Characteristics of the characters in the play live and remember. Characteristics of the main characters

The concepts of "tradition" and "innovation" are inextricably linked. In art, any innovation is possible only with a deep understanding of what has already been discovered, created by predecessors. Only strong roots allow the tree to grow and bear fruit. The work of Rasputin, as it were, grows out of the work of Dostoevsky and Gorky; our contemporary continues to reflect on the problems that tormented his great teachers. But in his works he seeks to understand how these eternal problems sound today. The story "Live and Remember" is consonant, first of all, with Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment".

Dostoevsky's passionate refutation of that in Raskolnikov that is inhumane and contrary to the human nature of the hero himself is carried out in Crime and Punishment not only through a dispute of "ideas", which corresponds to the socio-philosophical essence of the novel, but also in the clash of the hero's "ideas" with his in kind, when the latter "does not stand up." And it reflects the originality psychological basis novel.

The path of Rasputin's heroes to death is historically determined and logical, but there is already another literary tradition discovered by Gorky, who considered the world not only from the point of view of solving moral and philosophical problems, but, above all, from the point of view of the prospects for socio-historical development. And this not only does not remove, but very often includes the tragic beginning in the Soviet novel and story of the 20th century.

Guskov himself would like to shift the blame to fate, before which the will is powerless. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the word “fate” runs like a red thread through the whole story, to which Guskov clings so. The unwillingness to recognize the need for personal responsibility for one's actions is one of those touches to the portrait that open a wormhole in Guskov's soul and cause his desertion. The writer revealed to us the cause of Guskov's crime, showing this feature of his character. However, Rasputin raises a concrete historical fact to the rank of socio-philosophical generalizations, which brings him closer to such predecessors as Dostoevsky and Gorky. Rasputin could rely on the artistic experience of Dostoevsky. Showing the destruction of the personality of a person who betrayed the interests and ideals of the people, as an irreversible process, without a moral resurrection, Raskolnikov follows the path laid by Gorky.

Here we have come to the most powerful manifestation of the destruction of the personality of a person who has transgressed moral (social) and natural laws, to the destruction by him of nature, its main incentive - the continuation of life on earth.

First of all, this is the killing of a calf in front of a mother cow: the cow “screamed” when Guskov raised an ax over her child. The fall of the hero and the impossibility of a moral resurrection for him become obvious precisely after this highly artistic, amazing plot situation - the murder of a calf.

The idea of ​​the story is impossible to comprehend without the fate of Nastya, who also "transgressed", but in a completely different way. In criticism, the fact of Nastya's suicide has already been interpreted, firstly, as "the highest trial of the deserter Andrei Guskov" and, secondly, as "a trial of herself, her womanish, feminine, human weakness." Nastya has reason to consider herself guilty: she really opposed herself to people.

The story ends with the author’s message that they don’t talk about Guskov, “they don’t remember” - for him “the connection of times has broken up”, he has no future. The author narrates about Nastya as if she were alive (nowhere replacing the name with "body" or "deceased"). “And Nastya was washed ashore on the fourth day ... A farm laborer was sent for Nastya. He brought Nastya back on a boat ... And they betrayed Nastya to the ground among their own ... After the funeral, the women gathered at Nadya for a simple wake and wept: it was a pity for Nastya.

With these words, which signify the “connection of times” restored for Nastya (the traditional ending for folklore about the hero’s memory through the ages), V. Rasputin’s work ends, which is a synthesis of a socio-philosophical and socio-psychological story, an original story that inherits best features Russian literature, traditions of Dostoevsky and Gorky.

Everything is fine. Everything is quiet. The myth of complete peace is destroyed as soon as my eyes involuntarily stop on the second shelf of my grandmother's rack. Undoubtedly, the red book, recently found among the old, read volumes of Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, prevents me from falling asleep. The strange thing is that I'm not at all interested in where it came from. On the contrary, my tired mind is disturbed by a completely different question: why did Rasputin call the book “Live and Remember”? This title grabs my attention. “Live and remember” - some secret, vital meaning is hidden here. To whom and why were these words intended? Don't know. That's why I sit down near the window, pick up Rasputin's book and forget myself for long hours, leafing through the pages of this story.

Its main character, Andrei Guskov, before the war was a nice, hard-working guy, an obedient son, and a reliable husband. He was sent to the front in the forty-first year. “I didn’t climb across others, but I didn’t hide behind other people’s backs,” the author says about him. Andrey was not one of the timid - he fought for three years regularly.

In fact, he didn't want to die. And there was also a great desire to see relatives, to meet with his beloved wife Nastena. And it turned out that after a serious wound in the chest, he ends up in a Novosibirsk hospital, from which it is "within a stone's throw" to the house. But the commission does not even give him a short vacation - he immediately sends him to the front. It was then that the soldier makes a rash decision - he tries to "rush" without the permission of his superiors to go home without permission.

Only when he got bogged down in slow military trains did Andrei realize that the case did not smell like a guardhouse for AWOL, but a tribunal for desertion. If the train had been faster, it would have returned on time. And after all, he didn’t shake for “the skin,” but he wanted to see his relatives - maybe for the last time. What turned out his act, which became the choice of a lifetime? And in general, did he have the right to fulfill such, even the most modest, desire - to see his wife? No. And Andrei forgot that you cannot arrange happiness for yourself separately from common destiny people. All the same heavy mental burden fell on Nasteka.

The author notes: "... in the custom of a Russian woman, arrange her life only once and endure everything that falls out in it." And she endures. When a fugitive is announced, she even assumes the guilt of her husband. “Without guilt, but guilty,” says Rasputin. Nastena "took" the cross of Andrei, who still vaguely understands what his decision to return home will turn into. But for this offense he will be maliciously punished by fate. And soon the terrible consequences of apostasy begin to be traced, especially for the person himself. There is an inevitable disintegration, loss of personality. And the punishment of man is in himself. Andrei learned to howl like a wolf from a beast wandering near the hut and thought with malicious vindictiveness: “It will come in handy good people frighten". He adapted to steal fish from other people's holes - and not out of extreme need, but out of a desire to annoy those who, unlike him, live openly, without hiding, without fear. Then he comes to a strange village and kills a calf, never realizing that he did it not only for the sake of meat, but also for the sake of some whim of his own, which settled in it firmly and powerfully.

Thus, ties with what is dear and sacred to everyone are broken: with people, with nature, with respect for other people's work and property. Andrei did not pass the test for humanity, his soul disintegrates, and Nastena turns into a driven creature. Shame, lingering and stinging, withers her conscientious nature. Double life step by step selects the simplest and most necessary joys. There is no longer cordiality, simplicity and trust in communicating with her friends, she can now neither speak, nor cry, nor sing along with people. Out of habit, they take her for their own, and she is already a stranger to them, an outsider. There is no joy from love, from motherhood, which she was waiting for, from Victory. It has nothing to do with the great Victory Day. The very last person has, but she doesn’t.” The child also turned into a tragedy. What fate awaits him? How to explain to people its appearance? And not get rid of it? It turns out that Nastya also had stolen love, stolen motherhood, stolen life.

“It is sweet to live, it is terrible to live, it is a shame to live,” Rasputin notes. Tired despair drags Nastena into a swift whirlpool.

And on one of the nights, when she failed to swim across to Andrey, because her fellow villagers, alerted by her pregnancy, began to look after her, she, having heard a chase not far away, tired, tormented, rushes into the water, not saving Andrey, but putting an end to her share. Pure before the world and people Nastena, leaving in the waters of the Angara. With her ability to sacrifice; - by taking upon herself, innocent, the guilt of her husband, she embodies true values. Even the terrible civilized world did not break her, did not embitter her at all. But Andrei did not stand the test of life. His moral principles are crumbling. And now there is no justification for his flight, which he saw in the unborn child. He thought that the born life would replace the ruined one, save him from the painful pricks of conscience for a uselessly burnt existence. The death of his wife and unborn child, those who were dear to Andrei, as he explained, justified his desertion, the author of the hero punishes: “Live and remember. !"

In 1974, Rasputin wrote "Live and Remember". The heroes of this work, the events described in it, as well as the problems of the story are very interesting. We will talk about all this in this article.

Rasputin begins "Live and Remember" as follows. Heroes of the work (main) - Andrey Guskov and his wife, Nastena. AT Last year war, Andrei Guskov, a local resident, secretly returns to the village located on the Angara. He does not think that he will be met in his home with open arms, but he believes in the support of his wife. Indeed, Nastena, although she does not want to admit it to herself, understands by instinct that her husband has returned. She didn't marry him for love. 4 years of marriage were not particularly happy, but the heroine was devoted to her husband and for the first time in her life found his reliability and protection in the house (Nastena grew up an orphan).

Nastya's life in her husband's house

Without much thought, the girl married Andrey: she still has to go out, so why delay? She had little idea of ​​what awaited her in a strange village and new family. It turned out that from the workers (Nastena lived and worked with her aunt), she again ended up as workers, only the yard is different, the demand is stricter and the farm is larger. Perhaps in a new family, the attitude towards her would be better if the girl gave birth to a child. However, she had no children.

News about Andrey

She heard from childhood that a woman without children is no longer a woman. Nastena considers herself guilty. Only once, when, reproaching her, Andrei said something unbearable, the woman answered out of resentment that it was not known who the reason was - in him or in her. Then her husband beat her half to death. Nastena, when Andrey is taken to the war, is even a little glad that she is left without children. Letters regularly come from the front, then from the hospital. After that, there is no news for a long time, only once a policeman and the chairman of the village council come into the hut and ask Nastya to show the correspondence.

Meeting with husband

Rasputin's story "Live and Remember" continues as follows. When the ax disappears in the Guskovs' family bath, Nastena thinks that perhaps her husband has returned. Just in case, she leaves bread in the bathhouse, once she even drowns her and meets Andrei here. His return becomes their secret and is perceived by Nastena as her cross.

Help Andrey

She comes willingly to help her husband, ready to steal and lie for him. We have to accept everything in marriage: both good and bad. Courage and enthusiasm settle in the soul of Nastena. She selflessly helps her husband, especially when she realizes that she is expecting a child. Nastena is ready for anything: to meet with her husband across the river in a winter hut, to have long conversations about the hopelessness of this situation, to hard work at home, to insincerity in relations with other villagers. Nastena pulls his strap with remarkable male strength. You will learn more about her relationship with her husband by reading the analysis at the end of the article. Rasputin wrote "Live and Remember" not only to show the difficult relationship of the characters. You can also learn about other issues raised in the story by reading the article to the end.

Andrei is not a traitor, not a murderer, but just a deserter who escaped from the hospital, from where they wanted to send him to the front, without really healing. He has already set himself up for a vacation and cannot refuse to return. Realizing that in his village, in the world, in the country there will be no forgiveness for him, he wants to drag it out to the last, not thinking about his wife, parents and unborn child.

unsolvable question

The personal connection with Andrey Nastena conflicts with their way of life, as the analysis shows. Rasputin ("Live and Remember") notes that Nastena cannot raise her eyes to the wives who receive funerals, unable to rejoice, as before, when the neighbor's peasants return from the war. She remembers on village holiday in honor of the victory with unexpected anger about Andrei, because because of him she cannot rejoice at her, like everyone else. An insoluble question was put by the husband before Nastena: with whom should she be? Andrei's girlfriend condemns, especially now that the war is ending and it seems that he would have remained intact. However, judging, she retreats: after all, she is his wife.

Nastya's suicide

Nastena's former friends, noticing her pregnancy, begin to laugh at her, and her mother-in-law drives her out of the house. The girl, forced to restrain her feelings, to hide them, is exhausted more and more. Her fearlessness turns into a risk, into wasted feelings. They push her to commit suicide. Nastena finds rest in the waters of the Angara.

Analysis of the work

So, you got acquainted with the content of the work written by Rasputin ("Live and Remember"). The issues raised in the text deserve separate consideration. Philosophical questions about honor and conscience, about the meaning of life, about the responsibility of people for their own actions usually come to the fore. The author talks about betrayal and selfishness, about the relationship between public and personal in the human soul, about life and death. In the work "Live and Remember" (Rasputin) is also revealed.

War is a tragic and terrible event that has become a test for people. A person in shows the true features of his nature. The central image in the work is the image of Nastena. This is important to note when doing the analysis. Rasputin ("Live and Remember") portrayed this girl as combining in her character the features of a village righteous woman: faith in man, mercy, responsibility for the fate of others, kindness. The problem of forgiveness and humanism is closely connected with her bright image.

She found the strength in herself to help Andrei, to take pity on him. It was a difficult step for her: the girl had to cheat, lie, live in fear, dodge. She already felt that she was becoming a stranger, moving away from her fellow villagers. However, she chose this path for the sake of her husband, because she loved him.

The war changed the main characters a lot, as you can see by doing the analysis yourself. Rasputin ("Live and Remember") notes that they realized that in worldly life their remoteness from each other and quarrels were absurd. In difficult times, the spouses were warmed by the hope for new life. Nastena hopes that her husband will be able to repent and go out to people. However, he hesitates to do so.

The main idea of ​​the work is the moral responsibility of a person for his actions. Using the example of Andrey Guskov's life, the author shows how easy it is to make an irreparable mistake, to show weakness, to stumble. Rasputin told us about all this. "Live and remember" after reading many reviews is positive. The writer managed to raise important issues and skillfully reveal them in this story. Rasputin's story "Live and Remember" was filmed. It was made into a film of the same name in 2008. Producer -

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin - famous writer, who began his creative career in the Soviet Union. His works are studied at school, his name is familiar to us since childhood. In the article we will turn to the most famous work of the writer - "Live and Remember". The summary of the story will become the main topic for us.

About the book

The story was published in 1974, and immediately caused a lot of different responses. Readers were amazed at how plausibly and violently conveyed the feelings and experiences of their heroes Rasputin. "Live and remember" ( summary) illustrates this by telling the story of a runaway soldier and his wife.

The story raises a huge layer of moral problems and questions. And he must decide to read them on his own, without the author's hint. In this respect, the work stands out from other examples of modern literature. It will help to understand and comprehend "Live and Remember" a summary of the story. The drama of the fate of the characters, especially the main character, will not leave you indifferent and will help to reveal the deep problems of the work.

In his creation, dedicated to the life of a deserter, Rasputin manages to show how complex and contradictory human relationships can be. Not everything is so easy real world- this is the main message of the author.

"Live and Remember": a summary

Events unfold in the last year of the war. Deserter Andrey Guskov, a local resident, secretly returns to a small village near the Angara. The hero does not deceive himself with the hope that his relatives and fellow villagers will understand, but he hopes that Nasten's wife will support him. Andrei turns out to be right, the woman is the first to guess about his return, although she is afraid to admit it even to herself.

The history of Nastena's family life

Nastya did not marry out of great love, but because she was tired of working for her aunt. However, she is sincerely grateful to her husband for giving her protection and the family she lost early. Nastya agreed to Andrey's proposal to marry, without even thinking. What difference does it make who you marry if you still have to. This is how Rasputin describes the story of an ordinary village woman in Live and Remember. The summary tells that Nastya, leaving for a strange village with an unfamiliar man, did not even imagine what lay ahead for her.

It turned out that her life had changed little. Now she began to work not for her aunt, but for her husband's relatives. And they ask her much stricter. The attitude towards a woman could have been softer if she had given birth to a child, but this did not happen. Because of her childlessness, Nastya had to endure the urges and reproaches of her relatives. A woman without children is not a woman, but half a woman. The woman blamed herself for this, but somehow she could not stand it. To another completely nasty and insulting reproach from Andrei, she replied that it was still unknown who was to blame for their grief. She had no other men and nothing to compare with. For these words, the husband severely beat Nastena.

War

Rasputin does not idealize his heroes. “Live and Remember” (including a summary of the story) tells about the beginning of the war. When the summons came to Andrey, Nastya was even glad that they had no children. Other women had to feed a horde of children, but she was spared this concern.

Andrei often wrote from the front. And when he ended up in the hospital because of a wound, he did not forget to send news to his family from there. In one of the letters, the hero even hints at the possibility of returning home on vacation. But suddenly the news stopped coming. Some time passed, and the chairman with the police came to the Guskovs. They ask to see the correspondence with Andrey. To the surprised questions of the family, they answer that they want to find out where Nastya's husband disappeared.

Return

The image of Nastena is much richer and more fully depicted than other characters in the story "Live and Remember". A summary of the chapters tells about her ability to subtly feel and empathize. So, the woman is the first to guess about the return of her husband. The first news for her was the loss of an ax from the bath. He disappeared from under the floorboards, and no one else could know about this place of storage. Wanting to help, Nastena heats the bathhouse and leaves bread in it. Her guesses are fully justified when she meets her husband there.

From that moment on, the woman perceives Andrei as a cross that she must bear. She hides him from everyone and considers the appearance of her husband a retribution for the time that she lived for herself. Therefore, the woman helps Andrey, lies and steals for him. For her husband, she becomes ready even to take full responsibility for his crimes. Being a family means not only living in joy, but also sharing and rowing each other.

Nastena feels that she is fulfilling her wife's duty to the end. This gives her strength and even makes her happy, especially when she realizes that she is pregnant. All falling hardships are perceived as the inevitability of fate.

Andrew

Valentin Rasputin does not expose Andrey as a scoundrel. “Live and Remember” (summary) convinces of this, the work is not aimed at denunciation and accusation. The author tells about the life of ordinary people, overwhelmed by universal doubts and fears. The hero of the work does not look like a traitor. Yes, he escaped from the hospital, but only because he was not given the promised vacation. The hope for a speedy return to his native place was so strong that he could not overcome it. Andrei did not have the strength to endure all the trials that fell to his lot.

Returning home, he also does not show himself as a hero. Guskov is going to hide to the last, not caring about the consequences. He does not think about his family, wife, future child.

Victory

The war ends. Nastya is ashamed to look at those women whose husbands did not return from the front. At the celebration of the victory, she begins to get angry at her husband, who took away from her the opportunity to enjoy the long-awaited end of the war. Nastena faces a choice: stay with Andrei until the end or renounce him. A woman is angry with her husband, and understands that she is his wife, and must share all the sorrows with him.

Nastya's pregnancy becomes noticeable. The villagers begin to laugh at her, and her mother-in-law drives her out of the house. It was hard for her to endure the evil looks of people. Back-breaking work, the need to hide their feelings and endure insults exhausted Nastya. This woman is too tired of life. And her only chance of rest was death. In the waters of the Angara, all her torment ended.

This is the summary of the story "Live and remember."

"Live and Remember" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, problems and other issues are disclosed in this article.

The plot of the story by V.G. Rasputin's "Live and Remember" resembles a detective story: old man Guskov's skis, an ax and a self-gardened gabak disappeared from the bath. However, the work itself is written in a completely different genre: it is a deep philosophical reflection about the moral foundations of being, about the strength love feeling. Since the ax disappeared from under the floorboard, Nasten's daughter-in-law immediately guesses that one of her own took it. A complex range of feelings takes possession of her. On the one hand, she wants to see a husband whom she sincerely loves. On the other hand, he understands that if he is hiding from people, then he deserted from the front, and such a crime in wartime is not forgiven. Near the bright visual and expressive means of V.G. Rasputin shows the depth of Nastena's feelings.

At first, “she lay for a long time in the dark with her eyes open, afraid to move, so as not to betray her terrible guess to someone,” then she sniffed the air in the bath like an animal, trying to catch familiar smells. She is tormented by a "stubborn horror in her heart." The portrait of Nastya (long, skinny, with awkwardly protruding arms, legs and head, with frozen pain on her face) shows what moral and physical torment the war brought to the woman. Only the younger sister Katya forced Nastya to show interest in life, to look for work. Nastena endured all the hardships steadfastly, having learned to remain silent. She considered childlessness to be her greatest misfortune. Her husband Andrei was also worried about this and often beat.

Rasputin does not try to justify the desertion of Andrei, but seeks to explain from the position of a hero: he fought for a long time, deserved a vacation, wanted to see his wife, but the vacation due to him after being wounded was canceled. The betrayal committed by Andrei Guskov creeps into his soul gradually. At first, he was haunted by the fear of death, which seemed inevitable to him: "Not today - so tomorrow, not tomorrow - so the day after tomorrow, when the turn turns up." Guskov survived both wounds and shell shock, experienced tank attacks and ski raids. V.G. Rasputin emphasizes that among the scouts Andrei was considered a reliable comrade. Why did he embark on the path of betrayal? At first, Andrei just wants to see his family, with Nastena, stay at home for a while and return. However, having traveled by train to Irkutsk, Guskov realized that in the winter you would not turn around even in three days. Andrei recalled the demonstration execution, when a boy who wanted to run fifty miles away to his village was shot in his presence. Guskov understands that they will not pat him on the head for an AWOL.

Gradually Andrei began to hate himself. In Irkutsk, for some time, he settled with the mute woman Tanya, although he had absolutely no intention of doing this. A month later, Guskov finally ended up in his native places. However, the hero did not feel joy at the sight of the village. V.G. Rasputin constantly emphasizes that, having committed a betrayal, Guskov embarked on the bestial path. After some time, the life that he so cherished at the front became not sweet to him. Having committed treason to his homeland, Andrei cannot respect himself. mental anguish, nervous tension, the inability to relax for a minute turn him into a hunted beast.

Andrei's betrayal fatally falls on the shoulders of Nastena. For a long time she cannot comprehend what has happened: her husband, who has come secretly to her native land, seems to her a werewolf: “Understanding little, she suddenly realized: is it her husband? Was it a werewolf with her? Can you make out in the dark? And they, they say, can pretend to be so that even in broad daylight you can’t distinguish from the real one. Because of Andrei, the woman has to lie and dodge. With touching naivete, Nastena tries to resist the cruel reality. It seems to the heroine that she only dreamed of a night meeting with her deserter husband. With fine detail shows V.G. Rasputin, like Nastena, seeks to remove the obsession from himself, to get rid of him, like a nightmare. Official religiosity, lost during the years of Soviet power, is still alive in the depths of the consciousness of the Russian people. It is her (as the strongest tribal amulet) that the unfortunate Nastena calls for help: “Not knowing how to properly lay a cross, she crossed herself at random and whispered the words of a long-forgotten prayer that had come to mind, left over from childhood.” However, the whole depth of the grief and horror of the unfortunate woman, her awareness of the fatal line that Andrey's betrayal drew between their family and the rest of the world, embodies the last phrase of the third part of the story, when Nastena freezes from a traitorous thought: “Isn’t it better if it were Was it really just a werewolf?

Nastena begins to help her husband hide, feeds him. She trades products for things. All worries fell on the shoulders of this woman (about younger sister, about elderly fathers-in-law). At the same time, a terrible secret puts stone wall between Nastya and her fellow villagers: “Alone, completely alone among people: you can’t talk to anyone or cry with anyone, you have to keep everything to yourself.”

The tragedy of the heroine is enhanced by the fact that she became pregnant. Upon learning of this, Andrei first rejoices, and then understands what a difficult situation his wife is in: after all, everyone will think that the woman worked up this child while her husband is fighting at the front. In a heavy conversation on this topic, an important symbolically image of the Angara arises. “You only had one side: people. There, on the right hand of the Angara. And now two: people and me. It is impossible to bring them together: it is necessary that the Angara dry up, ”says Andrei Nastene.

During the conversation, it turns out that once the heroes had the same dream: Nastena, in a girl's form, comes to Andrei, who lies near the birches and calls him, telling that she was tormented with the children.

The description of this dream once again emphasizes the painful insolubility of the situation that Nastena found herself in.

Talking about the fate of the heroine, V.G. Rasputin along the way sets out his views on life, on happiness. They are sometimes expressed by him in aphoristic phrases: “Life is not clothes, it is not tried on ten times. What is is all yours, and it is not good to disown anything, even the worst.” It is paradoxical, but, left alone with their common joy and misfortune, the heroes finally gained that spiritual closeness, that mutual understanding that was not there when they lived happily with their family before the war.

Upon learning of Nastya's pregnancy, the villagers condemn her. Only Andrei Mikheich's father understands in his heart the bitter truth, about which he is so stubbornly silent. Tired of shame and eternal fear, she throws herself from a boat into the waters of the Angara River. Plot-story by V.G. Rasputin's "Live and Remember" shows that in difficult moments for the motherland, each person must courageously share her fate, and retribution awaits those who have shown cowardice and cowardice. They have no future, no right to happiness and procreation.

In addition to the main storyline, the story contains interesting author's reflections on the fate of the village. During the war, the village becomes shallow. Stale from grief and the souls of people. Pain for the fate of the Russian village is a cross-cutting theme of V.G. Rasputin.

It so happened that in the last war year, a local resident Andrei Guskov secretly returned from the war to a distant village on the Angara. The deserter does not think that he will be welcomed with open arms in his father's house, but he believes in the understanding of his wife and is not deceived. Although his wife Nastena is afraid to admit it to herself, she instinctively understands that her husband has returned, there are several signs of this. Does she love him? Nastya did not marry for love, four years of her marriage were not so happy, but she is very devoted to her man, because, having left her parents early, for the first time in her life she found protection and reliability in his house. “They agreed quickly: Nastya was also spurred on by the fact that she was tired of living with her aunt as workers, bending her back on someone else’s family ...”

Nastena rushed into marriage like water - without much thought: you still have to go out, few people do without it - why pull? And what awaits her in a new family and a strange village, she did not imagine well. But it turned out that from the workers she got into the workers, only the yard is different, the economy is larger and the demand is stricter. “Maybe the attitude towards her in the new family would be better if she gave birth to a child, but there are no children.”

Childlessness forced Nastena to endure everything. Since childhood, she heard that a hollow woman without children is no longer a woman, but only half a woman. So by the beginning of the war, nothing came of the efforts of Nastena and Andrey. Guilty Nastena considers herself. “Only once, when Andrei, reproaching her, said something completely unbearable, she replied with resentment that it was not known yet which of them was the reason - she or he, she had not tried other men. He beat her half to death." And when Andrei is taken to the war, Nastena is even a little glad that she is left alone without children, not like in other families. Letters from the front from Andrey come regularly, then from the hospital, where he also ends up wounded, maybe he will soon arrive on vacation; and suddenly there is no news for a long time, only once the chairman of the village council and a policeman enter the hut and ask to see the correspondence. "Did he say anything else about himself?" - “No... What's the matter with him? Where is he?" “So we want to find out where he is.”

When an ax disappears in the Guskovs' family bath, only Nastya thinks if her husband has returned: “Who would think of looking under the floorboard?” And just in case, she leaves bread in the bath, and once even heats the bath and meets in it the one she expects to see. The return of her husband becomes her secret and is perceived by her as a cross. “Nastena believed that in the fate of Andrei since he left home, in some way there is her participation, she believed and was afraid that she probably lived for herself alone, so she waited: on, Nastena, take don't show it to anyone."

She readily comes to her husband's aid, is ready to lie and steal for him, is ready to take the blame for a crime in which she is not guilty. In marriage, you have to accept both bad and good: “You and I agreed to live together. When everything is good, it's easy to be together, when it's bad - that's what people come together for.

Enthusiasm and courage settle in Nastena's soul - to fulfill her feminine duty to the end, she selflessly helps her husband, especially when she realizes that she is carrying his child under her heart. Meeting with her husband in a winter hut across the river, long mournful conversations about the hopelessness of their situation, hard work at home, settled insincerity in relations with the villagers - Nastena is ready for anything, realizing the inevitability of her fate. And although love for her husband is more of a duty for her, she pulls her life strap with remarkable masculine strength.

Andrei is not a murderer, not a traitor, but just a deserter who escaped from the hospital, from where they were going to send him to the front, without really treating him. Having tuned in to a vacation after a four-year absence from home, he cannot give up the thought of returning. As a country man, not a city man and not a military man, he is already in the hospital in a situation from which the only salvation is escape. So everything turned out for him, it could have turned out differently if he had been firmer on his feet, but the reality is that in the world, in his village, in his country, there will be no forgiveness for him. Realizing this, he wants to pull to the last, not thinking about his parents, his wife, and even more so about the unborn child. The deeply personal thing that connects Nastena with Andrey conflicts with their way of life. Nastena cannot raise her eyes to those women who receive funerals, cannot rejoice, as she would have rejoiced before when the neighboring peasants returned from the war. At a village holiday on the occasion of the victory, she recalls Andrei with unexpected anger: “Because of him, because of him, she has no right, like everyone else, to rejoice in victory.” The fugitive husband posed a difficult and insoluble question to Nastya: with whom should she be? She condemns Andrei, especially now, when the war is ending and when it seems that he would have remained alive and unharmed, like everyone who survived, but, condemning him at times to anger, to hatred and despair, she retreats in despair: yes because she is his wife. And if so, it is necessary either to completely abandon it, jumping on the fence like a rooster: I am not me and it is not my fault, or go along with it to the end. At least to hell. No wonder it is said: whoever marries whom, he will be born into that.

Noticing Nastena's pregnancy, her former friends begin to laugh at her, and her mother-in-law completely kicks her out of the house. “It was not easy to endlessly withstand the grasping and judgmental looks of people - curious, suspicious, angry.” Forced to hide her feelings, to restrain them, Nastena is more and more exhausted, her fearlessness turns into a risk, into feelings wasted in vain. It is they who push her to suicide, drag her into the waters of the Angara, shimmering like a river from a terrible and beautiful fairy tale: “She is tired. Who would know how tired she is and how much she wants to rest.