As you understand the title of the story, Cold Autumn. Analysis of “Cold Autumn” by I.A. Bunin

What a cold autumn!
Put on your shawl and hood...

Look - between the blackening pines
It's like a fire is rising...

Review of Bunin's story " Cold autumn" from the cycle " Dark alleys». This cycle Ivan Bunin wrote in exile when he was seventy years old. Despite the fact that Bunin spent a long time in exile, the writer did not lose the sharpness of the Russian language. This can be seen in this series of stories. All the stories are dedicated to love, only in each of them the author showed different facets of love. In this cycle there is love, both as carnal attraction and as sublime feeling. Compositionally, the story “Cold Autumn” is divided into two parts. Before and after the death of a lover main character. The line dividing the story and the heroine’s life into two parts is drawn very clearly and clearly. The heroine talks about her past in such a way that it seems to the reader that all events are happening at the present moment. This illusion arises due to the fact that the author describes everything in such small detail that a whole picture appears before the reader’s eyes, having shape, color and sound. The story “Cold Autumn,” in my opinion, can be called historical, although the story in this story has been changed. In the first part of the story, events develop rapidly, reaching the climax of the story. On June fifteenth, the crown prince was killed, on Peter's Day at dinner he was announced as the main character's fiancé, and on July nineteenth Germany declared war... In my opinion, it was no coincidence that the author put an ellipsis in this place. He is announced as the groom and immediately an idyll of happy life is pictured in the reader’s head. family life, but in the next phrase war is declared. And all dreams and hopes collapse in an instant. Then the author focuses on the farewell party. He was called to the front. In September he comes to say goodbye before leaving. This evening the father of the bride pronounces the phrase: - Surprisingly early and cold autumn! This phrase is pronounced as a statement of fact. At the end of the story, the heroine will say that that cold autumn, that autumn evening is all she had in her life. This evening is described in great detail, every action of the characters is described.

The story “Cold Autumn” was written by I.A. Bunin in 1944. This hard times for the whole world as a whole. The Second World War is going on. She greatly influenced Bunin's life. He, already in exile from the USSR in France, was forced to leave Paris, as German troops entered it.

The action of the story begins at the beginning of the First World War, into which Russia was drawn into by European intrigues. Betrothed couples have their families destroyed because of the war. He goes to war. And from their love they have only one autumn evening left. This is the evening of farewell. He dies in the war. After the death of her parents, she sells the remains of her property at the market, where she meets an elderly retired military man, whom she marries and with whom she goes to Kuban. They lived in the Kuban and Don for two years and during a hurricane they escaped to Turkey. Her husband dies on the ship from typhus. She had only three close people: her husband’s nephew, his wife and their seven-month-old daughter. The nephew and his wife went missing after leaving for Crimea. And she was left with the girl in her arms. It repeats Bunin's emigration route (Constantinople-Sofia-Belgrade-Paris). The girl grows up and remains in Paris. The main character moves to Nice, located not far from Bunin’s place of residence during the Nazi occupation of France. She understands that her life has passed “like an unnecessary dream.” My whole life except the autumn evening of farewell to my beloved. This evening is all that happened in her life. And she feels that she will soon die and thus be reunited with him.

Love can have such power that the death of a loved one leads to devastation in the lover's life. And this is tantamount to death during life.

In this story one can hear a protest against war, as a weapon of mass murder of people and as the most terrible phenomenon of life. In Cold Autumn, Bunin draws an analogy between the main character and himself. He himself lived in a foreign land for more than thirty years. And under the conditions of the fascist occupation, Bunin wrote “Dark Alleys” - a story about love.

Question No. 26

The theme of nature in the lyrics of F.I. Tyutchev and A.A. Feta

A. A. Fet– representative of “pure art” or “art for art’s sake.” In Russian poetry it is difficult to find a poet more “major” than him. The poet relied on the philosophy of Schopenhauer - a philosopher who denied the role of reason, art is unconscious creativity, a gift of God, the artist’s goal is beauty. Beauty is nature and love, philosophical reflections about them. Nature and love are the main themes of Fet's lyrics.

The poem “I came to you with greetings...” became a kind of poetic manifesto of Fet. Three poetic subjects - nature, love and song - are closely interconnected, penetrate each other, forming Fet’s universe of beauty. Using the technique of personification, Fet animates nature, it lives with him: “the forest woke up,” “the sun rose.” And the lyrical hero is full of thirst for love and creativity.

Fet’s impressions of the world around him are conveyed in vivid images: “A fire is blazing in the forest with the bright sun...”:

A fire blazes in the forest with the bright sun,

And, shrinking, the juniper cracks;

A choir crowded like drunken giants,

Flushed, the spruce tree staggers.

It seems that a hurricane is raging in the forest, shaking the mighty trees, but then you become more and more convinced that the night depicted in the poem is quiet and windless. It turns out that it is just the glare from the fire that makes the trees appear to be shaking. But it was precisely this first impression, and not the giant spruce trees themselves, that the poet sought to capture.

Fet consciously depicts not the object itself, but the impression that this object makes. He is not interested in details and details, he is not attracted to motionless, complete forms, he strives to convey the variability of nature, movement human soul:

Every bush was buzzing with bees,

Happiness weighed on my heart,

I trembled, so that from timid lips

Your confession didn’t go away...

He is helped to solve this creative task by unique visual means: not a clear line, but blurred contours, not color contrast, but shades, halftones, imperceptibly turning into one another. The poet reproduces in words not an object, but an impression. We first encounter such a phenomenon in Russian literature in Fet.

The poet does not so much liken nature to man as fill it with human emotions. Fet's poems are full of aromas, the smell of herbs, “fragrant nights”, “fragrant dawns”:

Your luxurious wreath is fresh and fragrant,

You can smell the incense of all the flowers in it...

But sometimes the poet still manages to stop the moment, and then the poem creates a picture of a frozen world:

The mirror moon floats across the azure desert,

The steppe grasses are covered with evening moisture,

The speeches are abrupt, the heart is again more superstitious,

Long shadows in the distance sank into the hollow.

Here, each line captures a brief, complete impression, and there is no logical connection between these impressions.

In the poem “Whisper, timid breathing...” the rapid change of static pictures gives the verse amazing dynamism, airiness, and gives the poet the opportunity to depict the subtlest transitions from one state to another. Without a single verb, only short nominal sentences, like an artist - with bold strokes, Fet conveys an intense lyrical experience.

The poem has a specific plot: it describes a meeting of lovers in the garden. In just 12 lines, the author managed to express a whole bouquet of feelings and subtly convey all the shades of experiences. The poet does not depict in detail the development of relationships, but recreates only the most important moments of this great feeling.

This poem perfectly conveys momentary sensations, and, alternating them, Fet conveys the state of the characters, the flow of the night, the consonance of nature with the human soul, and the happiness of love. Lyrical hero strives to “stop the moment”, to capture the most precious and sweet moments of communication with his beloved, with beauty, with nature, with God himself: the whisper and breath of his beloved, the sounds of a stream flowing past, the first timid rays of the approaching dawn, his own delight and rapture.

Thus, the main themes of Fet’s lyrics – nature and love – seem to be fused together. It is in them, as in a single melody, that all the beauty of the world, all the joy and charm of existence are united.

TYUTCHIV Being a contemporary of Pushkin, F. I. Tyutchev, nevertheless, was ideologically connected with another generation - the generation of “philosophical people”, who sought not so much to actively intervene in life as to comprehend it. This penchant for understanding the surrounding world and self-knowledge led Tyutchev to a completely original philosophical and poetic concept.

Tyutchev's lyrics can be thematically presented as philosophical, civil, landscape and love. However, these themes are very closely intertwined in each poem, where a passionate feeling gives rise to a deep philosophical thought about the existence of nature and the universe, about the connection of human existence with universal life, about love, life and death, about human destiny and the historical destinies of Russia.

Tyutchev's worldview is characterized by the perception of the world as a dual substance. The ideal and the demonic are two principles that are in constant struggle. It is impossible for life to exist if one of the principles is missing, because there must be balance in everything. So, for example, in the poem “Day and Night” these two states of nature are contrasted with each other:

Day - this brilliant cover -

Day - earthly revival,

Healing for sick souls,

Friend of man and the gods.

Tyutchev's day is filled with life, joy and boundless happiness. But he is only an illusion, a ghostly cover thrown over the abyss. The night has a completely different character:

And the abyss is laid bare to us,

With your fears and darkness,

And there are no barriers between her and us:

This is why the night is scary for us.

The image of the abyss is inextricably linked with the image of the night; this abyss is that primordial chaos from which everything came and into which everything will go. It attracts and frightens at the same time. Night leaves a person alone not only with cosmic darkness, but also alone with himself. The night world seems true to Tyutchev, because true peace, in his opinion, is incomprehensible, and it is the night that allows a person to touch the secrets of the universe and his own soul. The day is dear to the human heart because it is simple and understandable. Night gives rise to a feeling of loneliness, being lost in space, helplessness in the face of unknown forces. This is precisely, according to Tyutchev, the true position of man in this world. Maybe that’s why he calls the night “holy.”

The quatrain “The Last Cataclysm” prophesies the last hour of nature in grandiose images heralding the end of the old world order:

When nature's last hour strikes,

The composition of the parts of the earth will collapse:

Everything visible will be covered by waters again,

And God's face will be depicted in them.

Tyutchev's poetry shows that the new society never emerged from the state of “chaos.” Modern man has not fulfilled his mission to the world; he has not allowed the world to ascend with him to beauty, to reason. Therefore, the poet has many poems in which a person is, as it were, recalled back into the elements as having failed in his own role.

Poems "Silentium!" (Silence) - a complaint about the isolation, the hopelessness in which our soul resides:

Be silent, hide and hide

And your feelings and dreams...

The true life of a person is the life of his soul:

Just know how to live within yourself -

Eat the whole world in your soul

Mysteriously magical thoughts...

It is no coincidence that images of a starry night and clean underground springs are associated with inner life, and images of daylight and external noise are associated with external life. The world of human feelings and thoughts is a true world, but unknowable. As soon as a thought takes on verbal form, it is instantly distorted: “A thought expressed is a lie.”

Tyutchev tries to view things in contradiction. In the poem "Twins" he writes:

There are twins - for earth-born

Two deities - Death and Sleep...

Tyutchev’s twins are not doubles, they do not echo each other, one is feminine, the other is masculine, each has its own meaning; They coincide with each other, but they are also at enmity. For Tyutchev, it was natural to find polar forces everywhere, united and yet dual, consistent with each other and turned against each other.

“Nature”, “elements”, “chaos” on the one hand, space on the other. These are perhaps the most important of the polarities that Tyutchev reflected in his poetry. Separating them, he penetrates deeper into the unity of nature in order to again bring together what is divided.

Meshcheryakova Nadezhda.

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Analysis of the story “Cold Autumn” by I. A. Bunin.

Before us is the story of I. A. Bunin, which, among his other works, has become classic Russian literature.

The writer turns to seemingly ordinary types of human characters in order to, through them and their experiences, reveal the tragedy of an entire era. Comprehensiveness and accuracy of every word, phrase ( character traits Bunin's stories) appeared especially clearly in the story “Cold Autumn”. The title is ambiguous: on the one hand, it specifically names the time of year when the events of the story unfolded, but in a figurative sense, “cold autumn,” as in “ clean monday“- this is a period of time that is the most important in the lives of the heroes, this is also a state of mind.

The story is told from the perspective of the main character.

The historical framework of the story is wide: it covers the events of the First World War, the revolution that followed it, and the post-revolutionary years. All this befell the heroine - a blooming girl at the beginning of the story and an old woman close to death at the end. Before us are her memories, similar to a generalizing life outcome . From the very beginning, events of global significance are closely connected with the personal fate of the characters: “war breaks into the sphere of “peace.” “...at dinner he was announced as my fiancé. But on July 19, Germany declared war on Russia...” The heroes, anticipating trouble, but not realizing its true scale, still live according to a peaceful regime - calm both internally and externally. “Father came out of the office and cheerfully announced: “Well, my friends, it’s war! The Austrian crown prince was killed in Sarajevo! This is war! - this is how the war entered the lives of Russian families in the hot summer of 1914. But then the “cold autumn” comes - and in front of us it is as if the same, but in fact different people. Bunin talks about their inner world through dialogues, which play a particularly important role in the first part of the work. Behind all the stock phrases, remarks about the weather, about “autumn,” there is hidden a second meaning, subtext, unspoken pain. They say one thing but think about something else, they speak only for the sake of maintaining a conversation. A completely Chekhovian technique - the so-called “undercurrent”. And the fact that the father’s absent-mindedness, the mother’s diligence (like a drowning man grabs a “silk bag” at a straw), and the heroine’s indifference are feigned, the reader understands even without the author’s direct explanation: “only occasionally they exchanged insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding their secret thoughts and feelings". Over tea, anxiety grows in people’s souls, a clear and inevitable premonition of a thunderstorm; that very “fire rises” - the specter of war looms ahead. In the face of trouble, secrecy increases tenfold: “My soul became increasingly heavier, I responded with indifference.” The heavier it is inside, the more indifferent the heroes become outwardly, avoiding explanations, as if everything is easier for them, until the fatal words are spoken, then the danger is foggier, the hope is brighter. It is no coincidence that the hero turns to the past, nostalgic notes sound: “The times of our grandparents.” The heroes yearn for a time of peace, when they can put on “a shawl and a bonnet” and, hugging each other, take a calm walk after tea. Now this way of life is collapsing, and the heroes are desperately trying to retain at least the impression, the memory of it, quoting Fet. They notice how the windows “shine” in a very autumnal way, how “minerally” the stars sparkle (these expressions take on a metaphorical connotation). And we see what a huge role the spoken word plays. Until the groom performed the fateful “If they kill me.” The heroine did not fully understand the horror of what was coming. “And the stone word fell” (A. Akhmatova). But, frightened even by the thought, she drives it away - after all, her beloved is still nearby. Bunin, with the precision of a psychologist, reveals the souls of the characters with the help of replicas.

As always, nature plays an important role in Bunin. Starting from the title, “Cold Autumn” dominates the narrative, sounding like a refrain in the words of the characters. The “joyful, sunny, sparkling with frost” morning contrasts with the internal state of people. The “ice stars” sparkle mercilessly “brightly and sharply.” The eyes “shine” like stars. Nature helps us feel more deeply the drama of human hearts. From the very beginning, the reader already knows that the hero will die, because everything around indicates this - and above all, the cold is a harbinger of death. "Are you cold?" - asks the hero, and then, without any transition: “If they kill me, will you... not immediately forget me?” He is still alive, but the bride is already feeling cold. Premonitions are from there, from another world. “I’ll be alive, I’ll always remember this evening,” he says, and the heroine, as if she already knows that she will have to remember - that’s why she remembers the smallest details: “Swiss cape”, “black branches”, tilt of the head...

The fact that the main character traits of the hero are generosity, selflessness and courage is evidenced by his remark, similar to a poetic line, sounding soulful and touching, but without any pathos: “Live, enjoy the world.”

And the heroine? Without any emotion, sentimental lamentations and sobs, she tells her story. But it is not callousness, but perseverance, courage and nobility that are hidden behind this secrecy. We see the subtlety of feelings from the scene of separation - something that makes her similar to Natasha Rostova when she was waiting for Prince Andrei. Her story is dominated by narrative sentences; she meticulously, down to the smallest detail, describes the main evening of her life. Doesn’t say “I cried,” but notes that a friend said: “How my eyes sparkle.” He talks about misfortunes without self-pity. He describes his pupil’s “sleek hands”, “silver marigolds”, “golden laces” with bitter irony, but without any malice. Her character combines the pride of an emigrant with resignation to fate - isn’t this a trait of the author himself? There is a lot in their lives that coincides: both he experienced a revolution, which he could not accept, and Nice, which could never replace Russia. The French girl shows the features of the younger generation, a generation without a homeland. By choosing several characters, Bunin reflected great tragedy Russia. Thousands of elegant ladies who have turned into “women in bast shoes.” And “people of rare, beautiful souls” who wore “worn Cossack zipuns” and let down “black beards.” So gradually, following the “ring, cross, fur collar,” people lost their country, and the country lost its color and pride. The ring composition of the story closes the circle of the heroine’s life: it’s time for her to “go”, to return. The story begins with a description of an “autumn evening”, ends with a memory of it, and the sad phrase sounds as a refrain: “You live, enjoy the world, then come to me.” We suddenly learn that the heroine lived only one evening in her life - that same cold autumn evening. And it becomes clear why she spoke in such an essentially dry, hurried, indifferent tone about everything that happened after - after all, it was all just an “unnecessary dream.” The soul died along with that evening, and the woman looks at the remaining years as at someone else’s life, “as the soul looks from above at the body they abandoned” (F. Tyutchev). Real love according to Bunin - love is a flash, love is a moment - triumphs in this story too. Bunin's love constantly ends on the most seemingly bright and joyful note. She is hampered by circumstances - sometimes tragic, as in the story “Cold Autumn”. I remember the story “Rusya”, where the hero really lived only for one summer. And circumstances intervene not by chance - they “stop the moment” before love is vulgarized, does not die, so that in the heroine’s memory “not a slab, not a crucifix” is preserved, but the same “shining gaze” full of “love and youth”, so that triumph life-affirming beginning, “ardent faith” was preserved.

Fet’s poem runs through the entire story - the same technique as in the story “Dark Alleys”.

Having survived two world wars, revolution and emigration, Nobel laureate, Russian writer Ivan Bunin, at seventy-four years old, creates a cycle of stories called “Dark Alleys.” All his works are dedicated to one eternal theme- love.

The collection consists of 38 stories; among the rest, a story called “Cold Autumn” stands out. Love is presented here as an invisible ideal, a feeling that the heroine carries throughout her life. The story is read in one breath, leaving behind a feeling of lost love and faith in the immortality of the soul.

Bunin himself singled out this story from the rest. The story begins as if from the middle. A noble family consisting of a father, mother and daughter celebrates the name day of the head of the family on Peter's Day. Among the guests is the future groom of the main character. The girl's father proudly announces his daughter's engagement, but a few days later everything changes: the newspaper publishes sensational news - Crown Prince Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo, the situation in the world has become tense, war is coming.

It’s late, the parents tactfully leave the young couple alone and go to bed. The lovers do not know how to calm down the excitement. For some reason, the girl wants to play solitaire (usually in anxious moments you want to do something ordinary), but the young man cannot sit still. Reciting Fet's poems, they go out into the courtyard. The culmination of this part of the story is the kiss and the words of the groom that if he is killed, let her live, enjoy life, and then come to him...

Dramatic events in the story “Cold Autumn”

If you don’t have enough time to read, check out the summary of “Cold Autumn” by Bunin. The description is short, so it will not be difficult to read it to the end.

A month later he was killed, this “strange word” constantly rings in her ears. The author is abruptly transported to the future and describes the state of the heroine thirty years later. This is a middle-aged woman who was destined to go through all the circles of hell, like many who did not accept the revolution. Like everyone else, she was quietly selling some of her property to soldiers in hats and unbuttoned overcoats (the author emphasizes this important detail), and suddenly she met a retired military man, a man of rare spiritual beauty. He was much older than her, so he soon proposed marriage.

Like many, they emigrated, dressed in peasant clothes, to Yekaterinodar and lived there for two years. After the retreat of the whites, they decided to sail to Turkey, and their husband’s nephew, his young wife and seven-month-old daughter fled with them. On the way, the husband died of typhus, the nephew and his wife joined Wrangel’s army, leaving their daughter and going missing.

The hardships of emigration

Next story ( summary Bunin's "Cold Autumn" is presented in the article) becomes tragic. The heroine had to work hard, wandering all over Europe, to earn a living for herself and the girl. She received nothing in gratitude. The adopted daughter turned out to be a “real Frenchwoman”: she got a job in a Parisian chocolate store, turned into a sleek young woman and completely forgot about the existence of her guardian, who had to beg in Nice. The heroine does not condemn anyone, this is noticeable in her words: at the end of the story she says that she has lived, rejoiced, and all that remains is a meeting with her beloved.

Analysis of Bunin's "Cold Autumn"

For the most part, the writer presents his works according to the usual scheme, in the third person, starting with the protagonist’s memories of tremulous moments in life, outbursts of feelings and inevitable separation.

In the story “Cold Autumn” Bunin changes the chronology of events.

The narration is told from the perspective of the heroine, this gives the story an emotional overtones. The reader does not know when she met her fiancé, but it is already clear that there are feelings between them, so at the name day her father announces their engagement. Arriving to say goodbye to the bride's house, the hero feels that this is the last meeting. Bunin, in brief but succinct images, describes the heroes’ last moments together. The restraint of the characters contrasts with the excitement they experienced. The words “responded indifferently,” “feigned a sigh,” “looked absentmindedly,” and so on generally characterize the aristocrats of that time, among whom it was not customary to talk excessively about feelings.

The hero understands that this is his last meeting with his beloved, so he tries to capture in his memory everything connected with his beloved, including nature. He is “sad and good”, “terrible and touching”, he is afraid of the unknown, but bravely goes to lay down his life for “his friends”.

Anthem of love

Bunin touched upon the theme of “Cold Autumn” already in adulthood, having gone through all the hardships of life and receiving international recognition.

The “Dark Alleys” cycle is a hymn to love, not only platonic, but also physical. The works in the collection are more poetry than prose. There are no impressive battle scenes in the story; Bunin considers the problem of “Cold Autumn” - a dramatic story about love - to be war, which destroys the destinies of people, creating unbearable conditions for them, and those who unleash it are responsible for the future. Russian emigrant writer Ivan Bunin writes about this.

The rest of the characters in the story "Cold Autumn"

The love drama develops against the backdrop of the First World War. Time in the story seems to slow down when it comes to the main characters. Most of the description is devoted to young people, rather, to one evening in their lives. The remaining thirty years are contained in one paragraph. Minor characters The story “Cold Autumn” by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is described by two or three features. The girl's father, mother, the landlady who sheltered and abused her, the main character's husband, and even her nephew and his young wife are shown in a tragic light. Another characteristic feature the work is that no one has names.

And this is symbolic. Bunin's heroes are collective images of that time. They are not specific people, but those who suffered during the First World War, and later the Civil War.

Two main parts of the story

Analyzing Bunin’s “Cold Autumn” you understand that the story is divided into two parts: local and historical. The local part involves heroes, their problems, their close circle, and the historical part includes such names and terms as Ferdinand, World War I, European cities and countries, for example, Paris, Nice, Turkey, France, Ekaterinodar, Crimea, Novocherkassk and so on. . This technique immerses the reader in a specific era. Using the example of one family, you can deeply understand the state of people of that time. It is obvious that the writer condemns war and the destructive force it brings. Not by chance best books and films about war are written and filmed without war scenes. Thus, the film “Belorussky Station” is a picture about the fate of people who survived the Great Patriotic War. The film is considered a masterpiece of Russian cinema, although it completely lacks battle scenes.

Final part

Once upon a time, the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy told Ivan Alekseevich Bunin that there is no happiness in life, there are only moments, lightnings of this feeling that should be cherished, appreciated and lived by. The hero of the story “Cold Autumn,” leaving for the front, asked his beloved to live and be happy in the world, even if he was killed. But was there happiness in her life that she saw and experienced? The heroine herself answers this question: there was only one cold autumn day when she was truly happy. The rest seems like an unnecessary dream to her. But this evening happened, the memories of it warmed her soul and gave her strength to live without despair.

No matter what happened in a person’s life, these events were there and gave experience and wisdom. Everyone deserves what they dream of. A woman with a difficult fate was happy because her life was illuminated by the lightning of memories.

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 we trace Bunin’s creative activity, we will see that his “ 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 of the deep wounds that it 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 troubled times, a tragedy of reason in the mad flame of revolutionary upheavals.

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 - the 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 very-very 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 erased emotional perception over the 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.” It's 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...” The measured, calm life on 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 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 a generation most clearly using the fate of a woman - the 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 she first met her and an old woman close to death - at the end of the story with her memories, similar to the outcome of her life. 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. “A 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, 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 creates 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 do not remember. It seems so:

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: “stood 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, the main feature of 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, it is pointless to look for 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 the indifference of her adopted daughter. As a rule, Bunin's 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, during 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, v. 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.