What is true love and true friendship. True love Best friends and partners

Many works of I.A. Bunin devoted to the theme of love, in particular the cycle of stories "Dark Alleys", rightfully called the pinnacle of the writer's work. But a strange feeling remains after reading these of his works - sadness, sympathy for the heroes, their tragic, uncomplicated fate. Heroes die, part, commit suicide - they are all unhappy. Why is this happening? Love is shown by the writer as a mighty formidable force that can turn a person's life upside down. The lieutenant, the hero of the story "Sunstroke", did not think about this at all, starting, as it seemed to him, an easy affair with an attractive companion. But, having parted with her, he suddenly realizes that he cannot forget her, see the heroine again for him "more necessary than life." With deep psychologism, the writer reveals the inner experiences of the hero, his spiritual maturation. The lieutenant feels the peace and serenity of the surrounding life - and this only increases his suffering: "Probably, I am the only one so terribly unhappy in this city." Bunin often resorts to such techniques as antithesis (opposition) and oxymoron (combination of incompatible concepts) in order to more clearly reveal the inner world of the hero, who feels extraordinary joy in everything and at the same time torment that breaks his heart, happiness in his soul and tears in his eyes . With tears in his eyes, he fell asleep, and in the evening, sitting on the deck of the ship, he feels ten years older. The hero is in the power of love, his feelings do not depend on him, but they transform him spiritually - this is Pushkin's awakening of the soul, a change in the whole worldview of a person. Mitya, the hero of the story "Mitya's Love", is jealous and suffering, feeling Katya's neglect of him, some kind of falseness in her behavior, which she herself is not even aware of yet. He is waiting for a letter from her, and how painfully this expectation is shown by the author, and how quickly Mitya's joy is replaced by the expectation of the next message, even more painful. Moreover, physiology does not replace love, and the episode with Alenka convincingly proves this - the power of love is in the harmony of the carnal and the spiritual, in its spiritual significance. And so bright, so painful is the suffering of Mitya, who received the news of Katya's betrayal and their inevitable break, that he shoots himself "with pleasure" in order to only stop this pain that tears his heart. Of course, such an intensity of passions is incompatible with ordinary life, because in life there is often so much dirt, rough prose of everyday life, petty calculations, lust that kills love. The victim of this was Olya Meshcherskaya, the heroine of the story "Light Breath", whose pure soul was ready for love and was waiting for extraordinary happiness. Obeying social prejudices, the heroes of the story “Dark Alleys” leave Nadezhda, and he himself does not see happiness in his future fate. For the rest of her life, the heroine of the story “Cold Autumn” remembered the evening of farewell to her fiancé, who was later killed in the war. And her whole future life is just existence, everyday prose, and in her soul - only that cold farewell evening and poems that her beloved read to her. Therefore, I think it can be argued that in the image of I.A. Bunin's love is such a rise of the soul, which is not given to everyone, but which everyone who has experienced it will never forget.

When does love become tragedy?

Love is self-legislative and free, which is why it is tragic. This tragedy is generated by the conflict between the moral requirements prevailing in society and the impossibility of fulfilling them within the framework of love (it would be more accurate to say that it is precisely the moral requirements that impose on this beautiful and inherently limitless feeling of limitation).
Many stories by I.A. Bunin based on unhappy love, death of people. Many of us shudder at the irreparable fate of the main characters, even fictional ones, whose souls were permeated with quivering love, a real illumination of life ...
But their dreams and hopes were not destined to come true. Sometimes really ridiculous, stupid and therefore terrible circumstances interfered with them.
So in "Easy Breath" a girl, whose beauty the author bows before, is killed by a Cossack officer.
In "Gala Ganskaya" the most ridiculous quarrel caused the suicide of the heroine of the story and, almost, not the complete insanity of the protagonist. When the most ridiculous accident leads to the death of a loved one, it is a tragedy.
Many more stories of this writer fill the reader's soul with sadness about unhappy love. But in Bunin's short story "Natalie", the main character is "punished" with two different feelings at once: "two loves at once, so different and so passionate", such an "amazing beauty of Natalie's adoration" and such "Sonya's bodily rapture". But this lyrical short story, although full of drama, is not tragic.

The idea of ​​a tragedy in love is perfectly reflected in the works of another remarkable writer - Kuprin. A.I. Kuprin's story "Olesya" shows mutual love, striking in its purity and sincerity, doomed because of the impossibility of compromise. So great is the gulf between the two worlds of two people - men and women. He belongs to the society of people, she is completely given to nature. Love took me by surprise and just as suddenly left. The only thing left of their tender and generous feelings is only bright memories.
One happy moment and eternal separation is a tragedy. Having once experienced a real feeling, you will never be able to forget it, you will never be able to enjoy something less, until the end of your life feeling the need to fill the bottomless heart emptiness - this is a tragedy.
The story shows that the tragic beginning carries not only unhappy, but also happy mutual love, which with even greater force pushes those who love beyond the boundaries of everyday life and generally accepted norms.
In another story by Kuprin - "Garnet Bracelet" - a person is accused of ... love! But was he to blame for love, and is it possible to control such feelings. The husband of the main character admitted that he was present at the "huge tragedy of the soul." A woman's life path was crossed by real, selfless, true love, "but the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by", eternal exclusive love. He considers love an absolute value, the pinnacle of moral relations, not fettered by any moral assessments, thanks God for this "tremendous happiness", for "the only joy in life, the only consolation, a single thought." She renounces the love of the one who idolizes her, and only after his death she realizes what she has lost.
Love is a free manifestation of the essence of man. It cannot be prescribed or forced to be overcome. The rules of conduct and evaluation lose their indisputability here. Love, as the highest emotional and spiritual tension, removes all one-sidedness, all exceptions, all boundaries of virtues...
But love without any hope, the desire to only love, even if not to be loved, to love without an answer and faith in reciprocity, "a life that humbly and joyfully doomed itself to torment, suffering and death" is a tragedy.

How many words, how many phrases are dedicated to her, the queen of all feelings - love. Love is a gift from above. We get used to it from childhood: first we love our parents, toys, pets. Then, growing up, we find other facets in it: love for the opposite sex, for the Motherland, for creativity and people in general. It comes unexpectedly, destroys the established way of life. Someone love gives wings - and people begin to "fly". It destroys someone's whole life, dooming them to suffering and pain. The theme of love is so immense and multifaceted that it seems to be found in the work of all writers and poets. And everyone sees it in their own way, "from their own bell tower." Kuprin, for example, spoke of love, "which is repeated only once in a thousand years." A.P. Chekhov, speaking through the lips of his hero - the landowner Alekhine, argued: "... when you love, then in your reasoning about this love you need to start from the highest, from more important than happiness and unhappiness, sin or virtue in their walking sense or not need to reason at all. But the work of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was special, the most memorable for me. He devoted many works to the theme of love. Not having a complex plot, being short in content, Bunin's stories carry a whole stream of feelings, emotions and impressions. The love of Bunin's heroes is always tragic, shrouded in a veil of sadness. She is a mysterious element capable of both infinitely elevating and destroying a person.

The theme of love and suffering are inseparable in the writer's work. Love is bright and unexpected, but always hopeless and often has a sad ending. Bunin combined a huge number of stories about the sad, but life-giving power of love into one collection - "Dark Alleys". Subsequently, critics will call this collection "an encyclopedia of love." I think there are good reasons for this.

Two of his works will help us to reveal the theme of love in the writer's work in more detail: "Sunstroke" (1925) and "Dark Alleys" (1935). Why these two works? I think the answer to this question will become clear later. An attempt to understand and appreciate the nature of this great feeling was made by Blok in the story "Sunstroke". The plot of the story is very simple: a feeling suddenly flared up between the lieutenant - the main character of the story and a young woman traveling on a steamer, connects them for a while. Passion, like a flash, lit up both. But that was a short relationship with an indispensable tragic outcome. Having parted with a beautiful stranger in one of the ports, the lieutenant could not find peace of mind and peace. "The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older," - this is how the story ends. The hero, accidentally coming into contact with the unknown power of love, lost it forever. This brief flash, this quick loss, led him to realize the whole tragedy of being. What did he have left after such a bright, but such a short meeting? The torment of a loving soul, the bitterness of loss, the pain of memories will forever remain an unhealed wound on the hero's heart. But why did the author make the ending so tragic, why did he separate the characters so soon? The storyline of the story once again confirms the author's opinion that real, true love is doomed to be only a flash, a short insight. True love does not tolerate extension, because it can become ordinary, insipid.

The second story, no less surprising in its strength and emotionality, was written in 1935. It was he who gave the name to the entire collection - "Dark Alleys". People who loved each other in their youth, but parted for obvious reasons, met by chance thirty years later. Once, he - a young nobleman was in love with a serf girl Nadezhda. But no one would have allowed them to marry and be together, and the young man himself turned out to be a hostage of his time. She, albeit beloved, but not his "circle". Easily parting with her, he married the one who corresponded to his position. What happened to Nadezhda, the serf? She, having received freedom from the masters, became the mistress of the inn. At a meeting that took place thirty years later, hope is recognized by Nikolai Alekseevich: “No matter how much time passed, everything lived by one. Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten. . She could not change her feelings - she never married. For a moment, Nikolai Alekseevich understands that Nadezhda is "the most precious thing" that he had in life. But a few minutes later he returns "from heaven to earth": with shame he recalls his last words and the fact that he "kissed her hand." All these class prejudices were too important for him, which doomed him to misfortune in his personal life. But Nadezhda remained the same - loving and believing. For her, the memories of youth are the only thing that warms the soul. For him, it was just "a vulgar, ordinary story ..." It becomes sad and sad after such words.

Each Bunin's hero in his own way is looking for answers to the "eternal" questions: what is love? how to explain it? and is it possible to do it? For some, she is an inspiration and a source of life. For others, this feeling is a burden or empty words. But one way or another, it shocks, excites the hearts of heroes. And that means that this feeling is alive, that means there is love.

Love ... Perhaps there is no person who would not think about it at least once. What is this? What makes a person alive? Or a trifle that makes you vulnerable? Deep and strong feeling or fleeting affection? Love at first sight? Happy? Undivided? These questions make my head spin. And the answers to them ... no. People have been looking for these answers for centuries, but if they find them, then for everyone they are different. Therefore, they say that love is something eternal, enduring. She excited, excites and will excite the hearts and souls of people.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the treasury of Russian literature was supplemented by the works of two writers: Ivan Bunin and Alexander Kuprin, who found their answers to "eternal" questions. And they told the world about it. It would seem that these two writers are not at all similar to each other. Even outwardly, their difference is so great that it seems as if they cannot have anything in common. Pushkin called Kuchelbecker "a brother in muse, in destinies." One can hardly say the same about Bunin and Kuprin, because their fates differed markedly. But the muse, it seems, was the same ...

Love is like a sunstroke and love is like death - the thoughts of the two great writers are very similar. What is a sunstroke but a tiny death? The gentle sun warms, hugs your shoulders ... It seems that you can no longer live without it. And then what for so long brought you only joy, "hit on the head", clouds the heart and mind, and after itself leaves a lot and a lot of pain and unpleasant heaviness in the head and weakness in the body.

Bunin's "sunstroke" throws the nameless lieutenant and his equally nameless companion into the abyss of passions. Having known each other for only three hours, drunk either from the sun, or from hops, or from each other, they get off the steamer in some small town, and spend several unforgettable hours together. And here “unforgettable” is not a high-flown or vulgar word, no. It is sincere: “... as soon as they entered and the footman closed the door, the lieutenant rushed to her so impulsively and both suffocated so frenziedly in a kiss that they remembered that moment for many years later: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives.

The feeling that overwhelmed the two people with their heads did not last very long: only a night and a little morning. But left an indelible mark in the souls of both.

They parted easily, only "in front of everyone" kissed on the pier. But after this parting, that same torment began, which always happens when you come to your senses after a sunstroke.

The lieutenant was tormented. Even a single day without Her seemed unbearable, infinitely long and empty. The room, in which everything breathed for Her, was empty. Together with him, the lieutenant's heart, which lost happiness, also emptied.

He only got better the next morning. But the world has changed for this man, and the gentle sun that brought him together with perhaps the greatest love of his life has become "purposeless." The lieutenant's soul hardly died, but, having fallen in love, he nevertheless died.

Having fallen in love, the hero of A. Kuprin's story "Garnet Bracelet" Zheltkov also died. For many years he passionately and secretly loved a single woman, an unattainable woman, not paying attention to others. He loved selflessly, with a love "of which women dream and which men are no longer capable of."

But Vera, the beloved of "G.S.Zh.", failed to see that same love in this feeling. She walked past Anosova, barely touching her.

Zheltkov accomplished a feat in the name of this love. Having taken his own life, he saved Vera Nikolaevna from suffering, who was weighed down by the feeling of a secret admirer.

How much do you have to love someone to do something like this?

A love that is "strong as death." Yes, this is not Bunin's "sunstroke". But both confirm the idea that true love is always tragic, sacrificial, selfless. And, of course, it doesn't come to everyone. It can appear and disappear like a sunstroke, like lightning in a stormy sky, and leave behind a trace that nothing will ever erase. When you fall in love, you give something to another. And first of all - the soul. This kind of love doesn't just disappear. Probably only with a human. You can sprinkle it with some passions, other feelings, but it will live as long as you are alive.

Great love - great works. Two different writers, even outwardly dissimilar so much that it seems as if they cannot have anything in common. But they share the same muse.

Composition

Love is one of the main themes in Kuprin's work. The heroes of his works, “illuminated” by this bright feeling, are more fully revealed. In the stories of this remarkable author, love, as a rule, is disinterested and selfless. After reading a large number of his works, one can understand that with him she is always tragic, and she is obviously doomed to suffering.

In this vein, the poetic and tragic story of a young girl in the story "Olesya" sounds. Olesya's world is a world of spiritual harmony, a world of nature. He is alien to Ivan Timofeevich, a representative of a cruel, big city. Olesya attracts him with her “unusualness”, “there was nothing like local girls in her”, naturalness, simplicity and some kind of elusive inner freedom inherent in her image attracted him like a magnet.

Olesya grew up in the forest. She could not read or write, but she had great spiritual wealth and a strong character. Ivan Timofeevich is educated, but not decisive, and his kindness is more like cowardice. These two completely different people fell in love with each other, but this love does not bring happiness to the heroes, its outcome is tragic.

Ivan Timofeevich feels that he has fallen in love with Olesya, he would even like to marry her, but he is stopped by doubt: “I did not even dare to imagine what Olesya would be like, dressed in a fashionable dress, talking in the living room with the wives of my colleagues, torn out of the charming frame of an old forest, full of legends and mysterious forces. He realizes that Olesya cannot change, become different, and he himself does not want her to change. After all, to become different means to become like everyone else, and this is impossible.

Poeticizing life, not limited by modern social and cultural frameworks, Kuprin sought to show the clear advantages of a “natural” person, in whom he saw spiritual qualities lost in a civilized society. The meaning of the story is to affirm the high standard of man. Kuprin is looking for people in real, everyday life, obsessed with a high feeling of love, able to rise at least in dreams above the prose of life. As always, he turns his gaze to the "little" man. This is how the story "Garnet Bracelet" arises, which tells about refined all-encompassing love. This story is about hopeless and touching love. Kuprin himself understands love as a miracle, as a wonderful gift. The death of an official revived a woman who did not believe in love, which means that love still conquers death.

In general, the story is devoted to the inner awakening of Vera, her gradual realization of the true role of love. To the sound of music, the soul of the heroine is reborn. From cold contemplation to a hot, quivering feeling of oneself, of a person in general, of the world - such is the path of the heroine, who once came into contact with a rare guest of the earth - love.

For Kuprin, love is a hopeless platonic feeling, moreover, a tragic one. Moreover, there is something hysterical in the chastity of Kuprin's heroes, and in relation to a loved one, it is striking that a man and a woman seem to have changed their roles. This is characteristic of the energetic, strong-willed "Polessky witch" Olesya in relations with the "kind, but only weak Ivan Timofeevich" and the smart, prudent Shurochka - with the "pure and kind Romashov" ("Duel"). Underestimation of oneself, disbelief in one's right to possess a woman, a convulsive desire to withdraw - these features complete the Kuprin hero with a fragile soul that has fallen into a cruel world.

Closed in itself, such love has a creative creative power. “It so happened that I am not interested in anything in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people,” Zheltkov writes before his death to the subject of his generation, “... for me, all life consists only in you". Zheltkov passes away without complaints, without reproaches, saying like a prayer: "Hallowed be thy name."

Kuprin's works, despite the complexity of situations and often a dramatic end, are filled with optimism and love of life. You close the book, and for a long time there is a feeling of something bright in your soul.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian literature experienced a period of particular prosperity. In poetry, it has been called the "Silver Age". But the prose was enriched by many masterpieces. In my opinion, A. I. Kuprin contributed a lot to this. His work combines in a strange way the most severe life realism and amazing airiness, transparency. Some of the most penetrating works about love in Russian literature belong to his pen.

I would like to focus on two of them: "Duel" and "Garnet Bracelet". They are very different, but upon closer inspection, even in the plot you can find a roll call. In both stories, the story of unhappy love becomes the basis of the plot, and both main characters die tragically, and the reason for this is the attitude of the beloved woman towards them.

Georgy Romashov, "Romochka", from "Duel" - a young officer. His character does not correspond to the chosen field at all. He is shy, blushes like a young lady, in any person he is ready to respect the dignity, but the results are deplorable. His soldiers are the worst marchers. He makes mistakes all the time. His idealistic ideas constantly come into conflict with reality, and his life is painful. The only consolation for him is love for Shurochka. She personifies for him beauty, grace, education, culture in general in the atmosphere of a provincial garrison. In her house, he feels like a man. Shurochka also appreciates in Romashov his excellentness, his dissimilarity to others. She is proud and ambitious, her dream is to break out of here. To do this, she forces her husband to prepare for the academy. She herself teaches military disciplines, so as not to wallow in idleness, not to become dumb in the surrounding lack of spirituality. Romashov and Shurochka found each other, opposites met. But if Romashov’s love swallowed up his whole soul, became the meaning and justification of life, then Shurochka is hindered by it. Achieving her intended goal is impossible for her with a weak-willed, gentle "Romochka". Therefore, she allows herself this weakness only for a moment, and then prefers to stay with her unloved, mediocre, but persistent and stubborn husband. Once Shurochka already refused Nazansky's love (and now he is a drunken, desperate man).

In Shurochka's understanding, the lover must make sacrifices. After all, she herself, without thinking twice, sacrifices love both her own and someone else's for the sake of well-being, social status. Nazansky could not adapt to her demands - and he was removed. Shura will demand even more from Romashov - for the sake of her reputation, for the sake of gossip and talkers, he must sacrifice his life. For George himself, this may even be salvation. After all, if he had not died, he, at best, would have suffered the fate of Nazansky. The environment would swallow him up and destroy him.

In "Garnet Bracelet" the situation is similar, but not quite. The heroine is also married, but she loves her husband, and on the contrary, she does not feel any feelings towards Mr. Zheltkov, except for annoyance. And Zheltkov himself seems to us at first just a vulgar boyfriend. This is how Vera and her family perceive him. But in the story of a calm and happy life, disturbing notes flicker: this is the fatal love of brother Vera's husband; the love-adoration that the husband has for Vera's sister; the failed love of grandfather Vera, it is this general who says that true love should be a tragedy, but in life it is trivialized, everyday life and all sorts of conventions interfere. He tells two stories (one of them even somewhat resembles the plot of the “Duel”), where true love turns into a farce. Listening to this story, Vera has already received a garnet bracelet with a bloody stone, which should save her from misfortune, and could save her former owner from a violent death. It is from this gift that the reader's attitude towards Zheltkov changes. He sacrifices everything for his love: career, money, peace of mind. And asks for nothing in return.

But again, empty secular conventions ruin even this illusory happiness. Nikolai, Vera's brother-in-law, who himself once succumbed to his love for these prejudices, now demands the same from Zheltkov, he threatens with prison, a court of society, and his connections. But Zheltkov reasonably objects: what can all these threats do to his love? Unlike Nikolai (and Romashov), he is ready to fight and defend his feelings. The barriers put up by society mean nothing to him. Only for the peace of his beloved, he is ready to give up love, but along with life: he commits suicide.

Now Vera understands what she has lost. If Shurochka gave up feelings for the sake of well-being and did it consciously, then Vera simply did not see a great feeling. But after all, in the final analysis, she did not want to see him, she preferred peace and familiar life (although nothing was demanded of her), and by this, as it were, she betrayed the person who loved her. But true love is generous - it has been forgiven.

Why does love in Kuprin's works usually have a sad outcome? Maybe he himself believed that true love should be tragic? I think it's about people and the world they live in. This world doesn't need love. And people themselves betray it, refuse it for the sake of more understandable, material things. Not many are given to understand what they are losing, and it is to these people that love is granted. It becomes the meaning of life for them. And life always ends in death.