During these April days the city became clean. Bunin I. Easy breathing

The question of the meaning of life is eternal; in the literature of the early twentieth century, discussion of this topic also continued. Now the meaning was seen not in achieving some clear goal, but in something else. For example, according to the theory of “living life”, the meaning human existence in himself, no matter what this life is like. This idea was supported by V. Veresaev, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev, B. Zaitsev. " Living life” I. Bunin also reflected in his writings; his “Easy Breathing” is a vivid example.

However, the reason for creating the story was not life at all: Bunin conceived the novella while walking through the cemetery. Seeing a cross with a portrait of a young woman, the writer was amazed at how her cheerfulness contrasted with the sad surroundings. What kind of life was it? Why did she, so lively and joyful, leave this world so early? No one could answer these questions anymore. But Bunin’s imagination painted the life of this girl, who became the heroine of the short story “Easy Breathing.”

The plot is outwardly simple: cheerful and precocious Olya Meshcherskaya arouses keen interest among the opposite sex with her feminine attractiveness, her behavior irritates the head of the gymnasium, who decides to give her pupil an instructive conversation about the importance of modesty. But this conversation ended unexpectedly: the girl said that she was no longer a girl, she became a woman after meeting the boss’s brother and a friend of Malyutin’s father. It soon turned out that this was not the only love story: Olya met with a Cossack officer. The latter was planning a quick wedding. However, at the station, before her lover left for Novocherkassk, Meshcherskaya said that their relationship was insignificant for her and she would not marry. Then she suggested reading diary entry about his fall. A military man shot a flighty girl, and the short story begins with a description of her grave. A cool lady often goes to the cemetery; the student’s fate has become meaningful to her.

Themes

The main themes of the novel are the value of life, beauty and simplicity. The author himself interpreted his story as a story about highest degree simplicity in a woman: “naivety and lightness in everything, both in audacity and in death.” Olya lived without limiting herself by rules and principles, including moral ones. It was in this simple-heartedness, reaching the point of depravity, that the charm of the heroine lay. She lived as she lived, true to the theory of “living life”: why restrain yourself if life is so beautiful? So she sincerely rejoiced in her attractiveness, not caring about neatness and decency. She also had fun with the courtship of young people, not taking their feelings seriously (school student Shenshin was on the verge of suicide because of his love for her).

Bunin also touched on the theme of the meaninglessness and dullness of existence in the image of the teacher Olya. This “older girl” is contrasted with her student: the only pleasure for her is a suitable illusory idea: “At first, her brother, a poor and unremarkable ensign, was such an invention - she united her whole soul with him, with his future, which for some reason seemed brilliant to her. When he was killed near Mukden, she convinced herself that she was an ideological worker. The death of Olya Meshcherskaya captivated her with a new dream. Now Olya Meshcherskaya is the subject of her persistent thoughts and feelings.”

Issues

The issue of the balance between passions and decency is revealed quite controversially in the short story. The writer clearly sympathizes with Olya, who chooses the first, praising her “light breathing” as a synonym for charm and naturalness. In contrast, the heroine is punished for her frivolity, and punished harshly - by death. The problem of freedom follows from this: society with its conventions is not ready to give the individual permissiveness even in the intimate sphere. Many people think that this is good, but they are often forced to carefully hide and suppress the hidden desires of their own soul. But to achieve harmony, a compromise is needed between society and the individual, and not the unconditional primacy of the interests of one of them.
You can also highlight social aspect in the short story: joyless and depressing atmosphere provincial town, where anything can happen if no one finds out. In such a place there is really nothing else to do except discuss and condemn those who want to break out of the gray routine of existence, at least through passion. Social inequality manifests itself between Olya and her last lover(“ugly and plebeian in appearance, who had absolutely nothing in common with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged”). Obviously, the reason for the refusal was the same class prejudices.
The author does not dwell on the relationships in Olya’s family, but judging by the heroine’s feelings and events in her life, they are far from ideal: “I was so happy that I was alone! In the morning I walked in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone in the whole world, and I thought as well as I had ever thought in my life. I had lunch alone, then a whole hour I played, while listening to the music I had the feeling that I would live endlessly and be as happy as anyone.” It is obvious that no one was involved in raising the girl, and her problem lies in abandonment: no one taught her, at least by example, how to balance between feelings and reason.

Characteristics of heroes

The main and most developed character of the novel is Olya Meshcherskaya. The author pays great attention to her appearance: the girl is very beautiful, graceful, graceful. But oh inner world little is said, the emphasis is only on frivolity and frankness. Having read in a book that the basis of female charm is light breathing, she began to actively develop it both externally and internally. She not only sighs shallowly, but also thinks, fluttering through life like a moth. Moths, circling around the fire, invariably scorch their wings, and so the heroine died in the prime of her life.
The Cossack officer is a fatal and mysterious hero; nothing is known about him except for his sharp difference from Olya. How they met, the motives for the murder, the course of their relationship - one can only guess about all this. Most likely, the officer is a passionate and addicted person, he fell in love (or thought that he fell in love), but he was clearly not satisfied with Olya’s frivolity. The hero wanted the girl to belong only to him, so he was even ready to take her life.
The cool lady suddenly appears in the finale as an element of contrast. She has never lived for pleasure; she sets goals for herself, living in an imaginary world. She and Olya are two extremes of the problem of balance between duty and desire.

Composition and genre

Genre " Easy breathing» - short story (short) plot story), a small volume reflects many problems and topics, paints a picture of life different groups society.

The composition of the story deserves special attention. The narrative is sequential, but it is fragmented. First we see Olya’s grave, then she is told about her fate, then we return to the present again - a visit to the cemetery by a classy lady. Speaking about the life of the heroine, the author chooses a special focus in the narrative: he describes in detail the conversation with the head of the gymnasium, the seduction of Olya, but her murder, acquaintance with the officer is described in a few words. Bunin concentrates on feelings, sensations, colors, his story seems to be written in watercolors, it is filled with airiness and softness, therefore the unpleasant is described captivatingly.

Meaning of the name

“Easy breathing” is the very first component of female charm, according to the creators of the books that Olya’s father has. The girl wanted to learn lightness, turning into frivolity. And she achieved her goal, although she paid the price, but “this light breath dissipated again in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”

Lightness is also associated with the style of the short story: the author diligently avoids sharp corners, although he talks about monumental things: true and far-fetched love, honor and dishonor, illusory and real life. But this work, according to the writer E. Koltonskaya, leaves the impression of “bright gratitude to the Creator for the fact that there is such beauty in the world.”

You can have different attitudes towards Bunin, but his style is full of imagery, beauty of presentation and courage - that’s a fact. He talks about everything, even the forbidden, but knows how not to cross the line of vulgarity. That is why this talented writer is still loved to this day.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

In the cemetery, above a fresh clay mound, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth.

April, gray days; The monuments of the cemetery, a spacious, provincial one, are still visible far away through the bare trees, and the cold wind rings and rings like a porcelain wreath 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.

As a girl, she did not stand out in any way in the crowd of brown school dresses: what could be said about her, except that she was one of the pretty, rich and happy girls, that she was capable, but playful and very careless about the instructions that the classy lady gave her ? Then she began to blossom and develop by leaps and bounds. At the age of fourteen, with a thin waist and slender legs, her breasts and all those forms, the charm of which had never yet been expressed by human words, were already clearly outlined; at fifteen she was already considered a beauty. How carefully some of her friends combed their hair, how clean they were, how careful they were about their restrained movements! But she was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that became bare when falling while running. Without any of her worries or efforts and somehow imperceptibly, everything that distinguished her from the entire gymnasium in the last two years came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, the clear sparkle of her eyes... No one danced at balls like Olya Meshcherskaya , no one ran on skates like she did, no one was looked after at balls as much as she was, and for some reason no one was loved as much by the junior classes as she was. Imperceptibly she became a girl, and her high school fame was imperceptibly strengthened, and rumors were already spreading that she was flighty, could not live without admirers, that the school student Shenshin was madly in love with her, that she supposedly loved him too, but was so changeable in her treatment of him that he attempted suicide.

During her last winter, Olya Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun, as they said in the gymnasium. 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, an ice skating rink in the city garden, a pink evening, music and this in all directions the crowd gliding on the skating rink, in which Olya Meshcherskaya seemed the most carefree, the happiest. And then one day, during a big break, when she was rushing around the assembly hall like a whirlwind from the first-graders chasing her and squealing blissfully, she was unexpectedly called to the boss. She stopped running, took only one deep breath, straightened her hair with a quick and already familiar feminine movement, pulled the corners of her apron to her shoulders and, her eyes shining, ran upstairs. The boss, young-looking but gray-haired, sat calmly with knitting in her hands at her desk, under the royal portrait.

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich

Easy breath

Ivan Bunin

Easy breath

In the cemetery, above a fresh clay mound, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth.

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

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

This is Olya Meshcherskaya.

As a girl, she did not stand out in any way in the crowd of brown school dresses: what could be said about her, except that she was one of the pretty, rich and happy girls, that she was capable, but playful and very careless about the instructions that the classy lady gave her ? Then she began to blossom and develop by leaps and bounds. At the age of fourteen, with a thin waist and slender legs, her breasts and all those forms, the charm of which had never yet been expressed by human words, were already clearly outlined; at fifteen she was already considered a beauty. How carefully some of her friends combed their hair, how clean they were, how careful they were about their restrained movements! But she was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that became bare when falling while running. Without any of her worries or efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that had so distinguished her from the entire gymnasium in the last two years came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, the clear sparkle of her eyes... No one danced like that at balls, like Olya Meshcherskaya, no one ran on skates like she did, no one was looked after at balls as much as she was, and for some reason no one was loved as much by the junior classes as she was. Imperceptibly she became a girl, and her high school fame was imperceptibly strengthened, and rumors were already spreading that she was flighty, could not live without admirers, that the school student Shenshin was madly in love with her, that she supposedly loved him too, but was so changeable in her treatment of him that he attempted suicide.

“Hello, Mademoiselle Meshcherskaya,” she said in French, without raising her eyes from her knitting. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have been forced to call you here to talk to you about your behavior.”

“I’m listening, madame,” Meshcherskaya answered, approaching the table, looking at her clearly and vividly, but without any expression on her face, and sat down as easily and gracefully as only she could.

You won’t listen to me well, I, unfortunately, am convinced of this,” said the boss and, pulling the thread and spinning a ball on the varnished floor, which Meshcherskaya looked at with curiosity, raised her eyes. “I won’t repeat myself, I won’t say extensively,” she said.

Meshcherskaya really liked this unusually clean and large office, which on frosty days breathed so well with the warmth of a shiny Dutch dress and the freshness of lilies of the valley on the desk. She looked at the young king, depicted in full height in the middle of some brilliant hall, at the even parting in the milky, neatly crimped hair of the boss and was silent expectantly.

“You’re not a girl anymore,” the boss said meaningfully, secretly starting to get irritated.

Yes, madame,” Meshcherskaya answered simply, almost cheerfully.

But she’s not a woman either,” the boss said even more meaningfully, and her matte face turned slightly red. “First of all, what kind of hairstyle is this?” This is a women's hairstyle!

“It’s not my fault, madame, that I have good hair,” Meshcherskaya answered and slightly touched her beautifully decorated head with both hands.

Oh, that's it, it's not your fault! - said the boss. “It’s not your fault for your hairstyle, it’s not your fault for these expensive combs, it’s not your fault that you’re ruining your parents for shoes that cost twenty rubles!” But, I repeat to you, you completely lose sight of the fact that you are still only a high school student...

And then Meshcherskaya, without losing her simplicity and calmness, suddenly politely interrupted her:

Sorry, madame, you are mistaken: I am a woman. And you know who is to blame for this? Dad's friend and neighbor, and your brother Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin. It happened last summer in the village...

And a month after this conversation, a Cossack officer, ugly and plebeian in appearance, who had absolutely nothing in common with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged, shot her on the station platform, among a large crowd of people who had just arrived by train. And the incredible confession of Olya Meshcherskaya, which stunned the boss, was completely confirmed: the officer told the judicial investigator that Meshcherskaya had lured him, was close to him, vowed to be his wife, and at the station, on the day of the murder, accompanying him to Novocherkassk, she suddenly told him that she and never thought to love him, that all this talk about marriage was just her mockery of him, and she gave him that page of the diary that talked about Malyutin to read.

“I ran through these lines and right there, on the platform where she was walking, waiting for me to finish reading, I shot at her,” said the officer. “This diary, here it is, look what was written in it on the tenth of July last year.” The following was written in the diary: “It’s now two o’clock in the morning. I fell asleep soundly, but woke up immediately... Today I have become a woman! Dad, mom and Tolya all left for the city, I was left alone. I was so happy that I was alone In the morning I walked in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone in the whole world, and I thought it was as good as ever in my life. I had lunch alone, then played for a whole hour, listening to music. I had a feeling that I would live forever and be as happy as anyone. Then I fell asleep in my dad’s office, and at four o’clock Katya woke me up and said that Alexey Mikhailovich had arrived. I was very happy with him, I was so pleased to receive him. He arrived in a couple of his Vyatkas, very beautiful, and they stood at the porch all the time, he stayed because it was raining, and he wanted it to dry out by the evening. He regretted that he did not find dad, he was very animated. and behaved like a gentleman with me, joked a lot that he had been in love with me for a long time. When we walked around the garden before tea, the weather was again lovely, the sun shone through the entire wet garden, although it had become completely cold, and he led me by the arm and spoke. that he is Faust with Margarita. He is fifty-six years old, but he is still very handsome and always well dressed - the only thing I didn’t like was that he arrived in a lionfish - he smells of English cologne, and his eyes are very young, black, and his beard is elegantly divided into two long parts and completely silver Over tea we sat on the glass veranda, I felt as if unwell and lay down on the ottoman, and he smoked, then moved to me, began again to say some pleasantries, then examined and kissed my hand. I covered my face with a silk scarf, and he kissed me on the lips through the scarf several times... I don’t understand how this could happen, I’m crazy, I never thought I was like this! Now I have only one way out... I feel such disgust for him that I can’t get over it!..”

During these April days, the city became clean, dry, its stones turned white, and it was easy and pleasant to walk along them. Every Sunday, after mass, a small woman in mourning, wearing black kid gloves and carrying an ebony umbrella, walks along Cathedral Street, leading to the exit from the city. She crosses a dirty square along the highway, where there are many smoky forges and the fresh air of the field blows; further, between monastery and the fort, the cloudy slope of the sky turns white and the spring field turns grey, and then, when you make your way among the puddles under the wall of the monastery and turn left, you will see, as it were, a large low garden, surrounded by a white fence, above the gate of which the Assumption is written mother of god. The little woman makes the sign of the cross and walks habitually along the main alley. Having reached the bench opposite the oak cross, she sits in the wind and in the spring cold for an hour or two, until her feet in light boots and her hand in a narrow kid are completely cold. Listening to the spring birds singing sweetly even in the cold, listening to the sound of the wind in a porcelain wreath, she sometimes thinks that she would give half her life if only this dead wreath would not be before her eyes. This wreath, this mound, the oak cross! Is it possible that under him is the one whose eyes shine so immortally from this convex porcelain medallion on the cross, and how can we combine with this pure gaze the terrible thing that is now associated with the name of Olya Meshcherskaya? “But deep down in her soul the little woman is happy, like all people devoted to some passionate dream.”

And again about love... And if about love, then definitely about Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, because so far he has no equal in literature in his ability to so deeply, precisely,

and at the same time, effortlessly and easily convey the endless palette of colors and shades of life, love and human destinies, and what’s most surprising is that all this is on two or three sheets. In his stories, time is inversely proportional to the emerging fullness of feelings and emotions. You read his story “Easy Breathing” (analysis of the work follows), and it takes at most five to ten minutes, but at the same time you manage to immerse yourself in the life, and even the soul of the main characters, and live with them for several decades, and sometimes all my life. Isn't this a miracle?

Story by I.A. Bunin “Easy Breathing”: analysis and summary

From the first lines, the author introduces the reader to the main character of the story - Olya Meshcherskaya. But what kind of acquaintance is this? Analysis of the story “Easy Breathing” draws attention to the scene of action - a cemetery, a fresh clay mound on the grave and a heavy smooth cross made of oak. Time is cold, gray days April, still bare trees, icy wind. A medallion is inserted into the cross itself, and in the medallion is a portrait of a young girl, a high school student, with happy, “amazingly lively eyes.” As you can see, the narrative is based on contrasts, hence the dual sensations: life and death - spring, April, but still bare trees; a strong grave cross with a portrait of a young girl in the prime of awakening femininity. You can’t help but wonder what this earthly life is, and you’re amazed at how close the atoms of life and death are to each other, and with them beauty and ugliness, simplicity and guile, stunning success and tragedy...

main character

The principle of contrast is used both in the image of Olechka Meshcherskaya herself and in the description of her short but brilliant life. As a girl, she did not attract attention to herself. The only thing that could be said was that she was one of the many sweet, rich and absolutely happy girls who, due to their age, are playful and carefree. However, she soon began to rapidly develop and become prettier, and at not quite fifteen she was known as a real beauty. She was not afraid of anything and was not embarrassed, and at the same time, her fingers or disheveled hair looked much more natural, neat and elegant than the deliberate neatness or thoroughness of the styled hair of her friends. No one danced as gracefully at balls as she did. No one skated as skillfully as she did. No one had as many fans as Olya Meshcherskaya... The analysis of the story “Easy Breathing” does not end there.

Last winter

As they said in the gymnasium, “Olya Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun during her last winter.” She flaunts herself everywhere: she combs her hair provocatively, wears expensive combs, and ruins her parents for shoes “that cost twenty rubles.” She openly and simply declares to the headmistress that she is no longer a girl, but a woman... She flirts with the high school student Shenshin, promises him to be faithful and loving and at the same time is so fickle and capricious in her treatment of him, once leading him to attempt suicide. She, in fact, lures and seduces Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, an adult fifty-six years old, and then, realizing her disadvantageous position, as an excuse for her dissolute behavior, evokes a feeling of disgust for him. Further - more... Olya enters into a relationship with a Cossack officer, ugly, plebeian in appearance, who had nothing in common with the society in which she moved, and promises him to marry him. And at the station, seeing him off to Novocherkassk, he says that there can be no love between them, and all this talk is just mockery and ridicule of him. As proof of her words, she gives him to read the page of the diary that talks about her first connection with Malyutin. Unable to bear the insult, the officer shoots her right there on the platform... This begs the question: why, why does she need all this? What corners human soul trying to reveal to us the work “Easy Breathing” (Bunin)? Sequence analysis main character will allow the reader to answer these and other questions.

Fluttering Moth

And here the image of a fluttering moth involuntarily suggests itself, frivolous, reckless, but with an incredible thirst for life, the desire to find some kind of special, exciting and beautiful destiny, worthy only of the chosen ones. But life is subject to other laws and rules, the violation of which must be paid for. Therefore, Olya Meshcherskaya, like a moth, bravely, without feeling fear, and at the same time easily and naturally, regardless of the feelings of others, flies towards the fire, towards the light of life, towards new sensations, in order to burn to the ground: “This is what a pen does, sliding over smooth the lined notebook, not knowing about the fate of your line, where wisdom and heresy are mixed..." (Brodsky)

Controversies

Indeed, everything was mixed up in Olya Meshcherskaya. “Easy Breathing”, an analysis of the story, allows us to identify an antithesis in the work - a sharp opposition of concepts, images, states. She is beautiful and immoral at the same time. She cannot be called stupid, she was capable, but at the same time superficial and thoughtless. There was no cruelty in her, “for some reason, no one was loved as much by the lower classes as she was.” Her merciless attitude towards other people's feelings was not meaningful. She, like a raging element, demolished everything in her path, but not because she sought to destroy and suppress, but only because she could not do otherwise: “... how to combine with this pure look the terrible thing that is now associated with the name of Olya Meshcherskaya?” Both beauty was her essence, and she was not afraid to show both to the fullest extent. That’s why they loved her so much, they admired her, they were drawn to her, and that’s why her life was so bright, but fleeting. It couldn’t have been any other way, as the narrative “Easy Breathing” (Bunin) proves to us. Analysis of the work gives a deeper understanding of the life of the main character.

Cool lady

The antithetical composition (antithesis) is observed both in the description of the very image of the classy lady Olechka Meshcherskaya, and in the indirect, but so predictable comparison of her with the schoolgirl under her charge. For the first time, I. Bunin (“Easy Breathing”) introduces the reader to a new character - the headmistress of the gymnasium, in the scene of a conversation between her and Mademoiselle Meshcherskaya regarding the latter’s defiant behavior. And what do we see? Two absolute opposites - a youthful, but gray-haired madame with an even parting in her neatly crimped hair and light, graceful Olya with a beautifully styled hairstyle, albeit beyond her years, with an expensive comb. One behaves simply, clearly and lively, fearing nothing and boldly responding to reproaches, despite such a young age and unequal position. The other one does not take her eyes off her endless knitting and secretly begins to get annoyed.

After the tragedy happened

We remind you that we are talking about the story “Easy Breathing”. An analysis of the work follows. Second and last time the reader encounters the image of a classy lady after Olya’s death, in the cemetery. And again we have a sharp but bright clarity of antithesis. A “middle-aged girl” in black kid gloves and in mourning goes to Olya’s grave every Sunday, staring at the oak cross for hours. She dedicated her life to some kind of “ethereal” feat. At first, she was concerned about the fate of her brother, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, that same wonderful warrant officer who seduced the beautiful high school student. After his death, she devoted herself to work, merging entirely with the image of an “ideological worker.” Now Olya Meshcherskaya - main topic all her thoughts and feelings, one might say, new dream, new meaning life. However, can her life be called life? Yes and no. On the one hand, everything that exists in the world is necessary and has the right to exist, despite the worthlessness and uselessness that seems to us. On the other hand, in comparison with the splendor, brilliance and audacity of colors short life Olya, this is more of a “slow death”. But, as they say, the truth is somewhere in the middle, because the picture is colorful life path a young girl is also an illusion, behind which lies emptiness.

Talk

The story “Easy Breathing” does not end there. A cool lady spends a lot of time sitting near her grave and endlessly remembers the same conversation between two girls that she overheard one day... Olya was chatting with her friend during a big break and mentioned a book from her father’s library. It talked about what a woman should be like. First of all, with large black eyes boiling with resin, with thick eyelashes, a delicate blush, longer than usual arms, a thin figure... But most importantly, the woman had to be able to breathe easily. Taken literally by Olya - she sighed and listened to her breathing, the expression “light breathing” still reflects the essence of her soul, thirsty for life, striving for its fullness and alluring infinity. However, “easy breathing” (analysis story of the same name is coming to an end) cannot be eternal. Like everything worldly, like the life of any person and like the life of Olya Meshcherskaya, sooner or later it disappears, dissipates, perhaps becoming part of this world, the cold spring wind or the leaden sky.

What can be said in conclusion about the story “Easy Breathing”, the analysis of which was carried out above? Written in 1916, long before the publication of the collection “ Dark alleys“, the short story “Easy Breathing” can be called, without exaggeration, one of the pearls of I. Bunin’s work.

Bunin wrote the story “Easy Breathing” in 1916. In the work, the author touches on the themes of love and death characteristic of the literature of this period. Despite the fact that the story is not written in chapters, the narrative is fragmented and consists of several parts arranged in a non-chronological order.

Main characters

Olya Meshcherskaya- a young schoolgirl, was killed by a Cossack officer because she said that she did not love him.

Headmistress of the gymnasium

Other characters

Cossack officer- shot Olya because of unhappy love, “ugly and plebeian in appearance.”

Cool lady Olya Meshcherskaya

“In the cemetery, over a fresh clay mound, there is a new oak cross.” A convex porcelain medallion with a photographic portrait of schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya “with joyful, amazingly lively eyes” is embedded in the cross.

As a girl, Olya did not stand out among other schoolchildren; she was “capable, but playful and very careless about the instructions” of the class lady. But then the girl began to develop, to “bloom.” At the age of 14, “with a thin waist and slender legs, her breasts and curves were already well defined.” “At fifteen she was already considered a beauty.” Unlike her prim girlfriends, Olya “wasn’t afraid—no ink stains on her fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair.” Without any effort, “grace, elegance, dexterity, and the clear sparkle of her eyes” came to her.

Olya danced the best at balls, skated, was the most looked after at balls, and was loved most by the junior classes. “Unnoticedly she became a girl,” and there were even rumors about her frivolity.

“Olya Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun during her last winter, as they said in the gymnasium.” One day, during a big break, the boss called the girl over and reprimanded her. The woman noted that Olya is no longer a girl, but not yet a woman, so she shouldn’t wear “ women's hairstyle", expensive combs and shoes. “Without losing simplicity and calmness,” Meshcherskaya replied that the madame was mistaken: she was already a woman, and the father’s friend and neighbor, the boss’s brother Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, was to blame for this - “this happened last summer in the village.”

“And a month after this conversation,” a Cossack officer shot Olya “on the station platform, among a large crowd of people.” And Olya’s confession, which stunned the boss, was confirmed. “The officer told the judicial investigator that Meshcherskaya lured him, was close to him, vowed to be his wife,” and at the station she said that she did not love him and “gave him to read that page of the diary that talked about Malyutin.”

“On the tenth of July last year,” Olya wrote in her diary: “Everyone left for the city, I was left alone.<…>Alexey Mikhailovich arrived.<…>He stayed because it was raining.<…>He regretted that he didn’t find dad, he was very animated and behaved like a gentleman with me, he joked a lot that he had been in love with me for a long time.<…>He is fifty-six years old, but he is still very handsome and always well dressed.<…>Over tea we sat on the glass veranda, he smoked, then moved to me, began again to say some pleasantries, then examined and kissed my hand. I covered my face with a silk scarf, and he kissed me on the lips through the scarf several times... I don’t understand how this could happen, I’m crazy, I never thought I was like this! Now I have only one way out... I feel such disgust for him that I can’t get over it!..”

Every Sunday, after mass, a little woman in mourning comes to the grave of Olya Meshcherskaya - a cool lady girl. Olya became the subject of “her persistent thoughts and feelings.” Sitting at the grave, the woman remembers the pale face of the girl in the coffin and a conversation she accidentally overheard: Meshcherskaya told her friend about what she read in her father’s book, that supposedly the main thing in a woman is “light breathing” and that she, Olya, has it.

“Now this light breath has dispersed again into the world, into this cloudy sky, into this cold spring wind.”

Conclusion

In the story, Bunin contrasts the main character Olya Meshcherskaya with the head of the gymnasium - as the personification of the rules, social norms, And cool lady- as the personification of dreams replacing reality. Olya Meshcherskaya is completely different female image– a girl who has tried on the role of an adult lady, a seductress who has neither fear of rules nor excessive daydreaming.

Story test

Test your memorization summary test:

Retelling rating

Average rating: 4 . Total ratings received: 458.