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In his work, AI Kuprin tried to draw the reader's attention to the problems prevailing in the army. Display the life of the army and the mores of the military environment from the side from which they do not know it. The image and characterization of Stelkovsky in Kuprin's story "Duel" are rather positive, because it is no coincidence that his character is strikingly different from other officers of the Russian army.
Stelkovskiy- Commander of the Fifth Company. Captain. positive character. Single.
Image
Captain Stelkovsky was a little strange, as if out of this world. He kept his friends at a distance. His comrades disliked him for his aloofness. He didn’t share with anyone what was going on in his soul. preferred closed image life. But the soldiers doted on him. They understood him perfectly.
"... the soldiers truly loved: an example, perhaps the only one in the Russian army."
“... a company on a magnificent appearance and training was not inferior to any guard unit.
He was not bestial, like other officers, who prefer to influence the soldiers with cruelty and violence. The captain knew how to talk to the soldiers, and they could hear him.
Character traits
The captain is one of those people who should keep the army. He takes care of the wards, like a father. But like everyone else ordinary people he has small faults. The commander loves young girls, having fun and flirting with them recklessly. Among the main character traits, I would like to note the following.
The writing
A. I. Kuprin's story "The Duel" was published in May 1905 in the sixth volume of the collection "Knowledge" with a dedication to A. M. Gorky. It immediately attracted general attention and made the name of yesterday still a little-known writer famous. Twenty thousand copies of the "collection" sold out so quickly that a new edition was required within a month. After that, "Duel" was repeatedly published as a separate book and translated into many foreign languages. Aroused the ardent approval of Russian democratic and revolutionary circles, major contemporary writers and critics, and sharp protests from the reactionary press, representatives of the then military, the story was and remains the most socially significant work of Kuprin, the pinnacle of his democracy.
It is difficult to name in the previous and subsequent literature another work in which, with such artistic power and psychological skill, the true state of the tsarist army, unnaturalness and anti-humanity would be shown. military service in tsarist Russia, a work that would defend everything bright in a person, so ruthlessly suppressed by the inert and ignorant military environment.
The story was published after historical events the fall of Port Arthur and January 9, 1905, when the heavy defeat of tsarism in the Russo-Japanese War and the rapid growth of the revolutionary movement became apparent. Administrative oppression and censorship harassment at this time somewhat weakened, but nevertheless "Duel" was able to avoid a ban or serious withdrawals from the text only thanks to the cunning maneuvers of the commercial director of the Znanie publishing house, K. P. Pyatnitsky.
The material for the "Duel" was given to AI Kuprin by life itself. The future writer studied at cadet corps, then in the cadet school, after graduating from which in 1890 he was assigned to the 46th Dnieper Infantry Regiment. Here he served for almost four years and at the beginning of 1894 he retired with the rank of lieutenant. During his service in the regiment stationed in Kamenetz-Podolsky, Proskurov, Volochisk, Kuprin accumulated the impressions and knowledge that allowed him to create a whole cabinet of curiosities of types of officers and soldiers and truthful, relief pictures of army life in a provincial outback.
The regimental life that Kuprin paints in "Duel" is absurd, gone, bleak, stupefying. There are only two ways to get out of it: leave the army or try to enter the academy and, after graduating from it, climb more high steps military ladder, "make a career." The fate of the bulk of the officers depicted by Kuprin is to pull an endless and tedious strap with a long-term prospect of retiring after receiving a small pension. Everyday life officers consisted of attending military exercises and "literature" (that is, studying military regulations by soldiers), attending officer meetings in the evenings, drinking alone or in company, vulgar relationships with other people's wives, traditional balls and picnics, playing cards, sometimes trips to the local brothel. Reviews, parades, maneuvers brought some variety to this life.
The story shows a long line of officers. With undoubted common features, due to the nature of the service, life, environment, each of them is distinguished by its originality. There is also the unpretentious, good-natured, unthinking Vetkin, and the stupid campaigner company commander Captain Sliva, and Bek-Agamalov with constant outbursts of wild bloodthirsty instincts, and Osadchy, who sings of "fierce merciless war", and the impoverished widowed lieutenant Zegrzht, to whom his miserable salary is not enough to feed four children, and Lieutenant Colonel Rafalsky, nicknamed Bram, takes his soul away in his home menagerie, and Bobetinsky, a fat and dummy, who tries to look like a guardsman, playing the role of a secular man, and Archakovsky, a card sharper, and many other. Even the best of the officers that Kuprin brought out in the "Duel" do not arouse sympathy. Rafalsky-Bram, carefully nurturing his menagerie, was once furious that the bugler, dazed from fatigue, performed the wrong signal, and he hit the soldier on the horn so that the bugler spat out his crumbled teeth onto the ground along with blood. Stelkovsky takes care of his soldiers, he has the best company in the regiment, but he himself is a debauchee.
The action of the story refers to the mid-90s of the last century (it is known that duels between officers, previously banned, were reintroduced into use by order of the military department, issued in May 1894). But the pictures of army life ten years ago did not hide from readers the modern sound of "Duel": in them one could see the explanation of the catastrophe that the tsarist army suffered in the battles near Mukden, Liaoyang, Port Arthur. Contemporaries, as can be seen from the reviews of criticism and memoirs, saw in the story, first of all, the condemnation of the order of the tsarist army, the exposure of its officers, and in the image of the sick, clumsy, impoverished soldier Khlebnikov, tortured by senseless drill, the personification of the oppressed and trampled people. Pictures of training soldiers in classes in the ranks or in the classroom (studying charters), conducted by illiterate junior commanders Rynda, Shapovalenko, Seroshtan, scenes of constant bullying of soldiers aroused feelings of indignation and protest in the reader.
However, the meaning of the story lies not only in the merciless criticism of the tsarist army, as a backward military organization with an inert officer caste and soldiers driven to stupefaction. "Duel" reveals the dehumanization, the spiritual devastation to which people are subjected to the conditions of army life, the refinement and vulgarization of these people. The humanistic meaning of the story is manifested in the opposition of the hero of the "Duel" lieutenant Romashov and his senior friend officer Nazansky to the army milieu.
Critics and literary historians rightly noted in Romashov many autobiographical features of Kuprin. Like the writer himself, Romashov comes from the city of Narovchat, Penza province, he only has a mother, he does not remember his father, he spent his childhood in Moscow, he studied at the cadet corps, and then at a military school. All this coincides with the circumstances of Kuprin's life. Romashov tries his hand at literature, composes the "third in a row" story "The Last Fatal Debut" (Kuprin, while still at the cadet school, wrote and published in 1889 in the Moscow magazine "Russian satirical sheet" the story "The Last Debut").
However, the similarity of the biographies of the hero and his creator is important mainly for the historian of literature. For the reader, Romashov is, first of all, a charming image that attracts with its spiritual purity. young man, drawn by a writer with great psychological skill. Romashov, with his rich and vivid imagination, youthful, sometimes almost childish daydreaming, his inherent humanity, compassion for the misfortune of others, it is impossible to get along in an army environment. He is a man, and he is surrounded for the most part by degraded and stupefied, stubborn in prejudice and forgot how to think Bourbons campaigners, vulgar philistines, moral freaks. Romashov is weary of serving in the army and seeks to leave it for the expanse of life, this intention is ardently supported by Nazansky. Romashov's humanity is reflected in everything: in his condemnation of the officers' reprisals against "shpaks", in the way he treats his batman, the Cheremis Gainan, and, by the way, to his pagan beliefs, in the nightly dramatic meeting with the desperate Khlebnikov, in the way Romashov , risking his life, he was left alone in front of the distraught Bek-Agamalov and protected the woman from him, in how painfully Romashov was weighed down by a vulgar affair with Raisa Peterson, in how, finally, he fell in love with Alexandra Petrovna purely and selflessly. In the image of Romashov, even his youthful naive features are attractive, for example, the habit of thinking about himself in the third person in the words of formulaic novels, which he managed to read, or his overly enthusiastic attitude towards Nazansky.
However, Romashov's worldview, his understanding of history and society, is also somewhat limited, which, apparently, is characteristic of the period when the Duel was created, and for Kuprin himself.
So, for example, in his dreams, Romashov sees himself as a brilliant officer of the general staff, who achieves success not only in maneuvers, in war, or as a secret intelligence agent, but also in the role of ... suppressing a workers' uprising. Of course, the pictures that arise in Romashov's imagination are emphatically written with precisely those banal, supposedly beautiful words of "template novels" that the twenty-year-old second lieutenant was fond of. But for Romashov, espionage in the enemy camp, fighting in war, and suppressing the revolutionary movement are, in general, equivalent, this is a fight against the enemy. In another place in the story, when Romashov is strongly and unexpectedly vividly aware of his I, his individuality, in further reasoning he comes to individualistic conclusions. It seems to him that the concepts of the fatherland, foreign enemies, military honor and others live only in his mind. "But if the homeland disappears, and honor, and uniform, and all the great words, my I will remain inviolable. So, after all, my I am more important than all these concepts of duty, honor, love?"
Moreover, it seems to him that it is only necessary for those millions of I who make up humanity to suddenly say: "I don't want to!" don't want to fight "and now war will become unthinkable". “All this military prowess, and discipline, and respect for rank, and the honor of uniforms, and all military science, everything is based only on the fact that humanity does not want, or does not know how, or does not dare to say “I don’t want to!”.
These arguments reveal Romashov's subjectivist, illusory idea that one's desire alone can change the course of history, abolish certain social institutions, such as the army.
In a more developed and supplemented form, we find the same thoughts in Nazansky, another character in the Duel, who, apparently, expresses the writer's cherished views and, in fact, exists in the story only for this. Nazansky is the least vital figure in this work, he is essentially a reasoner, designed to complement Romashov, who, due to his youth and level of education, could not become an exponent of such an expanded philosophy.
Kuprin put into the mouth of Nazansky a merciless criticism of the tsarist army of that time and its officers, criticism that, as it were, generalizes the pictures of the life of the regiment drawn in the story and the types of officers created by the writer. “No, think about us, the unfortunate Armeuts, about the army infantry, about this main core of the glorious and brave Russian army. After all, all this is rubbish, tear, scum,” said Nazansky.
Kuprin gave Nazansky his great zest for life, his admiration for the joy and beauty of life. “But look, no, just look how beautiful, how seductive life is! exclaimed Nazansky, spreading his arms wide around him. Oh joy, oh divine beauty of life!” He continues, "Not if I get hit by a train and my stomach is cut and my insides are mixed with sand and wrapped around the wheels, and if at this last moment they ask me: "Well, is life beautiful now?" I will say with grateful delight: "Oh, how beautiful she is!" This feeling of the charm of life, greed for its joys were the main thing in Kuprin's worldview.
The inspired words about love for a woman that Nazansky says are just as close to the writer. He idolizes a woman: "I often think of gentle, pure, graceful women, of their bright tears and lovely smiles, I think of young, chaste mothers, of mistresses going to death for love, of beautiful, innocent and proud girls with a snow-white soul who know everything and fear nothing." The most enthusiastic tirades are dedicated by Nazansky unrequited love. “Do you understand how many varied happiness and charming torments lie in inseparable, hopeless love? When I was younger, I had one dream: to fall in love with an unattainable, extraordinary woman, such, you know, with whom I can never have anything to be in common. Fall in love and devote all your life, all your thoughts to her. " Nazansky speaks of happiness at least once a year by chance to see this woman, to kiss the marks of her feet on the stairs, to touch her dress once in a lifetime, “for days, months, years, to use all the forces of ingenuity and perseverance, and here is a great, breathtaking delight: you in her hands is a handkerchief, a piece of paper from a candy, a dropped poster. He enthusiastically sings of the readiness to give for this woman, "for her whim, for her husband, for her lover, for her beloved dog" and life, and honor, "and everything that is possible to give!". The excited Romashov also accepts Nazansky's words with all his heart, that's how he loves Alexandra Petrovna. The dream of such love Kuprin turned into images " Garnet bracelet", written five years after the "Duel". This is exactly how the official Zheltkov loves Princess Vera Sheina, keeping the handkerchief she forgot for years, her only note with which she forbade Zheltkov to write to her, the program of the art exhibition she forgot.
The obvious connection between these thoughts of Nazansky and Kuprin's worldview gives reason to believe that other views of this hero on the present and future, on the history of mankind are of a programmatic nature for the writer. And there are a lot of erroneous, contradictory and false in them.
In two conversations with Romashov, Nazansky appears as a preacher of anarcho-individualism mixed with Nietzscheanism, and his outpourings find Romashov's most enthusiastic approval. At the last meeting, he wants to say to Nazansky: "Goodbye, teacher." Nazansky's head appears to Romashov as "like the head of one of those Greek heroes or sages" whom he saw on engravings.
Nazansky says, for example: "New, brave, proud people have appeared, fiery free thoughts light up in the minds. As in the last act of a melodrama, old towers and dungeons are collapsing, and because of them a dazzling radiance is already visible." Nazansky sees the "terrible and irreparable" guilt of the officers in the fact that the officers are "blind and deaf" to this "enormous, new, luminous life," that they greet it with exclamations: "What? Where? Silence! Revolt! I'll shoot!"
It may at first seem to the modern reader that these "new, bold and proud" people mean revolutionaries, fighters against the autocracy. But further reasoning of Naeansky shows that he has in mind something quite different. He rejects not only the gospel teachings: "Love your neighbor as yourself," but in general any thought about public duty and service. “More honest, stronger, more predatory ones told us: “Let’s join hands, let’s go and perish, but we will prepare a bright and easy life for future generations.” But I never understood this, says Nazansky. Who will prove to me with clear persuasiveness, what do I have to do with it damn it! my neighbor, with a vile slave, with an infected, idiot?.. Oh, I hate! I hate lepers and do not like neighbors. And then, what interest will make me break my head for happiness people of the thirty-second century?"
But that's not all. What is Nazansky's idea of the future, what is his ideal? He claims that love for humanity is being replaced by "a new, divine faith ... This is love for yourself, for your beautiful body, for your omnipotent mind, for the infinite wealth of your feelings. No, think, think, Romashov: who is dearer to you and closer than yourself? no one in the whole universe, because there is no one above you and no one is equal to you. The time will come, and great faith in one's own Self will overshadow, like fiery tongues of the holy spirit, the heads of all people, and then there will be no slaves, no masters, no cripples, no pity, no vices, no malice, no envy. Then people will become gods."
The magnificent and loud tirade of Nazansky contains the preaching of individualism, anarchy and the divine strong personality in the spirit of Nietzsche's philosophy. It reflected the weakness and falsity of Kuprin's socio-philosophical views, which explain his departure from the advanced democratic positions during the years of reaction, the divergence from Gorky, the creation of works that are far in their subject matter and spirit from the social events of the time.
That love for one's Self, the "divine faith" in this Self, which Nazansky proclaims, the affirmation in the thought that there is no one dearer and closer to a person than himself, the rejection of everything "that binds my spirit, violates my will, humiliates my respect for my personality," is fraught with the most callous egoism. A. V. Lunacharsky rightly noted in his article that if for a person his life is “above everything”, then he, therefore, “can always be bought with life”, that is, for the sake of his precious personality, he can sacrifice other lives, go to any crime and villainy.
Nazansky is brought closer to Romashov by his disgust for the order, traditions, life of the tsarist army and its officers, for the suppression of the human in a person under these conditions, for vegetating in the mire of worldly vulgarity.
However, Romashov is alien to Nazansky's Nietzschean contempt for the weak, for "neighbour, vile slave, infected, idiot"; it is enough to recall how carefully he treated Khlebnikov. This and not only this distinguishes Romashov from Nazansky. Romashov does not live according to the theoretical concepts of his teacher. After going through many human activities in his mind, Romashov comes to the conclusion that "there are only three proud vocations of man: science, art and free physical work". Of course, Romashov would aspire to one of these callings in the future, and although his dream of "free" labor was not feasible in Tsarist Russia, it arouses sympathy and disposition among readers.
The anti-human, corrupting and stupefying atmosphere of army life embraces all who come into contact with it.
Officers' wives, like their husbands, live poorly, monotonously, vulgarly, mired in a swamp of ignorance and philistinism. Raisa Peterson presents the type of such an officer's wife most prominently in the story. We first get to know her through two letters she sent to Romashov, and already these letters, vulgar, stupid, sentimental and at the same time spiteful, clearly outline the appearance of Peterson. Her explanation with Romashov at the ball and her vile revenge on him anonymous letters that led to the duel and death of Romashov complete this image.
But the talent and sensitivity of the artist Kuprin are manifested almost more in the creation of the image of Shurochka Alexandra Petrovna Nikolaeva.
At first, she looks almost the exact opposite of Peterson - she has a charming appearance, she is smart, sensitive, tactful, and the reader fully understands why Romashov fell in love with such a woman in this musty outback, just as Nazansky fell in love with her even earlier. She is frightened by the prospect of living: "Ober-officer, forty-eight rubles salary, six children, diapers, poverty ... Oh, what a horror!" exclaims Shurochka. But what does she want? “You know,” she says to Romashov, “I hate to shiver this philistine, beggarly officer society. I want to always be beautifully dressed, beautiful, graceful, I want worship, power!” For the sake of this dream, she lives with her unloved husband, whose caresses are disgusting to her, she wants him to enter the academy and make a career, because of her plans she refuses to love Nazansky and, finally, betrays Romashov for them. She is given to Romashov in order to finally bind his will, so that he does not even accidentally destroy her intentions.
Shurochka appeared to us at first as a charming person, her soul seems to be close, kindred to the soul of Romashov. But Shurochka is already distorted, dehumanized. The desire to get out of the dull provincial life at all costs, to enter the highest privileged circle, to be successful in this circle all this turned Shurochka into a ruthless egoist and predator.
The story as a whole is an unusually strong and vivid work of Kuprin. Despite the false theories put into the mouth of Nazansky, The Duel is at its core a democratic work. A person with all the wealth of his talents and requests, with his love for nature, with a thirst for life, beauty and striving for a high moral ideal, is opposed in him to that society that suppresses and distorts the individual. And this was especially clearly felt in the tsarist army, in all its way of life. This opposition is the revolutionary, humanistic meaning of the story. Criticism of the army develops in Kuprin into criticism of the entire anti-human, anti-people regime that gave rise to it.
Not without reason, A. M. Gorky, having familiarized himself with the first chapters of the story, encouraged Kuprin in every possible way to bring his work to the end. Many years later, returning to his homeland from emigration, Kuprin recalled: "If he had not breathed confidence in my work into me, I probably would not have finished my novel." K. Paustovsky rightly called "Duel" "one of the most remarkable and merciless works of Russian literature."
According to a number of testimonies, Kuprin was dissatisfied with the end of the story: he was in a hurry and, throwing away the duel scene that was not given to him, ended the “Duel” with a report about it.
Subsequently, at the end of 1907 or the beginning of 1908, Kuprin, in a letter to I. A. Bunin, offered the Moscow publishing house of writers "an unwritten chapter from" Duel ", namely, how Romashov goes to the duel, his thoughts and feelings" at the time of the duel. However, Dietz's report, with which the story abruptly ends, is an excellent artistic conclusion to it. He cuts off the story, as Romashov's short life is cut off by an ominous shot.
Published according to the publication: A. I. Kuprin. Duel. Moscow, publishing house " Fiction", 1967The Russian army has repeatedly become the object of the image of Russian writers. At the same time, many of them experienced all the "charms" of army life. Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin in this sense can give a hundred points ahead. Having spent his early childhood in an orphanage, the boy was so inspired by the victory of the Russian army in the Russian-Turkish war that he passed the exam for the Moscow Military Academy, which was soon transformed into a cadet corps. Then he will describe all the deformities of the system of education of future officers in the story “At the Break (Cadets)”, and shortly before his death he will say: “I have memories of the rods in the cadet corps for the rest of my life.”
These memories were reflected in the further work of the writer, and in 1905 the story "Duel" was published, the features of which will be devoted to this analysis.
The story of A. Kuprin is not just sketches of the life of a provincial garrison: we have before us a huge social generalization. The reader sees the everyday life of the tsarist army, drill, pushing subordinates, and in the evening drunkenness and depravity among the officers, which, in fact, is a reflection of the whole picture of the life of tsarist Russia.
In the center of the story is the life of army officers. Kuprin managed to create a whole gallery of portraits. These are also representatives of the older generation - Colonel Shulgovich, Captain Sliva and Captain Osadchy, who are distinguished by their inhumanity towards the soldiers and recognize exclusively cane discipline. There are also younger officers - Nazansky, Vetkin, Bek-Agamalov. But their life is no better: resigned to the despotic order in the army, they are drunkenly trying to escape from reality. A. Kuprin depicts how in the conditions of the army there is a “dehumanization of a person - a soldier and an officer”, how the Russian army is dying.
Main character story - Lieutenant Yuri Alekseevich Romashov. Kuprin himself will say about him: "He is my double." Indeed, this hero embodies the best features of Kuprin's heroes: honesty, decency, intelligence, but at the same time a certain daydreaming, a desire to change the world in better side. It is no coincidence that Romashov is lonely among officers, which gives Nazansky the right to say: “There is some kind of inner light in you. But in our lair they will extinguish it ".
Indeed, the words of Nazansky will become prophetic, just like the title of the story "Duel". At that time, duels for officers were again allowed as the only opportunity to defend honor and dignity. For Romashov, such a fight will be the first and last in his life.
What will lead the hero to this tragic denouement? Of course, love. Love for a married woman, the wife of a colleague, lieutenant Nikolaev, Shurochka. Yes, among the "boring, monotonous life", among the rude officers and their miserable wives, she seems to be the very perfection of Romashov. It has features that the hero lacks: purposefulness, willpower, perseverance in the implementation of their plans and intentions. Not wanting to vegetate in the provinces, i.e. “go down, become a regimental lady, go to these wild evenings, gossip, intrigue and get angry about various per diem and running ...”, Shurochka is making every effort to prepare her husband for admission to the Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg, because “twice they returned to the regiment in disgrace”, so this is the last chance to escape from here to shine with intelligence and beauty in the capital.
It is for this that everything is at stake, and Shurochka quite prudently uses Romashov's love for her. When, after a quarrel between Nikolaev and Romashov, a duel becomes the only possible form of preserving honor, she begs Yuri Alekseevich not to refuse the duel, but to shoot to the side (as Vladimir supposedly should do) so that no one gets hurt. Romashov agrees, and the reader will learn about the outcome of the duel from the official report. Behind the dry lines of the report lies the betrayal of Shurochka, so beloved by Romashov: it becomes clear that the duel was a rigged murder.
So Romashov, who seeks justice, lost in a duel with reality. Having forced his hero to see clearly, the author did not find a further path for him, and the death of an officer became a salvation from moral death.
"Duel"- a story by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, published in 1905. The story describes the story of the conflict between a young lieutenant Romashov and a senior officer, which develops against the background 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. The protagonist deeply experiences 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.
The writing
The story of A. I. Kuprin "Duel" develops the theme of the state of the Russian army at the beginning of the 20th century. The writer began his story in 1902, but came to grips with it in 1904 (according to other sources - in 1905). It was the time of the war between Russia and Japan, in addition, the first Russian revolution was soon to break out. The theme of the story can be defined by the words of its main character, Lieutenant Romashov: “How can an estate exist,” Romashov asked himself, “which in Peaceful time, 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 war time- is it senseless to kill and maim people like themselves?
Why did Kuprin give such a sharply negative assessment of the officer environment? First of all, because the writer himself served in the army and knew all its negative aspects. And, most likely, he foresaw how all this affects both the army itself and society as a whole.
The heroes of the "Duel" are officers who, in general, do not cause sympathy. But Kuprin shows officers different in the same circumstances, many of them cause a contradictory attitude.
Lieutenant Romashov, a young officer who dreams of a career and position in society, is capable of love and compassion, but the writer shows us his negative traits: he allows himself to get drunk almost to unconsciousness, he has an affair with someone else's wife, which has been going on for six months. Nazansky is a smart, educated officer, but a deep drunkard. Captain Plum is a degraded officer, slovenly and stern. His company has its own discipline: he is cruel to junior officers and soldiers, although he is attentive to the needs of the latter. Speaking about the fact that the soldiers were beaten "brutally, to the point of blood, to the point that the offender fell off his feet ...", Kuprin once again emphasizes that, despite the charter of military discipline, assault was widely used in the army.
In the story, almost all the officers used this means of calling for discipline, and therefore let the junior officers get away with everything. But not all officers were satisfied with this state of affairs, but many resigned themselves, like Vetkin. The desire of Lieutenant Romashov to prove that "you cannot beat a person who not only cannot answer you, but does not even have the right to raise his hand to his face in order to protect himself from a blow," does not lead to anything and even causes condemnation, because most of officers were satisfied with this state of affairs.
We see the officer environment and all life in the Russian army through the eyes of Romashov. This young officer, who has just left the training bench, comes to the army in the hope of meeting people there who are dedicated to their work, ready to defend the honor of their uniform at any moment. But reality turns out to be cruel for such a sensitive person as Romashov. Being only a few days in the regiment, the second lieutenant is already being humiliated by the more senior Archakovsky. Now it would be called hazing.
Romashov, being a sensitive, romantic and noble person, can hardly endure the monotonous army life. He tries to get away from her in his dreams, still hoping that there is another life where there is no place for cruelty. Romashov believes that there are real officers, noble, honest and brave. In his imagination, he draws wonderful pictures for himself in which he is one of such brilliant officers.
But sometimes the thoughts of the second lieutenant flow along such a channel, which negates the whole meaning of the existence of the army as a social caste: “And now there is no more war, there are no officers and soldiers, everyone went home. Romashov often thinks about what he could do, leaving the service after three mandatory years. He was attracted literary work.
In his thoughts, in his ability to truly love, in his striving for justice, Romashov is shown as an honest man, with a heightened sense of justice. Seeing all the absurdity and cruelty of army life, he comes to condemn the officers, their morality (or lack of it?). And the moral, or one of its components, was this: the officers despised the civilians, calling them "shpaks, shtafirkas and hazel grouses." “It was considered daring to scold or beat a civilian for no reason, put out a lit cigarette on his nose, put a top hat over his ears; even at the school, the yellow-mouthed junkers told each other about such exploits with delight.
Comprehending this officer morality, Romashov comes to the conclusion that "the entire military service, with its illusory valor, was created by a cruel, shameful all-human misunderstanding."
You can disagree with the conclusions that the hero makes. He begins to think that a person should have three vocations: free labor, art and science.
Romashov, with his new views, becomes alien to the officer environment, they do not understand him, and therefore his death is a natural outcome.
In addition to the second lieutenant, there are other officers in the work who are dissatisfied with their service. Kuprin says about these officers that they all "served as a forced, disgusted corvee, languishing with it and not loving it." These officers, seeking to somehow diversify their lives, are looking for entertainment. Someone maintains a menagerie and spends all his salary on it, someone collects, embroiders, cuts out. However, among these hobbies there are those that cannot be called harmless. Plavsky lends money at huge interest to his own colleagues, Stelkovsky "seduces inexperienced peasant girls."
But many officers find oblivion in drinking, like Nazansky. This person is the only one who understands Romashov, because they are connected by love for Shurochka.
The "duel" made an impression on the public, no one had ever portrayed the Russian army in the way that A.I. Kuprin.
