, but the main meanings are hidden much deeper. It will not be possible to unambiguously interpret this story, since it is simultaneously dedicated to love, and morality, and philosophy, and history. However, the main line of thought of the writer comes down to questions of the fate of Russia itself. According to the author, the country should be cleansed of its sins and reborn spiritually, as the heroine of the work "Clean Monday" did. She gave up a wonderful future, money and position in society. I decided to leave everything worldly, because it became unbearable to be in the light, where true beauty disappeared, and only the “desperate cancans” of Moskvin and Stanislavsky remained and “pale with hops, with large sweat on his forehead,” Kachalov, who could hardly stand on his feet.

The narrative in the story, with all the seeming attitude towards objectivity, materiality, objective perception, is still not hero-centric. The author in "Pure Monday", as a bearer of culture, through the cultural and verbal existence of the hero-storyteller orients the reader to his own worldview.

The main idea of ​​the story is simple: someday Clean Monday will come for every person living in Russia and for the whole country as a whole. The narrator, having experienced parting with his beloved, having spent 2 years in constant reflection, was able not only to understand the girl's act, but also to embark on the path of purification. According to the author, only through faith and striving for moral foundations can one get rid of the shackles of vulgar secular life, change morally and spiritually for a new and better life.