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

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1944

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

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

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

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

Direction– Neorealism.

History of creation

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

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

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

Subject

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

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

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

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

Composition

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

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

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

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

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

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

Main characters

Genre

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

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

Work test

Rating Analysis

Average rating: 4.3. Total ratings received: 524.

The story “Clean Monday,” written in 1944, is one of the author’s favorite stories. I. A. Bunin recounts the events of the distant past on behalf of the narrator - a young wealthy man with no special occupation. The hero is in love, and the heroine, as he sees her, makes a strange impression on the reader. She is good-looking, loves luxury, comfort, expensive restaurants, and at the same time she is a “modest student” and has breakfast in a vegetarian canteen on Arbat. She has a very critical attitude towards many fashionable works of literature, famous

to people. And she is clearly not in love with the hero as much as he would like. To his proposal of marriage, she replies that she is not fit to be a wife. "Odd love!" - the hero thinks about this. Reveals inner world heroine is completely unexpected for him: it turns out that she often visits churches, is deeply passionate about religion, church rituals. For her, this is not just religiosity - it is the need of her soul, her sense of homeland, antiquity, which is internally necessary for the heroine. The hero believes that these are just “Moscow quirks,” he cannot understand her and is deeply shocked by her choice when, after their only night of love, she decides to leave and then go to a monastery. For him, the collapse of love is a catastrophe of his entire life, unimaginable suffering. For her, the power of faith and the preservation of her inner world turned out to be higher than love; she decides to devote herself to God, renouncing everything worldly. The author does not reveal the reasons for it moral choice, what influenced her decision - social circumstances or moral and religious quests, but he clearly shows that the life of the soul is not subject to reason. This is especially emphasized in the episode last goodbye heroes in the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery. The heroes not only see how much they feel each other, they do not control their feelings: the hero “for some reason” wanted to enter the temple, the heroine internally feels her presence. This riddle, the mystery of human feelings, is one of the inherent properties of love in Bunin’s depiction, a tragic and powerful force that can turn a person’s whole life upside down.

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7. Included in the collection “Dark Alleys,” I. A. Bunin’s story “Clean Monday” was written in 1944. It combines tragic and lyrical principles. In the center...

Class- 11

Lesson objectives:

• introduce students to the life and work of I.A. Bunin, the book “Dark Alleys”;
• analyze the story “Clean Monday”: reveal the problem of love, find out the reasons tragic fate heroes;
• introduce the spiritual heritage of Russia;
• develop analytical reading skills epic work, the ability to make micro-conclusions and, with their help, a general conclusion; develop critical thinking
• , stage ability;
• to cultivate spiritual culture, responsibility for one’s actions and the fate of the country;

make interdisciplinary connections - draw parallels: literature, painting, music, religion. Equipment:

exhibition “Who wants to know Russia, visit Moscow”, portrait of I.A. Bunin, music by L.-V. Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”, D. Verdi’s opera “Aida”, “Red Ringing” of bells, candles, texts of the work and prayers of E. Sirin, Kustodiev’s painting “Maslenitsa”, magazine “LSh” - No. 2, 3, 1996, No. 3 , 1997, projector.

During the classes

I. Org. moment.

II. Preparation for the main stage.

Teacher's word.

Today we will get acquainted with the work of I.A. Bunin; Let's find out what problems the author touches on in the story “Clean Monday” and how the characters solve them.

III. Assimilation of new knowledge and methods of action.

1. Presentation about I.A. Bunin. Student’s speech.

2. Reading the epigraph.
Is there such a thing as unhappy love?
Doesn't the world's sad music give happiness?
All love is great happiness,
even if it is not divided.

I. Bunin

3. Analysis of the epigraph. Teacher's word. “She talks about the tragic and about many tender and beautiful things - I think that this is the best and most original thing that I have written in my life...”

Bunin's love amazes not only with the power of artistic representation, but also with its subordination to some internal, unknown laws. It's a secret. And not everyone, in his opinion, is given the opportunity to touch her. The state of love is not fruitless for the writer’s heroes; it elevates their souls. However, love is not only happiness, but also tragedy. It cannot end in marriage. Bunin's heroes part forever.

4. The history of writing the story “Clean Monday”.

The story “Clean Monday” was written on May 12, 1944.

Why is the date of writing specific, and the events described in the work refer to 1914? 1944 During the years of difficult trials for the country, I. Bunin reminded people of love as the most wonderful feeling in life. Thus, Bunin rejected fascism and exalted Russia.

5. The meaning of the story's title.

1) Historical background holiday. Reading a textbook article.

Maslenitsa – Forgiveness Sunday – Lent – ​​Clean Monday – Easter

2) Description of Clean Monday by I. Shmelev in the novel “The Summer of the Lord.”

(Against the background of Beethoven's music)

“Today is Clean Monday, and everything in our house is being cleaned... It’s dripping outside the window - when it starts crying. So she began to cry - drip... drip... drip... And something joyful is stirring in her heart: everything is new now, different. Now the soul will begin...”, “the soul must be prepared.” To fast, to fast, to prepare for the Bright Day... Today is a special day, a strict one... Yesterday was a forgiven day... Read - “Lord is the Lord of my life...”. The rooms are quiet and deserted, smelling of a sacred scent. In the hallway, in front of the reddish icon of the Crucifixion... they lit a Lenten... lamp, and now it will burn unquenchably until Easter. When my father lights the lamps - on Saturdays he lights the lamps himself - he always hums pleasantly and sadly: “Let us bow to Your Cross, Master,” and I sing after him, wonderful:

And holy... Thy Resurrection

Sla-a-vim!..

Joyful prayer! She shines with a gentle light in these sad days of Lent!”

6. Introduction to the Lenten prayer of Ephraim the Syrian.

Ephraim the Syrian is an outstanding figure of the Christian Church of the 4th century, the famous author of many theological works.

“Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idleness, covetousness and idle talk. Grant me the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to your servant! To her, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother, for blessed are you forever and ever. Amen".

7. Story composition.

The composition is consistent.

Winter at the beginning and end of the story is syntactic parallelism.

8. Conversation based on content.

Why is the plot interesting?

What emotions did the story evoke in you?

What kind of ending were you expecting?

Why didn't your hopes come true?

How would you end the story of this undying love?

Where does the action take place?

Name the holy places of Moscow mentioned in the story. (Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Novodevichy Convent, Conception Monastery, Archangel Cathedral, Marfo-Mariinsky Convent) (Excerpts from a poem about Moscow are heard while the bells are ringing)

Here, as it was, so now -
The heart of all Rus' is holy.
Here are her shrines
Behind the Kremlin wall!
(V.Bryusov)

Wonderful city ancient city,
You fit into your ends
And towns and villages,
And chambers and palaces!
Belted with a ribbon of arable land,
You are all colorful in the gardens:
How many temples, how many towers
On your seven hills!
Prosper glory everlasting,
City of temples and chambers!
Middle city, heartfelt city,
The city of indigenous Russia!
(F. Glinka)

“This is the Russia we lost,” I. Shmelev laments. And I. Bunin echoes him.

The story is built on contrasts.

Artistic detail plays a huge role. This is the color.

What is their function?

Yellow and red are traditional colors of icon painting.

Yellow symbolizes the Kingdom of Heaven.

Red – fire, i.e. life.

Black – humility, submission.

What does SHE do?

(Listening to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”)

Subject " Moonlight Sonata" - that's her.

He is the theme of the march from Aida. Prove it.

(Listen to Verdi's music)

“... human life is entirely under the power of a woman,” noted Maupassant.

Let's listen to their dialogue.

(There are two chairs nearby. She reads silently.)

She: - You are terribly talkative and restless, let me finish the chapter.

He: - If I hadn't been talkative and restless, I might never have recognized you

She: - That's all true, but still be silent for a while, read something, smoke...

He: - I can’t remain silent! You can't imagine the power of my love for you! You don't love me!

She: - I can imagine. As for my love, you know well, except for my father and you, I have no one in the world. In any case, you are my first and last. Is this not enough for you? But enough about that.

He (to himself): -Strange love.

She : - I’m not fit to be a wife. I'm not good, I'm not good.

He (to himself): -We’ll see there!

(out loud) No, this is beyond my strength! And why, why do you torture me and yourself so cruelly! “Yes, after all, this is not love, not love...”

She: - May be. Who knows what love is?

He : - I, I know! (exclaimed) And I will wait for you to find out what love and happiness are!

What do his internal remarks say?

Do you think they loved each other? Prove it.

Did he recognize her? Why?

And again the whole evening they talked about strangers.

So January, February passed... Maslenitsa.

On Forgiveness Sunday, she ordered him to come in the evening.

What day is this?

He has arrived. She met him, all in black.

Read their dialogue. (Reading dialogue)

Why does she want to go to a monastery?

Why didn't he know about her religiosity? What were you blinded by?

(Sounds “Moonlight Sonata”)

At 10 o'clock evening the next day (it was Clean Monday) he opened the door with his key. Everything was lit: chandeliers, candelabra, a lamp... and the “Moonlight Sonata” was playing. She stood near the piano in a black velvet dress.

They went to the cabbage party.

What kind of entertainment is this?

How did she behave? Why cheeky? What is strange about her character?

What was the weather like that evening? (Blizzard)

What role does a snowstorm play?

Why did she keep him after the “cabbage party”, which she had not done before?

Why did she take off everything black and remain in only swan slippers?

What role does white play?

Why was there no more snowstorm when he left her?

Why is she leaving for Tver?

What letter did she write? Read it.

Why did she go to the monastery?

Why wasn’t he surprised by this ending to their meetings? (Didn't look into the soul)

Re-read the ending of the story.

When it was?

What brought him to the monastery?

What did he understand?

Why did he turn and quietly walk out of the gate?

Why is the story told in 1st person?

IV. Systematization and generalization of knowledge.

Conclusions from the lesson.

Any real love- great happiness, even if it ends in separation, death, tragedy. Bunin’s heroes, who have lost, overlooked, or destroyed their love themselves, come to this conclusion, albeit late. In that late repentance, in the late spiritual resurrection of the heroes, we see real people, their imperfection, inability to value what is nearby, and we also see the imperfection of life itself, social conditions, circumstances that often interfere with truly human relationships.

The story, which tells about tragic collisions, does not carry pessimism. He's like music, like everything great art, cleanses, elevates the soul, affirming the truly high and beautiful.

V. Summing up the lesson.

VI. Reflection.

VII. Information about homework.

How would you conclude the story? Complete the love story.

The theme of love is an eternal theme. It was addressed by poets and writers of different times, and each tried to interpret this multifaceted feeling in their own way.

I. A Bunin gives his vision of the topic in the cycle of stories “Dark Alleys”. The collection includes thirty-eight stories, all of them are about love, but none of them creates a feeling of repetition, and after reading all the works in the cycle there is no feeling of exhaustion of the topic.

At the center of the story “Clean Monday” is the story of a mysterious and mysterious love. Its heroes are a young couple of lovers. Both of them are “rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that in restaurants and at concerts” those around them watched them go. But the inner world of the heroes is not so similar.

He is blinded by his love. Every Saturday he brings flowers to his chosen one, every now and then spoils her with boxes of chocolate, tries to please her with new books he brought, every evening he invites her to a restaurant, then to the theater, or to some party. Completely absorbed in the feeling of adoration, he cannot and does not really try to understand what a complex inner world lies behind the beautiful appearance of the one he fell in love with. Repeatedly he thinks about the unusualness and strangeness of their relationship, but never once puts an end to these thoughts. "Odd love!" - he remarks. Another time he says: “Yes, after all, this is not love, not love...”. He is surprised at why she “once and for all stopped talking about their future”; he is surprised at how she perceives his gifts, how she behaves in moments of rapprochement. Everything about her is a mystery to him.

The image of the hero is devoid of the psychological depth that the heroine is endowed with. There is no logical motivation in her actions. Every day visiting those establishments where a young lover invites her, she one day notices that she wants to go to the Novo Maiden Convent, because “it’s all taverns and taverns.” The hero has no idea where these thoughts come from, what they are for, what suddenly happened to his chosen one. And a little later she declares that there is nothing to be surprised about, that he simply does not know her. It turns out that she often visits the Kremlin cathedrals, and this happens when her lover “doesn’t drag” her around restaurants. There, and not in entertainment establishments, she finds a sense of harmony and peace of mind. She loves “Russian chronicles, Russian legends” and her stories about this are full of depth. She says she is not fit to be a wife. Thinking about happiness, quotes Platon Karataev. But the hero still cannot understand what is going on in her soul, he is “indescribably happy with every hour spent near her” and that’s all.

As in the other stories of the “Dark Alleys” series, Bunin does not show in “Clean Monday” love that develops into a state of lasting earthly happiness. Love here also does not end with a happy marriage, and we do not find the image of a woman-mother here. The heroine, having entered into a physically intimate relationship with her beloved, silently leaves, begging him not to ask anything, and then informs him by letter of her departure to the monastery. She rushed for a long time between the momentary and the eternal and, on the night of Clean Monday, surrendering to the hero, she made her final choice. On Clean Monday, the first day of fasting, a person begins to cleanse himself of everything bad. This holiday became a turning point in the relationships between the heroes.

Love in “Clean Monday” is happiness and torment, great secret, an incomprehensible mystery. This story is one of the pearls of Bunin’s work, captivating the reader with its rare charm and depth.

One of the main themes of the writer’s work is the theme of love. Bunin approached this topic with all his soul, and neither war nor revolution could shake this attachment of his. In this area, full of unexpressed shades and ambiguities, his gift found worthy use. He described love in all states, and in emigration he treated this feeling even more closely and concentratedly. Love in Bunin’s depiction amazes not only with the power of artistic representation, but also with its subordination to some internal laws unknown to man. But these laws do not often break through to the surface - most people do not experience their fatal impact until the end of their days. This depiction of love unexpectedly gives Bunins sober, “merciless” talent a romantic glow. The proximity of love and death, their conjugation were obvious facts for Bunin and were never questioned. However, the catastrophic nature of existence, the fragility of human relationships and existence itself - all these favorite Bunin themes after the gigantic social cataclysms that shook Russia were filled with a new formidable meaning. “Love is beautiful” and “love is doomed” - these concepts, having finally come together, coincided, carrying in the depths of each story the personal grief of Bunin the emigrant. During the war years, Bunin completed a book of short stories, “Dark Alleys,” which was published in full in 1946 in Paris. This is the only book in Russian literature that is “all about love.” Thirty-eight short stories in the collection provide a great variety of unforgettable female images- Rusya, Antigone, Galya Ganskaya, the heroine of “Clean Monday”.

In Bunin's story "Clean Monday" the heroine is nameless. The name is not important, the name is for the earth, and God knows everyone even without a name. Bunin calls the heroine - she. From the very beginning she was strange, silent, unusual, as if a stranger to the whole world around her, looking through it, “kept thinking about something, always seemed to delve into something mentally; lying on the sofa with a book in her hands, she often lowered it and looked questioningly in front of her.” She seemed to be from a completely different world, and just so that she would not be recognized in this world, she read, went to the theater, had lunch, dinner, went for walks, and attended courses. “We were both rich; healthy, young and so good-looking that in restaurants and at concerts they looked at us,” says the hero of “Clean Monday.” It would seem that they have everything for absolute happiness. What else is needed? “Our happiness, my friend,” his beloved quotes Platon Karataev as saying, “is like water in delirium: if you pull it, it’s inflated, but if you pull it out, there’s nothing.” The hero and heroine of the story are different natures. The hero of “Clean Monday” is an “ordinary” person, for all his physical attractiveness and emotional fullness. But the heroine is different. In her strange actions one can sense the significance of her character, the rarity of her “chosen nature.” Her mind is torn. She is not averse to plunging into the “today’s” life of that elite Moscow - Chaliapin’s concerts, “kapustniks” Art Theater, some courses, reading fashionable Western writers of the beginning of the century: Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, Przybyshevsky, lectures by Andrei Bely, etc., but internally she is alien (like Bunin himself) to all this. She was always drawn to something lighter, intangible, to faith, to God, and just as the Church of the Savior was close to the windows of her apartment, so God was close to her heart. She often went to churches, visited monasteries and old cemeteries. She is intensely looking for something whole, heroic, selfless and finds her ideal in serving God. The present seems pitiful and untenable to her. And finally she made up her mind. IN last days worldly life, she drank its cup to the dregs, forgave everyone in Forgiveness Sunday and was cleansed of the ashes of this life on “Clean Monday”: she went to a monastery. “No, I’m not fit to be a wife.” She knew from the very beginning that she could not be a wife. She is destined to be an eternal bride, the bride of Christ. She found her love, she chose her path. You might think that she left home, but in fact she went home. And even her earthly lover forgave her for this. I forgave, although I did not understand. He could not understand that now “she can see in the dark,” and “left the gates” of a strange monastery.

This is one of the stories " Dark alleys" In this collection you can find both rough sensuality and a simply skillfully told playful anecdote (“One Hundred Rupees”), but the theme of pure and beautiful love runs through the book. The heroes are characterized by extraordinary strength and sincerity of feeling; there is no inherent savoring of risky details in them. Love seems to say: “Where I stand cannot be dirty!”