What Saltykov Shchedrin ridiculed in his fairy tales. At the same time, Saltykov-Shchedrin also makes fun of the man who married...
Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin is one of greatest satirists in world literature. He devoted his life and his talent to the struggle for the liberation of the Russian people from serfdom, criticizing in his works autocracy and serfdom, and after the reform of 1861 - the remnants of serfdom. The satirist ridiculed not only the despotism and selfishness of the oppressors, but also the humility of the oppressed, their patience, and fear.
Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire is very clearly manifested in fairy tales. This genre allows you to hide the incriminating meaning of the work from censors. Every fairy tale by Shchedrin necessarily has a political or social subtext that was understandable to readers.
In his fairy tales, Shchedrin shows how the rich oppress the poor, criticizes nobles and officials - those who live people's labor. Shchedrin has many images of gentlemen: landowners, officials, merchants and others. They are helpless, stupid, arrogant, boastful. In the fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals,” Shchedrin depicts the life of Russia at that time: landowners mercilessly profit from the peasants, and they do not even think of resisting.
Shchedrin never tired of exposing the vices of autocracy in his other fairy tales. So, in the fairy tale " The wise minnow"Shchedrin ridicules philistinism (“he lived and trembled and died and trembled”). In all his fairy tales, the writer claims that it is not words, but decisive actions that can achieve a happy future, and the people themselves must do this.
The people in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tales are talented, original, and strong in their everyday ingenuity. In the fairy tale about the generals, a man makes a net and a boat from his own hair. The writer is full of bitter resentment and, to some extent, shame for his long-suffering people, saying that with his own hands he is “weaving a rope, which the oppressors will then throw around his neck.” Shchedrin’s symbol of the Russian people is the image of a horse who patiently pulls his strap.
Saltykov-Shchedrin's tales are relevant at any time. An attentive reader will find similarities with modern times in his works, so Shchedrin must be known and read. His works help to understand social relations and the laws of life, morally purify a person. I want to say that Shchedrin’s work, like everyone else’s, brilliant writer, belongs not only to the past, but also to the present and the future.
Essay on the topic “Fairy tales of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin as an exposure of vices” 5.00 /5 (100.00%) 2 votes
A feature of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s writing is its satirical orientation. The author chose the genre of satire, the form of a fairy tale, as it helps to hide from censorship true meaning works, as well as the fairy tale genre allows you to convey various events in simple language, accessible to the reader. The main theme of Shchedrin's fairy tales is ridicule of the autocracy, the ruling class, the arbitrariness of the authorities, and the imperfections of Russian society.
In his fairy tales, the author reflects fantasy and reality, but fantasy is mainly based on actual past events. Often the author begins his fairy tales with the words that the story will be about long-past events or uses the beginning of Russian fairy tales. Fairy tale " Wild landowner“begins with the words: “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived a landowner.” The author uses these techniques to deceive censors and show events in a new way.
As in folk tales, the author contrasts good and evil, bad with good, but the lines between them are blurred. Saltykov even goodies assigns negative qualities. In “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals,” Saltykov shows us the stupidity of a man who himself wove a rope and offered to tie him up for the night to the generals who found themselves on a desert island.
The writer introduced political satire into fairy tales, changed its subject, and became a kind of innovator. In his works, the author often uses such techniques as grotesque, hyperbole, and antitheses. Saltykov is a master of irony, discovers new techniques and methods satirical image in literature. Humor makes up main force works of this author. The writer believes that laughter causes illness against social inequality and political despotism. All fairy tale heroes are people of certain social strata, representatives of an era who are devoid of human traits.
I use the grotesque in fairy tales, the author brings events to the point of absurdity. Thus, the landowner from the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner,” left alone without peasants, lost his human appearance, both moral and external. He was tired of the smell of the peasants, and therefore decided to drive them out, but without them, everything human in the landowner died. The generals from “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals” are also completely helpless without a man, they are ready to die, but to their joy a man was found and saved them.
Both tales show us autocracy, serfdom, and dependence on the peasants. The author ridicules the defenselessness and stupidity of the nobility, represented by the generals, as well as the common people. The peasants are accustomed to obeying, from generation to generation, but the nobles only know how to subordinate and command. Saltykov-Shchedrin fought injustice with the help of laughter, social political satire became his calling.
(1 option)
In the final period of his work, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin turns to the allegorical form of a fairy tale, where, describing everyday situations in “Aesopian language,” he ridicules vices contemporary writer society.
The satirical form became for M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin with the opportunity to speak freely about pressing problems of society. In the fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals” various satirical techniques are used: grotesque, irony, fantasy, allegory, sarcasm - to characterize the characters depicted and describe the situation in which the main characters of the fairy tale: two generals find themselves. The very landing of the generals on a desert island “by pike command, according to my desire." The writer’s assurance is fantastic that “the generals served all their lives in some kind of registry, were born there, raised and grew old, and therefore did not understand anything.” The writer satirically portrayed and appearance heroes: “they are in nightgowns, and an order hangs on their necks.” Saltykov-Shchedrin ridicules the basic inability of the generals to find food for themselves: both thought that “the rolls would be born in the same form as they are served with coffee in the morning.” Depicting the behavior of the characters, the writer uses sarcasm: “they began to slowly crawl towards each other and in the blink of an eye they became frantic. Shreds flew, squeals and groans were heard; the general, who was a teacher of calligraphy, bit off the order from his comrade and immediately swallowed it.” The heroes began to lose their human appearance, turning into hungry animals, and only the sight of real blood sobered them up.
Satirical techniques not only characterize artistic images, but also express the author’s attitude towards the depicted. The writer treats the man with irony, who, frightened powerful of the world“First of all, he climbed up the tree and picked ten of the ripest apples for the generals, and took one sour one for himself.” Makes fun of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin attitude of the generals to life: “They began to say that here they live on everything ready, but in St. Petersburg, meanwhile, their pensions keep accumulating and accumulating.”
Thus, using various satirical techniques, the allegorical form of “Aesopian language”, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin expresses own attitude to the relationship between people in power and common people. The writer ridicules both the generals’ inability to cope with life and the peasant’s stupid fulfillment of all the masters’ whims.
(Option 2)
The generals who had spent their whole lives in the registry could not have been sent to a desert island; it was enough to take them into a field or forest, leaving them alone, as in fairy tales, and it could have been canceled serfdom just like in life.
Of course, the fairy tale is a lie, the writer exaggerates, and there were no generals so stupid and unadapted to life, but in any fairy tale there is a hint. The author hints at the weak-willedness and dependence of the peasant, and at the helplessness of the “generals” who would have died of hunger and cold if the peasant had not been nearby. There are a lot of conventions and fantasy in the fairy tale: the unexpected transfer of two generals to a desert island, and very conveniently a man also turned up there. Much is exaggerated, hyperbolized: the complete helplessness of the generals, ignorance of how to navigate relative to parts of the world, etc. The author of the fairy tale also uses the grotesque: the huge size of the man, the eaten medal, soup boiled in the palms of his hands, a woven rope that prevents the man from escaping.
The very fairy-tale elements used by the author are already a satire on the society of that time. Desert Island - real life, which the generals do not know. A man who fulfills all desires is a self-assembled tablecloth and a flying carpet rolled into one. Saltykov-Shchedrin mocks the generals who were born and grew old in the registry, the registry as a public institution, which was “abolished as unnecessary” and the peasant who wove his own rope, himself and is happy that “he, a parasite, was rewarded with peasant labor did not disdain! Both the generals and the man with Podyacheskaya, but how different they are in St. Petersburg and on the island: on a desert island a man is necessary, his importance is enormous, but in St. Petersburg “a man hangs outside the house, in a box on a rope, and smears paint on the wall, or on the roof “walks like a fly”, small, unnoticeable. The generals on the island are as powerless as children, but in St. Petersburg they are omnipotent (at the reception level).
Saltykov-Shchedrin laughed heartily at everyone, at those whom he called “children of considerable age“, since adults sometimes need to be explained anew what is good and what is bad, where is the line between good and evil.
(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
It is no coincidence that Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “Fairy Tales” is called the author’s final work. They raise with all their severity those problems of Russia in the 60-80s. XIX century, which worried the advanced intelligentsia. In the debate about Russia's future paths, many points of view were expressed. It is known that Saltykov-Shchedrin was a supporter of the fight against autocracy. Like many thinking people At that time, he was passionate about the “folk” idea and complained about the passivity of the peasant. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote that despite the abolition of serfdom, it lives in everything: “in our temperament, in our way of thinking, in our customs, in our actions. Whatever we turn our attention to, everything comes out of it and rests on it.” This political views and the journalistic and journalistic activities of the writer and his literary creativity are subordinated.
The writer constantly sought to make his opponents funny, because laughter is great power. So in “Fairy Tales” Saltykov-Shchedrin ridicules government officials, landowners, and the liberal intelligentsia. Showing the helplessness and worthlessness of officials, the parasitism of landowners and at the same time emphasizing the hard work and dexterity of the Russian peasant, Saltykov-Shchedrin expresses his main idea in fairy tales: the peasant has no rights, is overwhelmed by the ruling classes.
Thus, in “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals” Saltykov-Shchedrin shows the complete helplessness of two generals who found themselves on a desert island. Despite the fact that there was an abundance of game, fish, and fruits all around, they almost died of hunger.
The officials who were “born, raised and grew old” in some kind of registry did not understand anything, and did not know “even any words,” except perhaps the phrase: “Please accept the assurance of my complete respect and devotion,” the generals did nothing They didn’t know how and quite sincerely believed that buns grew on trees. And suddenly a thought strikes them: we need to find a man! After all, he must be there, just “hid somewhere, shirking work.” And the man really was found. He fed the generals and immediately, on their orders, obediently twists a rope, with which they tie him to a tree so that he does not run away.
In this tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin expresses the idea that Russia rests on the labor of the peasant, who, despite his natural intelligence and ingenuity, obediently submits to helpless masters. The same idea is developed by the author in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”. But if the generals from the previous story ended up on a desert island by the will of fate, then the landowner from this fairy tale always dreamed of getting rid of the obnoxious men from whom a bad, servile spirit emanates. Therefore, the pillar nobleman Urus-Kuchum-Kildibaev oppresses the men in every possible way. And so the peasant world disappeared. And what? After some time, “he was all… overgrown with hair… and his claws became iron.” The landowner has gone wild because without a man he is not even able to serve himself.
Saltykov-Shchedrin’s deep faith in hidden forces people is visible in the fairy tale “The Horse”. The tortured peasant nag amazes with its endurance and vitality. Her entire existence consists of endless hard work, and meanwhile the well-fed idle dancers in a warm stall are amazed at her endurance and talk a lot about her wisdom, hard work, and sanity. Most likely, in this tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin meant by idle dancers the intelligentsia, who poured from empty to empty, talking about the destinies of the Russian people. It is obvious that the image of Konyaga reflects a peasant worker.
The heroes of “Fairy Tales” are often animals, birds, and fish. This suggests that they are based on Russian folklore. Addressing it allows Saltykov-Shchedrin to convey the deep content in a laconic form and at the same time satirically sharply convey it. Take, for example, the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship.” Three Toptygins are three different rulers. In character they are not similar to each other. One is cruel and bloodthirsty, the other is not evil, “but so, a brute,” and the third is lazy and good-natured. And each of them is not able to provide normal life In the woods. And their style of government has nothing to do with it. We see that nothing has changed the general dysfunctional order in the forest slum: kites pluck crows, and wolves skin hares. “Thus, a whole theory of dysfunctional well-being suddenly arose before the mental gaze of the third Toptygin,” the author sneers. Hidden meaning This fairy tale, which parodies the real rulers of Russia, is that without the abolition of autocracy, nothing will change.
Talking about ideological content“Fairy tales” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, it should be noted that many talented writers The 20th century (Bulgakov, Platonov, Grossman, etc.) showed in their works exactly what happens when a person violates the eternal laws of development of nature and society. We can say that the literature of the 20th century, which experienced the upheaval of social revolutions, polemicizes with the literature of the second half of the 19th century century, including the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. Events of the early 20th century led thinking intelligentsia to disappointment among the people, while “folk thought” in the 19th century was decisive for many Russian writers. But the richer our literary heritage, that it has different points of view on the path of development of society.
“Fairy tales” by Saltykov-Shchedrin reflect the main problems of Russia that troubled it in the sixties and eighties of the nineteenth century. At this time, many disputes arose among the advanced intelligentsia about the further path of development of Russia. Through his “fairy tales,” Saltykov-Shchedrin spoke out for the fight against autocracy. He believed that despite the abolition of serfdom, the Russian people lived in the old way. Through his “fairy tales,” Shchedrin ridiculed everything and all those whom he considered obstacles to the development of Russia. In his fairy tales, Shchedrin gives a destructive satire on representatives of these classes. He ridicules dignitaries, landowners, and the liberal intelligentsia, who, not knowing life, philosophize about how everyone should live. He ridicules all those who live by people's labor and do nothing themselves. Together with a satirical depiction of bureaucratic Rus', Saltykov-Shchedrin emphasizes the excessive hard work of the peasant. The democrat-revolutionary Shchedrin understands that in order to change anything in the country, it is necessary to rouse the Russian people to fight.
Shchedrin's main ideas are expressed in fairy tales: “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals”, “The Wild Landowner”, “Crucian Carp is an Idealist”, “The Wise Minnow”, “The Bear in the Voivodeship”.
In the fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals,” Shchedrin gives a vivid satire on two dignitaries - generals who served their whole lives in the registry, and their office was eliminated as unnecessary, that is, these two generals did not do anything useful. These two generals found themselves on an island where everything was in abundance, but they would have starved if they had not found a man who would do everything for them. These generals do not know life, they are used to living at the expense of the serfs. The generals believe that the buns they are presented with for dinner grow on trees and just need to be picked. In this tale, Shchedrin shows the hard work of a man who is ready to do anything for the masters, even knitting a rope with which the masters will tie him so that he does not run away. This tale shows the plight of the peasant, who is too submissive to the masters, the selflessness of the people, hard work, as well as the ingratitude of the masters (the generals “thanked” the peasant with a glass of vodka and a nickel of silver) and their helplessness without serfs. A similar type of “big” man is depicted by Shchedrin in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner,” where it is told that the landowner is helpless without serfs, without them he degrades and begins to communicate with the bear. The urgency of the problem is emphasized by Shchedrin: his hero is “alive to this day.”
The worthlessness of the lives of dignitaries and the empty philosophizing of the liberal intelligentsia is shown by Shchedrin in the fairy tale “The Idealist Crucian.” Crucian carp reflects on how beautiful the world would be if no one ate anyone, and everything would be resolved peacefully. The result of his thoughts was his death: a pike swam up and ate him. His utopian ideas may be correct, but without knowing life, one cannot think about anything lofty in this life. Shchedrin argues with this tale that problems can be solved only with actions, not words. The philistine class is ridiculed by Shchedrin in the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow.” Fear of change will not lead to anything good, which is confirmed by Shchedrin: “He lived trembling and died trembling.” The concept of waiting, which was characteristic of the middle class, is ridiculed by Shchedrin.
Saltykov-Shchedrin expressed his protest against autocratic power in his fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship.” In this tale, the author showed that no matter what kind of ruler, no matter what methods he uses to achieve his goal, the basis on which he pursues his policies is important. The first and second Toptygins were involved in different atrocities: the first – small ones (ate a siskin), the second – larger ones (he took a cow and two sheep from the peasants, “for which the men got angry and killed him”). In the image of Toptygin I, Saltykov-Shchedrin ridiculed the apparatus of coercion, the police, which was characteristic of autocratic power. He showed that such methods have long since exhausted themselves. Toptygin II is an image that resulted from the fusion of features of the bureaucracy and high dignitaries. He is too slow, and because of this he will fail. In this way, Saltykov-Shchedrin ridiculed the bureaucratic apparatus Tsarist Russia. Both of these rulers did not achieve the desired result, and they were replaced by Toptygin III, who decided to pursue a “policy of non-interference.” The essence of his theory of “dysfunctional well-being” was adaptation to changing living conditions. The manifestation of vital activity was carried out only to satisfy some needs. In this image one can see the author's satire on the liberal intelligentsia, which is not trying to improve life, but finds different theories for the continuation of existence. The base of autocracy could not be conducive to the development of Russia, therefore it was ridiculed by Shchedrin in this fairy tale.
So, the main theme of Shchedrin’s fairy tales was a grotesque, sarcastic denunciation of all the vices of society, for any changes in a favorable direction. The ideas of overthrowing the autocracy, exposing lazy landowners and lazy dignitaries, activating the middle class and peasantry, stopping empty thoughts without life experience, reorganizing the bureaucratic apparatus, were reflected in the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, a democratic revolutionary who ridiculed all the facts in a satirical form discrediting society. With his “fairy tales,” Shchedrin showed that spontaneous massacres of peasants and the overthrow of the autocracy (“The Bear in the Voivodeship”) are the path to a happy life.
At first glance, “fairy tales” are harmless, but under the pen of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the language in which they are written turns into a powerful weapon of struggle - political satire.