The theme "Olesya" by Kuprin is the immortal theme of cordial relationships and burning passions. She is brightly and sincerely shown for her time in Kuprin's touching story, written in the very center of nature in Polesie.
The clash of lovers from different social groups exacerbates their relationship with a shade of self-sacrifice, their own life principles and their evaluations by other people.
Analysis of "Olesya" Kuprin
A mysterious girl, born surrounded by nature, has absorbed all the genuine and immaculate traits of a meek and simple character, she collides with a completely different person - Ivan Timofeevich, who is considered a spectacular representative of society in the city.
The quivering relationship that began between them presupposes a life together, where, as usual, a woman is obliged to adapt to the new surrounding atmosphere of life.
Olesya, accustomed to her fabulous life in a calm, beloved forest with Manuilikha, takes the changes in her life experience very hard and painfully, in fact giving up her own principles in order to be with her lover.
Sensing the fragility of her relationship with Ivan, she makes perfect self-sacrifice in the ruthless, poisoned heartlessness and misunderstanding of the city. Until then, however, the relationship of the young is strong.
Yarmola describes to Ivan the image of Olesya and her aunt, proves to him the uniqueness of the fact that magicians and sorceresses live in the world, encourages him to be extremely carried away by the riddle of a simple girl.
Features of the work
Very colorfully and naturally, the writer draws the habitat of the magical girl, which cannot be overlooked when analyzing Kuprin's "Olesya", because the landscape of Polesie emphasizes the exclusivity of the people living in it.
It is often said that the stories of Kuprin's stories were written by life itself.
Obviously, most of the younger generation will at first find it difficult to understand the meaning of the story and what the author wants to convey, but later, after reading some chapters, they will be able to become interested in this work, discovering its depth.
The main problems of "Olesya" Kuprin
This is an excellent writer. He managed to express in his own work the most difficult, high and tender human emotions. Love is a wonderful feeling that a person experiences, like a touchstone. Not many people have the ability to truly and with an open heart. This is the fate of a strong-willed person. These are the people the author is interested in. Correct people, existing in harmony with themselves and the world around them, are a model for him, in fact, such a girl is created in the story "Olesya" by Kuprin, whose analysis we analyze.
An ordinary girl lives in the vicinity of nature. She listens to sounds and rustles, deciphers the screams of various creatures, is very pleased with her life and independence. Olesya is independent. She has enough of the sphere of communication that she has. She knows and understands the forest surrounding from all sides, the girl perfectly feels nature.
But a meeting with the human world promises her, unfortunately, continuous troubles and grief. The townspeople think that Olesya and her grandmother are witches. They are ready to blame all mortal sins on these unfortunate women. One fine day, the anger of people has already driven them from a warm place, and from now on the heroine has only one desire: to get rid of them.
However, the soulless human world knows no mercy. This is where the key problems of Olesya Kuprin lie. She is especially intelligent and smart. The girl is well aware of what a meeting with a city dweller, "Ivan the Panich", portends for her. It is not suitable for the world of enmity and jealousy, profit and falsehood.
The girl's dissimilarity, her grace and originality instill anger, fear, panic in people. The townspeople are ready to blame Olesya and the grandmother for absolutely all hardships and misfortunes. Their blind fear of the "witches" they call them is kindled with violence without any consequences. Analysis of "Olesya" Kuprin makes us understand that the appearance of a girl in the temple is not a challenge to the inhabitants, but a desire to understand the human world in which her beloved lives.
The main characters of Kuprin's "Olesya" are Ivan and Olesya. Secondary - Yarmola, Manuilikha and others, less important.
Olesya
A young girl, slim, tall and charming. She was raised by her grandmother. However, despite the fact that she is illiterate, she has a natural mind of centuries, a fundamental knowledge of the human nature and curiosity.
Ivan
A young writer, looking for a muse, came from town to village on official business. He is intelligent and smart. The village is distracted by hunting and meeting the villagers. Regardless of his own background, he behaves normally and without arrogance. "Panych" is a good-natured and sensitive guy, noble and weak-willed.
The writing
"Olesya"
In 1897 Kuprin served as an estate manager in the Ro-Vienna district of the Volyn province. The writer discovered the amazing nature of the Polesie region and the dramatic destinies of its inhabitants. On the basis of what he saw, he created a cycle of "Polesie Tales", which included "Olesya" - a story about nature and love.
The story begins with a description of a picturesque corner where the hero spent six months. He talks about the uncommunicativeness of the Polissya peasants, about traces of Polish rule, about customs and superstitions. In the world on the threshold of the 20th century with its rapid development of natural sciences, technology and social transformations, traditional ideas about good and evil, about love and hatred, about enemies and friends have been preserved. Sometimes the hero thinks that he is in some kind of reserved world, in which time has stopped. Here people believe not only in God, but also in devils, devil, water. The space is divided into its own - clean, Christian - and pagan: evil forces that can bring grief and illness live in it. All these sketches are necessary in order to introduce the reader to the atmosphere of Polissya places and explain the reason for the negative attitude of the peasants to the hero's novel with the "witch".
Nature, with its beauty and charm, with its enlightening effect on the human soul, determines the entire flavor of the story. The winter forest landscape contributes to a special state of mind, the solemn silence emphasizes the detachment from the world. The hero meets Olesya in winter and spring, when the renewed nature and the revived forest awaken feelings in the souls of two people. In the beauty of Olesya, in the proud power emanating from her, the strength and beauty of the world around her are embodied. A beautiful heroine is inseparable from the greatness of the pristine nature of this region, whose name seems to echo the words "forest" and "Polesie".
Kuprin sketches a portrait in which earthly and sublime principles are fancifully combined: “My stranger, a tall brunette of about twenty or twenty-five, carried herself lightly and slenderly. A spacious white shirt loosely and beautifully wrapped around her young, healthy breasts. The original beauty of her face, once seeing it, could not be forgotten, but it was difficult, even getting used to it, to describe it. His charm lay in those large, shiny, dark eyes, to which thin, broken eyebrows in the middle gave an elusive shade of cunning, imperious and naivete; in the dark-pink rut of the skin, in the willful bend of the lips, of which the lower one, somewhat fuller, protruded forward with a resolute and capricious look.
Kuprin managed to vividly embody the ideal of a natural person, free, original and whole, living in harmony and harmony with nature, "who grew up in the freedom of an old pine forest as slender and as powerful as young Christmas trees grow", which is close to Tolstoy's traditions.
The heroine's chosen one Ivan Timofeevich, in his own way humane and kind, educated and intelligent, is endowed with a "lazy" heart. Fortune-telling to her betrothed, Olesya says: “Your kindness is not good, not cordial. You are not master of your word. You like to take the upper hand over people, and although you yourself do not want to, you obey. "
And so different people fell in love with each other: "A month has risen, and its radiance strangely colorful and mysteriously blossomed the forest ... And we walked, embracing, among this smiling living legend, without a single word, suppressed by our happiness and the terrible silence of the forest." The magnificent nature with its overflow of colors echoes the heroes, as if spellbound by the beauty of youth. But the forest tale ends tragically. And not only because cruelty and meanness of the surrounding world bursts into the light world of Olesya. The writer poses the question on a larger scale: could this girl, a child of nature, free from all conventions, live in a different environment? The theme of shared love is replaced in the story by another, constantly sounding in Kuprin's work - the theme of unattainable happiness.
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Kuprin olesya analysis problematics. A.I. Kuprin "Olesya": description, characters, analysis of the work
Materials for acquaintance
"Olesya"
8 Responses to “A. I. Kuprin "
In general, the problem of "assault" figures very clearly in this story. This is the apotheosis of social inequality. Of course, we must not forget that corporal punishment for soldiers has been abolished. But in this case, we are no longer talking about punishment, but about mockery: “The non-commissioned officers brutally beat their subordinates for an insignificant mistake in language, for a lost leg while marching - they beat them in the blood, knocked out teeth, smashed eardrums with blows to the ear, they pounded on the ground with their fists. " Is it possible for a person with a normal psyche to behave this way? The moral world of everyone who enters the army changes radically and, as Romashov notes, is far from being for the better. So even Captain Stelkovsky, the commander of the fifth company, the best company in the regiment, an officer who always "possessed patient, cold-blooded and confident perseverance," as it turned out, also beat the soldiers (as an example, Romashov cites how Stelkovsky knocks out a soldier's teeth with a horn, who incorrectly sent a signal to this very horn). That is, you should not envy the fate of people like Stelkovsky.
In the story "Duel" Kuprin touches upon the problem of inequality of people, the relationship between the individual and society.
The plot of the work is built on the crossroads of the soul of the Russian officer Romashov, who is forced to think about the wrong relations between people by the conditions of army barracks. Romashov is the most ordinary person who instinctively resists the injustice of the world around him, but his protest is weak, and his dreams and plans easily collapse, since they are very naive. But after a meeting with the soldier Khlebnikov, a turning point comes in Romashov's mind, he is shocked by a person's willingness to commit suicide, in which he sees the only way out of a martyr's life and this strengthens his will to actively resist. Romashov is shocked by the power of Khlebnikov's suffering, and it is the desire for compassion that makes the second lieutenant think for the first time about the fate of the common people. But conversations about Romashov's humanity and justice remain largely naive. But this is already a big step towards the moral purification of the hero and his struggle with the cruel society around him.
Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. The story "Duel". The problem of a person's moral choice.
AI Kuprin raised in his story "Duel" the topic of alienation, misunderstanding between officers and soldiers. In connection with the topic, the author raises a number of problematic questions. One of which is the problem of moral choice. Georgy Romashov, the main character of the story, was subjected to the most intense moral quest. Dreaminess and lack of will are the most important features of Romashov's nature, which immediately catch the eye. Then the author introduces us to the hero better, and we learn that Romashov is characterized by warmth, gentleness, compassion.
In the soul of the hero, there is a constant struggle between a man and an officer. One of the meanings
Names "duel" is a clash
Romashov with the way of life of an officer and his inner
A duel with yourself. Arriving in the regiment, Romashov dreamed of exploits, of glory. In the evenings the officers gather, play cards, drink. Romashov is drawn into this atmosphere, begins to lead the same lifestyle as everyone else. However, he feels much more subtly and thinks more confidently. He is more and more horrified by the savage, unfair treatment of the soldiers.
He tries to isolate himself from them: "he began to retire from the company of officers, dined at home, did not go to the dance evenings in the meeting at all, and stopped drinking." He "seemed to have matured, grown older and more serious in the last days."
Thus, the hero is morally cleansed. Suffering, his inner insight. He becomes able to sympathize with his neighbor, to feel the grief of others as his own; his moral feeling comes into conflict with the life around him.
The story "Duel" is one of the links in the chain of works by A. I. Kuprin. The author clearly and accurately showed in the "Duel" the social problems of the Russian army and the problem of misunderstanding and alienation between soldiers and officers. On the pages of the story, almost hopeless despair reigns. The heroes are doomed, just as the army itself is doomed. The protagonist of the story, second lieutenant Romashov, finds no sense in the very existence of the army. The teachings, regulations, everyday life in the barracks seem to him and his fellow soldiers absolutely meaningless. Second lieutenant Romashov, a young officer who dreams of a career and position in society, is capable of love and compassion, but the writer shows us his negative features: he allows himself to get drunk almost to unconsciousness, he has an affair with another man's wife, which has been going on for six months. Nazansky is an intelligent, educated officer, but a deep drunkard. Captain Plum is a low-key officer, sleazy and stern. His company has its own discipline: he is cruel to junior officers and soldiers, although he is attentive to the needs of the latter. Speaking about the fact that the soldiers were beaten “brutally, to the point of blood, to the point where the offender fell from his feet ...” Kuprin once again emphasizes that, despite the military discipline regulations, assault was widely used in the army. In the story, almost all the officers used this means of calling to discipline, and therefore let the junior officers get away with everything. But not all officers were satisfied with this state of affairs, but many resigned themselves, like Vetkin. The desire of second lieutenant Romashov to prove that "you cannot beat a person who not only cannot answer you, but does not even have the right to raise his hand to his face to protect himself from a blow", does not lead to anything and even causes condemnation, because the officers were satisfied this state of affairs.
The problem of love in Kuprin's story "Olesya".
Love is revealed by the writer as a strong, passionate, all-consuming feeling that has completely taken possession of a person. It allows the heroes to reveal the best qualities of the soul, illuminates life with the light of kindness and self-sacrifice. But love in Kuprin's works often ends in tragedy. Such is the beautiful and poetic story of the pure, spontaneous and wise "daughter of nature" from the story "Olesya". This amazing character combines intelligence, beauty, responsiveness, selflessness and willpower. The image of the forest sorceress is covered with mystery. Her fate is unusual, life away from people in an abandoned forest hut. The poetic nature of Polesye has a beneficial effect on the girl. The isolation from civilization allows it to preserve the integrity and purity of nature. On the one hand, she is naive, because she does not know elementary things, yielding in this to the intelligent and educated Ivan Timofeevich. But on the other hand, Olesya has some kind of higher knowledge that is inaccessible to an ordinary smart person.
In the love of the "savage" and the civilized hero, from the very beginning, one can feel the doom, which permeates the work with sadness and hopelessness. The ideas and views of lovers are too different, which lead to separation, despite the strength and sincerity of their feelings. When the city intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, who got lost in the forest during a hunt, saw Olesya for the first time, he was struck not only by the girl's bright and original beauty. He felt her dissimilarity from ordinary country girls. There is something witchcraft in Olesya's appearance, her speech, behavior, which is not subject to logical explanation. Perhaps this is what captivates Ivan Timofeevich in her, in whom admiration imperceptibly develops into love. When Olesya, at the insistent request of the hero, divines to him, then with amazing perspicacity he predicts that his life will be sad, he will not love anyone with his heart, since his heart is cold and lazy, but, on the contrary, will bring a lot of grief and shame to the one who will love his. Olesya's tragic prophecy comes true at the end of the story. No, Ivan Timofeevich commits neither meanness nor betrayal. He sincerely and seriously wants to link his fate with Olesya. But at the same time, the hero shows insensitivity and tactlessness, which doom the girl to shame and persecution. Ivan Timofeevich instills in her the idea that a woman should be devout, although she knows perfectly well that Olesya is considered a witch in the village, and therefore, attending church may cost her her life. Possessing a rare gift of foresight, the heroine for the sake of a loved one goes to church services, feeling angry glances on herself, hearing mocking remarks and abuse. This selfless act of Olesya especially emphasizes her bold, free nature, which contrasts with the darkness and savagery of the villagers. Beaten by local peasant women, Olesya leaves her home not only because she fears their even more cruel revenge, but also because she perfectly understands the impossibility of her dream, the impossibility of happiness. When Ivan Timofeevich finds an empty hut, his eyes are attracted by a string of beads, which towered over heaps of rubbish and rags, as "the memory of Oles and her tender, magnanimous love"
In the story "Duel" IAKuprin touches upon the problem of moral inferiority of a person and shows it on the example of the Russian army. This example is the most striking.
The officers cruelly mocked their subordinates, who, having got into a new situation, did not understand what was happening: “The non-commissioned officers severely beat their subordinates for a minor mistake in language, for a lost leg while marching, - they beat them in blood, knocked out teeth, smashed them with blows eardrums on the ear, pounded on the ground with their fists. The soldiers had no right either to respond to this cruelty, or to dodge the blows, they had no choice. Even the most seemingly patient and cold-blooded officer like Stelkovsky dropped to this level. This situation reigned throughout the army. The main character, Romashov, understood that changes in the army were necessary, but reproached himself for being close to everyone else.
The assault in the Russian army was a big problem for society, which needed to be solved, but it was simply impossible to do it alone.
In the Tale "Olesya" Kuprin tells us that a person loses contact with nature, which is one of the problems of this work.
In his work, the author opposes society and the world around it to each other. People living in cities, having lost touch with their native nature, have become gray, faceless, have lost their beauty. And Olesya, who is connected with the nature around her, is pure, bright. The writer admires his main character, for him this girl is the embodiment of an ideal person. And only by living in harmony with nature, you can become like that. Kuprin tells us that people should not lose contact with nature, because he loses himself, his soul turns black, and his body withers. But if you return to this naturalness, then the soul will begin to bloom, the body will become better.
Thus, we should strive to maintain contact with the environment around us, because it is it that gives us the strength to live and develop.
How does primitive nature affect a person? It is impossible to be insincere next to her; she seems to push a person onto the path of a pure, truthful understanding of life. In his story, A. I. Kuprin puts the main character Olesya in front of the problem of the confrontation between natural and social.
Olesya is a strong, strong-willed character, sensitive, inquisitive mind, while an incredibly beautiful girl. After reading the story, I drew a picture in my head: a tall, black-haired girl in a red scarf, and around there are spreading bright green fir trees. Against the background of the forest, all the spiritual qualities of the heroine are manifested especially clearly: the willingness to sacrifice herself and the wisdom of life. It harmoniously intertwines the beauty of the soul with the beauty of the body.
Society is opposed to Olesya's connection with nature. Here it appears from its most unsightly side: the dullness, dustiness of the streets and even faces, the intimidation and ugliness of women. This dullness is against everything new, bright, honest. Olesya with her red scarf becomes a stumbling block, the culprit of all troubles.
For narrow thinking, the villagers will be punished by the elements. And again they will blame Olesya for this ...
Filled with sin, without reason or will,
A person is fragile and vain.
Wherever you look, some loss, pain
He has been tormented by flesh and soul for a whole century ...
As soon as one leaves, others will replace them,
All suffering in the world for him is continuous:
His friends, enemies, loved ones, relatives. Anna Bradstreet
Russian literature is rich in wonderful images of beautiful women: strong in character, intelligent, loving, courageous and selfless.
The Russian woman with her amazing inner world has always attracted the attention of writers. Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky understood the depth of the spiritual impulses of their heroines.
The works of these writers help to get to know life better, to understand the nature of human relationships. And life is full of conflicts, sometimes tragic, and to grasp their essence, understand their origins - only a great talent of the writer can do.
AI Kuprin's story “Olesya” is a work that marked the beginning of a new literary era. His main character - Olesya - evokes conflicting feelings. She awakens in me pity, understanding, I felt her freedom-loving and strong xsRakteR-
You need to go back to Olesya's past in order to better understand this heroine.
She grew up in constant persecution, moving from one place to another, she was always haunted by the glory of a witch. She and her grandmother even had to go to live in a forest thicket, to swamps, away from villages.
Unlike the peasants, Olesya never attended church, because she believed that magical power was not given to her from God. This further alienated the locals from her. Their hostile attitude cultivated in her an amazing spiritual strength.
And so the little girl grew up and became a lovely flower.
Olesya is a tall girl of twenty-five years old, with beautiful long hair of the color of a crow's wing, which gives a special tenderness to her white face. In the big black eyes one can see a spark of wit, ingenuity. The appearance of the girl is very different from how village women look, everything in her speaks of her eccentricity, love of freedom. Belief in magic, otherworldly forces gives it a special charm.
And here in Olesya's life there is a big and strong love. At the first meetings with Ivan Timofeevich, she does not feel anything, but then she realizes that she fell in love with him. Olesya tries to extinguish the love in her heart. But as soon as she was separated from Ivan Timofeevich for two weeks, she realized that she loved him more than before.
When meeting her chosen one, Olesya says: "Parting is for love the same as the wind is for fire: it extinguishes a small love, and blows up a big one even more." The heroine gives all of herself without reserve to love, she loves sincerely and tenderly. For her sake, the girl was not afraid to go to church, giving up her principles, she was not afraid of the consequences.
She suffered enormous humiliation when she was attacked by women and pelted with stones. Olesya gives herself up as a sacrifice of love.
Ivan Timofeevich, before his departure, offered Olesya his hand and heart, but she refused, saying that she did not want to burden him with her presence so that he would be ashamed of her. In this act, the foresight of the girl is visible, she thinks not only about today, but also about the future of Ivan Timofeevich.
However, despite her strong love, Olesya unexpectedly, without saying goodbye to her beloved, leaves, leaving only beads in the house as a keepsake.
Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin portrayed in his work a sincere, sensitive, beautiful heroine who grew up far from civilization, in harmony with nature, capable of deep feelings.
History of creation
A. Kuprin's story "Olesya" was first published in 1898 in the newspaper "Kievlyanin" and was accompanied by a subtitle. "From memories of Volyn". It is curious that the writer first sent the manuscript to the journal "Russkoe bogatstvo", since before that Kuprin's story "Forest Wilderness", also dedicated to Polesie, had already appeared in this magazine. Thus, the author counted on creating a continuation effect. However, for some reason Russkoe Bogatstvo refused to publish Olesya (perhaps the publishers were not satisfied with the size of the story, because by that time it was the author's largest work), and the cycle planned by the author did not work out. But later, in 1905, "Olesya" was published in an independent edition, accompanied by an introduction from the author, which told the story of the creation of the work. Later, a full-fledged "Polessky cycle" was released, the peak and decoration of which was "Olesya".
The author's introduction has survived only in the archives. In it, Kuprin said that when he was visiting Polesie with a friend of the landowner Poroshin, he heard from him many legends and tales associated with local beliefs. Among other things, Poroshin said that he himself was in love with a local sorceress. Kuprin would later tell this story in the story, at the same time including in it all the mysticism of local legends, the mysterious mystical atmosphere and the piercing realism of the environment that surrounded him, the difficult fate of Polesie residents.
Analysis of the work
The plot of the story
Compositionally "Olesya" is a retrospective story, that is, the author-narrator returns in his memoirs to the events that took place in his life many years ago.
The basis of the plot and the leading theme of the story is the love between the city nobleman (panych) Ivan Timofeevich and a young resident of Polesie, Olesya. Love is light, but tragic, since its death is inevitable due to a number of circumstances - social inequality, the gap between the heroes.
According to the plot, the hero of the story, Ivan Timofeevich, spends several months in a remote village, on the edge of Volyn Polesye (the territory called Little Russia in tsarist times, today is the west of the Pripyat lowland, in northern Ukraine). A city dweller, he first tries to instill culture in local peasants, heals them, teaches them to read, but the classes are unsuccessful, since people are overcome by worries and are not interested in either education or development. Ivan Timofeevich increasingly goes hunting in the forest, admires the local landscapes, sometimes listens to the stories of his servant Yarmola, who talks about witches and sorcerers.
Lost one day while hunting, Ivan finds himself in a forest hut - the same witch from Yarmola's stories - Manuilikha and her granddaughter Olesya live here.
The second time the hero comes to the inhabitants of the hut in the spring. Olesya guesses to him, predicting a quick unhappy love and hardships, up to a suicide attempt. The girl also shows mystical abilities - she can influence a person, instilling her will or fear, stop the blood. Panych falls in love with Olesya, but she herself remains emphatically cold with him. She is especially angry that the panych stands up for her and her grandmother before the local police officer, who threatened to disperse the inhabitants of the forest hut for their alleged divination and harm to people.
Ivan falls ill and does not appear in the forest hut for a week, but when he arrives, it is noticeable that Olesya is happy to see him, and the feelings of both flare up. A month of secret dates and quiet, bright happiness passes. Despite Ivan's obvious and realized inequality of lovers, he proposes to Olesya. She refuses, arguing that she, the servant of the devil, cannot enter the church, therefore, and get married, entering into a marriage union. Nevertheless, the girl decides to go to church in order to make a pleasant panychu. Local residents, however, did not appreciate Olesya's impulse and attacked her, severely beating her.
Ivan hurries to the forest house, where the beaten, defeated and morally crushed Olesya tells him that her fears about the impossibility of their union were confirmed - they cannot be together, so she and her grandmother will leave her house. Now the village is even more hostile to Olesya and Ivan - any whim of nature will be associated with its sabotage and sooner or later will be killed.
Before leaving for the city, Ivan again goes into the forest, but in the hut he finds only red olesin beads.
Heroes of the story
The main character of the story is the forest sorceress Olesya (her real name is Alena, according to her grandmother Manuilikha, and Olesya is the local version of the name). A beautiful, tall brunette with intelligent dark eyes immediately attracts Ivan's attention. Natural beauty in a girl is combined with a natural mind - despite the fact that a girl does not even know how to read, there is perhaps more tact and depth in her than in a city one.
(Olesya)
Olesya is sure that she is “not like everyone else” and soberly understands that for this dissimilarity she can suffer from the people. Ivan does not really believe in Olesya's unusual abilities, believing that there is more of a centuries-old superstition here. However, he cannot deny the mystical nature of the image of Olesya.
Olesya is well aware of the impossibility of her happiness with Ivan, even if he makes a strong-willed decision and marries her, so it is she who boldly and simply manages their relationship: firstly, she takes self-control, trying not to impose a panic, and secondly, she decides to part seeing that they are not a couple. Secular life would be unacceptable for Olesya, her husband would inevitably become burdened by her after the absence of common interests would become clear. Olesya does not want to be a burden, to bind Ivan hand and foot and leaves on her own - this is the heroism and strength of the girl.
Ivan is a poor, educated nobleman. Urban boredom leads him to Polesie, where at first he tries to do some business, but in the end, only hunting remains from his studies. He treats the legends about witches like fairy tales - a healthy skepticism is justified by his education.
(Ivan and Olesya)
Ivan Timofeevich is a sincere and kind person, he is able to feel the beauty of nature, and therefore Olesya at first interests him not as a beautiful girl, but how. He wonders how it happened that she was brought up by nature itself, and she came out so gentle and delicate, unlike the rude, uncouth peasants. How did it happen that they, religious, albeit superstitious, are cruder and tougher than Olesya, although she must be the embodiment of evil. For Ivan, a meeting with Olesya is not a lordly amusement and a difficult summer love adventure, although he also understands that they are not a couple - society in any case will be stronger than their love, destroying their happiness. The personification of society in this case does not matter - whether it is a blind and stupid peasant force, whether it be city dwellers, Ivan's colleagues. When he thinks of Olesa as his future wife, in city dress, trying to keep up small talk with his colleagues, he just stumbles. The loss of Olesya for Ivan is the same tragedy as finding her as a wife. This remains outside the scope of the narrative, but most likely Olesya's prediction came true in full - after her departure he felt bad, right down to thoughts of intentionally leaving this life.
The culmination of events in the story falls on a great holiday - Trinity. This is not an accidental coincidence, it emphasizes and intensifies the tragedy with which the bright fairy tale of Olesya is trampled by people who hate her. There is a sarcastic paradox in this: the servant of the devil, Olesya, the witch, turns out to be more open to love than a crowd of people, whose religion fits into the thesis "God is Love".
The author's conclusions sound tragic - it is impossible for two people to be happy together, when the happiness for each of them separately is different. For Ivan, happiness is impossible apart from civilization. For Olesya - out of touch with nature. But at the same time, the author claims, civilization is cruel, society can poison relations between people, morally and physically destroy them, but nature is not.
The theme of love occupies a special place in the work of A. I. Kuprin. The writer gave us three stories united by this beautiful theme - "Pomegranate Bracelet", "Olesya" and "Shulamith".
Kuprin showed different facets of this feeling in each of his works, but one thing is invariably: love illuminates the life of his heroes with extraordinary light, becomes the brightest, unique event in life, a gift of fate. It is in love that the best features of his heroes are revealed.
Fate threw the hero of the story "Olesya" into a remote village of the Volyn province, on the outskirts of Polesie. Ivan Timofeevich is a writer. He is an educated, intelligent, inquisitive person. He is interested in people with their customs and traditions; he is interested in the legends and songs of the region. He went to Polesie with the intention of enriching his life experience with new observations useful for the writer: “Polesie ... wilderness ... the bosom of nature ... simple customs ... primitive natures,” he thought, sitting in the carriage.
Life presented Ivan Timofeevich with an unexpected gift: in the wilderness of Polesie he met a wonderful girl and his true love.
Olesya, together with her grandmother Manuilikha, lives in the forest, away from the people who once drove them out of the village, suspecting of witchcraft. Ivan Timofeevich is an enlightened man and, unlike the dark Polissya peasants, understands that Olesya and Manuilikha simply "have access to some instinctive knowledge gained by chance experience."
Ivan Timofeevich falls in love with Olesya. But he is a man of his time, of his circle. Reproaching Olesya for superstition, Ivan Timofeevich himself is no less at the mercy of prejudices and rules by which people of his circle lived. He did not even dare to imagine how Olesya would look, dressed in a fashionable dress, talking in the living room with the wives of his colleagues, Olesya, torn out of the "charming frame of the old forest."
Next to Olesya, he looks like a weak person, not free, “a person with a lazy heart,” which will not bring anyone happiness. “There will be no great joys in your life, but there will be a lot of boredom and hardship,” Olesya predicts from his cards. Ivan Timofeevich could not save Olesya from trouble, who, trying to please her beloved, went to church contrary to her convictions, despite the fear of the hatred of local inhabitants.
In Oles there is courage and determination, which our hero lacks, she has the ability to act. Petty calculations and fears are alien to her when it comes to the feeling: "Let it be, what will be, but I will not give my joy to anyone."
Persecuted and persecuted by superstitious peasants, Olesya leaves, leaving a string of "coral" beads to Ivan Timofeevich's memory. She knows that for him soon "everything will pass, everything will be blotted out," and he will easily and joyfully remember her love without grief.
The story "Olesya" brings new touches to the endless theme of love. Here, Kuprin's love is not only the greatest gift that it would be a sin to refuse. Reading the story, we understand that this feeling is unthinkable without naturalness and freedom, without bold determination to defend our feelings, without the ability to sacrifice in the name of those whom you love. Therefore, Kuprin remains the most interesting, intelligent and delicate interlocutor for readers of all times.
The work uses the opposition of two worlds: civilization and nature. Through this theme, the theme of love is revealed.
The theme of the story is that young people who fell in love with each other do not suspect that their love is doomed in advance and that a person should be as close to nature as possible.
The story is the embodiment of the writer's dream about a wonderful person, about a free and healthy life in merging with nature. The intonation of love is guessed at the very beginning of the piece in the rustle of foliage and the howling of the wind. Nature here not so much serves as a background, as it lives its own life and merges with the character of the heroine.
The main character appears before us as a very impulsive, cheerful and at the same time wise and kind and unpredictable girl to the core. She knows neither calculation nor cunning, selfishness is alien to her.
“... The beauty of her face lies in those large, shiny, dark eyes, to which thin, broken in the middle of the eyebrows gave an elusive shade of guile, imperiousness and naivety; in a dark-pink skin tone, in the willful curl of the lips, of which the lower, somewhat fuller, protruded forward with a determined and capricious look. "
At first Ivan was attracted by her beauty, cheerfulness and childish naivety, but then he notices the following:
"... Not only Olesya's beauty charmed me in her, but also her whole, original, free nature, her mind, both clear and shrouded in unshakable hereditary superstition, childishly innocent, but not devoid of the sly coquetry of a beautiful woman."
The main character, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Olesya. But as you know, opposites attract. So, in our case, they fell in love with each other.
Ivan Timofeevich is a kind person by nature, but weak. This kindness is not good, not cordial. He is not master of his word. He likes to take over people, and although he does not want to, he obeys them. Loves to drink wine. He does not value money and does not know how to save it.
Naturally, Ivan could not help finding the “fairytale hut” lost in the swamps, where Manuilikha and Olesya lived, because Kuprin planned to do it this way and nothing else. Surrounding the mystery of the story of the witch, he shows us that, as the main characters get to know each other, their relationship develops. And in this regard, they not only get to know each other, but also mutually change. Their attitude towards life changes and their principles change.
Olesya's natural, simple and sublime love makes Ivan Timofeevich forget for a while the prejudices of his environment, awakens in his soul all the best, bright, humane.
Olesya sacrifices herself when she decides to go to church. Naturally, nothing good could come of it. The people recognized her as a witch. They surrounded her. They wanted to smear her with tar, but she twisted and ran away. Olesya wanted to do something pleasant for Ivan, in the end, to please him, overdoing her fear.
Ivan learns from people what exactly happened near the church and is horrified when he hears this. He wants to punish soulless people at the same time and console and numb poor, fragile Olesya.
The culmination of the story falls on the scene when Ivan Timofeevich came to Olesya. In the middle of a conversation with him, she says, remembering:
“- Do you remember when I threw cards at you? After all, it all happened, as they said then. So, the fate of our happiness with you does not want ... And if it were not for this, do you think I would be afraid of something? "
And no matter how he tried to persuade, no matter what he did, not to convince her, at the expense of leaving. She only told him a fairy tale about a hare and a wolf, emphasizing that she did not want to name the day when she left the forest with her grandmother, because she didn’t want him to be tormented by parting and tormented by despair. But he did not fully understand the meaning of her words, only intuitively anticipating loneliness and a moment of suffering.
“The sky was covered by a black cloud with sharp curly edges, but the sun was still shining, leaning towards the west, and there was something ominous in this mixture of light and oncoming darkness. »This passage accurately describes the feelings of the protagonist, his feelings at that moment. At the moment of their farewell, a lifetime and a century. That evening it was raining with hail, as if nature itself showed Olesya its sadness and pain.
He still has a memory of her - red beads.
No one knows and will never know where Manuilikha came from with her granddaughter to the village and where they disappeared forever. And this enigma of the secret Kuprin specially developed in this narration in order to create a mysterious halo bordering on a kind of fabulous atmosphere.
Of course, we are used to the fact that all stories must end with a good ending. But what do we see thanks to Kuprin? Before us is a story about two lovers who were as different people as possible. Here, wildness, unity with nature, tenderness, naivety and, at the same time, deep wisdom in the person of a simple girl Olesya are opposed. And in the full sense of this word, "city dweller", Ivan Timofeevich, who is by nature not a kind-hearted person, that is, prudent and with malicious intent; weak and a little spender and cannot keep his word. Like all people, without exception, he is selfish and this is most likely not his fault.
The only thing that really unites them with Olesya is that for the first time in their life in real time, they fell in love with each other.
I was greatly impressed by the intricacy of the plot and the setting of the action taking place at the edge of the forest. And most importantly, I was delighted with the vivid description of nature, which Kuprin endowed with his emotions and character. His work is imbued through and through with a certain lightness and vibrant shades.
In Kuprin's early prose, a special place is occupied by the story "Olesya", which the first critics called "a forest symphony". The work was written based on personal impressions from the writer's stay in Polesie. Two years before "Olesya" was created "Moloch", and although the basis of the story and the story was completely heterogeneous material, they turned out to be linked together by a single creative task - the study of the contradictory internal state of a contemporary. Initially, the story was conceived as a "story within a story": the first chapter was a rather detailed introduction, where it was said how a group of hunters spends time hunting, and in the evening amuses themselves with all sorts of hunting stories. On one of these evenings, the story about Oles was told, or rather read, by the owner of the house. In the final version, this chapter has practically disappeared. The appearance of the narrator himself also changed: instead of the old man, the narration was transferred to the novice writer.
"Polesie ... wilderness ... the bosom of nature ... simple customs ... primitive natures, a people completely unfamiliar to me, with strange customs, a peculiar language ..." All this was so attractive for a novice writer, but it turned out that in the village there is simply nothing to do except hunting. The local "intelligentsia" in the person of the priest, the sergeant and the clerk does not attract Ivan Timofeevich, that is the name of the main character of the story. He does not find a common language with the peasants for the "city panich". The boredom of life, unrestrained drunkenness and deep ignorance, reigning around, oppress the young man. It seems that only he alone compares favorably with those around him: kind, cordial, gentle, sympathetic, sincere. However, all these human qualities have to withstand the test of love, love for Olesya.
For the first time this name appears on the pages of the story when, having decided to dispel the habitual boredom, the hero decides to visit the house of the mysterious Manuilikha, "a real, living, Polissya witch." And on the pages of the story, Baba Yaga seems to come to life, such as folk tales draw her. However, the meeting with evil spirits turned into an acquaintance with an amazingly beautiful girl. Olesya attracted Ivan Timofeevich not only by her "original beauty", but also by her character, which combined tenderness and imperiousness, childish naivety and age-old wisdom.
The love of two young people seemed to start quite unexpectedly and developed quite happily. Gradually, the character of his chosen one begins to unfold in front of Ivan Timofeevich, he learns about Olesya's extraordinary abilities: a girl could determine the fate of a person, speak a wound, catch up with fear, heal diseases with ordinary water, even knock a person down, just looking at him. She never used her gift to the detriment of people, just as old Manuilikha, her grandmother, did not use. Only a tragic coincidence of circumstances forced these two outstanding women, old and young, to live away from people, to keep away from them. But even here there is no rest for them: the greedy sergeant cannot satisfy their pitiful gifts, and he is ready to evict them.
Ivan Timofeevich strives in every possible way to protect and warn his beloved and her grandmother from all kinds of troubles. But one day he will hear from Olesya: "... although you are kind, but only weak. Your kindness is not good, not cordial." Indeed, in the character of Ivan Timofeevich there is no integrity and depth of feelings, he can hurt others. Olesya turns out to be unable to offend anyone and never: neither the finches that fell out of the nest, nor the grandmother by leaving home with her beloved, nor Ivan Timofeevich when he asks her to go to church. And although this request will be accompanied by "a sudden horror of foreboding" and the hero will want to run after Olesya and "beg, beg, even demand ... that she not go to church", he will restrain his impulse.
This episode will slightly reveal the secret of the "lazy" heart: after all, the hero was not born with this defect? Life taught him to control emotional impulses, forced him to discard what is inherent in man by nature. In contrast to the hero, Olesya is depicted, she is the only one who "preserves in a pure form the abilities inherent in man" (L. Smirnova). So on the pages of the story, the image of Kuprin's positive hero is created - a "natural person" whose soul, lifestyle, character are not spoiled by civilization. Internally harmonious, such a person brings harmony to the world around him. It was under the influence of Olesya's love that the "tired" soul of the hero woke up for a moment, but not for long. "Why then did I not obey the vague desire of my heart ...?" The hero and the author answer this question differently. The first, defending himself against the voice of conscience by the general reasoning that “in every Russian intellectual there is a little bit of a developer”, dismissed the ghost of guilt before Olesya and her grandmother, the second persistently conveyed to the reader his innermost thought that “a person can be wonderful if he develops and does not destroy the bodily, spiritual and intellectual abilities given to him by nature "(L. Smirnova).