Everyone around said that Seryoga Bezmenov had an evil wife. Evil, naughty and stupid. Everyone saw and understood it. Only Seryoga did not see and did not understand this. He was angry at everyone and was secretly surprised: how they don’t see and don’t understand how independent, well-read, what she is ... The devil knows them, people: if they start scratching with their tongues, they won’t stop. They did not know how witty and mischievous she was. How she walks! This is a gait, damn it, this is a forward movement, in which every vein lives and plays when she walks. Seryoga was especially fond of his wife's gait: he looked, and his teeth were numb with love. At home, he looked at her all in amazement, played with his jaws and sweated with excitement.
- What? Clara asked. - Mm? .. - And, playing, she showed Seryoga her tongue. And she went into the upper room, as if on purpose, to show him once more how she walks. Seryoga rushed after her.
... And they also blathered about the fact that she ... About the village! Serega prayed to God that somehow he would not drop this precious gift of fate from his hands. Sometimes he even feared: did such happiness rightfully fall on his head, did he deserve it, and was there some kind of misunderstanding here - suddenly something like this would turn out, and they would say to him: “Uh, my friend, what are you doing? ! Look, you've grabbed it!"
Serega saw Clara for the first time in the hospital (she had just arrived to work as a nurse), saw him and immediately became worried. At first he saw only glasses and a nose-boot. And immediately got worried. It was then that he would have the joy of discovering in her more and more new charms. At first, only the glasses shone and the nose stuck out forward, everything else was a red hairstyle. Her white dressing gown flew apart; she quickly walked down the corridor, throwing a downcast line on the go: “Whoever is dressing, come in.” And she disappeared into the office. Seryoga was so worried that his heart ached. Then she touched him with gentle warm fingers, asked: “Does it hurt?” Seryoga felt dizzy from her perfume, he only shook his head in response to questions - which did not hurt. And fear bound him so that he was afraid to move.
- What do you? Clara asked.
Serega again shook his head in confusion - which did not hurt. Clara laughed right in his ear… Seryoga, somewhere inside, above the navel, lit up… He frowned and… burst into tears. Naturally crying! He could not understand himself and could not do anything with himself. He grimaced, bowed his head, and gritted his teeth. And tears fell on his sore hand and on her white fingers. Clara was scared: “Does it hurt?!”
- Yes, you go! .. - Seryoga said with difficulty. - Do your thing. - He would have pressed his wet face to these cute fingers, and no one could pull him away from them. But fear, fear paralyzed him, and now also shame - that he cried.
- It hurts you, doesn't it? Clara asked again.
“Only… it’s… it’s not necessary to pretend that we’re all here – we work from a lantern,” Seryoga said angrily. – We all, after all, live in one state.
Eighteen days later they were married.
Clara began to call him - Gray. Affectionately. It turns out that she was already married, but her husband was caught “some kind of boiled”, they soon parted. Seryoga, from the mere fact that her first husband was “boiled”, walked with his chest puffed out, felt extraordinary strength in himself. Clara praised him.
Lesson Objectives:
- Arouse interest in the personality and creativity of V.M. Shukshin.
- Make observations on the poetics of the story "Fingerless".
- Highlight moral, philosophical and mythological problems.
- To expand students' ideas about the features of Shukshin's individual manner.
Educational objectives of the lesson: the formation of the ability to independently explore a work of art.
Developing tasks of the lesson: to develop the skills of creative reading of a literary work, based on its specificity - the art of the word.
Educational tasks of the lesson: to form the moral qualities of the individual, to instill love for the word, to instill patriotism, interest in the “small motherland”.
Lesson equipment:
- photocopies of the text “Fingerless”,
- portrait of V.M. Shukshin,
- exhibition of literature about the work of Shukshin,
- selections of articles from newspapers and magazines about the writer,
- wall newspapers about the homeland of Shukshin and his cinematic activities,
- audio recording of the song “You are my dear” (performed by V.M. Shukshin and L. Fedoseyeva-Shukshina from the film “Stove-shops”),
- dictionaries,
- clusters of viburnum.
Epigraphs for the exhibition:
Where do such talents come from? From the generosity of the people. Russian people live on earth - and now they elect one. He will speak for everyone - he is mindful of people's memory, wise with people's wisdom.
Vasily Shukshin
A person is happy as long as he has a Motherland.
Vasily Belov
Epigraphs for the lesson:
After all, you can’t write if you don’t mean that the reader himself will compose a lot.
V.M. Shukshin
The driving forces in Shukshin's works are not external events. The plot is just an excuse to start a conversation.
Viktor Gorn
teacher's word
Let's write the topic of the lesson. Today we have a holiday lesson and, I hope, a discovery lesson. A holiday, because it is impossible to talk casually, everyday about a great writer who is your fellow countryman. A discovery, because through the poetics of the story “Fingerless” we will join the work of V.M. Shukshin and will try to reach the philosophical, moral and mythological levels of his work.
Not only the literature of the 60-70s, but also modern prose cannot be imagined without Shukshin. Behind his non-standard approach to a person, behind his understanding of the origins of peculiar characters, one can see the uniqueness, brightness, depth of the artist's personality.
The word of the student-BIOGRAPH
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin is a unique phenomenon. Writer, actor who starred in 24 films, famous director, screenwriter.
It’s not enough to be insulting - Shukshin lived for 45 years. But what he created would be enough for several creative biographies. Shukshin was first published in central prose relatively late - at the age of 29, in August 1958, the story "Two on a Cart" was published in the magazine "Change". But even in his school years he had the nickname “Gogol”, when he studied at an automobile technical school and worked as a mechanic, under his bed in the hostel there was a bag with manuscripts, and during the naval service the sailors called him a poet. Collective farmer, worker, soldier, teacher - Shukshin had to change jobs and places of residence a lot. At the age of 25, he entered VGIK at the directing department. Shukshin had to experience an arrogant attitude towards himself, as a village dweller. He knew how to take care of himself. Probably, hence the statements that this great artist of the word was evil in life. These judgments are refuted by his works. A creator who brings good with his art cannot be evil.
teacher's word
His favorite song “You are my dear” sounds, which he performs with his wife Lidia Fedoseyeva-Shukshina in the film “Stoves and Benches”.
Reading a poem to students
Boris Rakhmanin
The poem is dedicated to V.M. Shukshin
Your word has not sunk into oblivion,
Gold did not crumble into copper,
We watch, with bated breath, a film
Titled: Life or Death.
Let this film go without a screen -
The whole country is watching him.
How talented, no, brilliant
You played the role of Shukshin in it.
Now cheerful, then gloomy, then sad,
Hiding heartache behind laughter
You remained yourself in art ...
Being yourself is the hardest part!
Here is your edge ... untrodden, distant,
With a web of tracts and paths ...
Altaina reveals herself to us,
Promises to please Ob.
Everything is dear to us here, because
We recognize Shukshin in everything.
To make a mistake without risking anything -
Ah, do not give out a tear of excitement! -
We recognize your Turkic cheekbones,
Your Russian eyes with the sky.
Nothing will cool our memory,
We have forever carried you into our hearts...
Here is your hero, here is a valiant freak,
Wonderworker of the Altai land.
teacher's word
The epigraph of our lesson will be the words of V.M. Shukshin and the researcher of his work Viktor Gorn.
How do you understand these words?
Indeed, Shukshin does not give answers in his works. His stories are just food for thought. Behind the outward simplicity of his works there are almost inexhaustible depths of meaning.
For today's lesson, we have prepared a conversation about the poetics of the story "Fingerless".
We do not pretend to complete the study of the text, but we will try to generalize our observations and findings.
At the end of the lesson, we will try to formulate the basic poetic principles of Shukshin's stories.
All groups had specific tasks and questions, most of which are presented on the board.
Board decoration
- How does the title of the story relate to the author's intent?
- Explain the poetics of the characters' names. Is there a semantic subtext in changing the names of the heroes?
It is believed that the title of the work is already the way to its interpretation. SLOVERS, try to interpret Shukshin's story "Fingerless" through the title of the work and the poetics of the characters' names. So, I invite you to a conversation and reflection on what you have read.
Observations Slovovedov
Often, Shukshin put the name or nickname of the hero in the headline: “Grinka Malyugin”, “Artist Fyodor Grai”, “Stepka”, “Uncle Yermolai”, “Man Deryabin”, “Alyosha Beskonvoyny”, “Svoyak Sergey Sergeevich”.
Undoubtedly, this technique is a means of distinguishing the hero from among other characters. And selection is, as a rule, isolation. The author seems to want to emphasize the “otherness” of his characters, their eccentricity.
The choice of names in Shukshin's works and the form in which they are presented are not accidental. Florensky believed that the character of a person and his fate are contained in the name. Through the name Shukshin enters the mythopoetic and literary context.
The story "Fingerless" is named after the nickname of the hero. So he was named by his fellow villagers after he cut off his fingers.
According to Ozhegov, a nickname is “a name given to a person according to some characteristic feature, property.” In the first sentence of the story, we find out the real name of the hero - Seryoga Bezmenov. Bespaly and Bezmenov - the surname of the hero and his nickname are consonant not by chance. They indicate the absence of something. It can be assumed that this is the absence of fingers and some other quality in the hero.
The name "Sergey" in Greek means "high, highest."
The name "Clara" comes from the Latin "claudus - lame". Shukshin thus includes this diabolical trait in the characterization of the heroine.
The nature of the heroine becomes even more obvious in the scene of Clara's persecution: “Clara's hair was messed up, her hair was disheveled: when she waved through the braid, her red mane reared over her head.<…>A sort of fire rushed. And this flying moment was tightly seized by the memory. And when Serega later recalled his ex-wife, every time this picture arose in his eyes - a flight, and it was funny and painful. "Flight" and "raised hair" are elements of the diabolical.
Yes, meeting with Clara, the author calls the hero Seryoga, then he acquires a new name - Gray. Gray is the color of facelessness, so Serega from “highly venerated” becomes nothing. He is clearly possessed by a diabolical obsession after meeting Clara.
Water, bath, washing, tears in the mythopoetic world of Shukshin symbolize purification. To cleanse himself of the diabolical, Seryoga “quit drinking completely, bought a washing machine, and on Saturdays he twisted underwear in the dressing room so that none of the scoffers could see.”
Shukshin's variants of the names Clara and Seryoga from the story are presented on the board in order to trace how the names of the characters are deformed.
Serega and Clara are located on both sides of the scales. At first, the bowl where Serega is located outweighs, then Clara becomes the winner. After Clara leaves, Seryoga regains his name. He cuts off his fingers on his left hand (which symbolizes the feminine), and a woman is originally in mythology and in the work of Shukshin is the bearer of sin. Thus, Serega restores balance.
The scene, where Slavka and Clara are on one side of the partition, and Seryoga on the other, can be represented in the form of scales. First, she moved the bowl where Slavka and Clara were, and then she moved Seryoga's bowl, since Slavka and Clara ran away.
Clara's name is also undergoing changes. First, it's just a wife. From the point of view of her fellow villagers, she is “evil, capricious and a fool.” From Seryoga's point of view, she is "independent and well-read", he considers her a "gift of fate".
There is such an expression: "misfortune fell on the head." The author paraphrased: “did such happiness rightfully fall on his head”, this is how the subtext arises: Clara for Seryoga will bring misfortune. Throughout the story, her name varies: Clara, Clarinetist, then Claudia Nikanorovna. The rejection of Clara by the villagers is already stated in the first phrases: “Everyone around said that Seryoga Bezmenov had an evil wife. Evil, capricious and stupid. Guests at the table call her Claudia Nikanorovna after she won a verbal duel with Slavka. Nikanor (translated from Greek) - “winner”, i.e. Clara is the winner here.
Serega calls her a clarinetist. Clarinet is a wind musical instrument. “Spirit” and “soul” are the same root words. Serega wants to see the soul in Clara. He plays doctor with her. She asks to wear a white coat. Shukshin's dressing is directly related to the theme of the game, theatricality. Serega is often unable to draw a clear line between reality and the game. But only in the game does he manage to see the soul of his wife. The motive of the game, insincerity is born, which indicates the absence of a soul in Clara.
The clarinet is also an artificial sound, external brilliance. In the descriptions of Clara, the author uses details of her appearance, in which there is an abundance of metal things: a medallion, a watch. Hair cast expensive copper, glasses shine. Clara receives the status of a musical instrument.
So the artistic detail in Shukshin's poetics is the key to revealing the hero's inner world. Clara just doesn't have it.
Thus, the name in Shukshin's story has a semantic content. The names of Seryoga and Clara change when the characters themselves change.
Word of HISTORIANS
Draft title of Shukshin's story "Father Sergius". An obvious echo with L. Tolstoy's story "Father Sergius". Father Sergius from the story of the same name by L. Tolstoy cut off his finger, suppressing sinful desire. Compare scenes of chopping off fingers:
In the works, a parallel is drawn not only at the level of the plot. The moral and moral-religious aspect of the problem is important. The gesture of Father Sergius is an almost literal reproduction of the gospel commandment: "And if your right hand offends you, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be entrusted to a hyena” .
The severed fingers of Seryoga Bezmenov are a parallel with the work of Tolstoy and with the gospel commandment. The fingerless one "cuts off the hand that seduces him."
For the first time he saw Clara when he came to the hospital for dressing (his arm hurt). Seryoga's hands are presented by the author in a “close-up”: “a sick hand”, “hands are what you need”, “hands are twisting”.
Marriage to Clara is a sinful union. She was already married, and she was not married to Seryoga, which, according to the canons of the church, is a violation of the commandment “do not commit adultery.” Although the religious plan in Shukshin's story is not as noticeable as in Tolstoy's, it still has a certain meaning.
Fingerless, after meeting with Clara, twice turns to prayer. For the first time, “Serge prayed to God that he would somehow not drop this precious gift of fate from his hands.” The second time "he prayed to his lucky goddess." The first prayer can be considered Christian, and the second - pagan.
Cutting off fingers by Seryoga is a kind of ritual of atonement for sins. But the resurrection of the hero did not happen. Seryoga cuts off the index and middle fingers. In mythology, they symbolize fatherhood and sonship. In addition, the left hand symbolizes the feminine. Thus, Serega is punished by the impossibility of procreation.
The exit in Shukshin's poetics to the mythological and moral-religious level is obvious.
Shukshin's story "Fingerless" echoes at all levels with L. Tolstoy's story "Father Sergius".
LITERARY SCIENTISTS continue talking about what they have read. They made observations on the composition of the story.
During the study, students should come to the following conclusion:
V.M. Shukshin in the article “How I understand the story” states that “you can’t write if you don’t mean that the reader himself composes a lot.” Literary critics involved in the study of Shukshin’s work note that for the most part Shukshin writes stories “without beginning and without end”, “without a special plot”. Their endings are open, they seem to allow the conversation to continue, clinging to the previous one. Shukshin has a negative attitude towards the “finished”, “closed” plot.
“I believe that the plot carries morality without fail: since the story is closed, since it is told and completed for some reason, it means that the author pursues some kind of goal, and the goal is of this kind: don’t do it. Or: this is good, and this is bad. That's what you don't need in art."
The unconventionality of Shukshin's prose is manifested in the aesthetics of montage, according to the laws of which the work is built.
His stories can be presented as separate shots that are linked by common characters and motives.
In the story “Fingerless”, it is conditionally possible to distinguish the joints of the text, the borders of the frames. We will highlight them.
- 1st frame. Seryoga's internal monologue about his wife.
- 2nd frame. Serega came to the hospital and saw Clara for the first time.
- 3rd frame. Playing doctor, etc.
The first phrases of each conditional frame create the effect of surprise.
For example,
- “After 18 days they got married.”
- "He didn't move, something else happened."
- “Suddenly he heard two hurried voices on the porch of the house.”
- "Further everything went flickering like in a dream."
Montage is more typical of the theater than prose, but this technique gives the story a dynamism.
Thus, Shukshin's story "Fingerless" is dynamic, it consists of conditional frames linked to each other. The final piece is open.
And now the creative team will acquaint us with the results of their observations on the forms of the author's expression RESEARCHERS.
There is no objective narration from the author in the story. The voice of the narrator merges with the voice of the hero. Two layers can be distinguished in the work: the direct and indirect speech of the characters and the author's remarks.
The attitude of the narrator to everything that is said in the story is expressed by the very structure of the text. The internal monologues of the characters are sometimes conveyed by the construction of direct speech, for example,
The attitude of the narrator to the hero is revealed through a special intonation, through verbal vernacular. For example, in the dialogue between Slavka and Clara at the festive table, such verbal vernaculars sounded:
- Clara objected to this,
- “Technocrat Slavka pulnul”,
- “Slavka blurted out”,
- “She said it especially clearly and terribly.”
Shukshin uses the expressiveness of folk speech in the language of the hero and the narrator (“blathered”, “pulnul”, “blurted”, “spread out”). Through such capacious, expressive words, the author reveals the inner world of the hero, his true face. This is Clara's arrogance, Slavka's efficiency, Seryoga's sincerity.
Indicative is the episode when Clara wins a verbal duel with Slavka:
“Slavka said something like that. But they were already talking at the table, too. Slava lost. They reached out to Clara - some with a glass, some with a question ... One very tall relative of Seregin, Uncle Yegor, leaned towards Seryoga to his ear, asked: - How to call her? - Nikanorovna. Claudia Nikanorovna. - Claudia Nikanorovna! - Uncle Yegor boomed, pushing other voices aside with his voice.
– Ah, Claudia Nikanorovna!
Clara turned to this hill at the table.
Yes, I'm listening to you. - Clearly. Exactly. Educated."
A relative, Uncle Yegor, was very tall with a strong voice, and for Clara he is just a hill. The word "hill" is used in the author's remark, but through this word Clara's attitude towards Uncle Yegor is expressed.
Seryoga's internal monologues are distinguished by a special integrity and direction. They are built as a reflection of the hero's stream of consciousness. His thoughts are fragmentary, not always logical. From them, the depth of the hero's world opens up to us.
Seryoga's internal monologue after the feast can be considered the culmination of the holiday of the soul.
“Serge soon moved away in the air and sat, thinking. I didn’t think, but somehow I rested all over - body and soul. A rare, wondrous peace left him: he seemed to be floating somewhere, obeying the calm, powerful current of time. And I thought simply and clearly: “Here I live. Good".
Serega feels the fullness of life, he is happy, but after his wife's betrayal, he feels physical and mental pain. Seryoga's soul wants a holiday, but there cannot be a holiday built on deceit (remember the failed holiday arranged by Yegor Prokudin from the film story "Kalina Krasnaya"). The holiday turns out to be an anguish. The choice of vocabulary is not accidental: “cryed”, “heart skipped a beat”, “gritted his teeth”, “wrinkled his face”, “pronounced with difficulty”.
At the end of the story, the hero experiences spiritual loneliness: “Of course, where there is a holiday, there is a hangover, that’s right… But was there a holiday? Was. Well, that's all."
So the ending is left open.
Fingerless can be attributed to the gallery of Shukshin's "freaks". In the “Dictionary of Vasily Shukshin”, this lexeme is interpreted traditionally: “Freak ... A strange, awkward person, an eccentric”. However, functioning in the text, it becomes ambiguous, gradually develops into a symbol.
Fingerless weirdo - “this is a painful feeling of loneliness, this is a desire to experience the “holiday” of life, that is, its versatility: pain of the soul, rise, fall into a “black hole”.
Final word of the teacher
Shukshin's work undoubtedly requires new assessments, a new reading.
In our opinion, it is necessary to go to him from the main thing, from his word, from poetics.
It is the word that opens the door to everything hidden, to personality, to individuality.
We have done a lot of fruitful work on the study of Shukshin's story "Fingerless". Now let us formulate the principles of poetics used by the author.
The principles of the poetics of stories by V.M. Shukshina1. The names in Shukshin's story are meaningful. They are built as a reflection of the hero's stream of consciousness. His thoughts are fragmentary, not always logical. The names of the heroes change when the heroes themselves change. |
Homework
I ask you to continue the work begun in the lesson on compiling the table "Principles of poetics of V.M. Shukshin" at home. To do this, I suggest you turn to the story "Alyosha Beskonvoyny". I do not offer questions for the work. I think that you yourself, according to Shukshin, "compose a lot" and acquaint us with these "discoveries".
Individual task
Prepare a quiz on the work of Shukshin (you can use videos from films).
Literature
- Anninsky L.
Everyone around said that Seryoga Bezmenov's wife was an evil, capricious fool. But Seryoga believed that the villagers were simply jealous of him. He loved his Clara to self-forgetfulness. He was sweating with excitement, watching her coquettishly walk around the room.
Clara worked as a nurse in a hospital. There, Seryoga met her, who came for the dressing. Clara's face was decorated with glasses, a nose-boot and a lush red hairstyle. When she began to bandage Seryoga, he felt dizzy. He shook his head at her questions. Then, from an excess of feelings, he even cried, and Clara laughed.
Eighteen days later they were married.
Clara called him "Grey", and he called her "Clarinetist". Clara felt neighborly dislike for herself, but said that “she doesn’t see these empty spaces point-blank.” Because of his wife, Seryoga quarreled with relatives and friends. After working a hard day as a tractor driver, Seryoga would come home and wash his clothes. His mother at first resented that Clara was "exploiting" her husband and forcing him to do women's work. But the daughter-in-law told her: but Seryoga is busy with business and does not drink. “You need him to go to the tearoom and get drunk with his friends. It suits you? What exactly do you offer? It's you here ... dismissed the men, then you don't know what to do with them.
Seryoga and Clara, any work was not a shame and not a burden. He will stretch out his underwear, kiss his wife on the nose, marvel at the powerful bend of her hips - and is thrilled with love.
But one day the unexpected happened.
Seregin's cousin, Slavka, a third-year student at a technical university, came to the village for the holidays. Relatives gathered at the table for a meeting. Clara stood out among all those present: she sat proud, smart, in a beautiful dress with a medallion, her glasses and thick red hair. The educated Slavka immediately singled her out, and this was very flattering for Seryoga.
“For us technocrats, Mr. Fact is always at the forefront,” said Slavka, noticing with pleasure that all the villagers were listening to him. “But concrete living people sometimes stand behind the fact,” Clara objected with a smile. “If you make endless footnotes on this, humanity will never master all the riches of nature,” Slavka dismissed casually. “Medicine is also not characterized by charlatanism. For anyone who undertakes to treat even a cold of a person, but does not have the appropriate right to do so, is a potential criminal, ”Clara immediately retorted. When asked by one relative why she and Seryoga did not get married, Clara shaved off: “The strength of family life is not calculated by the number of bottles drunk at the feast.” Fellow villagers from such smart phrases became quiet, hanging their ears.
Performance based on Vasily Shukshin's story "Fingerless". Small stage of SPbGATI, June 2012
Seryoga was so proud of his wife that, out of excitement, he even went outside and sat down to smoke. However, several minutes passed, and next to him on the porch, behind the partition, he heard two cautious, hurried voices: Klarin and Slavkin.
“My little chizhenka,” Clara said affectionately to Slavka, “but what are you in a hurry for? Where where? Oh, you rascal!" The Technocrat mumbled something unintelligible.
Sergei's eyes dimmed. “Clarinet-ik, ay-y! he roared out of the darkness. “And I will kill you in a moment.”
Seryoga remembered the rest poorly. He then could not explain where the ax came from in his hand. Only the moment remained in my memory when Clara jumped over the fence - and her red hair flew up like a horse's mane ... Seryoga felt that his heart would burst. In order to recover even through severe carnal pain, he put his hand on the pole, poked his fingers with an ax - and chopped off the index and middle ones. Since then, Seryoga was called "Fingerless".
Clara left the same night and never returned. The fingerless Seryoga then turned the steering wheel of the tractor no worse than before. Friends and neighbors reproached him: how did he not immediately notice the crappy character of his ex-wife? But the fingerless Seryoga nibbled on a blade of grass, looked into the distance and thought: was it a holiday? Was. And where there is a holiday, there is a hangover.
Everyone around said that Seryoga Bezmenov had an evil wife. Evil, naughty and stupid. Everyone saw and understood it. Only Seryoga did not see and did not understand this. He was angry at everyone and was secretly surprised: how they don’t see and don’t understand how independent, well-read, what she is ... The devil knows them, people: if they start scratching with their tongues, they won’t stop. They did not know how witty and mischievous she was. How she walks! This is a gait, damn it, this is a forward movement, in which every vein lives and plays when she walks. Seryoga was especially fond of his wife's gait: he looked, and his teeth were numb with love. At home, he looked at her all in amazement, played with his jaws and sweated with excitement.
- What? Clara asked. - Mm? .. - And, playing, she showed Seryoga her tongue. And she went into the upper room, as if on purpose, to show him once more how she walks. Seryoga rushed after her.
... And they also blathered about the fact that she ... About the village! Serega prayed to God that somehow he would not drop this precious gift of fate from his hands. Sometimes he even feared: did such happiness rightfully fall on his head, did he deserve it, and was there some kind of misunderstanding here - suddenly something like this would turn out, and they would say to him: “Uh, my friend, what are you doing? ! Look, you've grabbed it!"
Serega saw Clara for the first time in the hospital (she had just arrived to work as a nurse), saw him and immediately became worried. At first he saw only glasses and a nose-boot. And immediately got worried. It was then that he would have the joy of discovering in her more and more new charms. At first, only the glasses shone and the nose stuck out forward, everything else was a red hairstyle. Her white dressing gown flew apart; she quickly walked down the corridor, throwing a downcast line on the go: “Whoever is dressing, come in.” And she disappeared into the office. Seryoga was so worried that his heart ached. Then she touched him with gentle warm fingers, asked: “Does it hurt?” Seryoga felt dizzy from her perfume, he only shook his head in response to questions - which did not hurt. And fear bound him so that he was afraid to move.
- What do you? Clara asked.
Serega again shook his head in confusion - which did not hurt. Clara laughed right in his ear… Seryoga, somewhere inside, above the navel, lit up… He frowned and… burst into tears. Naturally crying! He could not understand himself and could not do anything with himself. He grimaced, bowed his head, and gritted his teeth. And tears fell on his sore hand and on her white fingers. Clara was scared: “Does it hurt?!”
- Yes, you go! .. - Seryoga said with difficulty. - Do your thing. - He would have pressed his wet face to these cute fingers, and no one could pull him away from them. But fear, fear paralyzed him, and now also shame - that he cried.
- It hurts you, doesn't it? Clara asked again.
“Only… it’s… it’s not necessary to pretend that we’re all here – we work from a lantern,” Seryoga said angrily. – We all, after all, live in one state.
Eighteen days later they were married.
Clara began to call him - Gray. Affectionately. It turns out that she was already married, but her husband was caught “some kind of boiled”, they soon parted. Seryoga, from the mere fact that her first husband was “boiled”, walked with his chest puffed out, felt extraordinary strength in himself. Clara praised him.
And at that time, when he did not know what to turn away from happiness, they said that his wife was capricious and evil. Seryoga despised them all. They didn't know how she... O people! Everyone was envious, damn it. What is it, people cannot calmly endure when someone is lucky.
“You take an example from the animal world,” Seryoga advised one such clever man. - They are calm when, for example, one dog is taken to the circus to perform. They don't get angry. What are you freaking out about?
- I'm sorry for you...
- It's a pity for the bee ... you know where? Like this.
Seryoga was angry, he understood that it was useless, stupid, and even more angry.
“Pay no attention to the empty lambs,” Clara’s wife said. We're fine, that's all. I don't see them all.
Serega quarreled with his relatives that they were not delighted with Clara, with his friends ... He quit drinking completely, bought a washing machine and on Saturdays twisted underwear in the dressing room so that none of the scoffers could see. Seryoga's mother could not understand whether this was good or bad. On the one hand, it seems somehow not appropriate for a peasant to do women's work, on the other hand ... The jester knows her!
End of introductory segment.
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