"Sunstroke", analysis of Bunin's story. The theme of love in the stories of I.A. Bunin "Sunstroke" and "Dark Alleys" Why is love tragic in a sunstroke
"Accidental" love in the story of I.A. Bunin "Sunstroke"
In many Bunin's stories, love completely captures a person, captures all his thoughts and strengths. And so that it does not disappear and does not dry out, you need to part forever. The author persistently and invariably asserts: marriage can only vulgarize love.
His heroes yearn for love and, scorched by it, perish. The writer's love does not last long, it is like a short, bright and blinding flash, penetrating the souls of lovers to the depths, in the end, it leads to tragedy - suicide, death, non-existence.
All his life a person tries to find the answer to the question: “What is love? Sunstroke, vexation of the spirit or grace?
In 1925, in the coastal Alps, Bunin wrote the story "Sunstroke".
If in "Light Breath" Bunin tells us about unfulfilled love, about a dream that is called love, then in "Sunstroke" he tells us about the drama of people who have known true, too happy love ( accidentally, all of a sudden!) which the writer compares with "sunstroke".
In this work, unlike the works of the writer's early work, love is mutual, but still tragic! The plot is very simple. On the steamboat, he and she accidentally meet, warmed up by wine, the warmth of the night and a romantic mood. The heroes, getting off the ship, spend the night in a hotel, and part in the morning. That's all.
But behind a very simple and banal plot lies the conflict of the characters with themselves.
Let's start with the heroine. As in many of his other stories, the writer hides her name. Moreover, not only we, the readers, do not know her name, but also the person, the lieutenant, to whom she gave herself completely. Why doesn't she identify herself? Is she really afraid that the lieutenant will look for her, pursue her, that he will go to her city, where her husband and three-year-old daughter are left? No, that's not the point. This romantic nature is convinced that love will be devoid of mystery and mystery if she reveals her name.
But another question arises: does she love or is she just looking for a love adventure? And we are already at the very beginning of the story convinced: loves! He loves passionately, passionately! And this love blinds her like a sunstroke.
"The lieutenant muttered:
- Let's go...
- Where? she asked in surprise.
- At this pier.
- Why?
He said nothing. She again put the back of her hand to her hot cheek.
- Madness...
"Let's go," he repeated stupidly. - I beg you…
“Oh, do as you please,” she said, turning away.
She doesn't even resist her feeling. She is simply unable to resist him, because it is like sunstroke, from which a person falls ill and often is not even able to cope with this disease himself.
And the next morning, as if recovering from an illness, she confesses: “If we go together, everything will be ruined. It will be very unpleasant for me. I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me. There has never been anything even similar to what happened to me, and there will never be again. It’s like an eclipse hit me ... Or, rather, we both got something like a sunstroke.
In this small remark, the whole heroine is revealed. “I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me.” And what could the lieutenant think? About her being a fallen woman? But oh couldn't So to think about her, because he fell in love with her, because he also overtook sunstroke. And even if she was from the category of those women who are called fallen, he would not care. He was ready to follow her to the ends of the earth.
She further admits: “There has never been anything even like what happened to me, and there will never be again.” Now we have no doubt: this is an honest and decent woman. She simply could not resist this love, which so unexpectedly fell on her head and wounded her right in the heart. “It’s like an eclipse has found me…”
But then why shouldn't she go along with the lieutenant? Why does she break away from her love so abruptly? We find the answer to this question in this short story later, when, unable to find a place for himself from grief, the lieutenant recalls: “I can’t, I can’t come to this city for no reason, where is her husband, where is her three-year-old girl, in general, her whole family and her whole ordinary life!” Here is the clue! After all, she is not just a woman, she is also a wife and mother - above all, a mother! Duty for her - the duty of a wife, the duty of a mother - is above all, including love, even if such love is eternal. And that it will be eternal, we do not doubt. Despite the fact that the author does not tell us about the painful experiences of the heroine.
Before us is a change in the mood of a man. At first, the lieutenant becomes sad, his heart shrinks "tenderness". He tries to hide his confusion. Then there is a kind of dialogue with himself, he tries to laugh, shrug his shoulders, smoke, drive away sad thoughts and ... he cannot. He constantly finds objects that resemble a stranger: "a hairpin, a crumpled bed", "an unfinished cup"; he smells her perfume. This is how pain and longing is born. There is no trace of lightness and carelessness!
At the thought of not being able to meet this woman again "He felt such pain and the uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was seized by horror, despair." The author convinces the reader of the seriousness of the feelings experienced by the hero of the story. The lieutenant feels himself "terribly unhappy in this city."
"Where to go? What to do?" he thinks lostly.
Bunin wanted to show what an abyss lay between the past and the present. “The room without her seemed somehow completely different than it was with her. He was still full of it - and empty. It was strange! There was still the smell of her good English cologne, her unfinished cup was still on the tray, but she was already gone ... " The lieutenant needed something to do, distract himself, go somewhere, and he wanders around the city, trying to escape from obsession, not understanding what is happening to him after all. “His heart is overwhelmed with too much love, too much happiness”. Fleeting love was a shock for the lieutenant, it psychologically changed him.
“Yes, what is it with me? And what is special about it and what actually happened? In fact, just some kind of sunstroke!
The depth of the hero's spiritual insight is clearly expressed in the final phrase of the story: "The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older." How to explain what happened to him? Maybe the hero came into contact with that great feeling that people call love, and the feeling of the impossibility of loss led him to realize the tragedy of being?
A woman and a man, already living a different life, constantly remember these moments of happiness: “... for many years later they remembered this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives.” They seemed to be trapped in their memories for life.
As we can see, love leaves unhealed wounds in the fate of Bunin's heroes: the torment of a loving soul, the bitterness of loss, the sweet pain of memories. And time has no power over her!
In the work of I. A. Bunin, perhaps, the theme of love occupies a leading place. Bunin's love is always a tragic feeling that has no hope for a happy ending, it is a difficult test for lovers. This is how it appears to readers in the story "Sunstroke".
Along with the collection of love stories "Dark Alleys", created by Ivan Alekseevich in the mid-1920s, "Sunstroke" is one of the pearls of his work. The tragedy and complexity of the time during which I. Bunin lived and wrote were fully embodied by the writer in the images of the main characters of this work.
The work was published in Sovremennye Zapiski in 1926. Critics accepted the work with caution, skeptically noticing the emphasis on the physiological side of love. However, not all reviewers were so sanctimonious, among them were those who warmly welcomed Bunin's literary experiment. In the context of symbolist poetics, his image of the Stranger was perceived as a mystical mystery of feeling, dressed in flesh and blood. It is known that the author, when creating his story, was impressed by Chekhov's work, so he crossed out the introduction and began his story with a random sentence.
About what?
From the very beginning, the story is intriguing in that the narrative begins with an impersonal sentence: "After dinner, we went ... on deck ...". The lieutenant meets a beautiful stranger on the ship, whose name, like his name, remains unknown to the reader. They both seem to be hit by a sunstroke; passionate, ardent feelings flare up between them. The traveler and his companion leave the ship for the city, and the next day she leaves by boat to her family. The young officer is left all alone and after a while realizes that he can no longer live without that woman. The story ends with the fact that he, sitting under a canopy on the deck, feels ten years older.
Main characters and their characteristics
- She is. From the story, you can learn that this woman had a family - a husband and a three-year-old daughter, to whom she returned by boat from Anapa (probably from vacation or treatment). The meeting with the lieutenant became for her a "sunstroke" - a fleeting adventure, a "clouding of her mind." She does not tell him her name and asks not to write to her in her city, as she understands that what happened between them is only a momentary weakness, and her real life is completely different. She is beautiful and charming, her charm lies in the mystery.
- The lieutenant is an ardent and impressionable man. For him, a meeting with a stranger was fatal. He only managed to truly realize what had happened to him after the departure of his beloved. He wants to find her, return her, because he was seriously carried away by her, but it's too late. The misfortune that can happen to a person from an overabundance of the sun, for him was a sudden feeling, true love, which made him suffer from the realization of the loss of his beloved. This loss had a profound effect on him.
Issues
- One of the main problems in the story "Sunstroke" of this story is the problem of the essence of love. In the understanding of I. Bunin, love brings a person not only joy, but also suffering, making him feel unhappy. The happiness of short moments later results in the bitterness of separation and painful parting.
- From this follows another problem of the story - the problem of the short duration, the fluctuation of happiness. And for the mysterious stranger, and for the lieutenant, this euphoria was short-lived, but in the future they both "remembered this moment for many years." Short moments of delight are accompanied by long years of longing and loneliness, but I. Bunin is sure that it is thanks to them that life acquires meaning.
Topic
The theme of love in the story "Sunstroke" is a feeling full of tragedy, mental anguish, but at the same time it is filled with passion and ardor. This great, all-consuming feeling becomes both happiness and grief. Bunin's love is like a match that rapidly flares up and dies out, and at the same time it suddenly strikes, like a sunstroke, and can no longer leave its imprint on the human soul.
Meaning
The point of Sunstroke is to show readers all the facets of love. It arises suddenly, lasts a little, passes hard, like a disease. It is both beautiful and painful at the same time. This feeling can both elevate a person and completely destroy him, but it is precisely this feeling that can give him those bright moments of happiness that color his faceless everyday life and fill his life with meaning.
Ivan Alexandrovich Bunin in the story "Sunstroke" seeks to convey to readers his main idea that ardent and strong emotions do not always have a future: love fever is fleeting and like a powerful shock, but this is what makes it the most wonderful feeling in the world.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!The works of the 19th century were mainly devoted to the theme of love, but light romantic love was not interesting for writers, it was necessary for the main characters to test their feelings by going through a series of tests. The writers in the stories tried to answer the main question of what love is, how it affects a person’s life, whether it destroys him or whether it is salvation, how long this feeling can last.
Ivan Bunin shows in his stories all the tragedy of love: it is beautiful, but destructive for a person. Usually, the love of Bunin's heroes does not go into the family channel, where everyday life and everyday life can underestimate or completely destroy these feelings. This is the kind of love the writer shows in the work " Sunstroke", where the main characters experience strong feelings, they are in love.
The characters in the story have no names, only he, she and their experiences. Such a commonality allows everyone who reads this story to experience some of their feelings and perceive the plot in their own way. Despite the fact that the main character is a woman, the author still looks at everything that happens through the eyes of a male hero. The traditional beginning in the story: the main characters are traveling on a ship, and their chance meeting turns out to be a flash of a new feeling.
Their attraction is so strong that they decide to enter into a more real connection. Not knowing the names, they retire to one of the rooms. But already a new day does not bring them anything good: after an instantaneous outbreak of love, disappointment appears. Both of them try not to remember what happened to them. They part ways without ever getting to know each other. Heroes do not worry about parting, pretending to be indifferent.
And only a few months later the lieutenant realizes that he loves and suffers, but he does not know anything about her, not even her name. After going through moral suffering, the hero again finds himself on the ship. But now there is no trace of his fun, his soul has grown old, and he himself says that he feels much older than he really is.
The title that the writer gave to his story is interesting. Sunstroke is associated with lightning, a flash that strikes, knocks a person down, but when it disappears, the person suffers and suffers. Nature becomes another character in Bunin's story. She is always present in the story, creating a certain emotional mood. The dark night on the eve of intimacy is so good that they, the heroes, cannot but be together. Dawn is a mirror reflection of the feeling that the heroes suddenly experienced: the dawn went out, continuing to glow in some places.
Bunin uses the world around him to show the happiness that awaits the heroes ahead. But the lights floating away are a symbol of the monotony and routine of life, where a vivid feeling cannot exist. The details recreated by the author help to show more accurately how this subtle feeling arises, how the mutual attraction of young bodies arises. The hands of the girl are pretty and strong, and the body is strong and swarthy.
The love shown by Bunin is not described by the author spiritually, it is only physical. And then the writer inserts many verbs into the text to show the reality of the picture and how thoughtless the act of the main characters is. The heroine herself called their romance a sunstroke. The young woman behaves sensibly, showing her lover that it was a light romance in which no continuation is needed.
The main character behaves differently. He also does not think about continuing the novel until he begins to realize that he is in love. After this novel, the lieutenant can no longer say that it has become amusing. The memories of what happened are already torment and suffering for the protagonist. Not understanding how to continue to live, he does not see a goal in his life, it seems to him meaningless. His heart was struck by a terrible sunstroke.
At the end of the story, the author shows the reader the appearance of the hero in order to compare his inner world and the main features of his appearance. The hero's face is gray from sunburn, blue eyes and a burnt mustache. Ivan Bunin again shows the reader the details that make it possible to understand the feelings of the hero. But the author stubbornly shows and proves that this love has no future, it cannot develop. Happiness and love cannot last forever, the author argues, they are fleeting, but full of suffering.
The difficult life of Ivan Alekseevich left an imprint on his works, but in spite of everything, the theme of love runs like a red stripe through all his work.
In 1924, Bunin began to write a cycle of works that were very closely related to each other. These were separate stories, each of which was an independent work. These stories are united by one theme - this is the theme of love. Bunin combined five of his works in that cycle: "Mitya's Love", "Sunstroke", "Ida", "Mordovian Sundress", "The Case of Cornet Elagin". They describe five different cases of love arising out of nowhere. The same love that strikes at the very heart, overshadowing the mind and subjugating the will.
This article will focus on the story "Sunstroke". It was written in 1925 when the writer was in the Alpes-Maritimes. How the story was born later, the writer told Galina Kuznetsova, one of his lovers. She, in turn, wrote it all down in her diary.
A connoisseur of human passions, a man capable of erasing all boundaries before a wave of feelings, a writer who owned the word in perfect elegance, inspired by a new feeling, easily and naturally expressed his thoughts as soon as any idea was born. Any object, any event or natural phenomenon could serve as a stimulus. The main thing is not to waste the received feeling, and to fully surrender to the description, without stopping, and perhaps not completely controlling yourself.
The plot of the story
The storyline of the story is quite simple, although we should not forget that the action takes place a hundred years ago, when morals were completely different, and it was not customary to write about it openly. On a wonderful warm night, a man and a woman meet on the ship. They are both warmed up with wine, there are magnificent views around, the mood is good and romance is everywhere. They communicate, after that they spend the night together in the nearest hotel and leave when morning comes.
The meeting is so amazing, fleeting and unusual for both that the main characters did not even recognize each other's names. This madness is justified by the author: "Neither one nor the other has ever experienced anything like this in all his life."
The fleeting meeting impressed the hero so much that he could not find a place for himself after parting, the next day. The lieutenant realizes that only now he understood what happiness can look like when the object of all desires is nearby. After all, for a moment, let that night, he was the happiest man on earth. The tragedy of the situation was added by the realization that most likely he would not see her again.
At the beginning of the acquaintance, the lieutenant and the stranger did not exchange any data, they did not even recognize each other's names. As if dooming yourself to a single communication in advance. Young people retired with one single purpose. But this does not discredit them, they have a serious justification for their act. The reader learns about this from the words of the main character. After spending the night together, she seems to conclude: “It’s like an eclipse has come over me ... Or, rather, we both got something like a sunstroke ...” And this sweet young woman wants to believe.
The narrator manages to dispel any illusions about the possible future of a wonderful couple and reports that the stranger has a family, a husband and a little daughter. And the main character, when he caught himself, assessed the situation and decided not to lose such a beloved object of personal preferences, suddenly realizes that he cannot even send a telegram to his nighttime lover. He does not know anything about her, neither her name, nor her last name, nor her address.
Although the author did not pay attention to the detailed description of the woman, the reader likes her. I would like to believe that the mysterious stranger is beautiful and smart. And this incident should be perceived as a sunstroke, nothing more.
Bunin probably created the image of a femme fatale who represented his own ideal. And although there is no detail on either the appearance or the internal filling of the heroine, we know that she has a simple and lovely laugh, long hair, as she wears hairpins. The woman has a strong and elastic body, strong small hands. Her well-groomedness can be indicated by the fact that a subtle aroma of perfume is felt close to her.
Semantic load
In his work, Bunin did not specify. There are no names in the story. The reader does not know on which ship the main characters sailed, in which city they made a stop. Even the names of the characters remain unknown. Probably, the writer wanted the reader to understand that names and titles are not important when it comes to such an exalted feeling as falling in love and love. It cannot be said that the lieutenant and the married lady have a great secret of love. The passion that flared up between them, most likely, was initially perceived by both as an affair during a trip. But something happened in the soul of the lieutenant, and now he cannot find a place for himself from the surging feelings.
From the story you can see that the writer himself is a psychologist of personalities. This is easy to track by the behavior of the main character. At first, the lieutenant parted with his stranger with such ease and even joy. However, after some time, he wonders what it is about this woman that makes him think about her every second, why now the whole wide world is not dear to him.
The writer managed to convey the tragedy of unfulfilled or lost love.
The structure of the work
In his story, Bunin described, without affectation and embarrassment, a phenomenon that the common people call treason. But he was able to do it very subtly and beautifully, thanks to his writing talent. In fact, the reader becomes a witness of the greatest feeling that has just been born - love. But it happens in reverse chronological order. The standard scheme: eyeing, acquaintance, walks, meetings, dinners - all this is thrown aside. Only the acquaintance of the main characters that took place immediately leads them to the climax in the relationship between a man and a woman. And only after parting, satisfied passion suddenly gives birth to love.
“The feeling of the pleasures he had just experienced was still alive in him, but now the main thing was a new feeling.”
The author conveys feelings in detail, placing emphasis on such trifles as smells and sounds. For example, the story describes in detail the morning when the market square is open, with its smells and sounds. And the sound of bells can be heard from the nearby church. It all seems happy and bright, and contributes to unprecedented romance. At the end of the work, all the same seems to the hero unpleasant, loud and irritable. The sun no longer warms, but burns, and you want to hide from it.
In conclusion, one phrase should be quoted:
“The dark summer dawn was dying out far ahead, gloomy, sleepy and multi-colored reflected in the river ... and the lights scattered in the darkness all around floated and floated back”
This is what reveals the concept of love of the author himself. Once Bunin himself said that there is no happiness in life, but there are some happy moments that need to be lived and appreciated. After all, love can appear suddenly, and disappear forever. Sadly, in Bunin's stories, the characters constantly part. Perhaps he wants to tell us that there is great meaning in separation, because of it love remains deep in the soul and diversifies human sensitivity. And it really does feel like a sunstroke.
Illustration for the story by I.A. Bunin "Sunstroke"
In the work of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, love is always tragic, and sometimes it does not save, but leads to death. The heroes of his famous works do not know family and quiet happiness, so as not to break the love boat on everyday life.
Story "Sunstroke" amazing and different in its own way. The writer analyzes in it a serious problem of a personal nature: a choice that carries consequences. The heroes make their choice, and find themselves far from each other, with no hope of reunion.
This work tells about the unexpected love that broke out between the main characters - a lieutenant and a beautiful stranger. Ivan Bunin does not give them names in order to show that they are ordinary people, and their history is not at all unique. The couple is not ready for a big and bright feeling, and they have absolutely no time to figure it out, since they have only one night that they spend enjoying each other. When the time comes to say goodbye, the lieutenant does not think about what mortal anguish will attack him after his beloved leaves the ship forever. As if before his eyes, his whole life passes, which is measured, now evaluated from the height of the tender feeling that has enclosed him in chains.
The meeting of the lieutenant and the stranger was a "sunstroke" for both of them: blinded with passion, and then devastated their souls. I.A. Bunin shows us that every person has a need to love and be loved, but in his story this love is devoid of illusions. Not every person can take on such a big responsibility - be in love. For the heroes of this story, love turned out to be an immense happiness that they could not afford.
"A beautiful stranger…"
Obviously, with this work, the author wanted to show the dramatic outcome of love. Bunin never wrote about happy love. In his opinion, the reunion and kinship of souls is a completely different feeling, which has nothing to do with passion, which rises to heaven. True love, as already mentioned, comes and goes suddenly, like a sunstroke.
Meanwhile, each of us is free to choose how to act in a given situation. The meeting of the heroes was an attempt to drown out the disturbing voice of a longing heart.
Love, which the lieutenant realized too late, almost destroys him, deprives him of the joy of life; he feels "ten years older". As if looking for salvation from the surging tenderness, he rushes into the city, wanders around the market, passes people and feels terribly lonely. This bittersweet feeling prevents him from thinking and looking at the world soberly. He knows for sure that he will never meet his stranger again.
The love that Bunin describes in his works has no future. His heroes can never find happiness, they are doomed to suffer. "Sunstroke" once again reveals Bunin's concept of love: "When we love, we die..." .
Dorofeeva Alexandra
