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"CLEAN MONDAY"
I.A. BUNIN
SUMMARY
A Moscow gray winter day turns into evening. Every evening the narrator is driven by a coachman from the Red Gate to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Opposite the temple lives a lady whom he takes to dinner and to the theaters. Who she will be for him, he does not know, she is mysterious and incomprehensible, but he is happy with her. She takes courses, lives alone, and constantly learns the beginning of the “Moonlight Sonata.”
Every Saturday the narrator sends her flowers, brings her chocolate, new books. This couple is followed everywhere by looks. He is talkative and restless, she is silent and thoughtful. They met at a lecture by Andrei Bely, the narrator was spinning and laughing so much that she laughed too. He tells her that she doesn’t love him, she replies that besides her father and him, she has no one. They drink tea, talking about everything that comes to mind. Arriving in the evening, he kissed her for a long time, then she got ready, not allowing complete intimacy, and they went, for example, to the Metropol, again talking about something extraneous. Immediately after they met, she said that she was not fit to be a wife; he did not talk about marriage, but expected her decision to change. Once, after kissing, he grabbed his head and groaned: “Yes, after all, this is not love, not love...” She replied that no one knows what love is. He exclaims that he knows and will wait for her to know love and happiness. And again they talk about something else. It is enough for him to be next to her every evening. January, February passed, Maslenitsa passed.
On Forgiveness Sunday, she ordered him to come to her at five o’clock in the evening, met him all in black, saying that tomorrow was Clean Monday, and invited him to go to the Novodevichy Convent. The narrator was surprised, she said that yesterday she was at the Rogozhskoye cemetery and walks around the city in the morning without him. But this is not religiosity, but something else. In Novodevichy, she tells him with quiet bewilderment: “It’s true, how you love me!” They looked at the graves of Ertel and Chekhov. Then we went to look for Griboedov’s house, and also to Egorov’s tavern for the last pancakes. She says that the Martha and Mary Convent is nearby... In the tavern, in the room with the icon of the Mother of God of the Three Hands, she says: “You are a master, you cannot understand all this Moscow the way I do.” Over dinner, she mentions that she went to the Conception Monastery, where the stichera are sung marvelously, and was in the Chudov Monastery: “Oh, I’ll go somewhere to a monastery, to some very remote one.” In despair, he thinks that then he too will leave or kill someone to be sent to Sakhalin, and lights a cigarette, forgetting that smoking is not allowed here. With a quiet light in her eyes, she retells the Russian legend about how God tested the princess. The narrator is surprised and alarmed.
When he took her home, she told her to come no earlier than ten tomorrow; she wants to go to the skit party at the Art Theater, although she doesn’t like skit parties. He arrives at the appointed time and finds her performing the beginning of the “Moonlight Sonata”, in a black velvet dress. She favorably accepts the attention of the men at the skit party, on the way to the house the month seems to her like a luminous skull, the chimes seem ancient, tin and cast iron. At the entrance, she asks to let the coachman go, although before that she had never allowed him to go up to her place at night. This night was the night of love.
At dawn she said that she was leaving for an indefinite period to visit her father, and that she would write as soon as she arrived. She asks to leave her, the narrator leaves, goes to Iverskaya, kneels and prays. Some old woman takes pity on him: “Oh, don’t kill yourself, don’t kill yourself like that! It’s a sin! It’s a sin!”
Two weeks later he receives a letter: she asks not to wait for her, intends to go to obedience and then, perhaps, to tonsure. She asks him not to answer because it will only increase the torment. He drank for a long time, then began to come to his senses indifferently. Almost two years have passed.
On New Year's Eve, 1914, he goes to the Kremlin, stands without praying in the Archangel Cathedral, then goes to where they skated together, and cries. Having stopped a cab driver at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery, he experiences an irresistible desire to go into the temple. But the janitor at the gate blocks the road, asking not to walk, because “Grand Duchess Elzavet Fedrovna and Grand Duke Mitriy Palych” are there now. They let him in for a ruble, but upon entering the courtyard, he sees a religious procession, the Grand Duchess, and one of the sisters suddenly raises her head and looks into the darkness. He understands that this is his beloved.
She somehow sensed his presence and looked straight at him, even though he was standing in the dark. The narrator turned and walked out of the gate.
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In 1937, Ivan Bunin began work on his best book. The collection “Dark Alleys” was first published after the end of World War II. This book is a collection of short tragic love stories. One of Bunin's most famous stories is “Clean Monday”. Analysis and summary works are presented in today's article.
"Dark alleys"
The analysis of Bunin’s “Clean Monday” should begin with brief history creation of a work. This is one of the last stories included in the collection “Dark Alleys”. Bunin completed work on the work “Clean Monday” on May 12, 1944. The story was first published in New York.
The writer was probably pleased with this essay. After all, in his diary, Bunin wrote: “I thank God for the opportunity to create Clean Monday.”
Bunin, in each of his works included in the collection “Dark Alleys,” reveals to the reader the tragedy and catastrophism of love. This feeling is beyond human control. It suddenly comes into his life, gives fleeting happiness, and then certainly causes unbearable pain.
The narration in the story “Clean Monday” by Bunin is told in the first person. The author does not name the names of his heroes. Love breaks out between two young people. They are both beautiful, rich, healthy and seemingly full of energy. But something is missing in their relationship.
They visit restaurants, concerts, theaters. They discuss books and plays. True, the girl often shows indifference, even hostility. “You don’t like everything,” he once says main character, but he himself does not attach importance to his words. A passionate romance is followed by a sudden separation - sudden for the young man, not for her. The ending is typical of Bunin's style. What caused the break between the lovers?
On the eve of the Orthodox holiday
The story describes their first meeting, but the narrative begins with events that occur some time after they met. The girl attends courses, reads a lot, and otherwise leads an idle lifestyle. And she seems quite happy with everything. But this is only at first glance. He is so absorbed in his feeling, his love for her, that he is not even aware of the other side of her soul.
It is worth paying attention to the title of the story - “Clean Monday”. The meaning of Bunin's story is quite deep. On the eve of the holy day, the lovers have their first conversation about religiosity. Before this, the main character had no idea that the girl was attracted to everything connected with the church. In his absence, she visits Moscow monasteries, moreover, she is thinking about becoming a monk.
Clean Monday is the beginning of Lent. On this day, cleansing rituals are carried out, the transition from fast food to Lenten restrictions.
Parting
One day they go to the Novodevichy Convent. By the way, this is a rather unusual route for him. Previously, they spent time exclusively in entertainment venues. The visit to the monastery is, of course, the idea of the protagonist's beloved.
The next day, intimacy occurs between them for the first time. And then the girl leaves for Tver, from there she sends a letter to her lover. In this message she asks not to wait for her. She became a novice in one of the Tver monasteries, and perhaps she will decide to take monastic vows. He will never see her again.
After receiving the last letter from his beloved, the hero began to drink, go downhill, and then finally came to his senses. One day, after a long time, I saw a nun in a Moscow church, in whom I recognized my former beloved. Perhaps the image of his beloved was too firmly entrenched in his mind, and it was not her at all? He didn't tell her anything. He turned and walked out of the temple gates. This is the summary of Bunin’s “Clean Monday”.
Love and tragedy
Bunin's heroes do not find happiness. In "Clean Monday", as in other works of the Russian classic, we are talking about love, which brings only bitterness and disappointment. What is the tragedy of the heroes of this story?
Probably the fact that, being close, they did not know each other at all. Each person is a whole Universe. And sometimes even loved ones cannot unravel his inner world. Bunin spoke about loneliness among people, about love, which is impossible without complete mutual understanding. An analysis of a work of art cannot be done without characterizing the main characters. What do we know about the girl who, living in prosperity and being loved, went to a monastery?
main character
When analyzing Bunin’s “Clean Monday”, it is worth paying attention to the portrait of a nameless girl that the author creates at the beginning of the work. She led an idle life. She read a lot, studied music, and loved visiting restaurants. But she did all this somehow indifferently, without much interest.
She is educated, well-read, and enjoys immersing herself in the world of luxurious social life. She likes good kitchen, while she wonders “how are people not bored of having lunch and dinner every day”? She calls acting skits vulgar, while she ends the relationship with her lover by visiting the theater. Bunin's heroine cannot understand what his purpose in this life is. She is not one of those who is content to live in luxury and talk about literature and art.
The inner world of the main character is very rich. She constantly thinks and is in a spiritual search. The girl is attracted by the surrounding reality, but at the same time she is frightened. Love becomes not a salvation for her, but a problem that terribly burdens her, forcing her to make the only correct sudden decision.
The main character refuses worldly joys, and this shows her strong nature. “Clean Monday” is not the only story from the collection “Dark Alleys” in which the author paid a lot of attention to the female image.
Bunin brought to the fore the hero's experiences. At the same time, he showed a rather controversial female character. The heroine is satisfied with the lifestyle she leads, but all sorts of details, little things, depress her. Finally, she decides to go to a monastery, thereby destroying the life of the man who loves her. True, by doing this she causes suffering to herself. After all, in the letter that the girl sends to her lover there are the words: “May God give me the strength not to answer you.”
Main character
Little is known about the future fate of the young man. He had a hard time being separated from his beloved. He disappeared into the dirtiest taverns, drank and became miserable. But still he came to his senses and returned to his previous way of life. It can be assumed that the pain that this strange, extraordinary and somewhat exalted girl inflicted on him will never subside.
In order to find out who the writer was during his lifetime, you just need to read his books. But is the biography of Ivan Bunin really so tragic? Was there true love in his life?
Ivan Bunin
The writer's first wife, Anna Tsakni, was the daughter of an Odessa Greek, editor of a popular magazine at that time. They got married in 1898. Soon a son was born, who did not live even five years. The child died of meningitis. Bunin took the death of his son very hard. The relationship between the spouses went wrong, but his wife did not give him a divorce for a long time. Even after he connected his life with Vera Muromtseva.
The writer's second wife became his "patient shadow." Muromtseva replaced his secretary, mother, and friend. She did not leave him even when he began an affair with Galina Kuznetsova. Yet it was Galina Muromtseva who was next to the writer in the last days of his life. The creator of “Dark Alleys” was not deprived of love.
Decor reader's diary- not an easy task. In order to correctly and concisely present the main events of the work, you need to have a worthy example before your eyes. You can always find it on Literaguru. Here at your service is a very brief summary of Bunin’s book “Clean Monday”.
(439 words) It was winter, and every evening the narrator drove up to the house next to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to spend this time with his beloved girl. She lived there. Every evening they dined in restaurants, then attended theaters and concerts. Although they spent time together, they were still not very close - the girl refused to talk about what awaited the couple in the future.
She lived alone. Every week the narrator brought her fresh flowers, boxes of chocolates and books, but it seemed that she was indifferent to gifts. She couldn't understand, for example, why people eat in restaurants every day. At the same time, she always ate with great appetite and read all the books given to her. She had a great love for furs and silk.
Both the narrator and the girl were both rich and beautiful, just like from the cover. And he is a handsome man with a southern appearance, active and cheerful, and she also had eastern features, but was most often silent and calm. And often, while reading a book, I got distracted and thought about something.
Sometimes the narrator enjoyed those blissful moments when he could kiss her, but the answer was silence. When he started talking about the wedding, she replied that she was no good wife. The hero hoped that her opinion might change over time, and continued to court and suffer from their strange and incomplete intimacy.
Two winter months passed, and on Forgiveness Sunday she admitted that she often visited Moscow cathedrals alone. She is fascinated by church chants, old Rus', old funeral rites. That same evening, the two of them went to the Novodevichy Convent, then to a tavern. There the girl promised herself that one day she would go to some very distant monastery. The narrator was excited by her words. The very next evening they went to the theater for a cabbage party. There she smoked, drank champagne and danced the polka, and then suddenly for the first time she allowed the narrator to stay at her place at night.
In the morning she said that she was going to Tver that same evening and did not know when she would return back. This day was Clean Monday.
A few weeks after leaving, she wrote that it was useless to look for her, and there was no need to write an answer - it would only hurt both of them more. She is going to go to obedience, and then, perhaps, become a nun.
The hero began to become an alcoholic in taverns. So two years have passed since that clean Monday. And one day on New Year’s Eve he visited the Archangel Cathedral, where he listened for a long time to the silence of the church and seemed to be expecting a miracle. Then I went to Ordynka, to the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery. A girl's choir was heard from there, and he entered the courtyard. The Grand Duchess appeared from the church in a snow-white robe, followed by chorus girls with candles in their hands. Then one of them looked into the darkness at the narrator. He asked himself how she felt that he was here, seeing nothing, turned around and left the yard.
They met in December, by chance. When he got to Andrei Bely's lecture, he spun and laughed so much that she, who happened to be in the chair next to him and at first looked at him with some bewilderment, also laughed. Now every evening he went to her apartment, which she rented solely for the wonderful view of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, every evening he took her to dinner in chic restaurants, theaters, concerts... He didn’t know how all this was going to end and tried not to even think: she put an end to talk about the future once and for all.
She was mysterious and incomprehensible; their relationship was strange and uncertain, and this kept him in constant unresolved tension, in painful anticipation. And yet, what a joy every hour spent next to her was...
She lived alone in Moscow (her widowed father, an enlightened man of a noble merchant family, lived in retirement in Tver), for some reason she studied at courses (she liked history) and kept learning the slow beginning of the “Moonlight Sonata”, just the beginning... He gave her gifts flowers, chocolate and newfangled books, receiving an indifferent and absent-minded “Thank you...” for all this. And it looked like she didn’t need anything, although she still preferred her favorite flowers, read books, ate chocolate, had lunch and dinner with gusto. Her only obvious weakness was good clothes, expensive fur...
They were both rich, healthy, young and so good-looking that people watched them in restaurants and at concerts. He, being from the Penza province, was then handsome with southern, “Italian” beauty and had the appropriate character: lively, cheerful, always ready for a happy smile. And she had a kind of Indian, Persian beauty, and as much as he was talkative and restless, she was so silent and thoughtful... Even when he suddenly kissed her hotly, impetuously, she did not resist, but was silent all the time. And when she felt that he was unable to control himself, she calmly pulled away, went into the bedroom and got dressed for the next trip. “No, I’m not fit to be a wife!” - she repeated. “We’ll see from there!” - he thought and never spoke about marriage again.
But sometimes this incomplete intimacy seemed unbearably painful to him: “No, this is not love!” - “Who knows what love is?” - she answered. And again, all evening they talked only about strangers, and again he was only happy that he was just next to Her, hearing her voice, looking at the lips that he kissed an hour ago... What torment! And what happiness!
So January and February passed, Maslenitsa came and went. On Forgiveness Sunday, she dressed all in black (“After all, tomorrow is Clean Monday!”) and invited him to go to the Novodevichy Convent. He looked at her in surprise, and she talked about the beauty and sincerity of the funeral of the schismatic archbishop, about the singing of the church choir, making the heart flutter, about her lonely visits to the Kremlin cathedrals... Then they wandered for a long time around the Novodevichy cemetery, visited the graves of Ertel and Chekhov, long and fruitlessly They looked for Griboyedov’s house, and not finding it, they went to Egorov’s tavern in Okhotny Ryad.
The tavern was warm and full of thickly dressed cab drivers. “That’s good,” she said. “And now only this Rus' remains in some northern monasteries... Oh, I’ll go somewhere to a monastery, to some very remote one!” And she read by heart from ancient Russian legends: “...And the devil gave his wife a flying serpent for fornication. And this serpent appeared to her in human nature, extremely beautiful...” And again he looked with surprise and concern: what’s wrong with her today? All the quirks?
Tomorrow she asked to be taken to a theater skit, although she noticed that there was nothing more vulgar than them. At the skit party, she smoked a lot and looked intently at the actors, making faces as the audience laughed. One of them first looked at her with feigned gloomy greed, then, drunkenly falling to his hand, inquired about her companion: “Who is this handsome man? I hate it”... At three o’clock in the morning, leaving the skit party, She said, either jokingly or seriously: “He was right. Of course he is beautiful. “The serpent is in human nature, extremely beautiful...”.” And that evening, against custom, she asked to let the crew go...
And in a quiet apartment at night, she immediately went into the bedroom and rustled the dress she was taking off. He walked up to the door: she, wearing only swan slippers, stood in front of the dressing table, combing her black hair with a tortoiseshell comb. “He kept saying that I don’t think much about him,” she said. “No, I thought...” ...And at dawn he woke up from her gaze: “This evening I’m leaving for Tver,” she said. – For how long, only God knows... I’ll write everything as soon as I arrive. Sorry, leave me now...”
The letter received two weeks later was brief - an affectionate but firm request not to wait, not to try to search and see: “I won’t return to Moscow, I’ll go to obedience for now, then maybe I’ll decide to take monastic vows...” And he didn’t look for a long time disappeared into the dirtiest taverns, became an alcoholic, sinking more and more. Then he began to recover little by little - indifferent, hopeless...
Almost two years have passed since that clean Monday... On the same quiet evening he left the house, took a cab and went to the Kremlin. He stood for a long time, without praying, in the dark Archangel Cathedral, then he drove for a long time, as then, through dark alleys and kept crying and crying...
On Ordynka I stopped at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery, in which the girls’ choir sang sadly and tenderly. The janitor didn’t want to let me in, but for a ruble, with a sad sigh, he let me in. Then icons and banners, carried in their hands, appeared from the church, a white line of singing nuns stretched out, with candle lights on their faces. He looked at them carefully, and one of those walking in the middle suddenly raised her head and fixed her dark eyes on the darkness, as if seeing him. What could she see in the darkness, how could she sense His presence? He turned and quietly walked out of the gate.
Option 2
They met one day in December by chance. He came to listen to Andrei Bely’s lecture, and laughed so much that he infected everyone around him with his laughter. She found herself next to him, and also laughed, not understanding the reason. Now they went to restaurants and theaters together, and lived in the same apartment. They didn't want to talk about the future, enjoying every minute of their happiness. She had a separate apartment in Moscow. My father, from a wealthy family, lived in Tver. Every day he brought flowers and gifts. Both were not poor, young and happy. In restaurants, everyone followed them with their eyes, admiring the combination of such beauty. But they weren’t ready for marriage yet.
There were times when it seemed to him that there was no love. In response I heard only the words: “What is love? “. Over and over again, it was just the two of them, and they enjoyed every moment of life. So the winter passed, and on Forgiveness Sunday she put on black clothes and offered to go to the Novodevichy Convent. He looked at her in surprise, and she told how the heart beats when you are in church, and how beautifully the church choir sings. They walked around the Novodevichy cemetery for a long time, looking for the graves of famous writers. After that, they went to a tavern on Okhotny Ryad.
There were a lot of people in the tavern. She never stopped thinking about how good it was in Russian monasteries, and wanted to someday go to one of them. She recited ancient Russian legends by heart, and he again looked at her in surprise, not knowing what was happening to her.
The next day, she decided to go to a theater meeting, although she said it was cheesy. Here she looked at celebrities and smoked a lot. One of the actors watched her greedily all evening, and at the end, after getting drunk, he pressed his lips to her hand. He asked who her companion was, looking at him with hatred. Late at night, coming from a party, she thought that her gentleman was too handsome, like a snake in human form. And after thinking a little, she released the crew.
Entering the quiet, calm apartment, she immediately went into the bedroom and took off her dress. He walked to the door and saw her standing only in her swan slippers. She stood in front of the mirror and combed her hair. Saying that she was leaving for Tver to see her father in the morning, she went to bed. Two weeks later, he received a letter saying that she would not come again. In addition, she asked not to seek a meeting with her. He didn’t even look for a long time, going down to the bottom with the help of alcohol. Then, little by little, he began to come to his senses.
A few years later, he left home and went to the Kremlin. It was a clean Monday, and he stood for a long time in one of the cathedrals without praying. Then he drove through the dark streets of Moscow and cried.
After some time, he stopped at the gates of the Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery, where the girls’ choir sang so beautifully and sorrowfully. At first they didn’t want to let him in, but after paying the janitor a ruble, he entered. Here he saw nuns come out of the church, holding candles in their hands. He looked at them carefully. Suddenly he saw her. She looked into the darkness, straight at him, seeing nothing. It is possible that she felt his presence. He turned around and left.
Essay on literature on the topic: Summary of Clean Monday Bunin
Other writings:
- The story “Clean Monday” is included in the collection “Dark Alleys”, but in depth of content it differs from other stories depicting numerous variations on the theme of love. “Clean Monday” is only outwardly a story about specific young people and their love, but in reality it is a story Read More ......
- Included in the collection “Dark Alleys,” I. A. Bunin’s story “Clean Monday” was written in 1944. It combines tragic and lyrical principles. The plot of the work is centered on a love story. At the same time, for I. A. Bunin, it is not so much the Read More ......
- The story “Clean Monday” is dedicated to the theme of love. Love and death are two main themes in the works of I. A. Bunin. This story is included in the collection “Dark Alleys”. The writer said that in his stories he sought to depict “the dark alleys of love.” Just so unlit, Read More......
- The story “Clean Monday” is part of Bunin’s series of stories “Dark Alleys”. This cycle was the last in the author’s life and took eight years of creativity. The cycle was created during the Second World War. The world was collapsing, and the great Russian writer Bunin wrote about Read More......
- Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a wonderful Russian writer, a man of great and complex destiny. He was a recognized classic of Russian literature, and also became the first in Russia Nobel laureate. Bunin combined all the stories written from 1937 to 1944 into the book “Dark Alleys”. Read More......
- Let us turn to “Clean Monday,” written on May 12, 1944, when Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was in exile. It was there, abroad, already in old age, that he created the cycle “Dark Alleys,” which includes the mentioned story. All works in this collection are about love, Read More ......
- In the art of conveying the theme of love, I. A. Bunin appears as a writer of stunning talent, as a filigree master, a psychologist who can subtly and accurately convey the state of the soul of a person in love. The writer knows how to talk about complex, frank topics in such a way that they are in no way Read More ......
- Ivan Alekseevich Bunin met the revolution with extreme hostility, and during his short stay in new Russia dubbed “the damned days.” His attitude towards the new government was sharply irreconcilable, and he emigrated. Russian modernity fell out of the writer's field of vision. Deprived of vitally reliable topical Read More......
Illustration by G. D. Novozhilov
Every evening in the winter of 1912, the narrator visits the same apartment opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. There lives a woman whom he loves madly. The narrator takes her to luxury restaurants, gives her books, chocolate and fresh flowers, but does not know how it will all end. She doesn't want to talk about the future. There has not yet been real, final intimacy between them, and this keeps the narrator “in unresolved tension, in painful anticipation.” Despite this, he is happy next to her.
She is studying history courses and lives alone - her father, a widowed enlightened merchant, settled “in retirement in Tver.” She accepts all the narrator's gifts carelessly and absent-mindedly.
It looked like she didn’t need anything: no flowers, no books, no lunches, no theaters, no dinners out of town.
She has her favorite flowers, she reads books, she eats chocolate and dines with great pleasure, but her only real weakness is “good clothes, velvet, silk, expensive fur.”
Both the narrator and his lover are young and very beautiful. The narrator looks like an Italian, is bright and active. She is dark and dark-eyed like a Persian. He is “prone to talkativeness and simple-hearted gaiety,” she is always reserved and silent.
The narrator often recalls how they met at a lecture by Andrei Bely. The writer did not give a lecture, but sang it, running around the stage. The narrator “twirled and laughed so much” that he attracted the attention of the girl sitting in the next chair, and she laughed with him.
Sometimes she silently, but without resisting, allows the narrator to kiss “her arms, legs, her body, amazing in its smoothness.” Feeling that he can no longer control himself, she pulls away and leaves. She says that she is not fit for marriage, and the narrator does not speak to her about it again.
Our incomplete intimacy sometimes seemed unbearable, but even here, what was left for me except hope for time?
The fact that he looks at her and accompanies her to restaurants and theaters constitutes torment and happiness for the narrator.
This is how the narrator spends January and February. Maslenitsa is coming. On Forgiveness Sunday, she orders you to pick her up earlier than usual. They go to the Novodevichy Convent. On the way, she says that yesterday morning she was at the schismatic cemetery where their archbishop was buried, and recalls the whole ceremony with delight. The narrator is surprised - until now he had not noticed that she was so religious.
They come to the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent and walk for a long time between the graves. The narrator looks at her with adoration. She notices this and is sincerely surprised: he really loves her so much! In the evening they eat pancakes in the Okhotny Ryad tavern, she again tells him with admiration about the monasteries that she managed to see, and threatens to go to the most remote of them. The narrator does not take her words seriously.
The next evening, she asks the narrator to take her to a theater skit, although she considers such gatherings extremely vulgar. She drinks champagne all evening, watches the antics of the actors, and then dashingly dances the polka with one of them.
In the dead of night, the narrator brings her home. To his surprise, she asks him to let the coachman go and go up to her apartment - she didn’t allow this before. They are finally getting closer. In the morning she tells the narrator that she is leaving for Tver, promises to write and asks to leave her now.
The narrator receives the letter two weeks later. She says goodbye to him and asks him not to wait and not look for her.
I won’t return to Moscow, I’ll go to obedience for now, then maybe I’ll decide to take monastic vows... May God give me the strength not to answer me - it’s useless to prolong and increase our torment...
The narrator fulfills her request. He begins to disappear through the dirtiest taverns, gradually losing his human appearance, then for a long time, indifferently and hopelessly, he comes to his senses.
Two years pass. On New Year's Eve, the narrator, with tears in his eyes, repeats the path he once took with his beloved on Forgiveness Sunday. Then he stops at the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery and wants to enter. The janitor does not let the narrator in: inside there is a service for the Grand Duchess and the Grand Duke. The narrator still comes in, handing the janitor a ruble.
In the courtyard of the monastery, the narrator sees a religious procession. It is headed by the Grand Duchess, followed by a line of singing nuns or sisters with candles near their pale faces. One of the sisters suddenly raises her black eyes and looks straight at the narrator, as if sensing his presence in the darkness. The narrator turns and quietly leaves the gate.