Features of the composition: the wise gudgeon. Exposing the philistine life position in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”
Saltykov-Shchedrin is a writer who very often resorted to such a genre as a fairy tale, because with its help, in an allegorical form, it was always possible to reveal the vices of humanity, while his creative activity was surrounded by unfavorable conditions. With the help of this genre, he was able to write during the difficult years of reaction and censorship. Thanks to fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin continued to write, despite the fear of liberal editors. Despite censorship, he gets the opportunity to scourge reaction. And we got acquainted with one of his fairy tales called The Wise Minnow in class and now we will make a short one according to plan.
Brief analysis of the fairy tale The Wise Minnow
Analyzing Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale The Wise Minnow, we see that the main character is an allegorical image. The fairy tale begins, as usual, with the words Once upon a time. Next we see advice from the minnow's parents, followed by a description of the life of this little fish and its death.
Reading Shchedrin's work and analyzing it, we trace a parallel between life in the real world and the plot of a fairy tale. We meet the main character, a minnow, who lived at first as usual. After the death of his parents, who left him parting words and asked him to take care of himself and keep his eyes open, he became pitiful and cowardly, but considered himself wise.
At first we see in the fish a thinking creature, enlightened, with moderately liberal views, and his parents were not at all stupid, and managed to live until their natural death. But after the death of his parents, he hid in his little hole. He trembled all the time as soon as someone swam past his hole. He swam out from there only at night, sometimes during the day for a snack, but immediately hid. I didn’t finish eating and didn’t get enough sleep. His whole life was spent in fear, and thus Peskar lived until he was a hundred years old. No salary, no servants, no playing cards, no fun. Without family, without procreation. There were somehow thoughts of swimming out of the shelter, living a full life, but then fear conquered his intentions and he abandoned this idea. So he lived, seeing nothing and knowing nothing. Most likely, the wise Minnow died a natural death, because even a pike would not covet a sick minnow.
All his life the gudgeon considered himself wise, and only closer to death he saw a life lived aimlessly. The author managed to show us how dull and miserable life becomes if you live by the wisdom of a coward.
Conclusion
In his fairy tale The Wise Minnow, a brief analysis of which we have just done, Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts the political life of the country in past years. In the image of the minnow, we see the liberals of the inhabitants of the era of reaction, who only saved their skins by sitting in holes and caring only about their own welfare. They do not try to change anything, they do not want to direct their forces in the right direction. They only had thoughts about their own salvation, and none of them was going to fight for a just cause. And at that time there were a lot of such minnows among the intelligentsia, so when reading Shchedrin’s fairy tale at one time, the reader could draw an analogy with officials who worked in the office, with editors of liberal newspapers, with employees of banks, offices and other people who did nothing , fearing all who are higher and more influential.
Intended for adults, the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”, upon careful analysis, demonstrates the typical features of the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The writer was a master of subtle irony. Within the chosen style, the author draws very characteristic images, helping himself by using grotesque techniques and exaggerating the figures of the main characters.
Literary criticism of the Soviet school sought to look for features of class confrontation and social struggle in the Russian classics of the imperial period. The same fate befell the tale of the wise minnow - in the main character they diligently looked for the features of a despicable petty official, trembling with fear, instead of devoting his life to the class struggle.
However, most Russian writers were still concerned not so much with revolutionary ideas as with the moral problems of society.
Genre and meaning of the name of the fairy tale
The fairy tale genre has long been attractive to fiction writers. It is interesting because, within the framework of allegory, one can allow oneself to draw any parallels with objective reality and real figures of contemporaries, without skimping on epithets, but at the same time without annoying anyone.
A typical fairy tale genre involves the participation of animals in the plot, endowed with intelligence, agility, and human manner of communication and behavior. In this case, the work, with its phantasmagorical nature, fits well into the plot of the fairy tale.
The work begins characteristically - once upon a time. But at the same time, it is called a fairy tale for adults, because the author, in allegorical language, invites the reader to think about a problem that is not at all childish - about how to live one’s life so that before death one does not regret its meaninglessness.
The title is quite appropriate for the genre in which the work is written. The gudgeon is called not smart, not wise, not intellectual, but rather “wise,” in the best traditions of the fairy-tale genre (just remember Vasilisa the Wise).
But already in this title itself one can discern the sad irony of the author. It immediately sets the reader up to think about whether it is fair to call the main character wise.
Main characters
In the fairy tale, the most striking portrait is the image of the wisest minnow. The author not only characterizes his general level of development - the “mind chamber” tells the background to the formation of his character traits.
He describes in detail the motives of the main character’s actions, his thoughts, mental turmoil and doubts shortly before his death.
The gudgeon son is not stupid, he is thoughtful, and even prone to liberal ideas. Moreover, he is such a cowardly individual that he is ready to fight even with his instincts in order to save his life. He agrees to live always hungry, without creating his own family, without communicating with his relatives, and practically without seeing sunlight.
Therefore, the son heeded his father’s main teaching and, having lost his parents, decided to take all available measures to never risk his life. Everything he subsequently did was aimed at realizing his plans.
As a result, it was not life itself in its entirety, but the preservation of life that acquired the greatest importance and became an end in itself. And for the sake of this idea, the gudgeon sacrificed absolutely everything, for which, in fact, he was born.
The gudgeon father is the second hero of the fairy tale. He, deserving the positive characterization of the author, lived an ordinary life, had a family and children, took moderate risks, but had the imprudence to scare his son for the rest of his life with the story of how he almost got hit in the ear.
The reader's main picture of his personality is formed mainly through the account of this dramatic incident, told in the first person.
Brief summary of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”
Gudgeon, the son of good and caring parents, left alone after their death, rethought his life. The future scared him.
He saw that he was weak and defenseless, and that the water world around him was full of dangers. To save its life, the gudgeon began to dig a hole for itself to hide from the main threats.
During the day he did not get out of it, he only walked at night, which is why over time he almost went blind. If there was danger outside, he preferred to stay hungry so as not to take risks. Because of his fear, the gudgeon abandoned a full life, communication and procreation.
So he lived in his hole for more than a hundred years, trembling with fear and considering himself wise, because he turned out to be so prudent. At the same time, the other inhabitants of the reservoir did not share his opinion of themselves, considering him a fool and a dunce who lived as a hermit in order to preserve his worthless life.
Sometimes he had a dream in which he won two hundred thousand rubles, stopped trembling and became so big and respected that he himself began to swallow pike. However, in reality he does not strive to become rich and influential, these are just secret dreams embodied in dreams.
However, before his death, the gudgeon comes to mind about a wasted life. Analyzing the years he has lived, thinking that he has never consoled, pleased, or warmed anyone, he realizes that if other gudgeons led the same useless life as he did, the gudgeon race would quickly be extinguished.
He dies the same way he lived - unnoticed by others. According to the author, he disappeared and died as a result of natural death or was eaten - no one cares, not even the author.
What does the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” teach?
The author uses allegorical language to force the reader to rethink the most important philosophical topic - the meaning of life.
It is precisely what a person spends his life on that will ultimately become the main criterion of his wisdom.
With the help of the grotesque image of a minnow, Saltykov-Shchedrin tries to convey this idea to the reader, to warn the younger generation against the wrong choice of their path, and invites the older generation to think about a worthy ending to their life’s journey.
The story is not new. The Gospel parable about the man who buried his talent in the ground is precisely about this. It gives the very first and main moral lesson on this topic. Subsequently, the problem of the little man—the “trembling creature”—and his place in society was repeatedly raised in literature.
But with all this, a fair part of the generation of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s contemporaries—familiar with the literary heritage of their ancestors, educated, and moderately liberal—did not draw the necessary conclusions, therefore, in their multitude, they were just such minnows, having neither a civic position nor social responsibility, no desire for a positive transformation of society, entrenched in their own little world and trembling with fear of those in power.
It is curious that society itself also considers such individuals to be ballast - uninteresting, stupid and meaningless. The inhabitants of the reservoir spoke extremely unflatteringly about the gudgeon, despite the fact that he lived without disturbing anyone, without offending anyone and without making enemies.
The end of the main character's life is very significant - he did not die, he was not eaten. He disappeared. The author chose this ending to once again emphasize the ephemeral nature of the minnow’s existence.
The main moral of the fairy tale is this: if during life a person did not strive to do good and be needed, then no one will notice his death, because his existence had no meaning.
In any case, before his death, the main character regrets precisely this, asking himself questions - to whom did he do a good deed, who can remember him with warmth? And he doesn’t find a consoling answer.
Best quotes from the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”
Problems of the fairy tale "The Wise Minnow" by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
In the complex sense of Shchedrin’s fairy tales, small in volume and large in their ideological content, the following themes can be distinguished: satire on the autocratic government and the exploiting classes, depiction of the life of the people in tsarist Russia, revelations of the behavior and psychology of the secular-minded layers of the intelligentsia, disclosure of individual morality and propaganda of the socialist ideal and new morality.
In the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow,” Shchedrin exposed for condemnation the cowardice of that part of the intelligentsia who, during the years of political reaction, succumbed to a mood of shameful panic. Depicting the pitiful fate of a hero who went mad with fear and walled himself up in a dark hole for the rest of his life, the satirist showed his warning and contempt for all those who, obeying the instinct of self-preservation, plunge into the narrow world of their own needs instead of active social struggle.
The gudgeon's parents lived quietly and peacefully, did not interfere in the life of society, and therefore died a natural death. And they ordered their son to watch with both, protecting himself. Their son was smart and took his parents’ words literally. He protected himself not only from large fish, but also from crayfish and water fleas. Although they were smaller than him, they could cause more harm, in his opinion. He was completely mad with fear and was even afraid to have a wife and children.
Shchedrin also ridiculed the minnow’s thoughts about man, that is, about the government. How many different means he came up with to destroy the minnows, that is, the people, and they, knowing all these stupid means, still swallow them. “Even though this is the stupidest tool, with us minnows, the more stupid, the more accurate,” this is how the old minnow thinks about the life of a people who do not want to learn even from their mistakes.
That gudgeon did not live, but did nothing but tremble and rejoice that he was alive. Even the pikes began to praise him, hoping that he would come out of the hole. But he doesn't. I sat for more than a hundred years and thought that I was the smartest. But Saltykov-Shchedrin speaks about the wrong course of reasoning of the minnow, that the wrong minnows become worse citizens who sit in holes, tremble and therefore eat in vain. What is the benefit to society from their existence? No. Therefore, it did not consider the gudgeon smart, but only called it a fool.
The originality of Shchedrin's artistic mastery turned out to be in the great power of his laughter, in the art of using humor, hyperbole, grotesque and fantasy for a realistic depiction of reality and assessing it from a progressive social position. In his tales, those who tried to hide from the enemy, avoid social struggle, and live by their own needs die. He tried to instill in the reader a sense of social duty, to teach him to live a social life, social needs. Only under these conditions can a person be called smart and wise.
The essay was prepared by Leonid Zusmanov
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was born in January 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province. According to his father, he belonged to an old and rich noble family, and according to his mother, he belonged to the merchant class. After successfully graduating from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Saltykov becomes an official in the military department, but he is of little interest in the service.
In 1847 His first literary works, “Contradictions” and “Complicated Affairs,” appeared in print. But they started talking seriously about Saltykov as a writer only in 1856, when he began publishing “Provincial Sketches.”
He directed his extraordinary talent to open the eyes of those who do not yet see the lawlessness going on in the country, the flourishing ignorance and stupidity, and the triumph of bureaucracy.
But today I would like to dwell on the writer’s fairy-tale cycle, begun in 1869. Fairy tales were a kind of result, a synthesis of the ideological and creative quest of the satirist. At that time, due to the existence of strict censorship, the author could not fully expose the vices of society, show all the inconsistency of the Russian administrative apparatus. And yet, with the help of fairy tales “for children of a fair age,” Shchedrin was able to convey to people a sharp criticism of the existing order.
In 1883, the famous “The Wise Minnow” appeared, which over the past hundred-plus years has become Shchedrin’s textbook fairy tale. The plot of this fairy tale is known to everyone: once upon a time there was a gudgeon, which at first was no different from its own kind. But, a coward by nature, he decided to live his whole life without sticking out, in his hole, flinching from every rustle, from every shadow that flashed next to his hole. So life passed by - no family, no children. And so he disappeared - either by himself, or some pike swallowed it. Just before his death, the minnow thinks about his life: “Who did he help? Whom did he regret that he did good things in life? - He lived - trembled and died - trembled. Only before death does the average person realize that no one needs him, no one knows him and no one will remember him.
But this is the plot, the external side of the fairy tale, what is on the surface. And the subtext of Shchedrin’s caricature in this tale of the morals of modern bourgeois Russia was well explained by the artist A. Kanevsky, who made illustrations for the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”: “...everyone understands that Shchedrin is not talking about fish. The gudgeon is a cowardly man in the street, trembling for his own skin. He is a man, but also a minnow, the writer put him in this form, and I, the artist, must preserve it. My task is to combine the image of a frightened man in the street and a minnow, to combine fish and human properties. It is very difficult to “comprehend” a fish, to give it a pose, a movement, a gesture. How to display forever frozen fear on a fish’s “face”? The figurine of the minnow-official gave me a lot of trouble....”
The writer shows the terrible philistine alienation and self-isolation in “The Wise Minnow.” M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is bitter and painful for the Russian people. Reading Saltykov-Shchedrin is not easy. Therefore, perhaps, many did not understand the meaning of his fairy tales. But the majority of “children of a fair age” appreciated the work of the great satirist as it deserved.
In conclusion, I would like to add that the thoughts expressed by the writer in fairy tales are still contemporary today. Shchedrin's satire is time-tested and it sounds especially poignant in times of social unrest, such as those that Russia is experiencing today.
"The Wise Minnow" is an epic work, a fairy tale for adults. However, it is included among the school program works quite justifiably, because “the fairy tale is a lie,” but, clearly, “there is a hint in it.” In this case, this is a hint of universal human vices - public and personal, which one way or another can be understood by the younger generation of readers. And since the work is small in volume, the author mainly reveals two interrelated vices - fear of any dangers and complete inaction for the sake of survival. The main character is a scribbler, an allegorical image. It is both a fish and a living being at the same time.
Composition simple tales: from the beginning of “once upon a time” through a story about mentoring from parents and a description of the gudgeon’s lifestyle - to a description of his death. The author does not try to hide the parallels between the plot and real life deep into the subtext. This is how he characterizes his hero: “He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal.” This phrase leaves no doubt that the text also has a connection with the author’s contemporary realities.
What does he tell us about? plot fairy tales? The life of a minnow flashes before the reader, simple in its structure, which is based on fear of the potential dangers of the world order. The hero's father and mother lived a long life and died a natural death. And before leaving for another world, they bequeathed their son to be careful, since all the inhabitants of the water world, and even man, could destroy him at any moment. The young minnow mastered his parents' science so well that he literally imprisoned himself in an underwater hole. He came out of it only at night, when everyone was sleeping, was malnourished and “trembled” all day long - just so as not to be captured! In this jitters he lived for 100 years, truly outliving his relatives, even though he was a small fish that anyone could swallow. And in this sense, his life was a success. But his other dream also came true - to live without anyone noticing. Everything came true exactly: no one ever found out about the existence of the wise minnow.
Before his death, the hero begins to think about what would happen if all the fish lived the same way as he does. And he sees: the genus of squeakers would cease altogether! All opportunities passed him by - making friends, starting a family, raising children and passing on his life experience to them. He clearly realizes this before his death and, deep in thought, falls asleep, and then has a dream about how he won 200,000 rubles, grew in size and began to swallow his enemies - pikes. Having relaxed, the gudgeon involuntarily violates the boundaries of its hole, and its “snout” appears outside the hole. And then there is room for the reader's imagination. Because the author does not say exactly what happened to the hero - he only states that he suddenly disappeared. There were no witnesses to this incident, so not only the task of living at least unnoticed was achieved by the minnow, but also the “ultimate task” - to also disappear unnoticed.
Behind all this “Aesopian language” the reader can easily guess Saltykov-Shchedrin’s characteristic manner of depicting the unsightly side of modern life through hyperbolic images and grotesque situations. This is a harsh satire on the reality of 1882–1883 - a period when the conservative trend, actively encouraged by Emperor Alexander III, became the leading one in the political life of Russia. An increase in benefits, rights and all kinds of privileges of the nobility began. Under the guise of a minnow, Shchedrin showed the liberal intelligentsia of Russia, which was only concerned with survival. With irony, the author calls his hero "wise". For him, this is a conformist person, cowardly and passive both in the social and political spheres, who elevates his opportunism to the rank of philosophy. The work first saw the light in the Geneva emigrant newspaper “Common Cause” under the heading “Fairy tales for children of a fair age” and did not have a signature. Russia learned the writer’s new fairy tale thanks to the progressive magazine Otechestvennye zapiski. But the most important thing is that the work has outlived its time and acquired the character of a satire on the eternal vices of people who are reinsurers.
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