Features of the composition of the story Clean Monday. Analysis of the story “Clean Monday”

The story of the great Russian writer Ivan Alekseevich Bunin “Clean Monday” is included in his outstanding book of love stories “ Dark alleys" Like all the works in this collection, this is a story about love, unhappy and tragic. We offer a literary analysis of Bunin's work. The material can be used to prepare for the Unified State Exam in literature in 11th grade.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1944

History of creation– Researchers of Bunin’s work believe that the reason for writing “Clean Monday” for the author was his first love.

Topic – In “Clean Monday” the main idea of ​​the story is clearly visible– this is the theme of the lack of meaning in life, loneliness in society.

Composition– The composition is divided into three parts, in the first of which the characters are introduced, the second part is devoted to events Orthodox holidays, and the shortest third is the denouement of the plot.

Genre– “Clean Monday” belongs to the short story genre.

Direction– Neorealism.

History of creation

The writer emigrated to France, this distracted him from the unpleasant moments in life, and he is working fruitfully on his collection “Dark Alleys.” According to researchers, in the story Bunin describes his first love, where the prototype of the main character is the author himself, and the prototype of the heroine is V. Pashchenko.

Ivan Alekseevich himself considered the story “Clean Monday” one of his best creations, and in his diary he praised God for helping him create this magnificent work.

This is Short story creation of the story, year of writing - 1944, the first publication of the short story was in the New Journal in New York City.

Subject

In the story “Clean Monday”, analysis of the work reveals a large issues love theme and ideas for the novella. The work is dedicated to the topic true love, real and all-consuming, but in which there is a problem of misunderstanding by the heroes of each other.

Two young people fell in love with each other: this is wonderful, since love pushes a person to noble deeds, thanks to this feeling, a person finds the meaning of life. In Bunin's novella, love is tragic, the main characters do not understand each other, and this is their drama. The heroine found a divine revelation for herself, she purified herself spiritually, finding her calling in serving God, and went to a monastery. In her understanding, love for the divine turned out to be stronger than physiological love for her chosen one. She realized in time that by joining her life in marriage with the hero, she would not receive complete happiness. Her spiritual development costs much more than physiological needs, the heroine has higher moral goals. Having made her choice, she left the bustle of the world, surrendering to the service of God.

The hero loves his chosen one, loves sincerely, but he is unable to understand the tossing of her soul. He cannot find an explanation for her reckless and eccentric actions. In Bunin’s story, the heroine looks like a more alive person; at least somehow, through trial and error, she is looking for her meaning in life. She rushes about, rushes from one extreme to another, but in the end she finds her way.

The main character, throughout all these relationships, simply remains an outside observer. He, in fact, has no aspirations; everything is convenient and comfortable for him when the heroine is nearby. He cannot understand her thoughts; most likely, he does not even try to understand. He simply accepts everything that his chosen one does, and that’s enough for him. From this it follows that every person has the right to choose, whatever it may be. The main thing for a person is to decide what you are, who you are, and where you are going, and you shouldn’t look around, fearing that someone will judge your decision. Self-confidence and self-confidence will help you find the right decision, and make the right choice.

Composition

The work of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin includes not only prose, but also poetry. Bunin himself considered himself a poet, which is especially felt in his prose story"Clean Monday" His expressive artistic media, unusual epithets and comparisons, various metaphors, his special poetic style of narration, give this work lightness and sensuality.

The title of the story itself gives great meaning to the work. The concept of “pure” speaks of the purification of the soul, and Monday is a new beginning. It is symbolic that the culmination of events occurs on this day.

Compositional structure The story consists of three parts. The first part introduces the characters and their relationships. Masterful use expressive means gives a deep emotional coloring to the image of the characters and their pastime.

The second part of the composition is more dialogue-based. In this part of the story, the author leads the reader to the very idea of ​​the story. The writer speaks here about the choice of the heroine, about her dreams of the divine. The heroine expresses her secret desire to leave the luxurious social life and retire to the shadow of the monastery walls.

The climax appears the night after Clean Monday, when the heroine is determined to become a novice, and the inevitable separation of the heroes occurs.

The third part comes to the denouement of the plot. The heroine has found her purpose in life; she serves in a monastery. The hero, after separation from his beloved, led a dissolute life for two years, mired in drunkenness and debauchery. Over time, he comes to his senses and leads a quiet, quiet life, in complete indifference and indifference to everything. One day fate gives him a chance; he sees his beloved among the novices of God's temple. Having met her gaze, he turns around and leaves. Who knows, maybe he realized the meaninglessness of his existence and set off for a new life.

Main characters

Genre

Bunin's work was written in short story genre, which is characterized sharp turn events. IN this story this is what happens: main character changes his worldview and abruptly breaks with his past life, changing it in the most radical way.

The novella was written in the direction of realism, but only the great Russian poet and prose writer Ivan Alekseevich Bunin could write about love in such words.

“Clean Monday” I.A. Bunin considered his best work. Largely due to its semantic depth and ambiguity of interpretation. The story occupies an important place in the “Dark Alleys” cycle. The time of its writing is considered to be May 1944. During this period of his life, Bunin was in France, far from his homeland, where the Great Patriotic War.

In this light, it is unlikely that the 73-year-old writer devoted his work only to the theme of love. It would be more correct to say that through the description of the relationship between two people, their views and worldviews, the truth is revealed to the reader modern life, its tragic background and the urgency of many moral problems.

At the center of the story is the story of the relationship between a quite wealthy man and a woman, between whom feelings for each other develop. They have an interesting and pleasant time visiting restaurants, theaters, taverns, and many others. etc. The narrator and the main character in one person are drawn to her, but the possibility of marriage is immediately ruled out - the girl clearly believes that she is not suitable for family life.

One day on the eve of Clean Monday on Forgiveness Sunday, she asks to pick her up a little earlier. After which they go to the Novodevichy Convent, visit the local cemetery, walk among the graves and remember the funeral of the archbishop. The heroine understands how much the narrator loves her, and the man himself notices the great religiosity of his companion. The woman talks about life in a monastery and herself threatens to go to the most remote of them. True, the narrator does not attach much importance to her words.

The next day in the evening, at the girl’s request, they go to a theatrical skit. A rather strange choice of place - especially considering that the heroine does not like and does not recognize such gatherings. There she drinks champagne, dances and has fun. After which the narrator brings her home at night. The heroine asks the man to come up to her. They are finally getting closer.

The next morning the girl reports that she is leaving for Tver for a while. After 2 weeks, a letter arrives from her in which she says goodbye to the narrator and asks not to look for her, since “I won’t return to Moscow, I’ll go to obedience for now, then maybe I’ll decide to take monastic vows.”

The man fulfills her request. However, he does not disdain spending time in dirty taverns and taverns, indulging in an indifferent existence - “he got drunk, sinking in every possible way, more and more.” Then he comes to his senses for a long time, and two years later he decides to go on a trip to all the places that he and his beloved visited on that Forgiveness Sunday. At some point, the hero is overcome by a kind of hopeless resignation. Arriving at the Marfo-Maryinsky monastery, he finds out that there is a service going on there and even goes inside. Here, in last time the hero sees his beloved, who is participating in the service along with other nuns. At the same time, the girl does not see the man, but her gaze is directed into the darkness, where the narrator stands. After which he quietly leaves the church.

Story composition
The composition of the story is based on three parts. The first serves to introduce the characters, describe their relationships and pastimes. The second part is dedicated to the events Forgiveness Sunday and Clean Monday. The shortest, but semantically important third part completes the composition.

Reading the works and moving from one part to another, one can see the spiritual maturation of not only the heroine, but also the narrator himself. At the end of the story, we are no longer a frivolous person, but a man who has experienced the bitterness of parting with his beloved, capable of experiencing and comprehending his actions of the past.

Considering that the hero and the narrator are one person, you can see changes in him even with the help of the text itself. The hero's worldview after sad story love changes dramatically. Talking about himself in 1912, the narrator resorts to irony, showing his limitations in the perception of his beloved. Only physical intimacy is important, and the hero himself does not try to understand the woman’s feelings, her religiosity, outlook on life, and much more. etc.

In the final part of the work we see a narrator and a man who understands the meaning of the experience. He evaluates his life retrospectively and the overall tone of writing the story changes, which speaks of the inner maturity of the narrator himself. When reading the third part, one gets the impression that it was written by a completely different person.

By genre features Most researchers classify “Clean Monday” as a short story, because at the center of the plot there is a turning point that forces a different interpretation of the work. We are talking about the heroine leaving for a monastery.

Novella I.A. Bunin is distinguished by a complex spatio-temporal organization. The action takes place at the end of 1911 - beginning of 1912. This is confirmed by the mention of specific dates and textual references to real historical figures that were known and recognizable at the time. For example, the heroes first meet at a lecture by Andrei Bely, and at a theatrical skit the artist Sulerzhitsky appears before the reader, with whom the heroine dances.

The time range of a small work is quite wide. There are three specific dates: 1912 is the time of the plot events, 1914 is the date last meeting heroes, as well as a certain “today” of the narrator. The entire text is filled with additional time references and references: “the graves of Ertel, Chekhov”, “the house where Griboyedov lived”, pre-Petrine Rus' is mentioned, Chaliapin’s concert, the schismatic Rogozhskoe cemetery, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky and much more. It turns out that the events of the story fit into the general historical context, turn out to be not just a specific description of the relationship between a man and a woman, but personify an entire era.

It is no coincidence that a number of researchers call to see in the heroine the image of Russia itself, and to interpret her act as the author’s call not to follow a revolutionary path, but to seek repentance and do everything to change the life of the whole country. Hence the title of the short story “Clean Monday”, which, as the first day of Lent, should become the starting point on the path to better things.

Main characters in the story “Clean Monday” there are only two. This is the heroine and the narrator himself. The reader never learns their names.

At the center of the work is the image of the heroine, and the hero is shown through the prism of their relationship. The girl is smart. He often says philosophically wisely: “Our happiness, my friend, is like water in delirium: if you pull it, it’s inflated, but if you pull it out, there’s nothing.”

Opposite essences coexist in the heroine; there are many contradictions in her image. On the one hand, she likes luxury, social life, visiting theaters and restaurants. However, this does not interfere with the internal craving for something different, significant, beautiful, religious. She's addicted literary heritage, and not only domestic, but also European. Often quoted famous works world classics, hagiographic literature tells about ancient rites and funeral.

The girl categorically denies the possibility of marriage and believes that she is not fit to be a wife. The heroine is looking for herself, often in thought. She is smart, beautiful and wealthy, but the narrator was convinced every day: “it looked like she didn’t need anything: no books, no lunches, no theaters, no dinners outside the city...” In this world she is constantly and to some extent pores pointlessly searching for oneself. She is attracted by the luxurious, cheerful life, but at the same time she is disgusted by it: “I don’t understand how people won’t get tired of this all their lives, having lunch and dinner every day.” True, she herself “had lunch and dinner with a Moscow understanding of the matter. Her only obvious weakness was good clothes, velvet, silk, expensive fur...” It is precisely this contradictory image of the heroine that I.A. creates. Bunin in his work.

Wanting to find something different for herself, she visits churches and cathedrals. The girl manages to break out of her usual environment, albeit not thanks to love, which turns out to be not so sublime and omnipotent. Faith and withdrawal from worldly life help her find herself. Such an act confirms the strong and strong-willed character of the heroine. This is how she responds to her own thoughts about the meaning of life, understanding the futility of the one she leads into secular society. In the monastery, the main thing for a person becomes love for God, service to him and people, while everything vulgar, base, unworthy and ordinary will no longer bother her.

The main idea of ​​the story by I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"

In this work, Bunin brings to the fore the history of the relationship between two people, but the main meanings are hidden much deeper. It is impossible to interpret this story unambiguously, since it is simultaneously dedicated to love, morality, philosophy, and history. However, the main direction of the writer’s thought comes down to questions of the fate of Russia itself. According to the author, the country must be cleansed of its sins and reborn spiritually, as the heroine of the work “Clean Monday” did.

“Clean Monday” is a short work by I.A. Bunin was written in 1944 and included in the collection “Dark Alleys”. The theme in the story, as in all short stories, is dedicated to love. Love and tragedy go hand in hand, from the beginning to the end of this work. The idea of ​​“Clean Monday” is for the reader to think not only about the problem of love between a man and a woman, about their false relationships that do not bring happiness and moral satisfaction, but also about true values, and also think about the questions: “What is the meaning of life?”, “Where to find peace?”

The main characters are a man and a woman.

They are in love with each other, and at the beginning of the story we understand that their relationship has been going on for quite some time. Bunin describes the main character as “unlike” all the other girls. She is taking various courses, but does not know why she needs it. To this the heroine herself answers: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions? The main character loves her, but is faced with the understanding that their love is very strange. Both characters are on a spiritual quest, although at first glance they have everything: wealth, youth. They live like many of those around them. However, gradually the main character understands that all this depresses her.

She finds the strength to come to the conclusion that love for God can be her salvation and peace of mind.

It is also interesting that the events of the story take the reader either to ancient Russian - Orthodox Moscow, or to twentieth-century Moscow - secular. Bunin draws out every detail of one Moscow, then another, using contrast: “Every evening my coachman rushed me at this hour on a stretched trotter - from the Red Gate to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior: she lived opposite him, every evening I took her to “Prague” , to the Hermitage, to the Metropol, in the afternoon to the theaters, to concerts, and then to the Yar, to Strelna. In the house opposite the Church of the Savior, she rented a corner apartment on the fifth floor for the view of Moscow...” Thus, the plot takes the reader further and further into the world of symbolism.

The story is called “Clean Monday” because it was on the eve of this day that a conversation about religion took place between the lovers. Before main character I didn’t think that his beloved was a believer. It seemed to him that she was happy with her social life. However, the heroine decides to become a nun, which indicates her deep mental torment. The girl seems aloof, unlike everyone else socialites, which makes it unique.

Bunin himself was not a deeply religious person; most likely, he considered religion to be one of the forms of culture. If we interpret it this way, then the author with this work wanted to show the appearance of a dying culture by introducing characters who are far from spiritual. The author describes: sitting on the second floor of the tavern, the heroine of the story exclaims: “Good! There are wild men below, and here are pancakes with champagne and the Mother of God of Three Hands. Three hands! After all, this is India! Everything in her words is mixed and intertwined, even the room itself is not intended for such conversations. It is worth noting that the word “pure” has the meaning not only of “holy”, but also of “empty”. Perhaps the heroine, having obeyed, filled her spiritual emptiness and finally found happiness.

Updated: 2017-07-08

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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 both in moments of turning to the highest works of art, and through memory, which blurs temporary barriers, and during 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, although little by little, he “recovers”, returns to life, but somehow “indifferently, hopelessly,” although he sobs, walking through the places where the two of them once visited: 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 by the gourmandness of other people, but she herself has lunch and dinner with an excellent appetite, then she attends all the newfangled meetings, then she does not leave the house at all, she is irritated by the surrounding vulgarity, but goes to dance the Tranblanc polka, 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 correct 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 the frost,” marvelously emerging “on the golden enamel of the 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 irrevocably 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...

“Clean Monday” by I.A. Bunin

The story included in the collection “Dark Alleys” by I.A. Bunin's "Clean Monday" was written in 1944. It combines tragic and lyrical principles. At the center of the plot of the work - love story. At the same time, for I.A. For Bunin, it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but rather the feelings and emotions of the characters in the story. This is the main feature of most of his works. They are distinguished by the presence of a lyrical plot, organized according to the associative principle.

Love for I.A. Bunin is a short-term happy period of life, which, unfortunately, always ends quickly, but long years leaves an indelible mark on the heroes’ souls.

The plot of the story is dynamic. The actions of the heroes are not fully explained, and are unlikely to be interpreted logically. It is no coincidence that the author often uses the epithet “strange” in this work.

The hero of the story is a nobleman. The heroine belongs to the merchant class. The hero dreams of marriage, but his chosen one deliberately leaves serious conversations about this theme.

A poetic portrait of the heroine is created using a number of exquisite details. This is the garnet velvet of the dress, the black velvet of the hair and eyelashes, the gold of the skin of the face. It is symbolic that the heroine consistently appears in clothes of three colors: in a garnet velvet dress and the same shoes, in a black fur coat, hat and boots on Forgiveness Sunday and in a black velvet dress on the night from Monday to Tuesday. Finally, in the final scene of the story, the image appears female figure in a white robe.

Of particular importance for the creation of artistic space in the work is the play of light and darkness (“It had long since gotten dark, the frost-lit windows behind the trees were turning pink,” “The Moscow gray winter day was getting dark, the gas in the lanterns was coldly lit, the shop windows were warmly illuminated”). Such light contrasts enhance the atmosphere of mystery and mystery.

The story has many symbolic details: a view of the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the gate as a symbol of purification, finding the righteous path. Every evening the hero moves from the Red Gate to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and back. At the end of the story, he finds himself at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery. IN last night In the proximity of the heroes in the doorway, he sees her naked in swan slippers. This scene is also symbolic: the heroine has already decided her fate, she is ready to go to a monastery and turn from a sinful secular life to a righteous life.

The story consists of four parts. Wherein artistic time as if completing a certain circle: from December 1912 to the end of 1914.

I.A. Bunin considered this story the best he had ever written. The fate of the heroine in it to some extent symbolizes the fate of Russia: the writer saw the path of his native power in purification, and not in the bloody cataclysms of the revolutionary era.