Analysis of the story “Clean Monday” (Bunin I.). The problem of tragic love in the story by I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"

Every evening in the winter of 1912, the narrator visits the same apartment opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. There lives a woman whom he loves madly. The narrator takes her to luxury restaurants, gives her books, chocolate and fresh flowers, but does not know how it will all end. She doesn't want to talk about the future. There has not yet been real, final intimacy between them, and this keeps the narrator “in unresolved tension, in painful anticipation.” Despite this, he is happy next to her.

She is studying history courses and lives alone - her father, a widowed enlightened merchant, settled “in retirement in Tver.” She accepts all the narrator's gifts carelessly and absent-mindedly.

It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no lunches, no theaters, no dinners out of town.

She has her favorite flowers, she reads books, she eats chocolate and has dinner with great pleasure, but her only real weakness is “ good clothes, velvet, silk, expensive fur.”

Both the narrator and his lover are young and very beautiful. The narrator looks like an Italian, is bright and active. She is dark and dark-eyed like a Persian. He is “prone to talkativeness and simple-hearted gaiety,” she is always reserved and silent.

The narrator often recalls how they met at a lecture by Andrei Bely. The writer did not give a lecture, but sang it, running around the stage. The narrator “twirled and laughed so much” that he attracted the attention of the girl sitting in the next chair, and she laughed with him.

Sometimes she silently, but without resisting, allows the narrator to kiss “her arms, legs, her body, amazing in its smoothness.” Feeling that he can no longer control himself, she pulls away and leaves. She says that she is not fit for marriage, and the narrator does not speak to her about it again.

Our incomplete intimacy sometimes seemed unbearable, but even here, what was left for me except hope for time?

The fact that he looks at her and accompanies her to restaurants and theaters constitutes torment and happiness for the narrator.

This is how the narrator spends January and February. Maslenitsa is coming. On Forgiveness Sunday, she orders you to pick her up earlier than usual. They go to the Novodevichy Convent. On the way, she says that yesterday morning she was at the schismatic cemetery where their archbishop was buried, and recalls the whole ceremony with delight. The narrator is surprised - until now he had not noticed that she was so religious.

They come to the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent and walk for a long time between the graves. The narrator looks at her with adoration. She notices this and is sincerely surprised: he really loves her so much! In the evening they eat pancakes in the Okhotny Ryad tavern, she again tells him with admiration about the monasteries that she managed to see, and threatens to go to the most remote of them. The narrator does not take her words seriously.

The next evening, she asks the narrator to take her to a theater skit, although she considers such gatherings extremely vulgar. She drinks champagne all evening, watches the antics of the actors, and then dashingly dances the polka with one of them.

In the dead of night, the narrator brings her home. To his surprise, she asks him to let the coachman go and go up to her apartment - she didn’t allow this before. They are finally getting closer. In the morning she tells the narrator that she is leaving for Tver, promises to write and asks to leave her now.

The narrator receives the letter two weeks later. She says goodbye to him and asks him not to wait and not look for her.

I won’t return to Moscow, I’ll go to obedience for now, then maybe I’ll decide to take monastic vows... May God give me the strength not to answer me - it’s useless to prolong and increase our torment...

The narrator fulfills her request. He begins to disappear through the dirtiest taverns, gradually losing his human appearance, then for a long time, indifferently and hopelessly, he comes to his senses.

Two years pass. Under New Year the narrator, with tears in his eyes, repeats the path he once took with his beloved on Forgiveness Sunday. Then he stops at the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery and wants to enter. The janitor does not let the narrator in: inside there is a service for the Grand Duchess and the Grand Duke. The narrator still comes in, handing the janitor a ruble.

In the courtyard of the monastery, the narrator sees a religious procession. Headed by him Grand Duchess, followed by a line of singing nuns or sisters with candles near their pale faces. One of the sisters suddenly raises her black eyes and looks straight at the narrator, as if sensing his presence in the darkness. The narrator turns and quietly leaves the gate.

The works of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin are closely connected with the idea and aesthetics of classical Russian literature. There are also many realistic traditions in his works, however, they are all depicted in a slightly different way, in a new and transitional time. Bunin said that literary modernism was not his style and he did not like it very much, however, over time he nevertheless fell under his influence.

This article will focus on his work entitled “ Clean Monday", which was written in 1944. This story was included in the famous collection “Dark Alleys,” which reveals to the reader a special world where, even in a dark space, there is a place for love. But notes of love are not the only attractive effect. With his stories, the author tried to show as accurately as possible the life of Russia, both in pre-revolutionary times and after great events, which for some were constructive, and for others destructive.

In the story, written in the first person, every evening the hero visits one apartment, which is located opposite the temple. In this place lives a girl with whom he is madly in love.

He goes out with her a lot, takes her to various taverns and theaters, showers her with various gifts, but until the very end he cannot understand how it will all end. The girl is silent about the future and her intentions.

And although the main characters do not have intimacy, the young man is already truly happy next to his beloved.

The girl is taking a history course, she lives alone, her father is a merchant on the road. She accepts gifts from the hero, thanks him, but it seems that she is completely indifferent.

It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no lunches, no theaters, no dinners out of town.

She, like every girl, has her favorite flowers, she loves sweets. However, her real passion lies in chic clothes. According to the work, the hero himself and his girlfriend are young and beautiful. He looks somewhat like an Italian, and she looks like a Persian princess. By nature, the hero is talkative and cheerful, but she is quite the opposite, silent and very tactful.

The main character often recalls how he met his beloved. This happened during a lecture when the teacher was running around the audience and singing songs. Then this amused the guy so much that he laughed uncontrollably, and the girl was very attracted to this. From the first meetings, the young man felt charmed and was happy, although the desire to be even closer with the girl did not leave him.

All this happens in the same tone over several months. Maslenitsa has passed and the girl asks the hero to come to her earlier than usual. Afterwards they go together to the monastery, where along the way she told about the burial ceremony of the archbishop. Then the hero was very surprised. He realized that he didn’t know her well since he had not noticed such a strong passion for religion.

Near the monastery they visit a cemetery, where they walk for a long time among the graves. The hero looks at her so lovingly that the girl understands that this is not a simple hobby, it is probably love. When, having wandered, they find themselves in a tavern, the heroine continued to talk about monasteries and expressed a desire to happily leave to serve God. However, the narrator admires her so much that he does not notice what she is saying and does not take her words seriously.

A day later, she asks the hero to bring her to the theater for a skit. She drank champagne and danced all evening. Afterwards the hero took her home, and she asked him to come up to her. Later they made love, and the next morning she said that she was leaving for Tver forever and asked not to look for her, she would write herself. The letter said this:

I won’t return to Moscow, I’ll go to obedience for now, then maybe I’ll decide to take monastic vows... May God give me the strength not to answer me - it’s useless to prolong and increase our torment...

The hero was in despair, began to drink a lot, and completely lost faith in himself and in life. Two years later, he again remembered his beloved and repeated the path that he had once taken with her in Forgiveness Sunday. Inside there was a service for the princess and prince, the hero, handing some money to the janitor, went there. A religious procession takes place here. The princess goes first, followed by the sisters with candles. One of them raised her eyes and looked straight at the hero, but he turned and left.

Analysis of the story “Clean Monday”

Name this story invented for a reason, Clean Monday is the date of the first week during Lent. There is also another meaning here; you can consider that the actions take place on the last holiday before the war in Moscow. The work has a strong and varied atmosphere, perhaps this is all due to the fact that the work itself is written in the first person.

Everything is described here quite simply, everything happens in strange city, where the hero suffers from an incomprehensible love for a mysterious girl. The hero doesn’t even think about the future; he doesn’t care what happens. The story is written using a refrain that enhances the sensations of a waking dream.

“And why, why do you have to torture me and yourself so cruelly?”

Life in Moscow is described in great detail; the story contains a lot of specifics. For example, the fact that the author’s morning smells of both snow and the smell of bakeries, but the day is damp - this also deserves special attention. There are also many detailed descriptions here, here are some of them: “gray coral branches in the frost”, “crowded, diving trams”, “snowy sidewalks dimly blackening passers-by”. As you can see, life in the Soviet metropolis is described in detail, the reader is imbued with the work and it already seems that he himself is present at the scene of events and feels all these smells.

The city is described surprisingly accurately. The story shows many sights of Moscow. The author, without being lazy, describes both monasteries and cathedrals, taverns and restaurants. Even restaurant menus are described quite colorfully. The main characters either eat pink hazel grouse in fried sour cream or pancakes with homemade herbal tea.

When you read this work you get the feeling of what is happening here perpetual motion. The hero himself came from what is now Penza, so he is already in Moscow and falls in love, and the girl herself is not from Moscow either, she is from Tver. The characters, having met, are constantly doing something, reading and discussing books, going to theaters, attending concerts and not forgetting about lectures.

Even the place where they live is remarkable. So the man lives at the Red Gate, and she lives near the temple. All this points to the temperament of the heroes. And although their appearance and characters were different, they were drawn to each other.

“For some reason I was handsome, with a southern, hot beauty...”, “And she had some kind of Indian, Persian beauty...”

The story describes everything clearly and in detail. Everything is captured in the work: meeting places, conversations, the mood of the characters, it is even described in detail how certain objects are located in the apartment. Their love is called strange and mysterious, somewhat incomprehensible. Then there is this separation, the girl goes to the monastery and, most likely, will give lunch.

IN this work Not only the psychological aspect is emphasized, there is a lot of philosophy and history. On specific example shows all the dullness of everyday life in Russia. There is melancholy all around and there is no hope for a bright future, only mystery and a fatal premonition. You read this work and want to think about Mother Russia.

It is interesting that, unlike Bunin’s other stories, there is a specific time frame here. The action takes place at the end of Maslenitsa and at the beginning of Lent. Although the work is small in volume, the time range here is quite wide. There are several dates, for example, events developed in 1912, and already last meeting they occurred in 1914.

You can observe the hero's inner experiences by several things, such as movement in time and real historical events. So he fell in love, his life seemed to have found new meaning, more sublime, but there is the tragedy of that time all around. The writer very subtly emphasized the details of that era, the lyrics here are drawn through the epic narrative.

Although the story is filled with many details and descriptions of that era, all the lyricism and tragedy of the work is clearly visible here. What’s interesting is that the heroes break up not because something obliges them. It’s just that their habit of each other began to develop into love, and this is the reason for the separation. IN in this case love did not bring the couple together, but separated them.

Like most of Bunin's stories, love is a flash that does not lead to anything good, and this work was no exception. The choice has been made, and everyone has chosen their own path.

The story “Clean Monday” is amazingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. The meeting of two people leads to the emergence of a wonderful feeling - love. But love is not only joy, it is a huge torment, against the background of which many problems and troubles seem invisible. The story described exactly how the man and woman met. But the story begins from the moment at which their relationship had already continued for quite a long time. Bunin pays attention to the smallest details, to how “the Moscow gray winter day darkened,” or to where the lovers went for dinner - “to Prague, to the Hermitage, to the Metropol.”

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

Is she not interested in continuing the relationship with her loved one? Or does she already have some idea about her future? judging by the way Bunin describes the main character, she appears as a completely special woman, unlike many around. She takes courses, not realizing, however, why she needs to study. When asked why she was studying, the girl answered: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions?”

The girl loves to surround herself with beautiful things, she is educated, sophisticated, smart. But at the same time, she seems somehow surprisingly detached from everything that surrounded her: “It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners out of town.” At the same time, she knows how to enjoy life, enjoys reading, delicious food, and interesting experiences. It would seem that the lovers have everything they need for happiness: “We were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that in restaurants and at concerts they looked at us.” At first it may seem that the story describes a real love idyll. But in reality everything was completely different.

It is no coincidence that the main character comes up with the idea of ​​​​the strangeness of their love. The girl denies in every possible way the possibility of marriage, she explains that she is not fit to be a wife. The girl cannot find herself, she is in thought. She is attracted to a luxurious, fun life. But at the same time she resists it, wants to find something different for herself. Conflicting feelings arise in the girl’s soul, which are incomprehensible to many young people accustomed to a simple and carefree existence.

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

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

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

What is the tragedy of the main characters in the story “Clean Monday”? The fact is that a man and a woman were never able to understand and appreciate each other properly. Every person is the whole world, the whole Universe. The inner world of the girl, the heroine of the story, is very rich. She is in thought, in a spiritual search. She is attracted and at the same time frightened by the surrounding reality; she does not find anything to become attached to. And love appears not as salvation, but as another problem that weighs on her. That is why the heroine decides to give up love.

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

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

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

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

In 1937, Ivan Bunin began work on his best book. The collection “Dark Alleys” was first published after the end of World War II. This book is a collection of short tragic stories about love. One of the most famous stories Bunina - “Clean Monday”. Analysis and summary works are presented in today's article.

"Dark alleys"

The analysis of Bunin’s “Clean Monday” should begin with brief history creation of a work. This is one of latest stories, included in the collection “Dark Alleys”. Bunin completed work on the work “Clean Monday” on May 12, 1944. The story was first published in New York.

The writer was probably pleased with this essay. After all, in his diary, Bunin wrote: “I thank God for the opportunity to create Clean Monday.”

Bunin, in each of his works included in the collection “Dark Alleys,” reveals to the reader the tragedy and catastrophism of love. This feeling is beyond human control. It suddenly comes into his life, gives fleeting happiness, and then certainly causes unbearable pain.

The narration in the story “Clean Monday” by Bunin is told in the first person. The author does not name the names of his heroes. Love breaks out between two young people. They are both beautiful, rich, healthy and seemingly full of energy. But something is missing in their relationship.

They visit restaurants, concerts, theaters. They discuss books and plays. True, the girl often shows indifference, even hostility. “You don’t like everything,” the main character once says, but he himself does not attach any significance to his words. A passionate romance is followed by a sudden separation - unexpected for young man, not for her. The ending is typical of Bunin's style. What caused the break between the lovers?

On the eve of the Orthodox holiday

The story describes their first meeting, but the narrative begins with events that occur some time after they met. The girl attends courses, reads a lot, and otherwise leads idle image life. And she seems quite happy with everything. But this is only at first glance. He is so absorbed in his feeling, his love for her, that he is not even aware of the other side of her soul.

It is worth paying attention to the title of the story - “Clean Monday”. The meaning of Bunin's story is quite deep. On the eve of the holy day, the lovers have their first conversation about religiosity. Before this, the main character had no idea that the girl was attracted to everything connected with the church. In his absence, she visits Moscow monasteries, moreover, she is thinking about becoming a monk.

Clean Monday is the beginning of Lent. On this day, cleansing rituals are carried out, the transition from fast food to Lenten restrictions.

Parting

One day they go to the Novodevichy Convent. By the way, this is a rather unusual route for him. Previously, they spent time exclusively in entertainment establishments. The visit to the monastery is, of course, the idea of ​​the protagonist's beloved.

The next day, intimacy occurs between them for the first time. And then the girl leaves for Tver, from there she sends a letter to her lover. In this message she asks not to wait for her. She became a novice in one of the Tver monasteries, and perhaps she will decide to take monastic vows. He will never see her again.

After receiving from my beloved last letter, the hero began to drink, go downhill, and then finally came to his senses. One day, after a long time, I saw a nun in a Moscow church, in whom I recognized my former beloved. Perhaps the image of his beloved was too firmly entrenched in his mind, and it was not her at all? He didn't tell her anything. He turned and walked out of the temple gates. This is the summary of Bunin’s “Clean Monday”.

Love and tragedy

Bunin's heroes do not find happiness. In "Clean Monday", as in other works of the Russian classic, we are talking about love, which brings only bitterness and disappointment. What is the tragedy of the heroes of this story?

Probably the fact that, being close, they did not know each other at all. Each person is a whole Universe. AND inner world Sometimes even those close to you cannot figure it out. Bunin spoke about loneliness among people, about love, which is impossible without complete mutual understanding. Analysis work of art cannot be done without characterizing the main characters. What do we know about the girl who, living in prosperity and being loved, went to a monastery?

main character

When analyzing Bunin’s “Clean Monday”, it is worth paying attention to the portrait of a nameless girl that the author creates at the beginning of the work. She led an idle life. She read a lot, studied music, and loved visiting restaurants. But she did all this somehow indifferently, without much interest.

She is educated, well-read, and enjoys immersing herself in the world of luxurious social life. She likes good cuisine, but she wonders “how people don’t get bored having lunch and dinner every day”? She calls acting skits vulgar, while she ends the relationship with her lover by visiting the theater. Bunin's heroine cannot understand what his purpose in this life is. She is not one of those who is content to live in luxury and talk about literature and art.

Inner world main character very rich. She constantly thinks and is in a spiritual search. The girl is attracted by the surrounding reality, but at the same time she is frightened. Love becomes not a salvation for her, but a problem that terribly burdens her, forcing her to make the only correct sudden decision.

The main character refuses worldly joys, and this shows her strong nature. “Clean Monday” is not the only story from the collection “Dark Alleys” in which the author paid a lot of attention to the female image.

Bunin brought to the fore the hero's experiences. At the same time, it showed a rather contradictory female character. The heroine is satisfied with the lifestyle she leads, but all sorts of details, little things, depress her. Finally, she decides to go to a monastery, thereby destroying the life of the man who loves her. True, by doing this she causes suffering to herself. After all, in the letter that the girl sends to her lover there are the words: “May God give me the strength not to answer you.”

Main character

About how it turned out further fate young man, little is known. He had a hard time being separated from his beloved. He disappeared into the dirtiest taverns, drank and became miserable. But still he came to his senses and returned to his previous way of life. It can be assumed that the pain that this strange, extraordinary and somewhat exalted girl inflicted on him will never subside.

In order to find out who the writer was during his lifetime, you just need to read his books. But is the biography of Ivan Bunin really so tragic? Was there true love in his life?

Ivan Bunin

The writer's first wife, Anna Tsakni, was the daughter of an Odessa Greek, editor of a popular magazine at that time. They got married in 1898. Soon a son was born, who did not live even five years. The child died of meningitis. Bunin took the death of his son very hard. The relationship between the spouses went wrong, but his wife did not give him a divorce for a long time. Even after he connected his life with Vera Muromtseva.

The writer's second wife became his "patient shadow." Muromtseva replaced his secretary, mother, and friend. She did not leave him even when he began an affair with Galina Kuznetsova. Still, it was Galina Muromtseva who was next to the writer in last days his life. The creator was not deprived of love “ Dark alleys».

Of course, first of all, this is a story about love. That young, passionate love, when every moment of meeting with your beloved is sweet and painful (and the story is told from the perspective of the hero, a young rich man, and this detail will be very important in understanding the meaning of the work), when it is impossible, without incredible tenderness, to look at the star marks , left by her heels on the snow, when incomplete intimacy seems ready to drive you crazy and you are all permeated with that “ecstatic despair” that breaks your heart!

Bunin attached particular importance to the writer’s ability to describe the brightest, most frank moments of love. It was to the sharp-sweet moments of rapprochement between a man and a woman that he dedicated the cycle “Dark Alleys,” which was written over 10 years - from the mid-30s to the mid-40s. - and consisting (almost unprecedented in the history of literature!) of 38 short stories, telling only about love, only about meetings, only about partings. And in this sense, “Sunstroke” can be considered as a prelude to this cycle. And as a kind of requirement-credo of the writer, one can regard his words in one of the stories: “The writer has the same every right to be bold in their verbal depictions of love and its faces, which at all times was left to painters and sculptors in this case: only vile souls see vileness even in the beautiful or terrible.” Of particular note last words: beautiful and terrible. For Bunin, they are always nearby, inseparable, determining the very essence of life. Therefore, in “Clean Monday” the heroine will also be brought into something like an ecstatic stupor by “beauty and horror” that accompany death, departure to another world, the entire funeral ritual!

However, the above statement by Bunin did not prevent many critics and literary scholars from seeing the influence of Western literature in the frank stories of “Dark Alleys”: after all, this is indeed the case in Russian classical literature scenes of love had never been depicted before (it is known that L.N. Tolstoy chose to fill an entire line with dots rather than reveal the secret of the closeness of Anna Karenina and Vronsky). For Bunin, there is nothing unworthy or unclean in love (we repeat, in love!). “Love,” as one of his contemporaries wrote, “always seemed to him to be perhaps the most significant mysterious thing in the world... All love is great happiness...” And the story “Clean Monday” tells about such a mysterious, great , happily-unhappy love.

And yet this story, although it has all the signs of a love story and its culmination is the night spent by the lovers together (it is important that this is the night of the eve of Lent; Clean Monday comes after Forgiveness Sunday and is the first day of Lent), it is not about this or not only about this.... Already at the very beginning of the story it is directly stated that what will unfold before us is “ odd love“between a dazzling handsome man, in whose appearance there is even something “Sicilian” (however, he comes only from Penza), and “ Shamakhan queen” (as those around her call the heroine), whose portrait is given in great detail: there was something “Indian, Persian” in the girl’s beauty (although her origins are very prosaic: her father is a merchant noble family from Tver, grandmother - from Astrakhan). She has “a dark-amber face, magnificent and somewhat ominous hair in its thick blackness, softly shining like black sable fur, eyebrows, black like velvet coal (Bunin’s amazing oxymoron! - M.M.), eyes”, captivating “ velvety crimson lips, shaded with dark down. Her favorite evening outfit is also described in detail: a garnet velvet dress and matching shoes with gold buckles. (Somewhat unexpected in the rich palette of Bunin’s epithets is the persistent repetition of the epithet velvet, which, obviously, should highlight the amazing softness of the heroine. But let’s not forget about “coal,” which is undoubtedly associated with hardness.) Thus, Bunin’s heroes are deliberately likened to each other to a friend - in the sense of beauty, youth, charm, obvious originality of appearance.

However, further Bunin carefully, but very consistently “prescribes” the differences between the “Sicilian” and the “Shamakhan Queen”, which will turn out to be fundamental and ultimately lead to a dramatic denouement - eternal separation. And here lies the difference between the concept of love revealed in “ Sunstroke”, and the love of the heroes of “Clean Monday”. There, the lack of a future for the lieutenant and the woman in a canvas dress was explained by the incompatibility of the severity of the experiences caused by the “sun” love blow with everyday life, which millions of people live and which will soon begin among the heroes themselves.

“Sunstroke,” according to Bunin, is one of the manifestations of cosmic living life, which they were able to join for a moment. But it can be revealed to a person at the moments of turning to the highest works art, and through memory, which blurs temporary barriers, and through contact and dissolution in nature, when you feel like a small part of it.

“Clean Monday” is different. Nothing bothers the heroes; they live such a prosperous life that the concept of everyday life is not very applicable to their pastime. It is no coincidence that Bunin literally piece by piece recreates a rich picture of intellectual and cultural life Russia 1911-1912 (For this story, the attachment of events to a specific time is generally very important. Bunin usually prefers greater temporal abstraction.) Here, as they say, on one spot, all the events that during the first one and a half decades of the 20th century are concentrated. excited the minds of the Russian intelligentsia. These are new productions and skits Art Theater; lectures by Andrei Bely, read by him in such an original manner that everyone talked about it; the most popular stylization historical events XVI century - witch trials and V. Bryusov’s novel “Fire Angel”; fashion writers Viennese school“modern” A. Schnitzler and G. Hofmannsthal; works of the Polish decadents K. Tetmaier and S. Przybyszewski; the stories of L. Andreev, who attracted everyone's attention, the concerts of F. Chaliapin... Literary scholars even find historical inconsistencies in the picture of life in pre-war Moscow depicted by Bunin, pointing out that many of the events he cited could not have occurred at the same time. However, it seems that Bunin deliberately compresses time, achieving its utmost density, materiality, and tangibility.

So, every day and evening of the heroes is filled with something interesting - visiting theaters, restaurants. They should not burden themselves with work or study (it is true that the heroine is studying at some courses, but she cannot really answer why she attends them), they are free and young. I would really like to add: and happy. But this word can only be applied to the hero, although he is aware that the happiness of being near her is mixed with torment. And yet for him this is undoubted happiness. “Great happiness,” as Bunin says (and his voice in this story largely merges with the voice of the narrator).

What about the heroine? Is she happy? Isn't it the greatest happiness for a woman to discover that she is loved? more life(“It’s true, how you love me!” she said with quiet bewilderment, shaking her head.”) that she is desired, that they want to see her as a wife? But this is clearly not enough for the heroine! It is she who utters a significant phrase about happiness, which concludes a whole life philosophy: “Our happiness, my friend, is like water in delirium: if you pull it, it swells, but if you pull it out, there’s nothing.” At the same time, it turns out that it was not invented by her, but said by Platon Karataev, whose wisdom her interlocutor also immediately declared “eastern”.

It’s probably worth immediately paying attention to the fact that Bunin, clearly emphasizing the gesture, emphasized how the young man, in response to Karataev’s words cited by the heroine, “waved his hand.” Thus, the discrepancy between the views and perceptions of certain phenomena by the hero and heroine becomes obvious. He exists in the real dimension, in the present time, therefore he calmly perceives everything that happens in him as an integral part of him. Boxes of chocolates are as much a sign of attention for him as a book; In general, he doesn’t care where to go - whether to have dinner at the Metropol, or wander around Ordynka in search of Griboedov’s house, sit at dinner in a tavern, or listen to the gypsies. He does not feel the surrounding vulgarity, which is wonderfully captured by Bunin both in the performance of the “Polish woman Tranblanc”, when his partner shouts out a meaningless set of phrases as a “goat”, and in the cheeky performance of songs by the old gypsy “with the gray muzzle of a drowned man” and the gypsy woman “with a low forehead under a tar bang.” " He is not very offended by drunk people around, annoyingly helpful sex workers, or the emphasized theatricality in the behavior of people of art. And how the height of discrepancy with the heroine is his consent to her invitation, pronounced in English: “All right!”

All this does not mean, of course, that high feelings are inaccessible to him, that he is unable to appreciate the unusualness and uniqueness of the girl he meets. On the contrary, his enthusiastic love clearly saves him from the surrounding vulgarity, and the rapture and pleasure with which he listens to her words, how he knows how to highlight a special intonation in them, how attentive he is even to little things (he sees “ quiet light” in her eyes, he is pleased with her “kind talkativeness”), speaks in his favor. It is not without reason that when he mentions that his beloved may go to a monastery, he, “lost with excitement,” lights a cigarette and almost admits out loud that out of despair he is capable of stabbing someone to death or also becoming a monk. And when something really happens that only arose in the heroine’s imagination, and she decides first to obey, and then, apparently, to take monastic vows (in the epilogue the hero meets her in the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy) - he first sinks and drinks himself to such an extent that it seems that it is impossible to be reborn, and then, albeit little by little, he “recovers,” returns to life, but somehow “indifferently, hopelessly,” although he sobs, walking through the places where they once visited together. He has a sensitive heart: after all, immediately after a night of intimacy, when nothing portends trouble, he feels himself and what happened so strongly and bitterly that the old woman near the Iverskaya Chapel turns to him with the words: “Oh, don’t kill yourself, don’t kill yourself like that!”

Consequently, the height of his feelings and ability to experience are beyond doubt. The heroine herself admits this when farewell letter asks God to give him the strength “not to answer” her, realizing that their correspondence will only “uselessly prolong and increase our torment.” And yet his tension mental life cannot be compared with her spiritual experiences and insights. Moreover, Bunin deliberately creates the impression that he, as it were, “echoes” the heroine, agreeing to go where she calls, admiring what delights her, entertaining her with what, as it seems to him, can occupy her in the first place. This does not mean that he does not have his own “I”, his own individuality. He is no stranger to reflections and observations, he is attentive to the changes in his beloved’s mood, and is the first to notice that their relationship is developing in such a “strange” city as Moscow.

But nevertheless, it is she who leads the “party”, it is her voice that is most clearly distinguishable. Actually, the heroine’s fortitude and the choice she ultimately makes become the semantic core of Bunin’s work. It is her deep concentration on something that is not immediately definable, for the time being hidden from prying eyes, that constitutes the alarming nerve of the narrative, the ending of which defies any logical or everyday explanation. And if the hero is talkative and restless, if he can put off a painful decision until later, assuming that everything will be resolved somehow by itself or, in extreme cases, not think about the future at all, then the heroine is always thinking about something of her own, which is only indirect breaks through in her remarks and conversations. She loves to quote Russian chronicles, especially the ancient Russian “The Tale of the Faithful Spouses Peter and Fevronia of Murom” (Bunin incorrectly indicated the name of the prince - Pavel).

She can listen to church hymns. The very vowel sounds of the words of the Old Russian language will not leave her indifferent, and she will repeat them, as if spellbound...

And her conversations are no less “strange” than her actions. She either invites her lover to the Novodevichy Convent, then leads him around Ordynka in search of the house where Griboyedov lived (it would be more accurate to say, he visited, because in one of the Horde alleys there was the house of uncle A.S. Griboyedov), then she talks about her visiting an old schismatic cemetery, he confesses his love for Chudov, Zachatievsky and other monasteries, where he constantly goes. And, of course, the most “strange” thing, incomprehensible from the point of view of everyday logic, is her decision to retire to a monastery, to sever all ties with the world.

But Bunin, as a writer, does everything to “explain” this strangeness. The reason for this “strangeness” is the contradictions of the Russian national character, which themselves are a consequence of Rus'’s location at the crossroads of East and West. This is where the story constantly emphasizes the clash between Eastern and Western principles. The author's eye, the narrator's eye, stops at the cathedrals built in Moscow by Italian architects, ancient Russian architecture, who perceived eastern traditions(something Kyrgyz in the towers of the Kremlin wall), the Persian beauty of the heroine - the daughter of a Tver merchant, reveals a combination of incongruous things in her favorite clothes (either the Astrakhan grandmother’s archaluk, or a European fashionable dress), in the atmosphere and affections - “ Moonlight Sonata” and the Turkish sofa on which she reclines. When the Moscow Kremlin clock strikes, she hears the sounds of a Florentine clock. The heroine’s gaze also captures the “extravagant” habits of the Moscow merchants - pancakes with caviar, washed down with frozen champagne. But she herself is not alien to the same tastes: she orders foreign sherry with Russian navazhka.

No less important internal inconsistency a heroine who is depicted by the writer at a spiritual crossroads. She often says one thing and does something else: she is surprised at the gourmandness of other people, but she herself has lunch and dinner with an excellent appetite, then attends all the newfangled meetings, then does not leave the house at all, she gets irritated surrounding vulgarity, but goes to dance the Tranblanc polka dance, causing everyone’s admiration and applause, delays moments of intimacy with her beloved, and then suddenly agrees to it...

But in the end she still makes a decision, the only one the right decision, which, according to Bunin, was predetermined by Russia - by its entire destiny, its entire history. The path of repentance, humility and forgiveness.

Refusal of temptations (it is not for nothing that, agreeing to intimacy with her lover, the heroine says, characterizing his beauty: “The serpent in human nature, extremely beautiful...” - i.e., she refers to him the words from the legend of Peter and Fevronia - about the intrigues the devil, who sent the pious princess “a flying serpent for fornication”), which appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. before Russia in the form of uprisings and riots and, according to the writer, served as the beginning of its “ damn days”, - this is what was supposed to provide his homeland with a decent future. Forgiveness addressed to all those who are guilty is what, according to Bunin, would help Russia withstand the whirlwind of historical cataclysms of the 20th century. The path of Russia is the path of fasting and renunciation. But that didn't happen. Russia has chosen a different path. And the writer never tired of mourning her fate while in exile.

Probably, strict zealots of Christian piety will not consider the writer’s arguments in favor of the heroine’s decision convincing. In their opinion, she clearly accepted him not under the influence of the grace that descended on her, but for other reasons. They will rightly feel that there is too little revelation and too much poetry in her adherence to church rituals. She herself says that her love for church rituals can hardly be considered real religiosity. Indeed, she perceives the funeral too aesthetically (forged gold brocade, a white bedspread embroidered with black letters (air) on the face of the deceased, blinding snow and glitter in the cold spruce branches inside the grave), she listens too admiringly to the music of the words of Russian legends (“I re-read what I especially liked until I memorize it by heart”), she is too immersed in the atmosphere accompanying the service in the church (“the stichera are wonderfully sung there,” “there are puddles and air everywhere.” already soft, my soul is somehow tender, sad...”, “all the doors in the cathedral are open, ordinary people come and go all day long”...). And in this, the heroine in her own way turns out to be close to Bunin himself, who also in the Novodevichy Convent will see “jackdaws that look like nuns”, “gray coral branches in frost”, marvelously emerging “on the golden enamel of sunset”, blood-red walls and mysteriously glowing lamps. By the way, the closeness of the heroines to the writer, their special spirituality, significance and unusualness were immediately noted by critics. Gradually, the concept of “Bunin’s women” is taking root in literary criticism, as bright and definite as “Turgenev’s girls.”

Thus, in choosing the ending of the story, it is not so much the religious attitude and position of Bunin the Christian that is important, but rather the position of Bunin the writer, for whose worldview a sense of history is extremely important. “The feeling of the homeland, its antiquity,” as the heroine of “Clean Monday” says about it. This is also why she abandoned a future that could have turned out happily, because she decided to leave everything worldly, because the disappearance of beauty, which she feels everywhere, is unbearable for her. “Desperate cancans” and frisky Poles Tranblanc, performed by the most talented people Russia - Moskvin, Stanislavsky and Sulerzhitsky, replaced the singing with “hooks” (what is that!), and in the place of the heroes Peresvet and Oslyabi (remember who they are) - “pale from hops, with large sweat on his forehead,” almost falling off the feet the beauty and pride of the Russian stage - Kachalov and the “daring” Chaliapin.

Therefore, the phrase: “It’s only in some northern monasteries that this Rus' now remains” - appears quite naturally in the mouth of the heroine. She means the irretrievably disappearing feelings of dignity, beauty, goodness, for which she yearns immensely and which she hopes to find in monastic life.

As we have seen, an unambiguous interpretation of “Clean Monday” is hardly possible. This work is about love, and about beauty, and about the duty of man, and about Russia, and about its fate. This is probably why it was Bunin’s favorite story, the best, according to him, of what he wrote, for the creation of which he thanked God...