The story of dark alleys, the problem of life boomerang. "Dark Alleys": analysis of the story by Ivan Bunin. Work test

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was a man of both happy and tragic fate. Having reached incredible heights in literary art, he was the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize.

Although Bunin was recognized as one of the outstanding masters of words, he lived abroad for 30 years, yearning for his homeland and still being in close spiritual proximity with it.
Thanks to these experiences, the greatest collection of stories by I.A. was created in New York in 1943. Bunin's "Dark Alleys" in a truncated form, and in 1946 the second edition of this cycle took place in Paris. The publication consisted of 38 stories.

The collection of short stories bears a similar title to one of his stories. The hero of the story, a young landowner, seduces a peasant woman named Nadezhda, then his life goes on as usual. Many years later, having already become a high-ranking military man, he visits these places while passing through. In the owner of the hut he stopped at, he recognizes that same Nadezhda. Nadezhda, like him, is now aged, but still beautiful.

The meeting of the heroes who were previously in love forms the plot basis of the work. Subtly conveying the experiences of the characters, the author appears to be the greatest expert on the human soul. Their brief dialogue contains a lot of emotional information.

In the story we see an interesting difference in the behavior of the characters. Military Nikolai Alekseevich is already sixty years old, but he blushes like a young man who has offended her. Nadezhda, on the contrary, is gloomy and calm, her words smack of bitterness: “Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten.”

As it turns out later, the old man was punished by life; he was not happy, abandoning the young peasant woman. And, interestingly, the woman still loves her master. But he doesn’t believe her, because he doesn’t love her and hardly ever loved her. But, one way or another, when remembering his youth, the hero is possessed by sensory memory.

Having kept her love for the rest of her life, the heroine never married, did not forgive him, and also remained unhappy. But she was avenged: the wife of Nikolai Alekseevich, who loved her madly, cheated on him and left him.

Love in the story “Dark Alleys” does not end in a happy marriage and does not pass into the family. The love of Bunin's heroes is lightning fast, instantaneous, but sincere. And, despite their short duration, the feelings experienced by the heroes remain eternal in memory, since life itself is fleeting. And so the old man bitterly says: “I think that in you I too have lost the most precious thing I had in life.”

All works of I.A. Bunin is permeated with the theme of love. In his stories, he correlates the phenomena of external life with internal emotional experiences and penetrates into the secrets of the human soul.

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich is one of the best writers of our country. The first collection of his poems appeared in 1881. Then he wrote the stories “To the End of the World”, “Tanka”, “News from the Motherland” and some others. In 1901, a new collection "Leaf Fall" was published, for which the author received the Pushkin Prize.

Popularity and recognition come to the writer. He meets M. Gorky, A. P. Chekhov, L. N. Tolstoy.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Ivan Alekseevich created the stories “Zakhar Vorobyov”, “Pines”, “Antonov Apples” and others, which depict the tragedy of the disadvantaged, impoverished people, as well as the ruin of the estates of the nobles.

and emigration

Bunin perceived the October Revolution negatively, as a social drama. He emigrated in 1920 to France. Here he wrote, among other works, a cycle of short stories called “Dark Alleys” (we will analyze the story of the same name from this collection below). The main theme of the cycle is love. Ivan Alekseevich reveals to us not only its bright sides, but also its dark ones, as the name itself suggests.

Bunin's fate was both tragic and happy. He reached unsurpassed heights in his art and was the first Russian writer to receive the prestigious Nobel Prize. But he was forced to live for thirty years in a foreign land, with longing for his homeland and spiritual closeness with her.

Collection "Dark Alleys"

These experiences served as the impetus for the creation of the “Dark Alleys” cycle, which we will analyze. This collection, in a truncated form, first appeared in New York in 1943. In 1946, the next edition was published in Paris, which included 38 stories. The collection differed sharply in its content from how the topic of love was usually covered in Soviet literature.

Bunin's view of love

Bunin had his own view of this feeling, different from others. There was only one ending - death or separation, no matter how much the characters loved each other. Ivan Alekseevich thought that it looked like a flash, but that’s what was wonderful. Over time, love is replaced by affection, which gradually turns into everyday life. Bunin's heroes lack this. They experience only a flash and part, having enjoyed it.

Let's consider the analysis of the story that opens the cycle of the same name, starting with a brief description of the plot.

The plot of the story "Dark Alleys"

Its plot is simple. General Nikolai Alekseevich, already an old man, arrives at the postal station and meets here his beloved, whom he has not seen for about 35 years. He will not recognize hope right away. Now she is the mistress of where their first meeting once took place. The hero finds out that all this time she loved only him.

The story "Dark Alleys" continues. Nikolai Alekseevich is trying to justify himself to the woman for not visiting her for so many years. “Everything passes,” he says. But these explanations are very insincere and clumsy. Nadezhda wisely answers the general, saying that youth passes for everyone, but love does not. A woman reproaches her lover for leaving her heartlessly, so she wanted to commit suicide many times, but she realizes that it is now too late to reproach.

Let's take a closer look at the story "Dark Alleys". shows that Nikolai Alekseevich does not seem to feel remorse, but Nadezhda is right when she says that not everything is forgotten. The general also could not forget this woman, his first love. In vain he asks her: “Please go away.” And he says that if only God would forgive him, and Nadezhda, apparently, has already forgiven him. But it turns out that no. The woman admits that she could not do this. Therefore, the general is forced to make excuses, apologize to his former lover, saying that he was never happy, but he loved his wife deeply, and she left Nikolai Alekseevich and cheated on him. He adored his son, had high hopes, but he turned out to be an insolent man, a spendthrift, without honor, heart, or conscience.

Is the old love still there?

Let's analyze the work "Dark Alleys". Analysis of the story shows that the feelings of the main characters have not faded away. It becomes clear to us that the old love has been preserved, the heroes of this work love each other as before. Leaving, the general admits to himself that this woman gave him the best moments of his life. Fate takes revenge on the hero for betraying his first love. Nikolai Alekseevich ("Dark Alleys") does not find happiness in his family life. An analysis of his experiences proves this. He realizes that he missed the chance once given by fate. When the coachman tells the general that this landlady gives money at interest and is very “cool”, although she is fair: he didn’t return it on time - that means you blame yourself, Nikolai Alekseevich projects these words onto his life, reflects on what would have happened , if he had not left this woman.

What prevented the happiness of the main characters?

At one time, class prejudices prevented the future general from marrying a commoner. But love did not leave the protagonist’s heart and prevented him from becoming happy with another woman and raising his son with dignity, as our analysis shows. "Dark Alleys" (Bunin) is a work that has a tragic connotation.

Nadezhda also carried love throughout her life and in the end she also found herself alone. She could not forgive the hero for the suffering he caused, since he remained the most dear person in her life. Nikolai Alekseevich was unable to break the rules established in society and did not risk acting against them. After all, if the general had married Nadezhda, he would have met with contempt and misunderstanding from those around him. And the poor girl had no choice but to submit to fate. In those days, bright alleys of love between a peasant woman and a gentleman were impossible. This problem is already public, not personal.

The dramatic destinies of the main characters

In his work, Bunin wanted to show the dramatic destinies of the main characters, who were forced to part, being in love with each other. In this world, love turned out to be doomed and especially fragile. But she illuminated their whole life and forever remained in their memory as the best moments. This story is romantically beautiful, although dramatic.

In Bunin's work "Dark Alleys" (we are now analyzing this story), the theme of love is a cross-cutting motif. It permeates all creativity, thereby connecting the emigrant and Russian periods. It is this that allows the writer to correlate spiritual experiences with the phenomena of external life, and also to get closer to the secret of the human soul, based on the influence of objective reality on him.

This concludes the analysis of “Dark Alleys”. Everyone understands love in their own way. This amazing feeling has not yet been solved. The theme of love will always be relevant, since it is the driving force of many human actions, the meaning of our lives. In particular, our analysis leads to this conclusion. “Dark Alleys” by Bunin is a story that even in its title reflects the idea that this feeling cannot be fully understood, it is “dark”, but at the same time beautiful.

The theme of love always worried Bunin, and he dedicated his most famous works to it: the novel “The Life of Arsenyev”, the stories “Easy Breathing”, “Mitya’s Love”, “Sunstroke” and others. But at the end of his life, he turns to it again, creating a cycle of stories “Dark Alleys”, rethinking love, passion, life and death. In these stories, love is most often divided (Bunin does not show the tragedy of unrequited love), but this feeling always ends in separation, death, murder or suicide. According to Bunin, love, the most powerful and deepest experience of a person, is always just a short bright flash that leaves its mark for the rest of one’s life, it always makes one suffer, it is the drama of human life.

In the story “Dark Alleys,” which opens the collection, the same idea can be traced: love cannot be happy, it can transform a person’s entire life, but it always leads to separation. The plot of the story is very simple: an old military man passing through stops at an inn, the owner of which turns out to be a former serf with whom he once had a close relationship. It turns out that she still loves him, has not forgotten anything, and has not even gotten married. The hero of the story, Nikolai Alekseevich, remembers the past, his love, the happiness that this woman gave him. But he cannot imagine her as his wife; he leaves, full of previous experiences, memories and sadness. At first glance, everything is very simple, but in fact this plot allows you to describe the entire life of the characters, explain their characters, behavior, and outlook on life.

Very often, Bunin’s stories begin with a landscape, and this one was no exception: “In cold autumn weather, on one of the big Tula roads, flooded with rain and cut by many black ruts, a tarantass rolled up covered in mud.”

This landscape immediately evokes a gloomy mood and sadness on the reader. The protagonist of the story has the same mood, but it changes when the owner of the inn comes - “a dark-haired, also black-browed and also beautiful woman beyond her age, looking like an elderly gypsy.” If she had not called him by his first name and patronymic, he would not have recognized her. He is surprised that she, with her beauty, did not get married. Her words make him blush: “Everyone’s youth passes, but love is another matter... It’s too late to reproach me now, because, really, they would have abandoned me very heartlessly - how many times have I wanted to lay hands on myself out of resentment from one, no longer talking about everything else. After all, there was a time, Nikolai Alekseevich, when I called you Nikolenka, and you remember me? And they deigned to read all the poems to me about all sorts of “dark alleys.” The heroine kept her love and carried this feeling throughout her life. She cannot forgive him: “Just as I didn’t have anything more valuable than you at that time, I didn’t have anything later. That’s why you can’t forgive me.” The hero of the story was not happy either: his wife left him, his son grew up to be a scoundrel. He understands that he has lost the most precious thing he had, that he spent the best moments of his life with Nadezhda. However, the hero quickly calms down, thinking: “What if I hadn’t left her? What nonsense! This same Nadezhda is not the innkeeper, but my wife, the mistress of my St. Petersburg house, the mother of my children?”

Leaving the inn, he recalls the lines from Ogarev’s poem: “The scarlet rose hips were blooming all around, there were dark linden alleys...” These lines add poetry and a slight sadness to the story of past love. This love remained with Nadezhda for the rest of her life, these were “truly magical” moments in the hero’s life, and although love did not take place, it will remain in their lives forever, it left a deep mark in the human soul.

Love as depicted by Bunin is very tragic, but always beautiful; love is a great gift that is not given to everyone. We find confirmation of this in the story “Dark Alleys”.

We can talk about love endlessly. The focus of I. A. Bunin’s attention in all the stories of the “Dark Alleys” cycle is the love of a man and a woman. But in each story the author shows different shades of this feeling: this is platonic love, and irrepressible passion, and betrayal, betrayal, and love-self-sacrifice, and love-outburst, and much, much more. other.

One of the most lyrical stories in the cycle is the story “Dark Alleys,” with which the collection opens. Its plot is unpretentious and simple. Nikolai Alekseevich, the hero of the story, calls what happened to him a vulgar, ordinary story. Is this true?

Now an old man - a military man, a man of about sixty, he stops at an inn “to rest or spend the night, have dinner or ask for a samovar.” Nikolai Alekseevich has not yet lost his charm and beauty, but the author notices his tired look. Unexpectedly for him, the owner of the inn turns out to be his former lover. She runs the household properly, her room is “warm, dry and tidy.” Hope “gives money in growth”, God flows. She is tough in character, but fair. She is also still beautiful and attractive.

The heroes have not seen each other for thirty years; a lot has changed in their lives over the years. Nadezhda has become a strong housewife, everything is going well in her everyday life. But in her personal life... Nadezhda is lonely.

At the meeting between the heroes, a conversation took place that was not very pleasant for Nikolai Alekseevich. Unpleasant, because then, thirty years ago, he abandoned Nadezhda. The very meeting with his old love became a shock for the hero. Thirty years ago the heroine lived with her masters and was a serf. She fell in love with “Nikolenka” and entrusted her “fever” to him. What did the heroine have in response? Betrayal.

She loved with all her soul, deeply and passionately, as they love only once in a lifetime, which is why now Nadezhda is still alone. The heroine could neither forget nor forgive Nikolai Alekseevich. Apparently, he didn’t remember what he had done for a long time. He got married and “loved his wife madly.” And she cheated and left.” The son, whom the hero “adored” and on whom he pinned his hopes, grew up “a scoundrel, a spendthrift, a scoundrel, without a heart, without honor, without a conscience.”

Everything in life comes back to a person, both good and bad. Nikolai Alekseevich also returned. He had never been happy in his life and admits that it was Nadezhda who gave him “the best moments of his life,” “and not the best, but truly magical.” In Nadezhda, the hero lost “the most precious thing he had in life.”

But happiness was so possible! But does it seem possible for the hero? Leaving the inn, he tries to imagine Nadezhda as the mistress of his St. Petersburg house, the mother of his children. Judging by the heroine’s current lifestyle, she would have been successful in this role. But Nikolai Alekseevich, “closing his eyes, shook his head.” No, even now, realizing that his life was in vain, he cannot overcome those social prejudices that thirty years ago prevented him from making the right choice. He broke someone else's destiny and broke his own. “Yes, blame yourself,” the hero says to himself, realizing that he has no one to blame for the current situation, and nevertheless, even today, if the same story were repeated, he would do the same.

Nikolai Alekseevich never understood the character of Nadezhda, her spiritual essence; he says to her, who has carried her suffering through her whole life, that “over the years everything passes”, “everything is forgotten”, that what happened between them was just “history” vulgar, ordinary."

Immediately after the 1917 revolution, Bunin created a number of journalistic articles in which he spoke out against the Bolsheviks. In 1918, he moved from Moscow to Odessa, and at the beginning of 1920 he left Russia forever.

The Bunins settled in Paris, where life began “on other shores” - in a state of mental decline, with the bitterness of breaking with their homeland. The writer’s works were published in the newspapers “Vozrozhdenie” and “Rus”. Bunin headed the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists.

In exile, the writer creates stories mainly about Russian life, filled with deep psychology and subtle lyricism, and develops the genre of philosophical and psychological short stories (“Dark Alleys”). He combined his stories into the collections “Mitya’s Love” (1925), “Sunstroke” (1927), and “Shadow of a Bird” (1931).

Bunin's prose continues the traditions of I.S. Turgeneva, I.A. Goncharova and L.N. Tolstoy. Economical and effective use of artistic means, visual imagery and psychological penetration - these are the features of Bunin's style. Some of his stories, due to the perfection of their form, belong to the best works of world short fiction. K.G. Paustovsky wrote that in Bunin’s language one can hear everything: “... from copper-ringing solemnity to the transparency of flowing spring water, from measured precision to intonations of amazing softness, from a light melody to slow rolls of thunder.”

Bunin expressed his understanding of the world and his place in it in a characteristic note dating back to that time: “And days after days go by - and the secret pain of their steady loss does not leave - steady and meaningless, for they go on in inaction, all only in anticipation of action and what - and then again... And days and nights go by, and this pain, and all the vague feelings and thoughts and the vague consciousness of myself and everything around me is my life, which I do not understand.” And further: “We live what we live only to the extent that we comprehend the price of what we live. Usually this price is very small: it rises only in moments of delight - the delight of happiness or misfortune, the vivid consciousness of gain or loss; also - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory.” This “poetic transformation of the past in memory” is the work of Bunin of the emigrant period, in which the writer seeks salvation from the boundless feeling of loneliness.

Painfully experiencing what happened to Russia and his isolation from it, he tries to find an explanation and reassurance in turning to events in world history that could be correlated with Russian ones: the death of powerful ancient civilizations and kingdoms (“City of the King of Kings”). And now, far from Russia, painfully thinking about it, “fiercely,” as he said, tormented, Bunin turns to memory, especially highlighting it among spiritual values: “We live with everything we live, only to the extent that We comprehend the price of what we live. Usually this price is very small: it rises only in moments of delight, happiness or misfortune, a vivid consciousness of gain or loss; still - in moments of poetic transformation of the past in memory.”

In his memory the image of Russia arose in its bygone times, the recent past and the present.. This combination of different plans was saving for him. It allowed Bunin, without still accepting Russian modernity, to find that dear, bright, eternal thing that gave him hope: the birch forest in the Oryol region, the songs that the mowers sing (“Mowers”, 1921), Chekhov (“Penguins”, 1929 ). Memory allowed him to connect modern Russia, where “the end has come, the limit of God’s forgiveness,” with timeless, eternal values. In addition to eternal nature, love remained such an eternal value for Bunin, which he sang in the story “Sunstroke” (1925), the story “Mitya’s Love” (1925), the book of stories “Dark Alleys” (1943), love is always tragic, “beautiful "and doomed. All these themes - life, death, nature, love - by the end of the 20s. formed the basis of his stories about Russia, as he remembered it and what was dear to him.

In 1927, Bunin began writing the novel “The Life of Arsenyev”, which became another artistic autobiography from the life of the Russian nobility along with such classic works as “Family Chronicle” and “Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson” by S. Aksakov, “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth” by L. Tolstoy. The events of childhood, adolescence, life in the village, studying at the gymnasium (80-90s of the 19th century) are seen in it with double vision: through the eyes of the high school student Alexei Arsenyev and through the eyes of Bunin, who created the novel in the 20-30s. XX century Speaking about Russia, “which perished before our eyes in such a magically short time,” Bunin, with the entire artistic structure of his novel, overcomes the thought of the end and death. Such overcoming is in Bunin’s landscapes, in that love for Russia and its culture, which is felt in every episode and situation of the novel: Bunin even called the hero’s father Alexander Sergeevich. The horror of the end and death is overcome by the author's lyrical confession, from which it becomes clear how the formation of one of the most important writers of the 20th century took place. And, of course, the victory over the “end” was the fifth and final chapter of “The Life of Arsenyev,” which is called “Lika” and in which Bunin recalls how, back in 1889, when he worked at the Orlovsky Vestnik, he was “struck by to great misfortune, long love.” And this love was not destroyed by time...

The power of love, overcoming the darkness and chaos of life, became the main content of the book “Dark Alleys,” written during the Second World War. All the 38 short stories that make it up are about love, most often unrequited and tragic. Bunin’s understanding of love is reflected here: “All love is great happiness, even if it is not shared.” The book “Dark Alleys” also includes the story “Clean Monday,” which Bunin considered the best of all that he had written. “I thank God,” he said, “for giving me the opportunity to write “Clean Monday.”

Behind the simple plot of the story one senses the presence of some hidden significance. It turned out to be an allegorically, symbolically expressed thought about the historical path of Russia. That is why the heroine of the story is so mysterious, embodying not the idea of ​​love-passion, but longing for a moral ideal; the combination of Eastern and Western principles in her is so significant as a reflection of this combination in the life of Russia. Her unexpected, at first glance, departure to a monastery symbolizes the “third path” that Bunin chose for Russia. He gives preference to the path of humility, curbing the elements and sees in this an opportunity to go beyond the limits of Western and Eastern doom, the path of great suffering in which Russia will atone for its sin and go on its own path.

A series of stories called “Dark Alleys” is dedicated to the eternal theme of any type of art - love.“Dark Alleys” is spoken of as a kind of encyclopedia of love, which contains the most diverse and incredible stories about this great and often contradictory feeling.

And the stories that are included in Bunin’s collection are stunning with their varied plots and extraordinary style; they are the main assistants of Bunin, who wants to portray love at the peak of feelings, tragic love, but therefore perfect.

Feature of the cycle “Dark Alleys”

The very phrase that served as the title for the collection was taken by the writer from the poem “An Ordinary Tale” by N. Ogarev, which is dedicated to first love, which never had the expected continuation.

In the collection itself there is a story with the same name, but this does not mean that this story is the main one, no, this expression is the personification of the mood of all the stories and tales, a common elusive meaning, a transparent, almost invisible thread connecting the stories with each other.

A special feature of the series of stories “Dark Alleys” can be called moments when the love of two heroes for some reason cannot continue. Often the executioner of the passionate feelings of Bunin’s heroes is death, sometimes unforeseen circumstances or misfortunes, but most importantly, love is never allowed to come true.

This is the key concept of Bunin's idea of ​​earthly love between two. He wants to show love at the peak of its blossoming, he wants to emphasize its true richness and highest value, the fact that it does not need to turn into life circumstances, like a wedding, marriage, life together...

Female images of “Dark Alleys”

Particular attention should be paid to the unusual female portraits that “Dark Alleys” are so rich in. Ivan Alekseevich paints images of women with such grace and originality that the female portrait of each story becomes unforgettable and truly intriguing.

Bunin's skill lies in several precise expressions and metaphors that instantly paint in the reader's mind the picture described by the author with many colors, shades and nuances.

Stories “Rusya”, “Antigone”, “Galya Ganskaya” are an exemplary example of different but vivid images of Russian women. The girls, whose stories were created by the talented Bunin, partly resemble the love stories that they experience.

We can say that the writer’s key attention is directed precisely to these two elements of the cycle of stories: women and love. And the love stories are just as intense, unique, sometimes fatal and willful, sometimes so original and incredible that it’s hard to believe in them.

Male images in “Dark Alleys”“weak-willed and insincere, and this also determines the fatal course of all love stories.

The peculiarity of love in “Dark Alleys”

The stories of “Dark Alleys” reveal not only the theme of love, they reveal the depths of the human personality and soul, and the very concept of “love” appears as the basis of this difficult and not always happy life.

And love does not have to be mutual in order to bring unforgettable impressions; love does not have to turn into something eternal and tirelessly ongoing in order to please and make a person happy.

Bunin insightfully and subtly shows only the “moments” of love, for the sake of which everything else is worth experiencing, for which it is worth living.

The story "Clean Monday"

The story “Clean Monday” is a mysterious and not fully understood love story. Bunin describes a pair of young lovers who seem to be perfect for each other on the outside, but the catch is that their inner worlds have nothing in common.

The image of the young man is simple and logical, but the image of his beloved is unattainable and complex, striking her chosen one with its inconsistency. One day she says that she would like to go to a monastery, and this causes complete bewilderment and misunderstanding in the hero.

And the end of this love is as complex and incomprehensible as the heroine herself. After intimacy with the young man, she silently leaves him, then asks him not to ask anything, and soon he finds out that she has gone to a monastery.

She made the decision on Clean Monday, when intimacy between lovers occurred, and the symbol of this holiday is a symbol of her purity and torment, which she wants to get rid of.

The story "Dark Alleys" gave the name to the entire collection of the same name by I. A. Bunin. It was written in 1938. All the short stories in the cycle are connected by one theme - love. The author reveals the tragic and even catastrophic nature of love. Love is a gift. It is beyond the control of man. It would seem a banal story about a meeting of elderly people in their youth who passionately loved each other. The simple plot of the story is that a rich young handsome landowner seduces and then abandons his maid. But it is Bunin who manages to tell about simple things in an exciting and impressive way with the help of this simple artistic move. A short work is an instant flash of memory of bygone youth and love.

There are only three compositional parts of the story:

Parking at the inn of a gray-haired military man,

A sudden meeting with a former lover,

Reflections of a military man on the road a few minutes after the meeting.

Pictures of dull everyday life and everyday life appear at the beginning of the story. But in the owner of the inn, Nikolai Alekseevich recognizes the beautiful maid Nadezhda, whom he betrayed thirty years ago: “he quickly straightened up, opened his eyes and blushed.” A whole life has passed since then, and everyone has their own. And it turns out that both main characters are lonely. Nikolai Alekseevich has social weight and structure, but is unhappy: his wife “cheated on me, abandoned me even more insultingly than I abandoned you,” and his son grew up as a scoundrel “without a heart, without honor, without a conscience.” Nadezhda from a former serf turned into the owner of a “private room” at the Uma Palata postal station. And everyone, they say, is getting rich, cool...", but she never got married.

And yet, if the hero is tired of life, then his former lover is still beautiful and light, full of vitality. He once gave up love and spent the rest of his life without it, and therefore without happiness. Nadezhda has loved him all her life, to whom she gave “her beauty, her fever,” whom she once called “Nikolenka.” Love still lives in her heart, but she does not forgive Nikolai Alekseevich. Although he does not stoop to accusations and tears.

Analysis of the story “Easy Breathing”

The theme of love occupies one of the leading places in the writer’s work. In mature prose, there are noticeable tendencies to comprehend the eternal categories of existence - death, love, happiness, nature. He often describes “moments of love” that have a fatal nature and a tragic overtones. He pays great attention to female characters, mysterious and incomprehensible.

The beginning of the novel “Easy Breathing” creates a feeling of sadness and sadness. The author prepares the reader in advance for the fact that the tragedy of human life will unfold in the following pages.

The main character of the novel Olga Meshcherskaya, a high school student, stands out very much among her classmates with her cheerful disposition and obvious love of life, she is not at all afraid of other people’s opinions, and openly challenges society.

During the last winter, many changes occurred in the girl’s life. At this time, Olga Meshcherskaya was in the full bloom of her beauty. There were rumors about her that she could not live without fans, but at the same time she treated them very cruelly. In her last winter, Olya completely surrendered to the joys of life, she attended balls and went to the skating rink every evening.

Olya always strived to look good, she wore expensive shoes, expensive combs, perhaps she would have dressed in the latest fashion if all the high school students did not wear uniforms. The headmistress of the gymnasium made a remark to Olga about her appearance, that such jewelry and shoes should be worn by an adult woman, and not by a simple student. To which Meshcherskaya openly stated that she has the right to dress like a woman, because she is one, and none other than the brother of the headmistress herself, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, is to blame for this. Olga's answer can be fully regarded as a challenge to the society of that time. A young girl, without a shadow of modesty, puts on things that are inappropriate for her age, behaves like a mature woman and at the same time openly argues for her behavior with rather intimate things.

Olga's transformation into a woman took place in the summer at the dacha. When my parents were not at home, Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin, a friend of their family, came to visit them at their dacha. Despite the fact that he did not find Olya’s father, Malyutin still stayed as a guest, explaining that he wanted it to dry out properly after the rain. In relation to Olya, Alexey Mikhailovich behaved like a gentleman, although the difference in their ages was huge, he was 56, she was 15. Malyutin confessed his love to Olya and said all kinds of compliments. During the tea party, Olga felt bad and lay down on the ottoman, Alexey Mikhailovich began to kiss her hands, talk about how he was in love, and then kissed her on the lips. Well, then what happened happened. We can say that on Olga’s part it was nothing more than an interest in the secret, a desire to become an adult.

After this there was a tragedy. Malyutin shot Olga at the station and explained this by saying that he was in a state of passion, because she showed him her diary, which described everything that happened, and then Olgino’s attitude to the situation. She wrote that she was disgusted with her boyfriend.

Malyutin acted so cruelly because his pride was hurt. He was no longer a young officer, and also single; he naturally was pleased to console himself with the fact that the young girl expressed her sympathy for him. But when he found out that she felt nothing but disgust for him, it was like a bolt from the blue. He himself usually pushed women away, but here they pushed him away. Society was on Malyutin’s side; he justified himself by saying that Olga allegedly seduced him, promised to become his wife, and then left him. Since Olya had a reputation as a heartbreaker, no one doubted his words.

The story ends with the fact that Olga Meshcherskaya’s classy lady, a dreamy lady living in her imaginary ideal world, comes to Olya’s grave every holiday and silently watches her for several hours. For lady Olya, the ideal of femininity and beauty.

Here “light breathing” means an easy attitude to life, sensuality and impulsiveness, which were inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya.