Garnet bracelet. Literature lesson based on the story by A.I.
Lesson type: lesson on learning new material.
Type of lesson: lesson-conversation.
Purpose of the lesson: to identify the originality of the solution love theme in the works of A.I. Kuprina.
Educational:
- deepen students’ understanding of the artistic originality of A. I. Kuprin’s prose;
- introduce students to the history of the creation of the story “ Garnet bracelet”;
- based on direct impressions from reading the story, conduct comprehensive analysis works, having considered the problems of the story, its plot and compositional features, the originality of artistic images.
Educational:
- improve students’ skills in analyzing a work of art, developing the ability to identify the main, significant moments in the development of an action, determine their role in revealing the theme and idea of the work, and draw independent conclusions; develop research skills literary text; benchmarking, detailed answers to questions; enrichment vocabulary students;
- to form in students their own attitude to the events and characters of the story, thereby promoting the development of an active life position, the ability to defend own point vision.
Educational:
- to cultivate the moral qualities of students using the example of the heroes of the story ( inner beauty, nobility);
- form aesthetic perception using different kinds arts: literature, music, art, movie;
- cultivate an attentive attitude to the word.
Preparatory stage: students are divided into 4 groups.
Progress of the lesson
I. Organizing time. Explanation of the goals and objectives of the lesson.
II. introduction teacher.
“Kuprin has one cherished theme. He touches it chastely, reverently and nervously. Otherwise, you can’t touch it. This is the theme of love...”
“Great power love!” – this is exactly the theme of our lesson. The theme of love has always been, is and will be one of the most pressing topics for all humanity.
One of the most fragrant and yearning stories about love - and the saddest - is Kuprin's "Garnet Bracelet"
“Love has thousands of stories, and each of them has its own light, its own sadness, its own happiness and its own fragrance.”
(K.G. Paustovsky)
One of these “plots” will be the subject of our attention today.
We will focus on the analysis of A.I. Kuprin’s story “The Garnet Bracelet”.
III. Analysis of Kuprin’s story “Garnet Bracelet”.
Teacher:
V. Lvov-Rogachevsky: “Kuprin’s work reflected life in all its endless diversity, not so much life as a whole, but in fragments, in a whirlwind of accidents... He has the greed of a collector, only he collects not rare coins, but rare incidents of life.” Familiarity with the history of the creation of this work will allow us to verify the authenticity of V. Lvov-Rogachevsky’s words.
1.Student’s message “The history of the creation of A. I. Kuprin’s story”(individual Homework student).
Teacher:
2. “Garnet bracelet” has an unusual creative history. Work on the story began in the fall of 1910 in Odessa. At this time, Kuprin often visited the family of the Odessa doctor L. Ya. Meisels and listened to Beethoven’s Second Sonata performed by his wife. Musical composition Alexander Ivanovich was so captivated that work on the story began with him writing down the epigraph. “L. van Beethoven. 2 Son. (op. 2, no. 2). Largo Appassionato.” Beethoven's Sonata "Appassionata", one of the most intense, languid, passionate creations of human genius in music, awakened Kuprin to literary creativity. The sounds of the sonata were combined in his imagination with history bright love which he witnessed.
(Listen to the fragment “Appassionata”)
3. Analytical conversation of a comparative nature.
How Kuprin artistically transformed real story heard by him? (Kuprin embodied in his creation the ideal of beautiful, omnipotent, but not mutual love, showed that a “little man” is capable of a great, all-encompassing feeling. Kuprin ended the story with the death of the hero, which made Vera Nikolaevna think about love, about feeling, made her worry , sympathize, which she has not done before.)
Why do you think Kuprin artistically transformed the real story?
Do you think the writer achieved his intention?
4. Quiz on the work.
Before we directly move on to discussing the story, revealing the main themes, and discussing the characters’ characters, we will conduct a special quiz. Her questions will help you remember the details of the work, and your answers will show how carefully you read the story “The Garnet Bracelet” and how well you remember its contents:
1. What time of year does the story take place? (Autumn, September.)
2. Where do the events of the story take place? (Black Sea city.)
3. What is the name main character? (Princess Vera Sheina.)
4. Princess Sheina’s surname before marriage? (Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovskaya.)
5. Who was Vera Sheina’s ancestor? (Tamerlane.)
6. What is the name of Vera’s sister? (Anna Friesse.)
7. What is the name of Princess Vera’s husband? (Prince Vasily Lvovich.)
8. His position? (Leader of the nobility.)
9. What date was the name day of Princess Vera Sheina? (September 17.)
10. What did her husband give her? (Earrings made of pear-shaped pearls.)
11. What did your sister give Vera? (A notebook in an “amazing binding.”)
12. What was the name of the famous pianist, Vera’s friend? (Zhenya Reuter.)
13. Who gave the bracelet with garnets? (Zheltkov.)
14. What does faith compare deep red pomegranates to? (Exactly blood.)
15. Who is Zheltkov? (A telegraph operator in love with faith.)
16. What does his owner call Zheltkov? (“Pan Ezhiy.”)
17. Zheltkov’s real name? (George.)
18. About whom Kuprin wrote: “...took after her mother, a beautiful Englishwoman, with her tall flexible figure, gentle but cold and proud face, beautiful, although rather large hands, and that charming sloping shoulders that can be seen in ancient miniatures...” (about Princess Vera).
19. What was the name of the husband of Anna, Vera’s sister? (Gustav Ivanovich.)
20. Whose portrait is this? “She was half a head shorter, somewhat broad in the shoulders, lively and frivolous, a mocker. Her face was of a very Mongolian type with quite noticeable cheekbones, with narrow eyes... captivating with some elusive and incomprehensible charm...” (Anna)
21. About whom Kuprin writes: “... very pale, with a gentle girlish face, with blue eyes and a stubborn childish chin with a dimple in the middle; he must have been about thirty, thirty-five years old”? (about Zheltkov.)
22. What kind of music is heard in the work? (Beethoven's Second Sonata.)
23. Whose portrait is this? “A fat, tall, silvery old man climbed heavily from the footrest... He had a large, rough, red face with a fleshy nose and with that good-natured, stately, slightly contemptuous expression in his narrowed eyes... which is characteristic of courageous and ordinary people…” (General Anosov).
24. About whom does the author write: “..she hugged the acacia trunk, pressed herself against it and cried...”? (about Vera Sheina.)
25. Who owns it? the following words: “Where is love? Is love unselfish, selfless, not waiting for reward? The one about whom it is said “strong as death”?
5. Work in groups.
What is a group? This is a song, a song that is only sung in the choir.
Where eyes and hands are always together, the truth is born in a creative dispute!
Exercise 1.
Let's talk about what you understand love to be and what it can be.
First group: What positive feelings can LOVE cause?
(Love is a sublime feeling, beautiful, extraordinary, love is capable of conquering everything, capable of raising a person to the pinnacle of bliss, making a person work on himself. It is impossible to live without love)
Second group: What negative feelings can LOVE cause?
(love is a feeling that brings pain, disappointment, self-doubt, love can destroy a person, force him to commit madness, love throws a person into the abyss of grief. It is better to live without love.)
Third group: Choose epithets for the word LOVE .
(Love is kind, soft, mutual, creative, joyful, happy, tragic, fatal, painful, unrequited, destructive.)
Fourth group: Working with dictionaries
Let's turn to explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language and see what definition linguists give to “LOVE”.
Love is:
Love is an intimate and deep feeling, a desire for another person, a human community or an idea. (Large encyclopedic dictionary.)
Love is 1) deep emotional attraction, a strong heartfelt feeling; 2) a feeling of deep affection, selfless and sincere affection; 3) a constant, strong inclination, passion for something; 4) the object of love (he or she whom someone loves, towards whom he feels attraction, affection); 5) addiction, taste for something. ( Dictionary S.I. Ozhegova.)
Love – 1) a feeling of affection based on common interests, ideals, and the willingness to devote one’s strength to a common cause. 2) An inclination, disposition, or attraction to something. (Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, edited by D.N. Ushakov.)
Teacher:
We see that in each definition the words sound: deep feeling; strong heart feeling; feeling of affection; inclination, disposition.
Kuprin himself spoke about love like this: “a feeling that has not yet found an interpretation.”
But not a single definition has an exact indication of whether love is happiness or misfortune.
How can this be determined? Let us turn to the story by A.I. Kuprin “Garnet Bracelet” and try to find out
Task 2.
First group: How does the princess appear to the readers in the first chapters of the story? (Coldness, indifference, royal calm, a sense of superiority.)
Second group: Is she capable of ardent, passionate love? (In her youth and early youth, the princess was capable of a strong, all-consuming feeling, but now she has changed, and “the former passionate love for her husband has long turned into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship.”)
Third group: What role does Beethoven’s music play in the work? (The music is in amazing harmony with the experiences of Vera, in whose soul the words ring: “Hallowed be the your name" In these gentle sounds- a life that “humbly and joyfully doomed itself to torment, suffering and death.” Zheltkov’s last memories are covered with sweet sadness, moments of happiness become eternity for him) Beethoven’s Sonata No. 2 is “an exceptional, unique work of depth.”)
Fourth group : “Love” and “infatuation”: how do these concepts differ?
Task 3.
The person who fell in love with Vera Nikolaevna so much was a simple man, an official of the control chamber, G.S. Zheltkov.
First group: How do we find out about Zheltkov’s love? Who's talking about her? (We learn about Zheltkov’s love for the first time from the stories of Prince Shein. For the prince, truth is intertwined with fiction. For him it is funny story. The image of Zheltkov in the prince's stories undergoes changes: a telegraph operator - dresses up as a chimney sweep - becomes a dishwasher - turns into a monk - dies tragically, leaving a will after his death.)
Second group: How was Zheltkov’s gift different from all the others? Why did Vera Nikolaevna feel anxious? (The garnet bracelet is a symbol of love, reverent, endless and hopeless, and tragedy in the fate of the hero.)
Third group: Love without reciprocity: happiness or tragedy? (Zheltkov admits that he “cut an uncomfortable wedge” into Vera’s life and is eternally grateful to her just for the fact that she exists. His love is not a disease, not a manic idea, but a reward sent by God. His tragedy is hopeless, he is a dead man.)
Fourth group: How does Zheltkov appear in his suicide letter?
Task 4.
First group: When does the conversation about true love come up for the first time? (In a conversation with Anosov. He believes that in his time people forgot how to love.)
Second group: To love and be loved? What's better?
Third group: What is the story of General Anosov? Why is it given in such detail?
Anosov knows what love is at first sight. But his wife left him. “People in our time have forgotten how to love,” says the general. “I don’t see real love. And I didn’t see it in my time.” Anosov talks about why people get married. Women have “the desire to be a housewife, the head of the house, independent... In addition, the need for motherhood, and to start building your own nest.” Men have other motives - “fatigue from single life, from the disorder in the rooms... from debts, from unceremonious comrades... You feel that living as a family is more profitable, healthier and more economical... you think: when the kids come, I’ll die, but a part of me will still remain light... sometimes there are thoughts about a dowry." As we see, the motives for marriage of people who lived at the beginning of the 20th century differ little from the aspirations of our contemporaries... Through the mouth of his hero, Kuprin exclaims: "Where is the love ? Is love unselfish, selfless, not waiting for reward? The one about whom it is said is “strong as death. Every woman dreams of love “one, all-forgiving, ready for anything, modest and selfless.” This is the ideal of love according to Kuprin. But achieving the ideal is difficult, almost impossible. If there is no love, women take revenge. They take revenge on themselves and others.
Fourth group: Does ideal love exist?
Old General Anosov, who is sure that high love exists, but it “... must be a tragedy, the greatest secret in the world,” without compromise.
Kuprin: true love- the basis of everything earthly. It should not be isolated, undivided, it should be based on high sincere feelings, strive for the ideal. Love stronger than death, it elevates a person.
What is the fate of the garnet bracelet? (The unhappy lover asked to hang a bracelet - a symbol of holy love - on the icon.)
6. Work with the statements of the characters in the story.
The heroes of the story express their opinions about love. Here are the statements of the heroes of the story. Whose point of view is closer to you and why?
Anosov: “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No life conveniences, calculations or compromises should concern her.”
Vera Nikolaevna: “And what is this: love or madness?”
Zheltkov: “... this is not a disease, not a manic idea - this is love with which God was pleased to reward me for something... “Hallowed be your name...”
Shein: “... is it possible to control such a feeling as love - a feeling that has not yet found an interpretation”
IV. Summing up the lesson.
The small package was kept in a case.
For the princess Vera Nikolaevna,
There was a garnet bracelet in it,
A stone birthday gift...Framed in gold frames,
Let them be cheap, of low standard,
A green pebble, like a count,
I was amazed by the special glow...He hid a living fire within himself -
Amulet from death and deception,
He called the owner: “Just touch me with your finger,
The future will emerge from the fog..."Beethoven's tune will sound
The third part of "Appasionata",
And the words: “I love you as long as you live!” -
They will repeat grenades for a long time...
In August, a holiday at a suburban seaside resort was ruined by bad weather. The empty dachas were sadly wet in the rain. But in September the weather changed again, sunny days. Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina did not leave her dacha - renovations were going on in her house - and now she is enjoying the warm days.
The princess's name day is coming. She is glad that it fell during the summer season - in the city they would have had to give a ceremonial dinner, and the Sheins “barely made ends meet.”
Princess Vera, whose former passionate love for her husband had long since turned into a feeling of strong, faithful, true friendship, tried with all her might to help the prince refrain from complete ruin.
On Vera’s name day they come to her younger sister Anna Nikolaevna Friesse, wife of a very rich and very stupid man, and brother Nikolai. Towards evening, Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein brings the rest of the guests.
A package with a small jewelry case addressed to Princess Vera Nikolaevna is brought in the midst of simple country entertainment. Inside the case is a gold, low-grade blown bracelet, covered with garnets, which surround a small green stone.
When Vera... turned the bracelet in front of the light of an electric light bulb, then in them, deep under their smooth egg-shaped surface, lovely thick red living lights suddenly lit up.
In addition to the garnet bracelet, a letter is found in the case. An unknown donor congratulates Vera on Angel's Day and asks to accept a bracelet that belonged to his great-grandmother. The green pebble is a very rare green garnet that conveys the gift of providence and protects men from violent death. The author of the letter reminds the princess how seven years ago he wrote her “stupid and wild letters.” The letter ends with the words: “Your humble servant G.S.Zh. before death and after death.”
Prince Vasily Lvovich at this moment demonstrates his humorous home album, opened on the “story” “Princess Vera and the telegraph operator in love.” “It’s better not to,” Vera asks. But the husband still begins a commentary on his own drawings, full of brilliant humor. Here is the girl Vera receiving a letter with kissing doves, signed by telegraph operator P.P.Zh. Here is young Vasya Shein returning to Vera wedding ring: “I do not dare to interfere with your happiness, and yet it is my duty to warn you: telegraph operators are seductive, but insidious.” But Vera marries the handsome Vasya Shein, but the telegraph operator continues to persecute him. Here he is, disguised as a chimney sweep, entering Princess Vera’s boudoir. So, having changed clothes, he enters their kitchen as a dishwasher. Finally, he is in a madhouse.
After tea the guests leave. Whispering to her husband to look at the case with the bracelet and read the letter, Vera goes to see off General Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov. The old general, whom Vera and her sister Anna call grandfather, asks the princess to explain what is true in the prince’s story.
G.S.Zh. pursued her with letters two years before her marriage. Obviously, he constantly watched her, knew where she went at the evenings, how she was dressed. He did not serve at the telegraph office, but in “some government institution as a small official.” When Vera, also in writing, asked not to bother her with his persecutions, he fell silent about love and limited himself to congratulations on holidays, like today, on her name day. Inventing funny story, the prince replaced the initials of the unknown admirer with his own.
The old man suggests that the unknown person may be a maniac.
Or maybe, Verochka, yours life path crossed exactly the kind of love that women dream of and that men are no longer capable of.
Vera finds her brother Nikolai very irritated - he also read the letter and believes that his sister will find herself in a “ridiculous position” if she accepts this ridiculous gift. Together with Vasily Lvovich, he is going to find the fan and return the bracelet.
The next day they find out the address of G.S.Zh. It turns out to be a blue-eyed man “with a gentle girlish face” of about thirty, thirty-five years old, named Zheltkov. Nikolai returns the bracelet to him. Zheltkov does not deny anything and admits the indecency of his behavior. Having discovered some understanding and even sympathy in the prince, he explains to him that he loves his wife, and this feeling will kill only death. Nikolai is indignant, but Vasily Lvovich treats him with pity.
Is he to blame for love and is it possible to control such a feeling as love - a feeling that has not yet found an interpreter.
Zheltkov admits that he squandered government money and is forced to flee the city, so that they will no longer hear about him. He asks Vasily Lvovich for permission to write his last letter to his wife. Having heard her husband’s story about Zheltkov, Vera felt “that this man would kill himself.”
In the morning, Vera learns from the newspaper about the suicide of the control chamber official G.S. Zheltkov, and in the evening the postman brings his letter.
Zheltkov writes that for him his whole life lies only in her, in Vera Nikolaevna. This is the love with which God rewarded him for something. As he leaves, he repeats in delight: “Hallowed be Thy name.” If she remembers him, then let her play the D major part of Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 2”, he thanks her from the bottom of his heart for being his only joy in life.
Vera is going to say goodbye to this man. The husband fully understands her impulse and lets his wife go.
Zheltkov’s coffin stands in the middle of his poor room. His lips smile blissfully and serenely, as if he had learned a deep secret. Vera lifts his head, places a large red rose under his neck and kisses his forehead. She understands that the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by. In the evening, Vera asks a pianist she knows to play Beethoven’s “Appassionata” for her, listens to the music and cries. When the music ends, Vera feels that Zheltkov has forgiven her.
The article is presented with a slight abbreviation.
GARNET BRACELET
The whole story is a search for an answer to the question: what is real love? The young princess Vera Nikolaevna asks this question, in particular to her grandfather. At one time, he fell in love with the “holy treasure”, married her, I quote further: “... and three months later the holy treasure walks around in a tattered hood, shoes on bare feet, thin, unkempt hair, in curlers...” List of crimes the young wife continues: “a reel, an actress, a slob, greedy, deceitful eyes.” In the end, she runs away from him with a passing actor, and her husband is grateful to him for this in his heart. Here it is, if I may say so, a love story!
It’s amazing how tenacious this bogey of “a good-for-nothing wife in curlers and a dressing gown” turned out to be! To this day it is main reason divorces. And I thought this convenient excuse was invented these days. And he, there, is an inventor: a classic! And if the classic said something, so it is, therefore! Well, use common sense: what do you think a woman should wear at home? Aren't they wearing shoes? high heels yes corset? The husband himself: is he sitting in front of the TV in a tie after dinner? But if two people truly loved each other, then on the contrary he would have thought: “And she wasn’t too lazy to curl her curlers! She tries, she takes care of herself, but I love her anyway, with or without curls.” And she would think: “He’s the best of me!”, as if not noticing the hairy back, the balding back of the head and the not always fresh breath.
Realizing that the general, unfortunately, did not have a love story, the heroes of the story continue to search for the answer to this question: does it exist in the world: true love, selfless, selfless, the one about which it is said “strong as death”, for which to commit a feat, to give one's life, to undergo torture - not work at all, but pure joy? For some reason, Verochka is not sure that she and her husband have exactly this kind of love. Here the grandfather general makes a rather strange, in my opinion, statement: “Love should be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world!” - he says. Has the old man confused love with war? Why does love have to be a tragedy? Doesn't a healthy moral feeling tell us that love is happiness, love is life, love is joy? There may be a mystery, yes, but not a tragedy. War is truly a tragedy; death is a tragedy. But not love!
To support his position, grandfather continues to tell Verochka stories.
STORY ONE
A young ensign falls in love with the wife of a regimental commander, she played with him and abandoned him, and he, poor fellow, suffers, is jealous, is all emaciated and blackened. “And if I order you to throw yourself under the train?” - she continues the game, and at that moment she whispered when the train almost caught up with them. And he rushed...
The author considers the terrible thing in this story not that, firstly, the young man fell in love with someone else’s wife, and not just fell in love in his fantasy, but specifically sought reciprocity! And it’s not so terrible for the author that, secondly, this woman’s husband, seeing the obscenity, does nothing about it, but turns a blind eye to it. And it’s not so terrible for the author that a woman, as proof of love, needs to see a man throw himself under a train without any need! And it’s not so terrible that this young man, created by God to become a man, chooses the fate of a pathetic slave of his own sex hormones, as if there is no honor in the world, no conscience, no basic respect or compassion for a living person, the husband of this freak, whom It’s hard to call her a woman! No, my friends, all this for our author is the norm, an everyday matter. But what’s terrible is that, I quote: “a fresh and pure boy laid his love at the feet of a power-hungry lecher.”
And he calls this “love”??? "Fresh and clean"??? Have mercy, Alexander Ivanovich! This “fresh and clean boy” encroached on someone else’s wife! Where is the “purity” here? Where is the "freshness"? This is not love, this is lust, which an adult civilized person is simply obliged to keep under control.
Don't get me wrong: I have no aversion personally to the author, A.I. Kuprin, I feel sorry for him. But I have very strong negative feelings about his ideas, about his author’s position! By the will of fate, this man turned out to be gifted with writing talent, in addition, he was lucky to be born into a relatively wealthy family, so he did not need to work for a piece of bread, and he could sit and write whenever he wanted and as much as he wanted - that’s what brought A.I. Kuprin to classics. And “a poet in Russia is more than a poet” - whether he wants it or not, he is also a teacher of life. Thousands and millions of readers picked up his false ideas and took them to heart. Perhaps it's not his fault. But still, he will bear some share of responsibility: after all, “to whom much is given, much will be required.”
In fact, think: where did we get the idea of love, of true love in particular? From parents? Who listens to their parents at 16 years old! Hormones are boiling, I want thrills, and “old” parents interfere with their “take your time, but check your feelings” - what can they understand about love? The Bible was inaccessible to the vast majority. So we took our ideas about love from fiction, yes from movies! And writers and film playwrights unwittingly became teachers - although they are people just like us, and know no more about this subject than we do!
The old general continues to tell Verochka:
STORY TWO
The wife openly cheats, however loving husband doesn’t want to pay attention to it: “It’s none of my business. Just let Helen be happy!” And this Lenochka has already brought her lover into the house, the three of them live as if this is how it should be. The men were sent to war, the wife said to her husband at parting: “Remember, take care of Volodya! If anything happens to him, I’ll leave home and take the children.” And so the brave and courageous captain looks after this coward and quitter like a nanny. Because “Lenochka ordered!” Of course, everyone despised Lenochka, but they pitied the captain. However, the story is told as an example of selfless true love.
Well, have mercy, good people! What if Lenochka told him to steal?! Or kill an innocent? Or cheat? Well, there are higher values in the world than Lenochka, after all!! Perhaps we women sometimes like it when we are so selflessly worshiped, it really flatters our pride - but over time it becomes clear that such a man loses all moral backbone, ceases to be a decent person who could be respected. And for us, women, this becomes an unbearable burden: to be a deity! No, excuse me, we are not gods. On the contrary, we would like to lean against someone strong.
That is why the true God gave us this very first commandment: YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS! Worship only the one true God and love Him more than anything else. That's when the priorities in love are set correctly: GOD IS IN FIRST PLACE, AND THE WIFE (OR HUSBAND) IS ONLY IN SECOND PLACE - then love in marriage brings us bliss, not torment, elevates us, and does not humiliate us, then it is happiness, not tragedy.
If Lenochka’s husband had loved God more than anything in the world, as commanded: with all his heart, with all his mind, with all his soul, then, pleasing Him, he would never have allowed such disgrace in his own family. And Lenochka might have come to her senses if her husband had told her: “I will not allow adultery in my family! This is a sin before God!” If she hadn’t changed her mind, it would have been better for the captain to part with such a woman. God would not leave him in trouble, would comfort him and bring a woman to him, worthy of love and respect. Just as He once brought Eve to Adam, Rebekah to Isaac, so today God can pick up perfect couple anyone who is ready to humble himself and ask Him for help.
POOR TELEGRAPHIST
And finally, main story“The Garnet Bracelet” is the love of a nameless telegraph operator for Princess Vera. They did not know each other, he only wrote to her about his love, signing with his initials. She did not answer: from her point of view, an alliance between them would be ridiculously unequal. Then Verochka marries Prince Vasily. But the telegraph operator continues to send her Love letters. Then she writes him a single letter, asking him to stop unnecessary outpourings. He did not stop, but began to write less often: on Easter, New Year and on her name day. This time he even dared to send a gift for her name day: a garnet bracelet, for which, by the way, he squandered government money, since he was too poor to buy a gift worthy of his “goddess.” If formerly husband Vera only laughed at the unhappy lover, but now he decided that it was time to stop the disgrace!
Together with his brother-in-law Nikolai, they found the nameless admirer and told him everything they thought about it. He behaved rather strangely: at first, deathly pallor, trembling running hands, reverently lowered eyelashes at the mention of the idol’s name, then inappropriate laughter, unexpected impudence, and even arrogance (at the very time to suspect a serious mental disorder!) In the end, he promises to stop this whole story, just by writing her last letter. And the next day our heroes read in the newspaper about the mysterious suicide of a poor telegraph operator. "What was it? Love or madness?" - Vera thinks. Then she reads his letter, cries, shares her confusion with her husband, they both feel compassion for the unfortunate man, and in the end she suddenly understands that, I quote: “the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by,” “passed her by.” great love, which is repeated only once in a thousand years!
So let’s try to figure out on what basis the author and his characters consider this to be real great love. Is it because the feeling was disinterested and did not demand anything for itself? But excuse me: he wrote letters. He didn’t want to stop when his beloved married someone else, he didn’t stop when she directly asked him to do so, he didn’t stop even when her husband and brother asked him to stop - no, he didn’t want to.
Was he concerned about her, about her well-being, when making such a decision - or about himself? “I want to write - and I will! I can’t stop loving her!” Well, okay: don’t stop loving, but stop writing letters! No, he doesn’t want to stop. Who does he care about at the same time: about her or about himself? Yes, in a strange and perverted way, but about yourself, your beloved, unhappy one!
He has no idea about her! During the 7 years of “great love” he did not even know her personally, but only from a distance. Did he love Verochka - or just her image in the carriage window? What if he saw her in her home bonnet and curlers? Or in a bad mood? Or in a state of excessive talkativeness? Or on PMS days, God forbid?
"LOVE IS STRONG AS DEATH!" (Song of Songs)
I never thought that the meaning of this quote from the Bible could be distorted in such a way! In Kuprin’s understanding, the power of love is measured by the risk of life and proven by death. In my opinion, this is complete absurdity! Well, okay, I agree that there are situations when you have to take risks for the sake of your loved one. own life. For example, every woman risks dying in childbirth - but for the sake of love for her unborn child, she still takes this risk. Or, for example, in order to save the life of a loved one, a donor kidney is required, and the husband, risking his own life, gives his kidney - then this is love, yes. Or if someone really wants to throw themselves under a train, then at least not just like that, but for example, to snatch and save a child who, through carelessness, found himself on the rails! Then it's love.
A friend of that young warrant officer who threw himself across the rails, he showed true love: he tried to pull him away and save him, also, by the way, risking his life. But the young man clung to the rails so tightly that his hands were still chopped off by the wheels. However, this man's self-sacrifice did not receive the author's praise. On the contrary, he is called an "idiot". And the stupidest trick of the young man is called " pure love"! What absurdity!
Let's see how things stand with our telegraph operator. Why did he kill himself? Who did he save with this? What benefit did his death bring to the woman he loved? It seems to me that this is more like the behavior of a capricious child who did not receive the desired candy and thinks: “I’m going to die to spite you, you will cry and regret that you didn’t give it when I asked!” Such infantilism in an adult is really more like madness, and certainly not love.
WILL LOVE ACCIDENTALLY ARRIVE?
Both the author and the characters consider love to be something beyond our control. In a letter to Verochka, the unfortunate man writes: “It’s not my fault, Vera Nikolaevna, that God was pleased to send me, as great happiness, love for you.” Let’s not find fault with the small letter in the word “god” - I don’t know, maybe this is already Soviet spelling, and Kuprin may have written it in the original with capital letters. But in essence: if it was really God who sent a person the enormous happiness of love, would He really take away the freedom of choice from a person: to write letters or not to write, to seek reciprocity or not, etc.? Note: the one true God did not leave us in the dark about love (and everything else), He gave us His word, the Bible, so that we would know what He wants from us. And even those who have never held the Bible in their hands know that the first commandment is “love God and love your neighbor.” This is a commandment, a command, a command - and not happiness or misfortune that falls on our heads and we are powerless. If we were powerless, then God would not demand the impossible. It is precisely because we have freedom of choice that He tells us: “love.” So love, love is our free choice!
By the way, interesting fact that the word “love” appears much more often in the Bible as a verb than as a noun! 'Cause love is action, action based decision taken: "be in love". We are subject to our feelings and desires. The tenth commandment says so directly: “You shall not covet... your neighbor’s wife.” You never know what you want - but don’t want it! And you manage your desires, and you tell yourself: “no!” - after all, you are not an animal, you are created in the image of God! Kuprin’s heroes act and think as if they have no choice in matters of love.
Further. In the telegraph operator's suicide letter, the phrase “Hallowed be Thy name” is repeated as a refrain, a phrase, as is known, taken from a prayer addressed to God and referring to God. Continuing to read the letter, we discover with horror that the author of the letter refers this phrase to Verochka! This is her name that is sacred to him! He worships her like a god! Again we see, for the umpteenth time in the same story, the ungodly worship of “the creature (creation, man - L.B.) instead of the Creator.” This is why such “love” looks suspiciously like madness: “Calling themselves wise, they became MADNESS, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man... replaced the truth of God with a lie, and WORSHIPED and served THE CREATURE INSTEAD OF THE CREATOR, who is blessed forever, Amen." Romans 1:22,23,25.
This is not love, but real idolatry. If the unfortunate telegraph operator had loved God above all else and turned to Him for help, if he had believed and trusted Him, then God would have helped him heal from unrequited love, then God would have sent him a woman created by Him, God, especially for him, and both would be happy, and no one would bother Verochka.
And I once wandered in the darkness, looking for true love and did not find it. But now, knowing God, I cannot empathize with the author! With all of it great talent, I just can’t sympathize with either the poor telegraph operator, or the bored Verochka, who is looking for thrills instead of thanking God for her happy marriage, or her compassionate and understanding husband Vasily, or the old general who stopped loving his wife because of curlers . Perhaps the most mentally healthy man in the whole story - this is brother-in-law Nikolai. However, Kuprin paints him as a rude, indelicate and thick-skinned person.
CONCLUSION
Well, tell me now: what is more important, writing talent or the author’s position? And why, one wonders, do I need the talent of the writer Kuprin? To make it easier to swallow his poisonous lies about “love”? No, excuse me, my friends, for me, it would be better if he were mediocre, he would do less harm. For me, the value of writing talent is generally greatly exaggerated. After all, talent itself is just an innate quality; it is not given to us according to our deserts. For example, someone was born with blue eyes, and someone with brown.
What should be valued is not talent, but what a person has done in life with his talent, who and what he has glorified with his talent, what values he has exalted. And we often value talent as such, and worship people who, by chance, got especially popular view talent: ah, writer! Artist! Athlete! But every person has some kind of talent. What is worse than writing talent, for example, mothering talent? For the children of a talented mother, this is much more important than anything else. Or remember the movie "Forrest Gump" - from the minimum talents given to him from birth main character managed to do the maximum. From him, from the supposedly “underdeveloped” one, we have a lot to learn.
So I personally am now wary of admiring the classics just because they are classics. And in the assessment modern writers, especially talented ones, I try to be more careful. Many people are tongue-tied these days, but few have anything substantive to say.
February 2008 Houston Texas http://world.lib.ru/b/boring_l_g/granatovi_braslet.shtml
Club: sharing the author’s position on the merits, I would like to clarify that the described A.I. Kuprin, the experiences of telegraph operator Zheltkov are a well-studied disorder according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) in section F63 “Disorders of habits and desires” - a classification of non-chemical forms of addictive behavior - “2.1. Love addiction,” which can be successfully treated with modern psychotherapy. There is ample information about the signs, causes and nature of this and similar disorders:
And here’s how our school presents this disorder, from a school essay:
“Love at A.I. Kuprina is unselfish, selfless, not waiting for reward, the one about whom it is said “strong as death” - love, for which to accomplish any feat, to go to torment is not work at all, but joy.
“Garnet Bracelet” is a hymn to pure and selfless love. One of the heroes of the story says this about love: “No life’s conveniences, calculations and compromises should concern it.” The hopeless love of the little official Zheltkov grows into the greatest human tragedy. “I only know how to wish you every minute happiness and rejoice if you are happy,” writes Zheltkov in a letter to his beloved. Kuprin cried over the manuscript of the “Garnet Bracelet”, he cried with stingy and relieving tears. He said that he had never written anything more chaste.
It is characteristic that great love strikes the very an ordinary person, bending his back at the office desk, is the official Zheltkov. The writer sincerely sympathizes with the little man, noble and strange in his love, but standing above the people of high society. The unknown and funny Zheltkov fell in love with Princess Vera with a heavenly feeling, it became the content of his life. But reality destroyed everything, the world fell into the abyss. The experienced feeling incinerates Zheltkov. Bodily flesh dies as unnecessary. Only music and soul remain. His beloved refused his humble request to allow him to stay in the same city with her. He does not stoop to reproaches, his soul is filled with farewell, every line of his farewell letter breathes with great love and adoration. “I am eternally grateful to you just for the fact that you exist. God was pleased to reward me for something... leaving, I say in delight: “Hallowed be Thy name.”
Only after Zheltkov’s death did Vera Nikolaevna realize that “the love that every woman dreams of passed her by.” Standing at the coffin, she understood everything: “He has forgiven me now. Everything is fine". The reciprocal feeling took place, albeit “for one moment, but forever.” Even Verochka’s husband, Vasily Lvovich, says: “...Is it possible to control such a feeling as love, a feeling that has not yet found an interpreter.” Kuprin trusts General Anosov to express his idea of love: “Love should be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world!
It was one, all-forgiving, ready for anything, modest and selfless love.
A. I. Kuprin
Club: this could be compared to what nowadays is explained in school lessons that the Earth is flat and rests on three elephants (whales, buffaloes, etc.) But misconceptions with explanations of love are much more dangerous, because these are guidelines to follow youth. And with A.I. Kuprin it turned out exactly the opposite, it’s not “a great love passed by her, which is repeated only once in a thousand years,” but mental disorder with a tragic outcome that occurs among both young people and adults every day.
This is an example when one public institution - “ educational culture love" is at the pagan level, science is at the modern, enlightened knowledge of the phenomenon of love.
If you set yourself the goal of finding in the great domestic literature a description of a similar plot of disorder - tragedy, this is “Anna Karenina” by L.N. Tolstoy. Details, signs of a painful disorder and their sequence are discussed in detail in
...I love you - I will love you forever.Curse my passion
Merciless souls
Cruel hearts!..
N. M. Karamzin.
What does he value in modern world Human? Money, power... These base goals are pursued by society. When pronouncing the word “love”, they mean only animal instincts, physical need. People have become robots, and the slightest manifestation of feelings and emotions seems ridiculous and naive. The spiritual values of society are dying... But there are still people who have not lost the ability to have high feelings. And glory to those who love or have ever loved, because love is a feeling that lifts you to the heights of life, lifts you to the skies...
Which of the heroes of A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Garnet Bracelet” believes in true love? Anna Nikolaevna? No, it's unlikely. She married a very rich man, gave birth to two children... But she can’t stand her husband, ridicules him contemptuously and is sincerely glad when someone distracts Gusilav Ivanovich from her. Anna does not love her husband, she is simply satisfied with her own position: beautiful, rich... And she can flirt without any special consequences.
Or, for example, Anna Nikolaevna’s brother, Nikolai. He almost married a rich and beautiful lady. But “the lady’s husband did not want to give her a divorce.” Most likely, Nikolai Nikolaevich did not believe in a real feeling, because otherwise he would not have broken up his family. Nikolai Nikolaevich is cold and his attitude towards Zheltkov, the way he treats him, proves that Bulash-Tugomovsky is not able to understand high feelings.
Unlike Nikolai, Prince Vasily Lvovich Shein, Vera Nikolaevna’s husband, understands and even accepts the telegraph operator’s love for his wife. If at first Vasily Lvovich tracks down the manifestation of any feelings, then after meeting with G.S.Zh., after Shein realized that Zheltkov really truly, unselfishly, selflessly loved Vera Nikolaevna, he begins to believe that sincere feeling exists: “...is he to blame for love, and is it really possible to control such a feeling as love...”
General Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov was once married. But he himself admits that this marriage was not built on true love. “...People in our time have forgotten how to love,” he says to Vera Nikolaevna. “I don’t see true love. And I didn’t see it in my time!” Another story from the life of the general that he tells is about a Bulgarian girl. As soon as they met, passion instantly flared up, and, as the general himself says, he “fell in love immediately - passionately and irrevocably.” And when he had to leave those places, they swore to each other “eternal mutual love". Was there love? No, and Anosov does not deny this. He says: “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world. No life conveniences, calculations or compromises should concern her." And perhaps, if Anosov truly loved the Bulgarian girl, he would do everything just to stay close to her.
Anosov told a couple of stories about a feeling more like devotion than true love. And these are just two cases of “true love” that Anosov recognized throughout his long life.
He believes that every woman dreams of “single, all-forgiving, ready for anything, modest and selfless” love. And women are not at all to blame for the fact that “people’s love has taken such vulgar forms and has simply descended to some kind of everyday convenience, to a little entertainment.”
General Anosov believes that women (probably as stronger and more romantic creatures) are capable, unlike men, of “strong desires, heroic deeds, tenderness and adoration before love.”
Apparently, Princess Vera Nikolaevna was mistaken about what real feeling is. She is sure that she loves Vasily as before, but her “former passionate love for her husband has long turned into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship.” This is undoubtedly a good feeling, but it is not real love.
The only hero of the story who experiences a sincere feeling is Zheltkov. His beloved is tall, with a gentle, but cold and proud face, the beautiful Vera Nikolaevna. He loves the princess, disinterested, pure, perhaps slavish love. This love is real. She is eternal: “I know,” says Zheltkov, “that I can never stop loving her...” His love is hopeless. “I am not interested in anything in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people - for me, my whole life ends only in you,” writes Zheltkov to Vera Nikolaevna. For Zheltkov, there is no one more beautiful than Sheina.
Perhaps Vera’s life path was crossed by the love that women dream about. Having lost Zheltkov, the princess realized that “the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by.”
Quite often, others do not accept and even condemn those who believe in love. “Fools,” they say, “why love, suffer, worry, if you can live calmly and carefree.” They believe that the one who truly loves sacrifices himself. Perhaps these people are right. But they will never experience those happy moments of love, as they are cold and insensitive...
"Garnet bracelet"
Story by A.I. Kuprin's "Garnet Bracelet", published in 1910, is one of the most poetic works of art Russian literature of the 20th century. It opens with an epigraph referring the reader to the famous work of J1. van Beethoven - sonata "Appassionata". To this same musical theme the author returns at the end of the story. The first chapter is an extensive landscape sketch, revealing the contradictory variability of the natural elements. In it A.I. Kuprin introduces us to the image of the main character - Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, the wife of the leader of the nobility. At first glance, a woman’s life seems calm and carefree. Despite the financial difficulties, Vera and her husband have an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding in their family. Only one small detail alarms the reader: on her name day, her husband gives Vera earrings made of pear-shaped pearls. Doubt involuntarily creeps in that the heroine’s family happiness is so strong, so indestructible.
On Sheina’s name day, her younger sister comes to visit her, who, like Pushkin’s Olga, who sets off the image of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, sharply contrasts with Vera both in character and in appearance. Anna is playful and wasteful, and Vera is calm, reasonable and economical. Anna is attractive but ugly, while Vera is endowed with aristocratic beauty. Anna has two children, but Vera has no children, although she passionately desires to have them. Important artistic detail, revealing Anna’s character is the gift she gives to her sister: Anna brings Vera a small notebook made from an old prayer book. She enthusiastically talks about how she carefully selected leaves, clasps and a pencil for the book. Faith, the very fact of altering the prayer book into notebook seems blasphemous. This shows the integrity of her nature, emphasizes how elder sister takes life more seriously. We will soon learn that Vera has graduated Smolny Institute- one of the best educational institutions for women in noble Russia, and her friend is the famous pianist Zhenya Reiter.
Among the guests who arrived for the name day, General Anosov is an important figure. It is this man, wise in life, who has seen danger and death in his lifetime, and therefore knows the value of life, who tells in the story several stories about love, which can be described in artistic structure works as inserted novellas. Unlike the vulgar family stories told by Prince Vasily Lvovich, Vera’s husband and the owner of the house, where everything is twisted and ridiculed and turns into a farce, General Anosov’s stories are filled with real life details. This is how a dispute arises in the story about what true love is. Anosov says that people have forgotten how to love, that marriage does not at all imply spiritual closeness and warmth. Women often get married to get out of care and be the mistress of the house. Men are tired of single life. A significant role in marriages is played by the desire to continue the family line, and selfish motives often turn out to be unhelpful. last place. “Where is the love?” - asks Anosov. He is interested in the kind of love for which “to accomplish any feat, to give one’s life, to go to torment is not work at all, but one joy.” Here, in the words of General Kuprin, in essence, reveals his concept of love: “Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world. No life conveniences, calculations or compromises should concern her.” Anosov talks about how people become victims of their love feelings, about love triangles, which exist contrary to all meaning.
Against this background, the story examines the love story of telegraph operator Zheltkov for Princess Vera. This feeling flared up when Vera was still free. But she did not reciprocate his feelings. Contrary to all logic, Zheltkov did not stop dreaming about his beloved, wrote tender letters to her, and even sent her a gift for her name day - a gold bracelet with garnets that looked like droplets of blood. An expensive gift forces Vera’s husband to take measures to stop the story. He, together with the princess's brother Nikolai, decides to return the bracelet.
The scene of Prince Shein's visit to Zheltkov's apartment is one of key scenes works. A.I. Kuprin appears here as a genuine master-artist in the creation psychological portrait. The image of telegraph operator Zheltkov is typical of Russian classical literature 19th century image little man. A notable detail in the story is the comparison of the hero’s room with the wardroom of a cargo ship. The character of the inhabitant of this humble dwelling is shown primarily through gesture. In the scene of the visit of Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai Nikolaevich, Zheltkov either rubs his hands in confusion, or nervously unbuttons and fastens the buttons of his short jacket (and this detail becomes repetitive in this scene). The hero is excited, he is unable to hide his feelings. However, as the conversation progresses, when Nikolai Nikolaevich voices a threat to turn to the authorities in order to protect Vera from persecution, Zheltkov suddenly transforms and even laughs. Love gives him strength, and he begins to feel that he is right. Kuprin focuses on the difference in mood between Nikolai Nikolaevich and Vasily Lvovich during the visit. Vera's husband, seeing his opponent, suddenly becomes serious and reasonable. He tries to understand Zheltkov and says to his brother-in-law: “Kolya, is he really to blame for love and is it possible to control such a feeling as love - a feeling that has not yet found an interpreter.” Unlike Nikolai Nikolaevich, Shane allows Zheltkov to write a farewell letter to Vera. A huge role in this scene for understanding the depth of Zheltkov’s feelings for Vera is played by a detailed portrait of the hero. His lips become white, like those of a dead man, his eyes fill with tears.
Zheltkov calls Vera and asks her for a small thing - for the opportunity to see her at least occasionally, without appearing in front of her. These meetings could have given his life at least some meaning, but Vera refused him this too. Her reputation and the peace of her family were more valuable to her. She showed cold indifference to Zheltkov’s fate. The telegraph operator found himself defenseless against Vera’s decision. The strength of love and maximum spiritual openness made him vulnerable. Kuprin constantly emphasizes this defenselessness with portrait details: a child’s chin, a gentle girl’s face.
In the eleventh chapter of the story, the author emphasizes the motive of fate. Princess Vera, who never read newspapers for fear of getting her hands dirty, suddenly unfolds the very sheet on which the announcement of Zheltkov’s suicide was printed. This fragment of the work is intertwined with the scene in which General Anosov says to Vera: “...Who knows? “Maybe your path in life, Verochka, has been crossed by exactly the kind of love that women dream about and that men are no longer capable of.” It is no coincidence that the princess recalls these words again. It seems that Zheltkov was really sent to Vera by fate, and she could not discern selfless nobility, subtlety and beauty in the soul of a simple telegraph operator.
A unique plot structure in the works of A.I. Kuprin lies in the fact that the author gives the reader peculiar signs that help to predict further development narratives. In “Oles” this is the motive of fortune-telling, in accordance with which all further relationships between the characters develop; in “The Duel” it is the officers’ conversation about a duel. In “The Garnet Bracelet,” the sign foreshadowing the tragic outcome is the bracelet itself, the stones of which look like droplets of blood.
Upon learning of Zheltkov’s death, Vera realizes that she foresaw a tragic outcome. In his farewell message to his beloved, Zheltkov does not hide his all-consuming passion. He literally deifies Faith, turning to her the words from the prayer “Our Father...”: “Hallowed be Thy name.”
In literature " Silver Age“God-fighting motives were strong. Zheltkov, deciding to commit suicide, commits the greatest Christian sin, because the church prescribes to endure any spiritual and physical torment sent to a person on earth. But with the entire course of development of the plot, A.I. Kuprin justifies Zheltkov’s action. It is no coincidence that the main character of the story is named Vera. For Zheltkov, thus, the concepts of “love” and “faith” merge together. Before his death, the hero asks the landlady to hang a bracelet on the icon.
Looking at the late Zheltkov, Vera is finally convinced that there was truth in Anosov’s words. By his action, the poor telegraph operator was able to reach the heart of the cold beauty and touch her. Vera brings Zheltkov a red rose and kisses him on the forehead with a long, friendly kiss. Only after death did the hero receive the right to attention and respect for his feelings. Only with his own death did he prove the true depth of his experiences (before that, Vera considered him crazy).
Anosov's words about eternal, exclusive love become the running theme of the story. IN last time they are remembered in the story when, at Zheltkov’s request, Vera listens to Beethoven’s second sonata (“Appassionata”). At the end of the story by A.I. Kuprin sounds another repetition: “Hallowed be Thy name,” which is no less significant in the artistic structure of the work. He once again emphasizes the purity and sublimity of Zheltkov’s attitude towards his beloved.
Putting love on a par with such concepts as death, faith, A.I. Kuprin emphasizes the importance of this concept for human life as a whole. Not all people know how to love and remain faithful to their feelings. The story “The Garnet Bracelet” can be considered as a kind of testament to A.I. Kuprin, addressed to those who are trying to live not with their hearts, but with their minds. Their life, correct from the point of view of a rational approach, is doomed to a spiritually devastated existence, for only love can give a person true happiness.