In the cemetery, over a fresh earthen embankment, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth. April, the days are gray; the monuments of the cemetery, spacious, county, are still far away visible through the bare trees, and cold wind jingles and jingles a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross. A fairly large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the cross itself, and in the medallion is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes. This is Olya Meshcherskaya. As a girl, she did not stand out in the crowd of brown gymnasium dresses: what could be said about her, except that she was one of the pretty, rich and happy girls, that she was capable, but playful and very careless about the instructions that the class lady gives her ? Then it began to flourish, to develop by leaps and bounds. At fourteen, she had thin waist and slender legs, breasts and all those forms, the charm of which has never yet been expressed by the human word, were already well outlined; at fifteen she was already a beauty. How carefully some of her friends combed their hair, how clean they were, how they watched their restrained movements! And she was not afraid of anything - neither ink stains on her fingers, nor a flushed face, nor disheveled hair, nor a knee that became naked when she fell on the run. Without any of her worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that had distinguished her so much in the last two years from the whole gymnasium came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear sparkle in her eyes ... Nobody danced at balls like Olya Meshcherskaya, no one skated like she did, no one was looked after at balls as much as she was, and for some reason no one was loved by the younger classes like her. She imperceptibly became a girl, and her gymnasium fame imperceptibly strengthened, and there were already rumors that she was windy, could not live without admirers, that the schoolboy Shenshin was madly in love with her, that she seemed to love him too, but was so changeable in her treatment of him. that he attempted suicide. During her last winter, Olya Meshcherskaya went completely crazy with fun, as they said in the gymnasium. The winter was snowy, sunny, frosty, the sun set early behind the high spruce forest of the snowy gymnasium garden, invariably fine, radiant, promising frost and sun tomorrow, a walk on Cathedral Street, a skating rink in the city garden, a pink evening, music and this in all directions the crowd sliding on the skating rink, in which Olya Meshcherskaya seemed the most carefree, the happiest. And then one day, at a big break, when she was running like a whirlwind around the assembly hall from the first-graders chasing after her and squealing blissfully, she was unexpectedly called to the headmistress. She stopped in a hurry, took only one deep breath, straightened her hair with a quick and already familiar female movement, pulled the corners of her apron to her shoulders and, shining in her eyes, ran upstairs. The headmistress, youthful but gray-haired, sat calmly with knitting in her hands at the desk, under the royal portrait. "Hello, mademoiselle Meshcherskaya," she said in French, without looking up from her knitting. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have been forced to call you here to speak with you about your behavior. “I’m listening, madam,” Meshcherskaya answered, going up to the table, looking at her clearly and vividly, but without any expression on her face, and sat down as lightly and gracefully as she alone could. “It will be bad for you to listen to me, I, unfortunately, was convinced of this,” said the headmistress, and, pulling the thread and twisting a ball on the lacquered floor, which Meshcherskaya looked at with curiosity, she raised her eyes. "I won't repeat myself, I won't speak at length," she said. Meshcherskaya really liked this unusually clean and large office, which breathed so well on frosty days with the warmth of a brilliant Dutch woman and the freshness of lilies of the valley on desk. She looked at the young king, painted to his full height in the midst of some brilliant hall, at the even parting in the milky, neatly frilled hair of the boss, and was expectantly silent. “You are no longer a girl,” the headmistress said meaningfully, secretly beginning to get annoyed. "Yes, madam," Meshcherskaya answered simply, almost cheerfully. “But not a woman either,” the headmistress said even more significantly, and her dull face flushed slightly. First of all, what is this hairstyle? It's a woman's hairstyle! - It's not my fault, madam, that I have good hair, - Meshcherskaya answered and slightly touched her beautifully trimmed head with both hands. "Ah, that's how it is, you're not to blame!" the headmistress said. “You are not to blame for your hair, you are not to blame for these expensive combs, you are not to blame for ruining your parents for shoes worth twenty rubles!” But, I repeat to you, you completely lose sight of the fact that you are still only a schoolgirl... And then Meshcherskaya, without losing her simplicity and calmness, suddenly politely interrupted her: — Excuse me, madame, you are mistaken: I am a woman. And blame for this - you know who? Friend and neighbor of the pope, and your brother Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin. It happened last summer in the village... And a month after this conversation, a Cossack officer, ugly and plebeian in appearance, who had absolutely nothing to do with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged, shot her on the station platform, among a large crowd of people who had just arrived with a train. And the incredible confession of Olya Meshcherskaya, which stunned the boss, was completely confirmed: the officer told the judicial investigator that Meshcherskaya had lured him, was close to him, swore to be his wife, and at the station, on the day of the murder, seeing him off to Novocherkassk, she suddenly told him that she and she never thought of loving him, that all this talk about marriage was just her mockery of him, and she gave him to read that page of the diary where it was said about Malyutin. “I ran through these lines and right there, on the platform where she was walking, waiting for me to finish reading, I shot at her,” said the officer. - This diary, here it is, look what was written in it on the tenth of July last year. The following was written in the diary: “It is now the second hour of the night. I fell asleep soundly, but immediately woke up ... Today I have become a woman! Dad, mom and Tolya, they all left for the city, I was left alone. I was so happy to be alone! In the morning I walked in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone in the whole world, and I thought as well as never before in my life. I dined alone, then played for an hour, to the music I had the feeling that I would live without end and be as happy as anyone. Then I fell asleep in my father's office, and at four o'clock Katya woke me up and said that Alexei Mikhailovich had arrived. I was very happy with him, it was so pleasant for me to receive him and occupy him. He arrived on a pair of his vyatki, very beautiful, and they stood at the porch all the time, he stayed because it was raining, and he wanted it to dry out by evening. He regretted that he did not find dad, was very animated and behaved like a gentleman with me, he joked a lot that he had been in love with me for a long time. When we were walking in the garden before tea, the weather was again lovely, the sun shone through the whole wet garden, although it became quite cold, and he led me by the arm and said that he was Faust and Marguerite. He is fifty-six years old, but he is still very handsome and always well dressed - the only thing I did not like was that he arrived in a lionfish - he smells of English cologne, and his eyes are very young, black, and his beard is elegantly divided into two long parts and is completely silver. We were sitting at tea on the glass veranda, I felt as if I was unwell and lay down on the couch, and he smoked, then moved to me, began again to say some courtesies, then to examine and kiss my hand. I covered my face with a silk handkerchief, and he kissed me several times on the lips through the handkerchief ... I don’t understand how this could happen, I went crazy, I never thought that I was like that! Now there is only one way out for me ... I feel such disgust for him that I can’t survive this! .. ” During these April days, the city became clean, dry, its stones turned white, and it is easy and pleasant to walk on them. Every Sunday, after mass, a little woman in mourning, wearing black kid gloves, and carrying an ebony umbrella, walks down Cathedral Street, which leads out of the city. She crosses along the highway a dirty square, where there are many smoky forges and fresh field air blows; further, between monastery and a prison, the cloudy slope of the sky turns white and the spring field turns gray, and then, when you make your way among the puddles under the wall of the monastery and turn to the left, you will see, as it were, a large low garden, surrounded by a white fence, above the gate of which the Assumption is written mother of God. The little woman makes a small cross and habitually walks along the main avenue. Having reached the bench opposite the oak cross, she sits in the wind and in the spring cold for an hour or two, until her feet in light boots and her hand in a narrow husky are completely cold. Listening to the spring birds singing sweetly even in the cold, listening to the sound of the wind in a porcelain wreath, she sometimes thinks that she would give half her life if only this dead wreath were not in front of her eyes. This wreath, this mound, this oak cross! Is it possible that under him is the one whose eyes shine so immortally from this convex porcelain medallion on the cross, and how to combine with this pure look that terrible thing that is now connected with the name of Olya Meshcherskaya? “But in the depths of her soul, the little woman is happy, like all people devoted to some passionate dream. This woman is a classy lady Olya Meshcherskaya, a middle-aged girl who has long been living in some kind of fiction that replaces her real life. At first, her brother, a poor and unremarkable ensign, was such an invention - she united her whole soul with him, with his future, which for some reason seemed brilliant to her. When he was killed near Mukden, she convinced herself that she was an ideological worker. The death of Olya Meshcherskaya captivated her with a new dream. Now Olya Meshcherskaya is the subject of her relentless thoughts and feelings. She goes to her grave every holiday, does not take her eyes off the oak cross for hours, recalls the pale face of Olya Meshcherskaya in the coffin, among the flowers - and what she once overheard: once, at a big break, walking in the gymnasium garden, Olya Meshcherskaya quickly, she quickly said to her beloved friend, plump, tall Subbotina: - I read in one of my father's books - he has a lot of old, funny books - I read what beauty a woman should have ... There, you know, so much is said that you can’t remember everything: well, of course, black eyes boiling with resin, - By God, that's what it says: boiling with tar! - black as night, eyelashes, a gently playing blush, a thin figure, longer than an ordinary arm - you understand, longer than usual! - a small leg, moderately large breasts, correctly rounded calves, shell-colored knees, sloping shoulders - I learned a lot almost by heart, so all this is true! But the main thing, you know what? - Easy breath! But I have it, - you listen to how I sigh, - is it true, is it? Now that light breath has dissipated again in the world, in that cloudy sky, in that cold spring wind. 1916

Writing

The story "Easy breathing", written in 1916, is deservedly considered one of the pearls of Bunin's prose - the image of the heroine is so concisely and vividly captured in it, the feeling of beauty is so reverently conveyed. What is “light breathing”, why has this phrase become a common noun for a long time to denote human talent - the talent to live? To understand this, let's analyze the story "Easy breathing".

Bunin's narrative builds on contrasts. Already from the first lines, the reader has some kind of ambivalent feeling: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, a cold wind that “rings and rings a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross.” Here is the beginning of the story: “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay embankment, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth ... A rather large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the very cross, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes " . The whole life of Olya Meshcherskaya is described by the principle of contrast: a cloudless childhood and adolescence are contrasted with the tragic events of the last year lived by Olya. The author everywhere emphasizes the gap between the apparent and the real, external and internal state heroines. The plot of the story is extremely simple. The young, recklessly happy beauty schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya becomes first the prey of an elderly voluptuary, and then a living target for the Cossack officer deceived by her. The tragic death of Meshcherskaya inspires a frenzied, withering "service" to her memory a lonely little woman - a classy lady. The seeming simplicity of the plot of the story is violated by the opposition: a heavy cross and joyful, lively eyes, which makes the reader's heart shrink anxiously. It will haunt us throughout the story of short life Olya Meshcherskaya. The simplicity of the plot is deceptive: after all, this is a story not only about the fate of a young girl, but also about the bleak fate of a classy lady who is used to living someone else's life, shining with reflected light - the light of Olya Meshcherskaya's "living eyes".

Bunin believed that the birth of a person is not his beginning, which means that death is not the end of the existence of his soul. The soul - its symbol and is "light breathing" - does not disappear forever. She is the best, real part of life. The heroine of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya, became the embodiment of this life. The girl is so natural that even the outward manifestations of her existence cause rejection by some and admiration by others: “But she was not afraid of anything - no ink spots on her fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair, no knee that got naked when she fell on the run. Without any of her worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that distinguished her so much in the last two years from the whole gymnasium came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear gleam in her eyes ... ”At first glance, we have before us an ordinary schoolgirl - a beautiful, prosperous and a little windy girl, the daughter of wealthy parents, who expects a brilliant party.

But our attention is constantly and persistently directed to some hidden springs of Olya's life. To do this, the author drags out the explanation of the reasons for the death of the heroine, as if generated by the very logic of the girl's behavior. Maybe she herself is to blame? After all, she flirts with the high school student Shenshin, flirts, albeit unconsciously, with Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduces her, for some reason promises the Cossack officer to marry him. What for? Why does she need all this? And gradually we understand that Olya Meshcherskaya is beautiful, as the elements are beautiful. And just as immoral as she is. She wants to reach the limit in everything, to the depth, to the innermost essence, regardless of the opinions of others. In Olya's actions there is no meaningful vice, no sense of revenge, no pain of repentance, no firmness of decisions. It turns out that a wonderful feeling of fullness of life can be fatal. Even the unconscious longing for her (like a classy lady) is tragic. Therefore, every detail, every step of Olya's life threatens with disaster: curiosity and prank can lead to violence, a frivolous game with other people's feelings - to murder. Olya Meshcherskaya lives, and does not play the role of a living being. This is her essence. This is her fault. To be maximally alive without observing the rules of the game means to be maximally doomed. After all, the environment in which Meshcherskaya was destined to appear is completely devoid of an organic, integral sense of beauty. Here, life is subject to strict rules, for the violation of which you have to pay. Olya, accustomed not only to teasing fate, but simply to bravely go towards new sensations and impressions in their entirety, did not have a chance to meet a person who would appreciate not only her bodily beauty, but also spiritual generosity and brightness. After all, Olya really had a “light breath” - a thirst for some special, unique fate, worthy only of the elect. The teacher, unable to save her student, recalls her words, accidentally overheard during the break. Among detailed description female beauty and half-childish “fitting” of this description to her own appearance, the phrase about “easy breathing” sounds so unexpectedly, understood by the girl literally: “... But do you know the main thing? - easy breath! But I have it - you listen to me sigh ... ”The author leaves the world not the beauty of the girl, not her experience, but only this never-opened opportunity. She, according to Bunin, cannot completely disappear, just as the craving for beauty, fortunately, for perfection cannot disappear: “Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”

"Easy breathing" in Bunin's view is the ability to enjoy life, to accept it as a bright gift. Olya Meshcherskaya captivated those around her with her generous and fierce zest for life, but in the meager world of a small town, unfortunately for her, there was no person who could protect her “light breath” from the “cold spring wind”.

The story "Easy breathing", written in 1916, is deservedly considered one of the pearls of Bunin's prose - the image of the heroine is so concisely and vividly captured in it, the feeling of beauty is so reverently conveyed. What is “light breathing”, why has this phrase become a common noun for a long time to denote human talent - the talent to live? To understand this, let's analyze the story "Easy breathing".

Bunin's narrative builds on contrasts. Already from the first lines, the reader has some kind of ambivalent feeling: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, a cold wind that “rings and rings a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross.” Here is the beginning of the story: “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay embankment, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth ... A rather large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the very cross, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes " . The whole life of Olya Meshcherskaya is described by the principle of contrast: a cloudless childhood and adolescence are contrasted with the tragic events of the last year lived by Olya. The author everywhere emphasizes the gap between the apparent and real, external and internal state of the heroine. The plot of the story is extremely simple. The young, recklessly happy beauty schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya becomes first the prey of an elderly voluptuary, and then a living target for the Cossack officer deceived by her. The tragic death of Meshcherskaya inspires a frenzied, withering "service" to her memory a lonely little woman - a classy lady. The seeming simplicity of the plot of the story is violated by the opposition: a heavy cross and joyful, lively eyes, which makes the reader's heart shrink anxiously. It will haunt us throughout the story of the short life of Olya Meshcherskaya. The simplicity of the plot is deceptive: after all, this is a story not only about the fate of a young girl, but also about the bleak fate of a classy lady who is used to living someone else's life, shining with reflected light - the light of Olya Meshcherskaya's "living eyes".

Bunin believed that the birth of a person is not his beginning, which means that death is not the end of the existence of his soul. The soul - its symbol and is "light breathing" - does not disappear forever. She is the best, real part of life. The heroine of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya, became the embodiment of this life. The girl is so natural that even the outward manifestations of her existence cause rejection by some and admiration by others: “But she was not afraid of anything - no ink spots on her fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair, no knee that got naked when she fell on the run. Without any of her worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that distinguished her so much in the last two years from the whole gymnasium came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear gleam in her eyes ... ”At first glance, we have before us an ordinary schoolgirl - a beautiful, prosperous and a little windy girl, the daughter of wealthy parents, who expects a brilliant party.

But our attention is constantly and persistently directed to some hidden springs of Olya's life. To do this, the author drags out the explanation of the reasons for the death of the heroine, as if generated by the very logic of the girl's behavior. Maybe she herself is to blame? After all, she flirts with the high school student Shenshin, flirts, albeit unconsciously, with Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduces her, for some reason promises the Cossack officer to marry him. What for? Why does she need all this? And gradually we understand that Olya Meshcherskaya is beautiful, as the elements are beautiful. And just as immoral as she is. She wants to reach the limit in everything, to the depth, to the innermost essence, regardless of the opinions of others. In Olya's actions there is no meaningful vice, no sense of revenge, no pain of repentance, no firmness of decisions. It turns out that a wonderful feeling of fullness of life can be fatal. Even the unconscious longing for her (like a classy lady) is tragic. Therefore, every detail, every step of Olya's life threatens with disaster: curiosity and prank can lead to violence, a frivolous game with other people's feelings - to murder. Olya Meshcherskaya lives, and does not play the role of a living being. This is her essence. This is her fault. To be maximally alive without observing the rules of the game means to be maximally doomed. After all, the environment in which Meshcherskaya was destined to appear is completely devoid of an organic, integral sense of beauty. Here, life is subject to strict rules, for the violation of which you have to pay. Olya, accustomed not only to teasing fate, but simply to bravely go towards new sensations and impressions in their entirety, did not have a chance to meet a person who would appreciate not only her bodily beauty, but also spiritual generosity and brightness. After all, Olya really had a “light breath” - a thirst for some special, unique fate, worthy only of the elect. The teacher, unable to save her student, recalls her words, accidentally overheard during the break. Among the detailed description of female beauty and the semi-childish “fitting” of this description to her own appearance, the phrase about “easy breathing” sounds so unexpectedly, understood by the girl literally: “... But do you know the main thing? - easy breath! But I have it - you listen to me sigh ... ”The author leaves the world not the beauty of the girl, not her experience, but only this never-opened opportunity. She, according to Bunin, cannot completely disappear, just as the craving for beauty, fortunately, for perfection cannot disappear: “Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”

"Easy breathing" in Bunin's view is the ability to enjoy life, to accept it as a bright gift. Olya Meshcherskaya captivated those around her with her generous and fierce zest for life, but in the meager world of a small town, unfortunately for her, there was no person who could protect her “light breath” from the “cold spring wind”.

L. Vygotsky's book "The Psychology of Art" was first published in 1965, forty years after it was written. She still keeps scientific interest. Separate pages of this work are devoted to Bunin's story "Easy breathing". There are many interesting observations on his composition, the structure of individual phrases. But in general, the author, in our opinion, very controversially interpreted the meaning of the story. According to the scientist, if we take the events of the hero's life "in their vital and everyday meaning, we have before us simply the unremarkable, insignificant and meaningless life of a provincial schoolgirl, a life that clearly grows on rotten roots ... The emptiness, meaninglessness, insignificance of this life is emphasized by the author., with tactile power" (Vygotsky L.S. Psychology of art. - M, 1986). However, as L. Vygotsky notes, this is not the impression of the story as a whole. The writer "achieves just the opposite effect, and the true theme of his story, of course, is light breathing, and not the story of the gutted life of a provincial schoolgirl. This is a story not about Olya Meshcherskaya, but about light breathing (?!"); its main feature is that feeling of liberation, lightness, detachment and perfect transparency of life, which cannot in any way be deduced from the very events underlying it.
It is difficult to agree with the statement that our reader's impression of the story is not connected with its content, and also with the fact that the story leaves the impression of "lightness, sinfulness and perfect transparency (?!) of life." I think the reader endures somewhat different feelings. This is bitterness, even pain for the awkward life of a girl. L. Vygotsky's idea that Meshcherskaya's life is meaningless and insignificant contradicts Bunin's ethics and aesthetics. For Bunin, female beauty is a priceless gift of nature, and not "emptiness and rot",

The concept of "light breathing" is interpreted by scientists vaguely and abstractly. Meanwhile, this is a very specific designation of one of the components of female beauty, with the code of which Olya met while reading her father's books. It was they who had a negative impact on her fragile soul. Here is what she said to her beloved friend: "I ... read what beauty a woman should have ... black, resinous eyes ... black as night, eyelashes, a gently playing blush, a thin figure ... a small leg ... correctly rounded calf, shell-colored knee, sloping but high shoulders - I almost learned a lot by heart, so it's all true - but the main thing, you know what? - Easy breathing! But I have it - you listen, how I sigh, - is it true, is there?

In the last phrase, the repetition of individual words and expressions, unfinished sentences convey the agitation of the narrator, her joy of self-assertion that she, too, belongs to the clan of beautiful women. This monologue also speaks of the lack of spiritual subtlety in Meshcherskaya. After all, everything she said about female beauty emphasized the ugliness of her friend, "full, tall" Subbotina. In this tabloid code of female beauty, everything is about appearance, and exaggerated, vulgar, and nothing about the spirituality, moral qualities of its bearer. Some inferiority of the admirer of this code is obvious. However, Bunin has a double feeling for his heroine: enthusiastic and sorrowful. The intonation of admiration is palpable when the writer tells about Olya's charm, her naturalness, devoid of coquetry. "She was not afraid of anything - no ink stains on her fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair." The passionate love of life of the heroine is to the liking of the narrator. However, he bitterly notes her frivolity, the absence of any ethical concepts and restraints.

A seventeen-year-old schoolgirl could not, as a student, read individual works by Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy (the events reflected in the story take place after Russo-Japanese War, and these writers were included in the gymnasium curriculum in literature). However, they did not leave a mark on her soul.

Judging by the tabloid literature, which was in the cabinets of Meshchersky, his friends ( we are talking about Malyutin), in the family she did not receive the necessary spiritual development. And the county gymnasium contributed little to this. It is enough to refer to the image of the head of the gymnasium - her favorite occupation in the office - knitting, the content of her conversation with Meshcherskaya, in order to have an idea of ​​the pedagogical atmosphere in the gymnasium. The boss is worried about her hair beyond her years and Olya's expensive combs, her shoes "at twenty rubles". But the financial expenses of the family are outside the pedagogical competence of the boss. And the very tone of the "conversation" - irritable, unfriendly - testifies to the lack of pedagogical tact in relationships with students. Note that during her teachings, the boss continued to knit.

The pastime of schoolgirls - festivities, balls, skating - did little for their moral development.

To excel at balls and the skating rink, to experience the attention of young people: all this did not make the girl happy. Only alone with herself, in communion with nature, Olya felt happy. Here is what she entered in her diary: "... I was left alone. I was so happy that I was alone that I don’t know how to say. In the morning I walked alone in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone all over the world, and I thought as well as ever in my life.I dined alone, then I played for an hour, to the music I had the feeling that I would live without end and be as happy as ever!

The appearance at the dacha of Malyutin destroys the harmony in Olya's soul. She was defenseless against the harassment of the old vulgar. Meshcherskaya did not have any special feelings for the 56-year-old Malyutin. What she liked about him is insignificant. I liked that Malyutin was well dressed, that his eyes were "very young, black, and his beard was elegantly divided into two long parts and completely silver." At first, Olya was shocked by what happened to her. “I don’t understand how this could happen, I went crazy, I never thought that I was like that! Now I have one way out ...” However, the pain of repentance turned out to be short-lived. She tried to drown it out with violent fun. But one irreparable mistake led to another: a connection with a Cossack officer, ugly and narrow-minded, then a break in an insulting form for him, giving him his diary. This is no longer a prank and a game, but impermissible promiscuity, even cynicism.

"To be extremely alive means to be extremely doomed. Such is the terrifying truth of Bunin's worldview." (Waiman S. "Tragedy" easy breathing". - Literary studies, 1980, No. 5). Does rapprochement with Malyutin, an officer, mean being "extremely alive"? In this proximity there is no love, strong feelings, passion. Olya Meshcherskaya never survived the rise of feelings that many of the writer's heroes experienced : Khvo-shchinsky ("Grammar of love"), Mitya ("Mitya's love"), Galya ("Galya Ganskaya"), Rusya ("Rusya") and many others. The fall of Olya is a consequence, in the language of Bunin, her "ut- timidity, the thirst for self-fulfillment.

The writer exposed the reasons for the failed life of Meshcherskaya. This is lack of spirituality, lack of ethical standards. Olya never thought about what worries a girl of her age - about love, her future.

There is an image that attracted little attention from those who wrote about the story. This is the image of a classy lady whose fate reveals the spiritual squalor that reigns in the county town.

At first, the meaning of the existence of a classy lady was the dream of her brother, "an unremarkable ensign", whose future seemed brilliant to her. She believed that her fate "somehow fabulously changed thanks to him." After his death, she convinced herself that she was "an ideological trrken" and served the highest interests. But after the death of Meshcherskaya, the classy lady devoted herself to the frenzied service of her memory. Obviously, the surrounding life is spiritually poor, which pushes a person into the world of fiction. This lonely woman, who spends long hours at the grave of Meshcherskaya, evokes sympathy in the reader for herself as a restless person who has not found herself in life.

A few remarks about the composition of the story. She is subordinated not to, as L. Vygotsky believed, in order to "extinguish, destroy, the direct impression" of events, but to reveal the drama of the heroine's life.

The story begins with the finale of Meshcherskaya's life, a description of her grave; then a story about Olya's childhood and carefree youth. Next is the episode in the boss's office, where we learn about what happened to her. The next episode is Olya's death; a digression into her past - an appeal to the diary. And again the cemetery where Olya rests. Then a laconic story about a cool lady and again about the past of the heroine - a story about "easy breathing". And the end of the story.

The plot consists of episodes that are contrasting in their content and tone. Dramatic scenes are interspersed with the narrative of the poetry of youth; the sad cemetery landscape is adjacent to the description of the bleak life of a classy lady, which is supported by Olya's enthusiastic monologue about female beauty.

A mixture of plans, from the present to the past; episodes of sad and filled with the joy of being Olya - such is the structure of the story, the plot of which is distinguished by extraordinary composure and drama. Each episode is a stage in the life of Meshcherskaya, her growing up, moral decline and death. The writer refers to various forms sculpting characters: narration, portrait, indirect and direct speech actors, landscape sketches, diary entries, author's digressions.

The sad lines of the beginning of the story and its ending precede and complete the reader's perception and serve as a kind of epitaph for an untimely cut short life. “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay embankment, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy ... A rather large bronze medallion is embedded in the very cross, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with disgusting, amazingly lively eyes.

This is Olya Meshcherskaya.

And these "amazingly lively eyes" will attract the attention of visitors to the cemetery for a long time, reminding them of the once lively charming girl.

"Non-Sunset Light" is the title of one of Bunin's poems. In some ways, it resembles "Easy Breath":

Not a plate, not a crucifix -
Before me so far
Institute dress
And shining eyes.

Sadness is fanned, like the story as a whole, the last line of the work: "Now this light breath has again scattered in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind." For the author of the word, light breathing personifies youth, violence vitality and at the same time frivolity and thoughtlessness. This is how the author himself explained the meaning of the title of the story. "Ivan Alekseevich," recalled G.N. Kuznetsova, - began to explain that he was always attracted by the image of a woman brought to the limit of her "uterine essence": "Only we call it uterine, and I called it light breathing there. Such naivety and lightness in everything, and in audacity, and in death, and there is “light breathing”, non-thinking” (Literary heritage, vol. 84, book 2, Moscow, 1973).

So, a person is responsible for how his life develops. He is in many ways the creator of his own destiny. But the story also has a deeper meaning. The world depicted by the writer is hostile to beauty. Malyutin abused Meshcherskaya, the head of the gymnasium was unfriendly to her, a classy lady scolded her with her instructions, a Cossack officer disposed of Meshcherskaya's life, only students lower grades with their childish instincts, they managed to distinguish Olya among the schoolgirls and "they did not love anyone like her."

The fate of Meshcherskaya is in many ways similar to the fate of the heroine of Blok's poem "On the Railway":

Under the embankment, in the mowed ditch,
Lies and looks, as if alive,
In a colored scarf, on braids
abandoned
Beautiful and young.

The greenery of uncut grass as the personification of eternal life, the festivity of the clothes of the deceased, her youth, beauty - and death!

The "terrible world" is alien and hostile to beauty, and with its vulgarity and filth, it destroys everything outstanding and beautiful.
Literature program for secondary general education educational institutions, approved by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, offers in the 9th grade to get acquainted with the work of I.A. Bunin's stories: "Sunstroke", "John the Rydalets", "Clean Monday" and others (at the choice of the teacher and students).
We think that, among others, the philologist will choose "Light Breath" - one of the best works of the writer.

Man is the reason for the explosion.
(Why do volcanoes explode?).
Sometimes volcanoes explode with treasures.
Letting it explode is more than getting it.
M. Tsvetaeva.

Starting to write this essay, I set myself the goal of understanding why people who are extraordinary, unusual, people who "explode with treasures" remain unrecognized, rejected by society. Olya Meshcherskaya is one of those people. Radiating unfading light, good spirits, cheerfulness, lightness, it aroused envy in some, hostility in others. Although all these people, it seems to me, deep down admired her carelessness, courage, admired her fate, behavior, her unbridled happiness. Undoubtedly, the personality of Olya Meshcherskaya, her character and lifestyle are ambiguous. On the one hand, this strong personality lives without fear of being misunderstood. But on the other hand, Olya is unable to resist society, she cannot withstand this cruel struggle against prejudices, "moral foundations" that the crowd creates, a gray and faceless mass of people who do not have individuality, do not have own life condemning even attempts to live the way you like.

"She was not afraid of anything - neither an ink stain on her fingers, nor a flushed face, nor disheveled hair, nor a knee that became naked when she fell on the run" - that's what you should admire! That's something to be jealous of! A rare person can behave so fearlessly, without thinking about the consequences, doing everything sincerely and easily. All her words, actions (that is, deeds) - all this came from a pure heart. She lived for today, not afraid of the future, truly enjoying life. To be honest, I'm jealous! I probably could not live like this, behave so carelessly, and few people could. This is the uniqueness of Olya, her individuality, such a fate as a gift, she should be proud of.

The idea of ​​the story is in the contradiction of two worlds: gray, boring, faceless society and light, bright inner peace Olya Meshcherskaya. There is also an interpersonal conflict here: "... rumors spread that she (Olya) is windy, cannot live without fans ..." The society did not accept Olya's behavior, because it went beyond it, Olya, in turn, perhaps even with excessive easily treated the increased attention of others. Every time underestimating the enemy, a person is doomed to defeat in the struggle.

Here, in Easy Breath, the conflict between the two worlds is also reflected in the landscape: on the one hand, "... April, the days are gray; a cold wind rings a wreath at the foot of the cross," and on the other, a medallion in which "a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes. And this lightness, joy, liveliness is everywhere. Reading the story, you become infected with that seething, seething energy of Olya, you are as if pierced by biocurrents sent by the high school student Meshcherskaya: "elegance, elegance, dexterity, a clear sparkle in her eyes", "Olya Meshcherskaya seemed the most carefree, the happiest", "beaming her eyes, she ran upstairs" , "... looking at her clearly and vividly", "... as easily and gracefully as only she could do it", "... Meshcherskaya answered simply, almost cheerfully."

Olya's carelessness and desire to know everything led her to a dead end. This is the main contradiction: living her own destiny, Olya discovered new world, but at the same time, wanting everything at once, without thinking about the meaning of her life, she hopelessly lost her childhood, youth, youth. Too early, she knew the vulgar side of love, never unraveling the mystery of romantic feelings. Only later, realizing this, or rather, feeling fear, disappointment and shame, perhaps for the first time in her life, Olya was frightened: “I don’t understand how this could happen, I went crazy, I never thought that I was like that. Now I have one way out... I feel such disgust for him that I can't bear it!..!"

Only now it becomes clear how weak Olya is. She is unable to fight. Having descended from heaven to earth, she was frightened. And the only possible way out for her from this situation is death. Olya understood this well. I think death was the natural result of her reckless behavior.

Many questions arise when you re-read the text again and again. Malyutin and this Cossack officer who killed Olya - is it one person or not? And the woman we see at the grave of Meshcherskaya at the end of the story, and the boss? It is difficult to answer unambiguously. One thing is clear: in principle, and it does not matter, because these people are a crowd, and it is not at all necessary to know who they are, because they are all, in fact, the same. The only one vivid image in the story - Olya Meshcherskaya, and Bunin draws her to us in all details, for people like her are few. “Now Olya Meshcherskaya is the subject of her relentless thoughts and feelings,” we are talking about the worship of the classy lady Olya as an ideal. Due to such people, the world exists: they give others that energy, that lightness, which is lacking in the world of mere mortals. Although these people are weak and unable to resist both their passions and the contempt of others, people like Olya live their time with dignity, in pleasure. And even one such human fate, I believe, is capable of turning the whole world upside down, which a faceless crowd can never do. The high school student Olya, a young girl who was just beginning to live, left a deep mark on the soul of everyone who knew her story. In a short period of her life, she was able to do what many fail to do in a lifetime: she stood out from the crowd.

"... But the main thing, you know what? Light breathing! But I have it, - you listen to me sigh, - is it true?" Of course, she had this lightness that she gave to everyone. "Is it possible that under it (under the porcelain wreath) is the one whose eyes shine so immortally from this convex porcelain medallion on the cross ..?" Of course not, only the body is buried in the ground, but Olya's life, her smile, her clear look, her lightness will forever remain in the hearts of people: "Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind." Such people are immortal, because they give life to others, full, real, genuine life.

So why was Olya rejected by society? There is only one answer: envy. All these faceless creatures envied her with "black envy". Realizing that they would never become SUCH as Meshcherskaya, people made her an outcast. The stubborn crowd did not want to accept anything that did not fit into its framework.

But the main trouble of people like Olya is not this. They simply, living their lives, completely forget about the cruel reality, which does not cost anything to break all their dreams, joys, their whole life. But nevertheless, I admire Olya Meshcherskaya, her talent to live beautifully, wrong, but interesting, small, but bright and easy!!!

…It’s a pity that light breathing is rare.