The theme of love has been one of the most important in world and Russian literature since its inception. This feeling has a variety of definitions, but perhaps the most comprehensive is the definition from the Gospel: “This mystery is great.” Kuprin leads the reader to an understanding of the great secret with the entire system of images of the short story “Garnet Bracelet”.

The author embodied the mystery of God's gift of love, pure and unique, high to the point of self-sacrifice, creating a high atmosphere of morality, in the image of the “little man” Zheltkov.

The novella opens with a description of the coming autumn based on the principle of contrast. In the middle of August the weather is “disgusting”. It is accompanied by “thick fog, fine rain like water dust, turning clay roads and paths into solid thick mud”, a ferocious hurricane, “the siren at the lighthouse roared like a mad bull”... The trees swayed..., “like waves in a storm.”

By the beginning of September the weather changes dramatically. “Quiet cloudless days, so clear, sunny and warm, which were not even in July. On the dry, compressed fields, on the prickly yellow stubble, an autumn cobweb glistened with a mica sheen. The calmed trees silently and obediently dropped their yellow leaves.”

This contrasting landscape, depressing and joyful, seems to precede a natural change in the life of Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina and the official of the control chamber Zheltkov, where Divine purity and tragedy, insight and faith in eternal, unearthly love will harmoniously merge together. The author gives Vera Nikolaevna’s state of mind through the prism of her attitude to natural beauty, dissolved in the vast world of existence.

“She was very happy about the wonderful days that had come, the silence, solitude, clean air, the chirping of swallows on the telegraph wires...”

Naturally sensitive, she “long ago” lost the feeling of love for her husband. They were friends and cared about each other.

Faith intuitively seeks the answer to the question of whether love exists and how it manifests itself.

The author explains the thirst for love and naivety of married sisters by the established stereotype in many generations, where love is replaced by habit and convenience. The author will lead his heroine, together with the reader, to true love, to the throne, on the altar of which life is laid.

Throughout the entire narrative, Zheltkov is Vera Nikolaevna’s secret lover.

Sheina, who rarely reminds of himself by letters. For Vera's relatives, he seems funny and insignificant. Vasily Lvovich, Vera’s husband, is intelligent, merciful, devotes a lot of space to Zheltkov in his home humor magazine, depicts his caricatured imaginary portrait. Either Zheltkov is a chimney sweep, or a monk, or a village woman, or he sends Vera a perfume bottle filled with tears. In such a reduced manner, Shein portrayed the inferiority of the “little man” who dared to fall in love with a woman not of his circle.

Probably, Prince Shein, at the moment of his meeting with Zheltkov, realized his clowning, since even Nikolai Nikolaevich Tuganovsky instantly saw Zheltkov’s nobility. He peers into the unusual appearance of a man, sees in him the inner workings of the soul: “thin, nervous fingers, a pale, gentle face, a childish chin.”

These external features of a person who subtly perceives the world are complemented by the touches of his psychological experiences in front of Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich. Zheltkov was confused, his lips became dead, he jumped up, his trembling hands ran around, etc.

All this characterizes a lonely person who is not accustomed to such communication.

In the novella, the word “cliff” has a direct meaning and takes on the meaning of an image - a symbol. Vera lives on a cliff, in front of which the sea rages. She is afraid to look from the cliff. Zheltkov is constantly mentally there, on the cliff.

His speech to the guests who came to deprive him of what he lives on was a leap into the abyss from a cliff. With childish frankness, he will say what fills his soul: “Sending the bracelet was even more stupid. But...I can never stop loving her...Should I be imprisoned? But even there I will find a way to let her know about my existence. There is only one thing left - death..."

Zheltkov rushes off the “cliff” into oblivion when he hears Vera on the phone: “Oh, if you only knew how tired I am of this story.”

Zheltkov’s appearance, speech, and behavior stirred up Shein. He suddenly saw in front of him a living person “with unshed tears”, with “an enormous tragedy of the soul.” Shein realized that he was not crazy, but a loving person, for whom life without Faith did not exist.

Vera hears from the landlady words full of maternal love and sorrow: “If only you knew, lady, what a wonderful man he was.” From her, Vera learns that he asked to hang the garnet bracelet on the icon of the Mother of God. And the cold Vera takes Zheltkov’s last letter written for her from the hands of the landlady with tenderness, reads the lines addressed to her, the only one: “It is not my fault, Vera Nikolaevna, that God was pleased to send me, as great happiness, love for you. If you remember me, then play or ask me to play the Sonata in D major No. 2. op.2.”

So, Zheltkov’s love, eternal and unique, selfless and selfless, a gift from the Creator, for which he joyfully goes to death. Zheltkova’s love heals Vera and two men from pride, spiritual dryness, and gives birth to mercy in the souls of these people.

In Vera’s family there was no love between the spouses, although they felt comfortable and confident. There was no demand for love, as evidenced by Vera’s conversation with Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov.

- People nowadays have forgotten how to love. I don't see true love. And in my time I didn’t see it.

- Well, how can it be, grandfather? Why slander? You yourself were married. So they still loved you?

“It means absolutely nothing, dear Verochka.”

- Take Vasya and me for example. Can we call our marriage unhappy? Anosov was silent for a long time. Then he said reluctantly:

- Well, okay... let's say - an exception...

Smart Anosov, who loves both Vera and Anna, very doubtfully agrees with Verochkin’s concept of happiness. Sister Anna couldn’t stand her husband at all, although she gave birth to two children.

He alone among the heroes of the story smells roses on this autumn evening: “How roses smell... I hear it from here.” Vera put two roses in the buttonhole of the general’s coat. General Anosov's first love is connected with a girl who was sorting through dry rose petals.

The subtle smell of roses reminded him of an incident from his life - funny and sad. This is an insert story in the short story “Garnet Bracelet”, with a beginning and an end.

“Here I am walking down the street in Bucharest. Suddenly a strong pink smell wafted over me... Between two soldiers there is a beautiful crystal bottle with rose oil. They lubricated their boots and also their weapon locks.

-What do you have?

“They put some kind of oil in the porridge, Your Honor, but it’s not good, it hurts your mouth, but it smells good.”

Consequently, soldiers do not need a subtle scent, their horizons are not the same, and there is no need for beauty. The path to the pinnacle of spirit, beauty, the pinnacle of nobility is difficult and long.

The image of a rose, a symbol of love and tragedy, permeates the fabric of the story from beginning to end. They, both in the form of dry petals and in the form of already prepared oil, are undoubtedly a parallel to all those love stories that the grandfather tells, those that the reader himself observes among the acting characters.

The image of a living rose, red as blood, appears as an impossible phenomenon in the fall in the hands of Vera Nikolaevna. She placed it at the head of the deceased in recognition of his unearthly love. The same color is in the garnet bracelet, only it is a different symbol, a symbol of tragedy, “like blood.”

Having understood the power of Zheltkov’s love, Vera is chained to Beethoven’s music. And the magical sounds of the words of enthusiastic love whispered to her: “Let your name shine.” The conscious guilt dissolves in her copious tears. The soul is filled with sounds equivalent to words:

“Calm down, darling, calm down. Do you remember about me? You are my only and last love. Calm down, I’m with you.”

And she felt his forgiveness. It was music that united them on this mournful day of their first meeting and farewell, just as it united Vera and Zheltkov for all eight years when he first saw her at a concert where Beethoven’s music was played. Beethoven's music and Zheltkov's love is an artistic parallel to the short story, which is prefaced by the epigraph to the short story.

L. Von Bethoven. 2 Son. (op.2, no. 2)
Largo Appassionato

Thus, all artistic means: live speech, inserted narratives, psychological portraits, sounds and smells, details, symbols - make the author’s narrative a vivid picture, where love is the main motive.

Kuprin convinces that everyone has their own love. Now it is like autumn roses, now it is like dry petals, now love has taken on vulgar forms and has descended to everyday convenience and little entertainment. Kuprin focused the love that women dream about on the image of Zheltkov. His love is God's gift. His love transforms the world. Kuprin convinces the reader that a “little man” can have a very rich soul, capable of making a beneficial contribution to the improvement of human morality. How important it is to understand this before the tragedy occurs.

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Essay-reasoning “Garnet bracelet: love or madness.” Love in Kuprin's story

Kuprin's story “The Garnet Bracelet” reveals the secret riches of the human soul, which is why it is traditionally loved by young readers. It shows what the power of sincere feeling is capable of, and each of us hopes that we are also capable of feeling so nobly. However, the most valuable quality of this book lies in the main theme, which the author covers masterfully from work to work. This is the theme of love between a man and a woman, a dangerous and slippery road for a writer. It's hard not to be banal when describing the same thing for the thousandth time. However, Kuprin invariably manages to surprise and touch even the most experienced reader.

In this story, the author tells the story of unrequited and forbidden love: Zheltkov loves Vera, but cannot be with her, if only because she does not love him. In addition, all circumstances are against this couple. Firstly, their situation differs significantly, he is too poor and is a representative of a different class. Secondly, Vera is married. Thirdly, she is attached to her husband and would never agree to cheat on him. These are just the main reasons why the heroes cannot be together. It would seem that with such hopelessness it is hardly possible to continue to believe in something. And if you don’t believe, how can you nourish a feeling of love that is devoid of even hope for reciprocity? Zheltkov did it. His feeling was phenomenal, it did not demand anything in return, but gave its all.

Zheltkov’s love for Vera was precisely a Christian feeling. The hero accepted his fate, did not complain about it and did not rebel. He did not expect reward for his love in the form of a response; this feeling is selfless, not tied to selfish motives. Zheltkov renounces himself; his neighbor has become more important and dearer to him. He loved Vera as he loved himself, and even more. In addition, the hero turned out to be extremely honest in relation to the personal life of his chosen one. In response to the claims of her relatives, he humbly laid down his arms and did not persist and impose his right to feelings on them. He recognized the rights of Prince Vasily and understood that his passion was in some sense sinful. Not once over the years did he cross the line and did not dare to come to Vera with a proposal or to compromise her in any way. That is, he cared about her and her well-being more than about himself, and this is a spiritual feat - self-denial.

The greatness of this feeling is that the hero managed to let go of his beloved so that she would not feel the slightest discomfort from his existence. He did this at the cost of his life. He knew what he would do with himself after wasting government money, but he did it deliberately. At the same time, Zheltkov did not give Vera a single reason to consider herself guilty of what happened. The official committed suicide because of his crime. Desperate debtors in those days shot themselves in order to wash away their shame and not shift financial obligations to relatives. His action seemed logical to everyone and had nothing to do with his feelings for Vera. This fact speaks of an unusual reverent attitude towards a loved one, who is the rarest treasure of the soul. Zheltkov proved that love is stronger than death.

In conclusion, I want to say that the noble feeling of Zheltkov is depicted by the author not by chance. Here are my thoughts on this matter: in a world where comfort and routine obligations are crowding out genuine and sublime passion, it is necessary to sober up and not take your loved one for granted and everyday life. You need to be able to value a loved one as much as yourself, as Zheltkov did. It is precisely this kind of reverent attitude that the story “The Garnet Bracelet” teaches.

"GARNET BRACELET"

Another work that moved me, called “Garnet Bracelet,” also shows true love. In this work, Kuprin depicts the fragility and insecurity of high human feelings. G. S. Zheltkov is one of the employees in a government institution. He has been in love with Vera Nikolaevna Sheina for eight years now, but his feelings are unrequited. Zheltkov wrote love letters to Vera even before Vera’s marriage. But no one knew who was sending them, since Zheltkov signed with the initials “P. P.Zh.” They assumed that he was abnormal, crazy, crazy, “manic.” But this was a man who truly loved. Zheltkov’s love was unselfish, selfless, not waiting for reward, “love for which to accomplish any feat, to give one’s life, to go to torment is not work at all, but one joy.” This is exactly what Zheltkov’s love for Vera was. In his life, he loved only her and no one else. Faith for him was the only joy in life, the only consolation, “the only thought.” And since his love had no future, it was hopeless, he committed suicide.

The heroine is married, but she loves her husband, and, on the contrary, she does not feel any feelings towards Mr. Zheltkov except annoyance. And Zheltkov himself seems to us at first to be just a vulgar suitor. This is how both Vera and her family perceive him. But in the story about a calm and happy life, disturbing notes flash: this is the fatal love of Vera’s husband’s brother; the love and adoration that her husband has for Vera’s sister; the failed love of Vera’s grandfather, it is this general who says that true love should be a tragedy, but in life it is vulgarized, everyday life and various kinds of conventions interfere. He tells two stories (one of them even somewhat resembles the plot of “The Duel”), where true love turns into a farce. Listening to this story, Vera has already received a garnet bracelet with a bloody stone, which should protect her from misfortune, and could save her former owner from violent death. It is with this gift that the reader’s attitude towards Zheltkov changes. He sacrifices everything for his love: career, money, peace of mind. And doesn't require anything in return.

But again, empty secular conventions destroy even this illusory happiness. Nikolai, Vera’s brother-in-law, who once surrendered his love to these prejudices, now demands the same from Zheltkov, he threatens him with prison, the court of society, and his connections. But Zheltkov reasonably objects: what can all these threats do to his love? Unlike Nikolai (and Romashov), he is ready to fight and defend his feelings. The barriers put up by society mean nothing to him. Just for the sake of the peace of his beloved, he is ready to give up love, but along with his life: he commits suicide.

Now Vera understands what she has lost. If Shurochka gave up feeling for the sake of well-being and did it consciously, then Vera simply did not see the big feeling. But in the end, she didn’t want to see him, she preferred peace and a familiar life (although nothing was demanded of her) and by this she seemed to have betrayed the man who loved her. But true love is generous - it was forgiven.

According to Kuprin himself, the “Garnet Bracelet” is his most “chaste” thing. Kuprin turned the traditional plot about a small official and a woman of secular society into a poem about unrequited love, sublime, selfless, selfless.

The owner of spiritual wealth and beauty of feeling in the story is a poor man - the official Zheltkov, who sincerely loved Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina for seven years. “For him there was no life without you,” the princess’s husband, Prince Vasily, said about Zheltkov. Zheltkov loved Sheina without the slightest hope of reciprocity. It was lucky for him that she read his letters. Zheltkov loved all the little things associated with her. He kept the handkerchief she had forgotten, the program she kept, the note in which the princess forbade her to write. He worshiped these things as believers worship holy relics. “I mentally bow to the ground of the furniture on which you sit, the parquet floor on which you walk, the trees that you touch in passing, the servants with whom you speak.” Zheltkov deified the princess, even when he was dying: “When leaving, I say in delight: “Hallowed be Thy name.” In the boring life of a petty official, in the constant struggle for life, working for a piece of bread, this sudden feeling was, in the words of the hero himself, “... enormous happiness... love with which God was pleased to reward me for something.”

Princess Vera’s brother was unable to understand Zheltkov, but her husband, Prince Vasily Lvovich, appreciated this man’s feelings, although he was forced by the laws of decency to stop this story. He foresaw a tragic end: “It seemed to me that I was present at enormous suffering from which people were dying,” he confesses to Vera.

Princess Vera at first treated G.S.Zh.’s letters and gifts with some contempt, then pity for the unfortunate lover stirred in her soul. After Zheltkov’s death, “...she realized that the love that every woman dreams of had passed her by.”

Vera came into agreement with herself after Zheltkov’s death only after, at the request of the man who committed suicide for her, she listened to “Beethoven’s best work” - the Second Sonata. The music seemed to speak to her on behalf of Zheltkov’s soul: “You and I love each other only for one moment, but forever.” And Vera feels that in the poor man’s soul at the hour of death, neither anger, nor hatred, nor even resentment really stirred to her, the culprit of great happiness and great tragedy in Zheltkov’s life, and that he died loving and blessing his beloved.

Kuprin showed in his story “The Garnet Bracelet” bright human feelings, contrasted with the callousness of the surrounding world.

In the story “The Garnet Bracelet,” Kuprin, with all the power of his skill, develops the idea of ​​true love. He does not want to come to terms with vulgar, practical views on love and marriage, drawing our attention to these problems in a rather unusual way, equating to an ideal feeling. Through the mouth of General Anosov, he says: “...People in our time have forgotten how to love! I don't see true love. I didn’t even see it in my time.” What is this? Call? Isn’t what we feel the truth? We have calm, moderate happiness with the person we need. What more? According to Kuprin, “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No life’s conveniences, calculations and compromises should concern her.” Only then can love be called a real feeling, completely true and moral.

I still cannot forget the impression Zheltkov’s feelings made on me. How much he loved Vera Nikolaevna that he could commit suicide! This is crazy! Loving Princess Sheina “for seven years with a hopeless and polite love,” he, without ever meeting her, talking about his love only in letters, suddenly commits suicide! Not because Vera Nikolaevna’s brother is going to turn to the authorities, and not because his gift - a garnet bracelet - was returned. (It is a symbol of deep fiery love and at the same time a terrible bloody sign of death.) And, probably, not because he squandered government money. For Zheltkov there was simply no other choice. He loved a married woman so much that he could not help but think about her for a minute, and exist without remembering her smile, her look, the sound of her walk. He himself tells Vera’s husband: “Only one thing remains - death... You want me to accept it in any form.” The terrible thing is that he was pushed to this decision by Vera Nikolaevna’s brother and husband, who came to demand that their family be left alone. They turned out to be indirectly responsible for his death. They had the right to demand peace, but Nikolai Nikolaevich’s threat to turn to the authorities was unacceptable, even ridiculous. How can the government prohibit a person from loving?

Kuprin’s ideal is “selfless, selfless love, not expecting a reward,” one for which you can give your life and endure anything. It was with this kind of love that happens once every thousand years that Zheltkov loved. This was his need, the meaning of life, and he proved this: “I knew neither complaint, nor reproach, nor the pain of pride, I have only one prayer before you: “Hallowed be your name.” These words, with which his soul was filled, are felt by Princess Vera in the sounds of Beethoven’s immortal sonata. They cannot leave us indifferent and instill in us an unbridled desire to strive for the same incomparably pure feeling. Its roots go back to morality and spiritual harmony in a person... Princess Vera did not regret that this love, “which every woman dreams of, passed her by.” She cries because her soul is filled with admiration for sublime, almost unearthly feelings.

A person who could love so much must have some special worldview. Although Zheltkov was just a small official, he turned out to be above social norms and standards. People like them are elevated by people's rumors to the rank of saints, and the bright memory of them lives on for a long time.

The theme of love in the story “Garnet Bracelet”

“Unrequited love does not humiliate a person, but elevates him.” Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich

According to many researchers, “everything in this story is masterfully written, starting with its title. The title itself is surprisingly poetic and sonorous. It sounds like a line of a poem written in iambic trimeter.”

The story is based on a real incident. In a letter to the editor of the magazine “God’s World” F.D. Batyushkov, Kuprin wrote in October 1910: “Do you remember this? - the sad story of a small telegraph official P.P. Zholtikov, who was hopelessly, touchingly and selflessly in love with Lyubimov’s wife (D.N. is now the governor in Vilna). So far I’ve just come up with an epigraph..." (L. van Beethoven. Son no. 2, op. 2. Largo Appassionato). Although the work is based on real events, the ending of the story - Zheltkov's suicide - is the writer's creative speculation. It was no coincidence that Kuprin ended his story with a tragic ending; he needed such an ending to further highlight the power of Zheltkov’s love for a woman almost unknown to him - a love that happens “once in a thousand years.”

Working on the story greatly influenced Alexander Ivanovich’s state of mind. “I recently told one good actress,” he wrote in a letter to F.D. Batyushkov in December 1910, “about the plot of his work - I’m crying, I’ll say one thing, that I have never written anything more chaste.”

The main character of the story is Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina. The action of the story takes place at the Black Sea resort in the fall, namely on September 17 - Vera Nikolaevna’s name day.

The first chapter is an introduction, which has the task of preparing the reader for the necessary perception of subsequent events. Kuprin describes nature. In Kuprin's descriptions of nature there are many sounds, colors and, especially, smells. The landscape is highly emotional and unlike any other. Thanks to the description of the autumn landscape with its empty dachas and flower beds, you feel the inevitability of the withering of the surrounding nature, the withering of the world. Kuprin draws a parallel between the description of the autumn garden and the internal state of the main character: the coldish autumn landscape of fading nature is similar in essence to the mood of Vera Nikolaevna Sheina. From it we predict her calm, unapproachable character. Nothing attracts her in this life, perhaps that is why the brightness of her being is enslaved by everyday life and dullness.

The author describes the main character as follows: “...she took after her mother, a beautiful Englishwoman, with her tall flexible figure, gentle but cold and proud face, beautiful, although rather large hands, and that charming sloping shoulders that can be seen in ancient miniatures...” Vera could not be imbued with a sense of beauty in the world around her. She was not a natural romantic. And, having seen something out of the ordinary, some feature, I tried (even if involuntarily) to ground it, to compare it with the world around me. Her life flowed slowly, measuredly, quietly, and, it would seem, satisfied the principles of life without going beyond them.

Vera Nikolaevna's husband was Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein. He was the leader of the nobility. Vera Nikolaevna married the prince, an exemplary, quiet man like herself. Vera Nikolaevna's former passionate love for her husband turned into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship. The couple, despite their high position in society, barely made ends meet. Since she had to live above her means, Vera saved unnoticed by her husband, remaining worthy of her title.

On her name day, her closest friends come to visit Vera. According to Kuprin, “Vera Nikolaevna Sheina always expected something happy and wonderful from her name day.” Her younger sister, Anna Nikolaevna Friesse, arrived before everyone else. “She was half a head shorter, somewhat broad in the shoulders, lively and frivolous, a mocker. Her face was of a very Mongolian type with quite noticeable cheekbones, with narrow eyes... captivating with some elusive and incomprehensible charm...". She was the complete opposite of Vera Nikolaevna. The sisters loved each other very much. Anna was married to a very rich and very stupid man who did absolutely nothing, but was registered with some charitable institution. She could not stand her husband, Gustav Ivanovich, but gave birth to two children from him - a boy and a girl. Vera Nikolaevna really wanted to have children, but she didn’t have them. Anna constantly flirted in all capitals and at all resorts in Europe, but she never cheated on her husband.

On her name day, her younger sister gave Vera a small notebook in an amazing binding as a gift. Vera Nikolaevna really liked the gift. As for Vera’s husband, he gave her earrings made of pear-shaped pearls. writer kuprin story love

The guests arrive in the evening. All the characters, with the exception of Zheltkov, the main character who is in love with Princess Sheina, are gathered by Kuprin at the dacha of the Shein family. The princess receives expensive gifts from her guests. The name day celebration was fun until Vera notices that there are thirteen guests. Since she was superstitious, this worries her. But so far there are no signs of trouble.

Among the guests, Kuprin singles out the old General Anosov, a comrade in arms with the father of Vera and Anna. The author describes him as follows: “A corpulent, tall, silvery old man, he climbed heavily from the step... He had a large, rough, red face with a fleshy nose and with that good-natured, stately, slightly contemptuous expression in his narrowed eyes... which is characteristic of courageous and ordinary people..."

Also present at the name day was Vera’s brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky. He always defended his opinion and was ready to stand up for his family.

According to tradition, the guests played poker. Vera did not join the game: she was called by the maid, who handed her a package. Having unwrapped the package, Vera discovered a case containing a gold bracelet with stones and a note. “...gold, low-grade, very thick... on the outside completely covered... with garnets” bracelet. It looks like a tacky trinket next to the expensive, elegant gifts that guests gave her. The note tells about the bracelet, that it is a family jewel with magical powers, and that it is the most expensive thing the giver owns. At the end of the letter were the initials G.S.Zh., and Vera realized that this was the secret admirer who had been writing to her for seven years. This bracelet becomes a symbol of his hopeless, enthusiastic, selfless, reverent love. Thus, this person is at least somehow trying to connect himself with Vera Nikolaevna. It was enough for him just that her hands touched his gift.

Looking at the deep red garnets, Vera felt alarmed; she sensed the approach of something unpleasant and saw some kind of omen in this bracelet. It is no coincidence that she immediately compares these red stones with blood: “Exactly blood!” - she exclaims. Vera Nikolaevna's calm was disturbed. Vera considered Zheltkov “unfortunate”; she could not understand the tragedy of this love. The expression “happy unhappy person” turned out to be somewhat contradictory. After all, in his feeling for Vera, Zheltkov experienced happiness.

Before the guests leave, Vera decides not to talk about the gift to her husband. Meanwhile, her husband entertains the guests with stories in which there is very little truth. Among these stories is the story of an unhappy lover in Vera Nikolaevna, who allegedly sent her passionate letters every day, and then became a monk; after dying, he bequeathed to Vera two buttons and a bottle of perfume with his tears.

And only now we learn about Zheltkov, despite the fact that he is the main character. None of the guests have ever seen him, do not know his name, it is only known (judging by the letters) that he serves as a minor official and in some mysterious way always knows where Vera Nikolaevna is and what she is doing. The story says practically nothing about Zheltkov himself. We learn about it thanks to small details. But even these minor details used by the author in his narrative indicate a lot. We understand that the inner world of this extraordinary person was very, very rich. This man was not like others, he was not mired in wretched and dull everyday life, his soul strived for the beautiful and sublime.

Evening is coming. Many guests leave, leaving General Anosov, who talks about his life. He tells his love story, which he will remember forever - short and simple, which in the retelling seems like just a vulgar adventure of an army officer. “I don’t see true love. I haven’t seen it in my time either!” - says the general and gives examples of ordinary, obscene unions of people concluded for one reason or another. “Where is the love? Is love unselfish, selfless, not waiting for reward? The one about which it is said “strong as death”?.. Love should be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No life conveniences, calculations or compromises should concern her.” It was Anosov who formulated the main idea of ​​the story: “Love must be...” and to some extent expressed Kuprin’s opinion.

Anosov talks about tragic cases similar to such love. A conversation about love led Anosov to the story of a telegraph operator. At first he assumed that Zheltkov was a maniac, and only then decided that Zheltkov’s love was real: “...maybe your path in life, Verochka, was crossed by exactly the kind of love that women dream about and that men are no longer capable of.”

When only Vera’s husband and brother remained in the house, she told about Zheltkov’s gift. Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich treated Zheltkov’s gift with extreme disdain, laughed at his letters, mocked his feelings. The garnet bracelet causes violent indignation in Nikolai Nikolaevich; it is worth noting that he was extremely irritated by the act of the young official, and Vasily Lvovich, due to his character, took it more calmly.

Nikolai Nikolaevich is worried about Vera. He does not believe in Zheltkov’s pure, platonic love, suspecting him of the most vulgar adultery. If she had accepted the gift, Zheltkov would have begun to brag to his friends, he could have hoped for something more, he would have given her expensive gifts: “... a ring with diamonds, a pearl necklace...”, wasting government money, and then everything could have ended court, where the Sheins would be called as witnesses. The Shein family would have found themselves in a ridiculous position, their name would have been disgraced.

Vera herself did not attach special significance to the letters and did not have feelings for her mysterious admirer. She was somewhat flattered by his attention. Vera thought that Zheltkov’s letters were just an innocent joke. She does not attach the same importance to them as her brother Nikolai Nikolaevich does.

Vera Nikolaevna's husband and brother decide to give the gift to the secret admirer and ask him to never write to Vera again, to forget about her forever. But how to do this if they did not know either the name, surname, or address of the admirer of the Faith? Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich find a admirer by their initials in the lists of city employees. Now they become aware that the mysterious G.S.Zh. is a petty official Georgy Zheltkov. Vera’s brother and husband go to his home for an important conversation with Zheltkov, who subsequently decides Georgy’s entire future fate.

Zheltkov lived under the roof in one poor house: “the spit-stained staircase smelled of mice, cats, kerosene and laundry... The room was very low, but very wide and long, almost square in shape. Two round windows, quite similar to steamship portholes, barely illuminated her. And the whole place looked like the wardroom of a cargo ship. Along one wall there was a narrow bed, along the other a very large and wide sofa, covered with a frayed beautiful Tekin carpet, in the middle there was a table covered with a colored Little Russian tablecloth.” Kuprin notes such an accurate detailed description of the atmosphere in which Zheltkov lives for a reason; the author shows the inequality between Princess Vera and the petty official Zheltkov. Between them there are insurmountable social barriers and partitions of class inequality. It is Vera’s different social status and marriage that makes Zheltkov’s love unrequited.

Kuprin develops the traditional theme of the “little man” in Russian literature. An official with the funny surname Zheltkov, quiet and inconspicuous, not only grows into a tragic hero, he, with the power of his love, rises above the petty vanity, life's conveniences, and decency. He turns out to be a man in no way inferior in nobility to aristocrats. Love elevated him. Love gives Zheltkov “tremendous happiness.” Love has become suffering, the only meaning of life. Zheltkov did not demand anything for his love; his letters to the princess were just a desire to speak out, to convey his feelings to his beloved being.

Finding themselves in Zheltkov’s room, Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich finally see Vera’s admirer. The author describes him as follows: “...he was tall, thin, with long fluffy, soft hair... very pale, with a gentle girlish face, blue eyes and a stubborn childish chin with a dimple in the middle; He must have been about thirty, thirty-five years old...” Zheltkov, as soon as Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich introduced themselves, became very nervous and scared, but after a while he calmed down. The men return his bracelet to Zheltkov with a request not to repeat such things again. Zheltkov himself understands and admits that he committed a stupidity by sending Vera a garnet bracelet.

Zheltkov admits to Vasily Lvovich that he has loved his wife for seven years. By some whim of fate, Vera Nikolaevna once seemed to Zheltkov to be an amazing, completely unearthly creature. And a strong, bright feeling flared up in his heart. He was always at some distance from his beloved, and, obviously, this distance contributed to the strength of his passion. He could not forget the beautiful image of the princess, and he was not stopped at all by the indifference on the part of his beloved.

Nikolai Nikolaevich gives Zheltkov two options for further actions: either he forgets Vera forever and never writes to her again, or, if he does not give up the persecution, measures will be taken against him. Zheltkov asks to call Vera to say goodbye to her. Although Nikolai Nikolaevich was against the call, Prince Shein allowed it to be done. But the conversation failed: Vera Nikolaevna did not want to talk to Zheltkov. Returning to the room, Zheltkov looked upset, his eyes were filled with tears. He asked permission to write a farewell letter to Vera, after which he would disappear from their lives forever, and again Prince Shein allows this to be done.

Those close to Princess Vera recognized Zheltkov as a noble man: brother Nikolai Nikolaevich: “I immediately recognized a noble man in you”; husband Prince Vasily Lvovich: “this man is incapable of deceiving and knowingly lying.”

Returning home, Vasily Lvovich tells Vera in detail about his meeting with Zheltkov. She was alarmed and uttered the following phrase: “I know that this man will kill himself.” Vera already foresaw the tragic outcome of this situation.

The next morning, Vera Nikolaevna reads in the newspaper that Zheltkov committed suicide. The newspaper wrote that the death occurred due to embezzlement of government money. This is what the suicide wrote in his posthumous letter.

Throughout the entire story, Kuprin tries to instill in readers “the concept of love on the brink of life,” and he does this through Zheltkov, for him love is life, therefore, no love, no life. And when Vera’s husband persistently asks to stop loving, his life ends. Is love worthy of the loss of life, the loss of everything that can be in the world? Everyone must answer this question for themselves - does he want this, what is more valuable to him - life or love? Zheltkov answered: love. Well, what about the price of life, because life is the most precious thing we have, it is what we are so afraid of losing, and on the other hand, love is the meaning of our life, without which it will not be life, but will be an empty phrase. One involuntarily recalls the words of I. S. Turgenev: “Love... is stronger than death and the fear of death.”

Zheltkov fulfilled Vera’s request to “stop this whole story” in the only way possible for him. That same evening, Vera receives a letter from Zheltkov.

This is what the letter said: “... It so happened that I am not interested in anything in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people - for me, my whole life lies only in you... My love is not an illness, not a manic idea, it is a reward from God... If you ever think of me, then play the sonata by L. van Beethoven. Son No. 2, op. 2. Largo Appassionato...” Zheltkov also deified his beloved in the letter; his prayer was addressed to her: “Hallowed be Thy name.” However, despite all this, Princess Vera was an ordinary earthly woman. So her deification is a figment of poor Zheltkov’s imagination.

It’s a pity that nothing in life interested him except her. I think you can’t live like this, you can’t just suffer and dream about your beloved, but unattainable. Life is a game, and each of us must play our role, manage to do it in such a short period of time, manage to become a positive or negative hero, but in no case remain indifferent to everything except her, the only one, the beautiful one.

Zheltkov thinks that this is his destiny - to love madly, but unrequitedly, that it is impossible to escape from fate. If it weren’t for this last thing, he would undoubtedly have tried to do something, to escape from the feeling doomed to death.

Yes, I think I should have run. Run without looking back. Set a long-term goal and plunge headlong into work. I had to force myself to forget my crazy love. It was necessary to at least try to avoid its tragic outcome.

With all his desire, he could not have power over his soul, in which the image of the princess occupied too large a place. Zheltkov idealized his beloved, he knew nothing about her, so he painted a completely unearthly image in his imagination. And this also reveals the originality of his nature. His love could not be discredited or tarnished precisely because it was too far from real life. Zheltkov never met his beloved, his feelings remained a mirage, they were not connected with reality. And in this regard, the lover Zheltkov appears before the reader as a dreamer, romantic and idealist, divorced from life.

He endowed the best qualities of a woman about whom he knew absolutely nothing. Perhaps if fate had given Zheltkov at least one meeting with the princess, he would have changed his opinion about her. At the very least, she would not seem to him an ideal creature, absolutely devoid of flaws. But, alas, the meeting turned out to be impossible.

Anosov said: “Love must be a tragedy...”, if you approach love with exactly this yardstick, then it becomes clear that Zheltkov’s love is exactly like that. He easily puts his feelings for the beautiful princess above everything else in the world. In essence, life itself does not have much value for Zheltkov. And, probably, the reason for this is the lack of demand for his love, because Mr. Zheltkov’s life is not decorated with anything except feelings for the princess. At the same time, the princess herself lives a completely different life, in which there is no place for the lover Zheltkov. And she doesn't want the flow of these letters to continue. The princess is not interested in her unknown admirer; she is happy without him. All the more surprising and even strange is Zheltkov, who consciously cultivates his passion for Vera Nikolaevna.

Can Zheltkov be called a sufferer who lived his life uselessly, giving himself up as a sacrifice to some amazing soulless love? On the one hand, he appears exactly like that. He was ready to give the life of his beloved, but no one needed such a sacrifice. The garnet bracelet itself is a detail that even more clearly emphasizes the whole tragedy of this man. He is ready to part with a family heirloom, an ornament passed down by inheritance from the women of his family. Zheltkov is ready to give his only jewel to a completely stranger, and she did not need this gift at all.

Can Zheltkov’s feeling for Vera Nikolaevna be called madness? Prince Shein answers this question in the book: “... I feel that I am present at some enormous tragedy of the soul, and I cannot clown around here... I will say that he loved you, and was not crazy at all...”. And I agree with his opinion.

The psychological climax of the story is Vera’s farewell to the deceased Zheltkov, their only “date” is a turning point in her internal state. On the face of the deceased she read “deep importance, ... as if, before parting with life, he had learned some deep and sweet secret that resolved his entire human life,” a “blessed and serene” smile, “peace.” “At that second she realized that the love that every woman dreams of had passed her by.”

You can immediately ask the question: did Vera love anyone at all? Or the word love in its interpretation is nothing more than the concept of marital duty, marital fidelity, and not feelings for another person. Vera probably loved only one person: her sister, who was everything to her. She did not love her husband, not to mention Zheltkov, whom she had never seen alive.

Was there a need for Vera to go and look at the dead Zheltkov? Perhaps it was an attempt to somehow assert herself, not to torment herself for the rest of her life with remorse, to look at the one she abandoned. Understand that there will be nothing like this in her life. What we started from is what we came to - before he was looking for meetings with her, and now she came to him. And who is to blame for what happened - himself or his love.

Love dried him up, took away all the best that was in his nature. But she gave nothing in return. Therefore, the unhappy person has nothing else left. Obviously, by the death of the hero, Kuprin wanted to express his attitude towards his love. Zheltkov is, of course, a unique, very special person. Therefore, it is very difficult for him to live among ordinary people. It turns out that there is no place for him on this earth. And this is his tragedy, and not his fault at all.

Of course, his love can be called a unique, wonderful, amazingly beautiful phenomenon. Yes, such selfless and amazingly pure love is very rare. But it’s still good that it happens this way. After all, such love goes hand in hand with tragedy, it ruins a person’s life. And the beauty of the soul remains unclaimed, no one knows about it or notices it.

When Princess Sheina came home, she fulfilled Zheltkov’s last wish. She asks her pianist friend Jenny Reiter to play something for her. Vera has no doubt that the pianist will perform exactly the place in the sonata that Zheltkov asked for. Her thoughts and music merged together, and she heard as if the verses ended with the words: “Hallowed be Thy name.”

“Hallowed be Thy name” sounds like a refrain in the last part of “Garnet Bracelet”. A person has passed away, but love has not left. It seemed to dissipate in the surrounding world and merged with Beethoven’s Sonata No. 2 Largo Appassionato. Under the passionate sounds of music, the heroine feels the painful and beautiful birth of a new world in her soul, feels a feeling of deep gratitude to the person who put love for her above all else in his life, even above life itself. She understands that he has forgiven her. The story ends on this tragic note.

However, despite the sad ending, Kuprin’s hero is happy. He believes that the love that illuminated his life is a truly wonderful feeling. And I no longer know whether this love is so naive and reckless. And maybe she really is worth giving up your life and desire for life for her. After all, she is beautiful like the moon, clear like the sky, bright like the sun, constant like nature. Such is Zheltkov’s chivalrous, romantic love for Princess Vera Nikolaevna, which consumed his entire being. Zheltkov departs this life without complaints, without reproaches, saying like a prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name.” It is impossible to read these lines without tears. And it’s unclear why tears are rolling from my eyes. Either it’s just pity for the unfortunate Zheltkov (after all, life could have been wonderful for him too), or admiration for the splendor of the little man’s enormous feelings.

I would really like this fairy tale about all-forgiving and strong love, created by I. A. Kuprin, to penetrate into our monotonous life. I would like so much that cruel reality could never defeat our sincere feelings, our love. We must multiply it, be proud of it. Love, true love, must be studied diligently, like the most painstaking science. However, love does not come if you wait for its appearance every minute, and at the same time, it does not flare up out of nothing.

The "Garnet Bracelet" was created to prove the existence of true, pure love in the modern world. For this purpose, he created a story, some perceive it as an anecdote about a telegraph operator who fell in love, while others perceive it as a touching “Love Song” - touching, pure.

The hero of the story is G.S. Zheltkov. He was an official of the Control Chamber. The writer portrays him as a young man “about thirty-five years old”, of rather pleasant appearance: tall, rather thin, with long soft hair. Constantly pale, his face is so tender, as if a girl’s, with a child’s chin and blue eyes. Zheltkov is endowed with a sense of beauty, namely music.

Our hero is in love with Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, a woman of “aristocratic” appearance. Zheltkov believes that she is extraordinary and sophisticated. At first, Zheltkov wrote letters of a vulgar and, at the same time, wise nature. But after some time, he began to reveal his feelings in a more restrained, delicate manner. Every moment he sees the princess is dear to him like nothing else.

Zheltkov - he is the chosen one. That selflessness and selflessness of his love is truly as strong as death. She does not expect a reward; one can give one’s life for it. All women dream of such “eternal, holy” love.

Vera Nikolaevna can be considered the chosen one, since true, selfless love passed through her life. Unfortunately, unlike women, in the modern world men have become completely impoverished both in spirit and in body; But Zheltkov is far from being such. And the date scene proves this. Since he feels and understands people well, he immediately stopped paying attention to threats from Nikolai Nikolaevich.

Then, when this difficult conversation took place, Zheltkov was returned his own gift - an amazing garnet bracelet, a family heirloom, the hero showed a strong will. He decides that the only way out is to die, as he does not want to cause any inconvenience to his beloved. This was a farewell to life for him. His last words of gratitude to the princess for the fact that she is his only joy, his only consolation, were a wish for happiness for his beloved.

All this proves that Zheltkov is endowed with Kuprin’s nobility. This is not the image of a “small” man, poor in spirit, who was overcome by love. Saying goodbye to life, he turns out to be loving and strong selflessly.

Thus, an official, an “inconspicuous” man with a rather funny surname Zheltkov, for the sake of his beloved’s happiness, gave his life to God. Of course, the fact that he was possessed is true, but by what? High feeling! It cannot be considered a “disease”. This love is great, the one that fills life with meaning and preserves a person from the degeneration of morals. This is the love that only a select few deserve.