Ivan Bunin's story "Cold Autumn" can be captured at one glance, like a picture, and at the same time, its meaning is deeper than a simple description. Why does the hero only quote the first stanza of the poem? Why does the heroine remember a single evening for thirty years? We bring to your attention the experience of carefully reading the story "Cold Autumn".
Feral children - human children who grew up in conditions of extreme social isolation - without contact with people from an early age - and practically did not feel care and love from another person, had no experience of social behavior and communication. Such children, abandoned by their parents, are raised by animals or live in isolation.
If, before isolation from society, children had some skills of social behavior, the process of their rehabilitation is much easier. Those who lived in animal society for the first 3.5-6 years of life practically cannot master the human language, walk upright, communicate meaningfully with other people, even despite the years later spent in human society, where they received enough care. This once again shows how important the first years of life are for the development of a child.
These children are not human. If a person has not spoken before the age of six, then it is unlikely that he will speak. That is, who we are is a product of our culture, and culture is what we remember.
A person cannot always formulate what he thinks about. There are “forethoughts” or emotions when you read about it later and say that you thought so, but could not formulate it. In fact, it was a "thought-child", there was no adult thought yet. And literature and art help to find a form for this thought.
Memory in relation to a person is not an accurate word, especially now when the word is firmly connected with memory a computer... When a person remembers something, assimilates information, then the memory changes him, and the computer does not change from what is entered into his memory.
Many great writers thought about memory. For example, V.V. Nabokov in the work "Memory, Speak". Camus also gives cause for deep reflection. The hero of his work "The Stranger" has been in solitary confinement in prison for a long time. Here's how he felt after a certain time:
“Yes, I had to endure some troubles, but I was not very unhappy. The most important thing, I will say again, was to kill time. But since I learned to remember, I have not been bored. Sometimes I remembered my bedroom: I imagined myself leaving one corner and walking across the room, returning back; I went over in my mind everything that I met on my way. I was quick to deal with it in the beginning. But each time the journey took more and more time. I remembered not only a wardrobe, a table or a shelf, but all the things that were there, and I drew every thing for myself in all the details: color and material, inlay pattern, crack, chipped edge. I tried in every possible way not to lose the thread of my inventory, not to forget a single item. Within a few weeks, I could spend hours describing everything in my bedroom. The more I thought about it, the more forgotten or neglected things came to my mind. And then I realized that a person who lived in the world for at least one day could easily spend a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories not to get bored. In a sense, it was beneficial. "
A. Camus. "Outsider"
In the story "Cold Autumn" you can just see the process of forming thoughts and memory. The protagonist quotes Fet's verses:
“While dressing in the hallway, he continued to think something, with a sweet smile he recalled Fet's verses:
What a cold autumn!
Put on your shawl and hood ...
- I don't remember, it seems like this:
Look - among the blackening pines
As if a fire is rising ... "
I.A. Bunin. "Cold autumn"
He helps his future wife to make the last evening of their meeting so bright and strong that at the end of her life she says:
“But, remembering everything that I have experienced since then, I always ask myself: yes, but what happened in my life? And I answer myself: only that cold autumn evening. Did he ever exist? It was all the same. And this is all that was in my life - the rest is an unnecessary dream. "
I.A. Bunin. "Cold autumn"
Remember the beginning of the piece:
“In June of that year, he stayed with us at our estate - he was always considered our own man: his late father was a friend and neighbor of my father. On June 15, Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo. On the morning of the sixteenth, the newspapers were brought from the post office. Father left the office with a Moscow evening newspaper in his hands into the dining room, where he, mother and I were still sitting at the tea table, and said:
- Well, my friends, war! The Austrian crown prince was killed in Sarajevo. This is war!
On Petrov's day, a lot of people came to us — it was my father’s name day — and at dinner he was declared my fiance. But on July 19, Germany declared war on Russia ...
In September, he came to us only for a day - to say goodbye before leaving for the front (everyone then thought that the war would end soon, and our wedding was postponed until spring). And then came our farewell evening. After supper, as usual, a samovar was served, and, looking at the windows fogged up from its steam, the father said:
- Surprisingly early and cold autumn!
We sat quiet that evening, only occasionally exchanging insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding our secret thoughts and feelings. With feigned simplicity, my father also said about autumn. I went to the balcony door and wiped the glass with a handkerchief: in the garden, in the black sky, pure ice stars sparkled brightly and sharply ".
I.A. Bunin. "Cold autumn"
This is a story about how poems help to see the beauty of the world, how they create a mood, how they help to live through difficult moments.
The main character is a very talented person, he knows how to see and live what is needed. Note that he only quotes the first stanza of Fet's poem. Perhaps he remembered the second stanza, but he quoted the first. Because it is felt that his beloved has not yet developed as a person, has not had time to fall in love, she is still only in anticipation of the emotions that will arise in her. He understands that she is not yet ready for this love. He saw her coldness, lack of inclusion in the present moment. Therefore, he only quotes the first stanza. And the second one sounds like this:
"The shining of the northern night
I remember always near you
And phosphoric eyes shine,
They just don’t warm me. ”
The hero, feeling his chosen one, recalls the second stanza, but, as a delicate person, he quotes the first. He has a presentiment that he will be her only one, he does not need to rush. For the time being, his love is enough for their happiness. In her coldness, he is able to see beauty.
Bunin has wonderful poems:
We always only remember happiness
And happiness is everywhere. Maybe it
This autumn garden behind the barn
And clean air pouring through the window.
In the bottomless sky with a light white edge
A cloud rises, shines. For a long time
I follow him ... We see little, we know
And happiness is given only to those who know.
The window is open. Squeaked and sat down
There is a bird on the windowsill. And from books
I look away for a moment, tired.
The day is getting dark, the sky is empty
The rumble of a thresher is heard in the threshing floor ...
I see, I hear, I'm happy. Everything is in me.
I.A. Bunin. "Evening"
The hero of the story understands how to feel happiness, enjoy it.
The heroine says a banal thing, and he guesses her thoughts from this banality:
“I thought:“ What if they really kill? And will I really forget it in some short time - after all, everything is forgotten in the end? ” And hastily answered, frightened by her thought:
- Do not say that! I will not survive your death!
After a pause, he said slowly:
“Well, if they kill you, I'll wait for you there. You live, rejoice in the world, then come to me. "
I.A. Bunin. "Cold autumn"
The fact that someone will not survive someone's death is usually said when they do not want to communicate on this important topic for the interlocutor. For example, a person knows that he is terminally ill and says that he will soon die. He wants to talk about this topic, even though it is difficult. And often loved ones leave this conversation, despite the fact that it is their support that is needed.
In the story, we see that due to her youth, the heroine does not know how to talk about this topic. Then she herself says that she survived the loss and lived on. She had a long life, but he was the only one for her - this evening. And this evening was designed by the hero himself with his quote, by what he said:
“- Look how the windows of the house shine in a very special way, in an autumn way. I will live, I will forever remember this evening ... "
I.A. Bunin. "Cold autumn"
Pay attention to the poetry of his phrase.
If we imagine that he would not have turned out to be such a person, would not have quoted Fet, would not express feelings in poetry, then this evening would not have remained in her memory for the rest of her life. This example clearly shows how important literature is, how it helps.
Bunin, like his heroine, died in exile.
Bunin was very upset about what happened to Russia. Probably, before his death, he dreamed of joining there with her, killed in the wars:
“Can we forget our Motherland? Can a person forget his Motherland? She is in the shower. I am a very Russian person. It does not disappear over the years. "
I.A. Bunin
Homeland
Under a deadly leaden sky
The winter day is darkening gloomily,
And there is no end to the pine forests,
And far from the villages.
One mist of milky blue
Like someone's meek sorrow
Over this snowy desert
Softens the gloomy distance.
I.A. Bunin
Note that the story does not include the names of the characters. There is only the name of Duke Ferdinand. Truly close people live for us without a name, we do not need to name them. They just occupy some part of us.
It is worth noting that the main word in the story is soul... You can even catch a reference to Pushkin's Tatiana:
“Tatiana stood in front of the windows,
Breathing cold on the glass,
Lost in thought, my soul,
I wrote with a lovely finger
On a foggy window
The cherished monogram О yes Е ".
A.S. Pushkin. "Eugene Onegin"
And about what happened to the main character that evening in the cold autumn, Bunin clearly says in his other story:
“However, there was no one, and I stood, trembling with excitement and listening to the small, sleepy babbling of aspens. Then I sat down on a damp bench ... I was still waiting for something, sometimes I looked quickly into the dusk of dawn ... And for a long time a close and elusive breeze of happiness was felt around me - that terrible and great that at one time or another meets all of us on the threshold of life ... It suddenly touched me - and, perhaps, did exactly what needed to be done: touch and leave. I remember that all those tender words that were in my soul finally brought tears to my eyes. Leaning against the trunk of a raw poplar, I caught, like someone's consolation, the faintly arising and dying babbling of leaves and was happy with my silent tears ... "
I.A. Bunin. "Dawn all night"
The story "Cold Autumn" teaches attention to the world, the ability to see what is important in what surrounds us. But he himself requires careful reading. When an author writes a work and quotes other authors in it, he implies that the reader knows the cited work in full. In the internet age, it's pretty easy to find exactly what an author quoted whenever he wrote it.
This story teaches an attentive and careful attitude towards your life. Because what happens to a person turns into his memories and changes him, makes him a different person.
The most detailed description of the properties of memory is described in the famous work of Proust, in which memories, the ability to remember, are put on one of the first places:
“And suddenly the memory came to life. It was the taste of a piece of biscuit that every Sunday morning in Combra (on Sundays I didn’t leave the house until Mass), she treated me to soak it in tea or in lime blossom, Aunt Leonia, when I came to say hello to her. The very sight of the biscuit awakened nothing in me until I tasted it; perhaps because then I often saw this cake on the shelves of pastry shops, but did not eat, his image left Combret and merged with more recent impressions; perhaps because none of the memories that had long ago dropped out of memory were resurrected, they all crumbled; forms - including cakes-shells, each with their strict and pious fold awakened acute sensory perception - died or, immersed in sleep, lost the ability to spread, thanks to which they could reach consciousness. But when nothing remained of the distant past, when living beings died out, and things collapsed, only smell and taste, more fragile, but more tenacious, more insubstantial, more persistent, more reliable, for a long time, like the souls of the dead, remind of themselves, they hope, they wait, and they, these barely perceptible little ones, among the ruins carry on themselves, without bending, a huge building of remembrance. "
M. Proust. "Towards Svan"
Sometimes a memory tries to pop up in his memory, but he does not succeed, and some trifle helps to remember everything at once.
The stories of Ivan Bunin have always been distinguished by their penetration and peculiar subtlety of the narrative. This work is the story of a woman who describes her life. In particular, she describes one evening of 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 the significant evening that will forever remain in her memory. Then she talks about what happened next, about deprivation, about death, about migration. But, summing up a certain result of her life, she always returns to the cold autumn of the 14th year. Then her whole family was alive, and feelings with the now deceased groom only flared up. The composition of the story is based on the fact that the story has returned to the past.
In the story, all the characters are not spelled out in great 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, a new husband, a girl who forgets the kindness of a woman. All these chaotic events, faces have been and have passed. But it seems that only that cold autumn evening, the beloved groom and parents remain in the soul of the heroine.
The attitude of the writer to this woman is fatherly warm. He understands her thoughts, her pain. He knows that the war and revolution broke the personal happiness of many, and he writes this very story about one of the victims.
Bunin uses pictorial and expressive means. Among them are epithets - "early", "cold" - reflecting autumn, personification - "the windows of the house are shining", metaphors - "twigs 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 the stars, eternity ...
This is a story - a memory. A memory through a dream of her whole life, as the heroine herself put it in the text. Nostalgia dear to her heart 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 gentle soul. Her simple happiness was stolen by the opposition of powers and the arms race. But there are so many of those who only want to live in tranquility and appreciate every moment of life, as the heroine appreciated that cool autumn evening.
Analysis of the work Cold Autumn by Bunin
The work called "Cold Autumn" was written by Bunin in 1944 in May. It is also included in the author's cycle "Dark Alleys". The plot of the work is quite voluminous and significant.
Genre of the work: story. Even if 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 stretch out over thirty years. If we briefly describe the events that take place in the plot itself, then it becomes clear that the two main characters fall in love, after which, naturally, they want to get married and live together, raise children and create a strong family. But one event intervenes, which spoils the beautiful picture of a friendly family and the love of the heroes. After all, the fact is that war has been declared. Which means that the main character, the guy, will have to go to war. And before that, when no one suspects anything yet, an important event occurs for the young - an engagement, which coincides with her father's birthday. At the very moment when the engagement is announced, they declare war. This means that the event is joyful - it 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 the upcoming events. In addition, the author does not name his heroes in the story itself. And this is quite common for a given author, because he considers it not the very name of the main or secondary heroes that is important, but the very essence and thought embedded in 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 already see from the actions of the heroes what they are as a person. 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 characters 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 terms of emotions. For example: "eyes shining with tears", "glasses", "cigarette" and others. It is to these details that, as it sometimes seems, is given even too much attention than the characters themselves in their description, which is very mean.
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 compositions
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- Essay Summer Day
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There are many different trees growing in the park. In autumn, all leaves turn red, yellow and brown. Some are still green. All trees are bright and colorful. It's so beautiful! Part of the leaves falls to the ground.
The general meaning of all the works of I.A. Bunin about love can be conveyed by a rhetorical question: "Is love infrequent?" So, in his cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" (1943), there is probably not a single work dedicated to happy love. Either way, this feeling is short-lived and ends dramatically, if not tragically. But Bunin claims that, in spite of everything, love is beautiful. She, albeit for a short moment, illuminates a person's life and gives him meaning for further existence.
So, in the story "Cold Autumn" the narrator, having lived a long and very difficult life, sums it up: life? And I answer myself: only that cold autumn evening. " Only that cold autumn evening, when she said goodbye to her fiancé, who was leaving for the war. So light and, at the same time, sad and heavy in her soul.
Only at the end of the evening did the heroes start talking about the worst thing: what if the beloved does not return from the war? What if they kill him? The heroine does not want and cannot even think about it: “I thought:“ What if they really kill? and will I really forget it at some time - after all, in the end everything is forgotten? " And hastily answered, frightened by her thought: “Don't say that! I will not survive your death! "
The heroine's fiance was indeed killed. And the girl survived his death - this is a feature of human nature. The storyteller even got married and gave birth to a child. After the 1917 revolution, she had to wander around Russia, endure many humiliations, dirty work, illness, the death of her husband, the alienation of her daughter. And so, at the end of the years, thinking about her life, the heroine comes to the conclusion that there was only one love in her life. Moreover, in her life there was only one autumn night, which illuminated the entire life of a woman. This is her life meaning, her support and support.
The storyteller in her bitter life, cut off from her homeland, is warmed by only one memory, one thought: "You live, rejoice in the world, then come to me ..." I lived, I was glad, now I will come soon. "
So, the main part of the story, which has a circular composition, is a description of a cold autumn evening, the last in the life of the characters together. From the words of the girl's father, we learn that the Austrian crown prince was killed in Sarajevo. This meant that a war would inevitably begin. The heroine's beloved, who was her own, dear person in her family, had to go to the front.
On the same sad evening, he was declared the heroine's fiancé. Ironically, their first evening as bride and groom was also their last. That is why the whole evening, in the perception of the narrator and her beloved, was permeated with light sadness, nagging melancholy, fading beauty. As well as the cold autumn evening that surrounded the heroes in the garden.
Everyday details are of great importance in the story, which turn into psychological ones in the work. So, the heroine accurately lists all the dates that "surrounded" the described events. She remembers everything in great detail, although thirty years have passed and behind her is a very difficult life. This suggests that this evening was very significant for the woman.
The last homemade dinner is described psychologically subtly. All its participants sat in suspense, thinking that this might be their last evening together. But everyone threw in insignificant words, masking their tension and what they really wanted to say.
But finally the young people were left alone. The beloved invites the storyteller to take a walk in the autumn garden. He quotes lines from a poem by Fet. They, to some extent, predict both his fate and the fate of their couple:
Look - among the blackening pines
As if a fire is rising ...
And then the hero adds: “It's still sad. Sad and good. I love you very, very much ... ”What simple and, at the same time, piercing words! Young people love each other, but they cannot be together. This, according to Bunin's theory, is simply impossible. After all, love is always just a flash, only a short moment, burning for a lifetime ...
The next morning the hero left, as it turned out, forever. A “fatal bag” with an icon was put on his neck, but he did not save the heroine's beloved from death. The narrator returned to the house, not noticing the sunny morning and not feeling joy from it. Bunin subtly conveys her state on the verge of hysteria, a huge emotional experience: "... not knowing what to do with myself now and whether to cry or sing at the top of my voice ..."
Many years have passed since then. But the elderly heroine in Nice all comes back and comes back in memory for this evening and with hope awaits imminent death. What else is left for her? Poor old age, deprived of the support of the only loved one - a daughter.
The image of the heroine's daughter in the story is very important. Bunin shows that a person cut off from his roots, far from his homeland, loses the main thing - his soul: “she became completely French, very cute and completely indifferent to me, served in a chocolate shop near Madlane, wrapped boxes in satin paper and tied them with gold laces ... "
The storyteller's daughter is a doll that has lost its essence behind material tinsel.
"Cold Autumn" ... The title of the story is symbolic. This is a specific designation of the time frame of what is happening in the story. It is also a symbol of the first and last evening in the lives of the heroes. It is also a symbol of the heroine's entire life. This is also the designation of the life of all emigrants who lost their homeland after 1917 ... It is also a symbol of the state that comes after the loss of a flash of love ...
Cold autumn ... It is inevitable, but it also enriches a person, because he has the most valuable thing - memories.
In June of that year, he stayed with us on the estate - he was always considered our own man: his late father was a friend and neighbor of my father. On June 15, Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo. On the morning of the sixteenth, the newspapers were brought from the post office. Father left the office with a Moscow evening newspaper in his hands into the dining room, where he, mother and I were still sitting at the tea table, and said: - Well, my friends, war! The Austrian crown prince was killed in Sarajevo. This is war! On Petrov's day, a lot of people came to us — it was my father’s name day — and at dinner he was declared my fiance. But on July 19, Germany declared war on Russia ... In September, he came to us just for a day - to say goodbye before leaving for the front (everyone then thought that the war would end soon, and our wedding was postponed until spring). And then came our farewell evening. After supper, as usual, a samovar was served, and, looking at the windows fogged up from its steam, the father said: - Surprisingly early and cold autumn! We sat quiet that evening, only occasionally exchanging insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding our secret thoughts and feelings. With feigned simplicity, my father also said about autumn. I went to the balcony door and wiped the glass with a handkerchief: in the garden, in the black sky, pure ice stars sparkled brightly and sharply. Father smoked, leaning back in an armchair, absentmindedly looking at a hot lamp hanging over the table, mother, in glasses, diligently sewed under her light a small silk bag - we knew which one - and it was touching and eerie. The father asked: - So you still want to go in the morning, and not after breakfast? “Yes, if I may, in the morning,” he replied. - It’s very sad, but I haven’t completely ordered around the house. The father sighed lightly: - Well, as you wish, my soul. Only in this case it is time for my mother and me to sleep, we certainly want to see you off tomorrow ... Mom got up and baptized her future son, he bowed to her hand, then to his father's. Left alone, we spent a little more time in the dining room - I decided to play solitaire, - he silently walked from corner to corner, then asked: - Would you like to walk a little? My heart was getting harder and harder, I responded indifferently:- Good... While dressing in the hallway, he continued to think something, with a sweet smile he recalled Fet's verses:What a cold autumn!
Put on your shawl and hood ...
Look - among the blackening pines
As if a fire is rising ...
Sections: Literature
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is an outstanding Russian writer who has won special worldwide fame. Bunin's poetry and prose come from a common verbal and psychological source, his richest and unique plastic language is one without the division into literary types and genres. In it, according to K. Paustovsky, there was everything "from the ringing copper of solemnity to the transparency of pouring spring water, from measured chasing to intonations of amazing softness, from light melodies to slow peals of thunder."
What attracts the work of I.A. Bunin to today's schoolchild?
Bunin's work is characterized by an appeal to the inner world of heroes: penetration into the secret impulses of the soul, the riddles of actions, the connection between "mind" and "heart". The environment, the surrounding material things lose their meaning. The perspective of the author's work of art is narrowed down to the psychology and emotionality of the hero.
What a cold autumn
Put on your shawl and hood ...
Look among the blackening pines
As if a fire is rising.
These lines by Fet, uttered by the hero of the story "Cold Autumn", most vividly reflect the time when I. Bunin in emigration wrote the cycle "Dark Alleys". A time of change, a time of struggle, a time of contradictions. It is noteworthy that in the story "Cold Autumn" contradictions appear constantly. If we trace the creative activity of Bunin, we will see that its "distinguishing 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 Y. Eichenwald's definition, Bunin's work "... stood out against their background as a good old thing."
But for Bunin himself, this was not just an opposition of views, principles, worldview - it was a stubborn and consistent struggle against symbolism. And this fight was so heroic that Bunin found himself alone and was not afraid of the deep wounds she inflicted on him. “To the extremes of the Symbolists, he opposed too much balance of feeling: their whimsicality was too complete sequence of thought, their desire for unusualness was too deliberately emphasized simplicity, their paradoxes - 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 in Capri, Bunin wrote stories about the Russian village, and while in Russia - about India, Ceylon. Even in this example, one can see the contradictory feelings of the artist. When looking at Russia, Bunin always needed a distance - chronological, and even geographic.
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 accidental? It seems that behind both is a struggle - the struggle of the new against the old, truth against untruth, justice against injustice - and inevitable loneliness.
"Cold" Bunin. He strove to rip out of his work everything that could be in it in common with symbolism. Bunin especially persisted against the Symbolists in the field of depicting reality. “The Symbolist is the creator of his landscape, which is always located around him. Bunin, on the other hand, steps aside, making every effort to reproduce the reality he adored in the most objective way. But the Symbolist, depicting not the world, but in essence himself, in each work achieves the goal immediately and completely. Bunin, on the other hand, complicates the achievement of his goal, he portrays the landscape as accurate, truthful, alive, which leads to the fact that more often than not there is no place for the artist's personality. " But it is precisely with this that he opposed himself to the Symbolists.
"Cold autumn". In this story, Bunin, with the help of awakening a system of associative links in the reader's mind, seeks to say about what has been left in the past - simplicity, goodness, purity of thoughts and the inevitability of an impending 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 several days of the past are perceived more fully than the 30 years that have flown after him. The dissonance between good and evil, peace and war, harmony and chaos can be traced throughout this short story. And in the finale - loneliness, disappointment in life, although it is brightened up with a dream and belief in happiness "there". The story is a tragedy of love in a time of troubles, a tragedy of reason in the mad flame of revolutionary upheavals.
Contrasting the worldview and creativity of Bunin with the rest, contrasting 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 aim of the work is to determine the ideological and artistic role of the antithesis technique in the story "Cold Autumn" at the level:
- plot
- compositions
- chronotope
- space
- image systems
- artistic and visual means.
The story "Cold Autumn" begins with an event that sets the stage for historical accuracy - the First World War. Events are given in fragments: "In June he was a guest", "On Peter's day he was announced by the groom." The whole piece is built on contrast. So in the exposition we read: “In September I came to say goodbye" and "Our wedding was postponed until spring." The cold autumn can be interpreted as the end of an ordinary peaceful life along with the dying of nature. But the wedding of the heroes has been postponed until spring. After all, spring appears not only as the time of the rebirth of nature, but also as the beginning of a new peaceful life.
Further development of the action takes place in the heroine's house, where "he" came to say goodbye. Bunin capaciously conveys the atmosphere "Goodbye evening" reapplying one antithesis after another. On the one hand, the 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 the father's prophecy to his child: amazingly, terribly early you will lose Him, you will know the cold of loneliness. On the other side, "Window fogged up with steam". With this phrase, Bunin emphasizes the warmth of the house, comfort, tranquility - "Sat quietly", "exchanged insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding their secret thoughts and feelings", "with feigned simplicity." And again the antithesis in the manifestation of external calmness and internal anxiety. Bunin masterfully contrasts this state of all 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 "heat", external "ice stars" and internal "hot lamp" - someone else's and your own.
Subsequent actions take place in the garden. "Let's go to the garden" Bunin uses this particular verb so that the reader immediately has a single association: descended into hell (take the "s" from the word garden). From the world of warmth, family - into autumn, war. “It was so dark at first. Then black branches began to appear in the brightening sky, showered with shiny mineral stars "... And from hell "The windows of the house shine very especially in the autumn way." House-paradise, into which autumn, war, hell will soon burst. There and then a strange dialogue between "her" and "him". The author aggravates the state of impending disaster. The words quoted by "him" are deeply symbolic: "Look between the blackening pines as if a fire is rising ..." Misunderstanding of the symbol by her: “What fire? "Moonrise, of course." The moon symbolizes death, cold. And "fire", fire as a symbol of suffering, pain, destruction of one's own, dear, warm. The atmosphere of non-comfort, non-vitality 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 story culminates in a scene of wires that is built in contrast. Heroes are 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, glittering frost on the grass in the morning around us." The climactic phrase: “They killed him - what a terrible word! - In a month in Galicia "- Bunin capaciously recreated the feeling of erased emotional perception over the years. That descent has already happened: "I lived in a basement in Moscow." This is from home where "After supper, a samovar was served as usual!" "I became a woman in bast shoes." It's from "Swiss cape!" Aptly and meaningfully, the author uses here details that characterize better than lengthy descriptions: sold "Some ring, then a cross, then a fur collar ..." That is, she sold the past, renouncing it: "The times of our grandmothers and grandfathers", "Oh, my God, my God." The beauty and slowness of life before the death of the hero are opposed to the frantic pace of life, an abundance of misfortunes, failures after. Paradise-house has turned into a hell-foreign land. The descent is over. There is no life here - it is just an unnecessary dream.
There is another climax in the work - “I always ask myself: yes, but what happened after all in my life? And I answer myself: only that cold evening "... Bunin gives the heroine the last chance to realize that that evening was a celebration of the spirit, the meaning of life, life itself.
It is in this contradiction that the basis of the tragic plot is expressed. Now the heroine has only faith in expectation of a meeting, faith in happiness “there”. Thus, the storyline can be constructed like this:
Life |
The composition is in the form of a ring: "You live, rejoice in the world ..."- life - "... I lived and rejoiced ...". The compositional construction is explained by Bunin as follows: “What happened in my life after all? Only that cold autumn evening ... the rest is unnecessary sleep. " The work begins with a description of an autumn evening, and ends with a recollection of it. In an episode of a conversation in the park, the heroine says: "I will not survive your death." And his words: "You live, rejoice in the world, then come to me." And she admits that she did not survive him, she just forgot herself in a terrible nightmare. And it becomes clear why in such a dry, hurried, indifferent tone she talked about everything that happened after. The soul died with that evening. The ring composition is used to show the closed circle of the heroine's life: it is time for her to “go”, 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 the tragic calmness, regularity in life, on the estate against the background of a distant, seemingly unrealistic war.
Part 2 ... From the words: "In my heart ..." to the words: "... or 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 has become for me"- Acceleration of action: on one page - the rest of life. The depiction of the wanderings and hardships of the heroine, 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 by the exclamation: "Well, my friends, war!" The words "friends" and "war" are the main links in a chain of contradictions: parting with a loved one - and talking about the weather, the sun - and parting. Contradictions of the absurd.
But there are also contradictions associated with human psychology, accurately conveying mental confusion: "... sob me or sing at the top of my voice." And then the beauty and slowness of life before "his" death is contrasted with a frantic pace and an abundance of failures, misfortunes after.
The chronotope of the work is very expanded. In the first sentence, immediately the season: "in June". Summer, blossoming of the soul, feelings. There is no exact date for "that year": the numbers are not important - this is the past, the past. The past, one's own, dear, blood, organic. The official date is a foreign concept, so someone else's date is indicated exactly: "Killed on the fifteenth of July" "On the nineteenth of July Germany declared war on Russia", to emphasize rejection even in time. A vivid illustration of Bunin's antithesis "ours or theirs".
The time limits of the entire story are open. Bunin states only facts. Mentioning 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”, “in a hurricane in winter”, “they killed him a month later”. Enumeration of the number of years: “As many as 30 years have passed since then”, “we spent two years in the Don and Kuban”, “in 1912”. And the words by which you can determine the passage of time: "She lived for a long time", "the girl grew up", "that cold autumn evening", "the rest is unnecessary sleep." Undoubtedly, there is a feeling of vanity, mobility of time. In the episode of the farewell evening, Bunin uses only words by which one can determine the time, feel it: "After supper," "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 - evening. But it does not burden, but evokes a feeling of concreteness, reliability, warm sadness. The concreteness and abstractness of time is the antithesis of “her” time and “someone else's”: in “hers” the heroine lives, in “someone else's” she lives as if in a dream.
The boundaries of time are also contradictory in the meaning of living life. The words of the time of the whole story are numerous, but they are insignificant for the heroine. But the words of time in the episode of the farewell evening in the meaning of living are a whole life.
The words of the time of the whole story |
Farewell time words |
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specific dates: |
After dinner |
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time to sleep |
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on the morning of the 16th |
that evening |
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spring 18th |
stayed a little more |
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seasons and months: |
it was so dark at first |
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in June of that year |
in the morning he left |
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in September postpone until spring in winter in a hurricane |
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listing the number of years: |
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as much as 30 years passed, stayed more than 2 years in 1912 |
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words by which you can determine the time: |
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only lived for a day long |
The contrast of the narrative is felt in the work immediately. The space of the story seems to expand with the appearance of stars. They appear in two forms: 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 - eternity and injustice of life. In the second part of the story, when the heroine talks about her wanderings, the space is extended 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 think in those happy days what she would once become for me”.
One of the main tools in the formation of the author's position is the system of images. Bunin's principle of presenting heroes is remarkable for its brightness and originality. So none of the characters has a name, the name of the "guest" and "groom" has never been named - this is too sacred to trust the paper with the sacred letters, the sounds of your beloved name. The name of a dear person "He" akin to Blok's name of the Beautiful Lady in verse - "She". But the name of not his own, a stranger is called - "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. In these images Bunin's antithesis “ours and others” was embodied.
Bunin introduces a new layer of images into the work: "family - people". The family is in comfort, kindness, happiness, and the people are strangers "like destroyers", thieves of harmony, "like many", “On Peter's day a lot of people came to us”, “Germany declared war on Russia”, “I too(as mass ) was engaged in trade, sold "," sailed with an innumerable crowd of refugees. The author seems to emphasize, using these images, that his story is not only about what happened personally for everyone, but also about what happened to a whole generation. Bunin shows the tragedy of the generation most vividly, using the fate of the woman - the main character. The image of a woman has always been associated with the image of the keeper of the hearth, and the family and home are the main values of the time. The events of the First World War, the revolution that followed it, the post-revolutionary years - all this fell to the lot of the heroine - a blooming girl when she first met her and the old woman was close to death - at the end of the story with her memories, similar to life's outcome. In her character, the pride of the emigrant coexists with rebelliousness to fate - are not the traits of the author himself? In life, a lot coincides: he had 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 "Frenchwoman". The heroine describes "Sleek hands", "silver nails" and "golden laces" his pupil with bitter irony, but without any malice. "Sunbeam" among the dull colors of "her" narrative, but we do not feel the warmth - an icy sheen. 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 a soldier also appears in the story "In folders and unbuttoned overcoats." This is obvious, the Red Army men to whom people who did not fit the new time sold their things. The image of the heroine's husband is interesting. He is also not named by name, but the contrast between the place of their (heroine and future husband) meeting (at the corner of Arbat and the market) and a very laconic, but capacious characterization of the husband himself is emphasized. "A man of a rare, beautiful soul." This probably symbolizes the chaotic nature of the history of Russia at that time. By choosing several characters, Bunin reflected the great tragedy of Russia. Again contrast - what was and what was. Thousands of elegant ladies who turned into "Women in bast shoes" and "People, a rare, beautiful soul", dressed "Worn out Cossack zipuns" and letting go "Black beards". So gradually, following " ringlet, cross stitch, fur collar " people were losing the country, and the country was losing its color and pride. The contrast of the Bunin system of images is obvious.
Bunin, as a master of the word, brilliantly, masterly uses the antithesis at all levels of the 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 pretentious metaphors and epithets. In the first part of the novella (for the boundaries of the parts, see above), the author uses simple, rare sentences. This creates the impression of leafing through photos in a family album, just a statement of facts. The proposal is a frame. Fifteen lines - ten sentences - frames. Leafing through the past. "Ferdinand was killed on the fifteenth of June in Sarajevo." "On the morning of the sixteenth they brought newspapers 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 freeze time, stretch the space, filling it with events, and the sentences become complex, each of their parts is widespread. In this part, there are many secondary members of the sentence, contrasting in meaning: « fogged up from window steam "and" surprisingly early and cold autumn "," on black the sky brightly and keenly sparkled clean icy stars "and" hanging over the table hot lamp". Numerically, it is expressed like this: there are five sentences in fourteen lines. "We sat quiet that evening, only occasionally exchanging insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding our secret thoughts and feelings." “Then black branches began to appear in the brightening sky, showered with minerally shining stars.” “Left alone, we spent a little more time in the dining room, - 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, Bunin reveals the inner world of the heroes using dialogue. Conversations in this part play a particularly important role. Behind all the phrases on duty, remarks about the weather, about "autumn", there is a second meaning, subtext, unspoken pain. They say one thing - they think about something else, they speak only for the sake of a word, a conversation. The so-called "undercurrent". And the fact that the absent-mindedness of the father, the diligence of the mother, the indifference of the heroine are feigned, the reader understands even without a direct explanation from the author: "Only occasionally exchanged insignificant words, exaggeratedly calm, hiding their secret thoughts and feelings." “While dressing in the hallway, he continued to think something, with a sweet smile he recalled Fet's verses:
What a cold autumn
Put on your shawl and hood ...
- I do not remember. It seems so:
Look among 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 grandmothers and grandfathers ... Oh, my God, my God!
- What you?
- Nothing, dear friend. Still sad. Sad and good. I very, very much you I love".
The final part of the story is dominated by narrative sentences, complicated by homogeneous members of the sentence. An unusual sense of rhythm, overflowing with life events is created: “Now some kind of ring, now a cross, now a fur collar”, “Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Paris, Nice ...”, “studied ..., sold ..., met ..., left. .. "," sleek hands with silver nails ... golden laces. " All this Bunin opposes to the inner emptiness, fatigue of the heroine. She states her unhappiness without any emotion. Overflowing with events, life turns into the fact that there is no life. At the level of syntax, the antithesis is expressed clearly: simple - complex sentences, prevalence, saturation with 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. The syntax tools help with this.
Attention is also drawn to the masterful use of the morphological means of the language. So in the first part of the work, the verbs are put in the past tense. Memories ... The heroine seems to make her way through the windbreak of the past to the present, lives her life, grows old, is disappointed: “Got up”, “crossed”, “passed”, “looked”, “lived”, “wandered”. In the last part of the story, the narration is carried out using the forms of the present tense: I ask, I answer, I believe, I wait. The heroine seems to be awakening. And life is over.
So, the main feature of the "Bunin" antithesis is that it permeates all levels of the story "Cold Autumn".
- The "Bunin" antithesis is a way of expressing the author's position.
- Bunin's contrast is a way of reflecting reality, creating a picture of the world.
- Opposition is used to reveal the author's worldview, philosophical concept.
- Antithesis as a demonstration of the catastrophic nature of time at the junction of two centuries, revolutions, wars.
- The contrast of the psychology of people at the beginning of the 20th century.
- The antithesis in Bunin's story "Cold Autumn" is a technique for creating a composition, plot, chronotope, space, system of images, linguistic features.
The title of the collection "Dark Alleys" recalls images of dilapidated gardens of old estates, overgrown alleys of Moscow parks. Russia, receding into the past, into oblivion.
Bunin is a master who knows how to be unique in the most banal situations, to remain always chaste and pure, for 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 from everything, that is, memories that are especially cruel and painful if you remember something happy." Perhaps, in the melancholy of the "Dark Alley" short stories, the old pain from the once-experienced happiness finds its voice.
Bunin is not a philosopher, not a moralist or a psychologist. For him, it is more important what the sunset was, when the heroes said goodbye and drove somewhere, than the purpose of their trip. "He was always alien to both God-seeking and God-fighting." Therefore, it makes no sense to look for a deep meaning in the actions of the heroes. "Cold Autumn" is a story that doesn't really talk about love. This work is the only one with a documentary accurate chronology. The language of the narrative is emphatically dry ... An elderly woman sits somewhere in a coastal restaurant, neatly dressed and nervously fiddling with a handkerchief, tells her story to a casual interlocutor. Emotions are gone - everything has been experienced for a long time. She speaks equally routinely 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 the whole life. Earthly love, cut off by death, but, thanks to this death, became 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 outbursts of this unearthly fire is the light that illuminates the path of mankind. " As one of the heroines of "Dark Alley" said: "All love is great happiness, even if it is not shared."
List of used literature
- Adamovich G.V. Loneliness and freedom. New York, 1985.
- Alexandrova V.A. "Dark alleys" // New magazine, 1947 №15.
- Afanasyev V.O. On some features of Bunin's late lyric prose // Izvestiya AN SSSR. Dept. Literature and language, 1979, v. 29, issue 6.
- Baboreko A.K. Bunin during the war 1943-1944 // Daugava, 1980 №10.
- Dolgopolov L.O. On some features of the late Bunin's realism // Russian Literature, 1973 №2.
- Muromtseva - Bunina V.N. Bunin's Life, Paris, 1958.
- School of classics. Criticism and comments. Silver Age. 1998.