Duel content by chapter. Duel (story), plot, characters
The story "Duel" by Kuprin was first published in 1905. The work belongs to the tradition of neo-realistic prose in Russian literature. Central storyline the story associated with its name is a conflict between two officers, Romashov and Nikolaev, over the wife of the second. Their quarrel led to a duel and the death of the protagonist. In the work, the author touches upon the problem of the relationship between the individual and society, reveals the theme of cruelty in the army, the humiliation of ordinary soldiers by the commanders, reveals the horror and vulgarity of the officer society.
main characters
Georgy Alekseevich Romashov- 22 years old, second lieutenant, "served only the second year in the regiment"; "he was of medium height, thin", "because of great shyness he was awkward"; dreamy young man.
Alexandra Petrovna Nikolaeva (Shurochka)- a woman with whom Romashov was in love; Nikolaev's wife.
Vladimir Efimych Nikolaev- lieutenant, Shurochka's husband, with whom Romashov fought.
Other characters
Vasily Nilovich Nazansky- an officer, a drunkard, was in love with Alexandra Petrovna.
Raisa Aleksandrovna Peterson- "regimental lady", Romashov's mistress, wife of Captain Peterson.
Shulgovich- Commander of the regiment.
Chapter 1.
The sixth company is undergoing exercises. Colonel Shulgovich, who arrived at the company, reprimanded Lieutenant Romashov for the fact that the soldiers met the commander in an improper form. Romashov began to justify one of the soldiers, for impudence he was subjected to house arrest for four days.
Chapter 2
Romashov increasingly experienced "the painful consciousness of his loneliness and being lost among strangers, unfriendly or indifferent people." Instead of going to the officers' meeting, Gregory went home.
Chapter 3
Arriving home, Romashov asked the batman if there was anyone from Lieutenant Nikolaev, but the answer was negative. Grigory visited the Nikolaevs almost daily for the last three months.
After graduating from a military school, Romashov thought that he would be engaged in self-education in the service. However, instead he has a "dirty and boring relationship with a regimental lady", "and more and more often he is burdened by service, and comrades, and his own life."
The batman brought a letter from Raisa, Romashov's mistress. The woman called him to visit, invited him to a quadrille next Saturday. Having tore up the letter, Romashov decided to go to the Nikolaevs "for the last time".
Chapter 4
The husband of Alexander Petrovna, Vladimir Efimych Nikolaev, "had to take an exam at the Academy of the General Staff and stubbornly, without rest, prepared for it all year." It was already the third exam - the previous two years he had failed and the third was the last chance. Shurochka really wanted her husband to act, as she was disgusted by the life they were living now.
When Romashov came to the Nikolaevs, during the conversation, Shurochka remembered that officer fights had become legal. She believed that duels were necessary for Russian officers: “then we will not have card cheats among the officers” and “unsleeping drunkards”, like officer Nazansky.
Chapter 5
Leaving the Nikolaevs, Romashov "to spite her" goes to Nazansky. While talking, the men started talking about love. Nazansky believed that love "has its peaks, accessible only to a few out of millions." Nazansky read to Romashov a letter from the woman he loved. Romashov realized that this woman was Alexandra Petrovna. Nazansky also guessed about Grigory's feelings for Shurochka.
Arriving home, Romashov found a letter from Raisa. She knew that Grigory visited the Nikolaevs every evening and wrote that she would “repay cruelly” to him.
Chapter 6
Romashov was under house arrest. Shurochka came to him and brought pies. Romashov kissed the woman on the hand. In parting, Shurochka said that Grigory was her only friend.
Chapter 7
Gregory was taken to the colonel. Shulgovich scolded Romashov because of the rumors: they reported that the officer was drinking. After the conversation, the colonel invited Gregory to an officer's dinner. Romashov returned home "feeling lonely, yearning, lost in some strange, dark and hostile place."
Chapter 8
Romashov came to the ball at the officers' assembly house. Gradually, the ladies began to arrive, and Raisa also arrived. In the expression of her eyes, Romashov saw "some kind of cruel, vicious and confident threat."
The officers discussed duels in the army, their opinions differed - some considered dueling stupidity, others were of the opinion that an insult can only be washed away with blood.
Chapter 9
Romashov, as promised, danced a quadrille with Raisa. During the dance, the woman angrily said that she would not allow her to be treated like that, and began to loudly insult Shura. Raisa claimed that she sacrificed everything for Romashov: "I did not dare to look into the eyes of my husband, this ideal, wonderful person." Grigory smiled involuntarily: her numerous novels were known to everyone.
Raisa's husband, Captain Peterson, was "a thin, consumptive man." He was madly in love with his wife, so he forgave her all the intrigues.
Chapter 10
During the morning classes, the officers discussed the punishments of the soldiers. Romashov believed that in the army they specifically "are trying to maintain rudeness, martinetism in relations between officers."
Chapter 11
During the exercises, Romashov performed techniques on the machine. He thought about the phrase said by one of the officers: if you think like Grigory, then you have to leave the service.
Chapter 12
In the morning Romashov received a letter from Shurochka. The woman invited him to a name day for a picnic.
Chapter 13
Approaching the house of the Nikolaevs, Romashov felt a strange, causeless anxiety. Shurochka happily met George.
Chapter 14
During the picnic, Shurochka seemed especially charming to Romashov. When in the evening everyone dispersed across the clearing, Grigory and Alexandra retreated deep into the grove. Shurochka admitted that today she is in love with Romashov, but she doesn’t love her husband - “he is rude, he is insensitive, indelicate.” She kissed George, but then asked that Romashov no longer come to them - her husband was besieged by anonymous letters.
Chapter 15
The officers were preparing for the May review "and did not know any mercy, they were tired." Romashov watched as company officers beat their soldiers with particular cruelty.
When, during the review, the commanders who arrived traveled around all the companies, Romashov felt "that these arrogant people live some kind of special, beautiful, higher life inaccessible to him." The review became a complete "failure of the regiment" - it was revealed "the soulless, routine and negligent attitude of the officers to the service."
During the final march, Romashov, drunk with music and general excitement, dreamed and led to the right, because of which his entire half-company "represented an ugly, broken crowd." After the incident, everyone made fun of Romashov.
Chapter 16
Romashov left the camp and met Nikolaev. Vladimir said that he had been waiting for him here on purpose, and started talking about Alexandra Petrovna. Nikolaev began to receive "boorish anonymous letters" with gossip about his wife and Romashov. Vladimir demanded that Romashov do everything to stop the spread of gossip.
Chapter 17
Romashov "began to retire from the society of officers." Georgy firmly understood that he would not remain to serve in the army and, when the mandatory three years of service had passed, would go into the reserve.
Chapter 18
At the end of May, a soldier hanged himself in the company. In the evening of the same day, the officers drank, joked, sang songs. At night, already fairly drunk, they went to the women. There was a scuffle: a drunken officer began to chop everything with a saber, but Romashov calmed him down.
Chapter 19
The officers went to the meeting and continued to drink and have fun. Many officers in the regiment were "from the spiritual", unexpectedly one of them dragged on a panahida, and they "served" it all in unison. Romashov slammed his fist on the table, forbidding such singing. The drunken officers began to run amok again. Nikolaev, who unexpectedly appeared next to Romashov, said that people like Georgy and Nazansky were dishonoring the regiment. Romashov hinted at "mysterious reasons" for which Nikolaev was dissatisfied with Nazansky. A fight broke out between them. Romashov shouted that he was challenging Nikolaev to a duel.
Chapter 20
In the morning Romashov was summoned to court. A few days later, the court came to the decision that the quarrel between Nikolaev and Romashov could only be resolved by a duel.
Chapter 21
Frustrated, Romashov went to Nazansky. The officer tried to dissuade George from the duel, believing that Romashov needed to leave the army and not be afraid of life.
Chapter 22
When Romashov returned home, he found Shurochka visiting him. She said that although she did not love Vladimir, she “killed part of her soul against him.” She has more pride than her husband - it was she who made him try again and again to enter the academy. If Nikolaev refuses to fight, he will not be accepted into the academy. Therefore, they certainly need to shoot tomorrow - none of them will be injured. At parting, Shurochka and Georgy kissed.
Chapter 23
Report to the commander of the regiment. On June 1, a duel took place between Nikolaev and Romashov. Nikolaev fired first and wounded Romashov in the right upper part belly. Romashov could no longer shoot back. A few minutes later, Romashov died from an internal hemorrhage.
Conclusion
"Duel" is considered the most significant work in the work of Kuprin. The main character of the story, the young lieutenant Romashov, is portrayed as a romantic, intelligent person with a fine mental organization. It is difficult for him to come to terms with the monotonous, philistine life in a provincial infantry regiment - during the years of training, the military seemed to him completely different, more noble people. Realizing that he will not be able to remain in the service, Romashov decides to leave the army after three mandatory years. However, an unfortunate set of circumstances and pressure from Shurochka lead to the sudden death of George. The duel becomes Romashov's attempt to confront the world and society, but he loses in this confrontation.
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Evening classes in the sixth company are coming to an end. Young soldiers are confused and do not understand what the officers want. In the third platoon, the soldier Mukhamedzhinov, a Tartar who barely understands Russian, is confused, and answers all orders: “3-stall!” The junior officers got together to chat and smoke. There are three of them: Lieutenant Vetkin, Lieutenant Romashov and Lieutenant Lbov. They don't understand why they exhaust the soldiers before the show.
Lieutenant Bek-Agamalov drives up, reports the news: the commander demands that soldiers be taught how to cut clay effigies. The officers tell each other about cases of unexpected massacres on the spot and that they almost always took place with impunity. Beck says cutting a man is a complex art. Lbov invites everyone to try on a scarecrow. Only Beck can cut a scarecrow.
The regiment commander, Colonel Shulgovich, is on his way. He walks around the platoons, stops in front of a young soldier Sharafutdinov, a Tatar who cannot clearly answer his questions, does not know the name of his regimental commander. Romashov stands up for his soldier and receives four days of house arrest for not understanding military discipline. Captain Sliva was also reprimanded for Romashov. In the words of formulaic novels, Romashov, out of habit, speaks of himself in the third person: “His kind, expressive eyes turned into a cloud of sadness ...”
The soldiers dispersed into quarters. The platform is empty. Romashov wants to go to the station, he likes to go there in the evenings. But he changes his mind and just walks along the highway, remembering the scene on the parade ground, his feeling of resentment. But he is also hurt by the fact that they shouted at him in the same way as he sometimes shouted at the soldiers: in this he sees something humiliating for himself. Romashov vindictively dreams of how he will enter the academy, make a career, brilliantly conduct maneuvers in his regiment, go as a military spy to Germany, and there he will be shot, but he will not tell them either his name or nationality, so that everything can be concluded.
For a moment he returns to reality, but again he dreams, now about a bloody war with Prussia and Austria, where he is braver than Colonel Shulgovich.
Romashov catches himself on the fact that he is already running, he ran to the house, surprised at what nonsense climb into his head. At home, he lies on the bed, staring at the ceiling, not thinking about anything. Then he asks Gainan, the orderly, if the Nikolaevs invited him. Guynan gives a negative answer.
Cheremis orderly in a simple relationship with his master. Romashov talks with Gainan about his gods, about how in an original way, having eaten a piece of bread from the tip of a checker, he took the oath. The second lieutenant decides not to go to the Nikolaevs today, but this is not the first time he has made this promise to himself. He is in love with Nikolaev's wife, Shurochka.
Having received an apartment, Romashov was full of plans, bought books, but for nine months now they have been lying in the dust, and Romashov drinks vodka, has a boring relationship with a regimental lady, is burdened by service, comrades and his own life. Batman recalls that Romashov's mistress sent a letter. She invites him to her place, but the lieutenant is disgusted by the cloying smell of the perfumed letter and his vulgarly playful tone. Romashov understands that today he will again go to the Nikolaevs.
Gainan asks to give him a bust of Pushkin, which Romashov was about to throw away. The second lieutenant agrees and goes to the Nikolaevs, but he was not expected there. Vladimir is busy preparing for his last attempt to enter the academy. Shurochka tells Romashov that she cannot stay here, she needs company, smart interlocutors. Volodya must go to the general headquarters, then they will break out of "this slum." She cries, then asks the second lieutenant if she is good, laughs at him. Shurochka calls Romashov Romochka and asks if he has read about the army duel in the newspapers. She believes that duels are a reasonable thing, because officers are for war, and in peacetime they can show their main qualities only in duels. But the conditions in a duel are like on the death penalty: fifteen paces of distance, and fight until a severe wound. She sees a need for them, otherwise they won't turn out to be cheaters like Archakovsky or drunkards like Nazansky. Romashov does not agree with her, but sits and listens until she is about to sleep. That evening, Romashov understands that the Nikolaevs only tolerate him.
In retaliation, he goes to Nazansky. They talk for a long time. Nazansky says that he hates military service, he wants to think about lofty matters, about love. He says that he loved one girl, but she stopped loving him because he drinks. He reads her only letter, and the lieutenant recognizes Shurochka's handwriting.
Nazansky understands that Romashov recognized the handwriting and is also in love with Shurochka. Arriving at his room, he reads a new note from Peterson. She wrote about deceit, that her heart was broken and she would take revenge.
At the next ball, Romashov tells his mistress that everything is over between them. Petersonikha is angry and vows revenge. Soon, anonymous messages began to come to Nikolaev with a hint that Romashov was flirting with his wife. The authorities are also dissatisfied with Romashov, he, more than ever, feels the meaninglessness of service and loneliness.
In the morning, overslept Romashov is late for classes. Captain Plum does not miss the opportunity to insult the young officer in front of the ranks. Classes begin in platoon. Non-commissioned officer Shapovalenko, a subordinate of Romashov, shouts and swings at Khlebnikov, a short, weak, downtrodden, stupid soldier. Romashov pulls Shapovalenko. Plum talks in the presence of several junior officers about military discipline, about the old order, when the boss could beat a soldier without hindrance. Romashov objects that the assault is inhuman, and promises to file a report against Plum if he continues to dissolve his hands.
At the end of April, Shurochka invites Romashov to a common name day for a picnic. Having borrowed money from Rafalsky, Romashov bought perfume as a gift. He sits at a picnic next to Shurochka, their hands sometimes touch. Nikolaev looks dissatisfied. After the feast, Romashov goes to the grove, Shurochka comes for him and says that today she is in love with him and saw him in a dream. He kisses her dress, confesses his love. She replies that she is also in love, but he is pathetic, she should abandon him, because she thinks that he will not achieve anything in life. She does not love her husband, does not want a child, but she assures that she will not cheat on her husband until she finally leaves him. On the way back, she asks Romashov not to come to them anymore: her husband is besieged by anonymous letters. Nikolaev takes his wife aside and angrily reprimands her. She answers him "with an indescribable expression of indignation and contempt."
The corps commander is dissatisfied with the review. Only the fifth company of Captain Stelkovsky deserved praise.
During the ceremonial march, Romashov experienced public disgrace: he daydreamed and mixed up the formation, moving from the center of the ranks to the right flank. It seemed to him that the general would notice and praise the "handsome lieutenant" Romashov. The second lieutenant decides that he is disgraced forever and he can only shoot himself. Captain Plum demands from him a report on the transfer to another company.
On the way back to the camp, Romashov sees how the sergeant major beats Khlebnikov, who has fallen into the dust on the parade ground, and does not find the strength to intercede for the soldier. The met Nikolaev demands from him to do everything to stop the flow of anonymous letters. Romashov goes to the meeting, but even from behind the door he hears the officers discussing his today's failure, and Captain Sliva directly declares that Romashov will never make an officer. Romashov turns to God with a reproach that he turned away from him. Thinking about all this, Romashov reached the railway and in the darkness saw the soldier Khlebnikov, the subject of ridicule and mockery.
Romashov understands that the soldier also decided to commit suicide. Khlebnikov is crying, burying himself in Romashov's knees, he says that they beat him and laugh at him, the platoon commander extorts money that there is nowhere to get. Teachings are also torture for him: from childhood he suffers from a hernia. Compared with Khlebnikov's grief, Romashov's own grief seems like a trifle. He hugs the soldier and says that we must endure. Romashov for the first time thinks about the fate of thousands of such Khlebnikovs, whom he had never considered individuals before.
From that night in Romashov there was a deep spiritual breakdown. Moving away from the society of officers, he invites Khlebnikov to his place, patronizes him, and for the first time thinks about civilian professions. Romashov sees that there are only three worthy vocations - science, art and free physical labor.
At the end of May, a soldier hanged himself in Osadchy's company, after which unrestrained drunkenness began. They drank in the meeting, then there was a scandal at Schleifer's. Bek-Agamalov rushed with a saber at those present, then at a young lady who called him a fool. Romashov intercepted his hand, saying that he would be ashamed that he hit the woman. Beck thanks him for that.
In the meeting, Romashov finds Osadchy and Nikolaev. The latter defiantly does not notice Romashov. Osadchy sings a memorial service for a suicidal soldier, interspersed with dirty curses. Romashov is furious: “I won’t allow it! Be silent! In response, Nikolaev shouts that Romashov and Nazansky are dishonoring the regiment. “And what does Nazansky have to do with it? Or do you have reasons to be unhappy with him? - asks Romashov. Nikolaev swings, Beck tries to pull him away, but Romashov splashes beer in Nikolaev's face. Appointed officers' court of honor. Nikolaev asks Romashov not to talk about his wife and anonymous letters. The court determines that reconciliation is impossible.
Before the fight, Nazansky convinces Romashov not to shoot himself, to retire, because life is unique and amazing. Nazansky is perplexed: does Romashov really believe in the highest meaning of the army order so much that he is ready to say goodbye to life for it? In the evening, Shurochka comes to Romashov. She talks about the years spent building her husband's career, and says: if Romashov refuses to duel, Volodya will not be allowed to take the exam. They should shoot, but not in such a way as to hurt each other, the pistols will not be loaded. Her husband agrees to this. Shurochka hugs Romashov, kisses him and offers to take happiness, because they will not see each other again. She gives herself to her beloved.
Staff Captain Dietz reports the details of the duel in a report to the regimental commander. Nikolaev wounded Romashov in the stomach, and he died seven minutes later from an internal hemorrhage. The testimony of junior doctor Znoiko is attached to the report. Nikolaev realized where his wife was and loaded the pistol.
The motive of self-consciousness of the individual in the story
In the "Duel" A. I. Kuprin showed the decomposition of the tsarist army. But the problematic of the story is wider: the relationship between the individual and society, the causes of people's inequality and possible ways to get rid of it.
The hero of the story, a young lieutenant Romashov, thinks about the wrong relationship between people. Gradually, his illusions dissipate, Romashov begins to see clearly. At first, he divides everyone into "people of black and white bones", but as he grows spiritually, he begins to think about the depravity of the army and the building of social relations in general. Romashov is tormented by the debauchery of the officers, the downtroddenness of the soldiers. Comprehension of army orders changes his outlook on life. The spiritual awakening of the hero begins. The fate of the soldiers worries the truth-seeker Romashov. Ambitious aspirations to occupy a high position in society are replaced by disappointment, depression, but this oppressed feeling makes the hero know himself. Analyzing what is happening, he does not see the point in the existence of the army: an army without war is absurd, it is necessary that people understand the uselessness of war, and then the army will not be needed. Romashov realizes that he has become part of this "machine", tries to isolate himself from the officers, to retire. He "is definitely ripe, has become older and more serious."
Such “growing up” was not easy for him: he went through a social conflict, a struggle with himself. In the scene of a nighttime conversation with soldier Khlebnikov on the slope of the railway, Romashov shows compassion, but already in the following lines, “a feeling of absurdity, confusion, incomprehensibility of life” again haunts the lieutenant. The feeling of spiritual decline also haunts Shurochka, but she adapts to the well-being of the bourgeoisie. This is her highest ideal, and she is not at all a kindred nature to Romashov. She sacrifices Romashov's love and life for her selfishness. Romashov, on the other hand, is a “natural person”, he instinctively resists injustice, but his protest is weak, naive. The need for immediate action makes him actively resist.
After meeting with Khlebnikov, a turning point occurs in Romashov's mind, he is shocked by the readiness of a person to commit suicide, because in him he sees deliverance from a martyr's life. Romashov himself had just thought of suicide only as a way to prove something to others. Romashov for the first time thinks about the fate of the common people.
In "Duel" one can also hear the accusatory voice of the author (Nazansky's monologues). The romantic foreboding of a "radiant life", the foresight of future social upheavals, hatred of the way of life of the military caste, Nazansky's ability to appreciate love contradict his way of life. But those who try to go against this system will face a difficult fate. Even characters from the military environment like Romashov have a very high pain threshold and a small margin of mental strength to resist the vulgarity and cynicism of their environment. The duel with Nikolaev is a consequence of the growing conflict between the hero and the military officer caste.
"Duel" appeared during the Russo-Japanese War, in the days of the defeat of the Russian fleet at Tsushima, causing a huge public outcry, since the work undermined one of the main foundations of the autocratic state - the inviolability of the military. The problematics of "Duel" goes beyond the traditional military story. The shameful reality of the Russo-Japanese War confirmed the pathos of Kuprin's story. The duel was highly appreciated by M. Gorky, V. V. Stasov, I. E. Repin, K. I. Chukovsky, F. D. Batyushkov.
The story "Duel" by A. Kuprin is considered his best work, since it touches upon an important problem of army trouble. The author himself was once a cadet, he was initially inspired by this idea - to join the army, but in the future he will remember these years with horror. Therefore, the theme of the army, its ugliness is very well depicted by him in such works as "At the Break" and "Duel".
The heroes are army officers, here the author did not stint and created several portraits: Colonel Shulgovich, Captain Osadchy, officer Nazansky and others. All these characters are shown far from being in the best light: the army turned them into monsters who recognize only inhumanity and upbringing with sticks.
The main character is Yuri Romashkov, second lieutenant, whom the author himself called literally his double. In him we see completely different features that distinguish him from the above-mentioned persons: sincerity, decency, the desire to make this world better than it is. Also, the hero is sometimes dreamy and very intelligent.
Every day, Romashkov became convinced that the soldiers had no rights, he saw cruel treatment and indifference on the part of the officers. He tried to protest, but the gesture was sometimes hard to see. There were many plans in his head that he dreamed of implementing for the sake of justice. But the farther, the more his eyes begin to open. So, Khlebnikov's suffering and his impulse to end his own life are so amazing for the hero that he finally understands that his fantasies and plans for justice are too stupid and naive.
Romashkov is a man with a bright soul, with a desire to help others. However, love killed the hero: he believed the married Shurochka, for whose sake he went to a duel. Romashkova's quarrel with her husband led to a fight that ended sadly. It was a betrayal - the girl knew that the duel would end with this, but she tricked the hero who was in love with herself into believing that there would be a draw. Moreover, she deliberately used his feelings for herself, only to help her husband.
Romashkov, who all this time was looking for justice, in the end could not fight the merciless reality, he lost to her. And the author did not see any other way out, except for the death of the hero - otherwise another death, moral, would have awaited him.
Analysis of Kuprin's story The duel
The duel is perhaps one of the most famous works of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin.
This work reflects the thoughts of the author. He describes the Russian army of the early 20th century, how its way of life is arranged, how it actually lives. Using the army as an example, Kuprin shows the social disadvantage in which it is located. He not only describes and reflects, but also looks for possible ways out of the situation.
The appearance of the army is diverse: it consists of different people, differing from each other in certain traits of character, appearance, attitude to life. In the described garrison, everything is the same as everywhere else: constant drill in the morning, revelry and drinking in the evenings - and so on from day to day.
The main character, Lieutenant Yuri Alekseevich Romashov, is commonly believed to have been written from the author, Alexander Ivanovich himself. Romashov is a dreamy personality, somewhat naive, but honest. He sincerely believes that the world can be changed. As for a young person, he is prone to romanticization, he wants exploits, to show himself. But over time, he realizes that it's all empty. He fails to find like-minded people, interlocutors among other officers. The only one with whom he manages to find a common language is Nazansky. Perhaps it was the absence of a person with whom he can speak as with himself that eventually led to a tragic denouement.
Fate brings Romashov to the officer's wife, Alexandra Petrovna Nikolaeva, or otherwise Shurochka. This woman is beautiful, smart, incredibly pretty, but with all this she is pragmatic and prudent. She is both beautiful and wicked at the same time. She is driven by one desire: to leave this city, to get to the capital, to live a “real” life, and she is ready for a lot for this. At one time she was in love with another, but he was not suitable for the role of someone who could fulfill her ambitious plans. And she preferred marriage to someone who could help her dream come true. But the years go by, and the husband still fails to get a promotion with a transfer to the capital. He had already had two chances, and the third was the last one. Shurochka languishes in her soul and it is not surprising that she converges with Romashov. They understand each other like no one else. But unfortunately Romashov cannot help Shurochka in any way to get out of this backwater.
Everything eventually becomes clear, and the husband of Alexandra Petrovna finds out about the novel. Duels were allowed among the officers of that time, as the only way to protect their own dignity.
This is the first and last duel in the life of Romashov. He will trust the words of Shurochka that her husband will shoot past, and let him shoot past: honor is saved and life too. Romashov, as an honest person, does not even think that he can be deceived. So Romashov was killed as a result of the betrayal of the one he loved.
On the example of Romashov, we can see how the romantic world collapses when it collides with reality. So Romashov, having entered the duel, lost to the harsh reality.
A story for grade 11
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From that night in Romashov there was a deep spiritual breakdown. He began to retire from the company of officers, dined mostly at home, did not go to dance evenings at the meeting at all, and stopped drinking. He seemed to have matured, grown older and more serious in recent days, and he himself noticed this from the sad and even calmness with which he now treated people and phenomena. Often, on this occasion, he recalled someone's funny words heard or read a long time ago, that human life is divided into some kind of "chandeliers" - in each chandelier for seven years - and that during one chandelier, a person’s composition completely changes. blood and body, his thoughts, feelings and character. And Romashov recently ended the twenty-first year.
Soldier Khlebnikov went to see him, but only at the second reminder. Then he began to visit more often.
At first, he resembled in his appearance a hungry, shabby, much beaten dog, timidly jumping away from a hand extended with caress. But the attention and kindness of the officer gradually warmed and thawed his heart. With conscientious and guilty pity Romashov learned the details of his life. At home - a mother with a drunken father, with a half-idiot son and four underage girls; the land was forcibly and unjustly taken from them by the world; all huddle somewhere in an escheated hut from the mercy of the same world; the older ones work for strangers, the younger ones go begging. Khlebnikov does not receive money from the house, and he is not hired for free work due to weakness. Without money, even the smallest ones, it’s hard for soldiers to live: there is no tea, no sugar, nothing to buy even soap, it is necessary from time to time to treat the platoon and separated vodka in the soldier’s canteen, all the soldier’s salary is twenty-two and a half kopecks in a month - goes to gifts to this boss. They beat him every day, laugh at him, mock him, appoint him out of line for the most difficult and unpleasant work.
With surprise, with longing and horror, Romashov began to understand that fate daily and closely confronts him with hundreds of these gray Khlebnikovs, each of whom is sick with his own grief and rejoices in his own joys, but that they are all impersonal and crushed by their own ignorance, general slavery, boss indifference. , arbitrariness and violence. And the worst of all was the thought that not one of the officers, like Romashov himself until now, even suspects that the gray Khlebnikovs with their monotonously submissive and meaningless faces are actually living people, and not mechanical quantities called a company. , battalion, regiment ...
Romashov did something for Khlebnikov to give him a small salary. In the company they noticed this extraordinary patronage of the officer to the soldier. Often Romashov noticed that in his presence non-commissioned officers addressed Khlebnikov with exaggerated mocking politeness and spoke to him in deliberately sugary voices. It seems that Captain Sliwa also knew about this. At least he sometimes grumbled, turning into space:
From-t from-excuse me. Liberals f-let's go. Corrupt the company. It is necessary to f-fight them, scoundrels, and they s-lisp with them.
Now that Romashov had more freedom and solitude, more and more often unusual, strange and complex thoughts came into his head, like those that so shocked him a month ago, on the day of his arrest. This usually happened after the service, at dusk, when he quietly wandered in the garden under the dense sleeping trees and, lonely, yearning, listened to the buzz of the evening beetles and looked at the calm pink darkening sky.
This new inner life struck him with its diversity. Previously, he did not dare to even suspect what joys, what power and what deep interest are hidden in such a simple, ordinary thing as human thought.
He now knew firmly that he would not remain in the army and would certainly go into the reserve as soon as three compulsory years, which he was supposed to serve for education at a military school. But he could never imagine what he would do when he became a civilian. He went over in turn: excise tax, railway, commerce, he thought of being an estate manager, entering the department. And here for the first time he imagined with amazement all the variety of occupations and professions to which people give themselves up. “Where do they come from,” he thought, “various ridiculous, monstrous, absurd and dirty specialties? In what way, for example, does the life of jailers, acrobats, callous operators, executioners, goldsmiths, dog barbers, gendarmes, conjurers, prostitutes, bath attendants, horse-dressers, grave-diggers, pedels? Or, perhaps, there is not a single even the most empty, random, capricious, violent or vicious human invention that would not immediately find an executor and a servant?
It also struck him - when he thought more deeply - that the vast majority of intelligent professions are based solely on distrust of human honesty and thus serve human vices and shortcomings. Otherwise, why would clerks, accountants, officials, police, customs, controllers, inspectors and overseers be needed everywhere - if humanity were perfect?
He also thought about priests, doctors, teachers, lawyers and judges - about all these people who, by the nature of their occupation, have to constantly come into contact with the souls, thoughts and sufferings of other people. And Romashov came to the conclusion with bewilderment that people of this category are more likely than others to become callous and sink, plunging into negligence, into cold and dead formalism, into habitual and shameful indifference. He knew that there was another category - the organizers of external, earthly well-being: engineers, architects, inventors, manufacturers, breeders. But they, which could by common efforts make human life amazingly beautiful and comfortable, they serve only wealth. Over all of them weighs fear for their skin, animal love for their young and for their lair, fear of life and hence a cowardly attachment to money. Who, finally, will arrange the fate of the downtrodden Khlebnikov, feed him, teach him and tell him: "Give me your hand, brother."
Thus, Romashov uncertainly, extremely slowly, but deeper and deeper thought into life phenomena. Everything seemed so simple before. The world was divided into two unequal parts: one - a smaller one - officers, which is surrounded by honor, strength, power, the magical dignity of the uniform and, together with the uniform, for some reason, patented courage, and physical strength, and arrogant pride; the other - huge and impersonal - civilians, otherwise shpaks, shtafirkas and hazel grouses; they were despised; it was considered daring to scold or beat a civilian for no reason, to put out a lit cigarette on his nose, to put a top hat over his ears; even at the school, yellow-mouthed junkers told each other about such exploits with enthusiasm. And now, as if moving away from reality, looking at it from somewhere, as if from a secret corner, from a crack, Romashov began to understand little by little that all military service with its illusory prowess was created by a cruel, shameful all-human misunderstanding. “How can an estate exist,” Romashov asked himself, “which in peacetime, without bringing a single crumb of benefit, eats someone else’s bread and someone else’s meat, dresses in other people’s clothes, lives in other people’s houses, and in wartime it goes senselessly kill and maim people like themselves?"
And the idea became clearer and clearer for him that there are only three proud vocations of man: science, art and free physical labor. Dreams of literary work resumed with renewed vigor. Sometimes when he had to read good book, imbued with true inspiration, he painfully thought: "My God, it's so simple, I thought and felt it myself. After all, I could do the same!" He was drawn to write a story or a long novel, the outline for which would be the horror and boredom of military life. Everything worked out perfectly in my mind - the pictures came out bright, the figures were alive, the plot developed and fit into a whimsically regular pattern, and it was unusually fun and entertaining to think about it. But when he began to write, it came out pale, childishly listless, clumsy, pompous or stereotyped. While he was writing - ardently and quickly - he himself did not notice these shortcomings, but as soon as he read at least a small passage from the great Russian creators next to his pages, he was seized by impotent despair, shame and disgust for his art.
With such thoughts he now often wandered about the city on the warm nights of the end of May. Unbeknownst to himself, he chose the same road - from the Jewish cemetery to the dam and then to the railway embankment. Sometimes it happened that, carried away by this new for him passionate head work, he did not notice the path he had traveled, and suddenly, coming to his senses and as if waking up, he saw with surprise that he was at the other end of the city.
And every night he passed by Shurochka's windows, passed along the other side of the street, stealthily, holding his breath, with a beating heart, feeling as if he was committing some kind of secret, shameful thief's deed. When the lamp was put out in the Nikolaevs' living room and the black windows of the windows shone dully from the moon, he hid near the fence, pressed his hands tightly to his chest and spoke in an imploring whisper:
Sleep, my beautiful, sleep, my love. I am near, I guard you!
At that moment he felt tears in his eyes, but in his soul, along with tenderness and tenderness, and with self-sacrificing devotion, the blind, animal jealousy of a mature male tossed and turned.
Once Nikolaev was invited to the regiment commander for a propeller. Romashov knew this. At night, walking along the street, he heard behind someone's fence, from the front garden, the spicy and passionate smell of daffodils. He jumped over the fence and, in the dark, picked from the garden, soiling his hands in damp earth, a whole armful of these white, delicate, wet flowers.
The window in Shurochka's bedroom was open; it overlooked the courtyard and was not illuminated. With a boldness that he did not expect from himself, Romashov slipped through the creaking gate, went up to the wall and threw the flowers out the window. Nothing moved in the room. For three minutes Romashov stood and waited, and the beating of his heart filled the whole street with a thud. Then, cringing, blushing with shame, he tiptoed out into the street.
The next day he received a short, angry note from Shurochka:
"Don't you dare ever do that again. Romeo and Juliet's tenderness is ridiculous, especially if it happens in an army infantry regiment."
During the day, Romashov tried to see her on the street at least from a distance, but for some reason this did not happen. Often, seeing from a distance a woman who reminded him of Shurochka in her figure, gait, and hat, he would run after her with a constricted heart, with interrupted breathing, feeling his hands become cold and damp from excitement. And each time, noticing his mistake, he felt boredom, loneliness and some kind of dead emptiness in his soul.
"Duel"- a story by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, published in 1905. The story describes the story of a conflict between a young lieutenant Romashov and a senior officer, which develops against the backdrop of a collision between the romantic worldview of an intelligent young man and the world of a provincial infantry regiment, with its provincial customs, drill and vulgarity of the officer society. The most significant work in the work of Kuprin.
The first edition of "Duel" was published with a dedication: "The author dedicates this story to Maxim Gorky with a feeling of sincere friendship and deep respect." By the author's own admission, Gorky's influence was determined by "everything bold and violent in the story."
Plot
Arriving from regimental studies, the young lieutenant Georgy Alekseevich Romashov receives a letter with an invitation from Raisa Alexandrovna Peterson, with whom he had a long, boring relationship, but does not come to the meeting, and tears the letter. Instead, breaking his promise to himself, the second lieutenant goes to the Nikolaevs (where he often happens), where he has a nice conversation with Shurochka, the wife of Captain Nikolaev. He is preparing to enter the military academy and almost does not take part in the conversation.
At the regimental ball, Romashov announces to Raisa Paterson about the break in their relationship, to which she indignantly says a bunch of insults and swears revenge.
At the end of April, Romashov receives a letter from Alexandra Nikolaeva with an invitation to a picnic in honor of her name day. At the picnic there is a declaration of love between Shurochka and Romashov. At the same time, Alexandra asks not to come to them anymore because someone is sending her husband false anonymous letters about their relationship.
During the review of the regiment, Romashov fails in front of the commanding general because of his mistake, which led to the fact that the order was lost. Main character deeply hurt by failure. After the incident, the breakdown in relation to him and the officers even intensified. To top it off, he meets Nikolaev, who coldly talks to him about anonymous letters concerning his wife, and also asks him not to visit him again.
After the suicide of a soldier in one of the companies in the company of officers, drunkenness flares up with especially fierce force. Comrade Romashov persuades him to go with him to the officers' club. Closer to the morning there is a conflict between Nikolaev and Romashov, ending in a fight. The next day, the officers' court decides that the conflict cannot be ended by reconciliation and sets the time for the duel.
After a long conversation with his friend Neznansky, Romashov is ready to refuse the duel and leave the regiment, but when he comes home he finds Shurochka there, who asks not to refuse the duel, as this will harm her husband, who is preparing to enter the General Staff Academy . She claims that she will make sure none of the duelists get hurt. Before leaving, a love scene takes place between them.
However, during the duel, Nikolaev wounds Romashov in the stomach, and he dies from his wounds.