Light breathing Bunin critical articles. The theme of love and death in I. A. Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing”
Story by I.A. Bunin " Easy breath"belongs to the range of works that require special careful reading. The conciseness of the text determines the semantic deepening of artistic detail.
The complex composition, the abundance of ellipsis, and the figure of silence make you stop and think at moments of unexpected “bends” in the plot. The content of the story is so multifaceted that it could well become the basis of an entire novel. Indeed, each of us, reflecting on the next ellipsis, as if complements, “adds on” the text in accordance with our perception. Maybe this is where the mystery lies Bunin's story: the writer seems to call us to co-creation, and the reader unwittingly becomes a co-author.
It is customary to begin the analysis of this work by talking about the composition. What is unusual about the structure of the story? As a rule, students immediately note the features of the composition: a violation of the chronology of events. If you highlight the semantic parts of the text, you will find that each part breaks off at the moment of the highest emotional stress. What idea is embodied in such a complex artistic form? To answer this question, we carefully read the content of each paragraph.
At the beginning of the work, it is worth noting the interweaving of contrasting motifs of life and death. The description of the city cemetery and the monotonous ringing of a porcelain wreath create a sad mood. Against this background, the portrait of a high school student with joyful, amazingly lively eyes is especially expressive (the author himself emphasizes this contrast with the phrase amazingly alive).
Why is the next sentence (This is Olya Meshcherskaya) highlighted in a separate paragraph? Perhaps in large work this sentence would precede detailed description the heroine, her portrait, character, habits. In Bunin's story, the name mentioned does not mean anything, but we are already involved in the action, intrigued. Many questions arise: “Who is this girl? What is the reason for it early death?..” The reader is already ready for the unfolding of the melodramatic plot, but the author deliberately hesitates to answer, maintaining the tension of perception.
What is unusual? portrait characteristics heroines? In the description of the high school student Meshcherskaya there is an inconsistency: there is no detailed portrait, the image is barely outlined in individual strokes. Is this a coincidence? Definitely not. After all, everyone has their own idea of attractiveness, youth, beauty... Comparison with friends highlights ideological basis image - simplicity and naturalness: How carefully some of her friends combed their hair, how clean they were, how they watched her restrained movements! And she wasn't afraid of anything<...>Without any worries or effort, 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... Creating the complete appearance of the heroine is a matter of our imagination.
The mention that Olya is very careless, flighty, and almost drove high school student Shenshin to suicide sounds alarming... However, the ellipsis, a device of silence, cuts off storyline, which would be enough for a separate story.
In the next paragraph, the words last winter again remind us of tragic ending. There is something painful in Meshcherskaya’s irrepressible joyful excitement (she went completely crazy with joy). In addition, the author tells us that she only seemed to be the most carefree and happy (our detente - A.N., I.N.). So far this is a barely outlined internal dissonance, but soon the heroine, without losing her simplicity and calmness, will tell her irritated boss about her relationship with 56-year-old Malyutin: 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. This happened last summer in the village... We are perplexed: what is this - early depravity? cynicism?
There's hardly any contrast between appearance And state of mind the heroine comes to the surface, the author again interrupts the narrative, leaving the reader in thought, forcing him to go back in search of an answer to the question: “What kind of person is Olya Meshcherskaya? Careless anemone or deep, controversial personality? The answer must be hidden somewhere in this paragraph. We re-read it and stop at the meaningful “seemed”, behind which, perhaps, lies the answer: maybe this carelessness and lightness is just an attempt by an integral nature to hide mental pain, personal tragedy?
What follows is a detached, “protocol” story about Olya’s death, avoiding false pathos. The Cossack officer who shot Meshcherskaya is depicted in a distinctly unattractive manner: ugly, plebeian in appearance, having absolutely nothing in common with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged... Why did the heroine meet with this man? Who was he to her? Let's try to find the answer in the girl's diary.
Diary entries - important point in revealing character. For the first time, Olya and I are left alone, we become witnesses to a real confession: 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... After these words, the tragic scene of Meshcherskaya’s death is filled with new meaning. The heroine of the story, who seemed attractive to us, but too frivolous, turns out to be a mentally broken person who has experienced deep disappointment. By mentioning Faust and Margarita, Bunin draws an analogy between the unfortunate fate of Gretchen and the trampled life of Olya.
So, it’s all due to a deep mental wound. Maybe Olya herself provoked the murder by laughing angrily at the officer and committing suicide with someone else’s hands?..
The closed composition takes us back to the beginning of the story. The intense emotional tone of the confession is replaced by a picture of the city, cemetery peace. Now our attention is focused on the image cool lady, to which, at first glance, the author pays unreasonably much attention. This woman is the cool lady Olya Meshcherskaya, a middle-aged girl who has long been living with some kind of fiction that replaces her real life. 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 character is certainly unattractive. What is his role? Maybe he should highlight all the best in the appearance main character?
Comparing the images of Meshcherskaya and her classy lady, we come to the conclusion that these are two “semantic poles” of the story. Comparison shows not only differences, but also certain similarities. Olya, a young woman, plunged headlong into life, flashed and went out like a bright flash; a cool lady, a middle-aged girl, hiding from life, smoldering like a burning torch. The main thing is that none of the heroines could find themselves, both - each in their own way - squandered all the best that was given to them initially, with which they came into this world.
The ending of the work returns us to the title. It is no coincidence that the story is called not “Olya Meshcherskaya”, but “Easy Breathing”. What is this - light breathing? The image is complex, multifaceted and undoubtedly symbolic. The heroine herself gives a literal interpretation of it: Easy breathing! But I have it - listen to how I sigh... But each of us understands this image in our own way. Probably, it combines naturalness, purity of soul, faith in the bright beginning of existence, thirst for life, without which Man is unthinkable. All this was in Olya Meshcherskaya, and now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind (our detente - A.N., I.N.). The highlighted word emphasizes the cyclical nature of what is happening: “light breathing” again and again takes on earthly forms. Maybe it is now embodied in one of us? As we see, in the finale the narrative acquires worldwide, pan-human significance.
Re-reading the story, we again and again admire the skill of Bunin, who imperceptibly guides the reader’s perception, directs thought to the underlying reasons for what is happening, deliberately not allowing him to get carried away by the entertaining intrigue. By recreating the appearance of the heroes, restoring the omitted links of the plot, each of us becomes a creator, as if writing his own story about the meaning human life, about love and disappointment, about the eternal questions of human existence.
Narushevich A.G., Narushevich I.S.
Interpretation of the story by I.A. Bunin "Easy Breathing //" Russian Literature. - 2002. - No. 4. - P. 25-27.
L. Vygotsky’s book “The Psychology of Art” was first published in 1965, forty years after it was written. She still retains scientific interest. Separate pages of this work are devoted to Bunin's story "Easy Breathing". There are many interesting observations on his composition and the structure of individual phrases. But in general, the author, in our opinion, interpreted the meaning of the story in a very controversial way. According to the scientist, if we take the events of the hero’s life “in their vital and everyday meaning, we have before us simply the unremarkable, insignificant and meaningless life of a provincial schoolgirl, a life that clearly springs up on rotten roots... The emptiness, meaninglessness, insignificance of this life is emphasized by the author, with tactile force" (Vygotsky L.S. Psychology of Art. - M, 1986). However, as L. Vygotsky notes, this is not the impression of the story as a whole. The writer “achieves just the opposite effect, and the true theme of his story, of course, is light breathing, and not the story of the miserable life of a provincial schoolgirl. This is a story not about Olya Meshcherskaya, but about light breathing (?!”); its main feature is that feeling of liberation, lightness, detachment and complete transparency of life, which cannot in any way be deduced from the very events that lie at its basis.”
It is difficult to agree with the statement that our reader’s impression of the story is not related to its content, and also with the fact that the story leaves the impression of “lightness, confusion and complete transparency (?!) of life.” I think the reader comes away with slightly different feelings. This is bitterness, even pain for the girl’s awkward life. L. Vygotsky’s idea that Meshcherskaya’s life is meaningless and insignificant contradicts Bunin’s ethics and aesthetics. For Bunin, female beauty is a priceless gift of nature, and not “emptiness and rot,”
The concept of “light breathing” is interpreted by scientists vaguely and abstractly. Meanwhile, this is a very specific designation of one of the terms female beauty, the code of which Olya became acquainted with while reading her father’s books. They had a negative impact on her fragile soul. This is what she told her beloved friend: “I... read what beauty a woman should have... black eyes boiling with resin... eyelashes black as night, a gentle blush, a thin figure... a small leg ... correctly rounded calf, shell-colored knee, sloping but high shoulders - I almost learned a lot by heart, so all this is true - but the main thing, you know what - But I have it - listen, how I sigh, “is it true?”
In the last phrase, the repetition of individual words and expressions and unfinished sentences convey the narrator’s excitement, her joy of self-affirmation that she, too, belongs to the clan of beautiful women. This monologue also speaks of Meshcherskaya’s lack of spiritual subtlety. After all, everything she said about female beauty emphasized the ugliness of her friend, the “plump, tall” Subbotina. In this tabloid code of female beauty, everything is about appearance, in an exaggerated, vulgar way, and nothing about spirituality, moral qualities its bearer. Some defectiveness of the fan of this code is obvious. However, Bunin has two feelings for his heroine: enthusiastic and sad. The intonation of admiration is palpable when the writer talks about Olya’s charm, her naturalness, devoid of coquetry. “She was not afraid of anything - not the ink stains on her fingers, not her flushed face, not her disheveled hair.” The narrator likes the heroine’s passionate love of life. However, he notes with bitterness her frivolity, the absence of any ethical concepts and restraints.
A seventeen-year-old high school student could not, due to student duty, not read individual works Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy (the events reflected in the story take place after Russo-Japanese War, and these writers were included in the gymnasium literature program). However, they did not leave a mark on her soul.
Judging by the tabloid biography that was in the closets of Meshchersky and his friends ( we're talking about about Malyutin), she did not receive what she needed in the family spiritual development. And the district gymnasium contributed little to this. It is enough to refer to the image of the headmistress of the gymnasium - her favorite pastime in the office is knitting, the content of her conversation with Meshcherskaya, in order to have an idea of the pedagogical atmosphere in the gymnasium. The boss is worried about Olya’s hairstyle that is beyond her years, her expensive combs, and her “twenty ruble” shoes. But the financial expenses of the family are beyond pedagogical competence bosses. And the very tone of the “conversation” - irritable, unfriendly - indicates a lack of pedagogical tact in relationships with students. Note that during her teachings the boss continued to knit.
The schoolgirls' pastimes - festivities, balls, skating - did little for their moral development.
To excel at balls and the skating rink, to experience the attention of young people: all this did not make the girl happy. Only alone with herself, in communication with nature, Olya felt happy. This is what she wrote in her diary: “... I was left alone. I was so happy that I was alone that I couldn’t say it. In the morning I walked alone in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone all over the world, and I thought better than ever in my life. I dined alone, and 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 ever!”
Malyutin’s appearance at the dacha destroys the harmony in Olya’s soul. She found herself defenseless against the advances of the old vulgar man. Meshcherskaya did not have any special feelings for 56-year-old Malyutin. What she liked about him was insignificant. I liked that Malyutin was well dressed, that his eyes were “very young, black, and his beard was elegantly divided into two long parts and completely silver.” At first, Olya was shocked by what happened to her. “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...” However, the pain of remorse was short-lived. She tried to drown it out with riotous fun. But one irreparable mistake led to another: a relationship with a Cossack officer, ugly and narrow-minded, then a break in a form offensive to him, giving him his diary. This is no longer prank and game, but impermissible licentiousness, even cynicism.
“To be extremely alive means to be extremely doomed. This is the terrifying truth of Bunin’s worldview.” (Vai-man S. “The tragedy of “easy breathing.” - Literary studies, 1980, No. 5). Does getting close to Malyutin, an officer, mean being “extremely alive”? There is no love in this closeness strong feelings, passions. Olya Meshcherskaya never experienced the rise of feelings that many of the writer’s heroes experienced: Khvoschinsky (“The Grammar of Love”), Mitya (“Mitya’s Love”), Galya (“Galya Ganskaya”), Rusya (“Rusya”) and many others . Olya’s fall is a consequence, in Bunin’s language, of her “uterine state,” her thirst for self-fulfillment.
The writer exposed the reasons failed life Meshcherskaya. This is lack of spirituality, lack of ethical standards. Olya never once thought about what worries a girl of her age - about love, her future.
There is an image that has attracted little attention from those who have written about the story. This is the image of a classy lady, whose fate reveals the spiritual squalor that reigns in the provincial town.
At first, the cool lady’s raison d’être was the dream of her brother, “an unremarkable ensign,” whose future seemed brilliant to her. She believed that her fate “would somehow change fabulously thanks to him.” After his death, she convinced herself that she was an “ideological leader” and served the highest interests. But after Meshcherskaya’s death, the classy lady devoted herself to frantic service to her memory. Obviously, the life around us is spiritually poor, which pushes a person into a world of fiction. This lonely woman who spends time at Meshcherskaya’s grave long hours, evokes in the reader sympathy for himself as a restless person who has not found himself in life.
A few notes about the composition of the story. It is not subordinated, as L. Vygotsky believed, to “extinguishing, destroying the immediate impression” of events, but to revealing the drama of the heroine’s life.
The narrative begins with the ending of Meshcherskaya’s life, a description of her grave; then a story about childhood and carefree youth Oli. Next is an episode in the boss’s office, where we learn about what happened to her. The next episode is the death of Olya; an excursion into her past - an appeal to the diary. And again the cemetery where Olya rests. Then a laconic story about a cool lady and again about the heroine’s past - a story about “easy breathing.” And the ending of the story.
The plot consists of episodes contrasting in content and tone. Dramatic scenes are interspersed with a narrative of the poetry of youth; the sad cemetery landscape is adjacent to a description of the joyless life of a classy lady, which is punctuated by Olya’s enthusiastic monologue about female beauty.
Mixing plans, from present to past; episodes of sad and filled with the joy of Olya’s existence - this is the structure of the story, the plot of which is distinguished by its extraordinary concentration and drama. Each episode is a stage in Meshcherskaya’s life, her growing up, moral failure and death. The writer addresses various forms character modeling: narration, portrait, indirect and direct speech characters, landscape sketches, diary entries, author's digressions.
The sad lines of the beginning of the story and its ending precede and complete the reader's perception and serve as a kind of epitaph for an untimely cut short life. “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay mound, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy... A rather large bronze medallion is embedded in the cross itself, and in the medallion is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with disgusting, amazingly lively eyes.
This is Olya Meshcherskaya."
And these “amazingly lively eyes” will attract the attention of cemetery visitors for a long time, reminding them of the once-living charming girl.
“Unsunset Light” is the title of one of Bunin’s poems. In some ways it resembles "Easy Breathing":
Not a stove, not a crucifix -
Still in front of me
Institute dress
And a shining gaze.
Like the story as a whole, the last line of the work is filled with sadness: “Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.” For the author words easy breathing personifies youth, a riot of vitality and at the same time frivolity and thoughtlessness. This is how the author himself explained the meaning of the title of the story. “Ivan Alekseevich,” recalled G.N. Kuznetsov, began to explain that he was always attracted by the image of a woman brought to the limit of her “uterine essence”: “Only we call it womb, but I called it light breathing. Such naivety and lightness in everything, both in audacity and death, and there is “light breathing,” non-thinking” (Literary Heritage, vol. 84, book 2, M„ 1973).
So, a person is responsible for how his life turns out. He is in many ways the creator of his own destiny. But there is something else hidden in the story, deep meaning. The world depicted by the writer is hostile to beauty. Malyutin abused Meshcherskaya, the headmistress of the gymnasium was unkind to her, the class lady pulled her back with her instructions, a Cossack officer disposed of Meshcherskaya’s life, only the students junior classes with their childish instincts they managed to distinguish Olya among the schoolgirls and “they loved no one as much as she did.”
The fate of Meshcherskaya is in many ways similar to the fate of the heroine of Blok’s poem “On the Railroad”:
Under the embankment, in the crooked ditch,
Lies and looks as if alive,
In a colored scarf, on braids
abandoned,
Beautiful and young.
The greenery of uncut herbs as a personification eternal life, the festive clothes of the deceased, her youth, beauty - and death!
The “terrible world” is alien and hostile to beauty and, with its vulgarity and dirt, destroys everything extraordinary and beautiful.
Literature program for secondary schools educational institutions, approved by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, offers in the 9th grade for familiarization with the work of I.A. Bunin's stories: " Sunstroke", "John the Weeper", " Clean Monday" and others (at the choice of the teacher and students).
We think that, among others, the wordsmith will choose “Easy Breathing” - one of best works writer.
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, accurately,
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 careless. However, she soon began to develop rapidly 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)? Analysis of the sequence of actions of the 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, a 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.
The story “Easy Breathing” is one of I. Bunin’s works, written in 1916. The author touched on many topics in the story: love and beauty, life and death. But what is the major tragedy this work?
From the very beginning, Bunin introduces us to an atmosphere of sadness and sorrow in front of the grave of a young girl: “In the cemetery, above a fresh clay mound, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth...
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." Next, the author describes his heroine, her life and character, immediately noting her beauty and carefree nature. The story clearly conveys all the sensations and emotions that engulf Olya as she becomes a girl. Unbridled joy and energy make her cheerful, light and happy and give her the opportunity to indulge in the impulses of youth. But Olya’s environment takes this for frivolity and defiant behavior.
The writer especially highlights Last year girl's life. When the headmistress of the gymnasium called Olya to her place to reprimand her for her female appearance, the truth is revealed why Meshcherskaya considers herself a woman and that the boss’s brother, A.I. Malyutin, is involved in this.
The young girl was disgusted and unpleasant about what happened, but this did not change her behavior at all, but on the contrary, it only became more serious. To everyone she looked especially happy; to everyone she seemed to have gone crazy. And crazy changes really took place in the girl’s soul. But it all ended tragically when the truth was revealed to a certain Cossack officer. When saying goodbye to him, Olya told everything and showed a fragment of her diary, after which the officer felt insulted and shot her.
From this we can single out these three characters who did not perceive Olya as a person or person. The boss reproached the girl for her emerging beauty, which was skillfully emphasized. Her brother took advantage of Meshcherskaya's naivety and seduced her. But the officer did not forgive Olya and accused her of promiscuity, while taking her life.
At the very end, the author mentioned that Olya told her friend how she read in one of her father’s books about what beauty looks like real woman: "... - but the main thing, you know what? - Easy breathing! But I have it..." And Olya really had it " easy breathing" - the ability to see the world differently, the ability to live and love life. Since childhood, she dreamed of a special future and a colorful destiny. And the main tragedy of this work is that all of Olya’s possibilities were killed by her environment. She was credited with frivolity and frivolity, which really carried over into her nature and led to such consequences.
From all this we can conclude that main reason the death of Olya Meshcherskaya - her destructive “light breathing”. About which at the end Bunin could only say how it “has now dissipated in the world, in this cloudy world, in this cold spring wind.”
“Easy Breathing,” as researchers rightly believe, is one of Bunin’s most enchanting and mysterious stories. His brilliant analysis was offered by a famous psychologist dealing with problems artistic creativity, L. S. Vygotsky. The researcher began the analysis of the story with the title, which, in his opinion, is a kind of dominant feature of the story and “determines the entire structure of the story.” As the researcher notes, “this is not a story about Olya Meshcherskaya, but about light breathing; its main feature is that feeling of liberation, lightness, detachment and complete transparency of life, which cannot in any way be deduced from the very events that lie at its basis.”
These thoughts were expressed by L. Vygotsky in 1965 in the book “Psychology of Art”. Even now, almost half a century later, they cause serious controversy. Firstly, researchers largely disagree with such an unambiguous interpretation of the title of the story, rightly believing that in the text “light breathing” serves as a designation for one of the components of female beauty (“I... read what kind of beauty a woman should have.”) Of course, even the adoption of such a beauty code speaks of the heroine’s spiritual inferiority. However, in the story there is no moral judgment of Olya Meshcherskaya: the passionate love of life of the main character is very much to the liking of the narrator. He also likes the harmony that reigns in the heroine’s soul when she feels her unity with the world, with nature, with her own soul.
“To be extremely alive means to be extremely doomed,” the modern literary critic S. Vaiman once noted. “This is the terrifying truth of Bunin’s worldview.” As you can see, the above comments only develop certain provisions put forward by L. S. Vygotsky. Actually, the discrepancies between him and modern researchers begin when it comes to the reasons for the failed life of Olya Meshcherskaya. Vygotsky’s opponents tend to see them in the lack of spirituality of existence, in the absence of moral and ethical standards, and cite as evidence a conversation in the boss’s office, a story with a Cossack officer, and most importantly, the story of a classy lady who at first wanted to devote herself to her brother, “an unremarkable ensign” , then imagined herself as an “ideological worker” and, finally, found herself in frantic service to the memory of her pupil.
Features of the composition of the story "Easy Breathing"
One of the researchers rightly noted that the originality of the composition “ Easy breathing"is that it excludes any interest in the plot as such. Indeed, the narrative begins with the ending of Olya Meshcherskaya’s life, with a description of her grave, and ends essentially the same. The author-narrator transfers the action of the story from the past to the present, mixing two narrative plans, introducing into the fabric literary text excerpts from Olya Meshcherskaya's diary, building individual fragments of text by contrast: present - past, cheerful - sad, living - dead. The story begins as an epitaph, “an epitaph to maiden beauty,” in the apt expression of K. G. Paustovsky. Joyless pictures of wretched life flash before the readers' eyes, like chronicle footage. provincial life, a few heroes appear and disappear, and gradually another world appears on the pages of the work, a world hostile to beauty, and “a story about something completely different arises: about the doom of beauty and youth to destruction” (Yu. Maltsev).
