Little Tsakhes analysis of the work. “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober,” artistic analysis of Hoffmann’s short story
Essay on the topic: Criticism and analysis of the work “Little Tsakhes” by Hoffmann
Little Tsakhes, the hero of Hoffmann's work of the same name, was born an ugly, crooked dwarf. But fate, in the form of a fairy, smiled at him. The fairy Rosabelverda (or Rosabelerde) gave Tsakhes three golden magical hairs. After this, Tsakhes began to seem better to people than he was. That is, handsome, smart, talented.
The spell affects almost all people, they admire Tsakhes: “Oh, Frau Lisa, what a sweet and handsome boy you have!” When someone around Tsakhes is glorified for something, it is immediately attributed to the dwarf, and others are blamed for his rude antics.
Thanks to his magical gift, little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober, lives without worries in the palace and becomes an important person in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The image of little Tsakhes is very clear. The poor dwarf does not get better from such great opportunities. On the contrary, he is happy when he takes credit for the achievements of others. Tsakhes behaves meanly towards those around him and goes over his head towards his goals. He is stupid, evil, cunning and insatiable for honors. At first, only the student Balthazar and his friend see the ugly essence of the dwarf.
Telling the story of Tsakhes, the writer contrasts two different human worlds. The first of them, more widespread, is the world of ordinary people, i.e. philistines. Philistine is the name given to narrow-minded people with primitive interests.
A prominent representative of this type in the work is Kroshka himself. This is a smug, selfish, hypocritical person, and also stupid. However, in society, Little Tsakhes is adored - after all, he has three golden hairs given to him by a fairy. These magical hairs in Hoffmann's work personify the power of gold. The whole world of philistines succumbs to the spell of this gold, all people are carried away by Tsakhes. Indeed, in the world of philistines, even the simplest human feelings - sympathy, love, goodwill - are most often subject to material calculation. Tsakhes lives with unjust wealth and shamelessly steals the achievements of others.
In contrast to the philistines are the enthusiasts. Their representative is student Balthazar. This is a romantic, a selfless servant of the ideals of beauty and justice. He is a man of boiling energy and a clear mind. Balthazar is interested in “beautiful dreams from some distant world, full of blissful joy,” “the lofty truths of the world,” and feels the harmony of beautiful and living nature. He is not blinded by the “golden hairs” of Tsakhes-Zinnober, he sees his ugly essence. However, none of the philistines believes Balthazar; they are persecuting him.
In the finale, Balthazar, with the help of the magician Prosper Alnanus, establishes justice. The spell dissipates, everyone sees an ugly dwarf. Hunted down by people, Tsakhes, out of shame, finds a shameful death in a pot of sewage. Now he is insignificant and arouses only pity. The last favor of the fairy is that people remember Zinnober as handsome, and not ugly.
Having received a magical gift, little Tsakhes could not stand the moral test, did not try to become worthy of it, to come closer internally to the ideal that people saw him as. As the fairy herself says: “I thought that the wonderful external gift that I endowed you with would illuminate your soul with a beneficial ray and awaken an inner voice that would tell you: “You are not who they take you for, so try to compare yourself with the person whose You, a wingless cripple, ascend on your wings!” But no inner voice awoke in you. Your calloused, dead spirit could not rise..."
In the finale, Balthazar marries his beloved Candida, the daughter of Professor Mosch Terpin, who was intended to be Tsakhes’s bride. However, there is some irony in the happy fairy tale ending. Candida's family are philistines. It is not for nothing that the magician Alnanus gives the newlyweds magic pots for their wedding, where food does not burn - a greater miracle is not needed here. And who knows, whether the enthusiast Balthazar will retain his poetic thinking and sober mind in a circle where calculation reigns?
Karelian State Pedagogical University
Department of Literature
Course test
"History of foreign literature of the era of romanticism"
"Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober"
Performed:
3rd year student of FF OZO
I.M. Zaitseva
Teacher:
N.G. Shilova
Petrozavodsk, 2005
Introduction
Ernst Theodor Hoffmann (1776-1822), the greatest humorist and satirist, master of fairy tales and fantastic short stories, can rightly be called the most striking and characteristic figure of German romanticism. Hoffmann entered the history of world literature as a representative of late German romanticism. The basic principles of this trend had already been formulated and developed by the Jena and Heidelberg romantics. The nature of the conflicts underlying Hoffmann's works, their problematics and system of images, the very artistic vision of the world remain within the framework of romanticism. This includes dissatisfaction with society, social changes, and polemics with the ideas and artistic principles of the Enlightenment, and rejection of bourgeois reality. However, the main romantic conflict - the discord between dream and reality, poetry and truth - takes on a hopelessly tragic character for the writer.
Hoffman adheres to the position of Kantian dualism, which recognized the objective existence of the world of things, but considered these “things in themselves” unknowable, inaccessible to the human mind. In Hoffmann's view, the outer world fatally weighs down on the inner, spiritual world, turning life into a tragicomedy in which mysterious forces play with a person, dooming him to loneliness and suffering. The desire to reconcile these two warring principles - ideals and reality, and the consciousness of their irreconcilability, the irresistible power of life over the poetic dream gives Hoffman's work a pessimistic tone.
In accordance with this, the main theme of the writer becomes the theme of art and life, the main images are the artist and the philistine, the sovereign master of life. Hoffman sees the meaning of life and the only source of internal harmony in art, and the only positive representative of society is the artist. But art for the author is a tragedy, and the artist is a martyr on earth, who especially acutely and painfully feels the contradictions between the spiritual and material life of man.
Features of the literary fairy tale genre. Does “Little Tsakhes” meet all the parameters of the genre?
There is still no clear distinction between the genres of literary and folk tales, as well as a generally accepted definition of a literary fairy tale. The first attempt to give a definition belongs to J. Grim: the difference between a literary fairy tale and a folk tale is in the conscious authorship and inherent humorous beginning.
A similar point of view was shared in the 30-60s. 20th century Russian researchers, who noted the following features:
2.special literary style;
3.combination of fantasy with reality;
4.deep psychologism;
5.close connection with the writer’s worldview;
6.reflection of the era in which the literary fairy tale was written.
Hoffmann's fairy tale completes the development of the German romantic literary fairy tale. It reflects many problems associated not only with the aesthetics and worldview of romanticism, but also with modern reality. The fairy tale explores the layers of modern life, using “fairytale” artistic means. “Little Tsakhes” contains traditional fairy-tale elements and motifs. These include miracles, the clash of good and evil, magical objects and amulets; Hoffmann uses the traditional fairytale motif of a bewitched and kidnapped bride and the test of the heroes with gold. But the author combined fairy tale and reality, thereby violating the purity of the fairy tale genre.
Hoffmann defined the genre of “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” as a fairy tale, but at the same time abandoned the principle of fairy-tale harmony. This work contains a compromise between the “purity” of the fairy-tale genre and the seriousness of the worldview: both are half-hearted, relative. The author saw the fairy tale as the leading genre of romantic literature. But if in Novalis the fairy tale turns into a continuous allegory or into a dream in which everything real and earthly disappeared, then in Hoffmann’s fairy tales the basis of the fantastic is real reality.
The combination of the real with the fantastic, the real with the fictional is the main requirement of Hoffmann’s poetics. Fantastic fairy-tale moments are belittled and trivialized, they lose their intrinsic value and play a subordinate role. Skobelev A.V. defined “Little Tsakhes” not as a fairy tale, but “a story with a strongly pronounced effect of the author’s presence, which is not typical for a fairy tale;<…>a story that ironically looks back at a fairy tale, a conventionally fairy tale story that plays at a fairy tale, ironically imitating it.”
Hoffmann called the work “The Golden Pot” “a fairy tale from modern times.” All other fairy tales can also be included in this definition. In them “there is as much from a fairy tale as from the new time: the fabulous manifests itself in the sphere of bourgeois existence brought by this time. And his works<Гофмана>“They are not at all perceived as fairy tales - they are rather terrifyingly true stories about the powerful and unsolved forces that control man and life.”
Although the actions in “Little Tsakhes” unfold in a conventional country, by introducing the realities of German life, noting the characteristic features of the social psychology of the characters, the author thereby emphasizes the modernity of what is happening.
The heroes of the fairy tale are ordinary people: students, officials, professors, court nobles. And if something strange sometimes happens to them, they are ready to find a plausible explanation for it. And the test of the enthusiastic hero’s loyalty to the wonderful world lies in the ability to see and feel this world, to believe in its existence.
The fairy-tale side of the work is associated with the images of the fairy Razabelverde and the magician Prosper Alpanus, but the nature of the presentation of the fantastic changes: the magical heroes have to adapt to real conditions and hide under the masks of the canoness of the shelter for noble maidens and the doctor. The narrator plays an “ironic game” with the narration style itself - miraculous phenomena are described in deliberately simple, everyday language, in a restrained style, and the events of the real world suddenly appear in some kind of fantastic light, the narrator’s tone becomes tense. By shifting the high romantic plan to the low everyday one, Hoffman thereby destroys it and nullifies it.
Of particular importance is a new category for the fairy tale genre - theatricality, which enhances the comic effect in a fairy tale. Theatricality determines the principles of constructing plot situations, the nature of their presentation, the choice of background, and the characters’ expression of feelings and intentions. All these aspects emphasize the conventionality of what is happening, its artificiality.
The main romantic conflict is the clash of good and evil, the principle of dual worlds is based on this. What is the conflict of this tale? Support your ideas with examples.
Conflict is the main driver in any work. However, in Hoffmann it takes on special significance. The clash of good and evil is a universal and eternal conflict that underlies any form of understanding of the universe. In “Little Tsakhes” it is predominantly romantic, i.e. evil here is “worldly”, abstract, globally destructive, and good (the romantic hero) is especially defenseless and vulnerable. But fairy tale laws, combined with romantic irony, soften the severity of the conflict, making it in a sense “toy,” which does not remove the seriousness of the problem. Finally, the fairy tale requires a happy ending, and Hoffmann gives it to his characters and readers.
Formally, the conflict unfolds between Tsakhes and Balthazar, but each hero personifies a certain force that has entered into confrontation. Tsakhes-Zinnober acts as a kind of fatal force, exposing the meaningless laws of the world order, the unfair distribution of material and spiritual goods in a society that is initially predisposed to the flourishing of vices. The gift of the fairy Rosabelverde is the conditional cause of the fairy-tale conflict; Hoffmann evades a rational explanation of its origins.
The world that bows before Tsakhes is a world of philistine reality, alien to the romantic dreamer Balthasar. An enthusiastic artist seeks salvation from the cruelty and injustice of life in poetry, dreams, in merging with nature, i.e. in an ideal, fairy-tale world. In this magical world, he finds peace of mind and the help of magical powers. But magical forces also live in two worlds - magical and earthly.
The dual world is embodied not only in the fact that “true musicians” are unhappy because the philistine world does not understand them, but also because they themselves cannot find a natural connection with the real world. A world artificially constructed by art is also not a solution for a soul wounded by the disorder of human existence.
The ugly principality of Barsanuf is opposed by the world of dreamers, the poetic world of sublime feelings. The student Balthasar and the wizard Prosper Alpanus jointly disperse the obsession of Tsakhes. But this world is not removed from the general ironic element that reigns in the story.
The collision of the two worlds is resolved in the story by the crushing defeat of the philistines and the triumphant victory of the enthusiasts. But this triumph has a specific feature: it is framed by the author in an emphatically theatrical manner. In this fireworks of miracles, one can clearly feel the deliberate overkill. The director's emphasis on the happy ending is set off by another motive, already of a meaningful nature: the wedding gift of Prosper Alpanus. The idyllic picture of a rural house, “excellent cabbage,” unbreakable dishes, etc., turns into philistine, bourgeois comfort.
What is romantic grotesque? Is it possible to talk about the grotesque as the basis of the composition of a fairy tale, the principle of grouping characters? Prove it.
Based on the history of the concept, one could define the grotesque as follows: the grotesque is the highest degree of the comic, manifested:
1. in the form of excessive exaggeration, caricature distortion, which can reach the borders of the fantastic;
2. in the form of compositional contrast, a sudden shift of the serious, tragic into the plane of the funny. Such a construction is an integral, internally closed complex and is a grotesque of the pure kind - a comic grotesque;
3. but the opposite movement may occur if the comic ends with a sharp tragic breakdown - this will be a composition of grotesque humor.
It was in the romantic era that the grotesque received its theoretical justification and became the basis of an entire worldview. The sociological explanation for this is the era of economic, political and ideological collapses of the 19th century, due to which the nobility was forced to give up the dominant place to the bourgeoisie. But within the bourgeoisie itself, stratification is occurring. The “petty bourgeoisie” stands out, politically powerless and economically unstable, whose position at the moment coincides with the state of the petty declassed nobility. On this basis, the grotesque grows, being the style of the petty-bourgeois class and reflecting the perception of inferiority and instability of existence.
In his works, Hoffmann managed to express not so much the harmony of the world as the dissonance of life. The stronger Hoffmann's desire for harmony, the more acute the feeling of dissonance - discord in the human soul, discord in the relationship between man and society, man and nature. It is with the help of the grotesque that Hoffman conveys a sense of comic dissonance.
“Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” is one of Hoffmann’s most grotesque works. “Crazy fairy tale” - that’s what the author called it. Already in the appearance of the character who gave the story its name, the idea of the grotesque seems to be embodied: “The baby’s head had grown deep into his shoulders, and his whole body, with a growth on his back and chest, a short body and long spider legs, resembled an apple planted on a fork, which has a strange face carved into it.” However, the true grotesque is revealed not in the image of Little Tsakhes, but in the world of familiar social relations. The “little monster” itself is something of an indicator of the grotesque: without its revealing influence, other social phenomena would seem to be in the order of things, but as soon as it appears, something absurd and fantastic is revealed in them. The plot of the story begins with a contrast: the beautiful fairy Rosabelverde bends over a basket with a little freak - baby Tsakhes. The plot of the story is not only contrasting, but also ironic: how many troubles happened because she gave little Tsakhes the magical gift of golden hairs.
From the background it follows: the fairy herself is in a grotesque situation. After the introduction of enlightenment, an official verdict was issued denying the existence of magic, the fairies were expelled to the country of Dzhinnistan (which was also declared non-existent). And Rosabelvelde remained in the principality under supervision, hiding under the guise of a canoness of a shelter for noble maidens. Thus, the fairy’s action could have been dictated not only by compassion.
Soon her charms began to affect the inhabitants of the “enlightened” principality. Lacking the simplest virtues of a normal human being, Tsakhes is rewarded with miraculous properties: everything ugly that comes from him is attributed to someone else, and, conversely, everything pleasant or wonderful that anyone else does is attributed to him. He begins to give the impression of a charming child, then a gifted youth, a talented poet, violinist, etc.
The golden hairs of the “tiny werewolf” will appropriate and alienate the best properties and achievements of those around him. The career of Tsakhes, who became a minister at the princely court and a holder of the Order of the Green-spotted Tiger with twenty buttons, is grotesquely presented. The higher a little freak rises on the social ladder, the more reason, enlightenment, society, and the state are questioned, if such absurdities occur in a reasonably structured society, an enlightened state. Common sense turns into nonsense, reason becomes reckless.
The golden hairs of Tsakhes contain a grotesque metonymy. Zinnober's spell begins to work when he finds himself in front of the mint: the golden hairs metonymically imply the power of money. A “reasonable” civilization is obsessed with gold, a mania for hoarding and wastefulness. The crazy magic of gold is such that natural properties, talents, and souls are put into circulation, appropriated and alienated.
Things in society obscure the essence, behind things they no longer see either man or nature, as Prosper Alpanus clearly demonstrates in the game with Fabian’s sleeves and coattails. Thereby exposing the inflated convention, the exaggerated importance of trifles, the length of a tailcoat, for example. If someone wears a tailcoat that is too long or too short, it means he is a heretic, a troublemaker, a “Rukavian,” or a conspirator, a “Faldist.” This is how sensible people reason, blinded by the cult of things.
Even the good magic that ensures a happy fairy-tale ending is not without its grotesque: from now on it will be aimed at ensuring that the pots in the house of Balthazar and Candida never boil over, and the dishes do not burn. Magic will protect furniture covers from stains, prevent porcelain dishes from breaking, and provide good weather in the meadow behind the house so that clothes dry quickly after washing. Thus, romantic grotesquery is resolved by romantic irony.
What is the moral and social meaning of the image of Tsakhes? What real world phenomena can it be associated with?
Tsakhes is the son of the poor peasant woman Lisa, frightening those around him with his appearance, an absurd freak who, until he was two and a half years old, had never learned to speak or walk well. Taking into account that Tsakhes operates in an ugly social environment, Zinnober's ugliness, emphasized throughout the entire work, can be considered symbolic, and the image of the hero - typical.
The image of Tsakhes contains both social and moral meaning. His story can be seen as one of the illustrations of the interaction of good and evil.
In the fairy's desire to eliminate the imperfections allowed by nature, there is a good beginning. Taking pity on the poor peasant woman, Rosabelverde endows her little deformed son with a wonderful gift, thanks to which everything significant and talented is attributed to Tsakhes. He is making a brilliant career. And all this was due to the fact that others, truly worthy, undeservedly experienced resentment, shame and failure in their careers or in love. The good done by the fairy turns into an inexhaustible source of evil.
Tsakhes is not active at all. Everything turns out by itself, Zinnober only willingly accepts what floats into his hands. His fault, according to the fairy, is that an inner voice did not awaken in his soul, which would say: “You are not who they take you for, but strive to become equal to those on whose wings you, weak, wingless, fly up." But the corrupting nature of undeserved admiration lies in the fact that Tsakhes easily gave in to confidence in his perfection. Having fallen from his horse, Zinnober denies this fact, claiming that he is an excellent rider, and the further, the more he feels the right not to reckon with high authorities: he boldly responds to the prince’s courtesies, arrogantly communicates with his patron fairy.
The timely intervention of a good wizard puts an end to Tsakhes's chimerical career. Having lost his magic hairs, he became what he really was - a pitiful semblance of a man. Fear of the crowd, who suddenly saw a small monster in the window of the minister’s house, forces Zinnober to seek reliable shelter in a chamber pot, where he dies, as the doctor states, “from the fear of dying.” The fact that he became a victim of undeserved dizzying success is recognized by the fairy, who realized her fatal mistake: “If you had not risen from insignificance and remained a little uncouth fool, you would have avoided a shameful death.”
The grotesque and ironic figure of Tsakhes contains the idea of the persistent danger of false greatness, which gives rise to the self-destruction of the individual through the gradual overstepping of universal human norms and rules.
The author ridicules not only the worthless and deceitful figure of Tsakhes, who absorbed much of what was hostile to the world of poetry, love, beauty, justice, goodness, and happiness. The adventures of Tsakhes are not at all personal; they are determined by the structure of the state and its secret or obvious needs. One of the features of Hoffmann's satire is that the contradiction between the appearance and essence of the title character arises and is realized only in the society that creates this appearance. This contradiction is of a social nature and is not inherent in the very image of Tsakhes, whose spiritual ugliness is fully consistent with physical ugliness. The comedy of incongruity arises only when society, endowing Zinnober with all sorts of talents and all kinds of virtues, gradually inflates his fame.
In itself, this society is initially predisposed to the prosperity of Tsakhes. People are not valued according to their true qualities, awards are given not according to work and not according to real merit. Tsakhes's mother and her husband work until they sweat and can barely satisfy their hunger; they refuse to place the girl Rosengryschen in an orphanage due to the fact that she cannot provide her pedigree; The valet of Prince Paphnutius becomes a minister because he promptly lends his master, who had forgotten his wallet, six ducats, etc.
Self-interest, thirst for fame and profit, admiration for the power of money are manifested in people's behavior. Mosch Terpin dreams of marrying a freak to his daughter in order to climb the social ladder; Minister von Mondschein hopes to earn the prince’s praise by giving a certain memorial to his favorite to read, etc. Through the satirical image of Tsakhes, Hoffman exposes the distortion of the concept of personal value. The criteria of value are shifting fantastically: selfish material interests dominate in society, reputation is determined by a table of ranks.
Hoffmann subjects satirical ridicule not to the “stepson of nature” little Tsakhes, the stupid and helpless chosen one of the fairy, but to the environment conducive to the prosperity of Zinnober, the society that tends to take a freak for a handsome man, mediocrity for talent, stupidity for wisdom, a subhuman for “ decoration of the fatherland." Thus, a very serious social problem appears: mechanization and automation of social consciousness. The idea that formed the basis of the fairy tale about Tsakhes is rather scary: a nonentity seizes power by appropriating (alienating) merits that do not belong to him, and a blinded, stupid society, which has lost all value criteria, mistaking the nonentity for an important person, creates an idol out of him.
Analyze the motivic structure of the text. What characters and episodes of the fairy tale are associated with the motive of the external, superficial, unspiritual? What ideas is associated with the motive of the spiritual, truly humanistic? In what actions of the characters does it arise and how is it manifested?
“As the highest judge,” Hoffmann wrote, “I divided the entire human race into two unequal parts. One consists only of good people, but bad or not musicians at all, while the other consists of true musicians. But none of them will be condemned; on the contrary, bliss awaits everyone, only in a different way.”
In the form of a casual description of the adventures of Tsakhes, the author introduces new characters, groups them around Zinnober, reveals the moral priorities and values of the characters, thereby separating the musicians from the philistines. People are born musicians, but they become philistines. And Hoffmann punishes not congenital vices, but acquired ones. A person may or may not devote himself to serving music, but he should not devote himself to serving his wallet and stomach.
The motive of money as a sign of the new time is manifested most clearly in the general psychosis, the general blindness of the inhabitants, to which the frivolous Fabian, and the gullible Candida, and her unselfish father, Professor Mosch Terpin, and the narrow-minded Prince Barsanuf, and almost everyone else, succumb. If the student Balthasar is able to maintain a sober perception of reality, then he owes this to his poetic thinking. There is nothing of a philistine in Balthazar; he and Tsakhes are incompatible. It is natural that the brilliant Italian musician Sbiocca did not fall under the golden obsession: he lives in a pure and harmonious world of art. But for Hoffmann an artist is not a profession, but a vocation. It may be a person who is not involved in art, but gifted with the ability to see and feel. Illustrating this, the author introduces the official Pulcher among those not subject to the influence of Tsakhes, thereby proclaiming that the moral qualities of a person are fundamental, and not the position he occupies.
The true meaning of the Enlightenment is revealed in the historical digression about the prince's edict and the expulsion of all fairies. In Hoffmann's fiction, fairies are associated with the idea of the richness and diversity of life-giving nature. It is not for nothing that Balthazar explains to Pulcher that Prince Paphnutius never managed to banish the wonderful and incomprehensible from life: nature continues to delight and surprise with its charm and beauty. Nature provides criteria for the moral assessment of the aspirations of the heroes, which are inextricably linked with the humanistic ideas of the fairy tale. The fairy Rosabelverde and the magician Prosper Alpanus are two representatives of nature who live in human society. Nature spoke through the magician, and with it, creative life, with all its play. Prosper Alpanus extends his power down to the smallest detail. At first he only tests his power, and later through it he establishes the order of things forever.
When Minister Andres suggests to the prince the idea of expelling the fairies, he says that they spread their poison “under the name of poetry.” This detail is significant: for Hoffmann, the fantastic and the poetic are two sides of one detail. Both are opposed to a dry and insipid worldview.
The metaphysical way of thinking generated by the Enlightenment lies in the images of the famous scientists Ptolemy Philadelphus and especially the professor of natural science Mosch Terpin, the bearer of a utilitarian, crudely rational attitude towards nature. He made the great discovery that “darkness comes from lack of light” and “enclosed all nature in a small elegant compendium”; subjected “censorship and revisions to solar and lunar eclipses,” studied rare breeds of roasted game, and carried out studies in the wine cellar.
Thus, the image of a charlatan and opportunist emerges, replacing science with “charming little tricks”, thinking not about the truth, but about his own stomach. His entire life is built on deception, so it is not surprising that he sacredly honors the grandiose deception of Tsakhes and even tries to benefit from it for himself. These kind of priests of science are worthy citizens of the principality of Pafnutia, where metaphysical thinking is elevated to the rank of an unshakable basis of the state structure.
The figure of the court physician is also comical, who, with his intricate explanations of the cause of Zinnober’s death, completely confuses those listening. His tirades, with a predominance of Latin terms and abstruse expressions, are witty parodies of “learned” conversations and treatises.
Satirical images of the smartest and most noble people of the enlightened principality continue with the image of Baron Pretextatus von Mondschein. His excellent education consists of the correct use of cases and the writing of his name in French letters. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he sometimes even handled state affairs himself; he pretended to be the author of the memorial composed by the official Andrian, and thus appropriated for himself the work and glory of others.
Student Balthazar is one of the few positive characters in the fairy tale. He represents an “enthusiast,” a romantic hero-dreamer, dissatisfied with the philistine society around him, the scholasticism of university lectures, and finds oblivion and relaxation only in solitude in the lap of nature. Speaking about his frequent escape from the city to a shady grove, the author literally sings a hymn to the enchanting and healing nature. Unlike Mosch Terpin, Balthasar jealously protects the world of nature and poetry from the invasion of the bourgeois everyday life, which is alien to the true beauty. The city is uncomfortable for him and he finds true bliss alone with nature, which every time saves him from death and gives him hope. Balthazar's savior, the magician Prosper Alpanus, also appears from nature.
The only reason why Balthazar returned to the society of ordinary people he hated was his love for Mosch Terpin’s daughter, Candida, an ordinary socialite, a pretty little bourgeois woman in whom there is nothing of the romantic ideal woman. After reading a couple of poems, she forgot their content, “played the piano tolerably and even sometimes sang along; danced the latest gavottes and French quadrilles and, in a very legible and delicate handwriting, wrote down the linen assigned for washing.” It can be assumed that Candida's youth and inexperience did not allow her father to develop the traits characteristic of her father. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in her blindness by Tsakhes. She marries Balthazar, but not because she was able to recognize and appreciate his high spiritual qualities, but because he turned out to be a good match in the everyday bourgeois sense.
Having created the image of an ordinary secular beauty and forced the hero to fall in love with her, Hoffmann, on the one hand, complemented the string of satirical characters with this image, and on the other, almost completely destroyed the romance of the image of the “enthusiast” himself. Having come into contact with ordinary people through Candida, Balthazar makes a concession to their tastes and etiquette; he also has to adapt to the secular customs that reign in the house of Mosch Terpin.
Heroes do not find their ideal in Wonderland. The poetic Balthazar finds his happiness with the noisy, cheerful, homely Candida. And the greatest miracle that a good wizard can bestow on a young couple is pots where food does not burn or boil over. Balthasar and his beloved remain to exist safely in a miserable and unkind world. Both in “Little Tsakhes” and in all the fantastic stories created by Hoffmann in the last five years of his life, it is clearly felt that next to the happy fairy-tale ending there is a sad truth lurking.
Literature
1. Berkovsky N. Ya, Romanticism in Germany.-L., 1973.
2. Karelsky A.V. From hero to man: Two centuries of Western European literature.-M., 1990.
3. Savchenko S. The mastery of Hoffmann the satirist in the story “Little Tsakhes” // Scientific notes of the philological faculty (Kyrgyz University).-Issue 12. – 1964.-P.211-229.
Cumulative tale within a culture
The image and character of Tsakhes
At the center of the work is the story of a disgusting freak, endowed with the magical gift of taking credit for the merits of those around him. Thanks to his three golden hairs, this insignificant creature enjoys universal respect, arousing admiration, and even becomes an all-powerful minister. Tsakhes is disgusting, and the author spares no expense in instilling this in the reader. Comparing it either to a stump of a gnarled tree or to a forked radish. Tsakhes grumbles, meows, bites, scratches. He is both scary and funny. He is terrible because he is absurdly trying to be known as an excellent horseman and a virtuoso cellist, and he is terrible because, despite his imaginary talents, he has clear and undeniable power.
Details of the work
This tale was created in the second period of Hoffmann's work. For the last eight years of his life he lives in Berlin, serving in the state court. The unsuitability of existing judicial science brought him into conflict with the Prussian state machine, and changes occur in his work: he moves on to social criticism of reality and attacks the social order of Germany. His satire becomes sharper, more politically charged. This is the tragedy of Hoffmann's fate and his high destiny. This can be understood using the details of this work. Firstly, the grotesque-fantastic image of Tsakhes: in it he expressed his rejection of reality. In addition, in a fairy-tale form, the author reflected a world where life’s blessings and honor are awarded not according to work, not according to intelligence and not according to merit. The fairy tale takes place in a fairy-tale kingdom, where wizards and fairies exist on equal terms with people - in this Hoffmann depicted the real existence of small German principalities. The image of Balthazar is the opposite image of Chakhesu; he is a writer of a bright ideal. The insignificant essence of the little freak who took his bride and glory is revealed to him alone.
The essence of the finale of the work
At the end of the tale, Balthasar crowns his victory over Tsakhes by marrying the beautiful Kandina and receives as a gift from his patron a house with magnificent furniture, a kitchen where the food never boils over, and a vegetable garden where lettuce and asparagus ripen earlier than others. The ridicule extends not only to the hero himself, but also to fairy-tale fiction itself. Doubt arises about the possibility and necessity of escaping from actual reality into broad romantic dreams.
Composition
“Little Tsakhes” contains traditional fairy-tale elements and motifs. These are miracles, the clash of good and evil, magical objects and amulets. Hoffmann uses the traditional fairytale motif of the enchanted and kidnapped bride and the test of the heroes with gold. But the writer violated the purity of the fairy-tale genre. The combination of the real with the fantastic, the real with the fictitious, the interweaving of reality and unrestrained fantasy is a feature of Hoffmann's poetics. Fantastic fairy-tale moments lose their intrinsic value and play a secondary role. Although the actions in “Little Tsakhes” take place in a conventional country, by introducing the realities or cultural concepts of German life, noticing the characteristic features of the social psychology of the characters, the author thereby emphasizes the modernity of the events that take place.
Such “national information” can be classified as background knowledge, which “is characteristic of the inhabitants of a particular country and is mostly unknown to foreigners, which usually complicates the communication process.” The heroes of the fairy tale (Balthazar, Candida, Fabian, Mosch Terpin, Barsanuf and others) are ordinary people: students, officials, professors, court nobles. If something strange happens to them from time to time, they are ready to find a plausible explanation for it. And the test of the hero-enthusiast Balthazar's loyalty to the wonderful world lies in the ability to see and feel this world, to believe in its existence. The fairy-tale side of the work is associated with magical characters, just like in the fairy tale “Cinderella”.
The main events in “Little Tsakhes” take place with the participation of the fairy Rosabelverde and the magician Prosper Appanus. But in Hoffmann the nature of the presentation of the fantastic changes: these magical heroes have to adapt to real conditions and hide under the masks of a shelter for noble girls and a doctor. The narrator plays an “ironic game” in the style of the story itself - strange phenomena are described in everyday language, in a restrained style, and the events of the real world suddenly appear in some kind of fantastic light, the narrator’s tone becomes tense. By mixing a high romantic tone and a low vital one, Hoffmann thereby destroys it and nullifies it. Tsakhes is the son of the poor peasant woman Liza, who scares those around him with his appearance; the “Senseless Freak” never learned to speak or walk well until he was two and a half years old.
Considering that Tsakhes operates in an ugly social environment, Zinnober's mutilation can be considered symbolic. Taking pity on the poor peasant woman, the fairy Rosabelverde endows her little degenerate son with a wonderful gift, thanks to which everything significant and talented is attributed to Tsakhes. In the fairy's desire to eliminate the imperfections that were allowed by nature, there is a good beginning. Tsakhes is making a brilliant career. And all this was due to the fact that others, truly worthy, undeservedly felt resentment, shame and failure in their careers or in love. The good done by the fairy turns into an endless source of evil. The teacher asks the high school students the question: “Why is the good deed of a fairy the beginning of a great evil?” The analysis of Tsakhes’s actions occurs in the following sequence: * - childhood: “by St. Lawrence Day the child was two and a half years old, and he still does not control his spider legs, and, instead of speaking, he only purrs like a cat”; “the evil freak floundered and resisted, grumbled and tried to bite the maid of honor on the finger,” etc.;
* - activity: “Zinnober knew nothing, absolutely nothing, instead of answering he sniffed and croaked, and spoke some inexpressive nonsense that no one could make out, and because at the same time he obscenely kicked his legs, and fell several times from a high chair”; “Zinnober was talking nonsense, grumbling and rumbling, but the minister took the paper from his hands and began to read it himself,” etc.;
* - the end of life: “but because Zinnober did not respond, the valet saw with his own eyes that very small, thin legs were sticking out of the beautiful silver vessel with a handle, which always stood next to the toilet”; “the danger that their lordship was in, and that the time had come to renounce all respect. He grabbed Zinnober by the legs and pulled him out. Oh, dead, dead he was - their little lordship!”; “the burial of Minister Zinnober was one of the most monstrous that has ever been seen in Kerepes...”
The timely intervention of the good wizard puts an end to Tsakhes's chimerical career. Having lost his magic hairs, he became what he really was - a pitiful semblance of a man. Fear of the crowd, which suddenly saw a small monster in the window of the minister’s house, forces Zinnober to seek reliable shelter in a chamber pot, where he dies, as the doctor states, “he died of fear.” The fact that he became a victim of undeserved dizzying success, determining his fatal mistake, the fairy realized that if Tsakhes had not risen from insignificance and remained a little uncouth fool, he would have avoided a shameful death.
During the analysis, we noted that the author ridicules not only the insignificance and liar Tsakhes, who absorbed much of what was hostile to the world of poetry, love, beauty, justice, goodness, and happiness. The adventures of the satirical Tsakhes are not at all personal; they are determined by the structure of the state and its secret or obvious needs. During the conversation, the teacher notes that Tsakhes is a precedent name, familiarity with which makes it possible to understand the peculiarities of the worldview of the national society of that time, which created such a satirical character.
Other works on this work
Analysis of Hoffmann's work "Little Tsakhes" Heroes of Hoffmann's fairy tale "Little Tsakhes" Tsakhes is the hero of the fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober"A person conceals within himself such possibilities that he is sometimes unaware of, and some kind of force and, perhaps, circumstances are needed to awaken in him an awareness of his abilities. By creating a fairy-tale world, Hoffmann seems to place a person in a special environment in which not only the contrasting faces of Good and Evil are revealed, but subtle transitions from one to the other. And in the fairy tale, Hoffmann, on the one hand, in masks and through the masks of Good and Evil, revives the polar principles in man, but on the other hand, the development of the narrative removes this polarization clearly indicated at the beginning of the fairy tale. The author ends his story about the misadventures of Tsakhes with a “happy ending”: Balthazar and Candida lived in a “happy marriage.”
The plot of the story begins with a contrast: the beautiful fairy Rosabelvelde bends over a basket with a little freak - baby Tsakhes. The mother of this “tiny werewolf” is sleeping next to the basket: she is tired of carrying a heavy basket and complaining about her unhappy fate. The plot of the story is not only contrasting, but also ironic: how many different troubles will happen because the beautiful fairy then took pity on the ugly child - and gave little Tsakhes the magical gift of golden hairs.
Soon her charms will begin to affect the inhabitants of the “enlightened” principality. And here’s how: if there is some handsome man near the ugly baby, then everyone will suddenly begin to admire the beauty of Little Tsakhes, if someone reads his poetry next to him, then Zinnober will begin to applaud. The violinist will play a concert - everyone will think: this is Tsakhes. If the student passes the exam with flying colors, all the glory will go to Tsakhes. Other people's merits will go to him. And, on the contrary, his ridiculous antics and inarticulate muttering will pass on to others. The golden hairs of the “tiny werewolf” will appropriate and alienate the best properties and achievements of those around him.
It is not surprising that Zinnober soon makes a brilliant career at the court of Prince Barzanuf, the heir of Paphnutius. Whatever Tsakhes mumbles, the prince and his retinue admire: the new rank of Tsakhes, the Order of Tsakhes. So he rises to the rank of Minister of Foreign Affairs, an all-powerful temporary worker. The higher the little freak rises on the social ladder, the clearer the fairy's grotesque play. If such absurdities occur in a rationally structured society, an enlightened state, then what are reason, enlightenment, society, and the state worth? Tsakhes is being given more and more ranks - so aren’t these ranks nonsense? Tsakhes is given orders - so why are they better than children's toys? Having performed an insidious trick with Zinnober, the oppressed and expelled fantasy in the person of the fairy cheerfully takes revenge on the common sense and sober mind that oppresses it. She hits them with a paradox, convicts them of inconsistency, makes a diagnosis: common sense is senseless, reason is reckless.
Why are Zinnober's hairs always golden? This detail reveals a grotesque metonymy.
Little Tsakhes's spell begins to work when he finds himself in front of the mint: the golden hairs metonymically imply the power of money. Having bestowed golden hairs on the freak, the crafty fairy targets a sore spot of “intelligent” civilization - its obsession with gold, mania for hoarding and wastefulness. The crazy magic of gold is such that natural properties, talents, and souls are put into circulation, appropriated and alienated.
However, someone needs to break the spell and overthrow the evil dwarf. The wizard Prosper Alpanus bestows this honor on the dreamy student Balthasar. Why him? Because he understands the music of nature, the music of life.
“The duality of the novella is revealed in the contrast between the world of a poetic dream, the fairy-tale country of Dzhinnistan, and the world of real everyday life, the principality of Prince Barsanuf, in which the novella takes place. Some characters and things here lead a dual existence, since they combine their fabulous magical existence with existence in the real world The fairy Rosabelverde, who is also the canoness of the Rosenschen shelter for noble maidens, patronizes the little disgusting Tsakhes, rewarding him with three magical golden hairs.
In the same dual capacity as the fairy Rosabelverde, who is also Canoness Rosenschen, appears the good wizard Alpanus, who surrounds himself with various fairy-tale wonders, which the poet and dreamer student Balthazar clearly sees. In his everyday incarnation, only accessible to philistines and sober-minded rationalists, Alpanus is just a doctor, prone, however, to very intricate quirks.
Hoffmann's tale, thus, told us to a lesser extent about the "deeds" of heroes who were polar in their essence, but more about the diversity and many-sidedness of man. Hoffman, as an analyst, showed the reader in an exaggerated form the human condition, their personified separate existence. However, the whole fairy tale is an artistic study of man in general and his consciousness.