The paper is devoted to the analysis of the image of a garnet bracelet in the story of the same name by Aleksandr Kuprin. The grant bracelet is considered as a complex, multidimensional image with intentionally contradictory semantics. This is a kind of amulet of Zheltkov, along with which he gives his life to Princess Vera. Red and yellow garnet stones symbolize the near death of the donor, and the power of his love, and eternal life. The giving of the bracelet at the same time symbolizes the conclusion of a mystical marriage between its owner and Vera Sheina. Complex symbolic meanings arise due to references to various texts and plots, especially the myth of Pluto and Persephone (the parallel is based on the homonymy of garnet-mineral and pomegranate-fruit in Russian). In the symbolis of Kuprin's story, a kinship with the poetics of Russian symbolism is traced.