Oh, how deadly we love
As in the violent blindness of passions
We are the most likely to destroy
What is dear to our heart!
F. Tyutchev
Love ... How many different shades in this word ... Each person understands the meaning of the word love in his own way. But everyone inevitably has the same questions: “How and why does love come?”, “What does it represent - joy or sadness, rebirth or death?”. It is these eternal questions that Ivan Alekseevich Bunin seeks to answer. In one of the letters, the writer mentioned that this motif in his works is far from accidental: “Really, you still don’t know that love and death are inextricably linked? Every time I experienced a love catastrophe, and there were quite a few of these love catastrophes in my life, or rather, almost every one of my loves was a disaster - I was close to suicide. Indeed, Ivan Alekseevich describes love as an abyss, mysterious and immense. Characteristic in this regard is his story - the miniature "Chapel", which, despite its small volume, amazes with its compositional harmony and abundance of bright visual and expressive means. Epithets (“hot summer day”, “thick and cold iron boxes”, “beautiful white clouds”, “warm wind”, “sweet smell”, “blooming rye”) give a special imagery and allow better penetration into the deep thoughts of the author. Rows of homogeneous members of the sentence (“the sun, flowers, grasses, flies, bumblebees, butterflies”, “in the field, behind the garden”) and oppositions (“everywhere it is light and hot, but there it is dark and cold”) create a special rhythmic pattern of the text, give it expresses and conveys the emotional, indifferent attitude of the author to the problem of love and death. From this story follows the idea that love, even in small children, is associated with death. Love, which should give life, lead to exploits, inspire the best human feelings, be a creative force. How so? Following Bunin's logic, we see something completely different.
The theme of love and death runs like a red thread through all the work of I.A. Bunin. In the story "The Chapel" he reveals it a little from the other side, showing the cause of death due to love through the eyes of children:
Why did he shoot himself?
- He was very in love, and when he is very in love, they always shoot themselves ...
The image of the chapel is symbolic. The author, as it were, opposes the world in it and outside it ("Everywhere it is light and hot, but there it is dark and cold"). Children cannot understand why they shoot at themselves if there are so many interesting things around (“All this is very interesting and amazing: we have the sun here, flowers ... we can play, run ... and they always lie there in the dark, as at night, in thick boxes..."). Probably, a misunderstanding of death because of love exists not only in children, but adults often think that they still had to try to find the strength to return to life, because life is the most precious thing a person has. The author presents us with death at the end of life as something reasonable, the so-called logical outcome, while death, as a choice of a young person full of vitality, is an absurd, stupid accident (“grandparents are all old, and uncle is still young”) .
After analyzing the story "The Chapel", we can conclude that, although in the work of I.A. Bunin the theme of love is always inextricably linked with the theme of death, the writer himself does not quite agree with such a constant "commonwealth". In this story, there is a note of uncertainty that love, even if unhappy, unrequited, must necessarily end in death.
Interesting in his description of love and the story "Natalie". The image of Natalie, the main character of the work, is striking in its naturalness and purity. Vitaly, even before meeting Natalie, set himself the goal of "looking for love without romance." He found her in the face of Sonya's cousin. But the question is, is it love? In the stories of I.A. Bunin, there is always a physiological side of love. It is no coincidence that the author leaves a lot of space in his works to describe this so-called physiological side of love. On the contrast of physical love and real love, all-consuming and knowing no barriers, I.A. Bunin reveals the true goal of his works: to show that love is still a high feeling that cannot be accurately described and explained. The plot line of his stories develops mainly in two directions: love as a purely physiological manifestation, a kind of chemistry, and love, which combines mutual attraction both in the sexual and in the spiritual sense.
In the story "Natalie", Vitaly, the main character, experienced that feeling of love that will never disappear, will remain with a person forever. He called his love "doom". But why? Probably because death is not necessarily death. I think that love is always, in a sense, doom. After all, when you love, you have to give in, submit, surrender to the power of your loved one, and this is the “death” of your own principles. No matter how terrible it may sound, but, probably, this is inevitable and few people try to resist. Ivan Alekseevich wrote that in his work, as in life, love and death are inextricably linked. For the writer, it is obvious that human life is impossible without love: without it, it is dead and empty. But love does not always bring happiness and bliss; often it brings torment, suffering, grief and even death. Therefore, Bunin often combines in his works the joy of love and the bitterness of loneliness. The writer tells about such tragic experiences in the story "Mitya's Love". Bunin draws the emotional drama of his hero, a man disappointed in love, conveys an almost unbearable intensity of passions raging inside a person. The suffering of the protagonist seems so terrible and destructive that it seems that death is indeed the only way out. Love had long lived in Mitya's dreams, it gradually filled him with a strange and agonizing expectation. He unconsciously followed the call of his heart, went to his love - to his death. Love for Katya became both bliss and torment that tore his heart. He acutely felt the monstrous difference between the sweet, so familiar image of Katya he had created and the vulgar reality. This tragedy is the tragedy of a young man for whom love has become an unbearable ordeal. The author has incredibly accurately selected visual and expressive means that convey the inner experiences of the characters and immerse us in their world. Let us pay attention to the fact that all the tragic events take place on wonderful spring days, when the nature around is so beautiful, full of life and love. Against this background, Mitya's suffering looks especially monstrous. Epithets (“last happy day”, “benevolent thoughtfulness”, “Byzantine eyes”, “mannered reading”, “irreparable horror”, “devilishly banged”, “strange freedom”), personifications (“clouds parted with thin white smoke”, “ the sky ... shone over the garden"), metaphors ("heavy intoxication of kisses", "love in a whirlwind of continuous happiness", "eyes shining with surprise"), metonymy ("milky snow curled up", "wedding whiteness of apples"), oxymoron ("languid passion”, “angelic purity and depravity”, “happy and painful”), hyperbole (“superhuman happiness”, “terribly dear”) help us to clearly feel the feelings of the characters, immerse ourselves in their experiences; the author prompts us to think about the meaning of life, love and death, makes us think, is there really such a love that can once and for all, with its strength and passion, turn life around, turn everything in a person’s soul? ! Following the writer, I want to understand if this is so, and if so, how does this happen ... why?
"When we love, we die..." These words of K. Balmont perfectly reveal I. Bunin's attitude to love, define his concept - death and love are always one. Already in the early work of Bunin, motives of longing, loneliness, and restlessness sound. Increasingly, he paints pictures of a crumbling Russian village. And after the First World War and the events of the Great October Revolution, the writer speaks more and more about the tragedy of human life in general. Hence the special depiction of love in Bunin's stories, predetermined by the writer's inner confusion. Uncertainty, obscurity of the observed processes predetermined interest in psychology, religion, where one way or another the contradictions of the human soul, their relationship between the present and the eternal, were comprehended.
For Bunin's heroes, love is an instant, a blow. Perhaps this love can be compared to a flash of inexplicable happiness that suddenly illuminates people's lives, but, unfortunately, also suddenly disappears. Heroes go from a simple attraction to a higher feeling, from affection and sympathy to that pure, bright and eternal thing that is called love. What is the worst thing for a man in love? Stay alone with your feelings, memories, experiences, doubts. They become a pain for him. This is precisely the tragedy of Bunin's heroes - mental confusion pursues them, killing the last forces for rebirth. But death from love is a step towards immortality. Ridiculous on the one hand, the death of Bunin's heroes suddenly became something inevitable, even necessary. Mitya, Natalie, Olya - they are all people to whom life has given a chance to experience the great feeling of love, in all its contradictions. They rejoiced, enjoyed, suffered, suffered. But still they loved ... and, despite the fact that they left our world, their love did not die, it lives and will live, it became immortal, like the heroes of the works of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.
In the work of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, the theme of life and death is often found, in some works being almost the main theme. Being a master of prose and poetry, he always subtly but fully discussed this, proving in his works that both of these concepts are tightly connected and inseparable, that one naturally follows the other.
Sometimes death in his works became a punishment, as, for example, in the stories "The Gentleman from San Francisco" or, on the contrary, as an encouragement, which was described in the story "Brothers".
And most often his stories carried the idea that life is only complete and whole when there is love in it, which is carefully spelled out in the Dark Alleys cycle.
In more detail, it is easiest to look at some of Bunin's stories in order to understand the full depth of the themes of life and death. For example, in the work "Brothers", where the main theme is the author's view of human brotherhood. Revealing this topic, Bunin demonstrates images of extremely different people - a rickshaw boy and an English bourgeois. They are not brothers, but following an abstract idea, the author presents them as such.
The life of a young man is full of torment. He cannot become free by working hard to earn a little for his family. He suffers from the fact that he lives in slavery, but with all his heart he reaches home. His beloved is not waiting for him there, because she cannot become free once she is in a brothel. The young man loves her and hopes for salvation in order to be with her. But very soon his hope dies. And so he decides to commit suicide.
Whereas the Englishman is a greedy, sinful nature. Unable to sympathize with someone else's grief, he calmly talks about how he killed people during the war, reveling in it without any remorse.
The author makes it clear that people born as brothers kill each other, indifferently and cold-bloodedly, losing their humanity. As a result, for a young man who lives without happiness, death becomes salvation and reward, and for an Englishman who enjoys his cheerful and well-fed life, death becomes a punishment.
The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" has a simple plot, but far from a simple moral. An American, whose name for some reason no one remembers, having become even richer than he was, decides to go on a trip with his family, but dies on the way.
His body is placed in a soda box, as there is no coffin on the ship. If this happened in the hometown of the hero of the story, everything needed would be bought, but this is not feasible on the ship, as if his family were poor. All the wealth that this person accumulated became meaningless in an instant, he becomes just a dead person left in the hold, distant from life, from material wealth and correcting mistakes. Death acts here as an equalizer, whether a person is rich or poor, the outcome is the same for everyone.
Also, the sad end of the Dark Alleys cycle, following the plot, looks quite logical. Bunin believed that true love kills the one who loves. And with a tragic denouement, the heroes remain saved from everyday life, without becoming a family.
In a general sense, the refrain of Bunin's stories is the chanting of love and kindness, which in Bunin's view is life, and their absence is the same as death. And it's hard to argue with that.
Life and death are the eternal themes of art, writers have returned and will return to them, especially in times of crisis, transitional eras, such as the turn of the 19th-20th centuries in Russia. In the prose work of I. A. Bunin, these themes sound especially tense.
All true art claims that life is beautiful. The prose of I. A. Bunin is no exception in this respect. Life is beautiful in all its manifestations, in every little thing you can feel the beating of its pulse. That is why Bunin's favorite word is "freshness". For example, in the story "Antonov apples" we read: "fresh morning", "fresh winter", "fresh forest". Freshness means above all physical health. A fruitful, healthy life is the highest earthly good. And the "holiday of autumn" in "Antonov apples" is a celebration of a lifetime.
However, in the prose of I. A. Bunin, life and death are not opposite to each other. Organism, naturalness of life is the key to a dignified death. For example, the story "Pines" tells about the death of a peasant hunter Mitrofan. Everything in him gives rise to a feeling of inner harmony and moral health: both the brown face with turquoise eyes, and the way he enters the room, filling it with the freshness of the forest air. Before his death, to the offer to go to the hospital, he replies: "You can't hold on to the grass." His non-vanity, inner majesty is akin to eternal nature. He left it and went into it, and the grave mound that covered his ashes is seen by the writer as "thinking and feeling."
And in the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco", the attitude towards death becomes a criterion for the viability of life.
The death of a millionaire in the plot of the story is the only important event, it is described in great detail, and the main feeling that this description evokes is disgrace. The hero dies like an animal because he has no inner readiness for the end. In relation to death, other characters are also revealed. Death is perceived by them as an unfortunate incident. According to I. A. Bunin, a person only feels the power and richness of life when he feels the inevitability of death.
In the prose of I. A. Bunin, love becomes the point of intersection of life and death. The writer finds a mysterious connection between them. The more pessimistic he looks at life, the more often love in his image brings a person to the last, fatal line - to death. Love and death are united in the very human destiny, where, according to the writer, the inevitable retribution for happiness takes place. For example, the story “Natalie” ends with the unexpected death of the heroine, but her words remain in the memory for a long time: “Is there an unhappy love? .. Doesn’t the most mournful music in the world give happiness?” Life and love conquer death.
A. Tvardovsky called I. A. Bunin "in time the last of the classics of Russian literature." This definition means not only the power of the word and the harmony of the form inherent in the writer. He corresponded to his great predecessors with a deep philosophical understanding of the theme of life and death, their inseparable connection and incomprehensible mystery.
The theme of life and death was one of the dominant ones in the work of I. Bunin. The writer covered this topic in different ways, but each time he led to the conclusion that death is an integral part of life. Most often, death acts either as a punishment or as a deliverance. Life is only then filled and spiritualized when there is love in it. Consider some of the listed works of the writer. In 1914, Bunin wrote the story “Brothers”, the general meaning and tone of which are revealed by the epigraph: “Look at the brothers beating each other.
I want to talk about sadness. Sutta Nipata". The story is built on Bunin's characteristic abstract ideas about the brotherhood of man. But this allegory corresponds to a specific historical content.
Bunin talks about a handsome rickshaw boy and his "brother" - a wealthy English traveler. The life of a slave is a humiliation of naturalness and beauty. Rich "brothers" deprived the young man of hope for happiness and love, without which life loses its meaning for him.
He sees the only salvation from the cruelty of the world only in death. The life of a rich “brother” without a lofty inner goal appears in Bunin
meaningless and ghostly and therefore as fatally doomed as the life of a Ceylon rickshaw. The death of a world that has transgressed the laws of human "brotherhood", a world in which a person asserts himself at the expense of others, a world in which the idea of the "meaning of being", "the divine greatness of the universe" is lost, is predicted by a Buddhist legend at the end of the story. She tells that a raven, blinded by greed, rushed to the carcass of an elephant that died on the coast and, not noticing how it was carried far into the sea, died.
Thus, in the first case, life is terrible without the hope of happiness, therefore death is a deliverance, in the second, greed and heartlessness lead to death-punishment. 1915 The First World War is in full swing. “The Brians and Milyukovs are talking,” writes I. Bunin, “but we mean absolutely nothing.
They are preparing millions of people for slaughter, and we can only be indignant, nothing more. Ancient slavery? Now slavery is such, in comparison with which ancient slavery is a mere trifle. This is the civilized slavery Bunin showed in his story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”. The plot of the story is simple.
The hero of the story, a rich American whose name “no one remembers”, having achieved high material well-being, decides to arrange a long trip for his family. But all plans are destroyed by one unforeseen circumstance - the death of the hero. The coffin in the hold is a kind of verdict on the mindlessly rejoicing society, a reminder that rich people are by no means omnipotent and do not always determine their fate.
With the death of a hero, his power over people is lost. At the request of the wife of a gentleman from San Francisco to find a coffin, the owner of the hotel cynically offers a box of soda water, in which the body is delivered to the steamer. It turns out that what the master has accumulated has no significance in the face of that eternal law to which everyone is subject without exception. Obviously, the meaning of life is not in the acquisition of wealth, but in something that cannot be valued in money - worldly wisdom, kindness, spirituality.
While working on the story, the writer makes the following entry in his diary: “I cried when I wrote the end.” Bunin does not at all mourn his hero, but is in pain from the deadly life of the rich, who decide the fate of ordinary people. Another interesting thought is also conveyed in this story - life and death are always nearby, there is nothing paradoxical or wrong in leaving. But not always death is a ruthless sentence. In the story “The Village”, the main character, an old man, perceives death as a well-deserved reward.
In the “Dark Alleys” cycle, the tragic denouement is natural, since love, according to Bunin, is real and all-burning, inevitably kills lovers, saving them from disappointment. That is why Bunin deprives his characters of the opportunity to go into the family channel. Marriage brings habit with it, and sooner or later habit kills love.
In the story “Mitya's Love”, the hero is haunted by Rubenstein's romance to the words of Heinrich Heine: I am from the family of poor Azrs, Having fallen in love, we die. V. N. Muromtseva-Bunina in the book "The Life of Bunin" writes that for many years Bunin carried the impression of this romance, which he heard in his youth and in "Mitya's Love" seemed to relive it again.
Thus, love is the main quality of life - who loves, he lives. But death is also nearby, it is the main measure of feelings, of life in general. Reflecting on the meaning of life, Bunin writes the story "The Cup of Life". Each of the heroes of this story had youth, love, hopes, something alive and beautiful.
But all this perished in selfish aspirations. “Why do we live in the world?” - the master of the word draws a question to each of them. The cup of life did not become for them the cup of being. It turned out to be filled only with petty, worldly, selfish things.
And Bunin was horrified by the life of everyone who did not wonder about the meaning of life.
Other works on this topic:
- Writers of all times have raised the eternal themes of life and death. Especially often they sound in the works of the times of crises and transitional eras. In the prose of I. A. Bunin ...
- In the work of I. A. Bunin, life is revealed in all its diversity, in the interweaving of dark and light sides. Two principles struggle in his works: darkness and...
- The story “Light Breathing” was written by I. Bunin in 1916. It reflects the philosophical motives of life and death, the beautiful and the ugly, which were at the center...
- 30-40s - difficult in the life of I.A. Bunin. On the one hand, in 1933 the Swedish Academy awarded Bunin the Nobel Prize in Literature. When presenting the award...
- 1. Brief biography of Bunin. 2. The theme of love in Russian literature. 3. The story “Grammar of love”. 4. Philosophy of love in "Sunstroke". 5. Harmony of feelings in love with ...
- According to the story of I. A. Bunin “Clean Monday”, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is the greatest writer of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. He entered literature as a poet, created wonderful poetic works....
UDC 821.161.1
Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
ass. Department of Russian Language and Intercultural Communication Popova Yu.S.
Russia, Voronezh, tel. + 79202262368 e-mail: [email protected]
Voronezh State Architecture and Construction University
The chair of Russian Language and Cross-cultural communication, assistant Popova Y.S.
Russia, Voronezh, + 79202262368 e-mail: [email protected]
Yu.S. Popova
"IS THERE A MEANING IN LIFE THAT IS NOT DESTROYED BY DEATH?"
(LIFE AND DEATH IN THE PROSE OF I.A. BUNIN)
Ontological issues are one of the most important for I.A. Bunin, interest in it can be traced throughout his career. From this point of view, the story "The Cup of Life" is key. In it I.A. Bunin sums up his reflections. The article discusses the writer's idea of the meaning of human existence on earth. Spatial and temporal dominants are revealed, which reveal the main theme of the work.
Key words: life, death, prose, Bunin.
"IS THERE IN THE LIFE A SENSE WHICH IS NOT DESTROYED BY DEATH?"
(THE LIFE AND DEATH IN I.A. BUNIN'S PROSE)
The ontological problematics - one of the major for I.A. Bunin, interest to it is traced on all extent of its creative way. From this point of view the story "The Bowl of a Life" is key. In it I.A. Bunin sums up to the reflections. In clause representation of the writer about sense of existence of the person on the ground is considered. Spatial and time dominants which open the basic subjects of product come to light.
Keywords: life, death, prose, Bunin.
The work of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin enjoys worldwide recognition, interest in his original personality and his works does not fade away. The phenomenon of his creativity has one peculiarity. He began his literary career when I.A. Goncharov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Chekhov, L.N. Tolstoy; continuing to create in the days of I.E. Babel, A.P. Platonova, M.A. Bulgakov. Judgments about I.A. Bunin are polar. For some, he passed by the quests of his time, for others he was sharply modern; but for everyone - a writer going his own way. For some - passionate, for others - aristocratically cold. Any of the interpretations easily finds confirmation in his artistic heritage. All because he is interested in extreme points: life and death, happiness and suffering, past and present. He compares them, then separates them. Ivan Bunin was dissatisfied with those critics who were in a hurry to rank him among the "some kind of idyllic and contemplatives." He always had a negative attitude towards the desire to attribute it to one or another literary movement.
Features of I.A. Bunina accurately noted L.V. Krutikova: “To understand ... the personality and work of Ivan Bunin, a great Russian artist, is not an easy task.
© Popova Yu.S., 2014
And not only because his bright personality, rare talent and long life often evoke opposing judgments and assessments... In the fate and books of Bunin, the sharpest contradictions and conflicts of Russia at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century were refracted. And they refracted sharply individually, uniquely.
I.A. Bunin is constantly drawn to look beyond the horizon of life. He seeks to solve for himself the "eternal", "original" problems that relentlessly disturb him. His works are deeply personal, gravitate towards philosophical generalizations about the meaning of being, life and death, the flow of time that does not stop even for a second. Similar questions arise in the writer's works all the time, and he answers them in different ways, without offering any unambiguous solution to them.
Interest in "eternal questions" can be traced already at an early stage of the writer's work. “Pines” is a story about the death and funeral of the hunter Mitrofan, “Meliton” is a story about the ancient old man Meliton, who is on the verge of death and is ready for it at any moment. Death appears here in all its formidable, terrible and great mystery. The deceased Mitrofan, who is now “called a dead man, a creature of another world alien to us”, becomes important and serious. And death itself "went through the forests with something big and dark." I.A. Bunin reverently speaks of the Christian funeral rite. Meliton is mysterious, strict and stern, almost iconic. Both characters are united by a calm attitude towards death. To this I.A. Bunin's problem: how to get rid of the fear of death, how to find meaning in death and how to justify it - he will return many times in his stories. But in further work, the main tone of the stories changes from thoughtfully melancholic to tragic. The tragedy can be explained by external causes, which undoubtedly influenced I.A. Bunin. These are the events of public (1905) and personal life (the death of a son). In understanding this topic, new intonations and new accents appear: a pronounced philosophical problem, a sense of the tragedy of existence, but at the same time the ability to fully feel life.
Readiness to calmly meet death, reconcile with the inevitability - this measure I.A. Bunin evaluates the human personality. He measures the value of a person by his ability to enjoy life, the measure of "surprise" in front of her, the ability to perceive the beauty and fullness of being.
The final for the creativity of I.A. Bunin is the story "The Cup of Life" (1913), where the writer reveals to us his idea of the meaning of human existence on earth, of its transience.
Researcher L.A. Smirnova notes three main periods in a person's life: the quivering glow of a dream, the monotonous fulfillment of the duties prepared by fate, and summing up the results of the path already traveled. The four main characters: Alexandra Vasilievna, Selikhov, Jordansky, Horizontov spent their lives exactly like that. I.A. Bunin writes about their youth, then about the period when the main part of the life path has already been passed and the heroes are on the verge of death. The image of the time of youth, illuminated by the expectation of happiness, love, the author allots only one chapter. The main part of the work shows how the hopes of the heroes disappear.
Alexandra Vasilievna is a character who connects the characters in a plot, it is around her memories that the author's narration unfolds. As if from an accidental mistake, Sanya marries Selikhov, who is unloved and does not love her. And then throughout his life he remembers that happy summer that happens in the life of every girl. And when her husband dies, Alexandra Vasilievna suddenly experiences "spring tenderness" for the deceased. By the end of her life, she feels that life has passed routinely and monotonously: “And days after days, years after years” passed.
The rest of the characters do not remember their past, do not think about the future. Time seems to pass by them. They don't even think about death. Selikhov, as if in jest, draws up a will. This is his usual pastime. Father Kir, like Selikhov, does not reflect on his life and to the question of Gorizontov: “. why do you live?” does not give an answer. The only dispute between the former rivals, which touched specifically on death, showed that both Selikhov and the priest see death in death as the end of all existence. Father Cyrus wants to acquire the most important superiority over his enemy - to see him on his last journey. The goal of Gorizontov's life is longevity. Caring only about his body, he does not think about death or about the soul.
Four heroes, outwardly divided by enmity, jealousy, contempt, are actually merged into one life. Each hero's existence makes sense to them as long as the others are alive. The death of one leads to the depreciation of the life of others. Selekhov dies - and father Cyrus has no reason to live, no one to compete with. Alexandra Vasilievna, after the death of her husband, realizes that she has lost her "taste for life." She more acutely than others feels the exhaustion of the past years, realizes their futility: “She felt longingly that she had nothing to pray for. Only about the kingdom of heaven? Yes, but what rights did she have over him? What did she do? What was the reward for?" . Horizons is the last one who thinks he keeps the cup of life. In the understanding of this hero, the cup of life is his own body. His rationalism, complacency, self-confidence and longevity mania completely exclude any spirituality. After all the deaths, Horizons feels like a winner, as he has extended his existence the longest. But the death of those with whom his fate connected showed the aimlessness of his own life.
I.A. Bunin conclusively determines the causes of the spiritual collapse of his heroes. “They consumed all their strength in competition in achieving fame, prosperity and honor”, in mutual contempt and insulting indifference to their wives; Alexandra Vasilievna - to fruitless regret about the youth that passed without love, Horizons - to "nourishment and refreshment with water" of his body. The inferiority of the fate of the heroes is the result of the inability of any of them to realize their potential.
In The Bowl of Life, the motif of the dependence of the characters on the atmosphere of the city of Streletsk is widely represented, where “every official, every tradesman, every shoemaker” had a “cherished desire” to have their own home, where they came across petty-bourgeois children - “bold bums”, old women - fans of the holy fool Yasha . Everything in Streletsk is insignificant - from the "philosopher" Horizontov to the "Saint Yasha". Life in the city, flowing according to certain laws, is not subject to change.
An interesting concept is put forward by the researcher I. Nichiporov. He notes that the existence of heroes is based on a semi-conscious desire to gain a foothold in being (the social position for Selikhov and Father Kir, the dream of a house with Alexandra Vasilievna, Horizontov's "philosophy of life"). “Chronotopic images-leitmotifs acquire symbolic significance: “The sandy street on which the heroes live marks the fragility and rootlessness of their living space; this semantics is also important when they are likened to “slivers” that have lost their integrity in the flow of time” . In this row there is also a cross-cutting image of dust-oblivion, which unfolds to a generalizing vision of the ills of national existence; and the general isolation of Streletsk, which used to be. simpler and more spacious, as well as the Selikhov house. This is also the feeling of mercilessly passing time despite Selikhov's "stopping" the clock.
The writer wanted to call the work "House", since it is its space that is of great importance. For Selikhov and Father Kira, the house becomes a means to prove their superiority over others. Both houses were special, keeping the imprint of their
hosts. Selikhov's house is comfortable, convenient, but winter frames have never been taken out of it, and the furniture was in covers. Such is the owner - a rich usurer, "neat, calm and bloodless." The house of Father Cyrus "... was far visible along the wide street", only behind its roof "... the tops of young poplars were green", the gates were always locked, the gateway was blocked with heavy cleft, as if emphasizing the corpulence, rudeness and severity of the priest. For Alexandra Vasilievna, having her own house was the only desire; hopes for a quiet life were associated with it. The house was the purpose and meaning of existence. When he passed into her possession, the heroine realized that her life was over. The house, like the city, exists outside of time: the owners change, people live and die in it, but it remains unchanged. The motive of hopeless constancy is also confirmed by the motive of childlessness. The heroes do not have a continuation of life (children), which indicates the incorrectness of the chosen path.
One cannot but agree with the opinion of Y. Maltsev, who claims that the main character of the story is invisible time with its universal and merciless laws. The invisibility of time is emphasized by the very structure of the story - the passage of time is not traced in chronological evolution, life is presented in the story as the immobility of equal segments of existence separated by years, traces of past time lying in the same plane.
Death, therefore, is for IA. Bunin is no less significant and mysterious than life. It reveals the meaning of existence not only of the person who is dying, but also of others whose fates were merged with him into a single "cup of life".
"Heightened sense of life" is the primary beginning of the whole world of IA. Bunin, the core, his concept of life. The image of heightened life - with its unresolved tension, unfading brightness, the high intrinsic value of any moment, the absence of emptiness dominates the whole world of the writer.
Bibliographic list
1. Bunin: pro et contra: personality and creativity of IA. Bunin in the assessment of Russian and foreign thinkers and researchers: Anthology / [comp. and ed. B.V. Averin, D. Riniker, K.V. Stepanov]. St. Petersburg: RKHGI, 2001. 1061s.
2. Bunin IA. Collected works in nine volumes. M.: Fiction,
3. Krutikova L.V. Prose of Ivan Bunin of the 20th century // Philological Sciences. 1971. Issue. 76. S. 96-118.
4. Maltsev Yu.V. Ivan Bunin. M.: Posev, 1994. 432 p.
5. Nichiporov I. Poetry is dark, inexpressible in words. Moscow: Metaphora, 2003. 255 p.
6. Slivitskaya O.V. The feeling of death in Bunin's world // Russian Literature. 2002. No. 1. pp.64-78.
7. Smirnova LA. Realism by Ivan Bunin. M.: RGGU, 1984. 93 p.
1. Bunin: pro et contra: Bunin's person and creativity in an estimation of Russian and foreign thinkers and researchers: the Anthology / . Spb.: RGHI, 2001. 1061 p.
2. Bunin I.A. ^llected works in nine volumes. M.: Fiction, 1966.
3. Krutikova L.V. Ivan Bunin "s Prose of the XX century // Philological sciences. 1971. V. 76. Pp. 96-118.
4. Maltsev Y.V. Ivan Bunin. Moscow: Crop, 1994. 432 p.
5. Nichiporov I. Poetry is dark, in words is inexpressible ... M.: Metaphor, 2003. 255 p.
6. Slivitskaya O.V. Feeling of death in Bunin's world // The Russian literature. 2002. No. 1. Pp. 64-78.
7. Smirnova L A. Realism of Ivan Bunin. M.: RGGU, 1984. 93 p.
