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Kuprin in his story “Olesya” refers to romantic theme“natural, natural person”, which has a long tradition in Russian literature. Lermontov's Bela from the story of the same name, which opens the novel "A Hero of Our Time", is one of the representatives of women's literary images related to this topic.
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The heroines have something in common: integrity of character, clarity of mind, moral purity. Heroines who grew up in natural environment, not spoiled by the bad influence of urban civilization, are spiritually independent, internally free individuals. They are capable of strong feelings, selfless love, but love turns into disaster for them. Meeting with a representative secular society or, as in "Oles", the urban intelligentsia - destroys their lives.
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In Kuprin, his heroine, nurtured by Mother Nature, is contrasted not only with the “city” man - Ivan Timofeevich (on whose behalf the story is told), (but also with the villagers). The consciousness of the peasants is entangled in centuries-old prejudices; they believe in damage, in the effectiveness of spells, in the reliability of fortune telling. Manuilikha, Olesya’s old grandmother, was once kicked out of the village because the young woman’s child, who had quarreled with an old healer, fell ill and died: “...and the boys drove the witcher away, let her eyes pop out... ."
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Ivan Timofeevich can’t wait to meet the “witch” - after all, he came to this remote corner of the Volyn province in order to gain impressions for his future books. The visit to Manuilikha initially disappoints him. Nothing unusual (“...no owl, no black cat”), except that “two pockmarked, respectable starlings” are looking from the stove, and on the walls, instead of “ordinary hunters with green mustaches and purple dogs and portraits of unknown generals,” there are bunches of dried herbs and roots. This is an important detail, indicating the indifference of the hostess to the imaginary values of culture.
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There is nothing artificial, demonstrative, or deceitful about Oles either. First, Ivan Timofeevich hears her “fresh, ringing and clear” voice, and then a tall, laughing girl appears, carrying hungry chicks in her apron: “Look, grandma, the finches are following me again... look how funny they are... They are completely hungry " In the portrait of the heroine, the author emphasizes the natural beauty of the girl and points out features that allow us to judge her character. Olesya “carried easily and slenderly; a spacious white shirt wrapped freely and beautifully around her young, healthy breasts,” the special charm of her face lay in “large, shiny, dark eyes, to which thin eyebrows, broken in the middle, gave a hint of slyness, power and naivety.”
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Olesya is endowed with a special power that allows her to predict fate, make a person stumble out of the blue, or instill fear in him from a distance. From the point of view of Ivan Timofeevich, Olesya’s abilities are explained by the fact that she “has access to that unconscious, instinctive, vague, strange knowledge obtained by chance experience,” which, ahead of science, lives among the people, “passed on as the greatest secret from generation to generation.”
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Whatever the source of Olesya’s “magic”, she is from birth endowed with clarity of mind, observation, intuition - qualities that in the natural environment where Olesya grew up under the supervision of a loving, wise grandmother, could not be obscured by bad upbringing, false foundations of society and received worthy development. Perhaps it was intuition and observation that allowed Olesya to give an accurate description of Ivan Timofeevich, to “predict the fate” that awaits him. “Although you are a kind person, you are only weak... Your kindness is not good, not heartfelt. You are not master of your word,” the girl says to her interlocutor.
The theme of man and nature has always been one of the main ones in Russian literature. In their works, writers explored man's desire to be closer to nature, its life-giving juices, because the loss of natural harmony leads to the hardening of human relationships, to a hardening of the soul and complete lack of spirituality.
Subject " natural man"was stated for the first time by the French writer-educator J.-J. Rousseau, who believed that only far from civilization, in the lap of nature, can a perfect person who knows no vices be formed. This theme found its poetic development in A. Kuprin’s story “Olesya”.
In 1897, the writer served as an estate manager, where he had the opportunity to observe ordinary people, their way of life and morals. Probably, Kuprin believed that it was here, among the common people, that one could find that very original, natural life, from which his contemporaries were moving further and further away.
“Polesie... wilderness... bosom of nature... simple morals... primitive natures...” Thus begins the story about the beautiful nature of these places. Here, in the village, the city gentleman, the writer Ivan Timofeevich, heard the legend about the Polesie witch Manuilikha and her granddaughter Olesya. A romantic story is woven into the fabric of the story. Olesya's past and future are shrouded in mystery. Olesya and Manuilikha live in a swamp, in a wretched hut, far from the people who expelled them from the village. Thus, the author suggests that human society is far from natural perfection. People are angry and rude. The tragic circumstances that forced Olesya and Manuilikha to live outside society allowed them to preserve their natural nature and genuine human qualities.
Olesya is the embodiment of Kuprin’s aesthetic ideal. She is the personification of an integral natural nature.
Nature endowed her with not only physical, but also spiritual, inner beauty. Olesya first appears in the story, carefully holding in her hands the finches that she brought home to feed.
Olesya attracted the main character not only with her “original beauty,” but also with her character, which combined authority and tenderness, age-old wisdom and childish naivety. Ivan Timofeevich learns about the extraordinary abilities of Olesya, who could determine the fate of a person, speak to a wound, and knock a person off his feet. She never used this gift to harm people.
Olesya was illiterate, but by nature endowed with curiosity, imagination, and correct speech. Life in the lap of nature formed these qualities in her. The city, civilization is a hostile world for Olesya, the embodiment of human vices. “I would never trade my forests for your city,” she says.
Ivan Timofeevich, who came from urban civilization, will make Olesya both happy and unhappy. He will disrupt her harmonious world, her usual way of life and lead her to tragedy. Life taught Ivan Timofeevich to control his emotional impulses. He knows that Olesya’s visit to church will not end well, but does nothing to avoid tragedy.
The main character looks like a weak, selfish, internally bankrupt person. Olesya’s pure love briefly awakened the soul of Ivan Timofeevich, which was spoiled by society.
How beautiful and romantic this “naive, charming fairy tale of our love was,” recalls Ivan Timofeevich, “and to this day, together with the beautiful appearance of Olesya, these burning evening dawns live in my soul, these dewy mornings, fragrant with lilies of the valley and honey, these hot, languid, lazy June days.”
But the fairy tale could not last forever. Gray days came when a final decision had to be made.
The idea of marrying Olesya more than once occurred to the main character: “Only one circumstance stopped and frightened me: I did not even dare to imagine what Olesya would be like, dressed in a fashionable dress, talking to the wives of my colleagues...”
Ivan Timofeevich is a man spoiled by civilization, a hostage of conventions and false values a society where social inequality exists. Olesya preserved in its original form those spiritual qualities that nature gave her.
According to Kuprin, a person can be beautiful if he preserves and develops the abilities given to him by nature, and not destroys them.
Olesya is the pure gold of human nature, a romantic dream, hope for the best in man.
In literature in general, and in Russian literature in particular, the problem of the relationship between man and the world around him occupies a significant place. Personality and environment, individual and society - many Russian writers of the 19th century thought about this. The fruits of these thoughts were reflected in many stable formulations, for example in the well-known phrase “Wednesday has eaten.” There has been a noticeable increase in interest in this topic in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, in a turning point era for Russia. In the spirit of humanistic traditions inherited from the past, Alexander Kuprin considers this issue, using all the artistic means that have become an achievement of the turn of the century.
The work of this writer was for a long time as if in the shadows, he was overshadowed by the bright representatives of his contemporaries. Today, the works of A. Kuprin are of great interest. They attract the reader with their simplicity, humanity, and democracy in the noblest sense of the word. The world of A. Kuprin’s heroes is colorful and diverse. He himself lived a bright life, filled with diverse impressions - he was a military man, a clerk, a land surveyor, and an actor in a traveling circus troupe. A. Kuprin said many times that he does not understand writers who do not find anything more interesting than themselves in nature and people. The writer is very interested in human destinies, while the heroes of his works are most often not successful, successful people, satisfied with themselves and life, but rather the opposite. But A. Kuprin treats his outwardly unsightly and unlucky heroes with the warmth and humanity that has always distinguished Russian writers. In the characters of the stories “White Poodle”, “Taper”, “Gambrinus”, as well as many others, the traits of “ little man“However, the writer does not simply reproduce this type, but reinterprets it anew.
Let's reveal very famous story Kupri-na "Garnet Bracelet", written in 1911. Its plot is based on real event- the love of telegraph official P.P. Zheltkov for the wife of an important official, member of the State Council Lyubimov. This story is mentioned by Lyubimov’s son, the author of famous memoirs Lev Lyubimov. In life, everything ended differently than in A. Kuprin’s story -. the official accepted the bracelet and stopped writing letters; nothing more was known about him. The Lyubimov family remembered this incident as strange and curious. Under the pen of the writer, the story turned into a sad and tragic story about the life of a little man who was elevated and destroyed by love. This is conveyed through the composition of the work. It gives an extensive, leisurely introduction, which introduces us to the exposition of the Sheyny house. The very story of extraordinary love, history garnet bracelet told in such a way that we see through her eyes different people: Prince Vasily, who tells it as an anecdotal incident, brother Nikolai, for whom everything in this story seems offensive and suspicious, Vera Nikolaevna herself and, finally, General Anosov, who was the first to suggest that here maybe it's hidden real love, “which women dream about and which men are no longer capable of.” The circle to which Vera Nikolaevna belongs cannot admit that this is a real feeling, not so much because of the strangeness of Zheltkov’s behavior, but because of the prejudices that control them. Kuprin, wanting to convince us, the readers, of the authenticity of Zheltkov’s love, resorts to the most irrefutable argument - the hero’s suicide. In this way, the little man’s right to happiness is affirmed, and the motive of his moral superiority over the people who so cruelly insulted him, who failed to understand the strength of the feeling that was the whole meaning of his life, arises.
Kuprin's story is both sad and bright. It permeates him musical beginning- indicated as an epigraph musical composition, - and the story ends with a scene when the heroine listens to music at a tragic moment of moral insight for her. The text of the work includes the theme of the inevitability of the death of the main character - it is conveyed through the symbolism of light: at the moment of receiving the bracelet, Vera Nikolaevna sees red stones in it and thinks with alarm that they look like blood. Finally, the theme of the clash of different cultural traditions arises in the story: the theme of the east - the Mongolian blood of the father of Vera and Anna, the Tatar prince, introduces into the story the theme of love-passion, recklessness; the mention that the sisters’ mother is English introduces the theme of rationality, dispassion in the sphere of feelings, and the power of the mind over the heart. In the final part of the story, a third line appears: it is no coincidence that the landlady turns out to be a Catholic. This introduces into the work the theme of love-admiration, which in Catholicism surrounds the Mother of God, love-self-sacrifice.
A. Kuprin’s hero, a little man, is faced with the world of non-understanding that surrounds him, the world of people for whom love is a kind of madness, and, faced with it, dies.
In the wonderful story “Olesya,” we are presented with a poetic image of a girl who grew up in the hut of an old “witch,” outside the usual norms of a peasant family. Olesya’s love for the intellectual Ivan Timofeevich, who accidentally visited a remote forest village, is a free, simple and strong feeling, without looking back or obligations, among tall pines, painted with the crimson glow of the dying dawn. The girl's story ends tragically. Olesya’s free life is invaded by the selfish calculations of village officials and the superstitions of ignorant peasants. Beaten and molested, Olesya and Manuilikha are forced to flee from the forest nest.
In Kuprin's works, many heroes have similar traits - spiritual purity, dreaminess, ardent imagination, combined with impracticality and lack of will. And they reveal themselves most clearly in love. All heroes treat women with filial purity and reverence. Willingness to give in for the sake of a beloved woman, romantic worship, knightly service to her - and at the same time underestimation of oneself, lack of faith in one’s own strength. Men in Kuprin's stories seem to change places with women. These are the energetic, strong-willed “Polessia sorceress” Olesya and the “kind, but only weak” Ivan Timofeevich, the smart, calculating Shurochka Nikolaevna and the “pure, sweet, but weak and pitiful” second lieutenant Romashov. All these are Kuprin’s heroes with a fragile soul, caught in a cruel world.
Kuprin’s excellent story “Gambrinus,” created in the troubled year of 1907, breathes the atmosphere of revolutionary days. The theme of all-conquering art is intertwined here with the idea of democracy, the bold protest of the “little man” against the black forces of arbitrariness and reaction. Meek and cheerful Sashka, with his extraordinary talent as a violinist and sincerity, attracts a diverse crowd of longshoremen, fishermen, and smugglers to the Odessa tavern. They greet with delight the melodies, which seem to be the background, as if reflecting public moods and events - from the Russo-Japanese War to the rebellious days of the revolution, when Sashka’s violin sounds with the cheerful rhythms of “La Marseilles”. In the days of the onset of terror, Sashka challenges the disguised detectives and the black-hundred “scoundrels in a fur hat,” refusing to play the monarchist anthem at their request, openly denouncing them of murders and pogroms.
Crippled by the tsarist secret police, he returns to his port friends to play for them on the outskirts the tunes of the deafeningly cheerful “Shepherd.” Free creativity and the power of the people's spirit, according to Kuprin, are invincible.
Returning to the question posed at the beginning - “man and the world around him” - we note that in Russian prose of the early 20th century a wide range of answers to it is presented. We have considered only one of the options - the tragic collision of a person with the world around him, his insight and death, but not a senseless death, but containing an element of purification and high meaning.
The theme of Kuprin's "Olesya" is the immortal theme of heartfelt relationships and burning passions. It is vividly and sincerely shown for its time in Kuprin’s touching story, written in the very center of nature in Polesie.
Clash of lovers from different social groups exacerbates their relationship with a hint of sacrifice of oneself, one’s own life principles and other people’s assessments of them.
Analysis of "Olesya" by Kuprin
A mysterious girl, born surrounded by nature, who has absorbed all the genuine and immaculate traits of a meek and simple character, encounters a completely different person - Ivan Timofeevich, who is considered a spectacular representative of society in the city.
The beginning of a reverent relationship between them presupposes a life together, where, as usual, a woman is obliged to adapt to the new surrounding atmosphere of everyday life.
Olesya, accustomed to her fabulous life in a calm, beloved forest with Manuilikha, perceives the changes in her life experience very hard and painfully, actually sacrificing her own principles in order to be with her lover.
Anticipating the fragility of her relationship with Ivan, she makes a complete self-sacrifice in a ruthless city poisoned by callousness and misunderstanding. However, until then the relationship between the young people is strong.
Yarmola describes to Ivan the image of Olesya and her aunt, proves to him the uniqueness of the fact that magicians and sorceresses live in the world, and encourages him to become extremely fascinated by the mystery of a simple girl.
Features of the work
The writer depicts the habitat of the magical girl very colorfully and naturally, which cannot be ignored when analyzing Kuprin’s “Olesya,” because the landscape of Polesie emphasizes the exclusivity of the people living in it.
It is often said that life itself wrote the stories of Kuprin’s stories.
Obviously, most younger generation It will be difficult at first to understand the meaning of the story and what the author wants to convey, but later, after reading some chapters, they will be able to become interested in this work, discovering its depth.
The main problems of "Olesya" Kuprin
This is an excellent writer. He managed to express in his own work the most difficult, lofty and tender human emotions. Love is a wonderful feeling that is experienced by a person, like a touchstone. Not many people have the ability to truly love with an open heart. This is the fate of a strong-willed person. It is precisely people like these that interest the author. Correct people, existing in harmony with themselves and the world around them, are a model for him; in fact, such a girl is created in the story “Olesya” by Kuprin, the analysis of which we are analyzing.
An ordinary girl lives in the surroundings of nature. She listens to sounds and rustling, understands the cries of various creatures, and is very pleased with her life and independence. Olesya is independent. The sphere of communication that she has is enough for her. She knows and understands the forest surrounding on all sides, the girl has a great sense of nature.
But a meeting with the human world, unfortunately, promises her complete troubles and grief. The townspeople think that Olesya and her grandmother are witches. They are ready to blame all mortal sins on these unfortunate women. One fine day, the anger of people has already driven them away from their warm place, and from now on the heroine has only one desire: to get rid of them.
However, the soulless human world knows no mercy. This is where the key problems of Kuprin's Olesya lie. She is especially intelligent and smart. The girl is well aware of what her meeting with the city dweller, “Panych Ivan” portends. It is not suitable for the world of enmity and jealousy, profit and falsehood.
The girl’s dissimilarity, her grace and originality instill anger, fear, and panic in people. The townspeople are ready to blame Olesya and Babka for absolutely all hardships and misfortunes. Their blind horror of the “witches” they have dubbed them is fueled by reprisals without any consequences. An analysis of Kuprin’s “Olesya” makes us understand that the appearance of a girl in the temple is not a challenge to the residents, but a desire to understand human world, in which her beloved lives.
The main characters of Kuprin's "Olesya" are Ivan and Olesya. Secondary - Yarmola, Manuilikha and others, less important.
Olesya
A young girl, slender, tall and charming. She was raised by her grandmother. However, despite the fact that she is illiterate, she has the natural intelligence of centuries, fundamental knowledge of human nature and curiosity.
Ivan
A young writer, looking for a muse, arrived from the city to the village on official business. He is intelligent and smart. In the village he distracts himself by hunting and getting to know the villagers. Regardless of his own background, he behaves normally and without arrogance. "Panych" is a good-natured and sensitive guy, noble and weak-willed.
FIPI commentary on the topic “Man and Society” :
"For topics in this direction, the view of a person as a representative of society is relevant. Society largely shapes the individual, but the individual is also capable of influencing society. The topics will allow us to consider the problem of the individual and society from different sides: from the point of view of their harmonious interaction, complex confrontation or irreconcilable conflict. It is equally important to think about the conditions under which a person must obey social laws, and society must take into account the interests of each person. Literature has always shown interest in the problem of the relationship between man and society, the creative or destructive consequences of this interaction for the individual and for human civilization. "
Recommendations for students:
The table presents works that reflect any concept related to the direction “Man and Society”. You DO NOT need to read all of the works listed. You may have already read a lot. Your task is to revise your reading knowledge and, if you discover a lack of arguments within a particular direction, fill in the existing gaps. In this case, you will need this information. Think of it as a landmark in a huge world literary works. Please note: the table shows only a portion of the works that contain the problems we need. This does not mean at all that you cannot make completely different arguments in your work. For convenience, each work is accompanied by small explanations (third column of the table), which will help you navigate exactly how, through which characters, you will need to rely on literary material (the second mandatory criterion when evaluating a final essay)
An approximate list of literary works and carriers of problems in the direction of "Man and Society"
| Direction | Sample list of literary works | Carriers of the problem |
|---|---|---|
| Human and society | A. S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" | Chatsky challenges Famus society |
| A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" | Evgeny Onegin, Tatyana Larina– representatives of secular society – become hostages of the laws of this society. | |
| M. Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time” | Pechorin- a reflection of all the vices of the younger generation of his time. | |
| I. A. Goncharov "Oblomov" | Oblomov, Stolz- representatives of two types generated by society. Oblomov is a product of a bygone era, Stolz is a new type. | |
| A. N. Ostrovsky. "Storm" | Katerina- a ray of light in " dark kingdom» Kabanikha and Wild. | |
| A.P. Chekhov. "Man in a Case." | Teacher Belikov with his attitude to life, he poisons the lives of everyone around him, and his death is considered by society as a deliverance from something difficult | |
| A. I. Kuprin "Olesya" | Love of the “natural man” ( Olesya) and a man of civilization Ivan Timofeevich could not withstand the test of public opinion and social order. | |
| V. Bykov “Roundup” | Fedor Rovba- a victim of a society living in a difficult period of collectivization and repression. | |
| A. Solzhenitsyn “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” | Ivan Denisovich Shukhov- victim of Stalinist repressions. | |
| R. Brdbury. "A Sound of Thunder" | The responsibility of each person for the fate of the entire society. | |
| M. Karim “Pardon” | Lubomir Zuch– a victim of war and martial law. |
“Man and Society” is one of the topics of the final essay on literature for graduates of 2020. From what positions can these two concepts be considered in the work?
For example, you can write about the individual and society, about their interaction, both about agreement and about opposition. The approximate ideas that may be heard in this case are varied. This is a person as a part of society, the impossibility of his existence outside of society, and the influence of society on something connected with a person: his opinion, tastes, life position. You can also consider the confrontation or conflict between an individual and society; in this case, it would be useful to give examples from life, history or literature in your essay. This will not only make the work less boring, but will also give you a chance to improve your grade.
Another option for what to write about in an essay is the ability or, conversely, the inability to devote one’s life to public interests, philanthropy and its opposite - misanthropy. Or, perhaps, in your work you will want to consider in detail the issue of social norms and laws, morality, the mutual responsibility of society to man and man to society for everything past and future. An essay will also be interesting dedicated to man and society in state or historical terms, the role of the individual (concrete or abstract) in history.