Very short content (in a nutshell)

The protagonist and heroine met by chance at a lecture by Andrei Bely. They started dating, romantic evenings went. They were a match for each other - rich and beautiful, everyone envied their relationship. The protagonist fell in love with the heroine very much, but did not rush the relationship. Winter has passed, and forgiveness Sunday has come, followed by clean Monday. On this day, she drank and smoked a lot, and in the evening she left the main character at home. In the morning she announced that she was leaving for Tver, from where she would write a letter. In the letter, she said that she was leaving for the monastery and urged not to look for her. He complied with her request, although it was very difficult for him. Two years later, he accidentally saw her in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, where he accidentally went. After exchanging glances, he walked out into the street.

Summary (detailed)

It was a typical winter evening. Moscow was gradually freed from daytime activities and illuminated by shop window lights. Carriage sledges rushed through the city, trams diving in the dusk and hurrying passers-by. Somewhere among them, the main character drove by, urging the coachman on. He was heading from the Red Gate towards the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where his beloved lived in the house opposite. Every evening, at about the same time, he took her out into the world: to restaurants, theaters, to concerts.

In this article, you will get acquainted with the summary of Bunin's story "Clean Monday". Written in the first person, the narrator, he is also the main character, a handsome young man from the Penza province, with no specific occupation, but well-off financially. The heroine is also a rich, young and spectacular girl, sometimes she attended some courses, but the author does not specify which ones. In the story, you will get acquainted with another story of unhappy love - a woman preferred a spiritual life to a real relationship.

So, a summary of Bunin's story

Acquaintance

December. In the evenings, the narrator visits an apartment near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The hostess lives there only because of the beautiful view of the temple. The protagonist met a woman at a lecture by Andrei Bely. Soon the main characters fall in love with each other. He brings her flowers, chocolate, books, takes her to dinners and receptions in pretentious places. She does not accept his gifts very willingly, but she always thanks, reads books to the end and eats chocolate. Her real passion is "good clothes". Both try not to think about the future. The characters are opposite: the narrator is active and talkative, while she is silent and thoughtful.

Forgiveness Sunday

So two months pass, Forgiveness Sunday comes. The heroine, dressed in black, invites the narrator to visit the Novodevichy Convent. The woman spoke about the beauty of the funeral of a schismatic archbishop, about the singing of the church choir. The couple visited the graves of Chekhov, Ertel, heading further to the tavern. The heroine tells the narrator that the real Rus' is probably preserved only in the monasteries in the north, and maybe she will go to one of them. The protagonist does not take her words seriously, suggesting that these are "quirks again."

Clean Monday

In the morning, the woman asks the protagonist to take her to the theater, to a skit, considering, however, such "gatherings" as vulgar. Here the heroine constantly smokes, drinks champagne, watches the performance of the actors, dances with one of them. At three o'clock in the morning the young man takes the woman home. She releases the coachman and invites him to her place. The characters are physically close. In the morning she tells her lover that she is leaving for Tver and does not know how long she will stay there.

ending

Two weeks later, a letter arrives from her lover with a request not to write and not to attempt to find her. She reports that at first she will be a novice, and then, perhaps, she will take tonsure and become a nun. After that, the main character disappears in taverns, indulging in all serious and sinking lower and lower. Then he recovers for a long time, being completely indifferent to everything. We understand that he is depressed.

Two years pass, on New Year's Eve the main character, with tears in his eyes, walks along the path that he once walked with her. The man stops at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and wishes to visit it. The janitor allows you to enter only after paying. In the monastery there is a service for the prince and princess. In the courtyard, a man watches the procession. One of the novices singing in the choir suddenly looks at the protagonist, as if seeing him in the dark. He realizes that this is his lost beloved, turns around and silently leaves.

findings

The love tragedy of the heroes is that they could not understand each other. The heroine renounces carnal love, sees the end of her spiritual quest in the church. Her new love is the love of God. Now nothing vulgar will touch her subtle soul. She finds a new meaning of life and peace. The heroine finds her own way, and the narrator has not been able to find a place in this life.

The author tells readers that material and physical well-being do not guarantee happiness. Happiness is in understanding each other and yourself. The main characters of the story were completely different, and therefore were not happy. After all, the main character did not fully understand his beloved, he saw in her only some oddities and "quirks". I did not see the whole depth of her soul and the originality of the spiritual world. He could offer her only the external - wealth, entertainment, carnal pleasures, a bourgeois family. And she wanted more. Bunin told us a sad story about an unhappy love that could not end in a happy ending.

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"CLEAN MONDAY"

I.A. Bunin

SUMMARY

Moscow gray winter day turns into evening. Every evening the narrator is driven by a coachman from the Red Gate to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. A lady lives opposite the temple, whom he takes to dine and to theaters. Who she will be for him, he does not know, she is mysterious and incomprehensible, but he is happy with her. She studies at the courses, lives alone, constantly learns the beginning of the "Moonlight Sonata".

Every Saturday the narrator sends her flowers, brings chocolate, new books. This couple sees their eyes everywhere. He is chatty and restless, she is silent and thoughtful. They met at a lecture by Andrei Bely, the narrator twirled and laughed so hard that she, too, laughed. He tells her that she does not love him, she replies that, apart from her father and him, she has no one. They drink tea, talking about everything that comes to mind. Arriving in the evening, he kissed her for a long time, then she got ready, not allowing full intimacy, and they drove, for example, to the Metropol, again talking about something extraneous. Immediately after they met, she said that she was not fit to be a wife, he did not talk about marriage, but he expected her decision to change. Once, after kissing, he clutched his head and groaned: "Yes, after all, this is not love, not love ..." She replied that no one knows what love is. He exclaims that he knows and will wait for her to know love and happiness. And again they talk about something else. It is enough for him to be next to her every evening. January, February, Maslenitsa passed.

On Forgiveness Sunday, she ordered to come to her at five in the evening, met him all in black, saying that tomorrow was Clean Monday, and invited him to go to the Novodevichy Convent. The narrator was surprised, she said that yesterday she was at the Rogozhsky cemetery and walks without him in the mornings around the city. But this is not religiosity, but something else. In Novodevichy, she says to him with quiet bewilderment: "It's true, how you love me!" They looked at the graves of Ertel and Chekhov. Then we went to look for Griboyedov's house, as well as for the last pancakes in a tavern to Yegorov. She says that the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent is nearby ... In a tavern, in a room with an icon of the Mother of God with Three Hands, she says: "You are a gentleman, you cannot understand all this Moscow the way I do." At dinner, she mentions that she went to the Zachatievsky Monastery, where stichera are wonderfully sung, she was in the Miracle Monastery: “Oh, I’ll go somewhere to a monastery, to some very remote one.” In desperation, he thinks that then he will leave or kill someone to be sent to Sakhalin, lit a cigarette, forgetting that smoking is not allowed here. With a quiet light in her eyes, she retells the Russian legend about how God tested the princess. The narrator is surprised and alarmed.

When he took her home, she told her to come tomorrow no earlier than ten, she wants to go to the skits of the Art Theater, although she does not like skits. He arrives at the appointed time and finds her playing the beginning of the Moonlight Sonata, wearing a black velvet dress. She favorably accepts the attention of men on the skit, on the way to the house the moon seems to her a luminous skull, the chimes - ancient, tin and cast iron. At the entrance, she asks to let the coachman go, although before that she had never allowed him to go up to her at night. This night was the night of love.

At dawn, she said that she was leaving for an indefinite period to her father, she would write as soon as she arrived. He asks to leave her, the narrator leaves, goes to Iverskaya, kneels down and prays. Some old woman takes pity on him: "Oh, don't kill yourself, don't kill yourself like that! Sin! Sin!"

Two weeks later he receives a letter: she asks not to wait for her, intends to go to obedience and then, perhaps, to be tonsured. He asks him not to answer, because it will only increase the torment. He drank for a long time, then began to come to his senses indifferently. Almost two years have passed.

On the eve of the new year, 1914, he goes to the Kremlin, stands without praying in the Archangel Cathedral, then goes to where they skated together and cries. Having stopped the cab at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, he feels an irresistible desire to go into the temple. But the janitor at the gate blocks the road, asks not to go, because there are now "Grand Duchess Elzavet Fedrovna and Grand Duke Mitri Palych." They let him pass for a ruble, but, entering the courtyard, he sees the procession, the Grand Duchess, and one of the sisters suddenly raises her head and looks into the darkness. He understands that this is his favorite.

She somehow sensed his presence and looked straight at him even though he was standing in the dark. The narrator turned and walked out of the gate.

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In 1937, Ivan Bunin began work on his best book. For the first time the collection "Dark Alleys" was published after the end of the Second World War. This book is a collection of short tragic love stories. One of Bunin's most famous stories is Clean Monday. Analysis and summary of the work are presented in today's article.

"Dark alleys"

The analysis of Bunin's "Clean Monday" should begin with a brief history of the creation of the work. This is one of the last stories included in the Dark Alleys collection. Bunin completed work on the work Clean Monday on May 12, 1944. The story was first published in New York.

Probably, the writer was pleased with this essay. Indeed, in his diary, Bunin wrote: “I thank God for the opportunity to create Clean Monday.”

Bunin in each of his works included in the collection "Dark Alleys" reveals to the reader the tragedy and catastrophic nature of love. This feeling is beyond human control. It suddenly comes into his life, gives fleeting happiness, and then certainly causes unbearable pain.

The narration in the story "Clean Monday" by Bunin is in the first person. The author does not name his characters. Love breaks out between the two young people. They are both beautiful, wealthy, healthy and seemingly full of energy. But something is missing in their relationship.

They go to restaurants, concerts, theaters. Discuss books, performances. True, the girl often shows indifference, even hostility. “You don’t like everything,” the main character once says, but he doesn’t attach any importance to his words. A passionate romance is followed by a sudden parting - sudden for a young man, not for her. The ending is typical of Bunin's style. What caused the breakup between the lovers?

On the eve of the Orthodox holiday

The story describes their first meeting, but the story begins with events that take place some time after they met. The girl attends courses, reads a lot, otherwise leads an idle lifestyle. And it seems to be quite satisfied with everything. But this is only at first glance. He is so absorbed in his feeling, his love for her, that he does not even suspect the other side of her soul.

It is worth paying attention to the title of the story - "Clean Monday". The meaning of Bunin's story is quite deep. On the eve of the holy day, for the first time, a conversation about religiosity takes place between lovers. Before that, the main character did not suspect that the girl was attracted by everything connected with the church. In his absence, she visits Moscow monasteries, moreover, she is thinking about monasticism.

Clean Monday is the beginning of Lent. On this day, cleansing rites are held, the transition from fast food to Lenten restrictions.

Parting

One day they go to the Novodevichy Convent. By the way, this is a rather unusual route for him. Previously, they spent time exclusively in entertainment establishments. A visit to a monastery is, of course, the idea of ​​the protagonist's beloved.

The next day, for the first time, intimacy occurs between them. And then the girl leaves for Tver, from there she sends a letter to her lover. In this message, she asks not to wait for her. She became a novice of one of the Tver monasteries, and perhaps decides to be tonsured. He will never see her again.

After he received the last letter from his beloved, the hero began to drink, sink, then nevertheless came to his senses. Once, after a long time, I saw a nun in a Moscow church, whom I recognized as my former lover. Perhaps the image of his beloved was too firmly planted in his mind, and it was not her at all? He didn't say anything to her. He turned and walked out of the temple gate. This is the summary of Bunin's Clean Monday.

Love and tragedy

The heroes of Bunin do not find happiness. In "Clean Monday", as in other works of the Russian classic, we are talking about love, which brings only bitterness and disappointment. What is the tragedy of the heroes of this story?

Probably because, being close, they did not know each other at all. Each person is a whole universe. And sometimes even relatives cannot unravel his inner world. About loneliness among people, about love, which is impossible without complete mutual understanding, Bunin said in Clean Monday. An analysis of a work of art cannot be done without characterizing the main characters. What do we know about the girl who, living in abundance and being loved, went to the monastery?

main character

When analyzing Bunin's "Clean Monday", it is worth paying attention to the portrait of a nameless girl, which the author creates at the beginning of the work. She led an idle life. She read a lot, studied music, liked to visit restaurants. But all this she did somehow indifferently, without much interest.

She is educated, well-read, enjoys immersing herself in the world of luxurious social life. She likes good cuisine, and she wonders, "how can people not be bored every day for lunch and dinner"? She calls acting skits vulgar, while the relationship with her lover ends with a visit to the theater. Bunin's heroine cannot understand what his purpose in this life is. She is not one of those who have enough to live in luxury, talk about literature and art.

The inner world of the main character is very rich. She is constantly thinking, is in a spiritual search. The girl is attracted by the surrounding reality, but at the same time she is frightened. Love becomes not a salvation for her, but a problem that terribly burdens, forces her to make the only right sudden decision.

The main character refuses worldly pleasures, and this shows her strong nature. "Clean Monday" is not the only story from the collection "Dark Alleys", in which the author paid a lot of attention to the female image.

Bunin brought to the fore the experiences of the hero. At the same time, he showed a rather controversial female character. The heroine is satisfied with the lifestyle she leads, but all sorts of details, little things, depress her. Finally, she decides to enter a convent, thereby destroying the life of the man who loves her. In fact, she is hurting herself as well. Indeed, in the letter that the girl sends to her lover there are the words: “May God give me the strength not to answer you.”

The main character

Little is known about how the further fate of the young man developed. He was very upset by the separation from his beloved. Disappeared in the dirtiest taverns, drank and went down. But nevertheless he came to his senses, returned to his former way of life. It can be assumed that the pain that this strange, extraordinary and somewhat exalted girl inflicted on him will never subside.

In order to find out who the writer was during his lifetime, one should only read his books. But is Ivan Bunin's biography really so tragic? Was there true love in his life?

Ivan Bunin

The first wife of the writer, Anna Tsakni, was the daughter of an Odessa Greek, editor of a popular magazine at that time. They got married in 1898. Soon a son was born who did not live even five years. The child died of meningitis. Bunin experienced the death of his son very hard. Relations between the spouses went wrong, but the wife did not give him a divorce for a long time. Even after he connected his life with Vera Muromtseva.

The writer's second wife became his "patient shadow". Muromtseva replaced his secretary, mother, friend. She did not leave him even when he began an affair with Galina Kuznetsova. Nevertheless, it was Galina Muromtseva who was next to the writer in the last days of his life. The creator of "Dark Alleys" was not deprived of love.

Their acquaintance took place in the month of December. It is not clear how he got to one of the lectures of Mr. Andrei Bely, he could not sit still and the whole lecture was spinning and laughing to the whole audience. She looked at him as if he were an eccentric, but she herself did not understand how she laughed at his next joke. Since that time, every evening he comes to her house in an apartment that she bought only because she was struck by the view of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. He did not understand what kind of relationship awaited him with her, he drove her to restaurants and cafes, visited museums and concerts with her. He did not want to think about what would happen next, because once she had let him know that she was not at all interested in such a conversation.

She has always been a mystery to him, and it haunted him. He enjoyed every minute that fate gave him to feel her breath or see her smile. It was a real blessing for him...

She rented an apartment alone, her father lived far away in Tver. She liked going to history classes. She taught the Moonlight Sonata, although she only learned the beginning of it. She took the flowers that he gave her, read the books that he brought and always ate with appetite.

Rich, young, beautiful. In all public places they were seen off with their eyes. He is from the province of Penza. He was insanely beautiful, he had some kind of Italian zest. He was cheerful, lively and always smiling. She had either Indian or Persian charm. They complemented each other, he is talkative, she is quiet, he is restless, she is thoughtful. Even in kissing, they were as different as they could be.

Periodically, she could not control herself and went to the room in which she dressed for a new walk. She did not want to get married, because she believed that she was not made for marriage.

Periodically, he could not understand how he still maintains such a relationship. And again they forgot about everything and talked about strangers. He was glad that he had the opportunity to be near her. For him, it was both pain and happiness.

Thus ended the winter. On forgiveness Sunday, she was dressed in all black and invited him to go to the Novodevichy Convent. She shared with him the beauties of those places and the sincerity of the archbishop's funeral. She was close to the church choir, she believed that he made her heart tremble. They walked for a long time in search of Griboyedov's house, but, having failed to find him, they went to refresh themselves at Yegorov on Okhotny Ryad.

The tavern turned out to be quite warm and cozy, there were a lot of cabbies in it. She said that only in such quiet places did Rus' remain untouched and that someday she would leave worldly life for a monastery, reading some ancient Russian legend. He did not understand what other quirks she had in her head.

She asked him to take her to the theatrical skit tomorrow, although, as she said, they were rather vulgar. She smoked a lot in this establishment, and, looking intently at the actors, watched the laughter of the local public. There, a man was looking at her with greedy eyes, who soon approached them and drunkenly clung to her hand, mumbling something about her companion. They left the theatrical skit around three in the morning, and that day she decided to let the carriage go and head home on foot.

She went home and immediately went to her room and began to rustle her dress. She was standing by the mirror when he came close to her door. She combed her gorgeous thick black hair. In the morning he woke up from her gaze, which was unnaturally fixed. Saying that she was leaving for Tver and would send him a letter from there, she asked him to leave.

He received the letter about two weeks later. In it, she affectionately but firmly explained that he would not wait for her, would not hope to see or hear her ever again. It turned out that she decided to go to the monastery for obedience, in order to eventually become a nun. He listened to her and did not look for a meeting with her, he disappeared in taverns, began to drink a lot of wine, he rolled lower and lower, not wanting to get out of the hole into which he had driven himself. Soon he found strength in himself and began to recover, but all this seemed to him senseless and soulless.

It's been a couple of years since he'd met her on Clean Monday. On exactly such an evening he got out of the house, catching a cab, he went to the Kremlin. He stood for a long time, not praying, not thinking about anything, in the Cathedral of the Archangel, after that he rode and cried.

So he drove to Ordynka, where the girls' choir sang in the Marfo-Maryinsky monastery. The janitor did not want to let him through at all, but when the gentleman offered him a ruble, he went limp, sighed and opened a passage for the man.

Icons and banners were taken out of the church. Singing nuns walked one by one with burning candles shining beautifully in their faces. He took a closer look and saw her, having carefully examined, he left. She felt his presence next to her. He didn't stop or turn around. He just left...