Lidia Ivanovna NORINA - Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation, teacher at gymnasium No. 10 in Novosibirsk.

I'm doomed to experience sadness...

Analysis of the story by I.A. Bunin "Cold Autumn"

And the analysis of the story should begin with a fairly traditional, but effective form - the teacher reading the text itself. As you know, a teacher who reads aloud becomes the first interpreter of a work, placing its semantic accents with the help of voice and intonation. Bunin's story is small in volume, and reading it at the beginning of the lesson is all the more advisable because it does not take much time.

The next stage of the lesson - “the teacher’s word”, is necessary both as an introduction and as a reminder to students about the main themes of Bunin’s prose (a lecture on the writer’s work and analysis of poems have already been carried out earlier).

It is advisable to begin the analysis of the text itself by highlighting the basic motifs and artistic techniques in the story. These points are pre-written on the board.

Plot and characters.

Chronotope: existential and everyday space and time, real and cosmic.

Color design and “tactility” of the text.

Motives(love, death, memory, life).

At home, students had to find manifestations of these motives in the text and write down as many examples as possible for each of the points. As the lesson progresses, the diagram on the board will expand and be supplemented by observations made during the lesson. The teacher needs to emphasize the fundamental sequence of the topics recorded on the board.

The teacher's first question is:

- What is the plot of the story? State it in a few sentences.

There is a certain he, there is a she - they love each other; a wedding was about to take place. The girl is very afraid of losing him. He was killed in the war. And then all her life (thirty years) she retains the memory of one single evening - their happiest meeting.

It is necessary to start with what lies on the surface of the text, which can be perceived by any ordinary consciousness. Students find out that the plot is too simple, which means they need to look deeper for the meaning.

If schoolchildren do not pay attention to an important feature of Bunin’s love prose - the absence of names for the heroes, denoting them only by pronouns (Bunin’s special technique, emphasizing the generality of people’s destinies, the tragedy of everyone), you can ask a provocative question: Why, when retelling the plot, do you constantly make a “speech error” - repeating the pronouns “he” and “she”?

From the ordinary level of text perception we move on to working with artistic categories.

Any literary text, as you know, correlates with universal categories - space and time, which in the text acquire symbolic meaning. How is this work “constructed”, what chronotopes can we identify and how are they related to each other?

One of the students makes a diagram, and the rest comment on the text. This picture is gradually emerging.

• The house as a temple and amulet and its subsequent destruction; respectively, life as a path and wandering.
• The path as the life path of one person and as the historical vector of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.
• Finally, a house devoid of spatial boundaries, a house located beyond the boundaries of the earthly world. This is the space where the heroine strives for her lover, this movement towards immortality: “And I believe, fervently believe: somewhere he is waiting for me - with the same love and youth as in that evening " “You live, enjoy the world, then come to me …” “I’ve lived, I’m happy, and now I’ll be back soon.” Together with the students, the teacher notes the key words of the fragment: "somewhere", “that evening”, "to me". Thus, Bunin transfers earthly space into cosmic space, linear time into eternal time.

· Time as an instant (human life) and as eternity. Bunin's eternity is always cyclical and indestructible. So, the heroine says at the end of the story about their only evening: “And that’s all that happened in my life - the rest is an unnecessary dream.” The teacher draws the attention of high school students to the words “dream” and “unnecessary.”

- Why is life called a dream?

The motif of life as a dream (in the Buddhist understanding) is generally characteristic of Bunin’s poetics. Life is an illusion, but a sad and tragic illusion.

-Who is to blame for this tragedy? War? Revolution? God? Wrong social structure?

Bunin is non-social, therefore war, revolution, and history are for him only partial manifestations of world evil, which is indestructible. The whole story is the writer’s attempt to understand and comprehend how the world’s evil affects the fate of an individual. Let us remember again: the heroes do not have names, and this is confirmation that different human destinies are the same, that man is a toy in the hands of fate.

Then the teacher focuses the attention of high school students on another important temporal aspect of the work:

- Please note that the entire story is written as the heroine’s memory of the past. What motive in connection with this construction of artistic time is manifested in the text?

Memory. In the chaos of the world, it is salvation from oblivion. Memory, according to Bunin, is no less, but more real than the flow of reality. It is always connected with culture, which is the preservation of everything that goes into oblivion.

The teacher can read a number of poems by Osip Mandelstam (for example, from the “Stone” cycle), in which the so-called “cultural memory” is most clearly manifested - a special kind of poetic category that served Mandelstam as the basis for his attitude to cultural values. Such an appeal to the “alien” voice will pave the way for the study of the poetics of Acmeism, as well as compare the “two memories” of the great literary artists.

- What artistic means does Bunin use to emphasize the reality of memory and the unreality of reality? As you know, Bunin is a master of describing subtle human sensations and states of nature. And in this he is close to impressionism.

First of all, color painting, light painting and “tactility”. Also in the work we see the direct inclusion of a poetic quotation. As for impressionism, the hero in the story seems to be deliberately reading Fet’s poem to his beloved, since it is in Fet’s work that there are many impressionistic features.

- Let’s work with these categories: name the main colors, descriptions of the physical sensations of the characters and determine the meanings of Fet’s lines quoted by the hero in the context of the story (one student writes down the words on the board: “color”, “tactility”, “intertext”).

Color and light. Students name words denoting colors and give their symbolic interpretation using the “Dictionary of Symbols”: “black”, “brilliant”, “red”, “sunny”, “mineral-brilliant stars”, “blazing sun”. Black color is a human tragedy, a premonition of trouble. Red is the color of blood and also of tragedy, a color that signifies a future catastrophe. Golden (autumn) is associated with nature. When combined, the colors emphasize the inextricable connection between human sensations and nature. Schoolchildren note that the epithet “brilliant” (“glowing”, “sparkling”) combines such artistic details as stars (“brilliant stars”), house windows (“like... in autumn are shining windows of the house”), the heroine’s eyes (“how the eyes shine”) and draw a conclusion about the unity of everything in the world: nature, humans, inanimate objects (house).

Many words in the story are devoted to the feelings of the characters. The very name - “Cold Autumn” - designates not only the cold season, but also metaphorically - the coldness of this world in relation to man, the same world evil. High school students name words and phrases related to the theme of cold: “windows fogged up from steam,” “surprisingly early and cold autumn,” “wiped the glass with a handkerchief,” “icy stars,” “sparkling frost.”

As for Fet, this is both a symbol of Russian pre-revolutionary antiquity, and a poetic understanding of nature, and finally, the acceptance of death and eternity. Fet does not have freezing and dying, but an eternal grandiose movement in a circle; It is not for nothing that the word “fire” is used in the poem - the antithesis of the cold and icy world.

- What other traditional motifs are found in the text?

Love and death. Love, according to Bunin, is also a touch to eternity, and not a path to earthly happiness; happy love cannot be found in Bunin’s artistic world. Bunin’s love is beyond the laws of time and space, and therefore death not only does not destroy love, but is its continuation in eternity. Despite the short duration of love, it still remains eternal - it is indestructible in the heroine’s memory precisely because it is fleeting in life. It is no coincidence that the story ends with the motive of love: “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.”

Concluding the analysis of the story, we note that its ending is open to further interpretation. Therefore, as homework we will give a short essay, the topic of which will be the words of the heroine at the end of the story: “And that’s all that happened in my life - the rest is an unnecessary dream.”

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

The plot of the story is simple - the main character tells about the beginning of the First World War and about a significant evening that will forever remain in her memory. Then she talks about what happened next, about hardships, about death, about migration. But, summing up her life, she always returns to the cold autumn of 1414. Then her whole family was alive, and her feelings with her now deceased fiancé only flared up. The composition of the story is based on the fact that the narrative returns to the past.

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

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

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

Analysis of the work Cold Autumn by Bunin

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

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

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

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

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

Several interesting essays

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

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

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

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

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

• Essay Summer Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TIME

Art space

Characters

The heroine is a naive girl.

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

Artistic details

Glasses, newspaper (belong to loved ones)

Silk bag, golden icon (symbolizes the present)

Cape (desire to hug)

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

There are no details related to loved ones.

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

Bast shoes, zipun - the fate of millions.

Conclusion: BEFORE – security, AFTER – universal loneliness.

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

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

The general meaning of all works by I.A. Bunin's message about love can be conveyed with a rhetorical question: “Is love private?” Thus, in his cycle of stories “Dark Alleys” (1943), there is probably not a single work dedicated to happy love. One way or another, this feeling is short-lived and ends dramatically, if not tragically. But Bunin claims that, in spite of everything, love is beautiful. It, albeit for a short moment, illuminates a person’s life and gives him meaning for his further existence.

Thus, in the story “Cold Autumn,” the narrator, having lived a long and very difficult life, sums it up: “But, remembering everything that I have experienced since then, I always ask myself: yes, what was in my life? 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 war. It was so bright and, at the same time, sad and heavy in her soul.

Only at the end of the evening did the heroes talk about the worst thing: what if their 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 me? and will I really forget him at some point - after all, everything is forgotten in the end? And she quickly answered, frightened by her thought: “Don’t say that! I will not survive your death!

The heroine's fiance was actually killed. And the girl survived his death - this is a feature of human nature. The narrator even got married and gave birth to a child. After the revolution of 1917, she had to wander around Russia, endure many humiliations, menial work, illness, the death of her husband, and the alienation of her daughter. And so, at the end of her 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 woman’s entire life. This is her meaning in life, her support and support.

The narrator in her bitter life, cut off from her homeland, is warmed by only one memory, one thought: “You live, enjoy the world, then come to me...” I lived, I was happy, now I’ll come soon.”

So, the main part of the story, which has a ring composition, is a description of a cold autumn evening, the last in the life of the heroes together. From the words of the girl’s father, we learn that the Austrian crown prince was killed in Sarajevo. This meant that war would inevitably begin. The heroine's lover, who was one of her own in her family, had to go to the front.

That same sad evening he was announced as the heroine’s fiancé. Ironically, their first evening as bride and groom was also their last. That is why this whole evening, in the perception of the narrator and her lover, was permeated with light sadness, aching melancholy, and fading beauty. Just like 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. Thus, the heroine accurately lists all the dates that “surrounded” the events described. She remembers everything in the smallest detail, although thirty years have passed and she has a very difficult life behind her. This suggests that this evening was very significant for the woman.

The last home-cooked dinner is described psychologically and subtly. All its participants sat in suspense, thinking that this might be their last evening together. But everyone exchanged insignificant words, masking their tension and what they really wanted to say.

But finally the young people were left alone. The lover invites the narrator to take a walk in the autumn garden. He quotes lines from Fet's poem. They, to some extent, predict both his fate and the fate of their couple:

Look - between the blackening pines

It's like 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 cannot be together. This, according to Bunin’s theory, is simply impossible. After all, love is always just a flash, just a short moment that burns for a lifetime...

The next morning the hero left, as it turned out, forever. They put a “fatal bag” with an icon around his neck, but it did not save the heroine’s lover from death. The narrator returned to the house, not noticing the sunny morning and not feeling any 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 keeps returning in her memory to this evening and hopefully awaits her imminent death. What else can she do? A poor old age, deprived of the support of her only relative - her 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 nice and completely indifferent to me, worked in a chocolate store near Madeleine, with sleek hands with silver nails she wrapped boxes in satin paper and tied them with gold laces..."

The narrator’s daughter is a doll that has lost its essence behind the material tinsel.

“Cold Autumn”... The title of the story is symbolic. This is also a specific designation of the time frame of what is happening in the story. This is both a symbol of the first and last evening in the lives of the heroes. This is also a symbol of the heroine’s entire life. This is also a symbol 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 is left with the most valuable thing - memories.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And now thirty years have passed since then.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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