Brief analysis of the work Clean Monday. Analysis of the story "Clean Monday" (And
Story " Clean Monday"included in the collection" Dark alleys”, written in France in 1937-1944. Ivan Bunin emphasized that the content of the works is tragic, dedicated to the gloomy, painful and sad "alleys of love".
Bunin considered "Clean Monday" his best story and once wrote: "I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to write "Clean Monday". To get to know the work better, let's do brief analysis"Clean Monday" story. We also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the biography of Ivan Bunin and read summary Clean Monday.
The essence of the story "Clean Monday" briefly
Clean Monday is the name of the first day of Lent, which follows immediately after Shrovetide and Forgiveness Sunday. This day is the beginning of spiritual and physical purification, preparation for the sacraments of the coming Easter days.
The main event that changed the lives of both heroes takes place on Pure Monday. The girl makes a decision, to which she has been going for a long time: she leaves for the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and chooses the path of a novice. Clean Monday for her is the border between metropolitan life, going to luxurious restaurants, entertainment, love for a man and new destiny associated with spiritual service.
According to many researchers, and the analysis of the story "Clean Monday" confirms this, the heroine of the story personifies Russia, a complex combination of Orthodox traditions, ancient rituals, and modern culture. Then Clean Monday is also a symbol of the cleansing border between the festive, rampant pre-war life in the capital and deep, ancient, Orthodox Russia, a symbol of choosing a path on the eve of future events.
Images of the hero and heroine in the analysis of the story "Clean Monday"
The story of Ivan Bunin is poignant and sad story the love of two people whose names are not even named. He and she seem to be the perfect couple. Both are young, beautiful, in love, but for some reason happiness did not take place. From the very beginning, Bunin makes us understand that for all resemblance the characters are very different, their inner world is filled with different interests and dreams.
A young man from the Penza province, "indecently handsome", rich, with a light and lively character, constantly ready "for a happy smile, for a good joke." The girl is beautiful with some Indian, Persian beauty, silent, thoughtful. Beloved more than once uses the words “mysteriousness”, “mysteriousness” in relation to her. Let's continue the analysis of the story "Clean Monday".
When analyzing the images of the characters, it is important to consider what books and writers they like. The narrator recalls that he brought his beloved books of fashion contemporary writers decadent orientation: Huysmans, Hoffmannsthal, Schnitzler, Andrey Bely. The girl looked through them, and about the "Fiery Angel" Bryusova said that such a pompous book is "ashamed to read." She herself loved ancient Russian chronicles and remembered many by heart, admired the story of Peter and Fevronia of Murom, and over her sofa hung a portrait of barefoot Tolstoy. After reading the summary of "Clean Monday", you can pay attention to some more important details.
What else does Bunin reveal to us in the image of the heroes of the story
The heroes attended Andrei Bely's lectures together, listened to Chaliapin's speeches in trendy restaurants, went to taverns and watched the rollicking singing of gypsies. But the girl attracted her lover to other places: to look for Griboedov's house on Ordynka, to visit the cemetery at the grave of Chekhov and Ertel. The hero is surprised to learn that she visits the schismatic cemetery, goes to the Kremlin cathedrals in the morning, where she listens to how “they sing, calling to each other, then one choir, then another, and all in unison, and not by notes, but by” hooks." But telling the story, the heroine feels how far her lover is from this: “No, you don’t understand this!”
An analysis of the story "Clean Monday" shows how complex the girl's nature is: she combines unusual beauty, outwardly simple life, full of entertainment, and a deep mind, interest in the spiritual foundations of the real, ancient, pre-Petrine Rus'. For Bunin, who lives in exile, this heroine personified Russia itself, the spiritual traditions of Orthodoxy were perceived as the basis of national identity.
Having illuminated the life of the hero for a moment, giving him love, the girl leaves forever for the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. At the end of the story, a young man, two years after separation, enters the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and in the twilight one of the nuns, as if sensing his presence, fixes her dark eyes into the darkness, as if she sees her lover.
After reading the analysis of the story "Clean Monday", you better understand what Ivan Bunin's intention is - what exactly the author wanted to tell the readers. Go to the section of our site - Blog, there you will find many articles on similar topics. Take time to also read the summary of the story "Clean Monday." Read
The story "Clean Monday" is surprisingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. The meeting of two people leads to the emergence of a wonderful feeling-love. But after all, love is not only joy, it is a huge torment, against which many problems and troubles seem invisible. The story described exactly how a man and a woman met. But the story begins from the point at which their relationship has already continued for a long time. Bunin pays attention to the smallest details, to how “the Moscow gray winter day grew dark”, or to where the lovers went to dine - “to Prague”, to the Hermitage, to the Metropol.
The tragedy of parting is foreshadowed at the very beginning of the story. Main character does not know where their relationship will lead. He prefers to simply not think about it: “I didn’t know how it should end, and I tried not to think, not to think it out: it was useless - just like talking to her about it: she once and for all averted conversations about our future.” Why does the heroine reject talking about the future?
Is she not interested in continuing the relationship with her loved one? Or does she already have some idea about her future? Judging by the way Bunin describes main character, she appears as a very special woman, unlike many around. She studies at the courses, not realizing, however, why she needs to study. When asked why she studies, the girl answered: “Why is everything done in the world? Do we understand anything in our actions?
The girl loves to surround herself with beautiful things, she is educated, sophisticated, smart. But at the same time, she seems somehow surprisingly detached from everything that surrounded her: “It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners outside the city.” At the same time, she knows how to enjoy life, enjoys reading, delicious food, and interesting experiences. It would seem that lovers have everything that is necessary for happiness: “We were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that in restaurants, at concerts they saw us off with their eyes.” At first it may seem that the story describes a real love idyll. But in fact, everything was quite different.
It is not by chance that the main character comes up with the idea of the strangeness of their love. The girl in every possible way denies the possibility of marriage, she explains that she is not fit to be a wife. The girl cannot find herself, she is in thought. She is attracted by a luxurious, cheerful life. But at the same time she resists it, wants to find something else for herself. Contradictory feelings arise in the soul of the girl, which are incomprehensible to many young people who are accustomed to a simple and carefree existence.
The girl visits churches, Kremlin cathedrals. She is drawn to religion, to holiness, herself, perhaps not realizing why she is attracted to it. Quite suddenly, without explaining anything to anyone, she decides to leave not only her lover, but also her usual way of life. After leaving, the heroine informs in a letter about her intention to decide on the tonsure. She doesn't want to explain anything to anyone. Parting with his beloved turned out to be a difficult test for the main character. Only after a long time he was able to see her among the string of nuns.
The story is called “Clean Monday”, because it was on the eve of this holy day that the first conversation about religiosity took place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not think, did not suspect about the other side of the girl's nature. She seemed quite satisfied with her usual life, in which there was a place for theaters, restaurants, and fun. The rejection of secular joys for the sake of a monastic cloister testifies to the deep inner torment that took place in the soul of a young woman. Perhaps this is precisely what explains the indifference with which she treated her usual life. She could not find a place for herself among everything that surrounded her. And even love could not help her in finding spiritual harmony.
Love and tragedy in this story go hand in hand, as, indeed, in many other works of Bunin. Love in itself does not seem to be happiness, but the most difficult test that must be endured with honor. Love is sent to people who cannot, do not know how to understand and appreciate it in time.
What is the tragedy of the main characters of the story “Clean Monday”? The fact that a man and a woman could not understand and appreciate each other properly. Each person is a whole world, a whole Universe. Inner world The girl, the heroine of the story, is very rich. She is in thought, in a spiritual search. She is attracted and at the same time frightened by the surrounding reality, she does not find something to which she can become attached. And love appears not as salvation, but as another problem that burdened her. That is why the heroine decides to give up love.
The rejection of worldly joys and entertainment betrays a strong nature in a girl. It is in this way that she answers her own questions about the meaning of being. In the monastery, she does not have to ask herself any questions, now the meaning of life for her is love for God and serving him. Everything vain, vulgar, petty and insignificant will never touch her again. Now she can be in her solitude without worrying that it will be violated.
The story may seem sad and even tragic. To some extent, this is true. But at the same time, the story “Clean Monday” is sublimely beautiful. It makes you think about true values, that each of us sooner or later has to face the situation of moral choice. And not everyone has the courage to admit that the choice was made wrong.
At first, the girl lives the way many of her entourage live. But gradually she realizes that she is not satisfied not only with the lifestyle itself, but also with all the little things and details that surround her. She finds the strength to look for another option and comes to the conclusion that love for God can be her salvation. Love for God simultaneously elevates her, but at the same time makes all her actions completely incomprehensible. The main character, a man in love with her, practically breaks his life. He remains alone. But it's not even that she leaves him completely unexpectedly. She treats him cruelly, causing him to suffer and suffer. True, he suffers along with him. He suffers and suffers of his own free will. This is evidenced by the letter of the heroine: "May God give strength not to answer me - it is useless to prolong and increase our torment ...".
Lovers do not separate because unfavorable circumstances develop. In fact, the reason is completely different. The reason is in the sublime and at the same time deeply unhappy girl who cannot find the meaning of existence for herself. She cannot but deserve respect - this amazing girl who was not afraid to change her fate so drastically. But at the same time, she seems to be an incomprehensible and incomprehensible person, so unlike everyone who surrounded her.
"Clean Monday" Bunin I.A.
Included in the collection "Dark Alleys" is the story of I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday" was written in 1944. It combines the tragic and lyrical beginnings. In the center of the plot of the work - love story. At the same time, for I.A. Bunin, it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but so much the feelings, emotions of the heroes of 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 on long years leaves an indelible mark on the soul of the heroes.
The plot of the story is dynamic. The actions of the characters are not fully explained, and are hardly amenable to logical interpretation. 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 avoids serious conversations on this topic.
Poetic portrait the heroine is created with the help of a number of exquisite details. This is a pomegranate velvet dress, black velvet hair and eyelashes, gold skin of the face. It is symbolic that the heroine consistently appears in clothes of three colors: in a pomegranate 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, an image appears female figure in a white robe.
Of particular importance for the creation art space the work carries the play of light and darkness (“It has long been dark, the trees turned pink in the frost-lit windows”, “Moscow's 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.
There are many in the story symbolic details: view of the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the gate as a symbol of purification, finding the righteous path. The hero moves every evening 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 Convent. On the last evening of the proximity of the heroes in the doorway, he sees her naked in swan shoes. This scene is also symbolic: the heroine has already decided her fate, she is ready to go to the monastery and from the sinful secular life turn to a righteous life.
The story consists of four parts. At the same time, artistic time seems to complete a certain circle: from December 1912 to the end of 1914.
I.A. Bunin considered this story to be the best of all that 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 state in purification, and not in the bloody cataclysms of the revolutionary era.
Of course, this is first and foremost a love story. That young, passionate love, when every moment of meeting with a beloved is sweet and painful (and the story is told on behalf 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 to look at the footprints-stars without incredible tenderness , left by her heels in the snow, when incomplete intimacy seems to be ready to drive you crazy and you are all riddled with that “enthusiastic 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 spicy-sweet moments of the rapprochement of a man and a woman that he devoted 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 that tell only about love, only about meetings, only about partings. And in this sense, "Sunstroke" can be seen 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 full right to be bold in their verbal images of love and its faces, which at all times was granted in this case to painters and sculptors: only vile souls see vile even in beautiful or terrible. Of particular note last words: beautiful and terrible. They are always there for Bunin, inseparable, they determine the very essence of life. Therefore, in “Clean Monday” the heroine will also be brought into something like an ecstatic stupor “beauty and horror” that accompanies death, departure to another world, the whole funeral ritual!
However, Bunin's statement above 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 literature. classical literature Love scenes have never been portrayed before (it is known that L.N. Tolstoy preferred to fill the whole line with dots, rather than reveal the secret of the closeness of Anna Karenina and Vronsky). For Bunin, there is no unworthy, unclean thing in love (we repeat, in love!) “Love,” as one of his contemporaries wrote, “always seemed to him perhaps the most significant mysterious thing in the world ... Every love is a great happiness ...” And the story “Clean Monday” tells of such a mysterious, great , happy-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 Great Lent; Clean Monday comes after Forgiveness Sunday and is the first day of Great Lent), not about this or not only about this .... Already at the very beginning of the story it is directly said that we will unfold in front of us “ odd love” between a dazzling handsome man, in whose appearance there is even something “Sicilian” (however, he comes only from Penza), and the “Shamakhana Queen” (as the surrounding heroine is called), whose portrait is given in great detail: there was something in the beauty of the girl then “Indian, Persian” (although her origin is very prosaic: her father is a merchant of a noble family from Tver, her grandmother is from Astrakhan). She has “a swarthy amber face, magnificent and somewhat sinister in its thick black hair, softly shining like black sable fur, eyebrows black as velvet coal (Bunin’s striking oxymoron! - M.M.), eyes”, captivating “ velvety-crimson” lips, shaded by a dark fluff. Her favorite evening dress is also described in detail: a pomegranate velvet dress, the same shoes with gold buckles. (Somewhat unexpected in the richest palette of Bunin's epithets is the persistent repetition of the epithet velvet, which, obviously, should set off the amazing softness of the heroine. But let's not forget about the "coal", which is undoubtedly associated with hardness.) friend - in the sense of beauty, youth, charm, obvious originality of appearance.
However, further Bunin cautiously but very consistently “prescribes” the differences between the “Sicilian” and the “Shamakhi 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 as 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 emotions caused by the "solar" love stroke with the everyday life that millions of people live and that will soon begin with the heroes themselves.
“Sunstroke”, according to Bunin, is one of the manifestations of cosmic living life, to which they managed to join for a moment. But it can be revealed to a person even at the moments of appeal to highest works art, and through memory, which blurs temporary barriers, and through contact and dissolution in nature, when you feel like a small particle of it.
On Clean Monday, it's different. Nothing interferes with 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 bit by bit recreates a rich picture of the intellectual and cultural life Russia 1911-1912 (For this story, in general, the attachment of events to a certain time is very significant. Usually Bunin prefers a great temporal abstraction.) Here, as they say, on one patch, all the events are concentrated that during the first decade and a half of the 20th century. excited the minds of the Russian intelligentsia. These are new productions and skits Art Theater; Andrei Bely's lectures, delivered by him in such an original manner that everyone was talking about it; the most popular stylization historical events 16th century - trials of witches and the novel by V. Bryusov “ Fire Angel”; fashion writers Viennese school"modern" A. Schnitzler and G. Hoffmansthal; works by Polish decadents K. Tetmayer and S. Przybyszewski; the stories of L. Andreev, who attracted everyone's attention, the concerts of F. Chaliapin ... Literary critics even find historical inconsistencies in the picture of the life of pre-war Moscow depicted by Bunin, pointing out that many of the events he cited could not occur at the same time. However, it seems that Bunin deliberately compresses time, achieving its ultimate density, materiality, 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 known, however, that the heroine is studying at some courses, but she cannot really answer why she attends them), they are free, young. I would like to add: and happy. But this word can only be applied to the hero, although he is aware that, fortunately, being next to her is mixed with flour. And yet for him this is an 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(“Really, how you love me!” she said with quiet bewilderment, shaking her head.) That she is desirable, that they want to see her as a wife? Ho heroine this is clearly not enough! It is she who pronounces the significant phrase about happiness, which concludes the whole life philosophy: "Our happiness, my friend, is like water in a nonsense: you pull - it puffed up, and you pull it out - there is nothing." At the same time, it turns out that it was not invented by her, but was said by Platon Karataev, whose wisdom her interlocutor, moreover, immediately declared “eastern”.
It is probably worth immediately paying attention to the fact that Bunin, clearly emphasizing the gesture, emphasized how the young man, in response to the words of Karataev cited by the heroine, “waved his hand”. Thus, the discrepancy between the views, the perception of certain phenomena by the hero and the heroine becomes obvious. It exists in a real dimension, in the present time, therefore it calmly perceives everything that happens in it as an integral part of it. Boxes of chocolates are as much a sign of attention to him as a book; in general, it doesn’t matter to him where to go - whether to dine at the Metropol, or wander around Ordynka in search of Griboedov’s house, whether to sit at dinner in a tavern, or listen to gypsies. He does not feel the surrounding vulgarity, which is wonderfully captured by Bunin in the performance of the Tranblanc Poleka, when the partner shouts out a senseless set of phrases “goat”, and in the cheeky performance of songs by an old gypsy “with a dove-gray muzzle of a drowned man” and a gypsy “with a low forehead under tar bangs ". He is not very jarred by drunken people around, obtrusively obliging sex, emphasized theatricality in the behavior of people of art. And how the height of the discrepancy with the heroine sounds his consent to her invitation, pronounced in English: “Ol right!”
All this does not mean, of course, that high feelings are inaccessible to him, that he is unable to appreciate the unusualness, uniqueness of the girl he meets. On the contrary, enthusiastic love obviously saves him from the surrounding vulgarity, and the way with which rapture and pleasure he listens to her words, how he knows how to distinguish a special intonation in them, how he is noticing even to trifles (he sees “ quiet light” in her eyes, he is pleased with her “kind talkativeness”), speaks in his favor. It is not for nothing that at the mention that the beloved can go to the monastery, he, “forgetting from excitement,” lights up and almost admits aloud that out of desperation he is able to kill someone or also become a monk. And when something really happens that only arose in the heroine's imagination, and she decides first to obedience, and then, apparently, to tonsure (in the epilogue, the hero meets her in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy), - he first descends and becomes an inveterate drunkard to such an extent that it already seems to be it is impossible to be reborn, and then, although little by little, he “recovers”, returns to life, but somehow “indifferently, hopelessly”, although he sobs, passing through those places where they once were together. He has a sensitive heart: after all, right after the night of intimacy, when nothing yet portends trouble, he feels himself and what happened so strongly and bitterly that an old woman near the Iberian chapel addresses him with the words: “Oh, don’t kill yourself, don’t kill yourself like that!”
Consequently, the height of his feelings, the ability to experience is not in doubt. This is recognized by the heroine herself, when in farewell letter asks God to give him the strength to "not answer" her, realizing that their correspondence will only "uselessly prolong and increase our torment." And yet his tension mental life does not go to any comparison 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. Reflections and observations are not alien to him, he is attentive to the mood changes of his beloved, he 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 distinguished especially clearly. Actually, the strength of the heroine's spirit and the choice she makes as a result become the semantic core of Bunin's work. It is her deep focus on something that is not immediately amenable to definition, for the time being hidden from prying eyes, and constitutes the disturbing nerve of the narrative, the ending of which defies any logical, worldly explanation. And if the hero is talkative and restless, if he can postpone the painful decision until later, assuming that everything will be resolved somehow by itself or, in extreme cases, not to think about the future at all, then the heroine always thinks about something of her own, which is only indirectly breaks through in her remarks and conversations. She loves to quote Russian chronicle legends, she is especially admired by the Old Russian “The Tale of the Faithful Spouses Peter and Fevronia of Murom” (Bunin mistakenly indicates the name of the prince - Pavel).
She can listen church hymns. He will not leave her indifferent the very voicing of words Old Russian language, and she, as if spellbound, will repeat them ...
And her conversations are no less "strange" than her actions. She either invites her lover to the Novodevichy Convent, then leads him along Ordynka in search of the house where Griboyedov lived (it would be more accurate to say, he has been, because in one of the Horde lanes there was the house of A.S. Griboedov’s uncle), then she talks about her visiting the old schismatic cemetery, he confesses his love for Chudov, Zachatievsky and other monasteries, where he constantly goes. And, of course, the most “strange”, incomprehensible from the point of view of worldly logic, is her decision to retire to a monastery, to break all ties with the world.
Ho Bunin, as a writer, does everything to "explain" this oddity. The reason for this “strangeness” is in the contradictions of the Russian national character, which are themselves a consequence of the location of Rus' at the crossroads of East and West. This is where the constantly accentuated clash of Eastern and Western principles comes from in the story. The eye of the author, the eye of the narrator stops at the cathedrals built in Moscow by Italian architects, ancient Russian architecture, who adopted oriental traditions (something Kyrgyz in the towers of the Kremlin wall), the Persian beauty of the heroine - the daughter of a Tver merchant, discovers a combination of incongruous in her favorite clothes (either an Astrakhan grandmother's arkhaluk, or a European fashionable dress), in the setting and affections - “ Moonlight Sonata” and the Turkish sofa on which she reclines. In the fight of the clock of the Moscow Kremlin, she hears the sounds of the Florentine clock. The heroine's gaze also captures the "extravagant" habits of the Moscow merchants - pancakes with caviar washed down with frozen champagne. Ho and she herself are not alien to the same tastes: she orders foreign sherry for Russian navka.
less important and internal inconsistency the heroine, which is depicted by the writer at a spiritual crossroads. Often she says one thing and does another: she is surprised at the gourmetism of other people, but she herself has lunch and dinner with an excellent appetite, then attends all the newfangled meetings, then does not leave the house at all, is annoyed by the surrounding vulgarity, but goes to dance the Tranblanc polka, causing universal admiration and applause, delays moments of intimacy with a loved one, and then suddenly agrees to her ...
Ho in the end, she still makes a decision, then the only thing the right decision, which, according to Bunin, was predetermined by Russia too - by its entire fate, its entire history. The path of repentance, humility and forgiveness.
Refusal of temptations (not without reason, agreeing to closeness with her lover, the heroine says, characterizing his beauty: “The serpent in human nature, very beautiful ...”, - i.e. refers to him the words from the legend of Peter and Fevronia - about the intrigues devil, who sent the pious princess “a flying snake 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 her “cursed days” - this was what should have provided his homeland with a worthy future. Forgiveness addressed to all those who are guilty is what, according to Bunin, would help Russia to withstand the whirlwind of historical cataclysms of the 20th century. The path of Russia is the path of fasting and renunciation. Oh, that didn't happen. Russia has chosen a different path. And the writer did not get tired of mourning her fate in exile.
Probably, strict zealots of Christian piety will not find convincing the writer's arguments in favor of the heroine's decision. In their opinion, she clearly accepted him not under the influence of the grace that descended on her, but for other reasons. It will rightly seem to them that there is too little revelation and too much poetry in her adherence to church rites. She herself says that her love for church rituals can hardly be considered true religiosity. Indeed, she perceives the funeral too aesthetically (forged gold brocade, a white veil embroidered with black letters (air) on the face of the deceased, snow blinding in the frost and glitter spruce branches inside the grave), she listens too admiringly to the music of the words of Russian legends (“I reread what I especially liked until I memorize it”), she is too immersed in the atmosphere that accompanies the service in the church (“stichera are wonderfully sung there”, “puddles everywhere, air already soft, in the soul somehow tenderly, sadly...”, “all the doors in the cathedral are open, the common 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, too, in the Novodevichy Convent will see “daws that look like nuns”, “gray corals of branches in hoarfrost”, miraculously looming “on the golden enamel of sunset”, blood-red walls and mysteriously glowing lamps. By the way, the closeness of the heroines to the writer, their special spirituality, significance and unusualness were immediately noted by critics. Gradually, the concept of “Bunin's women” takes root in literary criticism, as bright and definite as “Turgenev's girls”.
Thus, in choosing the finale of the story, it is not so much the religious attitude and position of Bunin the Christian that is important, but the position of Bunin the writer, for whose worldview a sense of history is extremely important. “The feeling of the motherland, its antiquity”, as the heroine of “Clean Monday” says about it. This is also why she refused a future that could have turned out happily, because she decided to get away from everything worldly, because the disappearance of beauty, which she feels everywhere, is unbearable for her. “Desperate Cancans” and frisky Tranblanc Poles performed by talented people Russia - Moskvin, Stanislavsky and Sulerzhitsky, they changed the singing on “hooks” (what is it!), And in place of the heroes Peresvet and Oslyaby (remember who they are) - “pale from hops, with large sweat on his forehead”, almost falling the beauty and pride of the Russian stage - Kachalov and the "daring" Chaliapin.
Therefore, the phrase: “But now this Rus' has remained in some northern monasteries” - quite naturally arises in the lips of the heroine. She has in mind the irretrievably leaving feelings of dignity, beauty, goodness, for which she yearns immensely and which she hopes to find already 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 a person, and about Russia, and about its fate. Perhaps that is why it was Bunin's favorite story, the best, according to him, of what he wrote, for the creation of which he thanked God ...
Analysis of the story by I.A. Bunin "Clean Monday"
Bunin considered the book "Dark Alleys" - a cycle of stories about love - to be his most perfect creation. The book was written during the Second World War, when the Bunin family was in an extremely difficult situation. The writer has accomplished in this book an unprecedented artistic courage try: he thirty-eight times (such is the number of stories in the book) wrote "about the same thing." However, the result of this amazing constancy is striking: every time a sensitive reader experiences the recreated picture, which would seem to be known to him, as absolutely new, and the sharpness of the “details of feeling” communicated to him is not only not dulled, but, it seems, only intensifies.
The story "Clean Monday", which is part of the "Dark Alleys" cycle, was written in 1944. I.A. Bunin considered this work one of his best stories: “I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to write Clean Monday.” In the center of the plot of the work is a love story. Love for I.A. Bunin is a short-term happy period of life, which, unfortunately, always ends quickly, but for many years leaves an indelible mark on the soul. However, it would be a mistake to assume that Bunin devoted his work only to the theme of love. It would be more correct to say that through a 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.
The plot of the story is dynamic. The actions of the characters are not fully explained, and are hardly amenable to logical interpretation. It is no coincidence that the author often uses the epithet "strange" in this work. Compositionally, the story consists of four parts. The first is the presentation of the characters, a description of their relationship and pastime. The second part is devoted to the events of Forgiveness Sunday. The third part is Clean Monday. The shortest, but semantically important fourth movement, which completes the composition. At the same time, artistic time seems to describe a circle: from December 1912 to the end of 1914.
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, who is able to experience and comprehend his actions of the past. Considering that the hero and the narrator are the same person, you can see the changes in him even with the help of the text itself. The worldview of the hero after sad story love changes drastically. 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 feelings of a woman, her religiosity, her outlook on life. In the final part of the work, we see the narrator - a man who understands the meaning of the experience. He evaluates his life retrospectively and the general tone of the story changes, which indicates the inner maturity of the narrator himself. The peculiarity of the composition of the story is that the plot does not coincide with the plot - we learn about the acquaintance with the heroine from the words of the narrator. The culmination of the work is the amorous physical intimacy of the characters on the first day of Lent (great sin).
The alignment of the characters in the story is quite interesting. In the center of the story is the heroine, the hero, as it were, with her: shown through the prism of their relationship. She is the meaning of his life: "... was incredibly happy every hour spent near her." They do not even have names, although this is not immediately noticed - the narration is so easy, interesting, exciting. The absence of a name is characteristic, perhaps, rather for the heroine, because her spiritual appearance is too complex, elusive, she is mysterious, enigmatic. We hear the whole story as if from the first mouth, the hero himself tells it. The girl is smart. He often speaks philosophically wisely: "Our happiness, my friend, is like water in a delusion: you pull - it puffed up, but you pull it out - there is nothing." The poetic portrait of the heroine is created with the help of a number of exquisite details. This is a pomegranate velvet dress, black velvet hair and eyelashes, gold skin of the face. It is symbolic that the heroine consistently appears in clothes of three colors: in a pomegranate 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 of a female figure in a white robe appears.
Opposite essences coexist in the heroine, there are many contradictions in her image. On the one hand, she is attracted by a luxurious, cheerful life, but at the same time she is disgusted with her: “I don’t understand how people don’t get tired of it all their lives, having lunch and dinner every day.” True, she herself “dined and dined with a Moscow understanding of the matter. Her only obvious weakness was good clothes, velvet, silks, expensive fur…”. However, this does not interfere with the inner craving for something different, significant, beautiful, religious. The girl categorically denies the possibility of marriage, believes that she is not fit to be a wife. The heroine is looking for herself, often in thought. She is beautiful and prosperous, but the narrator was convinced every day: “it looked like she didn’t need anything: no books, no dinners, no theaters, no dinners outside the city ...” In this world, she is constantly and for some time meaningless looking for himself. Wanting to find something different for herself, she visits churches, cathedrals. The primordial Russian soul is hidden behind the visible European gloss. The text traces the heroine's throwing between purification and the fall into sin. We can see this in the description of the lips and cheeks: "Black fluff above the lip and pink amber of the cheeks." The girl manages to escape from the familiar environment, albeit not thanks to love, which turns out to be not so sublime and omnipotent. Faith and departure from worldly life helps 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, realizing the futility of the one she leads in a secular society. In a monastery, the main thing for a person becomes love for God, serving him and people, while everything vulgar, base, unworthy and ordinary will no longer bother her.
The story of I.A. Bunin is distinguished by a complex spatio-temporal organization. The action takes place in 1911-1914. This is confirmed by the mention of specific dates and textual references to real historical figures who were known and recognizable at that time. For example, the characters first meet at a lecture by Andrei Bely, and at a theatrical skit, the artist Sulerzhitsky appears before the reader, with whom the heroine is dancing. The entire text is filled with additional time references and references: “the graves of Ertel, Chekhov”, “the house where Griboedov lived”, mentions pre-Petrine Rus', 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 overall 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 urge to see in the heroine the image of Russia itself, and 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 name of the work “Clean Monday”, which, as the first day of Lent, should become Starting point on the road to a better place.
Of particular importance for the creation of artistic space in the work is the play of light and darkness. At the very beginning of the work, the author uses eight times in the description of the Moscow winter evening words meaning dark shades. (“It had long been dark, the frost-lit windows behind the trees turned pink”, “Moscow’s gray winter day was getting dark, the gas in the lanterns was coldly lit, the shop windows were warmly lit”). The description of the heroine also contains dark tones. Only after the girl left for the monastery, the author prefers light colors. In the last paragraph, the word "white" is used four times, pointing to the idea of the story, that is, to the rebirth of the soul, the transition of sin, the blackness of life to spiritual moral purity. I.A. Bunin conveys the idea, the idea of the story with color shades. Using dark and light shades, their alternation and combination. The writer depicts the rebirth of the soul of the main character.
There are many symbolic details in the story: a view of the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the gate as a symbol of purification, finding the righteous path. The hero moves every evening 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 Convent. On the last evening of the proximity of the heroes in the doorway, he sees her naked in swan shoes. 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. Has its own hidden meaning and Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", the beginning of which the heroine constantly learns. She symbolizes the beginning of a different path for the heroine, a different path for Russia; something that is not yet realized, but what the soul aspires to, and the sound of the “sublimely prayerful, imbued with deep lyricism” work fills Bunin’s text with a premonition of this.
By genre features most researchers attribute "Clean Monday" to the short story, because there is a turning point in the center of the plot, which makes one interpret the work in a different way. We are talking about the departure of the heroine to the monastery.
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 will not be possible to unambiguously interpret this story, since it is simultaneously dedicated to love, and morality, and philosophy, and history. However, the main direction of the writer's thought is reduced to questions of the fate of Russia itself. According to the author, the country should be cleansed of its sins and reborn spiritually, as the heroine of the work "Clean Monday" did. She refused a wonderful future, from money and position in society. She decided to get away from everything worldly, because it became unbearable to stay in the world, where true beauty disappeared, and only the “desperate cancans” of Moskvin and Stanislavsky and “pale from hops, with large sweat on his forehead”, Kachalov barely kept on his feet.
The narration in the story, with all the seeming focus on objectivity, materiality, objective perception, is still not heroocentric. The author in “Clean Monday”, as a bearer of culture, through the cultural and verbal being of the hero-narrator, orients the reader to his own worldview.
The main idea of the story is simple: someday Clean Monday will come for every person living in Russia, and for the whole country as a whole. The narrator, having survived parting with his beloved, having spent 2 years in constant reflection, was able not only to understand the girl's act, but also to embark on the path of purification. According to the author, only through faith and striving for moral principles can one get rid of the shackles of a vulgar secular life, change morally and spiritually for a new and better life.
