This story was written by Alexander Kuprin for six years. Summary “Pit” can be quite poor. Indeed, despite the slippery themes, this work has a lot of touching details, lovely sketches and important details. The author found this topic long before the start of work and for two years systematically considered it. The topic of corrupt love has never been disclosed by Russian writers as deeply as Kuprin did. The “Pit” is briefly summarized in landmark events and in the main plot twists, but even through them one can see how chastely and with what love for humanity this story was written.
Composition
The story consists of three unequal parts. The first, where the reader gets acquainted with the characters, has twelve chapters. Already here it becomes clear that there will not be a single plot rod here, so diverse content is presented. Kuprina "The Pit" is an absolutely artistic work, despite journalistic positioning: the absence of the main character, the chronicle of the paintings of the selected layer of the social environment, observation of the little things and apparent descriptiveness.
The second part is more massive, and this is no accident. In seventeen chapters, conflicts are brewing, ways are being sought, the culmination of hopelessness is brewing. Likhonin and Platonov continue to debate about the causes of the viability of such a social ulcer as prostitution. The subtle nuances of the master of Russian prose cannot be revealed in the short story “The Pit”. The fate of Luba, like a guinea pig in medical experiments, is an example: how can this be said in a nutshell?
Content
Through the sketchy descriptiveness, through all episodes that are not too seemingly connected with each other, the author’s philosophical concept passes. A small person cannot defeat social evil, since he himself is an episode in this endless world. That's why Kuprin called his work "Pit." A summary of the story - the tragedy in the fate of the inhabitants of the two-ruble institution, which for the most part was brought to this place by a bitter fate - each woman has her own. In the third part, there are only nine chapters, during which the action does not collapse, but develops quickly, in order to dot the last chapter at the end of each tragedy.
Before you begin to analyze the summary in chapters in Kuprin’s novel “Pit”, it is necessary to note the plot links between chapters and parts. One of the main ones is the experiment of the student Likhonin with Any. The reader will have to decide whether he acted out of true love and Christian compassion, or just curiosity pushed him to the role of arbiter of fate. Throughout the second part of the story, the history of these relations is examined, without letting go of the remaining characters.
The form
This story Kuprin supplied many features of the novel, especially the last two parts, inserting episodes not related to the plot (merchant Horizon, singer Rovinskaya and lawyer Ryazanov). The naturalism of such genres, very fashionable just half a century before Kuprin wrote this story, here has all the signs of high artistry, the first part is especially good in this regard. The main thing for the reader is the author’s approach to the topic: honest, not indifferent. Deeply sympathetic, revealing the position of a true humanist artist, raising the "low" to an inconceivable height, the author himself and his story Kuprin, "The Pit" showed themselves like this.
Summary of reviews were, of course, very different. People don’t really like to look at themselves from the side of objectivity, and those who are “off topic”, that is, outsiders, usually don’t delve into such an environment, disdain. Yes, those social problems that are raised in the story are, of course, unpleasant. However, the power of art is also celebrated here by Kuprin, and public depravity is scorned, and a mystery is conceived of a new educational and upbringing system that eradicates existing ignorance. Here, dreams of revolution, and the strength of a Russian character, and the eternal theme of the isolation of the intelligentsia from the people - all this is Kuprin. "Pit". The summary is hardly capable of accommodating this immensity.
The images
Inhabitants of the institution Anna Markovna go off the pages, as if alive, Kuprin characterized them so artistically and vividly. Here is a gallery of different types: the meek and quiet Manya Little; if sober, in everything unfortunate Pasha; frantically in love with thief Tamara; immersed in the next book Zhenya. Portraits are so colorful, so static. Only Zhenya and Lyuba have a steeply developing line in the story, the rest are swamps. This is not from the fact that Kuprin could not spin each in the plot. It simply would not correspond to the truth of life. The whole life of these women is not quite human, they live on the level of instincts. That's why the writer Kuprin called it his work - “Pit”.
A brief summary of the chapters does not allow us to say enough about other seemingly secondary characters, such as housekeeper Elsa Eduardovna, the hostess of the establishment Anna Markovna, her henpecked husband Isai Savvich. But Kuprin painted these images absolutely masterfully for sure. And the reporter Platonov, through whose mouth the author himself speaks, is also an image worthy of deep disclosure. The spiritual poverty of society will also remain behind the scenes, if a short content is highlighted in the story “Pit”.
Institution
Anna Markovna has an institution not one of the most luxurious, but not the last: the soldier, thieves and other "golden company" are visiting here for fifty dollars. However, mores and lifestyles are almost the same everywhere. Difference in payment. The action begins by the fact that guests gathered at Anna Markovna late in the evening: reporter Platonov and privat-docent Yarchenko. The guests continue the conversation started along the way, although the girls are already waiting for them.
Platonov is his own man here, but he has never had any fun with any inhabitant, he has an almost professional interest in understanding this small and stuffy world from the inside. The whole horror is that society does not perceive this as horror: everyday life of the philistines, and that's all. Contrasts such as piety and crime coexist here. The bouncer Simeon is religious to the extreme, which does not prevent him from beating and robbing girls. The housekeeper is the last hyena with her disenfranchised subordinates, but she loves her daughter insanely, with her she is both kind and generous.
Zhenya
A girl appears. which both clients and craft friends love and respect - she is beautiful, mocking, daring and independent as much as possible here. This is Zhenya. She is worried that the girl Pasha is on the verge, because already more than ten clients have passed through her.
Eugene says that as soon as Pasha passes out and gets hysterical, the hostess again directs her to the guests, because Pasha is in demand (even mild oligophrenia distinguishes patients with indomitable sexuality, this is the case with the girl).
Lichonin
Platonov coughs up, which gives Pasha a rest. Students go in numbers with the ladies, and Likhonin (anarchist) and Platonov continue the conversation about what social evil is indestructible. The latter talks a lot about the girls here, and Likhonin sympathizes. This is a man of action. He decides to save at least one girl from here.
Platonov dissuades, because he is sure that soon the girl will come back here with an even greater mental wound. Eugene agrees with Platonov. But Likhonin did not calm down: he asked Lyuba if she would like to leave here with him and open, for example, her dining room. Likhonin pays a daily fee for her and tomorrow requires Anna Markovna Lubin's passport in exchange for a yellow ticket.
Responsibility
Student Likhonin did not expect that the burdens of liberating Lyuba would cost him so much. His friends, however, agreed to help him adapt the girl: Likhonin himself undertook to teach her history, geography and arithmetic, to take her to the theater, to exhibitions and lectures, Nezheradze teaches her music and reads Rustaveli's poem, Simanovsky - physics, chemistry and cultural history. The results are very modest, although the funds and time take an exorbitant amount. In addition, Anna Markovna literally robbed Likhonin before returning Lubin's passport to him.
Students try to treat Lyuba as a sister, but she does not understand, considers neglect, ceases to feel desirable, beautiful and feminine. She refuses claims to everyone, because she becomes attached to Likhonin, but her love strains him. He already even dreams of catching one of his friends with Lyuba, in order to have a reason to leave. The burden is overwhelming him. And so, as Platonov and Zhenya had predicted, Lyuba came back.
Rovinskaya
The famous singer Rovinskaya, a beautiful and talented woman, in company with friends, including Baroness Tefting, Chaplinsky and Rozanov, bored, travels around the hot spots of the city. Several eloquently described institutions clearly demonstrate that the institution of Anna Markovna is not the only "pit" in the city.
Summary of the scene in a brothel with Germans: prostitutes do not even understand that they live an indecent life. They do not see sin in their occupation, because they do not have permanent lovers, like these dirty Russians in neighboring institutions, and they put what they earn into a bank for a future decent life. It’s just their job. Business, nothing personal.
The power of art
Anna Markovna could not do without a scandal, but the situation is much warmer, one might say - sincere. The ladies quarreled at first, and Tamara understood the French speech of the baroness and answered in a pure Parisian dialect that, they say, yes, we really knew each other - in Kharkov, where you were also a chorus girl, like me, but you were not a baroness. This, the future Baroness, had one of the lyrical tenors in the choir ...
But Tamara has a thief, Senechka. She loves him. After the angry speeches of Tamara, Zhenya, a drunk Mani Little atmosphere is heating up. The ladies are going to leave, but in parting Rovinskaya decides to sing a romance. She knows well how to take any audience. And she succeeds. Everyone is shocked and bewildered silent, and Zhenya falls to her knees and kisses the hands of the one she had just angrily exposed. Great is the power of art. Eugene is sobbing, Rovinskaya picks her up and tries to kiss. Zhenya whispers something to her, and Rovinskaya replies that it’s nothing, it takes several months to heal, and everything will pass.
Revolt
Eugene confesses to Tamara that she is infected with syphilis, but hides it from everyone because she wants to infect more of these two-legged non-humans. They shower curses on their pervert clients. And then they leave everything as it is, that is, Zhenya does not go for treatment. She remembers the man to whom her mother sold her at the age of ten. Zoe recalls the teacher who promised to expel her from school if she does not obey.
And then Lyuba returns. But the housekeeper does not want to let her in, swears and fights. Eugene rushes into the fray for a girlfriend. Other girls run out from the neighboring rooms screaming, a tantrum reigns in the house. After a while, Simeon comes with friends and influences the situation physically. The girls are calming down.
Repentance
Cadet Gladyshev comes to Wife, only to her. But today she is not in a hurry to caress the young man, she confesses that she is sick, and says that the other will not spare him, because all the prostitutes hate their clients and never spare anyone. She says goodbye to the boy forever and in the morning goes to the port to Platonov in order to warn him that his acquaintances are infected: Ramses, who shot himself when he found out about a shameful disease, and blamed himself only because he took the woman without love, and Sabashnikov .
Eugene repents, she no longer dreams of infecting more of these terrible males, since she realizes that they are people too, each with their own sorrows and problems. Platonov can not console a girl. And on the third day, Zhenya was found hanged. Everything is moving towards a denouement: the episode of remorse of Zhenya became the most piercing moment of the story. Such a summary was chosen by Kuprin for his story. The "Pit" as such collapses, everything falls into decay. The housekeeper bought an institution from Anna Markovna, and now she cannot do anything with the events that happen, which not only cast a shadow on the institution, they envelop him with notoriety.
Tamara and the rest
The girl was offered to become an assistant to the new mistress, with the condition that her hearty friend Senechka abandon the house. Tamara is looking for Rezanov and Rovinskaya, who help to bury Zhenya in the Orthodox rite, despite the fact that she is a suicide. Following Zhenya, Pasha dies, which was introduced into the final dementia by exhausting work. She is handed over to a madhouse, where she dies almost immediately. Tamara is also not so simple. She gains the trust of a notary and mixes sleeping pills into the drink. Then he lets Senechka into the apartment of his dear friend, who opens the safe. Senechka is arrested a year later, and he extradits Tamara to the police.
Vera absurdly dies: her lover, a military man, committed the embezzlement of the treasury and decides to shoot himself. Faith is ready to share his fate. They beautifully say goodbye to life with a luxurious feast, after which the man decisively kills Vera, but himself - no, he does not succeed. In a fight, Manya Little is killed. And there comes a complete end to the institution, when two offended brawlers come to the aid of soldiers - a whole hundred. So Kuprin finished his story. The summary of “The Pit” is also quite interesting, although, of course, there are not enough details talented by the writer.