What does easy breathing mean for Bunin? The meaning of the title and the problematics of the story "Light Breathing" by I.A.

In the cemetery, over a fresh earthen mound, stands a new oak cross, strong, heavy and smooth. April, days are gray; the monuments of the cemetery, spacious, district, are still visible through the bare trees, and the cold wind rings and rings with a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross. In the cross itself there is a rather large, convex porcelain medallion, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes. This is Olya Meshcherskaya. As a girl, she did not stand out in any way in the crowd of brown gymnasium dresses: what could be said about her, except that she was one of the pretty, rich and happy girls, that she was capable, but playful and very careless about the instructions that the class lady gave her ? Then she began to blossom, develop by leaps and bounds. At the age of fourteen, with a thin waist and slender legs, her breasts and all those forms, the charm of which had never been expressed by a human word, were already well outlined; at fifteen she was already a beauty. How carefully some of her friends combed their hair, how clean they were, how they followed their restrained movements! And she was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that got stuck when she fell on the run. Without any of her worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that had so distinguished her in the last two years from the entire gymnasium came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear sparkle of eyes ... No one danced at balls like Olya Meshcherskaya, no one skated as much as she did, no one was cared for at balls as much as she was, and for some reason no one was loved as much by the younger grades as her. Imperceptibly she became a girl, and imperceptibly her grammar school fame strengthened, and rumors began to circulate that she was windy, that she could not live without admirers, that the grammar school student Shenshin was madly in love with her, that she seemed to love him too, but was so changeable in her treatment of him. that he attempted suicide. During her last winter, Olya Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun, as they said in the gymnasium. The winter was snowy, sunny, frosty, the sun went down early behind the high spruce forest of a snowy gymnasium garden, invariably fine, radiant, promising frost and sun for tomorrow, a walk on Cathedral Street, a skating rink in the city garden, a pink evening, music and this in all directions the crowd sliding on the rink, in which Olya Meshcherskaya seemed the most carefree, the happiest. And then one day, at a big break, when she was whirling around the assembly hall from the first-graders who were chasing and blissfully shrieking after her, she was unexpectedly called to the boss. She stopped at a run, took only one deep breath, with a quick and already familiar feminine movement straightened her hair, tugged the corners of her apron to her shoulders and, with shining eyes, ran upstairs. The headmistress, youthful but gray-haired, was quietly sitting with knitting in her hands at the writing table, under the tsar's portrait. “Hello, mademoiselle Meshcherskaya,” she said in French, without looking up from her knitting. - Unfortunately, this is not the first time that I have been forced to call you here to talk to you about your behavior. “I’m listening, madame,” Meshcherskaya answered, going up to the table, looking at her clearly and vividly, but without any expression on her face, and sat down as lightly and gracefully as she alone could. “You’ll listen to me badly, unfortunately I’m convinced of this,” said the boss, and, pulling the thread and wrapping a ball on the varnished floor, which Meshcherskaya looked at with curiosity, she raised her eyes. “I will not repeat myself, I will not speak at length,” she said. Meshcherskaya was very fond of this unusually clean and large office, which breathed so well on frosty days with the warmth of a shiny Dutch woman and the freshness of lilies of the valley on her desk. She looked at the young tsar, painted to his full height in the middle of some brilliant room, at the even parted in the milky, neatly crimped hair of the boss, and was expectantly silent. “You’re not a girl anymore,” the boss said pointedly, secretly beginning to get annoyed. “Yes, madame,” Meshcherskaya answered simply, almost cheerfully. “But not a woman either,” the boss said even more meaningfully, and her matte face turned slightly red. - First of all, what is this hairstyle? This is a woman's hairstyle! “It’s not my fault, madame, that I have good hair,” Meshcherskaya answered and slightly touched her beautifully tucked head with both hands. - Oh, that's how, you are not to blame! - said the boss. - You are not to blame for the hairstyle, you are not to blame for these expensive combs, it is not your fault that you ruin your parents for shoes of twenty rubles! But, I repeat to you, you completely lose sight of the fact that you are still only a schoolgirl ... And here Meshcherskaya, without losing her simplicity and calmness, suddenly interrupted her politely: - Sorry madame, you are wrong: I am a woman. And you know who is to blame for this? Dad's friend and neighbor, and your brother is Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin. It happened last summer in the village ... And a month after this conversation, a Cossack officer, ugly and plebeian, who had absolutely nothing to do with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged, shot her on the platform of the station, among a large crowd of people who had just arrived by train. And the incredible confession of Olya Meshcherskaya, which stunned the boss, was completely confirmed: the officer told the investigator that Meshcherskaya had enticed him, was close to him, swore to be his wife, and at the station, on the day of the murder, escorting him to Novocherkassk, suddenly told him that she and she never thought to love him, that all this talk about marriage was just her mockery of him, and she gave him to read that page of the diary where it was said about Malyutin. “I ran these lines and right there, on the platform where she was walking, waiting for me to finish reading, I shot her,” said the officer. - This diary, here it is, take a look what was written in it on the tenth of July last year. The diary read as follows: “It's 2:00 am now. I fell asleep soundly, but immediately woke up ... Today I have become a woman! Dad, mom and Tolya, all went to the city, I was left alone. I was so happy to be alone! In the morning I walked in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone in the whole world, and I thought as well as never in my life. I dined alone, then played for an hour, to the music I had the feeling that I would live endlessly and be as happy as no one else. Then I fell asleep in my dad's office, and at four o'clock Katya woke me up and said that Alexei Mikhailovich had arrived. I was very happy with him, I was so pleased to accept him and keep him busy. He arrived in a pair of his Vyatka, very beautiful, and they stood at the porch all the time, he stayed because it was raining, and he wanted it to dry out in the evening. He regretted that he had not found dad, was very lively and behaved with me as a gentleman, joked a lot that he had long been in love with me. When we walked in the garden before tea, the weather was lovely again, the sun shone through the whole wet garden, although it became quite cold, and he led me by the arm and said that he was Faust and Margarita. He is fifty-six years old, but he is still very handsome and always well dressed - I just didn’t like the fact that he came in a lionfish - he smells of English cologne, and his eyes are very young, black, and his beard is gracefully divided into two long parts and is completely silver. For tea we sat on the glass veranda, I felt as if unhealthy and lay down on the couch, and he smoked, then moved to me, again began to say some kind of courtesy, then examine and kiss my hand. I covered my face with a silk handkerchief, and he kissed me several times on the lips through the handkerchief ... I don't understand how this could happen, I lost my mind, I never thought that I was like that! Now I have only one way out ... I feel such disgust for him that I cannot survive it! .. " During these April days the city has become clean, dry, its stones have turned white, and it is easy and pleasant to walk along them. Every Sunday after Mass, a little woman in mourning, wearing black kid gloves, with an ebony umbrella, walks along Cathedral Street leading to the exit from the city. She crosses a dirty square along the highway, where there are many smoky forges and the field air blows freshly; further, between the monastery and the prison, the cloudy slope of the sky turns white and the spring field turns gray, and then, when you make your way through the puddles under the wall of the monastery and turn left, you will see, as it were, a large low garden surrounded by a white fence, above the gate of which the Assumption of the Mother of God is written. A small woman crosses herself with a small cross and as usual walks along the main alley. Having reached the bench opposite the oak cross, she sits in the wind and in the spring cold for an hour or two, until her feet in light boots and her hand in a narrow husky are completely chilled. Listening to the spring birds singing sweetly and in the cold, listening to the sound of the wind in a porcelain wreath, she sometimes thinks that she would give half her life, if only this dead wreath were not before her eyes. This wreath, this mound, the oak cross! Is it possible that beneath it is the one whose eyes shine so immortally from this convex porcelain medallion on the cross, and how to combine with this pure gaze that terrible thing that is now connected with the name of Olya Meshcherskaya? - But in the depths of her soul, a little woman is happy, like all people devoted to some passionate dream. This woman is the classy lady of Olya Meshcherskaya, a middle-aged girl who has long lived with some kind of fiction that replaces her real life. At first, such an invention was her brother, a poor and in no way remarkable warrant officer - she united her whole soul with him, with his future, which for some reason seemed to her brilliant. When he was killed near Mukden, she convinced herself that she was an ideological worker. The death of Olya Meshcherskaya captivated her with a new dream. Now Olya Meshcherskaya is the subject of her persistent thoughts and feelings. She goes to her grave every holiday, keeps her eyes on the oak cross for hours, recalls Olya Meshcherskaya's pale face in the coffin, among the flowers - and what she once overheard: once, at a big break, walking in the gymnasium garden, Olya Meshcherskaya quickly, quickly said to her beloved friend, plump, tall Subbotina: - I’m in one of my father’s books, - he has many old, funny books, - I read what beauty a woman should have ... There, you know, so much has been said that you don’t remember everything: well, of course, black eyes boiling with resin, - by God, that's what it says: boiling resin! - black as night, eyelashes, softly playing blush, thin waist, longer than an ordinary hand - you know, longer than usual! - a small leg, a moderately large chest, properly rounded caviar, shell-colored knees, sloping shoulders - I have learned a lot almost by heart, so all this is true! - but most importantly, do you know what? - Easy breath! But I have it - you listen to how I sigh - isn't it true? Now this light breath has scattered again into the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind. 1916

This story allows us to conclude that it belongs to the genre of the novel. The author managed to convey in a short form the life story of the schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya, but not only her. According to the definition of the genre, a novel in a unique, small, concrete event should recreate the entire life of the hero, and through it - the life of society. Ivan Alekseevich, through modernism, creates a unique image of a girl who is still only dreaming of true love.

This feeling was written not only by Bunin ("Light Breathing"). The analysis of love was carried out, perhaps, by all the great poets and writers, very different in character and worldview, therefore, many shades of this feeling are presented in Russian literature. When we open the work of another author, we always find something new. Bunin also has his own. In his works there are often tragic endings, ending with the death of one of the heroes, but it is more bright than deeply tragic. We come across a similar ending after reading Light Breathing.

First impression

At first glance, the events seem dirty. The girl plays in love with an ugly officer, far from the circle to which the heroine belonged. In the story, the author uses the so-called method of "proof from return", because even with such vulgar external events, love remains something intact and light, does not touch everyday filth. Arriving at Olya's grave, the class teacher asks herself how to combine all this with a pure view of "that terrible" that is now associated with the name of the schoolgirl. This question does not require an answer, which is present in the entire text of the work. Bunin's story "Light Breath" is permeated through it.

The character of the main character

Olya Meshcherskaya is represented as the embodiment of youth, thirsty for love, a living and dreamy heroine. Her image, contrary to the laws of public morality, captivates almost everyone, even the younger grades. And even the guardian of morals, the teacher Olya, who condemned her for her early growing up, after the death of the heroine comes to the cemetery to her grave every week, constantly thinks about her and at the same time even feels, "like all people devoted to a dream," happy.

The peculiarity of the character of the main character of the story is that she longs for happiness and can find it even in such an ugly reality in which she had to find herself. Bunin uses "light breathing" as a metaphor for naturalness, vital energy. the so-called "ease of breathing" is invariably present in Olya, surrounding her with a special halo. People feel this and therefore are drawn to the girl, while not even being able to explain why. She infects everyone with her joy.

Contrasts

Bunin's work "Light Breath" is built on contrasts. From the very first lines, a double feeling arises: a deserted, sad cemetery, a cold wind, a gray April day. And against this background - a portrait of a schoolgirl with lively, joyful eyes - a photograph on a cross. Olya's whole life is also built on contrast. Cloudless childhood is contrasted with the tragic events that occurred in the last year of the life of the heroine of the story "Light Breathing". Ivan Bunin often emphasizes the contrast, the gap between the real and the apparent, the inner state and the outer world.

The plot of the story

The plot of the work is quite simple. The happy young schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya first becomes the prey of her father's friend, an elderly voluptuary, after which she becomes a living target for the above-mentioned officer. Her death prompts a classy lady - a single woman to "serve" her memory. However, the apparent simplicity of this plot is violated by a vivid opposition: a heavy cross and lively, joyful eyes, which involuntarily makes the reader's heart shrink. The simplicity of the plot turned out to be deceiving, since the story "Light Breathing" (Ivan Bunin) is not only about the fate of a girl, but also about the unhappy lot of a classy lady who is used to living someone else's life. Oli's relationship with the officer is also interesting.

Relationship with an officer

The already mentioned officer in the plot of the story kills Olya Meshcherskaya, involuntarily misled by her game. He did this because he was close to her, believed that she loved him, and could not survive the destruction of this illusion. Not every person can evoke such a strong passion in another. This speaks of Oli's bright personality, says Bunin ("Light Breathing"). The act of the main character was cruel, but after all, as you might guess, possessing a special character, she intoxicated the officer unintentionally. Olya Meshcherskaya was looking for a dream in a relationship with him, but she could not find it.

Is Olya to blame?

Ivan Alekseevich believed that birth is not the beginning, and therefore, death is not the end of the soul's existence, the symbol of which is the definition that Bunin used - "light breathing". Analysis of it in the text of the work allows us to conclude that this concept is a soul. She does not disappear without a trace after death, but returns to the source. About this, and not only about the fate of Olya, the work "Light breath".

Ivan Bunin delays in explaining the reasons for the death of the heroine. The question arises: "Maybe she is to blame for what happened?" After all, she is frivolous, flirting with the schoolboy Shenshin, then, albeit unconsciously, with her father's friend Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduced her, then for some reason promises to the officer to marry him. Why did she need all this? Bunin ("Light Breath") analyzes the motives of the heroine's actions. It gradually becomes clear that Olya is as beautiful as the element. And just as immoral. She strives in everything to reach the depth, to the limit, to the innermost essence, and the opinion of others does not interest the heroine of the work "Light Breath". Ivan Bunin wanted to tell us that in the actions of the schoolgirl there is no feeling of revenge, no meaningful vice, no firmness of decisions, no pain of remorse. It turns out that the feeling of fullness of life can be destructive. Even an unconscious longing for her is tragic (like a class lady). Therefore, every step, every detail of Olya's life threatens with disaster: prank and curiosity can lead to serious consequences, to violence, and frivolous play with the feelings of other people can lead to murder. Bunin brings us to such a philosophical thought.

"Light breath" of life

The essence of the heroine is that she lives, and not just plays a role in the play. This is also her fault. To be alive without observing the rules of the game is to be doomed. The environment in which Meshcherskaya exists is completely devoid of a holistic, organic sense of beauty. Life is subject to strict rules, violation of which leads to inevitable retribution. Therefore, Olya's fate is tragic. Her death is natural, says Bunin. "Light breath", however, did not die with the heroine, but dissolved in the air, filling it with itself. In the finale, the thought of the immortality of the soul sounds in this way.

The central place in Bunin's work is occupied by a cycle of stories that made up the collection "Dark Alleys". When the book was published in 1943, it became the only one in Russian literature where all stories were about love. In thirty-eight short stories, the author presents the reader with the vicissitudes of love. A short, dazzling one that lit up the souls of lovers like a flash. Love that has visited this world for a moment, like a light breath, and is ready to disappear at any moment.

The theme of love in the writer's work

Bunin's work is unique. Outwardly, in terms of themes, it looks traditional: life and death, loneliness and love, past and future, happiness and suffering. Bunin sometimes separates these extreme points of being, then rapidly brings them closer. And fills the space between them with only sensations, deep and strong. The essence of his art is precisely reflected in the words of Rilke: "He, like metal, burns and cuts with his cold."

The eternal themes addressed by the writer are expressed in his works with the utmost brightness and tension. Bunin literally destroys routine and familiar ideas, and from the first lines plunges the reader into real life. He does not just reveal the fullness of the feelings of his heroes, their innermost thoughts, and is not afraid to show the true essence.

There are many beautiful and touching hymns about love. But Bunin dared not only to talk about this sublime feeling, but also to show what dangers it is exposed to. Bunin's heroes live in anticipation of love, look for it and often perish, singed by its light breath. Ivan Bunin shows that love-passion blinds a person and leads to a dangerous line, without figuring out who is in front of her - a young girl who first encountered this feeling, or a person who has learned a lot in life, an elegant landowner or a peasant who does not even have good boots ...

Bunin is perhaps the first writer in whose work the feeling of love plays such a significant role - in all its overflows and transitions, shades and nuances. The cruelty and at the same time the charm of genuine feelings equally determine the spiritual life of the Bunin heroes and explain what is happening to them. Love can be happiness and can be tragedy. The story of such love is shown in one of Bunin's famous stories "Light Breathing".

Concept history

At the beginning of the 20th century, the question of the meaning of life was widely discussed in literature. Moreover, the previously established common for all sample in the form of a clear goal was replaced by a new one. The most popular was living life, which called for imbuing with a sense of the value of life, which, regardless of its content, is value in itself.

These ideas were embodied in their creations by many writers of that time, they were reflected in the work of Bunin. The piece "Light Breathing" is one of them. The author also told the story of this novel. One winter, walking around Capri, he accidentally wandered into a small cemetery, where he saw a grave cross with a photograph of a young girl with lively and joyful eyes. Olya Meshcherskaya immediately made her mentally and began to create a story about her with admirable speed.

Easy breath

In his diary, Bunin wrote about a childhood memory. When he was seven years old, his younger sister, the favorite of the whole house, died. He ran through the snowy courtyard and, as he ran, looked at the dark February sky and thought that her little soul was flying there. There was a kind of horror in the whole being of the little boy, a feeling of an incomprehensible event.

A girl, death, cloudy sky, winter, horror were forever caught in the mind of the writer. And as soon as the writer saw a photograph of a young girl on a grave cross, childhood memories came to life and echoed in it. Perhaps that is why Ivan Bunin was able to write "Light Breath" with delightful speed, because he was already internally ready for it.

"Light Breath" is Bunin's famous and most sensual short story. K. Paustovsky, having read this story in one of the April issues of the newspaper "Russkoe Slovo", where it was first published in 1916, wrote about a deep emotional shock, that everything inside him was trembling with sadness and love.

Paustovsky re-read the same words about the light breathing of Olya Meshcherskaya several times. Having familiarized themselves with Bunin's story "Light Breathing", with the content of this touching novella, Paustovsky's words could be repeated by many readers: "This is not a story, but an insight, life itself with its thrill and love."

Careless youth

Olya Meshcherskaya was a noisy and cheerful schoolgirl. Playful and careless, Olga has become noticeably prettier by the age of fifteen. A thin waist, slender legs and gorgeous hair made her a beauty. She danced and skated better than anyone else, was known as the favorite of freshmen, but she became a headache for her boss and her class lady.

One morning the headmistress called Olya to her place, began to scold her for pranks and noticed that an adult hairstyle, expensive combs and shoes did not suit the young girl. Olya interrupts her and says that she is already a woman. And he tells the amazed lady that the father's friend is to blame for this, and her, the head of the gymnasium, her brother, 56-year-old Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin.

Diary of Olya Meshcherskaya

A month after Olya confessed to the head of the gymnasium, officer Malyutin shoots a young girl on the platform. At the trial, he stated that she seduced him and promised to become his wife. But she suddenly declared that she did not love him, and the talk about marriage was just a mockery of him, and she let me read her diary, where it was written about him, about Malyutin. He read this diary and immediately shot her on the platform.

The girl wrote in her diary that in the summer the family rested in the village. Parents and brother left for the city. His friend, the Cossack officer Malyutin, came to see his father and was very upset not to find his friend. It had just started raining outside, and Olga invited Malyutin to visit. At tea he joked a lot and said that he was in love with her. Olya, a little tired, lay down on the couch, Malyutin began kissing her hand, then lips, and Olya could not understand how it all happened. But now she feels strong disgust for him

Porcelain medallion

The spring city has become tidy. On a clean, pleasant road, every Sunday a woman walks in mourning to the cemetery. She stops at a grave with a heavy oak cross, on which there is a porcelain medallion with a photograph of a young schoolgirl with strikingly lively eyes. The woman looked at the medallion and wondered if it was possible to combine this pure look with the horror that is now connected with the name of Oli?

Olga's cool lady is already middle-aged, living in the world she has invented. At first, all her thoughts were occupied by her brother, an unremarkable warrant officer. But after his death, Olya took a place in her mind, to whose grave she comes every holiday. She stands for a long time, looks at the oak cross and recalls how she unwittingly witnessed Oli's conversation with her friend.

Olga said that she had read in one book what a beautiful woman looks like - eyes boiling with resin, eyelashes black as night, a slender figure, arms longer than usual, sloping shoulders. And most importantly, a beauty should have easy breathing. And she, Olya, had it.

Door to eternity

The overture of Bunin's short story "Easy Breath", the analysis of which we will now consider, carries a tragic denouement of the plot. In the first lines of the work, the author presents the reader with a harsh picture - a cold morning, a cemetery and the shining eyes of a young creature in the photo. This immediately creates a further setting that the reader will perceive all events under this sign.

The author immediately deprives the plot of its unpredictability. The reader, knowing what ultimately happened, turns his attention to why it happened. Then Bunin immediately proceeds to an exposition full of vitality. Slowly, richly describes every detail, filling it with life and energy. And at the moment of the highest reader's interest, when Meshcherskaya says that she is a woman and it happened in the village, the author breaks off his narration and smashes the reader with the following phrase: the girl was shot by a Cossack officer. What does the reader see further in Bunin's short story "Light Breathing", the analysis of which we continue?

The author deprives this story of a much needed development. Olya's earthly path ends at the moment when she embarked on the path for which she was created. “Today I have become a woman,” - both horror and glee are heard in this voice. This new life can meet with piercing happiness, or it can turn into pain and horror. Naturally, the reader has many questions: how did their relationship develop? And did they develop at all? What pushed the young girl to the old ladies' man? Constantly destroying the sequence of events, what does Bunin achieve in "Light Breath"?

An analysis of this work shows that the author destroys the cause-and-effect relationship. It is not important neither the development of their relationship, nor the motive of the girl surrendering to the will of a rude officer. Both heroes in this work are just instruments of fate. And Olga's doom is in herself, in her spontaneous impulses, in her charm. This raging passion for life was bound to lead to disaster.

The author, not satisfying the reader's interest in the events, could cause a negative reaction. But that did not happen. This is where Bunin's skill lies. In "Light Breath", the analysis of which we are considering, the author smoothly and decisively switches the reader's interest from the rapid running of events to eternal rest. Having suddenly cut off the flow of time, the author describes the space - city streets, squares - and acquaints the reader with the fate of the classy lady. The story of her opens the door to eternity.

The cold wind at the beginning of the story was an element of the landscape, in the last lines it became a symbol of life - light breath was born by nature and returned to the same place. The natural world freezes in infinity.

The story "Light Breathing" is deservedly considered the pearl of the creative heritage of the remarkable Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate IABunin. It extremely laconically and vividly captures the image of the main character, reverently conveys a sense of beauty, despite her tragic fate.

Everything in the story is built on expressive contrasts, without which it is impossible to understand the author's intention.

Already from the very first lines of the narrative, an ambiguous feeling is formed: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, bare trees, a cold wind "rings and tinkles with a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross," "strong, heavy, smooth", and on the cross is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful with amazingly lively eyes. Death and life, sadness and joy are the symbols of the fate of Olya Meshcherskaya.

Difficultly consistent impressions are further elaborated - from the story of Olya's cloudless childhood, adolescence - to the tragic events of the last year. "Her grammar school fame has imperceptibly strengthened, and rumors have already begun that she is windy ..." A "pink evening on a skating rink" is drawn in the city garden, when Olya "seemed the most carefree, the happiest, but immediately a slip of the tongue:" her last winter Meshcherskaya completely crazy with fun. "

The author emphasizes the gap between the apparent, external and internal state of the heroine: the semi-childish state of a schoolgirl running at recess, her admission that she is already a woman. Calm, even cheerful conversation in the strict office of the headmistress of the gymnasium, and immediately then - a short message: "And a month later, a Cossack officer, ugly and plebeian, who had nothing to do with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged, shot her on the platform ... . "Our attention is persistently directed to some secret springs of Olya's life. For this, the author delays in explaining the reasons for her death, as if generated by the very logic of the girl's behavior. And then a new, even more unexpected secret is revealed - her connection with fifty-six-year-old Malyutin. Bunin creates a complex composition - from the fact of death to the childhood of the heroine, then to the recent past and its origins. All this allows you to keep an amazing breath of beauty.

Bunin expressively conveyed Olya's strange logic of behavior. Spinning through life: at balls, on skating rinks, a whirlwind run through the gymnasium, the rapidity of change, unexpected actions. Olya's entourage is reservedly characterized. Bunin paints a picture of the spiritual poverty of this environment masterfully and convincingly.

The idea that in a monotonous, soulless world, pure impulses are doomed, brings a tragic intonation to the story.

Olya Meshcherskaya had a light, natural breath - a thirst for some special, unique fate, worthy only of the elite. Her inner burning is genuine and could evoke a great feeling. If not for the soulless fluttering through life, not for a primitive idea of, not for a vulgar environment. The author reveals to us not only the beauty of the girl, but also these undeveloped wonderful opportunities. They, according to the writer, cannot disappear, just as the craving for beauty, fortunately, for perfection, will never disappear.

Beauty and death, love and separation - eternal themes that have received such a touching and enlightened embodiment in the work of I.A. Bunin, excite us today.

On an April day, I left people,
Gone forever meekly and silently -
And yet I was not in vain in my life:
I didn't die to love.
I. A. Bunin

The story "Easy Breathing" is deservedly considered the pearl of the creative heritage of the remarkable Russian writer, Nobel Prize winner I. A. Bunin. It so succinctly and vividly captures the image of the main character, so reverently conveyed the feeling of beauty, despite her tragic fate. Everything in the story is built on expressive contrasts, without which it is impossible to understand the author's conclusions.

Already from the very first lines of the narration, an ambiguous feeling is formed: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, bare trees, a cold wind that “rings and tinkles with a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross”, “strong, heavy, smooth”, and on it “photographic portrait schoolgirls with joyful, amazingly lively eyes. Death and life, sadness and joy are the symbols of the fate of Olya Meshcherskaya. In the poem by I. A. Bunin "Epitaph" lives the same sad and light mood as in the story:

And the skies turn blue along the alley

Difficultly consistent impressions are further elaborated - from the story of Olya's cloudless childhood, adolescence - to the tragic events of the last year. "Her grammar school fame has imperceptibly strengthened, and rumors have already begun that she is windy ..." A "pink evening on a skating rink" is drawn in the city garden, when Olya "seemed the most carefree, the happiest", but then a slip of the tongue: "her last winter Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun. "

The author emphasizes the gap between the apparent, external and internal state of the heroine: the semi-childish state of a schoolgirl running at recess and her admission that she is already a woman. Calm, even cheerful conversation in the strict office of the headmistress of the gymnasium, followed immediately by a short message: “And a month later, a Cossack officer, ugly and plebeian, who had nothing to do with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged, shot her on the platform. .. "Our attention is persistently directed to some secret springs of Olya's life. For this, the author delays in explaining the reasons for her death, as if generated by the very logic of the girl's behavior. And then a new, even more unexpected secret is revealed - her connection with 56-year-old Malyutin. On the other hand, a complex composition - from the fact of death to the childhood of the heroine, then to the recent past and to its origins, and then to an even earlier, pure, dreamy time - allows you to preserve an amazing breath of beauty, eyes immortally shining with pure light.

Bunin expressively conveyed Olya's strange logic of behavior. Spinning through life: at balls, on a skating rink, a whirlwind run through the gymnasium, the rapidity of change, unexpected actions. Olya's unusual reaction: “she has completely lost her mind,” they say about her; “I'm completely out of my mind,” she says. Olya's entourage is reservedly characterized. The chain of extremely indifferent people to her is closed by the last link - and the "cool lady". Bunin paints a picture of the spiritual poverty of Olya's entourage masterfully, convincingly. The idea that in a monotonous, soulless world, pure impulses are doomed, brings a tragic intonation into the story.

At the end of the work, Olya tells her friend that in one of her father's books she read what a woman should have. “... There, you know, so much has been said that you can't remember everything ... but the main thing, do you know what? Easy breath! But I have it ... "

Olya really had a light, natural breath - a thirst for some special, unique fate, worthy only of the elite. And it is not at all by chance that this cherished dream of her was said at the end. Olino's inner burning is genuine and could evoke a great feeling. If not for the thoughtless fluttering through life, not a primitive idea of \u200b\u200bhappiness, not a vulgar environment. The author reveals to us not only the beauty of the girl, of course, not her experience, but only these wonderful opportunities that have not developed. They, according to the author, cannot disappear, just as the craving for the beautiful, fortunately, for perfection, never disappears.

Beauty and death, love and separation - eternal themes that have received such a touching and enlightened embodiment in the work of I. A. Bunin, excite us today:

And it reaches me
The light of your smile.
Not a slab, not a crucifix
Before me so far -
Institute dress
And a shining gaze.

In the poem by I. A. Bunin "Epitaph" lives the same sad and light mood as in the story:

Here, in the silence of the cemetery alley,
Where only the wind blows half asleep
Everything speaks of happiness and spring.
Sonnet of love in the old mausoleum
Sounds like immortal sadness about me

I.A. Bunin's "Light Breath" belongs to the range of works that require particularly careful reading. The tightness of the text determines the deepening of the artistic detail.

A complex composition, an abundance of ellipses, a figure of silence make you stop for reflection at moments of unexpected "bends" of the plot. The content of the story is so multifaceted that it could well become the basis of a whole novel. Indeed, each of us, reflecting on the next ellipsis, as if supplements, "adds" the text in accordance with his perception. Perhaps this is where the mystery of Bunin's story lies: the writer seems to be calling us to co-creation, and the reader involuntarily becomes a co-author.

It is customary to begin the analysis of this piece by talking about composition. What is so unusual about building a story? As a rule, students immediately notice the peculiarities of the composition: violation of the chronology of events. If you highlight the semantic parts of the text, you will find that each part breaks off at the moment of the highest emotional stress. What idea is embodied in such a complex art form? To answer this question, we carefully read the content of each paragraph.

At the beginning of the work, the interweaving of contrasting motives of life and death should be noted. The description of the city cemetery, the monotonous ringing of the porcelain wreath create a sad mood. Against this background, the portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, strikingly vivid eyes is especially expressive (the author himself emphasizes this contrast with the phrase strikingly vivid).

Why is the following sentence (This is Olya Meshcherskaya) highlighted in a separate paragraph? Perhaps, in a large work, this sentence would have preceded a detailed description of the heroine, her portrait, character, habits. In Bunin's story, the named name still does not say anything, but we are already involved in the action, intrigued. Many questions arise: “Who is this girl? What is the reason for her early death? .. ”The reader is already ready to unfold the melodramatic plot, but the author deliberately hesitates with the answer, maintaining the tension of perception.

What is the unusual character of the heroine's portrait? There is a lack of agreement in the description of the schoolgirl Meshcherskaya: there is no detailed portrait, the image is barely outlined in separate strokes. Is this accidental? No doubt not. After all, everyone has their own idea of \u200b\u200battractiveness, youth, beauty ... Comparison with friends highlights the ideological basis of the image - simplicity and naturalness: How carefully some of her friends combed their hair, how clean they were, how they followed her restrained movements! And she was not afraid of anything<...> Without any worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that so distinguished her from the entire gymnasium in the last two years came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear sparkle of eyes ... The creation of a complete image of the heroine is a matter of our imagination.

Alarmingly sounds the mention that Olya is very careless, windy, almost drove the schoolboy Shenshin to suicide ... However, the ellipsis, the silence method, interrupts the storyline, which would be enough for a separate story.

In the next paragraph, the words last winter again remind of the tragic denouement. There is something painful in the irrepressible joyful excitement of Meshcherskaya (she went completely crazy with fun). In addition, the author tells us that she only seemed to be the most carefree and happy (our detente - A.N., I.N.). So far, this is a barely outlined internal dissonance, but soon the heroine, without losing her simplicity and calmness, will tell the irritated boss about her relationship with 56-year-old Malyutin: Sorry, madame, you are wrong: I am a woman. And you know who is to blame for this? Dad's friend and neighbor, and your brother is Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin. It happened last summer in the village ... We are at a loss: what is it - early corruption? cynicism?

As soon as the contrast between the appearance and the state of mind of the heroine comes to the surface, the author again interrupts the narration, leaving the reader in thought, makes him go back in search of an answer to the question: “What kind of person is Olya Meshcherskaya? A careless anemone or a deep, contradictory personality? " The answer must be hidden somewhere in this paragraph. We reread it and dwell on the meaningful “it seemed”, behind which, perhaps, a clue is hidden: maybe this carelessness and lightness are just an attempt by an integral nature to hide emotional pain, personal tragedy?

This is followed by a detached, "protocol" story about Olya's death, avoiding false pathos. The Cossack officer who shot Meshcherskaya is depicted emphatically unattractive: ugly, plebeian, having absolutely nothing to do with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged ... Why did the heroine meet with this man? What was he to her? Let's try to find the answer in the girl's diary.

Diary entries are an important point in revealing character. For the first time we are alone with Olya, we are witnessing a real confession: I don’t understand how this could happen, I lost my mind, I never thought that I was like that! Now I have one way out ... After these words, the tragic scene of the death of Meshcherskaya is filled with new meaning. The heroine of the story, who seemed to us attractive, but too frivolous, turns out to be a mentally broken person who has experienced deep disappointment. By mentioning Faust and Margarita, Bunin draws an analogy between the unfortunate fate of Gretchen and the trampled life of Olya.

So, a deep wound is to blame. Maybe Olya herself provoked the murder, laughing evilly at the officer, committing suicide with someone else's hands? ..

The closed composition takes us back to the beginning of the story. The tense emotional tone of confession is replaced by a picture of the city, cemetery peace. Now our attention is focused on the image of a cool lady, to which, at first glance, the author pays unreasonably much attention. This woman is the classy lady of Olya Meshcherskaya, a middle-aged girl who has long lived with some kind of fiction that replaces her real life. At first, such an invention was her brother, a poor and in no way remarkable warrant officer - she united her whole soul with him, with his future, which for some reason seemed to her brilliant. When he was killed at Mukden, she convinced herself that she was an ideological worker ... The character is certainly unattractive. What is its role? Maybe he should set off all the best in the appearance of the main character?

Comparing the images of Meshcherskaya and her class lady, we come to the conclusion that these are two “semantic poles” of the story. Comparison shows not only a difference, but also a certain similarity. Olya, a young woman, plunged headlong into life, flashed and went out like a bright flash; a cool lady, a middle-aged girl, hiding from life, smoldering like a burning torch. The main thing is that none of the heroines was able to find themselves, both - each in its own way - squandered all the best that was given to them initially, with which they came into this world.

The finale of the work brings us back to the title. It is no coincidence that the story is called not "Olya Meshcherskaya", but "Light Breath". What is light breathing? The image is complex, multifaceted and undoubtedly symbolic. The heroine herself gives a literal interpretation of it: Easy breathing! But I have it - listen to how I sigh ... But each of us understands this image in his own way. Probably, naturalness, purity of the soul, faith in the bright beginning of life, thirst for life, without which Man is unthinkable, are fused in him. All this was in Ola Meshcherskaya, and now this light breath of sleep has dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind (our relaxation - A.N., I.N.). The highlighted word emphasizes the cyclical nature of what is happening: "light breathing" again and again takes on earthly forms. Maybe now it is embodied in one of us? As you can see, in the finale, the narrative acquires a universal, all-human meaning.

Rereading the story, we again and again admire the skill of Bunin, who imperceptibly guides the reader's perception, directs the thought to the deep reasons of what is happening, deliberately not allowing to get carried away by the entertaining intrigue. Recreating the appearance of the heroes, restoring the omitted links of the plot, each of us becomes a creator, as if writing his own story about the meaning of human life, about love and disappointment, about the eternal questions of human existence.

Narushevich A.G., Narushevich I.S.

Interpretation of I.A. Bunin "Easy Breathing //" Russian Literature. - 2002. - No. 4. - S. 25-27.