Ways of depicting the hero of a fairy tale. The system of images in animal tales

Taking into account the plot differences, fairytale characters appear as a wide gallery of images. Among them, the image of the hero is especially important, it is he who largely determines the ideological and artistic content of fairy tales. It embodies the popular ideas of justice, kindness, true beauty. All the best qualities of a person are concentrated in it, thanks to which the image of the hero becomes an artistic expression of the ideal. The high moral qualities of the heroes are revealed through their actions. However, in fairy tales, you can find elements of a psychological nature, attempts to convey the inner world of the heroes, their mental life: they love, rejoice, upset, take pride in victory, experience betrayal and infidelity, look for a way out of difficult situations, sometimes make mistakes. That is, in a fairy tale we find outlines of an image of a person. And yet, it is possible to talk about the individualization of images with a certain degree of conventionality, since many features inherent in the hero of one plot will be repeated in the heroes of other fairy tales. Therefore, the opinion about the image of a single folk character in fairy tales is true. This folk character is embodied in different types of heroes - male and female characters.

The topic of determining the images and heroes of a fairy tale is very extensive, so I will analyze only the images of the main characters of a fairy tale.

First of all, it is necessary to establish the main characters of the tale. V. Ya. Propp, who researched the fairy tale according to the functions of the characters, establishes seven main characters in the fairy tale:

False hero;

Antagonist-pest (harms the hero, his family, fights with him, pursues him);

Donor (gives the hero a magic remedy);

Assistant (moves the hero, helps him in the fight against the pest);

Sender (sends the hero);

Princess (the desired character).

It is not necessary that all of them be present, and each role is played by a separate character, but certain characters are clearly visible in each fairy tale (41, pp. 72-75).

Hero

The main character of a fairy tale is essentially one. Regardless of whether his name is Tsarevich Ivan or Ivan the peasant's son, Pokati-peas or Andrey the archer, Emelya the fool, his appearance, behavior, fate are the same. This is a generalized collective image of a positive hero. A courageous, fearless, loyal, handsome hero overcomes all troubles and adversities and wins his happiness, whether it be the royal throne, the hand of the princess, or a victory over the enemies of the motherland. This hero is one, regardless of how he is presented and in what social position he is. In most fairy tales, the hero, unlike other characters, is endowed with extraordinary strength. His heroism is revealed already in childhood, he "grows by leaps and bounds," "he goes out into the street, whoever grabs his hand - hand away, who grabs his leg - foot away." He is only a wonderful horse, which is waiting for a rider on its own in the dungeon, chained with twelve chains. Going on the road, the prince orders himself a club of twelve poods. The same power is hidden in Ivan the Fool ("Sivka-Burka"): "... He grabbed the nag by the tail, tore off its skin and shouted:" Hey, fly together, jackdaws, hags and magpies! Father sent you some food. "

It should be noted that the fairy tale reveals for us the highest qualities of the hero, for example, how the hero spares the animals: Ivan the Fool buys out a dog and a cat with his last money, frees a crane trapped in a trap, a hunter, enduring poverty, feeds an eagle for three years. The same manifestation of ideal qualities is the fulfillment of duty, reverence for elders, and following wise advice. Usually advice comes from old men and women who embody life experience, the ability to foresee events. These characters often act as wonderful helpers. In the tale of the three kingdoms, Ivan Tsarevich, going in search of his kidnapped mother, defeats a multi-headed snake, following her order "do not hit with a weapon twice" or rearrange the barrels with "strong and powerless water." The plot "go there, I don't know where" is all based on the archer's implementation of the wise advice of his wife. Failure to comply with the order, violation of this word is regarded as a fault and carries grave consequences: wonderful objects and a bride are kidnapped from Ivan Tsarevich.

The initial erroneous behavior gives particular persuasiveness to the right actions. Ivan Tsarevich thinks about where to get the heroic horse. When he was asked by a backside grandmother, what he was thinking about, he answered with rudeness, but then changed his mind, asked the old woman for forgiveness and received the necessary advice.

The hero's personality is manifested in his actions, in his reaction to the outside world. The plot action (situations in which the hero is placed) serves as a disclosure and proof of the truly positive qualities of a person, the correctness of his actions, as corresponding to the norms of human behavior in society. For every good deed, the hero is awarded magical objects: an invisible hat, a self-assembled tablecloth, wonderful animals - a heroic horse, animal helpers. The reward can be in the form of advice: where to find a horse, how to find the way to his betrothed, to overcome the snake.

The fairy tale knows two main types of heroes: Ivan Tsarevich (active) - the hero of magical and heroic plots ("Three Kingdoms", "Kashchei the Immortal", "Rejuvenating apples", etc.) and Ivan the Fool (passive) - the hero of fairy tales " Sivka-Burka "," The Magic Ring "," Wonderful Gifts "," The Little Humpbacked Horse ", etc. The goal of the hero in different plots is different: to return to people the light that swallowed the snake, to save the mother from the monster and find brothers, to restore vision and health old man, turns the queen into a white duck, and then tries to destroy her children.

Revealing the images of its heroes, the tale conveys folk ideas about people, their relationships, asserts kindness and loyalty. The hero's image is revealed in a complex system of plot oppositions.

Ivan Tsarevich - one of the main characters of Russian folklore. He appears in fairy tales in two different guises:

Figure 7 - Gorokhova E. "Feather of the Firebird"

Positive character, fighting evil, helping the offended or the weak. Very often at the beginning of the tale, Ivan Tsarevich is poor, lost by his parents, persecuted by enemies, does not know about his royal origin. In such tales as a reward for heroic behavior and good deeds, Ivan Tsarevich gets back his kingdom, the throne, or finds his royal parents. But even if he was originally a prince, then at the end of the tale he usually receives a kind of prize in the form of someone else's half-kingdom, a royal or royal daughter, a magic or expensive horse, precious or magic items, or even an additional mind or magic skills.

Negative character, which contrasts with other princes, but more often characters of simple origin, for example, Ivan the fishing son. In this case, Ivan Tsarevich is angry, cunning and in various ways tries to destroy the goodies and take away their well-deserved reward. In the end, he is put to shame and punished, but almost never - killed.

Usually Ivan Tsarevich (like Ivan the Fool) is the youngest of the Tsar's three sons.

Ivan the fool.Ivan the Fool, or Ivanushka the Fool, is one of the main prototypical characters in Russian fairy tales. It embodies a special fairytale strategy that does not come from the standard postulates of practical reason, based on the search for its own solutions, often contrary to common sense, but ultimately bringing success. As a rule, his social status is low - a peasant son or the son of an old man with an old woman. In the family, he was often the third, youngest son. Not married. With the help of magical means, Ivan the Fool successfully passes all tests and reaches the highest values: he defeats the enemy, marries the tsar's daughter, and receives both wealth and glory. It is important to note that Ivan the Fool also embodies the image of a poet and musician. In fairy tales, his singing is emphasized, his ability to play the wonderful pipe or gusli-samogud, forcing the herd to dance. Ivan the Fool is connected in the plot with a certain critical situation, ending with a holiday (victory over the enemy and marriage), in which he is the main participant.

For my research, it should be noted that the hero of fairy tales, Ivan the Fool, is not at all a fool, in the modern sense of the word. Before the adoption of Christianity and for a long time after, there was a tradition not to call children "adult" names, so that they would not be kidnapped by the "devils" (living below the line) while they are helpless. The child received the "adult", "real" name at the initiation at the age of 10-13, and before that he wore an unreal, childish one. Children's names derived from numerals were widespread - Pervak, Vtorak, Tretyak. And also Drugak, that is, "the other", the next. Since it was the most popular, denoting, in most cases, the youngest child, as a result it became a household name and simplified to "Fool". The name "Fool" is found in church documents up to the XIV-XV centuries. Since the 17th century, it began to mean what it means now - a stupid person. Naturally, the youngest is the most inexperienced and unintelligent. Therefore, taking into account this version, the famous Ivan the Fool from Russian fairy tales may not turn out to be a fool at all, but simply the youngest of three sons. (Internet resource No. 4).

The characters are most developed in animal tales. It is no coincidence that we easily notice any substitution of characters in the plots and perceive this as a violation of tradition. In animal tales, each image is individually elaborated. The fox and wolf are most often found in animal tales. This is explained by the fact that, firstly, a person most often had to deal with them in economic activity; secondly, these animals occupy the middle in size and strength in the animal kingdom; finally, thirdly, thanks to the previous two reasons, a person had the opportunity to get to know them very closely. But no less often there are other characters in fairy tales - wild and domestic animals - bear, hare, ram, dog, fish, cat, insects, etc. Each of the characters is the image of a very specific animal or bird. The characterization of the characters is based on observations of the habits, behavior of the beast, and its appearance. Also, in the images of animals, parallels are drawn with the qualities of man: animals speak and behave like people. This combination also led to the typification of the characters of animals, which became the embodiment of certain qualities: a fox - cunning, a wolf - stupidity and greed, a bear - gullibility and reluctance, a hare - cowardice. So fairy tales acquired an allegorical meaning: people of certain characters began to be understood by animals. The images of animals became a means of moral teaching, and then social satire. In fairy tales about animals, not only negative qualities (stupidity, laziness, talkativeness) are ridiculed, but oppression of the weak, greed, deceit for profit is also condemned. However, there is hardly any reason to believe that human features are depicted in all animal images. The peculiarity of the image of an animal in fairy tales consists precisely in the fact that human traits in it never completely supplant the traits of an animal. No matter how developed an allegory is in tales of this type, one can also find examples in which it is difficult to find an allegory. The famous tale of the fox and the black grouse contains a clear allegory; it is obvious from a number of details: the fox, for example, tells the grouse about the decree requiring that the grouse not fly up a tree, but walk on the ground. But in the fairy tale "The Bear is a Linden Foot" or in the fairy tale "The Wolf and the Kids" there is probably no allegory. These fairy tales are fascinating not by allegory, but by the depiction of action. In fairy tales about animals, the analogy "human-animal" does not allow the fairy tale to miss out on either the qualities of a person or the qualities of an animal. This is the originality of fairy tales, this is a special aesthetic effect. And it is precisely in the intertwining, the intersection of the animal and the human in the unexpected contact of these, in essence, different planes (conventional and real) that the effect of the comic lies in the animal fairy tale. Morally, there are two main ideas in animal tales: the glorification of camaraderie, through which the weak defeat the evil and the strong, and the glorification of victory itself, which brings moral satisfaction to the listeners. The wolf is often stupid, but this is not its main feature: it is cruel, ferocious, angry, greedy - these are its main qualities. He eats a poor old man's horse, breaks into "the animals' winter quarters" and disrupts their peaceful life, wants to eat the kids. Peaceful animals, even if they are stupid, achieve victory: the ram fools the wolf, the sheep and the fox defeat the wolf. The fox wants to eat a rooster, a black grouse. But if she, together with other animals, opposes the wolf, then she receives a positive assessment, if she herself harms others - negative.

The wolf in fairy tales traditionally personifies greed and anger. He is often portrayed as stupid, so he is often fooled by more cunning characters in fairy tales, such as the Fox. The opposition of these two strong animal characters is found in many fairy tales, and in almost all the wolf, being slow-witted and short-sighted, again and again allows itself to be deceived. However, in ancient cultures, the image of a wolf was associated with death, so in fairy tales this animal character often eats someone ("The Wolf and the Seven Kids") or disrupts the quiet life of animals ("Winter Animals").

A nimble, strong and undaunted bear gets a manner of clumsiness, sluggishness and stupidity. These qualities were attributed to him to ridicule him as the enemy of the peasant. The terrible ceased to be terrible. In the fairy tale “The Bear is a Linden Foot,” the bear is neither stupid nor trusting, as we are used to seeing him in other fairy tales. The tale echoes with untouched ancient beliefs. The bear did not leave a single grievance unavenged. He takes revenge on all the rules of the generic law: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But this is rather an exception. Indeed, in animal carp, the bear most often appears as a simpleton. But in more ancient sources, a bear is shown as a friend or brother of a man, enters into a bra with a woman, has a son who belongs to the human collective, fights against evil spirits, brings wealth to a person. The bear has a double nature: he is the owner of both forests and a creature closely related to man.

The fox is very ambivalent. She is a robber, godfather, bear and drag, but smarter and more cunning than all other animals, which cannot but arouse some sympathy. An aesthetic image also gives it liveliness and dexterity: an elegant skin, an elegant muzzle, a bright tail. The fox appears to be a crafty, cunning, cunning beast, with its cunning taking advantage over other animals, stronger than it - over the wolf and the bear. But with all this, she easily manages to maintain good relations with all the deceived. Another of its characteristic features is, of course, hypocrisy. In fairy tales, the fox has a number of nicknames: godfather-fox, fox-sister, fox-Patrikeevna, Lizaveta Ivanovna, etc. In addition, in the animal world of fairy tales, there is a special type of hero - a trickster, a rogue and a deceiver, whom she most often appears. This is a stable image dominated by cunning, a tendency to deception and tricks. The fox will do anything to get her own - she will pretend to be weak and helpless, use all her charm and eloquence. In Russian fairy tales, the trickster is contrasted with a simpleton character. It can be a wolf, which the fox successfully fools, a rooster ("Cat, cock and fox"), or a weak hare, which she drives out of her hut ("Fox and the hare"). Initially in the myth it was his unusual behavior that contributed to the creation of the world and the acquisition of knowledge. Unlike myth, the trickster fox is often punished for its antics, especially when it attacks weak, helpless heroes. For example, the Fox in the fairy tale "Fox with a Rolling Pin" flees and hides in a hole.

The origin of fairy tales. Specificity of fiction. The oldest motives. Types of plots. The experience of plots classification. Poetics and Style. Composition. Space and time. Style formulas. Contamination. System of images. Themes, images, meaning of the most common fairy tales.

A fairy tale is a story about extraordinary events and adventures in which unreal characters participate. Wonderful, fantastic events take place in it. Tales of this type arose as a result of the poetic rethinking of the ancient stories about the observance of taboos - everyday prohibitions on various occasions, created in order to escape from the power of a mysterious evil force. Probably, at one time there were stories about breaking taboos and about the sad events that followed.

In fairy tales, we see echoes of prohibitions - to eat unknown food or drink from unknown sources, and also to leave the house, to touch some objects. Having violated his sister's prohibition, brother Ivanushka drinks water from the footprint of a goat's hoof and turns into a goat. Having violated the parents' prohibition to leave the house, the sister leaves with her little brother to the clearing, and the geese-swans carry him away to the hut of Baba Yaga. Forgetting about the prohibition of the gray wolf to touch the cage of the firebird and the bridle of the golden-maned horse, Ivan Tsarevich gets into trouble.

The fiction of a fairy tale is specific. Everything in it is unusual, and the question of the likelihood and reliability of the narrative is completely removed. In a fairy tale of this type, there are motifs containing belief in witchcraft, in the existence of the other world and the possibility of returning from there, in werewolf - the transformation of people into a river or lake, all kinds of animals and even into a church, as, for example, in the fairy tale “Vasilisa the Wise and the Sea King ".

Some fairy tales are associated with mythological representations. Characters such as Frost, the Sea or Water King, the wonderful sons-in-law, the Sun, the Moon, the Wind or the Eagle, the Falcon and the Raven, are clearly associated with the deification of the forces of nature and the worship of the totem beast. The cult of ancestors is revealed in the form of a wonderful doll that the dying mother gives to Vasilisa. The doll helps the orphan resist the machinations of her stepmother and saves her from Baba Yaga.

Thus, fairy tales have retained the once real features of long-lost ideas, life phenomena, traces of past human epochs, which we now perceive as fantasy, fiction. For example, in the images of the wise virgins Vasilisa the Wise, Marya Morevna, Elena the Beautiful, who have supernatural abilities and help the hero, the ideas of the era of matriarchy about the superiority of women over men are clearly revealed. The motives for human sacrifice are seen, for example, in the tales of the Snake kidnapping girls; witchcraft and cannibalism - in the tales of Baba - Yaga. These and other fabulous motives are an echo of a long-forgotten reality, but in fairy tales they are not perceived as a story about the past. They form that wonderful fantasy world in which fairytale heroes live.

The fantasy of the fairy tale was also shaped by dreams directed to the future. The tale is ahead of reality. Dreaming of fast movement on the ground, a man in a fairy tale creates running boots. He wants to fly through the air - he creates a flying carpet. He wants to always be well-fed - and in the fairy tale a self-assembled tablecloth, a wonderful mill, a pot that can cook any amount of porridge on order.

Fairy tales are a complex genre in terms of their storyline. They include heroic tales about the hero's struggle against enemies, stories about the search for wonders, getting a bride, stories about a stepdaughter and stepmother, and others. In the index of fairy tales by A. Aarne, you can find 144 stories known in Russian fairy tales. In addition, the Russian scientist N.P. Andreev found 38 more subjects unknown to the folklore of other peoples. Russian researcher of fairy tales V.Ya. Propp identified the following types of plots:

1. The fight of the hero with a wonderful opponent.

2. Liberation from captivity or witchcraft of the bride (wife) or groom.

3. About a wonderful helper.

4. About a wonderful item that helps the hero to achieve the goal.

5. About the miraculous strength or unusual skill of the hero.

6. Other types of subjects not included in the previous sections.

As a rule, the plot of a fairy tale begins with an intriguing plot, an unusual event: for example, in the fairy tale "Three Kingdoms", the plot of a fabulous action begins with the fact that a whirlwind flew into the garden where the queen is walking, grabbed her and carried her away to no one knows where. The plot emphasizes the unusualness of what is happening, shows that we are talking about the wonderful adventures of the heroes. The plot of each fairy tale is unique. Its distinctive feature is multi-event. The tale describes a rather long period in the tense and dramatic life of the hero. The hero of the fairy tale goes through a series of trials, performs difficult tasks.

In different fairy tales, one and the same motives, or the most frequent episodes, are found. For example, the motive of the hero's excommunication from home for any reason, the motives of difficult assignments, the search for a kidnapped wife or bride, competition with the enemy, the motive of fleeing from the enemy, the assistance of wonderful helpers or objects. For all the plot differences, the structure of fairy tales is the same: the motives are strictly consistent, each previous motive explains the next, prepares the main, culminating event. Usually, the most significant motive in a fairy tale can be repeated three times. Repetition slows down the plot action, but fixes the listeners' attention on an important moment.

The composition of the tale can be described as circular and one-line. Conventionally, the sequence of actions can be conveyed by a scheme: the hero leaves the house to perform feats or for adventures - feats or adventure - return. This creates a closed action, a circular composition. Singling out the hero at the beginning of the story, the tale connects all actions with him, the whole chain of fairy-tale events refers to him. We will not find a single episode where the main character is absent. Such a construction is usually called single-line.

A specific feature of a fairy tale is the image of a special fairytale space and time in which the hero's actions take place. The artistic space of a magical-fantastic fairy tale is limited from the real one. It is clearly divided into its own - "some kingdom, some state", in which the hero lives, and a foreign, other - "the distant kingdom, the thirtieth state", in which the hero undergoes trials and performs feats. The border between them is always some kind of obstacle. It can be a dark forest, a fiery river, a sea, a mountain, a well, a deep pit, which the hero needs to be able to overcome in order to get from “his” into the “other” kingdom.

The artistic time of a fairy tale is a special fairytale time that does not coincide with the real one either in its length or in its nature. It is always related to an indefinitely distant past. It is conditional, surreal. It is never counted in years, but only in events. The hero of a fairy tale never gets old. His life until the moment he leaves home to perform his exploits is narrated very briefly. Only from the moment the hero leaves the house does the countdown begin and then the time is determined only by those events about which the fairy tale tells. Fairytale time always consistently moves forward into the future, never returning to the hero's past. It is clearly subdivided into travel time and event time.

To designate the hero's time on the road, special artistic formulas are used, for example: "Soon the fairy tale will tell, but it won't be done soon." Verbs of movement are used, repeated 2-3 times or more. Increased repetitions mean longer travel times. "Walking, walking, walking Ivan Tsarevich ..." - means that he walks for a very long time. The length of the path can be transmitted by the state of fatigue, hunger, thirst, wear of clothes and shoes.

The world of the characters in a fairy tale is unusually diverse. Positive heroes, endowed with ideal physical and moral qualities, occupy a central place in the system of images. In turn, they are subdivided into the following groups: hero-hero, hero-successful and hero - an imaginary fool. The second row is made up of the hero's assistants, with whose assistance he performs his feats and successfully overcomes all obstacles and adventures. The third row - enemies or pests of the hero, with whom he fights.

Heroes - heroes are born from a miraculous conception and from infancy are endowed with titanic strength and other supernatural qualities. This type of heroes includes Pokatigoroshek, Ivan - Bear's ear, Ivan Suchich, Ivan - the Cow's son and others. A pea is born in a miraculous way - from a pea that his mother finds and eats. The time from conception to birth is fantastically shortened. He grows not for years, but for hours, he has extraordinary mental abilities: he begins to speak and reason rationally, while still in the womb. He has superhuman endurance and gigantic strength. He performs feats, killing a monstrous snake, rescuing his sister and brothers from captivity. This is one of the archaic types of heroes of the East Slavic fairy tale epic, based on the cult of plant power.

Ivan - Bear's ear or Medvedko is born as a result of the cohabitation of a woman (sometimes a man) with a bear (she-bear). Outwardly, he is "just like a man, only bear ears" or "a man to the waist, and a bear from the waist." Like Pokatigoshek, he grows unusually fast, is strong and smart. This is a violent, mischievous nature. In childhood, inadvertently playing with peers, cripples them. In the image of this hero, heroic and satirical-humorous features merged. In the tales of the bear's son, traces of the cult of the totem beast are visible.

A successful hero (usually his name in fairy tales is Tsarevich Ivan, Ivan the peasant's son), unlike the hero-hero, does not possess titanic strength, although he is strong and dexterous, often handsome: there is no way to withdraw. " But the main thing in him is his high moral qualities, with which he attracts assistants, and they serve him, helping to overcome all obstacles. This type of hero embodies the human ideal: he is kind, just, disinterested, honest. Dying of hunger, he spares animals, enduring need, shares the last piece with the beggar. He unquestioningly fulfills his father's order, coming for three nights in a row for himself and for his older brothers to guard his father's grave. For every good deed, the hero is awarded a wonderful horse or wonderful object.

An imaginary fool is a hero in disguise. In a fairy tale, this is always the third, youngest son in a peasant family ("By the Pike's Command", "Sivka-Burka", "Pig - Golden Bristle", "Humpbacked Horse"). Sometimes this is the only son of a poor widow ("The Magic Ring"), a merchant's son ("Dunno", "Bald", "Mysterious Knight"). The fool does not have his own family and lives with his brothers, being, as it were, subordinate to their wives, who give him small assignments. The tale never shows him a participant in important economic and family affairs. He can be sent to the river for water or to the forest for firewood, or sent to the guard. But they are never sent to plow, sow, or trade.

He may appear to be lazy and inactive. Usually he is not busy with anything: he sits on the stove or in a corner behind the stove, sorting through the stove ash, which is perceived by others as stupidity. However, this just makes the fool stand out as a special hero. The stove (ash, and ash) in folk mythology is tied to the spirits of the house and the cult of ancestors. The fool is associated with another world, the laws of which differ from the laws of the real world, and is under his special protection.

Being in a dependent position on family members, sometimes enduring hunger and hardship, the fool does not seek to change his unenviable position. Therefore, Emelya, having received a wonderful opportunity from the pike - to command, does not use it to acquire material wealth and power, but uses it so as not to waste time on boring everyday affairs: he makes the buckets go to the hut, the sleigh goes to the forest, the ax to chop wood - he supposedly lazy. But his laziness is imaginary, for as soon as the hour strikes, there will be no trace of this laziness: Ivan the Fool will ride a horse, getting the bride's ring, Emelya will erect a huge bridge with a crystal palace on the beautiful island. At the right moment, the fool will begin to show extraordinary cunning and ingenuity, which are completely absent in his everyday life.

He is not endowed from birth with either physical strength or beauty. Outwardly, he can look like a grubby, downtrodden and insignificant, unsightly. But a fairy tale never speaks of his physical disabilities, short stature or outward ugliness. Usually his unattractiveness is due to the fact that he is deliberately untidy: dirty, unwashed, stained with soot, dressed in rags. In this form, he can, for the fun of the brothers, go on a thin horse to a banquet in the royal palace, while the brothers dress up in their best clothes and ride good horses.

Foolishness seems to those around him impracticality. Emelya releases the caught pike into the river, instead of boiling it and filling it up ("By the Pike's Command"). The fool does not know the value of money. Vanka, the widow's son, spends the last pennies intended for food, and even gives up his last jacket to ransom the animals doomed to death ("The Magic Ring"). Ivan, a merchant's son, nurses a chilling foal covered with a scab ("Dunno"). The strange (from the point of view of others) impracticality of a fool on closer examination turns out to be his advantage: pity and kindness in relation to the weak and defenseless.

Thanks to his humane attitude towards animals, disinterestedness, unswerving fulfillment of his father's behests, moral superiority over his enemies and ill-wishers, he acquires loyal friends and assistants who help him acquire such treasures and benefits that his practical and active brothers never dreamed of. For kindness, a fairy tale rewards with good, and over time, an imaginary fool becomes a written handsome man, performs heroic deeds (liberates the kingdom from enemies) or builds palaces, plants beautiful gardens, and then marries the royal daughter and inherits the kingdom.

The heroines of a fairy tale can be unjustly persecuted heroines - sufferers. Most often these are "orphans": Cinderella, sister Alyonushka, Kroshechka - Khavroshechka, Vasilisa, Bezruchka. In fairy tales, it is not outward beauty that is emphasized, but kindness, modesty, gentleness, obedience, patience, humility, hard work and other qualities inherent in a Christian woman. The evil stepmother ("Cinderella") exhausts them with overwork, they suffer from hunger, cold, dress in rags, they don't hear a kind word from anyone. They are slandered, they are opposed to their own daughters. An orphan has no right to vote in his own defense. She has no one to complain about her hard life, no one to cry her grief to. However, the sorrows of orphans in a fairy tale are temporary, and their sufferings are of a purifying nature. In addition, the orphan has many helpers.

The hero's helpers in fairy tales are diverse. Most often, the hero's first assistant and friend is a woman: his wife, bride, mother or sister. It can be both sorceresses and princesses: Marya the princess, Nastasya Korolevichna, Marya Morevna, Barbara-beauty, the golden braid, Elena the Beautiful, Vasilisa the Wise, - assistants with wonderful abilities, wisdom and beauty. Fairy-tale heroines are such beauties that “neither say in a fairy tale, nor describe with a pen”.

Most of them have unusual abilities because they are associated with another world, they can be daughters or relatives of powerful forces of nature. For example, Marya Morevna is the daughter of the Sea King. Vasilisa the Wise can be the daughter of Koshchei the Immortal or the Snake. Sometimes the assistant can be the daughter of Baba Yaga. They perform all kinds of difficult tasks for the hero, save him from dangers.

The images of wonderful assistants in a fairy tale are diverse, and their functions correspond to their names: Swat-Reason, a powerful invisible person who carries out all the orders of the hero in the fairy tale "Go there - I don't know where, bring that - I don't know what." The hero's assistants can be counter heroes endowed with unusual properties, personifying the mighty forces of nature: Gorynya or Gor - Horovik ("twists mountains, throws them from handle to handle"), Dubynya or Oak - Dubovik (pulls out mighty oaks by the roots), Usynya, covering with a mustache of the river: "A mustache - a hero - he locks the river with his mustache, catches fish with his mouth," Skorokhod, who walks on one leg, and the other is tied to his ear, since on two legs he "would have crossed the whole world in one step." This gallery of assistants is continued by the Rumor, Opivalo, Eating up, Much from dogs, Much from fire, etc.

Sometimes Baba Yaga acts as the hero's assistant. She gives him good advice, a magical horse of unusual strength, gives him wonderful objects: a ball that shows the hero's path to the goal, an invisibility hat, boots-runners, etc. She lives in "the thirtieth kingdom, across the thirty lakes, where even a raven does not carry a Russian bone." Many fairy-tale attributes indicate that the image of Baba Yaga is the embodiment of the deceased progenitor. Her hut on chicken legs resembles an ancient type of burial in small wooden structures on pillars. In some fairy tales it is reported that it is fenced in with skulls on stakes (this is like a grave in the center of a large burial place).

Usually Baba Yaga lies motionless "on the stove, on the ninth brick, his nose has grown into the ceiling" or drives around the hut in a mortar. She is ugly, ugly, she has a bone leg. V. Ya. Propp believes that Baba Yaga's "bone-footedness" also indicates that this is the image of a dead man. She does not see the hero, but learns about his approach by smell. This also brings the image of Baba Yaga closer to the deceased, whose eyes are always closed. She becomes the hero's assistant in those cases when he is her relative on the part of his wife. It can be assumed that the veneration of deceased relatives is embodied in the image of Baba Yaga the assistant, whose mercy and help a person sought to receive.

Assistants can be animals: horse, cow, wolf, bear, dog, cat, snake, falcon, raven, drake, duck, eagle, pike. Insects (bees, ants) also help the hero. Various magical objects and wonders also act as assistants. One of the groups of such helpers is "inexhaustible" wonderful objects: "sambranka tablecloth", "a jug of forty horns", from which various drinks and foods appear, "self-shaking purse"; another group - "self-acting" objects: "flying carpet", "running boots", "self-styled baton", "gusli-samogudy".

Some magical objects have the ability to hide and, at the right time, let loose the fellows who help the hero: “suma - give me your mind,” a wonderful chest, etc. The “invisible hat”, a magic ball showing the right path, also acts as an assistant. The hero is helped by living and dead water, which adds or decreases strength, potions ("sleeping potion"), pins, a comb, and other items that have the property of lulling. Often found in fairy tales are wonderful objects that have magical power to turn into powerful obstacles for the pursuers of the hero: a towel - into a river, lake, sea, a ridge - into a dense forest, mountains.

The helpers in fairy tales about orphans are kind sorceresses who replace their dead mother (Cinderella), a magic doll left by a dying mother for an orphan (Vasilisa the Wise and Baba Yaga), a cow (“Little Khavroshechka”). And, as a later phenomenon of the Christian period, in fairy tales - the Most Holy Theotokos, healing the heroine and helping to restore justice ("The Handless").

The opponents of the hero are conventionally divided by researchers into two groups: the monsters of the "other" kingdom and the enemies of "their" kingdom. The first include "Oh" - a skillful sorcerer and werewolf, "Himself with a fingernail, a beard with an elbow" - an evil dwarf of Russian fairy tales, an ungrateful and daring creature with exorbitant physical strength, despite its small stature. Baba Yaga, a witch, an evil adviser, a warrior, a cannibal and a kidnapper, can also act as an adversary. In the image of Yaga - the hero's opponents, one can guess the ideas of ancient people about an alien, hostile mortal hostage.

The most common image in a fairy tale is the Serpent (Mountain Serpent) - a huge multi-headed monster with three, six, nine, twelve or more heads, aggressive towards the hero. He can live in water, mountain or the underworld. He devours people, abducts girls (echoes of cult sacrifices), less often - abducts heavenly bodies (echoes of ancient myths). Kashchei the Immortal (Kosh, Karachun) is the traditional image of the abductor of women in Russian fairy tales. He kidnaps the hero's mother or bride. You can kill him only after learning the secret of his death: “There is an oak tree, under an oak tree a box, a hare in a box, a duck in a hare, an egg in a duck, my death in an egg”. This is the most common story about "Kashchei's death in the egg".

Opponents of “their” kingdom are the wicked stepmother-sorceress, the king, the royal sons-in-law, and sometimes the bride or wife of the hero who occupies a higher social position and wants to bring him down. The hero's struggle against the enemy helps to see his character, becomes a means of revealing the ideological content of the tale. A special place among these images is occupied by the image of a stepmother and her own daughters. Usually, after the death of the first wife, the old man marries a second time.

A stepmother in a fairy tale is always given in contrast to her own mother, she is never kind, always hates her stepdaughter or her husband's children from his first marriage. The reasons may vary. Most often, the daughter's stepmothers in a fairy tale are ugly, lazy, arrogant, they are opposed by the beauty and moral qualities of an orphan. Sometimes the stepmother acts like a stupid, grumpy woman who cannot please her stepdaughter. Very often she is portrayed in a fairy tale as an evil witch who tries to kill step children, turns them into birds and drives them away. In a fairy tale, the stepmother is always punished. Her own daughter returns ashamed (toads jump out of her mouth at every word) or bring her remains - with her rude behavior, she brought death to herself. At the same time, the stepdaughter receives a rich dowry and marries a fairy-tale prince.

The fairy tale has its own specific structure. Unlike other types of fairy tales, it has sayings, beginnings and endings. Sayings are rhythmic and rhymed humorous jokes that are not related to the plot. Their goal is to focus, attract the attention of listeners, and tune them in a special way. The joke is spoken briskly and contains humor: “The tale begins from Sivka, from Burka, from Kaurka's things. On the sea, on the ocean, on the island on Buyan, there is a baked bull, crushed garlic in the bottom. Cut from one side, and eat from the other. The adage is found only in the tales of experienced skilled storytellers and is quite rare. More often, a fairy tale begins with a beginning, which transfers the listener from the real to a special fairy-tale world, acquaints with the scene and characters. The most common initiation is: "In a certain kingdom, in a certain state there lived and there was a tsar ..." or: "It used to be that there was an old man and an old woman, they had three sons," or in short: "Once upon a time ... . ".

The fairy tale ends with endings, which are also humorous in nature, their goal is, as it were, to close the fairy tale, defuse attention and return listeners to the real world, make them smile and even laugh, draw attention to the storyteller in order to receive gratitude, a gift or a treat. Most traditionally: “This is the end of the fairy tale, but who listened - well done. You - a fairy tale, and me - knitted bagels. " Sometimes the storyteller turns out to be a guest of the wedding feast, which ends the plot: “And I was there, drinking honey-beer, flowing down my mustache, but not getting into my mouth. They gave me a pancake, and that rotted too. " Endings are not always found. Most often, the tale ends with the formula: "They began to live, live and make good money." Or: "It's a fairy tale, you can't lie anymore."

In fairy tales, there are often repeated poetic cliches - traditional formulas common to different plots and textual variants. We have already talked about the artistic formulas depicting time and space. In addition, in fairy tales, formulas are used to describe the beauty of heroes: "neither say in a fairy tale, nor describe with a pen", a formula depicting the rapidity of a hero's growth: "grows by leaps and bounds." In many fairy tales, there is an appeal-spell to a magic horse: "Sivka-burka, prophetic cow, stand in front of me like a leaf in front of a grass." There is a widespread spell by the hero of Baba-Yaga's revolving hut, into which he must enter: "Hut-hut, stand in the old way, as your mother put it, back to the forest, in front of me", etc.

Fairy tales have a peculiar language and poetic style. Previously, they said not to tell, but to tell a fairy tale, for the storyteller's speech when performed was significantly different from everyday speech. In the poetic language of a fairy tale, we note the tendency to use phrases formed from synonyms and words of the same root. Synonymy enhances the brightness and expressiveness of the depicted persons and events: "The sea shook, the sea shook", "I found sadness-longing on the queen", "Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful", "We began to grieve", "He jokes bad jokes."

Proverbs, sayings, phraseological units typical of colloquial everyday language are introduced into the speech of the characters: "I took up the tug, do not say that it is not hefty", "Come on, a dog and death," ...

Of the verbal and pictorial means, the tale most often resorts to epithets. The traditional epithet, some kingdom, some state, emphasizes the uncertainty of the scene. Such constant epithets as self-assembled tablecloth, living water, gusli-samoguds denote properties hidden in objects. The epithet can determine the class affiliation or the position of the hero in the family. For example: Ivan is a prince, Ivan is a peasant son, Ivan is a cow's son, Ivan is a younger son, etc. Epithets can emphasize a high degree of quality of a person or object: Vasilisa the Wise, exorbitant power, dense forest. Evaluative epithets are used: sad thought, lousy horse, unclean spirit.

Fairy tale often uses comparisons in a simple or expanded form. Thanks to comparisons, the actions of the heroes stand out, the emotional effect is enhanced: "The falcon flies into a herd of geese, swans and gray ducklings, it is not clear, Tsarevich Ivan attacks the enemy's army", "They carried them, like violent whirlwinds, on the wide okyan sea", " As they hit with battle clubs, thunder rumbled. "

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RF

GOU VPO "Kemerovo State University"

Department of Russian Literature and Folklore

in the discipline "Oral folk art"

Topic: The Tale of Animals: a system of images, plot typology, poetics

Kemerovo - 2011

Introduction

Animal tales are those in which the characters are wild animals, less often domestic animals. These tales originated in the era when basic occupations forced a person to often encounter animals, i.e. in the era of hunting and cattle breeding. In this era, the fight against animals was very dangerous, a person seemed weak to himself in comparison with a number of predatory animals. At the same time, the belief arose in the possibility of turning into a beast and back. The growth of human power was supposed to gradually weaken these views and beliefs, and this was to be reflected in the content of animal tales.

In general, the world of animals appears as a form of expression of the thoughts and feelings of man, his views on life. Talking animals become a poetic convention that helps to express the world outlook more accurately. Tales intertwined stories about the origin of animals and birds, about the marriage relationship between animals and people, myths about totem animals, reflected the ancient ideas of man about nature: animism, anthropomorphism and totemism. Fairy tales about animals introduce a person into the circle of the first vital ideas, explain the essence of many phenomena, acquaint with the characters and relationships of people.

Based on this, the study of fairy tales about animals is an essential element of knowledge of the genesis of human society, human ideas about the world around him and about himself.

The purpose of this work is to identify the characteristic features of the fairy tale about animals as a genre of a fairy tale through the prism of plot typology, a system of images and compositional poetics.

The object of research in this work is the tale of animals as a genre of fairy tales. The subject of the research is the essential categories of the fairy tale about animals, namely: the plot, images and composition of the work.

The work consists of an introduction, a main part and a conclusion and is done on so many pages.

An example of animism can be the tale "The Greedy Old Woman" - a version of the tale of a goldfish, where a tree is animated. You also show animism in the motive of the wonderful trees that grow on the graves of the innocent victims. In the fairy tale "Little havroshechka", a wonderful apple tree grows from the bones of a cow: it helps the girl to get married. Anthropomorphism in fairy tales is expressed in the fact that animals speak and act like people. It is possible that the basis for this was the similarity of humans and animals observed by people: in actions, in behavior, in quarrels, in the fear of the weak before the strong. The qualities of people are transferred to animals in fairy tales: intelligence, kindness, cunning. Totemism, consisting in the idea that man descends from animals, manifests itself in many fairy tales: the birth of man from an animal, the transformation of man into an animal, and an animal into a man. The most revealing tale is "The Bear - the Linden Foot".

Plot typology

Animal tales are a kind of fairy tale genre. Arising in ancient times, they reflected the observations of the animals of a man of primitive society - a hunter and a trapper, and then a cattle breeder. The meaning of these tales in those days consisted, first of all, in the transfer of life experience and knowledge about the animal world to young people. In the beginning, there were simple stories about animals, birds and fish. Later, with the development of artistic thinking, stories turned into fairy tales. The genre was formed for a long time, enriched with plots, types of characters, developing certain structural features. With the development of man's ideas about nature, with the accumulation of observations, stories about the victory of man over animals and about domestic animals, which was the result of their domestication, enter into fairy tales. These tales are very simple and everyday. Their spatial world is limited by the situation in the Russian countryside. The circle of problems that the heroes have to solve is very grounded: How to lure a rooster out of the house, how to spend the winter in the forest, how to satisfy hunger, get out of the pit, etc. In fairy tales about animals, animals, birds, fish, and in some also plants act. V. Ya. Propp in the index attached to the third volume of Russian folk tales by A.N. Afanasyev (1957), distinguishes six groups of fairy tales of this type:

) tales of wild animals;

) tales of wild and domestic animals;

) fairy tales about man and wild animals;

) tales about pets;

) tales of birds, fish, etc .;

) tales about other animals, plants, etc.

Spiritualization of nature, coming from animistic views, has become a familiar convention in many fairy tales, songs of ballads. But the animals themselves in them, possessing the ability to speak and think, are not the main characters. They act as wonderful helpers, or as conditional characters who help to reveal the emotional experiences of a person. In addition, fairy tales about animals do not include fairy tales such as "The Lynx Girl", in which the stepmother turns her stepdaughter into a lynx, her husband rips off her skin, burns her and thus removes the spell. The fairy tale “Ivan Medvedko”, where the hero is “a man up to the waist, and a bear from the waist,” cannot be attributed to fairy tales about animals.

Afanasyev himself made the division of fairy tales into those where the animal is the subject or the main object of the story. For example, "The Fox Midwife", "The Fox and the Crane", "The Foolish Wolf", etc. However, there are fairy tales in which both humans and animals are the characters. But in the fairy tale "The Wolf at the Hole", the main character is undoubtedly the wolf fishing, and not the women going to the hole and beating the wolf. This classification is not absolutely reliable. In some fairy tales, animals and people act on equal terms: "The bear is a lime leg." Thus, the plot typology of animals is not a fully explored topic and has many questions and mysteries.

Image system

A nimble, strong and fearless bear gets a manner of clumsiness, sluggishness and stupidity. These qualities were attributed to him to ridicule him as the enemy of the peasant. The terrible ceased to be terrible. In the fairy tale “The Bear is a Linden Foot,” the bear is neither stupid nor trusting, as we are used to seeing him in other fairy tales. The tale echoes with untouched ancient beliefs. The bear did not leave a single grievance unavenged. He takes revenge on all the pitchfork of the generic law: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But this is rather an exception. Indeed, in animal carp, the bear most often appears as a simpleton. But in more ancient sources, a bear is shown as a friend or brother of a man, enters into a bra with a woman, has a son who belongs to the human collective, fights against evil spirits, brings wealth to a person. The bear has a double nature: he is the master of both forests and a creature closely related to man.

Poetics

fairy tale composition genre character

The structure of animal tales is fairly simple. The composition is based on the plot structure. All the narrative material is distributed depending on the course of the action. The most notable structural feature for animal tales is the so-called cumulative, or chain, structure. The rooster choked on a bean grain, the hen runs from one to the other, asks for help until he saves the rooster ("Bean seed"); a fly built a teremok, different animals come to it in turn: one, another, a third ... ("Teremok"). The same structure in the fairy tales "Kolobok" and "Goat with nuts. The encounter of animals with each other is very characteristic of the development of action. As Yu.M. Sokolov rightly noted, in the plot of fairy tales about animals, the method of meetings is very widely used - meeting animals with each other or with a person<#"justify">Conclusion

Animal tales are currently targeted at children. They are characterized by the process of transition to the genre of a joke or a funny fairy tale as a result of detaching a song from a fairy tale, which is performed already as an independent work in the form of a joke, or as a result of the transition of a fairy tale into rhythmic prose. It is worth noting the significance of animal tales. They not only moralize, showing through animals the purely human aspects of good and evil, the sides of human behavior, but also equate man with animals, thus removing a certain idealization of man, the fact of his superiority over animals.

Undoubtedly, fairy tales about animals are active today. Children not only listen eagerly, but also tell them themselves, supplementing them with fairy tales drawn from books. Fairy tales about animals are widely published in numerous children's books and school anthologies, as a rule, repeating the same texts, which is facilitated by the small size of the tales and the limited number of plots. This explains why the records of animal tales have only minor variant differences. The erasure of local peculiarities in fairy tales leads to the establishment of a single all-Russian repertoire of fairy tales about animals, stable in plot structure and poetics.

List of used literature

1.V. Ya. Propp "Russian Fairy Tale".

.E.A. Kostyukhin "Types and forms of animal epic".

.N.M. Vedernikov's "Russian folk tale".

.Anikin V.P. Russian folktale.

.With G. Lazutin "Poetics of Russian Folklore".

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Folk fairy tale in the author's interpretation

1 fairy tale as a genre

1.1. Typology of fairy tales

1.3. Character system

1.4. Literary tale

2.1 The origins of the plot about the dead princess and its main motives

Introduction

The very first genre that a person encounters is a fairy tale. This type of oral folk art is found among all the peoples of the world, and its roots go back to primitive times. The most canonical of the main types of fairy tales is the fairy tale, which is the subject of my research.

In ancient times, fairy tales, without being able to be recorded, were passed from mouth to mouth, gradually changing and forming various options. Many outstanding minds have dedicated their lives to collecting and recording folklore, such as V.I.Dal (1801-1872), A.N. Afanasyev (1826-1871). The Russian folklorist V.Ya. Propp (1895-1970), whose works formed the basis of my scientific work, came to the conclusion about the unity of the origin of a fairy tale, considering ethnic groups that have not yet parted with totemism (and do not have fairy tales as such) and modern fairy tales "Cultural" peoples. Confirmation of his theory is the similarity of the motives and functions of the characters in the tales of different peoples, which is explained by the fact that all peoples at the same stage of development develop similar beliefs and rituals, forms of social life. Consequently, the ideals and conflicts reflected in fairy tales are the same for them. In fairy tales, there is no exact reminder of any particular stage of culture: here various historical cycles and cultural styles mix and collide with each other. Only patterns of behavior have survived here, which could exist in many cultural cycles and at different historical moments.

Also, many writers drew their inspiration from the folklore source, sometimes processing the folk story beyond recognition. For example, three author's tales: A. Pushkin "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Heroes", C. Perrault "The Sleeping Beauty", the Brothers Grimm "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", were chosen as an object study is not accidental. Borrowed from the folklore of different peoples, these tales are striking in their similarity. Thingresearch - comparison of author's adaptations of fairy tales of different nations and identification of common details and differences.

Relevanceselected topics- "Folk fairy tale in the author's interpretation" - due to the growing interest of philologists in the sources

1.1. Typology of a fairy tale
Probably the very first story that is told to a child is a fairy tale. Fairy tales are different, evil and kind, funny and sad, all the peoples of the world have them. But what is a fairy tale itself? What types of fairy tales are there? Philologists believe in different ways. So, for example, TV Zueva gives the following explanation: "A fairy tale is a kind of folklore prose, known among all peoples, the content of which is not inscribed in real space and time, but it retains its vital plausibility." The explanatory dictionary of DN Ushakov gives a different definition: "A narrative work of oral folklore about fictional events, or a literary work of the same nature" 2. Both definitions are inherently correct.

There are three main types of fairy tales: magic, everyday and about animals.

Household tales- fairy tales, whose fiction is based not on miracles, but on everyday folk life. Unlike fairy tales, the action of everyday life takes place in one world, in a conditionally real space. The plot develops thanks to the hero's collision not with magic power, but with difficult life circumstances. Sometimes fantastic images that appear in everyday fairy tales are needed only to reveal a real life conflict.

Animal Tales - a kind of fairy tales, nowadays often intended for a children's audience, which reflect forgotten totemic beliefs and everyday life of ancient hunters. In fairy tales about animals, animals are endowed with speech and reason, and a person acts as an equal participant in events. In world folklore, about 140 types of such fairy tales are known, and in Russian - 119, a significant part of which is original. Some of the Russian animal tales associated with laughter and naturalistic details were intended exclusively for a male audience.

Fairy tales Are fairy tales based on wonderful fiction. They represent the most genre-specific group of folklore subjects. Many of them are built according to a single compositional scheme and have a limited set of characters that perform certain functions. In total, 225 stories of fairy tales were taken into account, two-thirds of which are international. Usually a fairy tale begins with the fact that the main character goes to another world for a bride or wonderful objects, which may be genetically related to the initiation rite of young men, accompanied by various tests, after which young people were considered adults.

Since the fairy tale is the most canonical variety of the genre, it is possible to identify a number of overlapping features identified in various plots in the interpretation of different peoples.

1.2. Plot-compositional organization of a fairy tale
As a rule, each fairy tale is subject to a certain plot. When studying, its main elements are usually distinguished: the setting, the development of the action, the turning point, the culmination, the denouement.

In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to other features of the compositional organization of the tale, for example, such peculiar elements as the beginning and ending. – narrative techniques, which are essential components of the tale. Often, stable phrases are used for the beginning and ending: in a certain kingdom, in a certain state; Once upon a time, there were; here the fairy tale is over, but who listened - well done; and I was there, drinking honey beerand others. For a fairy tale, the conventionality of a fairy tale space and time (the chronotope of a fairy tale) is also characteristic: the flow of time depends on the desire of the narrator; triple repetitions.
Let's consider the compositional organization of a fairy tale on the example of the Russian folk tale "Marya Morevna". Here is its beginning:

« In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived Tsarevich Ivan; he had three sisters: one Marya the princess, the other Olga the princess, the third Anna the princess. Their father and mother died ... "

What can we learn from this short passage? First, we see the traditional fairy tale opening, which is usually used only in fairy tales. Secondly, here is the main character (Ivan Tsarevich), also often found in fairy tales. Third, the magic number three. Already a lot. And this is just the beginning of the tale.

The further development of the plot is as follows: a falcon, an eagle and a raven alternately woo the sisters - good fellows who turned into birds, marry and take the girls to their kingdom. Totemic representations of the Slavs are obvious, and again a threefold repetition. And what is this other state? It is quite possible that this is an ancient Slavic paradise - nav.

Then Ivan Tsarevich got ready to visit his sisters. On the way, he sees the army-force, beaten by Marya Morevna. Somewhat later, he meets Marya Morevna herself, who falls in love with him and marries him. After a while, she is going to war, leaving the household to the prince. Marya Morevna forbids him to look into only one closet: “Go everywhere, look after everything; only I can't look into this closet! "

She marries the prince, takes him to her state, goes to war, leaving the household to her husband - here we see the ordinary way of life of the ancestors of the Slavs - Sarmatians and Scythians. This means that the tale is older than it seems at first glance. Second, we see a prohibition here - the key motive of the fairy tale; the prohibition is subsequently violated:

As soon as Marya Morevna left, Ivan Tsarevich went into the closet, and, unknowingly, released Koshchei the Immortal imprisoned there, restoring his strength. Koschey kidnaps Marya Morevna, and the prince goes in search.

Koschey the Immortal represents the power of death, withering. He builds his intrigues in many magical folk tales, but he is always defeated - an allegorical depiction of the forces of winter, conquered by the coming spring. This is how it is described in the article "Archeology of the Russian Image of Consciousness":

“... Note, no matter how the koshchei boast, they have always been defeated. Why? Because our Ancestors clearly defined that Koschey is a demon and he is always mortal: a mortal demon. But since before they wrote everything together, then over time they began to perceive it in the sense - without mortal. " 3

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that Koschey is chained with twelve chains - according to the number of seasons. This once again confirms our theory that Koschey personifies winter. The power of Koschei is given by water - the blood of the Earth, the life of the Earth. Without water, everything in the world would have perished - that is why our ancestors revered water under the name Mokoshi - the patroness of the feminine principle, and Dodola - the goddess of rain. Koschey drank three buckets of water, and each bucket drunk increased his strength. Three is a magic number, and three times is a technique often used in fairy tales. And what to do with the abduction of Marya Morevna? Here is how V.Ya. Propp classifies this technique 4:

« ...The antagonist harms or harms a family member (definition - sabotage, designation A).

This function is extremely important, since it actually creates the movement of the fairy tale. Absence, violation of the ban, extradition, luck of deception prepare this function, create its opportunity, or simply facilitate it. Therefore, the first seven functions can be considered as a preparatory part of the tale, while the plot is opened by sabotage. The forms of sabotage are extremely diverse.

1) He kidnaps a person (A1). The serpent kidnaps the king's daughter (131), the peasant's daughter (133). The witch kidnaps the boy (108). The older brothers kidnap the younger bride (168).

2) He steals or takes away a magic agent (A 2) *. The "ugly kid" kidnaps the magic box (189). The princess steals the magic shirt (203). The peasant himself steals the magic horse with a finger (138).

2-a) A special subdivision of this form is the forcible removal of the magic assistant. The stepmother orders to slaughter a wonderful cow (100, 101). The bailiff orders to slaughter a wonderful chicken or duck (195, 197). Designation A II.

3) He plunders or spoils the crop (A 3). The mare eats a haystack (105). The bear steals oats (143). The crane steals peas (186).

4) He steals daylight (A 4). This case occurs only once (135).

5) He commits theft in other forms (A 5) ... "

The abduction of the princess in our case is expressed in the first form - kidnapping. Then Ivan Tsarevich goes in search. On the way, he visits his sisters with their husbands, leaving them silver items as a keepsake: a spoon, a fork and a snuffbox. Silver - as a metal associated with the moon - in ancient times was identified with the afterlife. It means that Ivan gave silver to his sons-in-law for a reason. Our guess is confirmed by the following text:

Then Ivan Tsarevich gets to Marya and tries to return her. But Koschey catches up with the fugitives and returns the girl to himself. This episode is repeated three times. For the third time, Koschey kills the prince and takes Marya Morevna to his place. Ivan Tsarevich's sons-in-law, seeing that the silver has turned black, revive the Tsarevich, and he again sets off to look for Marya Morevna.

What can we learn from these two episodes? First, confirmation of our theory that Koschey personifies the hostile forces of nature - winter. Koschey is strong only in winter - that's why he waits before attacking the heroes. Secondly, there is a confirmation of our other hypothesis - that silver is associated with the world of the dead. Third, confirmation that the Eagle, Falcon and Raven are from another world, since they have power over life and death. It is possible that they personify the forgotten Slavic gods. This means that the roots of the tale go back to pre-Christian Russia. Subsequently, the tale was edited, and everything objectionable to the church was masked.

As a result of the analysis, the following conclusion can be drawn:

1) The folk fairy tale is older than it seems at first glance. Most of these tales can be attributed to Russia before baptism.

2) The totemic representations of ancient peoples (Slavs, Indians, Germans) are reflected in fairy tales.

3) Apparently, the tales reflect the initiation rite - initiation into men.

4) The plot of a fairy tale is based on the alternation of the same motives (prohibition, violation of the prohibition), which may appear in the text in a different sequence.

1.3. Character system

The number of characters used in the fairy tale is limited. V. Ya. Propp identified seven types of actors according to their 5 functions:

pest (antagonist),
donor,
wonderful helper,
the kidnapped hero (the desired item),
sender,
hero,
false hero.

Let's analyze the functions of these characters. Pest (antagonist), this is a person in a fairy tale, whose role is to disturb the peace of a happy family, cause any trouble, cause harm, damage. According to V.Ya. Propp, the antagonist enters the fairy tale after breaking the prohibition 6. The pest can be anyone. For example Koschei, Serpent Gorynych, stepmother, witch, robbers, devil, etc.

As a rule, after sending the hero out of the house, some magical means that determines the outcome falls into his hands. To deliver this magic remedy to the hero, a new character intervenes in the course of the tale - donor... In a fairy tale, the donor gives the hero a wonderful remedy only if he observes certain etiquette rules. Magic help is a payment for the service that the hero has served the donor. Closely related to this image and wonderful helper... Here is what V.Ya. Propp writes about him in his book "The Historical Roots of a Fairy Tale":

“Giving a magic agent into the hands of the hero, the fairy tale reaches its peak. From now on, the end is already in sight. There is a huge difference between the hero leaving the house and wandering "where his eyes are looking," and the hero leaving the yaga. The hero is now firmly on his way to his goal and knows that he will achieve it. He even tends to boast a little. For his assistant, his desires are "only service, not service." In the future, the hero plays a purely passive role. Everything is done for him by his assistant or he acts with the help of a magical means. The assistant takes him to distant lands, kidnaps the princess, solves her problems, beats the snake or the enemy army, saves him from pursuit. However, he is still a hero. The helper is the expression of his strength and ability.

The list of assistants available in the repertoire of the Russian fairy tale is quite long. Only the most typical ones can be considered here. Considering a helper is inseparable from looking at magical items. They act exactly the same. Thus, the flying carpet, the eagle, the horse, and the wolf deliver the hero to another kingdom. "

And now we come to the main character of a fairy tale - hero... As a rule, this is a character "either directly affected by the action of the pest in the tie, or who agreed to eliminate the trouble or shortage of another person." He goes in search kidnapped hero (for example, princesses) or the item you are looking for (Cat-Bayun, Firebird, etc.) on assignment sender(king). On the way, he meets dangers, which he successfully overcomes with the help of the magic assistant, which we have already mentioned. Having found the item he was looking for, Ivan Tsarevich went home. But then he stands in his way false hero... As a rule, this is the less fortunate hero who wants to attribute to himself all the victories of the present hero. Usually this is a relative of the protagonist (brother) or a treacherous servant (general, groom). The false hero manages to fraudulently get rid of the real hero and take possession of the desired object. But the magic assistant saves the hero from death.

1.4. Literary tale

A literary tale is a literary epic genre in prose or poetry, based on the tradition of a folk tale. Often the sources of the works of authorship were folklore fairy tales. This type of epic (less often dramatic) work of authorship is characterized by the presence of a special space-time, perceived as magical or surreal (Through the Looking Glass, Underworld, etc.). The plot is either the process of the hero's transition from the ordinary world to the magical space, or the hero gains some extraordinary qualities. A literary tale is a non-canonical genre, which, despite its similarity to a magic folk tale, differs from it in psychologism, in the transformation of characters from signs into images. For example, Ivan Tsarevich in a folk tale is only a character who performs the function of a hero. It can be replaced by Ivan the Fool, Fedot the Archer and other similar characters without losing the meaning of the tale. Whereas the hero of a literary fairy tale is a full-blooded, living person, with his own feelings and qualities. It is impossible to replace it without losing the colorfulness of the tale.

The 18th century acquaints the reader with the first examples of literary fairy tales - author's retellings and adaptations of folk tales. So, for example, A.S. Pushkin in his work on "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" used the plot of Russian and Western European fairy tales, changing it according to the trend of his century. In the 19th century, a literary fairy tale proper as a genre was born, and then reaches the brightest moment in its development - in European (in the works of G.H. Andersen, V. Gauf, C. Perrot) and Russian literature (A.S. Pushkin, P. Ershov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, etc.). An echo of the romantic tradition of the 19th century is the dual world, which is specific to a magical literary tale.

There are several ways to classify literary tales:

1) By analogy with the classification of folk tales - fairy tales about animals, magic, everyday, adventurous;

2) By pathos - heroic, lyrical, humorous, satirical, philosophical, psychological tales;

3) in proximity to other literary genres - fairy tales-novellas, fairy-tales-poems, fairy-tales-stories, fairy-tales-parables, fairy-tales-plays, fairy tales-parodies, fairy tales of the absurd, science-fiction fairy tales, etc.

2.1. The origins of the plot about the dead princess and its main motives

We are all accustomed to the name "folk fairy tales". But meanwhile, V.Ya. Propp believes that such a term is erroneous. In the monograph "Morphology of a Fairy Tale" the scientist notes:

“The stability of the structure of fairy tales allows us to give a hypothetical definition of them, which can read as follows: a fairy tale is a story built on the correct alternation of the given functions in various forms in the absence of some of them for each story and when others are repeated. With such a definition, the term "magic" loses its meaning, because one can easily imagine a magical, enchanting, fantastic fairy tale constructed in a completely different way (cf. some tales of Andersen, Brentano, Goethe's fairy tale about the snake and lily, etc.) On the other hand and non-fairy tales can be constructed according to the given scheme ... Thus, the term magic must be replaced by another term. It is very difficult to find such a term ... If we define this class of fairy tales from the historical point of view, then they deserve the old, now discarded name of mythical fairy tales. " 7

From the above words, we can conclude that V.Ya. Propp was interested not so much in the fairy tales themselves, which had changed over the centuries, as in the identification of common primary source schemes - the tradition of Indo-European mythology. The researcher emphasizes that in the tales of different peoples it is possible to find plots that unite them, which existed long before the formation of folklore and were preserved in the memory of the people. It is significant that the folk tradition is borrowed by authors from different countries and it is in the author's tales that the national component becomes most obvious.

In order to prove the validity of V.Ya. Propp about the general mythological basis of the fairy tale, we will analyze the fragment about the "dead" princess, which gave the name to a number of works (A.S. Pushkin "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Heroes", the brothers Grimm "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", C. Perrot " Sleeping Beauty"). For the first time such a plot is found in the ancient Indian epic "Mahabharata": five Pandava brothers lived in the forest with their common wife Draupadi. A similar development of the action, altered in connection with national customs, but still recognizable, is found in all three tales. The princess (princess) lives in the forest with the named brothers (heroes and gnomes). Moreover, this type of relationship is especially emphasized in the works:

1. "If the red maiden,

Be our dear sister "

A.S. Pushkin "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs"

2. " Everyone was delighted with her arrival "

"They treated her very kindly"

The Brothers Grimm "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Also, in the folk legends of different countries there is a motive about a girl living in the forest with the named brothers, dying and resurrected from a kiss. Let us emphasize that, as in the ancient Indian epic, so in all three tales, the princess “falls asleep” for a reason, but “dies” in the forest. The forest is a kind of symbol of a different, afterlife (it is also interesting that the original tale of Charles Perrault is called "Beauty in the sleeping forest"). Here are some examples to prove our theory:

1. In the epic "Mahabharata" the Pandavas, having lost the kingdom to the Kauravas in a ritual game of dice, retire to the forests for thirteen years of exile, as if "falling asleep" to wake up for revenge.

2. In the tale of S. Perrot, the fairy, " so that neither man nor beast disturb the peace of the sleeping princess "(more precisely, so that the princess does not wake up ahead of schedule), surrounded the castle gates with an enchanted forest. Before the prince, the trees parted, missing only one of them - this is a kind of test, similar to the ancient rite of initiation of young men, at the end of which they were allowed to marry.

3. As in the fairy tale of the brothers Grimm, and in the case of A.S. Pushkin, the stepmother ordered the kennel (Chernavka) to kill the princess. Instead, the servant releases the girl into the forest, which plays the role of the afterlife. But the princess gets there alive, and has the opportunity to get out of there.

From this we can conclude that the literary tales under study are based on a common Proto-European myth about a dead (sleeping) beauty. Consequently, all three tales are consistent with the requirement of V.Ya. Proppa to the fairy tale about the presence of myth in the plot. That is, they can be analyzed as magical. In addition, the analyzed tales are brought closer by the connection with the folklore from which they borrow, according to the just statement of E.V. Posashkova:

1) Subject motives (absence, sabotage, etc.)

2) Images-characters (hero, antagonist, kidnapped hero)

3) Means of poetic speech (in this case, it is rather a difference, because Pushkin's fairy tale is made in poetic form, and the rest in prosaic form).

Let's dwell on the characters' images. In all three tales there is a hero (prince Elisha, the prince) who opposes the antihero (stepmother). The confrontation between the hero and the antagonist is carried out for the kidnapped hero (Snow White, princess, princess).

However, the main overlaps can be identified by comparing tales based on the functions proposed by V.Ya. Propp. As we have already said, despite the fact that the investigated tales are literary works, their connection with folklore is undeniable and the application of the functions of folk tales to them will be justified. Here are the features that are common in all fairy tales. Let us present them in the order of their appearance in the analyzed tales:

The pest is trying to scout. So, in Pushkin, the brothers Grimm and A.S. Pushkin, the stepmother asks the magic mirror about the fate of her stepdaughter:

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Who is the most beautiful in the whole country? (Grimm)

Hello, mirror! tell me

Yes, report the whole truth:

I am the loveliest in the world,

All blush and whiter?(A.S. Pushkin)

In C. Perrault, this function is modified and appears in the second part of the tale, when the prince's mother (the cannibal), thinking that she ate both the daughter-in-law and the children by accident " walked around the yard and passed the hayloft "," I heard children's laughter and a familiar female voice coming from there, calming the children. "(Perrault)

The pest is given information about his victim. The mirror tells that the princess is alive and gives out her location:

You queen are beautiful

But Snow White is over there,

The gnomes have seven outside the walls

A thousand times greater beauty!(Grimm)

And her mirror answered:

“You are beautiful, no doubt;

But he lives without any glory

Among the green oak forests,

The seven heroes

The one that is dearer to you. " (A.S. Pushkin)

From a French writer, the mother-in-law gets a hint by chance: “ No doubt it was a young queen with her children ”(Perrault).

The pest tries to deceive his victim. So, the brothers Grimm's stepmother disguises herself as a tradeswoman three times and sells poisonous items to Snow White. At Pushkin's, the tsarina sends her maidservant to destroy the princess. In a French fairy tale, the cannibal queen attempts to eat her two grandchildren and a daughter-in-law.
The victim succumbs to deception and thus unwittingly helps the enemy. The princess (Snow White) is eating an apple. Perrault has this function in the first part of the tale, and deception is replaced by the old woman's ignorance.
Sabotage. Poisoning: “As soon as she took a bite off [Snow White], she immediately fell dead to the ground”(Grimm ) ; Suddenly she, my soul,

I staggered without breathing

She lowered her hands,

I dropped the rosy fruit,

Eyes rolled

And she is under the image

I fell head on the bench

And she became quiet, motionless ...(A.S. Pushkin)

"As soon as the princess took the spindle in her hands, she pricked her finger and fell dead on the stone floor of the room." (Perrault)

The beginning of the opposition.
Modification of the function of the hero's request: the hero himself or accidentally finds the desired character. With the brothers Grimm and Perrault, chance helped the prince. In Pushkin, the bridegroom of the princess is diligently looking for her, and he is helped by the forces of nature, reflecting the totemic ideas of the Slavs.
The hero is transported to the place of the object of the search. The prince (king's son) goes through the forest, approaches a mountain or a cave.
The initial trouble is eliminated. The princess wakes up from an enchanted dream, the princess comes to life from the all-conquering power of love, a piece of a poisoned apple "Jumped out of Snow White's throat".
Victory. The witch's spell is lifted, Pushkin's evil stepmother and Grimm and Perrault's queen die.
The hero returns. Wedding. For Perrault, this function completes the first part. However, as in the other two tales, real family life begins after the return of the prince from the war and the death of his mother.

2.2 National identity of Russian, German and French variants

Despite the revealed similarity of the plots of the three investigated tales, the unity of their source and close connection with folklore, these tales also have differences due to the national characteristics of the author's country. 1. Form. Both Charles Perrot and the Brothers Grimm have tales written in prosaic form, while A.S. Pushkin's version is poetic. Apparently, this is due to the fact that most of the tales he heard from his nanny, who also sang folk songs. It seems that the poet wanted to combine the plot of a prosaic folk tale and the lyricism of songs in order to emphasize the poetry of the soul of the Russian people.

Chronotope. In the Russian and German versions, the conventionality of fabulous time and space is noticeable. Let us confirm this with quotations from the text: “ And for a long, long time Snow White lay in the coffin and did not change, and seemed as if asleep, and was still white as snow, blush as blood, dark as an ebony. "(Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). " Day after day goes, flickering, And the young princess Everything in the forest ... "(The tale of the dead princess and the seven heroes). Perrault's tale is adapted for the environment of the nobility: it is stylized as courtly literature and is filled with the signs of the storyteller's time. Everything: the manners of the heroes, their clothes and meals reflect the manners, clothes and meals of the nobility of the 17th century. So for example a prince « not a word told her that the style of her dress went out of fashion at least a hundred years ago and that such sleeves and collars have not been worn since the days of his great-great-grandmother. ".
Heroes (forces of nature, helpers). In the poem by A.S. Pushkin, the only one of the three tales we study, the hero (prince Elisha), in search of a bride, turns to the forces of nature three times (sun, month, wind), which reflects the totemic ideas of our Slavic ancestors in the pre-Christian era. The sun and the month cannot help the hero because of the "limitedness" of their function - the words of the month prove this too "I stand on guard only in my line". While the wind, omnipresent that Elisha speaks of "You are not afraid of anyone but God alone", notices the princess and tells the prince about her situation. Elisha turned to the forces of nature three times: three is a magic number, both in the Christian world and in the pagan beliefs of the Slavs. For Christians, these are: the Holy Trinity, the resurrection of Christ on the third day, the Three-handed - the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. In Slavic mythology - one of the three sacred numbers, denoting the number of sacred numbers and the trinity of the universe. In addition, in a fairy tale, usually everything works out for the third time. Thus, Elisha (a Christian, as can be seen from the wedding ceremony reflected in the fairy tale), according to fabulous laws, conjures the pagan forces three times with a number that has a triple meaning.
Heroes and gnomes. An interesting fact is that in German and Russian fairy tales the characters who sheltered the princess are completely different, but they have one thing in common - they are mythological characters. In the French version of the tale, there is also a similar character - this is a fairy (the seventh!), And she performs the same function - protecting the girl before the arrival of the groom. Fairies, heroes, and gnomes are distinctive signs of French, Russian and German folklore, by which one can determine where a fairy tale came from. The hero is an epic image of the heroes of the ancient Slavic tribes. Gnome is a bearded dwarf from German-Scandinavian folklore, famous for his wealth and skill. Fairy is a term from Western European folklore by which it is customary to mean all the variety of related mythological creatures, often radically different from each other in appearance and habits; sometimes friendly and bringing good luck, more often - crafty and vindictive, prone to evil jokes and kidnapping.
Customs. Also, customs differ in the studied tales. In the tale of Charles Perrault, on the occasion of the birth of a long-awaited child, a feast is arranged, at which a curse is sent to the princess. In the other two tales, the joy that should have followed the birth of the royal child is not mentioned; on the contrary, this wonderful event is overshadowed by the death of the mother during childbirth. From the very beginning of her life, the German and Russian princesses were haunted by misfortunes: the death of her mother was followed by the marriage of the king to a cruel woman; bullying by the stepmother; attempts by the stepmother to kill the girl; and finally lethargy. At Perrault, the princess leads a quiet life until the age of sixteen - the estimated age, upon reaching which, in those distant times, a girl could marry. And then the curse takes effect, and the princess falls asleep. Then, at C. Perrot and the brothers Grimm, a prince who happened to be passing by becomes the girl's fiancé. In A.S. Pushkin's fairy tale, the princess searches for a long time and in the end finds the prince Elisey, who is engaged to her.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE

A.S. Pushkin "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs"
C. Perrault "Sleeping Beauty"
The Brothers Grimm "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Part 1

V.Ya.Propp "The morphology of a fairy tale"
V.Ya.Propp "Historical roots of a fairy tale"
"Literary encyclopedia of terms and concepts" edited by A.N. Nikolyukin. Moscow, NPK Intelvac, 2003:

T.V. Zueva "Fairy Tale" // p.990.

IN Raikova "Literary tale" // p. 460.

"Poetics. Dictionary of actual terms and concepts ”edited by ND Tamarchenko. Moscow, publishing house Kulagina, 2008:

LD Polshikova "Literary Tale" // p. 235.

Babushkina's "Fairy tale as a genre" // www.nelidovo.edu.ru
"Archeology of the Russian image of consciousness": "Mythology of Russian fairy tales" // www.alexfl.ru

Part 2

Elena Posashkova Literary Studio: Folklore Traditions and Specificity of a Literary Tale // www.lit-studia.ru
Leonid Chernov "Tale of L. Tolstoy" Three Bears "" // http://www.alexfl.ru
Sergei Kuriy "Do we know everything about Perrault's tales?" // http://shkolazhizni.ru
E. Koropuzikova "The origins of Pushkin's fairy tale" About the dead princess and the seven heroes "// http://sno.nekrasovspb.ru

Tutoring

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