Cold autumn Bunin analysis of love. “Cold Autumn”, analysis of Bunin’s story, essay. Several interesting essays

The theme of love in the story “Cold Autumn” is closely related to the themes of life and death, nature, emigration, and the spiritual evolution of the individual. The heroine of the story cherished the memory of one evening of love all her life, the evening before her beloved’s departure to the front of the First World War, where he soon died. Having lived her life, she clearly understood the main thing: “What happened in my life after all? Only that cold autumn evening, the rest is an unnecessary dream.”

The premonition of tragedy is palpable from the very first lines of the story: the motive of love is inextricably linked with the motive of death: “In June of that year he was visiting our estate” - and in the very next sentence: “On the fifteenth of June they killed Ferdinand in Sarajevo.” “On Peter’s Day he was declared my fiancé” - and then: “But on July 19, Germany declared war on Russia.” History becomes not so much the background of the narrative, but rather an active force, invading the personal fate of the heroes and forever separating those who love.

The heroine’s spiritual memory recalls in the smallest detail that distant autumn evening - the evening of farewell, which is destined to become the main event in her life. The characters experience a feeling of an ongoing tragedy, a sad separation, bad weather, hence the “exaggeratedly calm tone”, insignificant phrases, the fear of revealing their sadness and disturbing their loved one. In the light of the thirty years that have passed since that evening, even the small silk bag that the heroine’s mother embroidered for her beloved becomes especially significant. Artistic time the story is pulled into one point - the point of this evening, every detail of which, every word spoken then was lived and felt in a special way.

And then the development of events significant for the heroine seemed to stop. All that remains is the “course of life.” After the death of her loved one, the heroine no longer lived, but lived out the time allotted to her, so thirty years mean nothing to her: they are shown in a kaleidoscope of events presented schematically. The events are only listed, there are no clarifying, succinct details, such as the “silk bag” - everything has become somehow unimportant, faceless, unremarkable: personal tragedy has swallowed up the tragedy of Russia, merged with it. The heroine was left completely alone, in a whirlwind historical events she lost all her loved ones. Life seems to her like an “unnecessary dream”; death not only does not frighten her, but also turns out to be desirable, because it contains a reunion with her beloved: “And I believe, I fervently believe: somewhere out there he is waiting for me - with the same love and youth like that evening."

"Clean Monday"

The story “Clean Monday” is set in 1913; Anna Akhmatova would later call this era “spicy” and “disastrous.”

Moscow life in the short story turns out to be not only a plot outline, but also an independent hero - it is so bright, fragrant and multifaceted. This is Maslenitsa Moscow, in which the morning smells of “both snow and bakeries”, in the dusk “gas in the lanterns” is lit, “carriage sleighs are rushing”, on “golden enamel the branches in the frost stand out with gray coral”. This is Moscow too" Happy Monday» - Moscow Novodevichy, Chudov, Conception monasteries, chapel of the Iveron Mother of God, Marfo-Mariinsky monastery. This is a bright, strange city in which Italian coexists with something Kyrgyz, luxurious restaurants and “pancakes with champagne” coexist with the Mother of God of the Three Hands. The characters go to lectures by Andrei Bely, the “cabbets” of the Art Theater, read historical novel Bryusov "Fire Angel". And right there - the Rogozhskoe schismatic cemetery, Kremlin cathedrals, “pre-Petrine Rus'”, “Peresvet and Oslyabya”, “the feeling of the homeland, its antiquity”. Everything came together in this bright, wonderful city, recreated by the sorrowful memory of Bunin the emigrant. In one time O At this point, not only the past and present are concentrated, but also the future of Russia, which the heroes do not yet know about, but the author already knows everything. Russia is shown at the peak of its brightness - and at the same time on the threshold of great catastrophes, world wars and revolutions.

Festiveness and anxiety as the main stylistic dominants of the story are reflected in the love of the main characters. In this marvelous city, illuminated by the radiance of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the snows of the passing winter, Bunin “settled” a beautiful girl - the embodiment of captivating, bright beauty and mystery. She, outwardly given over to all the pleasures of the “Maslenitsa” life, is spiritually directed into the world of “Clean Monday”, therefore, in the perception of the hero - a sweet, kind young man who sincerely loves her, but still does not fully understand - she forever remained an insoluble mystery. He could only accept, but not understand her choice, to bow her head before her spiritual depth and step aside - with endless heartache. This choice was painful for her too: “... it is useless to prolong and increase our torment,” “besides my father and you, I have no one in the world ... you are my first and last.” The heroine gave up not love, but the “spicy”, “Maslenitsa” life; for her, life turned out to be narrow, predetermined by wealth, beauty and youth.

The heroine’s spiritual path did not coincide with her love - this reflects the tragic attitude of Bunin himself, his conviction in the drama of human existence. Cycle " Dark alleys", created by Bunin in emigration, recreates a Russia that was lost forever, living only in the writer’s memories, and therefore it is no coincidence that bright sadness is combined with tragic anxiety.

Ivan Bunin's stories have always been distinguished by their penetration and peculiar subtlety of storytelling. This work is a story of a woman who describes her life. In particular, she describes one evening in her youth when she felt almost happy and lived every moment vividly.

The plot of the story is simple - the main character tells about the beginning of the First World War and about a significant evening that will forever remain in her memory. Then she talks about what happened next, about hardships, about death, about migration. But, summing up her life, she always returns to the cold autumn of 14. Then her whole family was alive, and her feelings with her now deceased fiancé only flared up. The composition of the story is based on the fact that the narrative returns to the past.

In the story, all the characters are not described in very detail. It is known that a girl in love with a future soldier has a father and mother and many relatives. Also later, after the death of the latter, a grumpy Moscow merchant appears, new husband, a girl who forgets the kindness of a woman. All these chaotic events and faces happened and passed away. But it seems that only that cold autumn evening, her beloved groom and parents remain in the heroine’s soul.

The writer's attitude towards this woman is fatherly and warm. He understands her thoughts, her pain. He knows that the war and revolution ruined the personal happiness of many, and he writes this very story about one of the victims.
Bunin uses figurative means of expression. Among them are epithets - “early”, “cold” - reflecting autumn, personification - “the windows of the house are shining”, metaphors - “boughs showered with stars”. All means create a special, soft atmosphere in the work. The love of a girl and her groom, the silence of a beautiful evening, the twinkling of stars, eternity...

This is a story - a memory. A memory through a dream of a lifetime, as the heroine herself puts it in the text. Dear nostalgia lives in her memory and heart forever. Ivan Bunin has such a subtle understanding of the mental organization of people. In particular, this work of his is profound from a psychological point of view. Small in size, the story absorbs the tragedy of one tender soul. Her simple happiness was stolen by the confrontation between powers and the arms race. But there are so many who just want to live in peace and appreciate every moment of life, as the heroine appreciated that cool autumn evening.

Analysis of the work Cold Autumn by Bunin

A work called “Cold Autumn” was written by Bunin in May 1944. It is also included in the author’s series “Dark Alleys”. The plot of the work is quite voluminous and significant.

Genre of the work: story. Even though this is just a story, it contains so much information, as well as emotions, that it could be considered a whole novel. In the story itself, the events seem to stretch over thirty years. If we briefly describe the events that occur in the plot itself, it becomes clear that the two main characters fall in love, after which they naturally want to get married and live together, raise children and create a strong family. But one event intervenes and spoils beautiful picture friendly family and love of heroes. After all, the fact is that war was declared. Which means that the main character, a guy, will have to go to war. And before that, when no one suspects anything yet, something happens important event for the young - an engagement, which coincides with her father's name day. At the very moment when the engagement is announced, war is declared. This means that the event is joyful and will have to be postponed.

Bunin shows how bitter the girl is, and the guy too. But both hold on, not showing their disappointment and fear of upcoming events. In addition, the author does not name his heroes in any way in the story itself. And this is quite common for this author, because he considers it not the very name of the main or secondary characters that is important, but the very essence and thought put into this work. Also, there are no portrait characteristics at all, which also characterizes Bunin as a writer. He simply describes the events, and the reader himself can see from the actions of the characters what they are like as individuals. This is always interesting, since reading between the lines develops a person, giving him the opportunity to learn to understand people.

Bunin was able to describe his heroes as very realistic people; he did not add any too colorful details to their descriptions or to the plot itself. Everything looks very natural and realistic, which is perceived well. But in his work there are many beautiful, almost insignificant in appearance, details, which nevertheless make the story very interesting and colorful in emotions. For example: “eyes shining with tears”, “glasses”, “cigarette” and others. It is these details that sometimes seem to be given even too much attention than the characters themselves in their description, which is very meager.

If you still try to describe the main characters, then you can still find, after reading only the whole story, that the guy is smart, delicate and very brave. His girlfriend is also smart and beautiful. In addition, both are very proud and do not show their feelings too much, especially in public.

Several interesting essays

• Essay The Great Patriotic War in the literature of the 20th century

  When I pronounce just the words “Great Patriotic War,” I immediately imagine battles and battles for my homeland, many years have passed, but that pain is still in the souls and hearts of people who lost relatives in those days

• Analysis of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, grade 8

  “Romeo and Juliet is rightfully a masterpiece of world literature. The play, written back in 1595, does not lose its relevance among our contemporaries. Even those who have never held a volume of Shakespeare's plays in their hands know the essence of the work.

There are many different trees growing in the park. In autumn all the leaves turn red, yellow and brown. Some are still green. All trees are bright and colorful. It's so beautiful! Some leaves fall to the ground.

• Essay Summer Day

  In summer, the morning comes especially quickly, the joyful, round, well-fed sun is in a hurry to roll out from behind the horizon so that by lunchtime it has time to properly heat the air, ringing with warmth. Waking up early summer morning

• Essay My favorite tree (Birch, oak, apple tree)

  Birch is a symbol of our country. The beauty of its white trunk with black stripes, rustling heart-shaped leaves, and “catkins” swaying in the wind have fascinated Russian people for a long time.

Sections: Literature

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is an outstanding Russian writer who has gained special worldwide fame. Bunin’s poetry and prose come from a common verbal and psychological source; his rich language, full of unique plasticity, is united beyond the division into literary types and genres. In it, according to K. Paustovsky, there was everything “from ringing copper solemnity to the transparency of flowing spring water, from measured precision to intonations of amazing softness, from a light tune to slow rolls of thunder.”

What attracts today's schoolchildren to the work of I.A. Bunin?

Bunin's work is characterized by an appeal to the inner world of the heroes: penetration into the secret impulses of the soul, the mysteries of actions, the connections between the “mind” and the “heart”. The environment and surrounding material things lose their meaning. Angle work of art the author is narrowed to the psychology and emotionality of the hero.

What a cold autumn
Put on your shawl and hood...
Look between the blackening pines
It's like a fire is rising.

These lines of Fet, uttered by the hero of the story “Cold Autumn,” most clearly reflect the time when I. Bunin, in exile, wrote the cycle “Dark Alleys”. A time of change, a time of struggle, a time of contradiction. It is noteworthy that in the story “Cold Autumn” contradictions appear constantly. If you follow creative activity Bunin, we will see that her " distinctive feature is the opposition of the poetic traditions of the Russian muse of the “golden age” to the innovative searches of the symbolists.” According to Yu. Aikhenvald’s definition, Bunin’s work “... stood out against their background as good old stuff.”

But for Bunin himself, this was not just a opposition of views, principles, worldview - it was a stubborn and consistent struggle against symbolism. And this struggle was so heroic that Bunin found himself alone and was not afraid deep wounds which she inflicted on him. “He contrasted the extremes of the Symbolists with too much balance of feeling: their whimsicality with too complete a consistency of thought, their desire for unusualness with too deliberately emphasized simplicity, their paradoxes with the obvious irrefutability of statements. The more the subject of symbolist poetry wants to be exceptional, the more the subject of Bunin’s poetry tries to be normal.” An interesting fact is that while in Italy or Capri, Bunin wrote stories about the Russian village, and while in Russia - about India and Ceylon. Even in this example, one can discern the artist’s conflicting feelings. When looking at Russia, Bunin always needed distance - chronological, and even geographical.

Bunin’s position in relation to Russian life looked unusual: to many of his contemporaries Bunin seemed “cold,” albeit a brilliant master. "Cold" Bunin. "Cold Autumn" Consonance of definitions. Is it a coincidence? It seems that behind both there is a struggle - the struggle of the new with the old, truth with untruth, justice with injustice - and inevitable loneliness.

"Cold" Bunin. He sought to tear out from his work everything that could be in common with symbolism. Bunin was especially persistent against the symbolists in the field of depicting reality. “A symbolist is the creator of his own landscape, which is always located around him. Bunin steps aside, making every effort to reproduce the reality he idolizes as objectively as possible. But the symbolist, depicting not the world, but the essence of himself, in each work achieves his goal immediately and completely. Bunin complicates the achievement of his goal; he depicts the landscape as accurate, truthful, and alive, which leads to the fact that most often there is no place left for the artist’s personality.” But this is precisely why he contrasted himself with the Symbolists.

"Cold Autumn" In this story, Bunin, by awakening in the reader’s mind a system of associative connections, seeks to talk about what is left in the past - simplicity, goodness, purity of thoughts and the inevitability of the coming tragedy.

In it, the fate of the Russian intelligentsia is shown through the fate of a woman, and her fate is revealed not so much through a detailed biography as through a story about love, in which a few days of the past are perceived more fully than the 30 years that have flown by after it. The dissonance between good and evil, peace and war, harmony and chaos can be traced throughout a short story. And in the end - loneliness, disappointment in life, although it is brightened up by a dream and faith in happiness “out there”. The story is a tragedy of love in time of troubles, the tragedy of reason in the insane flame of revolutionary upheaval.

The contrast of Bunin's worldview and creativity with others, the contrast of the old world and the new, good and evil in the story. This is what unites the consonance of definitions - “cold” Bunin and “Cold Autumn”. Bunin’s antithesis is very attractive, so I would like to consider the story “Cold Autumn” from this point of view.

The purpose of the work is to determine the ideological and artistic role of the antithesis technique in the story “Cold Autumn” at the level of:

• plot
• compositions
• chronotope
• space
• image systems
• artistic and visual media.

The story “Cold Autumn” begins with an event that gives an indication of historical authenticity - First world war. Events are given in fragments: “He was visiting in June”, “On Peter’s Day he was declared a groom.” The entire work is built on contrast. So in the exhibition we read: “I came in September to say goodbye" And “Our wedding was postponed until spring.” Cold autumn can be interpreted as the end of ordinary peaceful life along with the dying of nature. But the wedding of the heroes was postponed until spring. After all, spring appears not only as a time for the rebirth of nature, but also as the beginning of a new peaceful life.

The further development of the action takes place in the heroine’s house, where “he” came to say goodbye. Bunin succinctly conveys the atmosphere "farewell evening" again applying one antithesis after another. On the one hand, there is a window behind which “ surprisingly early cold autumn.” This laconic phrase has a multi-layered meaning: it is both the cold of autumn and the cold of the soul - as if we are hearing a father’s prophecy to his child: surprisingly, terribly early, you will lose Him, you will know the cold of loneliness. On the other side, “window fogged up from steam.” With this phrase, Bunin emphasizes the warmth of the house, comfort, tranquility - “they sat quietly,” “exchanged insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding their secret thoughts and feelings,” “with feigned simplicity.” And again, the antithesis is in the manifestation of external calm and internal anxiety. Bunin skillfully contrasts this state of all the people in the room with the feeling that "touching and creepy." In the same part of the story “in the black sky, pure ice stars sparkled brightly and sharply” and “a hot lamp hanging over the table”. Another vivid illustration of the antithesis: “cold” and “warmth”, external “icy stars” and internal “hot lamp” - someone else’s and one’s own.

Subsequent actions take place in the garden. "Let's go into the garden" Bunin uses this very verb so that the reader immediately has a single association: they went to hell (take away the “s” from the word garden). From the world of warmth, family - into autumn, war. “It was so dark at first. Then black branches, showered with shiny mineral stars, began to appear in the brightening sky.”. And from hell “The windows of the house shine very specially, like autumn.” A house-paradise, into which autumn, war, and hell will soon burst. There is a strange dialogue between “her” and “him”. The author escalates the state of approaching disaster. The words quoted by “him” are deeply symbolic: “look between the blackening pines as if a fire is rising..." Her misunderstanding of the symbol: “What fire? “Moonrise, of course.” The moon symbolizes death and cold. And “fire”, fire as a symbol of suffering, pain, destruction of one’s own, dear, warm. The atmosphere of non-comfort, non-lifeliness is discharged by a logical emotional impulse: “Nothing, dear friend. Still sad. Sad and good. I really, really love you." This phrase, warm and light, stands out in contrast to the dark and cold background of the story. This makes the dissonance between good and evil, peace and war even stronger.

The culmination of the story is the farewell scene, which is built on contrast. The heroes become in opposition to nature. “They crossed themselves with impetuous despair and, after standing, entered the empty house.” and felt “only an amazing incompatibility between us and the joyful, sunny, sparkling frost on the grass in the morning around us.” Climax phrase: “They killed him - what a terrible word! - In a month in Galicia"- Bunin succinctly recreated the feeling of the erased emotional perception after years. That descent has already happened: “I lived in Moscow in a basement.” This is from the house where “after dinner they served a samovar as usual!”, “she became a woman in bast shoes.” This is from "Swiss cape!" Here the author aptly and meaningfully uses details that characterize better than lengthy descriptions: sold “some kind of ring, or a cross, or a fur collar...” That is, she sold the past, renouncing it: “The times of our grandparents,” “Oh, my God, my God.” The beauty and slowness of life before the death of the hero are contrasted with the frantic pace of life, the abundance of misfortunes, and failures after. Paradise-home turned into hell-foreign land. The descent is over. There is no life here - it's just an unnecessary dream.

There is another culminating wave in the work - “I always ask myself: yes, but what happened in my life? And I answer myself: only that cold evening.”. Bunin gives the heroine one last chance to realize that that evening was the triumph of the spirit, the meaning of life, life itself.

This contradiction expresses the basis of the tragic plot. Now the heroine only has faith in waiting for the meeting, faith in happiness “there.” Thus, storyline can be built like this:

The composition has the shape of a ring: “Just live and enjoy the world...”- life - “...I lived a happy life...” Explained compositional structure Bunin as follows: “What happened in my life anyway? Only that cold autumn evening... the rest is an unnecessary dream.” The work begins with a description of an autumn evening and ends with a memory of it. In a conversation in the park, the heroine says: "I won't survive your death." And his words: “You live, enjoy the world, then come to me.” And she admits that she did not survive it, she simply forgot herself in a terrible nightmare. And it becomes clear why she spoke in such an essentially dry, hasty, indifferent tone about everything that happened after. The soul died along with that evening. The ring composition is used to show the closed circle of the heroine’s life: It’s time for her to “go,” to return to “him.” Compositionally, the work can be divided into parts that are contrasting in relation to each other.

Part 1. From the beginning of the story to the words: “...do you want to walk a little?”- an almost absurd picture of tragic calm, regularity in life, on the estate against the backdrop of a distant, seemingly unreal war.

Part 2 . From the words: “It’s in my soul...” to the words: “...or should I sing at the top of my voice?”- He and she, goodbye. Against the background of a joyful sunny morning the heroine has emptiness and powerlessness in her soul.

Part 3. From the words: “They killed him...” to the words: “what she became for me”-acceleration of action: on one page - the rest of your life. A depiction of the heroine’s wanderings and hardships, which begin with the climactic phrase about “his” death. The heroine impartially describes her future life, stating the facts.

Part 4. until the end of the story- before us is the heroine-storyteller in the present.

So, the narrative is built on an antithesis. This principle is proclaimed with the exclamation: “Well, my friends, it’s war!” The words “friends” and “war” are the main links in a chain of contradictions: saying goodbye to your beloved - and talking about the weather, the sun - and separation. Absurd contradictions.

But there are also contradictions associated with human psychology that accurately convey mental confusion: “...cry for me or sing at the top of my voice.” And then the beauty and leisurely life before “his” death is contrasted with the frantic pace and abundance of failures and misfortunes after.

The chronotope of the work is very detailed. In the first sentence there is a time of year: "in June". Summer, the blossoming of the soul and feelings. There is no exact date of “that year”: the numbers are not important - this is the past, gone. The past, our own, dear, blood, organic. The official date is a foreign concept, so the foreign date is indicated precisely: “they killed on the fifteenth of July” “On the nineteenth of July, Germany declared war on Russia,” to emphasize rejection even over time. A vivid illustration of Bunin’s antithesis “friend or foe.”

The time boundaries of the entire story are open. Bunin states only facts. Mention of specific dates: “They killed on July 15,” “on the morning of the 16th,” “but on June 19.” Seasons and months: “in June of that year”, “in September”, “postponed until spring”, “during a hurricane in winter”, “they killed him a month later”. Listing the number of years: “A whole 30 years have passed since then,” “we stayed in the Don and Kuban for two years,” “in 1912.” And words by which you can determine the passage of time: “she lived a long time”, “the girl grew up”, “that cold autumn evening”, “the rest is an unnecessary dream”. Of course, there is a feeling of vanity and mobility of time. In the episode of the farewell evening, Bunin uses only words by which one can determine time and feel it: “after dinner”, “that evening”, “time to sleep”, “stayed a little longer”, “it was so dark at first”, “he left in the morning”. There is a feeling of isolation, everything happens in one place, in one small period of time - the evening. But it is not burdensome, but evokes a feeling of concreteness, reliability, and warm sadness. The specificity and abstractness of time is the antithesis of “one’s own” time and “someone else’s”: the heroine lives in “hers,” but lives in “someone else’s” as if in a dream.

The boundaries of time and the meaning of living life are contradictory. The words of time throughout the story are numerous enumerations, but they are insignificant for the heroine. But the words of time in the episode of the farewell evening, in the sense of living, are a whole life.

The contrast of the narrative is felt immediately in the work. The space of the story seems to expand when the stars appear. They appear in two images: first sparkling in the black sky, and then shining in the brightening sky. This image carries a philosophical meaning. Stars in world culture symbolize eternity, the continuity of life. Bunin emphasizes the contrast: the quick separation and death of the hero - the eternity and injustice of life. In the second part of the story, when the heroine talks about her wanderings, the space lengthens first to Moscow, and then to Eastern and Western Europe: “lived in Moscow”, “lived in Constantinople for a long time”, “Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Paris, Nice...” Measured quiet life the estate turned into endless bustle, the chaos of the heroine’s living space : “I was in Nice for the first time in 1912 - and could I have thought in those happy days what it would one day become for me”.

One of the main means in the formation author's position is a system of images. Bunin's principle of presenting heroes is distinguished by its brightness and unusualness. So none of the characters has a name, the name of the “guest” and “groom” is never mentioned - it is too sacred to trust the sacred letters, the sounds of a favorite name on paper. Name of dear person "He" akin to Blok’s name for the Beautiful Lady in verse - “She”. But the name of someone else’s, not your own, is named - “Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo.” In a surreal sense, it can be considered a source of trouble. Evil is “more expressive” than good - here it has a specific name. These images embodied Bunin's antithesis “one's own - someone else's.”

Bunin introduces a new layer of images into the work: “family - people.” The family is comfortable, kind, happy, and the people are strangers “like destroyers,” thieves of harmony, “like many,” “A lot of people came to us on Peter’s Day”, “Germany declared war on Russia”, “Me too(like mass ) was engaged in trade, sold”, “sailed with a countless crowd of refugees.” The author seems to emphasize, using these images, that his story is not only about what happened to each person personally, but also about what happened to an entire generation. Bunin shows the tragedy of the generation most clearly using the fate of a woman - main character. The image of a woman has always been associated with the image of a homemaker, and family and home are the main values ​​of the time. The events of the First World War, the revolution that followed, the post-revolutionary years - all this fell to the lot of the heroine - a blooming girl when you first met her and an old woman close to death - at the end of the story with her memories similar to life outcome. Her character combines the pride of an emigrant with defiance of fate - isn’t this a trait of the author himself? A lot of things coincide in life: he experienced a revolution, which he could not accept, and Nice, which could not replace Russia.

An important touch in the “girl” image system. She is indifferent to her past: she has become "French". The heroine describes “sleek hands”, “silver marigolds” and “golden laces” his pupil with bitter irony, but without any malice. " Sunny bunny“among the dull colors of “her” narrative, but we don’t feel the warmth - an icy shine. The greatest tragedy of the intelligentsia is shown by Bunin through its image: the loss of the future, lack of demand, the death of Russia in the souls of the children of emigrants.

The metonymic image of soldiers also appears in the story “in folders and unbuttoned overcoats.” This is obvious, the Red Army soldiers, to whom people who did not suit the new time sold their things. The image of the heroine's husband is interesting. He is also not named, but the contrast between the place where they (the heroine and her future husband) met (on the corner of Arbat and the market) and the very laconic but capacious characterization of the husband himself is emphasized "a man of rare, beautiful soul." This perhaps symbolizes the chaotic nature of Russian history at that time. By choosing several characters, Bunin reflected the great tragedy of Russia. Again the contrast - what was and what has become. Thousands of elegant ladies who have turned into "women in bast shoes" And "people, rare, beautiful souls" dressed “worn Cossack zipuns” and those who released "black beards" So gradually, following " ring, cross, fur collar" people were losing their country, and the country was losing its color and pride. The contrast of Bunin's system of images is obvious.

Bunin, as a master of words, brilliantly and masterfully uses antithesis at all levels of language. The most interesting is Bunin's syntax. The language of this work of art is characteristic of the author: it is simple, not replete with elaborate metaphors and epithets. In the first part of the novella (see the boundaries of the parts above), the author uses simple, less common sentences. This gives the impression of flipping through photographs in a family album, just a statement of facts. Offer - frame. Fifteen lines - ten sentences - frames. Let's look through the past. “On the fifteenth of June, Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo.” “On the morning of the sixteenth, newspapers were brought from the post office.” "This is war!" “And now our farewell evening has come.” "Surprisingly early and cold autumn." In the episode of the farewell evening, the author seems to stop time, stretch the space, filling it with events, and the sentences become complex, each of their parts is widespread. This part contains many secondary members of the sentence, contrasting in meaning: « fogged up from the steam window" and "surprisingly early and cold autumn", "on black sky bright And acute sparkled clean icy stars" and "hanging over the table hot lamp". Numerically, this is expressed as follows: there are five sentences in fourteen lines. “That evening we sat quietly, only occasionally exchanging insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding our secret thoughts and feelings.” “Then black branches, sprinkled with mineral-shining stars, began to appear in the brightening sky.” “Left alone, we stayed in the dining room for a little while,” I decided to play solitaire, “he silently walked from corner to corner, then asked: “Do you want to walk a little?” In the next part inner world Bunin reveals the characters using dialogue. Dialogues play a particularly important role in this part. Behind all the stock phrases, remarks about the weather, about “autumn,” there is hidden a second meaning, subtext, unspoken pain. They say one thing and think about something else, they speak only for the sake of words, conversation. The so-called “undercurrent”. And the reader understands that the father’s absent-mindedness, the mother’s diligence, and the heroine’s indifference are feigned even without the author’s direct explanation: “only occasionally they exchanged insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding their secret thoughts and feelings.” “While getting dressed in the hallway, he continued to think about something, with a sweet smile he remembered Fet’s poems:

What a cold autumn

Put on your shawl and hood...

- I don’t remember. It seems like this:

Look between the blackening pines as if a fire is rising...

- What fire?

- Moonrise, of course. There is some charm in these verses: “Put on your shawl and hood...” The times of our grandparents... Oh, my God, my God!

- What you?

- Nothing, dear friend. Still sad. Sad and good. I really, really like you I love".

The final part of the story is dominated by narrative sentences, complicated by homogeneous sentence parts. An unusual feeling of rhythm and overflowing with life events is created: “some kind of ring, then a cross, then a fur collar”, “Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Paris, Nice...”, “worked..., sold..., met..., went out. ..”, “sleek hands with silver nails... gold laces.” Bunin contrasts all this with the heroine’s inner emptiness and fatigue. She states her misfortunes without any emotion. Life overcrowded with events turns into the fact that there is no life. At the level of syntax, the antithesis is clearly expressed: simple - complex sentences, prevalence, saturation of homogeneous members of the sentence and their absence, dialogicity - the heroine’s monologue. Consciousness splits: there is yesterday and now, the past and all life. Syntax tools help with this.

The masterful use of morphological means of language is also noteworthy. So in the first part of the work the verbs are put in the past tense. Memories... The heroine seems to be making her way through the windfall of the past to the present, living her life, growing old, and becoming disillusioned: “got up”, “crossed”, “passed”, “looked”, “lived”, “wandered”. In the last part of the story, the narration is told using present tense forms: “I ask”, “I answer”, “I believe”, “Waiting”. The heroine seems to be awakening. And life ended.

So, main feature The “Bunin” antithesis is that it permeates all levels of the story “Cold Autumn”.

1. "Bunin's" antithesis is a way of expressing the author's position.
2. Bunin's contrast is a way of reflecting reality, creating a picture of the world.
3. The contrast is used to reveal the worldview and philosophical concept of the author.
4. Antithesis as a demonstration of the catastrophic nature of time at the junction of two centuries, revolutions, wars.
5. Contrasting psychology of people at the beginning of the 20th century.
6. Antithesis in Bunin's story “Cold Autumn” is a technique for creating a composition, plot, chronotope, space, system of images, and linguistic features.

The title of the collection “Dark Alleys” evokes images of dilapidated gardens of old estates and overgrown alleys of Moscow parks. Russia, fading into the past, into oblivion.

Bunin is a master who knows how to be unique in the most banal situations, to always remain chaste and pure, because love for him is always unique and holy. In “Dark Alleys,” love is alien to the concept of sin: “After all, cruel tears remain in the soul, that is, memories that are especially cruel and painful if you remember something happy.” Perhaps in the melancholy of the short stories “Dark Alleys” the old pain from the happiness once experienced finds voice.

Bunin is not a philosopher, not a moralist or a psychologist. For him, what the sunset was like when the heroes said goodbye and went somewhere is more important than the purpose of their trip. “He was always alien to both God-seeking and God-fighting.” Therefore there is no point in looking deep meaning in the actions of the heroes. “Cold Autumn” is a story where, in fact, love is not talked about. This work is the only one with a documented precise chronology. The language of the narrative is emphatically dry... An elderly woman, neatly dressed, sits somewhere in a coastal restaurant and, nervously fiddling with her scarf, tells her story to a random interlocutor. There are no emotions anymore - everything has been experienced a long time ago. She speaks equally casually about the death of the groom and about indifference adopted daughter. As a rule, in Bunin the action is concentrated in a short time interval. “Cold Autumn” is not just a segment of life, it is a chronicle of a whole life. Earthly love, cut short by death, but thanks to this death becoming unearthly. And at the end of her stormy life, the heroine suddenly realizes that she had nothing but this love. “Bunin at the time of his joyless “cold autumn”, having survived the revolution and exile, in the days of one of the most terrible wars writes a story about love, just as Boccaccio wrote the Decameron during the plague. For the flashes of this unearthly fire are the light that illuminates the path of humanity.” As one of the heroines of “Dark Alleys” said: “All love is great happiness, even if it is not shared.”

List of used literature

1. Adamovich G.V. Loneliness and freedom. New York, 1985.
2. Alexandrova V.A. “Dark Alleys” // New Journal, 1947 No. 15.
3. Afanasyev V.O. On some features of Bunin’s late lyrical prose // News of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Dept. Literature and Language, 1979, vol. 29 issue 6.
4. Baboreko A.K. Bunin during the war of 1943-1944 // Daugava, 1980 No. 10.
5. Dolgopolov L.O. On some features of the realism of late Bunin // Russian literature, 1973 No. 2.
6. Muromtseva - Bunina V.N. Life of Bunin, Paris, 1958.
7. School of classics. Criticism and comments. Silver Age. 1998.

During the Great Patriotic War, being in exile at that time and living at the Villa “Jeannette” in Grasse, I.A. Bunin created the best of all that he wrote - the cycle of stories “Dark Alleys”. In it, the writer made an unprecedented attempt: he wrote “about the same thing” thirty-eight times - about love. However, the result of this amazing constancy is amazing: each time Bunin talks about love in a new way, and the severity of the reported “details of feeling” is not dulled, but even intensified.

One of best stories cycle is “Cold Autumn”. The writer wrote about him: “Cold Autumn really touches me.” It was created on May 3, 1944. This story stands out from the others. Usually Bunin narrates from a third person, into which the hero’s confession is inserted, his memory of some bright moment in his life, of his love. And in describing feelings, Bunin follows a certain pattern: meeting - sudden rapprochement - a blinding flash of feelings - inevitable separation. And most often the writer talks about a somewhat forbidden love. Here Bunin abandons both the impersonal narrative and the usual scheme. The story is told from the perspective of the heroine, which gives the work a subjective flavor and makes it at the same time unbiased, accurate in expressing the feelings experienced by the characters. But the all-seeing author still exists: he manifests himself in the organization of the material, in the characteristics of the characters, and involuntarily we learn from him in advance about what will happen, we feel it.

The violation of the scheme is that the heroine’s story begins, as it were, from the middle. We learn nothing about how and when love was born. The heroine begins her story with the last thing in the life of two loving people meetings. Before us is already a denouement, a reception not typical for “Dark Alleys”: the lovers and their parents have already agreed on the wedding, and the “inevitable separation” is due to the war in which the hero is killed. This suggests that Bunin in this story writes not only about love.

The plot of the work is quite simple. All events are presented sequentially, one after another. The story opens with an extremely brief exposition: here we learn about the time when the main events took place, a little about the characters in the story. The plot is set by the murder of Ferdinand and the moment when the heroine’s father brings newspapers to the house and reports the beginning of the war. Very smoothly, Bunin brings us to the denouement, which is contained in one sentence:

They killed him (what a strange word!) a month later, in Galicia.

The subsequent narration is already an epilogue (the story of later life narrator): time passes, the heroine’s parents pass away, she lives in Moscow, gets married, and moves to Yekaterinodar. After the death of her husband, she wanders around Europe with the daughter of his nephew, who, together with his wife, drove off to Wrangel and went missing. And now, when her story is told, she lives alone in Nice, remembering that cold autumn evening.

The time frame in the work as a whole is preserved. There is only one place where the chronology is disrupted. In general, the internal time of the story can be divided into three groups: “past first” (cold autumn), “past second” (thirty years of later life) and present (living in Nice, time of storytelling). "The First Past" ends with the message of the hero's death. Here time seems to stop and we are transported to the present:

And now thirty years have passed since then.

At this point, the story is divided into two parts, sharply opposed to each other: a cold autumn evening and “life without him,” which seemed so impossible. Then the chronology of time is restored. And the words of the hero “You live, enjoy the world, then come to me...” at the end of the story, as if returning us to that cold autumn, which is spoken of at the beginning.

Another feature of time in “Cold Autumn” is that not all events that make up plot basis works are covered in equal detail. More than half of the story is occupied by the vicissitudes of one evening, while the events of thirty years of life are listed in one paragraph. When the heroine talks about an autumn evening, time seems to slow down. The reader, along with the characters, is immersed in a state of half-asleep, every breath, every rustle is heard. Time seems to be suffocating.

The space of the story combines two planes: local (heroes and their close environment) and historical and geographical background (Ferdinand, Wrangel, Sarajevo, the First World War, cities and countries of Europe, Ekaterinodar, Novocherkassk, etc.). Thanks to this, the space of the story expands to the limits of the world. At the same time, the historical and geographical background is not only a background, it is not just decoration. All of the named historical, cultural and geographical realities are directly related to the characters in the story and what is happening in their lives. Love drama takes place against the backdrop of the First World War, or rather its beginning. Moreover, it is the cause of the ongoing tragedy:

A lot of people came to us on Peter’s Day - it was my father’s name day, and at dinner he was announced as my fiancé. But on July 19, Germany declared war on Russia...

Bunin's condemnation of the war is obvious. The writer seems to be telling us that this world tragedy is both common tragedy love, because it destroys it, hundreds of people suffer from the fact that war has begun and precisely for the reason that loved ones are separated by it, often forever. This is also confirmed by the fact that Bunin in every possible way draws our attention to the typicality of this situation. This is often stated directly:

I was also engaged in trade, selling, like many sold then...

After, like many wherever I wandered with her!..

There are few characters here, as in any story: the hero, the heroine, her father and mother, her husband and his nephew with his wife and daughter. None of them have names! This confirms the idea expressed above: they are not specific people, they are one of those who suffered first from the First World War, and then from the civil war.

To convey the internal state of the characters, “secret psychologism” is used. Very often Bunin uses words with the meaning of indifference, calmness: “insignificant”, “exaggeratedly calm” words, “feigned simplicity”, “looked absentmindedly”, “sighed lightly”, “responded indifferently” and others. This shows subtle Bunin's psychologism. The heroes try to hide their excitement, which is growing every minute. We are witnessing a great tragedy. There is silence all around, but it is dead. Everyone understands and feels that this is their last meeting, this evening - and this will never happen again, nothing will happen next. This makes it both “touching and creepy”, “sad and good”. The hero is almost sure that he will never return to this house, which is why he is so sensitive to everything that happens around him: he notices that “the windows of the house shine very specially, like autumn,” the sparkle of her eyes, “the very winter air.” He walks from corner to corner, she decided to play solitaire. The conversation doesn't go well. Emotional tragedy reaches its climax.

The landscape also has a dramatic tone. Approaching the balcony door, the heroine sees how “ice stars” sparkle “brightly and sharply” “in the garden, in the black sky”; going out into the garden - “in the brightening sky there are black branches, showered with minerally shining stars.” On the morning of his departure, everything around is joyful, sunny, sparkling with frost on the grass. And the house remains empty - forever. And one senses an “amazing incompatibility” between them (the characters in the story) and the nature around them. It is no coincidence that the pines from Fet’s poem, which the hero recalls, become “blackening” (For Fet – “dormant”). Bunin condemns the war. I love it. It disrupts the natural order of things, destroys the connections between man and nature, makes the heart blacken and kills love.

But this is not the most important thing in the story “Cold Autumn”.

Leo Tolstoy once said to Bunin: “There is no happiness in life, there are only lightnings of it - appreciate them, live by them.” The hero, leaving for the front, asked the heroine to live and be happy in the world (if he was killed). Was there joy in her life? She herself answers this question: there was “only that cold autumn evening,” and that’s all, “the rest is an unnecessary dream.” And yet this evening “still happened.” And the past years of her life, in spite of everything, seem to her “that magical, incomprehensible, incomprehensible neither to the mind nor to the heart, which is called the past.” That painfully anxious “cold autumn” was the very dawn of happiness that Tolstoy advised to appreciate.

Whatever happened in a person’s life, it “still happened”; It is precisely this that is the magical past; it is precisely this that the memory preserves memories of.

Preparing for a review of Bunin’s story “Cold Autumn”.

This work from the “Dark Alleys” series was written in May 1944. The plot as such is difficult to see: one evening and compressed events spanning 30 years. The conflict of this story: the love of the heroes and the obstacles in their path. Here love is death. The conflict between love and death begins when the word “war” is heard at the tea table. Development - the engagement of the heroes, which coincides with the father's name day. An engagement is announced - war is declared. The farewell party arrives, the hero comes to say goodbye, the wedding is postponed until spring (the heroes do not expect the war to last long). The culmination of the story is the words of the hero: “You live, enjoy the world, then come to me.” Denouement - the heroine has carried her love through 30 years, she perceives death as a quick meeting with her beloved.

Typical of Bunin's stories is that the heroes have no names. The pronouns HE and SHE imply the destinies of many. Not in the story portrait characteristics(Who else but the heroine would describe her lover, but this is not the case). In addition, the story is full of details: “eyes shining with tears” (of the heroine), “glasses” (of mother), “newspaper”, “cigarette” (of father) - which is typical for Bunin’s stories.

The central episode of the story is the farewell evening. Each of the characters at this moment protects the feelings of the other. Everyone is outwardly calm. The mask of calm disappears at the moment of farewell in the garden.

Bunin reveals the character of the main character through his speech: this young man is educated, delicate, and caring. The heroine in Bunin's portrayal is infantile. At the moment of farewell, HE reads Fet’s poems (the text of which is distorted) in order to emotionally reinforce the general atmosphere. The heroine knows nothing about poetry. In this situation, she has no time for her: a few more minutes and they will part.

This story has the same plot outline, problems, and the short duration of love, but at the same time it is not similar to any of the stories in the “Dark Alleys” series: in 22 stories the narration is told from an impersonal person, and only in “Cold Autumn” is the narration led by the heroine.

The dates are noteworthy, among which one can note the exact dates - 1914 (historical similarity - the murder of Ferdinand), that year is a periphrase, some dates - one can only guess about them (the author does not mention anything about 1917, the years of the Civil War).

The story can be divided into 2 compositional parts: before the death and after the death of the hero.

TIME

Art space

Characters

The heroine is a naive girl.

She lost everything, but saved herself: his will is her journey through torment, which she speaks about calmly, indifferently; she is no more than 50 years old, but her voice sounds like the voice of an old woman, because everything remainsthere in the past .

Artistic details

Glasses, newspaper (belong to loved ones)

Silk bag, golden icon (symbolizes the present)

Cape (desire to hug)

Basement, corner of Arbat and market (all of Russia has turned into a market)

There are no details related to loved ones.

The gold cord used to tie the candies and the satin paper are symbols of unreal life and tinsel.

Bast shoes, zipun - the fate of millions.

Conclusion: BEFORE – security, AFTER – universal loneliness.

The memory motif sounds from the beginning to the end of the story. Memory - the only possibility preserving the features of a loved one, but at the same time, memory is a duty for the heroine: “I lived, I was happy, now I’ll come back soon.”

The story “Cold Autumn” shows not only the death of the hero, but also the death of Russia, which we lost. Bunin makes the reader think about how early the horror that they had to endure fell on the souls of the heroes.