Comparative characteristics of Olesya and Ivan Timofeevich (Olesya Kuprin)

The beautiful and sad story “Olesya”, like a confession, is told on behalf of a young man, abandoned by fate to be bored and vegetate for a long six months in the remote village of Perebrod. The name of the narrator and his story are not immediately revealed to the reader, but from the very beginning it becomes clear that Ivan Timofeevich is an educated, intelligent and inquisitive person. The hero is kind and gentle by nature. He treats the humiliated and insulted with pity, and wants to serve for the benefit of those around him, even if they are lower than him in terms of social status. Ivan Timofeevich serves in some department and is trying to write stories. He is kind and helps his servant's poor family.

In the outback, Ivan Timofeevich is sad. Out of idleness, he is engaged in hunting and fishing in the forest, trying to teach a lazy servant to read and write. From the latter, in a conversation, the hero learns that very real witches live very close to his refuge. But he treats this kind of speculation with healthy skepticism, conditioned by education and the habit of explaining everything that happens from a scientific point of view.

Ivan Timofeevich and Olesya

The meeting with Olesya becomes a light for the hero in the darkness of endless boring days (she read his fortune on cards and predicted his fate). The girl immediately attracts the attention of Ivan Timofeevich as an extraordinary person, radically different from anyone with whom he had previously communicated.

He strives to understand how such a subtle, sensitive and tactful person could grow up in the wilderness, without literacy and etiquette. How can you explain that in the eyes of the local population this girl is the embodiment of evil? In fact, her tact and gentleness will give a hundred times a head start to any of the peasants or peasant women who are rude and uncouth by nature. Why do religiously educated people sincerely fear and hate the sweet and kind Olesya, who in return does not harbor any malice towards the offenders and does not wish anything bad to anyone?

Asking these questions, the main character gets to know the lovely forest dweller more and more closely, becomes attached to her and begins to realize that separation will become unbearable torment for him.

He sincerely wants to marry Olesya, take her with him to the city and live a long life together. Olesya refuses, explaining that she cannot get married in a church, since she is a witch, which means she belongs to the devil.

The next day the young master leaves for a neighboring village. Returning after lunch, he meets the clerk Nikita Nazarych Mishchenka, who says that the peasants caught and beat a witch near the church. She slipped out of the crowd and ran into the forest, shouting curses. Ivan Timofeevich understands that it was Olesya and hurries to the forest house, where he finds her, beaten. It turns out that Olesya decided to go to church, wanting to please her lover, but the peasant women considered her action to be blasphemy and attacked her after the service. Olesya refuses the doctor and says that she and her grandmother will leave soon - so as not to incur even greater wrath from the community.

The passionate desire to tame the miracle of nature played a cruel joke on Ivan Timofeevich. Desires, sometimes similar to stupid whims, rash actions and selfishness of the main character led to tragedy. And this tragedy irrevocably affected the fate of the hero himself, the poor girl and the grandmother who raised her.

He lost Olesya forever. All that remained in his memory were red beads, the bitterness of regret and an endless feeling of guilt for causing pain to the most innocent of creatures on earth.

Heroes of the story

Olesya

The main character of the story is the forest witch Olesya (her real name is Alena, according to grandmother Manuilikha, and Olesya is the local version of the name). A beautiful, tall brunette with intelligent dark eyes immediately attracts Ivan's attention. The girl's natural beauty is combined with a natural intelligence - despite the fact that the girl does not even know how to read, she has, perhaps, more tact and depth than the city girl.

Olesya is sure that she is “not like everyone else” and soberly understands that for this dissimilarity she can suffer from the people. Ivan doesn’t really believe in Olesya’s unusual abilities, believing that there is more to it than a centuries-old superstition. However, he cannot deny the mysticism of Olesya’s image.

Olesya is well aware of the impossibility of her happiness with Ivan, even if he makes a strong-willed decision and marries her, so it is she who boldly and simply manages their relationship: firstly, she exercises self-control, trying not to impose herself on the gentleman, and secondly, she decides to separate , seeing that they are not a couple. Social life would be unacceptable for Olesya; her husband would inevitably become burdened by it after the lack of common interests became clear. Olesya does not want to be a burden, to tie Ivan hand and foot and leaves on her own - this is the heroism and strength of the girl.

Ivan Timofeevich

Ivan is a poor, educated nobleman. City boredom leads him to Polesie, where at first he tries to do some business, but in the end the only activity left is hunting. He treats legends about witches as fairy tales - a healthy skepticism is justified by his education.

(Ivan and Olesya

)

Ivan Timofeevich is a sincere and kind person, he is able to feel the beauty of nature, and therefore Olesya initially interests him not as a beautiful girl, but as an interesting person. He wonders how it happened that nature itself raised her, and she came out so tender and delicate, unlike the rude, uncouth peasants. How did it happen that they, religious, although superstitious, are ruder and tougher than Olesya, although she should be the embodiment of evil. For Ivan, meeting Olesya is not a lordly pastime or a difficult summer love adventure, although he understands that they are not a couple - society in any case will be stronger than their love and will destroy their happiness. The personification of society in this case is unimportant - be it a blind and stupid peasant force, be it city residents, Ivan’s colleagues. When he thinks of Olesya as his future wife, in a city dress, trying to carry on small talk with his colleagues, he simply comes to a dead end. The loss of Olesya for Ivan is as much a tragedy as finding her as a wife. This remains outside the scope of the story, but most likely Olesya’s prediction came true in full - after her departure he felt bad, to the point of thoughts of intentionally leaving this life.

What did the cards say about Ivan Timofeevich?

What happened to you is this: although you are a kind person, you are only weak... Your kindness is not good, not heartfelt. You are not master of your word. You like to have the upper hand over people, but although you don’t want to, you obey them. You love wine, and also... Well, it doesn’t matter, let’s say, everything is in order... You are very hungry for our sister, and through this you will suffer a lot of harm in life... You don’t value money and you don’t know how to save it - you will never be rich...

Then it turned out that your life will be sad. You will not love anyone with your heart, because your heart is cold, lazy, and you will bring a lot of grief to those who love you. You will never get married, and you will die single. You will not have great joys in life, but there will be a lot of boredom and hardship... The time will come that you will want to lay hands on yourself... Such a thing will happen to you... But if you don’t dare, you will bear it... You will endure great need, but in the end In your life, your fate will change through the death of someone close to you and completely unexpectedly for you. Only all this will happen in many years, but this year... I don’t know when exactly - the cards say very soon... Maybe even this month <...> You will receive great love from some then the queen of clubs. I just can’t guess if she’s married or a girl, but I know she has dark hair...

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin often in his works painted an ideal image of a “natural” person, one who is not subject to the corrupting influence of light, whose soul is pure, free, who is close to nature, lives in it, lives with it in one impulse. A striking example of the disclosure of the theme of a “natural” person is the story “Olesya”.

The story described in the story did not appear by chance. One day A.I. Kuprin visited the landowner Ivan Timofeevich Poroshin in Polesie, who told the writer the mysterious story of his relationship with a certain witch. It was this story, enriched with artistic fiction, that formed the basis of Kuprin’s work.

The first publication of the story took place in the magazine “Kievlyanin” in 1898; the work bore the subtitle “From Memories of Volyn,” which emphasized the real basis of the events taking place in the story.

Image in the work

(Ivan - Gennady Voropaev and Yarmola - Borislav Borundukov on the hunt, frame from the film “Olesya”, USSR 1971

)

Ivan and Yarmola share one passion - hunting. There is a time when nothing interests or pleases him except forest landscapes; he feels a certain inseparability with forest paths. He feels the need to be as natural a person as Olesya was in her native forest. Only such naturalness seems beautiful to the hero, and Olesya’s words seem wise and accurate.

(Olesya - Lyudmila Chursina; Ivan - Gennady Voropaev, still from the film “Olesya”, USSR 1971

)

That is why there is a clear contrast between the images of Olesya and Ivan and the glorification of the image of a natural person. Ivan is an intellectual, an educated person and a writer, but there is no place for him either in the wilderness or in the world, since there are lies, human passions, vulgarity, narrow-mindedness or ignorance all around. Olesya, like a pure ray of light in a forest clearing, flashes in his life, but Ivan cannot grow up to her, morally he loses to her inimitable nobility, her mercy, selflessness, kindness, dedication. And this is the tragedy of the entire Russian intelligentsia of the 19th century - to start and abandon, fall in love and betray, live, floating with the flow and not finding a place everywhere.

Characteristics of the hero

Ivan Timofeevich (Vanechka) is a storyteller, urban intellectual, and aspiring writer. I.T. On official business he ends up in Polesie. There, while hunting and lost in the forest, the hero meets the beautiful Alena (Olesya, in Polesie). After this meeting, the image of Olesya could not leave I.T.’s head: he found in the girl an innate nobility, “graceful moderation.” Attracted I.T. and the girl’s “reputation as a witch,” her “life in the forest thicket.” But most of all the hero was fascinated by Olesya’s “integral, original nature, ... mind.” During the second meeting, the girl tells fortunes to the hero, naming his main traits: “although kind, he is only weak... Kindness... is not good, not cordial. “I am not a master of my word,” I am “painfully eager” for women. He will not be able to love anyone, because “his heart... is cold, lazy.” As a result, Olesya predicts I.T. “great love on the part of the lady of clubs,” through which “she will accept great shame.” By a fatal coincidence, Olesya herself soon falls in love with the “baric” I.T. The characters begin a relationship. I.T. sets a condition for the girl: either he or her witchcraft. The hero persuades Olesya to go to church. There the village women attack her like a witch. Having come to Olesya, I.T. finds her ill from the fear and humiliation she experienced. The next day after the incident, returning to the girl again, the hero discovers that “the hut was empty.” And only a thread of red corals hung on the window reminded of Oles. I.T. almost immediately comes to terms with what happened.

History of creation

A. Kuprin’s story “Olesya” was first published in 1898 in the newspaper “Kievlyanin” and was accompanied by a subtitle. "From memories of Volyn." It is curious that the writer first sent the manuscript to the magazine “Russian Wealth”, since before that this magazine had already published Kuprin’s story “Forest Wilderness”, also dedicated to Polesie. Thus, the author hoped to create a continuation effect. However, “Russian Wealth” for some reason refused to publish “Olesya” (perhaps the publishers were not satisfied with the size of the story, because by that time it was the author’s largest work), and the cycle planned by the author did not work out. But later, in 1905, “Olesya” was published in an independent publication, accompanied by an introduction from the author, which told the story of the creation of the work. Later, the full-fledged “Polessia Cycle” was released, the pinnacle and decoration of which was “Olesya”.

The author's introduction is preserved only in the archives. In it, Kuprin said that while visiting a friend of the landowner Poroshin in Polesie, he heard from him many legends and fairy tales related to local beliefs. Among other things, Poroshin said that he himself was in love with a local witch. Kuprin will later tell this story in the story, at the same time including in it all the mysticism of local legends, the mysterious mystical atmosphere and piercing realism of the situation surrounding him, the difficult fate of the Polesie inhabitants.

Genre and direction

Alexander Ivanovich worked at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when a controversy gradually began to flare up between two directions: realism and modernism, which was just beginning to make itself known. Kuprin belongs to the realistic tradition in Russian literature, so the story “Olesya” can easily be classified as a realistic work.

The genre of the work is a story, since it is dominated by a chronicle plot, reproducing the natural course of life. The reader lives through all the events, day after day, following the main character Ivan Timofeevich.

The essence

The action takes place in the small village of Perebrod, Volyn province, on the outskirts of Polesie. The young gentleman-writer is bored, but one day fate takes him to the swamp to the house of the local witch Manuilikha, where he meets the beautiful Olesya. A feeling of love flares up between Ivan and Olesya, but the young sorceress sees that death awaits her if she links her fate with an unexpected guest.

But love is stronger than prejudice and fear, Olesya wants to deceive fate. A young witch goes to church for the sake of Ivan Timofeevich, although she is prohibited from entering there due to her occupation and origin. She makes it clear to the hero that she will commit this brave act, which could lead to irreparable consequences, but Ivan does not understand this and does not have time to save Olesya from the angry crowd. The heroine is severely beaten. In revenge, she sends a curse on the village, and that same night a terrible thunderstorm occurs. Knowing the power of human anger, Manuilikha and her pupil hastily leave the house in the swamp. When a young man comes to this home in the morning, he finds only red beads, as a symbol of his short but true love with Olesya.

Final conclusion

The culmination of events in the story occurs on a big holiday - Trinity. This is not a coincidence; it emphasizes and intensifies the tragedy with which Olesya’s bright fairy tale is trampled by people who hate her. There is a sarcastic paradox in this: the servant of the devil, Olesya, the witch, turns out to be more open to love than the crowd of people whose religion fits into the thesis “God is Love.”

The author's conclusions sound tragic - it is impossible for two people to be happy together when the happiness for each of them individually is different. For Ivan, happiness is impossible apart from civilization. For Olesya - in isolation from nature. But at the same time, the author claims, civilization is cruel, society can poison relations between people, destroy them morally and physically, but nature cannot.

The beautiful and sad story “Olesya”, like a confession, is told on behalf of a young man, abandoned by fate to be bored and vegetate for a long six months in the remote village of Perebrod. The name of the narrator and his story are not immediately revealed to the reader, but from the very beginning it becomes clear that Ivan Timofeevich is an educated, intelligent and inquisitive person. The hero is kind and gentle by nature. He treats the humiliated and insulted with pity, and wants to serve for the benefit of those around him, even if they are lower than him in terms of social status. Ivan Timofeevich serves in some department and is trying to write stories. He is kind and helps his servant's poor family.

In the outback, Ivan Timofeevich is sad. Out of idleness, he is engaged in hunting and fishing in the forest, trying to teach a lazy servant to read and write. From the latter, in a conversation, the hero learns that very real witches live very close to his refuge. But he treats this kind of speculation with healthy skepticism, conditioned by education and the habit of explaining everything that happens from a scientific point of view.

The main characters and their characteristics

The main characters of the story are the master writer Ivan Timofeevich and the forest witch Olesya. Completely different, they got together, but could not be happy together.

1. Characteristics of Ivan Timofeevich
   . This is a kind person, sensitive. He was able to discern a living, natural principle in Oles, because he himself had not yet been completely killed by secular society. The mere fact that he left noisy cities for a village speaks volumes. The heroine is not just a beautiful girl for him, she is a mystery to him. This strange healer believes in conspiracies, tells fortunes, communicates with spirits - she is a witch. And all this attracts the hero. He wants to see and learn something new, real, not covered up by falsehood and far-fetched etiquette. But at the same time, Ivan himself is still at the mercy of the world, he is thinking about marrying Olesya, but he is confused by how she, a savage, can appear in the halls of the capital.
2. Olesya is the ideal of a “natural” person.
   She was born and lived in the forest, nature was her educator. Olesya’s world is a world of harmony with the surrounding world. In addition, she is in harmony with her inner world. We can note the following qualities of the main character: she is wayward, straightforward, sincere, she does not know how to pretend or pretend. The young witch is smart and kind; one only has to remember the reader’s first meeting with her, because she was tenderly carrying chicks in her lap. One of Olesya’s main traits can be called insubordination, which she inherited from Manuilikha. They both seem to be against the whole world: they live aloof in their swamp, they do not profess an official religion. Even knowing that you can’t escape fate, the young sorceress still tries, consoles herself with the hope that everything will work out for her and Ivan. She is original and unshakable, despite the fact that love is still alive, she leaves, leaves everything, without looking back. The image and characteristics of Olesya are available.

Characteristics

A man, somewhat satiated with life, not rich, but spoiled, finds himself in the wilderness, in the forests of Polesie. The boredom that haunts him in a remote village pushes him to the fact that “out of idleness” the hero begins to teach and treat ordinary people, and it seems that this boredom haunted him in the world from which he escaped. Fate brings him a meeting with a local savage and witch, the girl Olesya. The hero falls in love, led by the mystical charms of the girl, her exoticism in comparison with the hero’s usual surroundings, her beauty, naturalness, merging with nature. However, the hero can neither make a decision regarding marriage with the forest beauty, nor protect her from a hostile society; he unmistakably sees the impossibility of this union. As a result, the story ends tragically - Olesya is attacked by the villagers and she herself decides to disappear from the hero’s life. They will not see each other again, Olesya secretly leaves, leaving in the hero’s memory bright, unlike anything else memories of their dates and, as a symbol of this brightness, a scarlet thread of coral beads.

(Gennady Voropaev as Ivan Timofeevich, film “Olesya”, USSR 1971

)

The narration is told on behalf of Ivan Timofeevich, so the reader does not have a clear external portrait; the external image consists of fragmentary characteristics given by Olesya and other characters in the story. Ivan considers himself a “quiet and modest” person, prone to a “wandering” life, which means that we have before us a man without roots, without family and love. By the time Ivan arrived in Polesie, he was an aspiring writer who had managed to publish a story in a small newspaper (the way he speaks of the publication - “newspaper” - and the way he calls his work the word “press” indicates a low assessment of his opuses).

He is simple and quite cordial with people, helps the poor man Yarmola, saves his family from hunger and heals the surrounding peasants.

Main features and qualities, psychological portrait of the character

An outsider’s opinion about Ivan speaks much more honestly and with greater psychologism. And this is Olesya’s opinion when the girl tells fortunes for him: kind, but weak, but rather indifferent, conniving. That is, Ivan’s kindness is not an aspiration, but rather goodwill, following etiquette. His heart is lazy and cold, and he is not master of his word. He easily succumbs to the destructive influence of alcohol and passions, as a result of which, Olesya claims, there can be a lot of grief in his life. According to Olesya’s prediction, a “lazy” heart will not allow him to commit suicide in the future - Ivan will have great grief, but due to his tendency to indifference, he will be able to “survive it like that,” although he will be tempted to commit suicide.

The psychological portrait presented by Olesya is most likely correct, although the reader does not know how his life turned out after meeting the forest witch. Ivan really turned out to be greedy for beauty (he didn’t believe in any witchcraft, but became interested in the witch, came to her house and fell in love with the fatal forest princess, completely not thinking about the consequences), but he preferred not to think about the consequences, he quickly burst into flames with ideas, but quickly cooled down (attempts to get closer to the people, teach them, get to know them led nowhere), he did nothing to stop Olesya from going to the temple, as a result of which a tragedy occurred.

Themes

• The main theme of the story
  - Olesya's love, her readiness for self-sacrifice - is the center of the work. Ivan Timofeevich was lucky to meet a real feeling.
• Another important semantic branch is the theme of confrontation between the ordinary world and the natural world of people.
  Residents of villages, capitals, Ivan Timofeevich himself are representatives of everyday thinking, permeated with prejudices, conventions, and clichés. The worldview of Olesya and Manuilikha is freedom and open feelings. In connection with these two heroes, the theme of nature appears. The environment is the cradle that raised the main character, an irreplaceable helper, thanks to which Manuilikha and Olesya live away from people and civilization without need, nature gives them everything they need for life. This topic is covered most fully in this one.
• The role of landscape
  in the story is enormous. It is a reflection of the feelings of the characters and their relationships. So, at the beginning of a romance we see a sunny spring, and at the end the break in relations is accompanied by a strong thunderstorm. We wrote more about this in this.

Problems

The problems of the story are varied. Firstly, the writer acutely depicts the conflict between society and those who do not fit into it. So, once they brutally drove Manuilikha out of the village and beat Olesya herself, although both sorceresses did not show any aggression towards the villagers. Society is not ready to accept those who differ from them in at least some way, who do not try to pretend, because they want to live by their own rules, and not according to the template of the majority.

The problem of attitude towards Olesya manifests itself most clearly in the scene of her going to church. For the Russian Orthodox people of the village, it was a real insult that the one who serves evil spirits, in their opinion, appeared in the temple of Christ. At the church, where people ask for God's mercy, they themselves administered cruel and merciless judgment. Perhaps the writer wanted, on the basis of this antithesis, to show that society has distorted the idea of ​​the righteous, the good, and the just.

Meaning

The idea of ​​the story is that people who grew up far from civilization turn out to be much nobler, more delicate, more polite and kinder than “civilized” society itself. The author hints that herd life dulls the individual and erases his individuality. The crowd is submissive and indiscriminate, and is often dominated by its worst members rather than its best. Primitive instincts or acquired stereotypes, such as misinterpreted morality, direct the collective towards degradation. Thus, the inhabitants of the village show themselves to be greater savages than the two witches living in the swamp.

Kuprin's main idea is that people must turn back to nature, must learn to live in harmony with the world and with themselves, so that their cold hearts will melt. Olesya tried to open the world of real feelings to Ivan Timofeevich. He couldn't understand it in time, but the mysterious witch and her red beads will remain in his heart forever.

Criticism

The story “Olesya” is one of the most famous works of A.I. Kuprina. The strength and talent of the story were appreciated by the writer’s contemporaries.

K. Barkhin called the work a “forest symphony,” noting the smoothness and beauty of the work’s language.

Maxim Gorky noted the youth and spontaneity of the story.

Thus, the story “Olesya” occupies an important place, both in the work of A.I. himself. Kuprin, and in the history of Russian classical literature.

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A. I. Kuprin’s story “Olesya” is a tragic love story between a rich gentleman and a commoner with mystical abilities. Social inequality has become a chasm between young people, destroying bright, pure feelings.

The image and characterization of Ivan Timofeevich in the story “Olesya” is one of the central ones in the work.

Materials for A.I. Kuprin’s lesson “Olesya”

Grade 11

Topic: A.I. Kuprin. "Olesya." The embodiment of the moral ideal in the story.

Lesson objectives. Teach a comprehensive analysis of a work of art, careful attention to detail; improve the skill of oral monologue speech, the ability to correctly formulate one’s thoughts, and identify the ideological meaning of a work; to cultivate interest in the work of A.I. Kuprin, respectful attitude towards a person’s feelings and experiences.

During the classes

• Teacher reading the first paragraph of the work.
• Conversation with students.

Why does the work have such a title?

The author focuses on an unusual girl with a strange name Olesya. It was her fate, her actions that touched the hero-narrator, who tells the reader the story of his relationship with Olesya.

What genre does this work belong to? Name the characteristic features of this genre.

“Olesya” is an epic work, a story, the characteristic features of which are the following: volume - larger than a story, but smaller than a novel; a description of some long period of time in the hero’s life; Usually the narration is told on behalf of a participant or witness to the events.

Teacher. So, the focus is on Olesya, about whom the main character Ivan Timofeevich talks, he evaluates the heroine, expresses his attitude towards everything depicted in the story.

What are the features of the composition of the work?

The story alternates between the hero's story about the events of his life and his reflections.

How is the hero shown? What is known about him? Why did he end up in Polesie?

The hero is an intellectual who accidentally ended up in Polesie. He is bored in the wilderness, he tries to communicate with the peasants (he treats them), read, communicate with the local intelligentsia in the person of the priest. But these attempts do not satisfy his need for communication; his only interlocutor is Yarmola, whom Ivan Timofeevich teaches to read and write. The main occupation of the hero is hunting.

Find the plot.

The plot begins with the hero's conversation with Yarmola about witches.

How will events develop further? (Retelling by students.)

Find a description of Manuilikha’s hut (chapter 3).

“It wasn’t even a hut, but a fairy-tale hut on chicken legs. One side of it sank over time, and this gave the hut a lame and sad look.” The description of the home of Manuilikha and Olesya emphasizes their closeness to the world of nature and fairy tales - it is no coincidence that the hero has an association with Baba Yaga’s hut.

How does Manuilikha meet the hero? Why?

Ivan Timofeevich decides to find the “witch’s” hut, goes into the forest, and succeeds. Manuilikha greets him unfriendly, since communication with people from the civilized world does not bode well for her, as if she is trying to protect her granddaughter from meeting the man.

How do you meet Olesya? What struck the hero about this girl?

First the hero heard the song, and then Olesya appeared, who made a strong impression on him. “My stranger, a tall brunette of about twenty to twenty-five years old, behaved easily and slenderly. A spacious white shirt wrapped freely and beautifully around her young, healthy breasts. Once seen, the original beauty of her face could not be forgotten, but it was difficult, even after getting used to it, to describe it. His charm lay in those large, shiny, dark eyes, to which his thin eyebrows, broken in the middle, gave an elusive shade of slyness, power and naivety; in the dark-pink tone of the skin, in the willful curve of the lips, of which the lower, somewhat fuller, protruded forward with a decisive capricious look.”

What is known about the heroines? What do they have in common with Ivan Timofeevich?

Manuilikha and Olesya are strangers in this region, they are newcomers. The hero is also alien to the people of Polesie; he could not find contact with them.

How will events develop further?

The hero shows deep interest in Olesya and her life; They begin a permanent relationship. It is significant that Ivan Timofeevich never got along with anyone else.

What unusual abilities does Olesya have? Tell us how she tries to convince the hero that she is a witch.

Why did Ivan Timofeevich become attached to the girl? (chapter 6)

Reflecting on his perception of the young savage, the hero says: “It was not Olesya’s beauty alone that fascinated me in her, but also her integral, original, free nature, her mind... For her environment, for her upbringing, she had amazing abilities.”

The hero enjoys Olesya’s spontaneity, naturalness, openness, some childishness, and lack of coquetry. That is, he is attracted to exactly what he probably did not find in other people.

How do others feel about the hero’s communication with the girl?

Ivan Timofeevich’s relations with the villagers and even with Yarmola, who also does not approve of communicating with “witches,” are deteriorating.

When does the danger of parting with Olesya first arise? What is this connected with?

The new landowner in the village decides to drain the swamps, and the constable who came to Manuilikha demands that she and her granddaughter immediately leave this region.

How did the hero behave in this situation?

Ivan Timofeevich tries to protect his charges, treats the policeman, verbally convinces, gives an old gun, having obtained permission to leave the women alone for a while.

What was the turning point in the characters’ relationship?

The turning point in their relationship was Ivan’s illness, due to which he did not appear in the forest hut for a long time. It is in separation from Olesya that he realizes that new feelings have entered his life that he cannot cope with. Ivan Timofeevich admits: “I myself had no idea how thin, strong, invisible threads my heart was tied to this charming girl, incomprehensible to me. Wherever I was... all my thoughts were occupied with the image of Olesya, my whole being strove for her, every memory... squeezed my heart with quiet and sweet pain.” The absence of the hero greatly worried Olesya, who also felt a strong attachment to him.

Let's read the beginning of Chapter X.

“...When I stepped on her threshold, my heart began to beat with alarming fear in my chest. I didn’t see Olesya for almost two weeks and now I understood especially clearly how close and sweet she was to me... I felt that... Olesya was giving me... her whole being.”

What happens in the lives of the heroes after this meeting?

The heroes confess their love to each other; it is important that Olesya is the initiator. And Ivan Timofeevich is afraid of something new that has appeared in his life.

How do the characters themselves perceive their love?

For Olesya, love is a gift. She loves and enjoys it; Although the heroine has a presentiment of trouble, she consciously continues her relationship with her beloved.

“Now I don’t care, I don’t care! Because I love you…

“Olesya, for God’s sake, don’t... leave me... Now I’m afraid too... I’m afraid of myself... Let me go, Olesya.”

Ivan understands that his feelings for Olesya are quite serious, he feels the magic emanating from the girl. He constantly thinks about his relationship with the savage and comes to the conclusion that he is even ready to marry her and take her with him to the city.

How does he perceive the relationship between Ivan Timofeevich and Olesya Manuilikha?

“Old Manuilikha became so unbearably grumpy after my recovery, greeted me with such open anger, and while I was sitting in the hut, she moved the pots in the stove with such noisy ferocity that Olesya and I preferred to meet every evening in the forest...”

Teacher's word. In his story, the author poses the problem of the collision between man of nature and man of civilization. After all, Manuilikha from the very beginning tried to resist the meeting of her granddaughter and a stranger, feeling that they belonged to different worlds, and trying to protect Olesya from pain.

Pay attention to the hero's thoughts. How does he represent Olesya in the world of civilization?

“Only one circumstance frightened and stopped me: I did not even dare to imagine what Olesya would be like, dressed in a fashionable dress... pulled out of this charming frame of the old forest...”

In what works have you encountered a similar situation?

In the poem by A.S. Pushkin “Gypsies”, in the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time” (the history of the relationship between Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin and Bela). Both Pushkin and Lermontov show the conflict between a man of civilization and a man of nature; the writers emphasized that people from different worlds cannot understand each other, live according to different laws, so their relationships are doomed to break.

Teacher's word. In these works, the problem of the collision between “natural man” and the man of civilization was resolved dramatically; the authors showed that these people are so different that their union is possible only for a short time or in natural conditions.

How does Olesya perceive the conversation about Ivan’s departure and his proposal to marry?

She understands that this is impossible, tells the hero that such a decision is ridiculous to even imagine that in the future he himself will hate her for this marriage. The girl explains her refusal this way: “I only think about your happiness.”

“You yourself understand that it’s funny to even think about it. Well, what kind of wife am I really? This suggests that Olesya’s love is deep and sacrificial, the girl does not think about herself.

How does the heroine try to prove her love to Ivan?

For the sake of her beloved, Olesya is ready to go to church, although she is sure that she carries some mysterious and fatal beginning within herself. This act is associated with great risk, but the girl decides to take it. “Honey, you know, I really want to do something very, very nice for you.”

Tell us about the consequences of this trip.

When Olesya came to the village, she was insulted by women who mocked her, swore at her and did not allow the girl to pass. Someone suggested smearing her with tar, and when Olesya broke away from the circle of her offenders, stones flew after her. Angry Olesya, “having run fifty steps away... stopped, turned her pale, scratched, bloody face to the brutal crowd and shouted so loudly that her every word could be heard in the square:

- Good!.. You’ll remember this from me! You will cry your fill yet!”

The consequences of her trip to the village church caused the heroines to leave - the local residents, in their anger, could cause them great harm. Olesya and her grandmother understand that after what happened they need to leave Polesie, since they will be blamed for the causes of any misfortune. “... After all, I was there... in Perebrodye... I made threats out of anger and shame... And now, as soon as something happens, now they will blame us: whether the cattle start to die or someone’s hut catches fire, we will all be to blame,” Olesya says to Ivan. After his departure they leave Polesie. The heroine herself said: “No... I know, I see... There will be nothing for us except grief... nothing... nothing...”

Why was the continuation of love impossible?

1. Those around me were disturbing.
2. Olesya herself did not want this.
3. The hero's passivity is to blame.

Try to formulate the idea of ​​the work.

The strong, pure love of the heroes is not understood and not accepted by the cruel world around them; true love is doomed to a tragic ending.

Does the epigraph correspond to our conversation?

Pay attention to the last lines of the story. They contain the narrator’s attitude to everything that happened.

“With a cramped heart overflowing with tears, I was about to leave the hut, when suddenly my attention was attracted by a bright object, apparently deliberately hung on the corner of the window frame. It was a string of cheap red beads, known in Polesie as “corals,” - the only thing that remained to me as a memory of Olesya and her tender, generous love.”

Teacher's word. Look at the words with which Ivan Timofeevich characterizes his state - “with a cramped, overflowing heart...” It is overflowing with feelings, and Olesya’s love remains a wonderful fairy tale for him, it will be kept in memory, because only memory connects him with the gentle and generous girl who gave the hero her feeling and did not demand anything in return.

What unites the stories “Olesya” and “Garnet Bracelet”?

(This writing assignment can be given at home to allow students to reflect and prepare for upcoming writing in class.)

Both works are devoted to the theme of love, which the main characters (Olesya and Zheltkov) perceive as God’s gift, as happiness, despite the fact that their feelings have no future, life deprives the heroes of the opportunity to be with their beloved. Pure, sincere love is the basis of their personalities. The heroes are happy because they had the opportunity to experience this deep feeling.

5

Character

Among the main character traits of Ivan Timofeevich, I would like to note the following:

• kindness;
• weakness, lack of will;
• responsiveness;
• dependent on people's opinions;
• weak character;
• unable to understand one's own feelings;
• modesty;
• indecision;
• hides emotions and feelings inside, not giving them a way out.

The main character Olesya has her own opinion regarding the character of Ivan Timofeevich.

“...although you are a kind person, you are only weak... Your kindness is not good, not heartfelt. You are not master of your word. You like to have the upper hand over people, but although you don’t want to, you obey them. You love wine, and also... Well, it doesn’t matter, let’s say, everything is in order... You are very hungry for our sister, and through this you will suffer a lot of evil in life... You don’t value money and you don’t know how to save it - you will never be rich... »