The main idea is light breathing Bunin. The essay “The meaning of the title and problems of Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing. "Easy breath" of life
One of the most widely known works of I.A. Bunin is undoubtedly the story “Easy Breathing”. It can be assumed that the impetus for its writing was the writer’s trip to Capri, where during a walk the writer saw a tombstone with a medallion in a small cemetery. It depicted a very young and unusually beautiful girl with a happy expression on her face. The tragedy of this terrible contradiction, apparently, so struck the writer that he decided to “revive” the heroine on the pages of his prose.
The image of “light breathing” that organizes the entire story is taken from an old book, which the main character Olya Meshcherskaya reads, retelling to her friend an episode that particularly struck her. It says that a woman should be able to be beautiful and the most important thing about her is “easy breathing.” The heroine joyfully concludes that she has it and that only happiness awaits her in life. However, fate decrees otherwise.
The central character of this story is high school student Olya Meshcherskaya. She is famous for her beauty, sweet spontaneity, charming naturalness. “She was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that became bare when falling while running,” the author of the story lovingly writes about her. There is even something from Natasha Rostova in Olya - the same love of life, the same openness to the whole world. No one danced better than Olya, no one skated better, no one was looked after like that. This young creature with sparkling, lively eyes seemed created only for happiness.
But one Cossack officer, who sought intimacy with her and was refused, ends this young wonderful life with one shot.
This ending is too tragic, and sometimes I want to reproach the writer for such a painful ending. But let’s think about it: did the shot really kill the heroine? Maybe the officer only pulled the trigger, and the tragedy happened much earlier?
Indeed, reading the story, you wonder why, besides Olya, in this provincial town there is not a single person worthy of being depicted with the same admiration. The rest of the characters simply leave us indifferent, like Meshcherskaya’s friend, for example, or they cause disgust. This is Olya’s father’s friend, fifty-six-year-old Malyutin. The whole city seems to be saturated with a suffocating atmosphere of vulgarity, inertia and depravity. Indeed, how can you explain Olya’s behavior? Yes, she is charming, sweet, natural, but reading the scene where Meshcherskaya admits to the head of the gymnasium that she is already a woman, you can’t help but be embarrassed by such a terrible dual personality: on the one hand, Olya is perfection itself, on the other hand, she is just a girl , who knew the joy of carnal pleasures too early. These contradictory images of the same heroine do not make it possible to understand her character unambiguously, and sometimes an almost hooligan thought comes to mind: isn’t Olya Nabokov’s Lola, introduced by Bunin into literature long before the author of “Lolita”?
In my opinion, the motives for the actions of the heroine of “Easy Breathing” are very difficult to evaluate from a logical point of view. They are irrational, “uterine”. Revealing the image of such an ambiguous heroine as Meshcherskaya, one should not be afraid to consider different and even opposing points of view. We said above that Olya’s fate and character are a product of the inert provincial environment where she grew up. Now, faced with the amazing inconsistency of the heroine, we can assume something completely different.
Bunin, as you know, although he is considered the last classic of critical realism, still does not fully follow his principles of depicting reality. To say that Meshcherskaya is just a product of an environment that corrupts and kills young innocence means, in my opinion, to consider the story too straightforwardly, thereby impoverishing the original author’s intention. Correct society, and there will be no vices - this is what they said in the 19th century, but in the 20th they increasingly do not look for reasons, saying that the world is unknowable. Meshcherskaya is like that, and nothing more. As another argument, we can recall the stories of Bunin
about love, especially “Dark Alleys”, where the actions of the heroes are also very difficult to motivate. It’s as if they are controlled by some blind, unreasoning force, spontaneously giving people happiness and sorrow in half. In general, Bunin is characterized by just such a worldview. Let us recall the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco,” in which fate takes the hero’s life in the most unexpected way, without giving any explanation. In the light of these considerations, we can make a judgment about Olya that is opposite and to some extent counterbalances our first conclusions: the writer, in the image of a high school student unlike others, wanted to show the true nature of a woman who is completely at the mercy of blind, “uterine” instincts. The conviction that life disposes of us solely at its own discretion is best illustrated by the example of a young girl who experienced life too early and therefore died untimely.
Probably, it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question of who Olya really is, what problems Bunin raises in this story, and it is hardly necessary. You can delve deeper into the image of the main character, better understand the specifics and problems of the story and try to reconcile the two opposing points of view outlined above by thinking about the title. “Light breathing”, which “dissipated forever in this cold wind”, is, in my opinion, a figurative expression of what is spiritual, truly human in a person. A charming and at the same time depraved schoolgirl, a stupid and evil officer who left her, a provincial town with all its ugliness - all this will remain on the sinful earth, and this spirit that lived in Ola Meshcherskaya will fly upward to again be embodied in something and remind us that, besides our vain and petty thoughts and deeds, there is something else in the world that is beyond our control. This, in my opinion, is the enduring significance of the outstanding story of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.
The story “Easy Breathing,” written in 1916, is deservedly considered one of the pearls of Bunin’s prose - the image of the heroine is so succinctly and vividly captured in it, and the feeling of beauty is so tenderly conveyed. What is “light breathing”, why has this phrase long ago become a common noun to denote human talent - the talent to live? To understand this, let's analyze the story "Easy Breathing."
Bunin builds his narrative on contrasts. Already from the first lines, the reader has some kind of dual feeling: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, a cold wind that “rings and rings like a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross.” Here is the beginning of the story: “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay mound, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth... A rather large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the cross itself, and in the medallion is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes.” . The whole life of Olechka Meshcherskaya is described according to the principle of contrast: cloudless childhood and adolescence are contrasted with the tragic events of the last year Olya lived. The author everywhere emphasizes the gap between the apparent and the real, the external and internal state of the heroine. The plot of the story is extremely simple. The young, recklessly happy beauty schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya becomes first the prey of an elderly sensualist, and then a living target for the Cossack officer deceived by her. The tragic death of Meshcherskaya motivates a lonely little woman - a classy lady - to frantic, withering “service” to her memory. The apparent simplicity of the story's plot is disrupted by the contrast: a heavy cross and joyful, lively eyes, which makes the reader's heart clench anxiously. It will haunt us throughout the entire story about the short life of Olya Meshcherskaya. The simplicity of the plot is deceptive: after all, this is a story not only about the fate of a young girl, but also about the joyless fate of a classy lady, accustomed to living someone else’s life, shining with reflected light - the light of Olya Meshcherskaya’s “living eyes”.
Bunin believed that the birth of a person is not his beginning, which means that death is not the end of the existence of his soul. The soul - its symbol is “light breathing” - does not disappear irrevocably. She is the best, real part of life. The embodiment of this life was the heroine of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya. The girl is so natural that even the external manifestations of her existence cause rejection among some and admiration among others: “And she was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that became bare when falling while running. Without any her worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly came to her everything that had so distinguished her from the entire gymnasium in the last two years - grace, elegance, dexterity, the clear sparkle of her eyes ... "At first glance, before us is an ordinary high school student - a beautiful, prosperous and slightly flighty girl, the daughter of wealthy parents, who is expecting a brilliant match.
But our attention is constantly and persistently directed to some hidden springs of Olya’s life. To do this, the author delays the explanation of the reasons for the death of the heroine, as if generated by the very logic of the girl’s behavior. Maybe she herself is to blame for everything? After all, she flirts with the high school student Shenshin, flirts, albeit unconsciously, with Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduces her, for some reason promises the Cossack officer to marry him. For what? Why does she need all this? And gradually we understand that Olya Meshcherskaya is beautiful, just as the elements are beautiful. And just as immoral as she is. She wants to reach the limit in everything, to the depth, to the innermost essence, regardless of the opinions of others. In Olya’s actions there is no meaningful vice, no sense of revenge, no pain of repentance, no firmness of decision. It turns out that a wonderful feeling of fullness of life can be destructive. Even the unconscious longing for her (like a classy lady) is tragic. Therefore, every detail, every step of Olya’s life threatens disaster: curiosity and pranks can lead to violence, frivolous play with other people’s feelings can lead to murder. Olya Meshcherskaya lives, and does not play the role of a living being. This is her essence. This is her fault. To be extremely alive without following the rules of the game means to be extremely doomed. After all, the environment in which Meshcherskaya was destined to appear was completely devoid of an organic, holistic sense of beauty. Here life is subject to strict rules, the violation of which has to be paid. Olya, who was accustomed not only to teasing fate, but simply to bravely go towards new sensations and impressions in their entirety, did not have the chance to meet a person who would appreciate not only her physical beauty, but also her spiritual generosity and brightness. After all, Olya really had “light breathing” - a thirst for some special, unique destiny, worthy only of the chosen few. The teacher, who was unable to save her student, recalls her words, accidentally overheard during recess. Among the detailed description of female beauty and the half-childish “trying on” of this description to one’s own appearance, the phrase about “easy breathing” sounds so unexpectedly, taken literally by the girl: “...But the main thing, you know what? - easy breathing! But I have it - you listen to how I sigh..." The author leaves to the world not the beauty of the girl, not her experience, but only this never-revealed opportunity. She, according to Bunin, cannot completely disappear, just as the craving for beauty, happiness, for perfection cannot disappear: “Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”
“Easy breathing” in Bunin’s view is the ability to enjoy life and accept it as a bright gift. Olya Meshcherskaya captivated those around her with her generous and fierce love of life, but in the meager world of the small town, unfortunately for her, there was no person capable of protecting her “light breath” from the “cold spring wind.”
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The story “Easy Breathing” is one of the most complex and philosophically filled works by I.A. Bunina. The reader is presented with a rather simple story from the life of an ordinary high school student, but it is precisely this story that makes one think about many pressing issues not only of modernity, but also of existence.
“Easy Breathing,” according to its genre characteristics, refers to a short story that sets itself the task of showing, through a unique and specific event, not only the fate of its hero, but also to recreate a picture of the life of the entire society, including its vices and delusions.
The composition of the story is complex and unusual. The technique of reverse narration is used as a basis. At the beginning of the work, the reader learns that the main character Olya Meshcherskaya is dead, and then gets acquainted with her and the story of her life, already understanding that it will be tragic.
Analysis of Bunin’s work “Easy Breathing”
Compositional shifts and contrasts occur throughout the story. First there is a narrative from the present (the girl’s grave), which moves on to events of the past (a description of life in the gymnasium). Then the reader returns to a time close to the present - the death of Olya and the investigation of the officer who committed the murder. After which the narrative again moves into the past, telling about the vulgar connection between the girl and Malyutin. Here again the present is described: a cool lady on the way to the cemetery where the heroine is buried. The work ends with another reference to the past - a dialogue between Ole Meshcherskaya and her friend and her thoughts about the “light breathing” of a woman.
In each episode telling about the stage of Meshcherskaya’s life (growing up, moral decline and death), the author turns to various forms: narrative, portrait, speech of characters, landscape sketches, diary entries and author’s remarks.
The time of the work is constantly interrupted or stopped, and the reader reconstructs the chronology of what happened. The narrative is vague, but thanks to this, reading the novella not only arouses interest, but also gives new meanings, provides an answer to the main question: “Why is Olya’s fate so tragic?”
Everyone is to blame for what happened. This is also a cool lady who was unable to establish communication with her student, give her advice and become a mentor. Naturally, this is Malyutin, who seduced and seduced Olya. There is some blame also on the shoulders of the girl’s parents, who are mentioned a little in the story. Were they not obliged to protect their daughter from frivolity and, at a minimum, not to make friends with a person like Malyutin.
The tragic outcome was also predetermined by Ole Meshcherskaya’s attitude towards life. A person is also responsible for his destiny and what happens to him. I.A. Bunin speaks about this very clearly in his work.
Interpretation of “Easy Breathing” in the context of the psychology of art
The book about the psychology of art belongs to the outstanding psychologist and cultural scientist Lev Vygotsky. In particular, the author is also considering the story of Ivan Bunin. According to Vygotsky, in the story the writer innovatively introduces two lines of narration that develop in parallel and do not fit into the traditional chronotope (the term of Mikhail Bakhtin, another, no less eminent Russian culturologist). These are storylines.
The first line is dedicated to visiting the grave of Olya Meshcherskaya. In fact, this part tells about the cool lady of the girl, about the headmistress of the boarding house where Olga studied. The woman uses Olya’s grave as a platform for the imaginary realization of her own unrealistic hopes and dreams. The cool lady seems to be trying on the life of Olya Meshcherskaya. The second line - the main one - is the story about the fate of the deceased girl. The heroine Bunin lived a short but bright life, and the reader can easily compare Olya with a moth that lives only one day.
Vygotsky also writes about lines that are outside of Bunin’s story itself. Thus, one line is what “the poet took as ready-made” (meaning a description of nature, a cemetery, life, a boarding house, everyday life, characters, etc.), and the second line is “the arrangement of this material according to the laws artistic construction." Vygotsky calls the first line the material or plot of the work, and the second line the form or plot. In turn, the plot branches into two more chronologically inconsistent lines, which we wrote about above.
Characteristics of the main characters of the story “Easy Breathing”
Olya Meshcherskaya is the main character of the story. She is the daughter of wealthy parents. He dances and skates best at balls. The girl differs from her peers in her beauty and femininity: early “she began to blossom, to develop by leaps and bounds,” and “at fifteen she was already known as a beauty.” Olya is opposed to other high school students with her attitude to life. While others carefully combed their hair, were very clean, and “watched their restrained movements,” the heroine of the story was not afraid of “neither ink stains on their fingers, nor a flushed face, nor disheveled hair.”
Her image intertwines childish naivety, sincerity, simplicity with unprecedented femininity and beauty. Such a destructive combination gave rise to envy, jealousy, and the emergence of thousands of rumors that she was flighty, incapable of love, and was driving her loved one to suicide with her behavior. However, the author makes it clear that these opinions of people about Olga Meshcherskaya are groundless. Her beauty and uniqueness attracts not only young people, but also evil with a fatal outcome.
Children are drawn to the heroine, who feel that she is a good person. The narrator constantly mentions Olya only in the context of beautiful landscapes and harmonious places. When she is skating, it is a beautiful pink evening outside. When a girl is on a walk, the sun shines “through the whole wet garden.” All this indicates the author's sympathy for his character.
Olga always reaches out to the beautiful, the perfect. She is not satisfied with the philistine attitude towards herself and life. However, it is precisely this position of the main character, together with her uniqueness and spiritual subtlety, that predetermine the tragic outcome. How could it have been different? No. Olya Meshcherskaya is opposed to the whole world, her actions are unconscious, and her behavior does not depend on modern norms and rules accepted in society.
The rest of the characters, including the cool lady, Malyutin, Olya’s friend and other people around, were introduced by the author only to emphasize the heroine’s individuality, her unusualness and originality.
The main idea of the story “Easy Breathing”
Researchers have long come to the conclusion that it is not so much the external, but the internal plot, filled with psychological, poetic and philosophical meanings, that helps to understand the author’s intention.
The heroine of the story is frivolous, but in a good sense of the word. Unknowingly, she is exposed to a love affair with Malyutin, her father's friend. But is this really the fault of the girl who believed an adult who talked about his feelings for her, who, as it turned out, showed ostentatious kindness and seemed like a real gentleman?
Olya Meshcherskaya is not like all the other characters, she is opposed to them and at the same time lonely. The episode of the fall and relationship with Malyutin only exacerbated the internal conflict and protest of the heroine.
The main character's motives
A number of researchers believe that the heroine herself sought death. She specifically handed over a sheet from the diary to the officer, who learned about the vicious affair of his beloved and was so upset that he shot the girl. Thus, Olga broke out of the vicious circle.
Other literary scholars believe that one mistake, i.e. The vicious relationship with Malyutin did not make the girl think about what happened. As a result, Olga started a relationship with an officer who had “absolutely nothing in common with the circle to which she belonged,” making her second and already fatal mistake.
Let's look at the episode of farewell to the officer at the station from a different angle. Olga gave him the most valuable and intimate thing - a sheet of paper with an entry from the diary. What if she loved her future killer and decided to tell the bitter truth about what happened to her. True, the officer did not take this as a confession, but as a mockery, a deception of the one who “swore to be his wife.”
One of the most famous stories reveals to the reader Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, without trying to embellish the real lives of people.
When interpreting the story by I.A. Bunin’s “Easy Breathing” opens up to the reader not only different meanings, but also options for interpreting events. There are many reasons for the tragedy that happened in the work, as well as attempts to explain them.
We can say with confidence that the image of Olga Meshcherskaya is contradictory, but sympathetic to the author. While the world around us is shown as meager and gray, incapable of feelings, actions and understanding of what is happening. This is confirmed by the images of Malyutin, the head of the gymnasium, and a Cossack officer. The heroine’s environment is not just alien, but hostile to beauty, with its stupidity and vulgarity it destroys that extraordinary and unique thing that is in a person - “easy breathing” or the desire to live, surrendering to one’s feelings and emotions.
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About “Easy Breathing” by Bunin
Literature of the highest category
Ivannikova V.I.
MBOU Lyceum No. 8
G. Stavropol
This material is not a lesson summary, but also not an article in the classical sense of the word. This is my vision of what Bunin wanted to say with his story “Easy Breathing,” as well as an analysis of lessons in different 11th grades based on this work, preserving the logic of these lessons, thanks to which each teacher can easily restore their structure and create their own lesson.
On the eve of October, Bunin writes stories about the loss and loneliness of man, about the catastrophic nature of his existence, about the tragedy of his love, about the transience and fragility of beauty in our lives. Perhaps the most complete expression of all these themes was found in the poetic miniature “Easy Breathing,” which tells the sad story of high school student Olya Meshcherskaya, built as a chain of memories and thoughts about the fate of the heroine, caused by the contemplation of her grave. One cannot but agree with the researcher of the life and work of I.A. Bunin Smirnova L.A., who called the story “Easy Breathing” the pearl of Bunin’s prose - “the image of the heroine is so succinctly and vividly captured in it, the feeling of the Beautiful is so tenderly conveyed, despite her bleak fate.”
When studying the writer’s work at school, it seems impossible to ignore this work: it captivates both teachers and high school students alike. Evoking a lively response in the souls of students, because the heroine is their peer, whose life was so absurdly and tragically cut short, the story nevertheless turns out to be difficult for them from the point of view of understanding and comprehending the main idea, the motives of the main character’s behavior, and the seeming inconsistency of her actions. Moreover, both in literary criticism and in criticism there is no unambiguous assessment of this work. Thus, psychologist L.S. Vygotsky reduced the entire content of Bunin’s story to Olya’s love affairs with Malyutin and a Cossack officer - all this “led her astray.” K. Paustovsky argued: “This is not a story, but an insight, life itself with its trepidation and love, the writer’s sad and calm reflection - an epitaph to girlish beauty.” N. Kucherovsky gave his conclusion: “Easy breathing” is not just and not only “an epitaph for girlish beauty,” but also an epitaph for the spiritual “aristocratism” of existence, which in life is opposed by the brute and merciless force of “plebeianism.” L.A. Smirnova believes that “Olya... does not notice her frivolous intoxication with empty pleasures... The story “Easy Breathing” develops the root theme of Bunin - an unconscious state that is dangerous for human relationships and for the fate of an individual.”
This miniature is also interpreted differently by school teachers. As a practicing teacher, who is not the first time studying this work with high school students, I have formed my own view of “Easy Breathing”, my own version of studying this story in literature lessons in the 11th grade.
It is a well-known fact that Bunin’s prose very often echoes his poetic work. The story “Easy Breathing” was written in 1916, and in spirit, mood, and general themes, the poems “Epitaph” and “Unsettling Light” (September 1917), as well as the previously written “Portrait” (1903), are closest to it, in my opinion. G.).
Epitaph
On earth you were like a wonderful bird of paradise
On the branches of a cypress, among gilded tombs.
And radiant suns shone from black eyelashes.
Rock tagged you. You were not a dweller on earth.
Beauty only in Eden knows no forbidden boundaries.
19.IX.17
The light never sets
There, in the fields, in the churchyard,
In a grove of old birches,
Not graves, not bones -
The kingdom of joyful dreams.
The summer wind blows
Greenery of long branches -
And it flies to me
The light of your smile.
Not a slab, not a crucifix -
Still in front of me
Institute dress
And a shining gaze.
Are you lonely?
Aren't you with me
In our distant past,
Where was I different?
In the world of the earthly circle,
The present day
Young, former
I've been gone for a long time too!
24.IX.17
The poems “Epitaph” and “Unsettling Light” were taken by me as an epigraph to the lesson. The lesson begins with their discussion. A direct analysis of the work opens with the question:
What feelings and emotions does the main character of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya, evoke in you?Students' responses show that young people's perception of the heroine is very different, emotions are complex and contradictory. Some people like a girl for her beauty, naturalness, independence; many condemn her for her frivolous behavior and frivolity; some are both attracted and repelled by Olya, but most high school students are perplexed by the heroine’s connection with a Cossack officer. After summing up the student’s perception, we move on to the question:
How do you think the author treats his heroine?In order to answer this question, we recall the features of Bunin’s poetics, which were studied in previous lessons. Bunin is very laconic in expressing his attitude towards the characters and, nevertheless, by the words that the author selects, and especially by the intonation and mood conveyed by the writer, his attitude can be determined. Students, often not understanding the meaning of the work, usually feel its atmosphere very accurately. The mood of slight sadness, sadness, regret for the heroine who has passed away, which permeates “Easy Breathing,” is unmistakably felt by them. And many high school students say that the author, it seems to them, admires his heroine. According to the students, this is reflected in the title of the work (beautiful, poetic, airy, like the main character herself - the students’ statements), and in the conversation Olya overheard with her friend about female beauty, and in the last lines of the story. It is obvious that the feelings of the students and the author towards Olya Meshcherskaya are different. We are trying to understand what caused Bunin’s mood, his admiration for the heroine and his attitude towards her, because Olya’s actions and behavior can hardly be called moral. And first of all, we pay attention to how and how many times Olya’s eyes and gaze are depicted in this poetic miniature, because eyes are the mirror of the soul (one or more students are given a preliminary task - to find and write down all the epithets that the author gives to the heroine’s eyes) . These are the epithets: “a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes”, “the clear sparkle of the eyes”, “shining eyes”, “looking at her clearly and vividly”, “whose eyes shine so immortally”, “with that pure look” . Such close attention to the heroine’s eyes, I think, cannot be an accident. A clean, clear, shining look suggests that Olya’s soul is also pure. But how then can one explain the heroine’s connection with Malyutin and the Cossack officer, rumors about her frivolity, frivolity and inconstancy?What should we believe – Olya’s pure gaze or her actions?We turn to the conversation between Olya and her friend overheard by the class lady about female beauty (the episode is read out by a trained student or staged). Of all the signs of beauty, this girl, with some inner instinct, chooses the most important, immortal thing - light breathing. Question for high school students:
What associations does the phrase “light breathing” give you?Purity, freshness, freedom, elusiveness, spontaneity. These words are most often heard in student responses. Please note that all these are signs not of external, but of internal beauty. And all of them - both external and internal signs - are present in Ola Meshcherskaya. This is what captivates the main character of the story: physical and spiritual beauty organically merged in her, which, only when united together, create harmony. Inner integrity and harmony, the gift of femininity and beauty, which are not noticed or realized, the talent to live life to the fullest - this is exactly what sets Olya apart from others. That is why “she was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that became bare when falling while running...”.
Now let’s turn to what happened to Olya in the summer and what we learn about from her diary. Question for students:
How does the heroine perceive what happened? Which diary lines seem most important to you?High school students note the heroine’s amazing calmness and even some kind of detachment when describing what happened to her at the beginning of the diary and a literal explosion of emotions at the very end: “I don’t understand how this could happen, I’m crazy, I never thought what am I like! Now I have only one way out... I feel such disgust for him that I can’t get over it!..” It is these lines, according to the students (and I absolutely agree with them), that are the most significant, as they make it possible to understand the character and actions of Olya Meshcherskaya and all subsequent events. Answering the questions: “What happened to Olya? How do you understand the words “I never thought I was like this!”? What kind of way out, in your opinion, are we talking about?”, students come to the conclusion that the heroine has lost her “light breathing,” her purity, innocence, freshness, and she perceives this loss as a tragedy. Apparently, the only way out she sees is to die.
But how then can we understand Olya’s behavior in the last winter of her life?We turn to this episode already knowing what happened to the heroine in the summer. The students’ task is to find words and sentences that show Olya’s state. High school students highlight the following sentences: “In her last winter, Olya Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun,as they said in high school...", "unnoticed her gymnasium fame was strengthened, and rumors had already begun, that she is flighty, cannot live without fans,” “... the crowd in which Olya Meshcherskaya seemed the most carefree, the happiest." We focus students’ attention on the highlighted phrases: “as they said in high school», « the rumors have already begun,” « seemed the most carefree, the happiest" In most cases, boys and girls are able to independently conclude that this is an external view, far from a true understanding of what is actually happening in the heroine’s soul. Olya really only seems carefree and happy. And her crazy fun is, in my opinion, just an attempt to forget, to get away from the pain, from what happened in the summer. The attempt, as we know, was unsuccessful. Why? It is difficult for me to agree with those critics and teachers who say that Olya does not notice her intoxication with empty pleasures, that she easily and carefree flits through life, unnoticed by herself and calmly overstepping moral norms and rules, that she is a “sinner”, not remembering her fall." In my opinion, Bunin’s text does not give us grounds for such conclusions. Olya cannot come to terms with the loss of “easy breathing”, with the realization “that she is like this!” The heroine judges herself, and her moral maximalism does not give her the possibility of justification. What's the solution? Olya will find him. Students again turn to the text, read out (we are dramatizing this episode) an episode in which the heroine’s life is tragically cut short. Question for students:
Do you think the murder of Olya Meshcherskaya by a Cossack officer was a tragic accident?(the students’ task is to find words and expressions that help them understand the motives and reasons for Olya’s actions). Independently or with the help of a teacher, high school students highlight the following points: “Cossack officer,ugly and plebeian looking, who did not have exactly nothing in common with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged,” “said that Meshcherskaya lured him in was close to him, vowed to be his wife, and at the station... suddenly told him that she and I never thought to lovehim that all this talk about marriage -one mockery above them gave it to him to readthat page of the diary where it was said about Malyutin.” All highlighted phrases and words, in my opinion, clearly tell us about the intentionality, consciousness, and purposefulness of the main character’s actions. It is quite obvious that, by starting an affair with an “ugly... plebeian-looking” Cossack officer not of her circle, Olya was pursuing some goal. And her behavior at the station, at the moment of farewell, is nothing more than a provocation. A provocation that could not end except with a shot. And this shot, which tragically cut short the life of Olya Meshcherskaya, is the only way out that was found by the heroine of the story: it was impossible to leave herself, to come to terms with the loss of “easy breathing”, to live on with the knowledge that she is “like this” is impossible. But she didn’t have enough courage to leave the life of someone who, in the writer’s opinion, is the embodiment of life itself. And Bunin does not show a murder scene, but a successful suicide attempt. Awareness of this fact makes students look at the main character of the story with different eyes. Having lost her physical purity and innocence, Olya Meshcherskaya did not lose her integrity and spiritual purity - her moral maximalism is proof of this. And with her death she regained “the light breath that again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”
What did Bunin want to say with his story, what is its hidden meaning?The composition of the story helps us answer this question. It is very complex and at first glance chaotic, but only at first... It is this construction of the story, in my opinion, that gives us the key to unraveling and understanding the essence of the work. Together with the students, we draw a compositional diagram of the story: “Easy Breathing” (in this case, the title is undoubtedly a full-fledged element of the composition) – cemetery – the heyday of the heroine and her last winter, including a conversation with the head of the gymnasium (an external view of the heroine) – murder scene – a diary – a cemetery again – the story of a cool lady – Olya’s conversation with her friend overheard about easy breathing – the ending of the story (“Now it’s easy breathing...”). After drawing up the diagram, the ring composition, and a double composition (cemetery - cemetery, light breathing - light breathing), of this lyrical miniature, and the central place of Olya's diary, and the fact that the author leads us from an external view of the heroine to comprehending her inner essence, become obvious . All this, according to L.A. Smirnova, “allows us to preserve the amazing breath of beauty, the “immortally shining” eyes” of the main character. I cannot disagree with her, especially since compositionally the ring “cemetery - cemetery” is located inside the ring “light breathing - light breathing”. Thus, with the whole structure of his story, covered with quiet sadness and lyricism, rhythmic, like the breath of the main character, a story written at the height of the 1st World War, I. A Bunin convinces us of the triumph of life over death, of fragility and at the same time the indestructibility of beauty and love.
Analysis of the story will be incomplete without discussing two more questions:
What role does the main character’s conversation with the head of the gymnasium play in the story? Why is the story of her classy lady given in the work about the life and death of Olya Meshcherskaya? These questions are offered to students as homework, and the next lesson on the works of I. A. Bunin will begin with their discussion.
Literature:
1. Smirnova L.A. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. – M., “Enlightenment”, 1991. -192 p.
2. Vygotsky L.S. Psychology of art. – M., 1987. – p.140-156.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin entered the history of Russian literature as a writer capable of surprisingly subtly and reverently describing such a multifaceted feeling as love. One of his most striking works on this topic was the work “Easy Breathing”. Analysis of the story will allow you to better understand the psychology of this feeling, and will be especially useful for 11th grade students when preparing for a literature lesson.
Brief Analysis
Year of writing– 1916.
History of creation– The story was written under the impression of a walk through the cemetery, where the writer accidentally came across the grave of a young girl. The contrast of the dull place and the medallion depicting a beauty with unusually lively and joyful eyes deeply shocked Bunin.
Subject– The central theme of the work is the charm and tragedy of careless youth.
Composition– The composition is distinguished by the lack of chronological order and a clear “composition-climax-denouement” scheme. Events begin and end in a cemetery, the plot does not always coincide with the plot, and there are episodes that, at first glance, have nothing to do with the story of Olya Meshcherskaya.
Genre– Novella (short plot story).
Direction– Modernism.
History of creation
Bunin's story "Easy Breathing" was written in March 1916, and published the same year in the newspaper "Russian Word".
During Ivan Alekseevich’s stay at the Vasilievskoye estate, he was approached by the capital’s newspaper “Russkoye Slovo” with a request to provide some small work for publication in the Easter issue. Bunin was not averse to sending his work to a reputable publication, but by that time he did not have ready-made new stories.
Then the writer remembered his walks around Capri, when he accidentally came across a small cemetery. Walking along it, he discovered a grave cross with a portrait of a blooming, cheerful girl. Peering into her laughing eyes, full of life and fire, Bunin painted himself pictures from the past of this young beauty, who had passed away so early into another world.
Memories of that walk served as the impetus for writing a love story, the main character of which was high school student Olya Meshcherskaya, whose image was “copied” from a portrait in the cemetery.
However prerequisite for writing The short stories also contained more profound memories of the writer, recorded in his diary. At the age of seven, he witnessed the death of his younger sister Sasha, the favorite of the whole family. The tragedy that occurred on a February night deeply shocked the boy, forever leaving in his soul images of a girl, winter, cloudy sky, and death.
Subject
Love theme is central to the story “Easy Breathing”. The author reveals her through the prism of the character and behavior of Olya Meshcherskaya - an incredibly cheerful, charming and spontaneous girl.
For Bunin, love is, first of all, passion. All-consuming, frantic, destructive. It is not surprising that in the work, death is always the faithful companion of love (the young high school student Shenshin was on the verge of suicide from unrequited love for Olya, and the main character herself became the victim of a distraught lover). This is a feature of Ivan Alekseevich’s concept of love.
Despite the immoral actions of the schoolgirl, the writer, nevertheless, does not criticize her behavior. On the contrary, Olya’s inexhaustible vital energy, her ability to see life only in joyful, bright colors, disarming charm and femininity attracts the author. True female beauty does not lie in external features, but in the ability to inspire and charm people. That's what it is Main thought works.
Meshcherskaya's carelessness and some superficiality are just the other side of her nature. And the girl’s main problem is that no one from her close circle could teach her to balance between ease and “fluttering” through life and responsibility for her actions.
Such indifference becomes the cause of the girl’s death. However, death is not able to take the charm of youth with it into the abyss - the “light breath” dissipates throughout the universe, to soon be reborn again. The writer leads readers to this conclusion, thanks to which the work does not leave a heavy aftertaste.
Composition
The main features of the novella’s composition include: contrast and lack of chronological sequence. The work begins with a description of Olya’s grave, then the author talks about the girl’s early childhood, then again “skips” to her last winter. Afterwards there is a conversation between Meshcherskaya and the head of the gymnasium, during which it becomes known about her relationship with an elderly officer. Then - the news of the murder of a high school student. And at the very end of the story, the author adds a seemingly insignificant episode from Olya’s life, in which she shares with her friend her idea of female beauty.
Thanks to temporary movements and quick changes in all actions, the author managed to create a feeling of lightness and a certain emotional detachment. Everything in the work is designed to emphasize the lively and spontaneous nature of the main character. All events happen quickly, making it impossible to properly analyze them. So the life of Olya Meshcherskaya, who always lived exclusively for today, flashed and faded away, without thinking about the consequences of her actions.
In his story, Bunin immediately deprives the plot of unpredictability and climactic outcome. It has already happened - and this is the death of a young schoolgirl. Realizing that the most important thing has already happened, the reader switches to the events that led to the sad ending.
Deliberately destroying the cause-and-effect relationships in the story, the writer emphasizes that neither the motives of Olya’s behavior nor the further development of events in the story matter. The inevitable doom of the heroine is in her, in her incredibly attractive feminine essence, charm, spontaneity. A huge passion for life led her to such a quick end.
This is what it's all about meaning of the name story. “Easy breathing” is an incredible thirst for life, the ability to soar above everyday reality with amazing ease, not noticing problems and sincerely enjoying every day, every minute.
Genre
Carrying out an analysis of the genre of the work in “Easy Breathing”, it should be noted that it is written in the genre of a short story - a short plot story, which fully reflects the main issues and ideas that concern the author, and presents a picture of the life of heroes from various groups of society.
Being a follower of realism, Ivan Alekseevich could not stay away from modernism, which was increasingly gaining momentum in the twentieth century. The brevity of the plot, the symbolization and ambiguity of details, the fragmentation of the story described and the demonstration of unadorned reality indicate that “Easy Breathing” corresponds to modernism, in which the main tendencies of realism are present.
Work test
Rating analysis
Average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 220.