The story of Ivan Bunin "Sunstroke" in its own way is surprising and peculiar. At first glance, the storyline is quite common. But this is only at first glance. There is hardly a more finely organized work than Sunstroke. Bunin analyzes personal problems in him: moments of choice that affect the future of a person. Heroes make their choice - and are far away from each other.
Sunstroke (Bunin): Summary
During a trip on a ship, a military man meets - a lieutenant and a young woman - a stranger. The author does not give her a name, however, nor a lieutenant. They are just people, their story is not unique at all, similar to many of those that happen. The couple spends night together. The young woman is embarrassed, but she does not repent of what happened. She just needs to go, and it is time for him to get off the ship. The lieutenant easily lets go of the woman, escorts her to the pier and returns to his room. Here, the smell of her perfume knocks him out of the rut , an unfinished cup of coffee that they forgot to remove, memories of last night are still alive.
The lieutenant’s heart is suddenly filled with a touching feeling, which he is unable to accept and is trying to drown out by trying to continuously smoke cigarettes. Precisely seeking salvation from impending tenderness, he rushes into the city, wanders thoughtlessly through the market, walks among people and feels emptiness in his soul. When an inexpressible feeling prevents him from thinking, reasoning and reasoning, he decides to send her a telegram, but on the way to the post office he realizes that he does not know either the woman’s name or surname or her address. Returning to his room, he feels ten years old. The lieutenant already realizes that they will never meet again.
This is a very capacious content of the story, although quite brief. Bunin's “Sunstroke” in retelling will allow high school students to better prepare for literature lessons. The information may be useful to students of teacher training colleges, as well as to those studying at universities.
What is the story “Sunstroke” about?
Bunin's work “Sunstroke” talks about unexpected love that overtakes the main characters (lieutenant and stranger) while traveling on a ship. They are both not ready for the feeling.
Moreover, they absolutely do not have time to understand this: there is only one day that decides the outcome of events. When the time comes to say goodbye, the lieutenant cannot even think about what torment he will experience after the young woman leaves his comfortable room. It is precisely before his eyes that his whole life passes, which is measured, is now evaluated from the height of last night and the feeling that enchanted the lieutenant.
Story composition
The story can be conditionally divided into three parts, containing different semantic load: the first part is the moment when the lieutenant and the stranger are together. Both are in confusion, somewhat confused.
The second compositional part: the moment of goodbye of the lieutenant and the young woman. The third part is the moment of awakening of a tender feeling, which is difficult to control. The author very subtly shows the moments of transition of one compositional part to another, while the state of the protagonist, the lieutenant, gradually becomes the center of the story.
The ideological component of the story
The meeting of the lieutenant and the stranger became for both of them akin to a real sunstroke, brought blindness by passion, and then bitter insight. This is what Bunin says. The book “Sunstroke” is fanned with a romantic beginning, it tells about the need of everyone to love and be loved, but at the same time is completely devoid of illusions. Perhaps the young men will see here the desire of the heroes to find their only love, but rather, this is an attempt to abandon love in favor of common sense: “We had to save ourselves ...” “This new feeling was too much happiness,” which the heroes obviously could not afford otherwise, one would have to change the whole established way of life, make some changes in oneself and change the environment.
Stranger condition
The image of the young woman whom the lieutenant meets on the ship, Bunin draws without embellishment and does not endow her with special characteristics. She has no name - she is just a woman with whom a lieutenant spent the night.
But the author very subtly emphasizes her experiences, anxieties and excitements. The woman says: "I am not at all what you could imagine me." Perhaps she was looking for in this fleeting connection the need to love and be loved. Perhaps for her everything that happened was nothing more than an accident, a surprise. It must be that in married life (the presence of which is mentioned in the story) she did not receive enough warmth and attention. We see that the stranger does not make any plans, does not oblige the lieutenant with anything. That is why she does not consider it necessary to give her name. It is bitter and painful to leave, leaving the lieutenant forever, but she does this, obeying her intuition. She already subconsciously knows that their relationship will not end in anything good.
Lieutenant Status
As shown in the story, it is likely that at first the protagonist was not ready to appreciate the feeling he had for a stranger. Therefore, he so easily releases her from himself, believing that nothing binds them.
Only having returned to his room, he feels the signs of a beginning “fever” and realizes that it is impossible to avoid it. He no longer belongs to himself, he is not free. Suddenly, he was incredibly affected by the atmosphere of the room in which they spent the night together: "there was still an unfinished cup of coffee on the table, the bed was still uncleaned, but it was gone." The lieutenant can not accept this feeling, pushes him away from himself in every possible way, almost reaches a frenzy.
Lieutenant metamorphosis and its significance
The way his state of mind is changing speaks of the awakening power of feelings. Perhaps the lieutenant, a military man, could not even suggest that some fleeting meeting with a woman would turn his whole system of values upside down, make him rethink the significance of life and rediscover its meaning. The theme of love as the greatest mystery that knows no compromises is disclosed in the story “Sunstroke”. Bunin analyzes the state of his hero, emphasizes confusion and despair, as well as how bitterly he tries to crush the awakening feeling of love. In this unequal battle, it is quite difficult to win. The lieutenant is defeated and feels tired, aged ten years.
The main idea of the story
Obviously, with his work, the author wanted to show the dramatic outcome of love. Meanwhile, each of us is always free to choose what to do in a particular difficult situation. The lieutenant and his lady simply were not ready to accept the generous gift of fate, therefore they preferred to leave, barely meeting each other. Yes, and it’s hard to call it acquaintance - they did not name each other their names, did not exchange addresses.
Most likely, their meeting was only an attempt to drown out the anxious voice of a longing heart. As you might guess, the heroes are unhappy in their personal lives and very lonely, despite having a marriage. They did not leave each other's addresses, did not give their names because they did not want to continue the relationship. This is the main idea of the story “Sunstroke”. Bunin analyzes and compares the heroes, which of them is no longer ready for a new life, but as a result it turns out that both show significant cowardice.
Theater and movie
This work has been made into films more than once, and also lost on the stage of the theater, the situation that Bunin described in the story “Sunstroke” is so amazing. Mikhalkov made the film of the same name in Bouvre. The play of the actors is amazing, it conveys the feelings of the heroes and their inner pain, which sounds like a heavy chord from beginning to end.
Probably, there is no other such work that would evoke such ambivalent feelings as “Sunstroke”. Bunin, reviews of this story (very controversial) confirm this, described a situation that leaves few indifferent. Someone regrets the main characters and believes that they certainly needed to find each other, others are sure that such meetings between a man and a woman should remain a secret, an unattainable dream and have nothing to do with reality. Who knows whether it is worth believing a sudden passion or need to look for a cause deep in yourself? Perhaps all “love” is only an enthusiastic fantasy inherent in youth?
Ivan Bunin “Sunstroke” and the school curriculum
I want to note that this story is part of the school curriculum of compulsory literature study and is intended for older students - sixteen to seventeen years old. As a rule, at this age, the work is perceived in pink, appears before young people as a story of great love. For older people and adults, the work suddenly opens up on the other side and makes you think about the question of how much we are ready to accept love in life and how we do it. The fact is that in youth it seems that love itself can defeat any obstacles. By twenty-five to thirty years old comes the understanding that nothing is given in life for nothing, and a feeling like love must be protected with all the forces of the soul and heart.
An unforgettably strong work - “Sunstroke”. Bunin analyzes in him the person’s ability to accept love in special circumstances of life and how the heroes cope with this task, shows that in most cases people are not able to recognize it at the very beginning and take responsibility for the development of relations. Such love is doomed.
This is what Bunin narrates in his Sunstroke. Summary allows you to determine the subject of the story, its compositional and ideological component. If you are interested in this description, we recommend that you turn to reading. “Sunstroke”, without a doubt, is one of those works that leave after reading a feeling of light sadness and remain in memory for a long time.