The ideological content of the fairy tale is a wild landowner. Saltykov-Shchedrin, "The Wild Landowner": Analysis

The satirical depiction of reality manifested itself in Saltykov-Shchedrin (along with other genres) in fairy tales. Here, as in folk tales, fantasy and reality are combined. So, often in Saltykov-Shchedrin animals are humanized, they personify the vices of people.
But the writer has a cycle of fairy tales, where people are the heroes. Here Saltykov-Shchedrin chooses other methods for ridiculing vices. It is, as a rule, grotesque, hyperbole, fantasy.

Such is Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wild Landowner". In it, the stupidity of the landowner is brought to the limit. The writer sneers at the "merits" of the gentleman: "The peasants see: although they have a stupid landowner, he has been given a great mind. He shortened them so that there was nowhere to stick out his nose; wherever they look - everything is impossible, but not allowed, but not yours! The cattle will go to the watering place - the landowner shouts: “My water!” The chicken will come out of the village - the landowner shouts: "My land!" And the earth, and water, and air - everything became his!

The landowner considers himself not a man, but a kind of deity. Or, at least, a person of the highest rank. It is in the order of things for him to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor and not even think about it.

The peasants of the "wild landowner" are languishing from hard work and severe need. Tormented by oppression, the peasants finally prayed: “Lord! It’s easier for us to disappear even with small children than to suffer like this all our lives!” God heard them, and "there was no peasant in the entire space of the possessions of the stupid landowner."

At first it seemed to the master that now he would live well without the peasants. Yes, and all the noble guests of the landowner approved of his decision: “Oh, how good it is! - the generals praise the landowner, - so now you will not have this servile smell at all? “Not at all,” the landowner replies.

It seems that the hero does not realize the deplorability of his situation. The landowner only indulges in dreams, empty in their essence: “and now he walks, walks around the rooms, then sits down and sits. And everyone thinks. He thinks what kind of cars he will order from England, so that everything is by ferry and steam, but there is not at all a servile spirit; he thinks what a fruitful garden he will plant: here there will be pears, plums ... ”Without his peasants, the“ wild landowner ”was only engaged in the fact that he did not live his“ loose, white, crumbly body ”.

This is where the climax of the story begins. Without his peasants, the landowner, unable to lift a finger without a peasant, begins to run wild. In Shchedrin's fairy tale cycle, full scope is given for the development of the motive of reincarnation. It was the grotesque in describing the process of the savagery of the landowner that helped the writer to clearly show how greedy representatives of the "conducting class" can turn into real wild animals.

But if in folk tales the process of transformation itself is not depicted, then Saltykov reproduces it in all details and details. This is the unique artistic invention of the satirist. It can be called a grotesque portrait: the landowner, completely run wild after the fantastic disappearance of the peasants, turns into a primitive man. “All of him, from head to toe, was overgrown with hair, like the ancient Esau ... and his nails became like iron,” Saltykov-Shchedrin slowly narrates. - He stopped blowing his nose a long time ago, walked more and more on all fours and was even surprised how he had not noticed before that this way of walking was the most decent and most convenient. I even lost the ability to utter articulate sounds and learned some special victory cry, the average between whistling, hissing and barking.

Under the new conditions, all the severity of the landowner lost its strength. He became helpless, like a little child. Now even “the little mouse was smart and understood that the landowner without Senka could not do him any harm. He only wagged his tail in response to the landowner's menacing exclamation, and in a moment was peering at him from under the sofa, as if to say: Wait a minute, stupid landowner! it's only the beginning! I will not only eat cards, but I will also eat your robe, how you oil it properly!

Thus, the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” shows the degradation of a person, the impoverishment of his spiritual world (and did he exist at all in this case ?!), the withering away of all human qualities.
This is explained very simply. In his fairy tales, as in his satires, for all their tragic gloominess and accusatory severity, Saltykov remained a moralist and educator. Showing the horror of human fall and its most sinister vices, he nevertheless believed that in the future there would be a moral rebirth of society and times of social and spiritual harmony would come.

"Wild Landlord" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, heroes, problems and other issues are disclosed in this article.

Appearing simultaneously with “The Tale of How ...”, the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” (1869) reflected the post-reform situation of temporarily liable peasants. Its beginning is reminiscent of the introductory part of "The Tale...". In the magazine version, the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" also had a subtitle: "Written from the words of the landowner Svet-lookov." The fairy-tale beginning in it, just as in the "Tale", is replaced by an assertion about the "stupidity" of the landowner (compare with the "frivolity" of the generals). If the generals read the Moskovskie Vedomosti, then the landowner read the newspaper Vest. In a comic form, with the help of hyperbole, the real relationship between the landowner and the peasants in post-reform Russia is depicted. The liberation of the peasants looks like a mere fiction, the landlord "reduced ... them so that there is nowhere to stick his nose." But even this is not enough for him, he calls on the Almighty to deliver him from the peasants. The landlord gets what he wants, but not because God fulfills his request, but because He heard the prayer of the peasants and freed them from the landowner.

Loneliness soon bothers the landowner. Using the fairy-tale technique of triple repetition, Shchedrin depicts the meeting of the hero of the fairy tale with the actor Sadovsky (the intersection of real and fantastic time), four generals and a police captain. The landowner tells all of them about the metamorphoses that are happening to him, and everyone calls him stupid. Shchedrin ironically describes the landowner's reflections about whether his "inflexibility" is indeed "stupidity and madness." But the hero is not destined to get an answer to this question, the process of his degradation is already irreversible.

At first, he helplessly frightens the mouse, then grows hair from head to toe, begins to walk on all fours, loses the ability to speak articulately, makes friends with the bear. Using exaggeration, intertwining real facts and fantastic situations, Shchedrin creates a grotesque image. The life of the landowner, his behavior are improbable, while his social function (the serf owner, the former owner of the peasants) is quite real. The grotesque in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” helps to convey the inhumanity and unnaturalness of what is happening. And if the peasants, "placed" in their habitat, painlessly return to their usual way of life, then the landowner now "yearns for his former life in the forests." Shchedrin reminds the reader that his hero is "alive to this day." Consequently, that system of relations between the landowner and the people was alive, which was the object of Shchedrin's satirical depiction.

The theme of serfdom and the life of the peasantry played an important role in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. The writer could not openly protest the existing system. Saltykov-Shchedrin hides his merciless criticism of the autocracy behind fairy-tale motives. He wrote his political fairy tales from 1883 to 1886. In them, the settler truthfully reflected the life of Russia, in which despotic and all-powerful landlords destroy hard-working peasants.

In this tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin reflects on the unlimited power of the landowners, who in every way torment the peasants, imagining themselves almost as gods. The writer also speaks of the landowner's stupidity and uneducatedness: "that landowner was stupid, he read the newspaper Vest, and his body was soft, white and crumbly." The disenfranchised position of the peasantry in tsarist Russia Shchedrin also expresses in this tale: "There was no need to light a torch for a peasant in the light, there was no more rod than to sweep the hut." The main idea of ​​the fairy tale was that the landowner cannot and does not know how to live without a peasant, and the work of the landowner only dreamed of in nightmares. So in this tale, the landowner, who had no idea about labor, becomes a dirty and wild beast. After he was abandoned by all the peasants, the landowner never even washed his face: “Yes, I’ve been walking unwashed for many days!”.

The writer caustically ridicules all this negligence of the master class. The life of a landowner without a peasant is far from reminiscent of a normal human life.

The master became so wild that "from head to toe he was overgrown with hair, his nails became like iron, he even lost the ability to utter articulate sounds. But he has not yet acquired a tail." Life without peasants was also disrupted in the uyezd itself: "no one pays taxes, no one drinks wine in taverns." "Normal" life begins in the uyezd only when the peasants return to it. In the image of this one landowner, Saltykov-Shchedrin showed the life of all the gentlemen in Russia. And the final words of the tale are addressed to each landowner: "He lays out grand solitaire, yearns for his former life in the forests, washes only under duress, and at times mumbles."

This fairy tale is full of folk motives, close to Russian folklore. There are no tricky words in it, but there are simple Russian words: "it's said and done", "muzhiks' trousers", etc. Saltykov-Shchedrin sympathizes with the people. He believes that the suffering of the peasants is not endless, and freedom will triumph.

In the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the theme of serfdom, the oppression of the peasantry, has always played an important role. Since the writer could not openly express his protest against the existing system, almost all of his works are filled with fairy tale motifs and allegories. The satirical tale "The Wild Landowner" was no exception, the analysis of which will help students in grade 9 better prepare for the literature lesson. A detailed analysis of the fairy tale will help to highlight the main idea of ​​the work, the features of the composition, and will also allow you to better understand what the author teaches in his work.

Brief analysis

Year of writing– 1869

History of creation- Not being able to openly ridicule the vices of autocracy, Saltykov-Shchedrin resorted to an allegorical literary form - a fairy tale.

Topic– In Saltykov-Shchedrin's work "The Wild Landowner" the theme of the position of serfs in the conditions of Tsarist Russia, the absurdity of the existence of a class of landowners who cannot and do not want to work independently, is most fully disclosed.

Composition- The plot of the tale is based on a grotesque situation, behind which are hidden real relations between the classes of landowners and serfs. Despite the small size of the work, the composition was created according to the standard plan: the beginning, the climax and the denouement.

Genre- A satirical tale.

Direction- Epos.

History of creation

Mikhail Evgrafovich was always extremely sensitive to the plight of the peasants, who were forced to be in lifelong bondage to the landowners. Many of the writer's works, in which this topic was openly touched upon, were criticized and were not allowed to be printed by censors.

However, Saltykov-Shchedrin nevertheless found a way out of this situation, turning his attention to the outwardly quite harmless genre of fairy tales. Thanks to the skillful combination of fantasy and reality, the use of traditional folklore elements, metaphors, and bright aphoristic language, the writer managed to disguise the evil and sharp ridicule of landowner vices under the guise of an ordinary fairy tale.

In an environment of governmental reaction, it was only thanks to fairy tale fiction that it was possible to express one's views on the existing state system. The use of satirical techniques in a folk tale allowed the writer to significantly expand the circle of his readers, to reach out to the masses.

At that time, the magazine was headed by a close friend and associate of the writer - Nikolai Nekrasov, and Saltykov-Shchedrin had no problems with the publication of the work.

Topic

Main theme The fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" lies in social inequality, a huge gap between the two classes that existed in Russia: landowners and serfs. The enslavement of the common people, the complex relationship between the exploiters and the exploited - main issue of this work.

In a fabulously allegorical form, Saltykov-Shchedrin wanted to convey to readers a simple idea- it is the peasant who is the salt of the earth, and without him the landowner is only an empty place. Few of the landowners think about this, and therefore the attitude towards the peasant is contemptuous, demanding and often frankly cruel. But it is only thanks to the peasant that the landlord gets the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits that he has in abundance.

In his work, Mikhail Evgrafovich concludes that it is the people who are the drinkers and breadwinners not only of their landlord, but of the entire state. The true bulwark of the state is not the class of helpless and lazy landowners, but the exceptionally simple Russian people.

It is this thought that haunts the writer: he sincerely complains that the peasants are too patient, dark and downtrodden, and do not fully realize all their strength. He criticizes the irresponsibility and patience of the Russian people, who do nothing to improve their situation.

Composition

The fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" is a small work, which in "Notes of the Fatherland" took only a few pages. It talks about a stupid master who endlessly pestered the peasants working for him because of the “slave smell”.

In the eyeballs of the work, the protagonist turned to God with a request to get rid of this dark and hated environment forever. When the landlord's prayers for deliverance from the peasants were heard, he was left completely alone in his large estate.

climax fairy tales fully reveal the helplessness of the master without the peasants, who in his life were the source of all blessings. When they disappeared, the once polished gentleman quickly turned into a wild animal: he stopped washing, taking care of himself, and eating normal human food. The life of the landowner turned into a boring, unremarkable existence, in which there was no place for joy and pleasure. This was the meaning of the name of the tale - the unwillingness to give up one's own principles inevitably leads to "savagery" - civil, intellectual, political.

In the denouement works, the landowner, completely impoverished and run wild, completely loses his mind.

main characters

Genre

From the first lines of The Wild Landowner, it becomes clear that this fairy tale genre. But not good-naturedly instructive, but caustically satirical, in which the author harshly ridiculed the main vices of the social system in tsarist Russia.

In his work, Saltykov-Shchedrin managed to preserve the spirit and general style of the people. He skillfully used such popular folklore elements as a fabulous beginning, fantasy, hyperbole. However, at the same time, he managed to tell about modern problems in society, to describe events in Russia.

Thanks to fantastic, fabulous techniques, the writer was able to reveal all the vices of society. The work in its direction is an epic, in which the real relations in society are shown grotesquely.

Artwork test

Analysis Rating

Average rating: 4.1. Total ratings received: 351.

A special place in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin is occupied by fairy tales with their allegorical images, in which the author managed to say more about Russian society in the 60-80s of the XIX century than the historians of those years. Saltykov-Shchedrin writes these tales "for children of a fair age," that is, for an adult reader who, according to the mind, is in the state of a child who needs to open his eyes to life. The tale, by the simplicity of its form, is accessible to anyone, even an inexperienced reader, and therefore is especially dangerous for those who ridicule it.

The main problem of Shchedrin's fairy tales is the relationship between the exploiters and the exploited. The writer created a satire on tsarist Russia. The reader is presented with images of rulers (“The Bear in the Voivodeship”, “The Eagle Patron”), exploiters and exploited (“The Wild Landowner”, “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”), the townsfolk (“The Wise Gudgeon”, “ Dried roach").

The fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" is directed against the entire social system based on exploitation, anti-people in its essence. Keeping the spirit and style of the folk tale, the satirist speaks about the real events of his contemporary life. The work begins as an ordinary fairy tale: “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived a landowner ...

"But then an element of modern life appears:" and that landowner was stupid, he read the newspaper "Vest"". "Vest" is a reactionary-feudal newspaper, so that the stupidity of the landowner is determined by his worldview. The landowner considers himself a true representative of the Russian state, its support, he is proud that he is a hereditary Russian nobleman, Prince Urus-Kuchum-Kildibaev.

The whole point of his existence is to pamper his body, "soft, white and crumbly." He lives at the expense of his peasants, but he hates them and is afraid, he cannot stand the “servant spirit”. He rejoices when, in some fantastic whirlwind, all the peasants were blown away, and the air became pure, pure in his domain.

But the peasants disappeared, and such a famine set in that it was impossible to buy anything at the market. And the landowner himself went completely wild: “He is all overgrown with hair from head to toe ...

and his nails became like iron. He stopped blowing his nose a long time ago, but he walked more and more on all fours.

I even lost the ability to utter articulate sounds ... ". In order not to die of hunger when the last gingerbread was eaten, the Russian nobleman began to hunt: he would notice a hare - “like an arrow jumping off a tree, clinging to its prey, tearing it apart with its nails, yes, with all the insides, even with the skin, it will eat. The savagery of the landowner testifies that he cannot live without the help of the peasant.

After all, it was not without reason that as soon as the “swarm of men” was caught and put in place, “flour, meat, and all kinds of living creatures appeared in the bazaar.” The stupidity of the landowner is constantly emphasized by the writer. The peasants themselves were the first to call the landowner stupid, representatives of other classes called the landowner three times stupid (repetition method three times): the actor Sadovsky (“However, brother, you are a stupid landowner!

Who gives you a stupid wash?") the generals, whom he instead of "beef" treated to printed gingerbread and candy ("However, brother, you are a stupid landowner!") And, finally, the police captain ("Stupid same you, mister landowner!

"). The stupidity of the landowner is visible to everyone, and he indulges in unrealizable dreams that without the help of the peasants he will achieve the prosperity of the economy, reflects on the English machines that will replace the serfs. His dreams are ridiculous, because he cannot do anything on his own.

And only once did the landowner think: “Is he really a fool? Is it possible that the inflexibility that he so cherished in his soul, translated into ordinary language, means only stupidity and madness?

"If we compare the well-known folk tales about the gentleman and the peasant with the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, for example, with The Wild Landowner, we will see that the image of the landowner in Shchedrin's fairy tales is very close to folklore, and the peasants, on the contrary, differ from fairy tales. In folk tales, a man is quick-witted, dexterous, resourceful, defeats a stupid master.

And in The Wild Landowner, a collective image of workers, breadwinners of the country and at the same time patient martyrs-sufferers appears. So, modifying the folk tale, the writer condemns the people's long-suffering, and his tales sound like a call to rise to the struggle, to renounce the slavish worldview.

Of all the arts, literature has the richest possibilities for the embodiment of the comic. Most often, the following types and techniques of the comic are distinguished: satire, humor, grotesque, irony.

Satire is called a look "through a magnifying glass" (V.). The object of satire in literature can be a variety of phenomena.

Political satire is the most common. A striking proof of this are the tales of M.

E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

The fantastic nature of fairy tale plots allowed Saltykov-Shchedrin to continue his criticism of the social system, bypassing censorship even in the face of political reaction. Shchedrin's fairy tales depict not just evil or good people, not just a struggle between good and evil, like most folk tales, they reveal the class struggle in Russia in the second half of the 19th century.

Consider the features of the problems of the writer's fairy tales using the example of two of them. In The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals, Shchedrin shows the image of a breadwinner.

He can get food, sew clothes, conquer the elemental forces of nature. On the other hand, the reader sees the peasant's resignation, his obedience, unquestioning obedience to the two generals. He even ties himself to a rope, which once again indicates the humility and downtroddenness of the Russian peasant.

The author calls on the people to fight, protest, calls to wake up, to think about their situation, to stop meekly obeying. In the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”, the author shows how far a rich gentleman can sink when he finds himself without a peasant. Abandoned by his peasants, he immediately turns into a dirty and wild animal, moreover, he becomes a forest predator.

And this life, in essence, is a continuation of his previous predatory existence. A wild landowner, like the generals, acquires a worthy appearance again only after his peasants return. Thus, the author gives an unambiguous assessment of contemporary reality.

In their literary form and style, the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are associated with folklore traditions. In them we meet traditional fairy-tale characters: talking animals, fish, birds. The writer uses the beginnings, sayings, proverbs, linguistic and compositional triple repetitions, common speech and everyday peasant vocabulary, constant epithets, words with diminutive suffixes that are characteristic of a folk tale.

As in a folk tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin does not have a clear time and space framework. But, using traditional techniques, the author quite deliberately deviates from tradition.

He introduces socio-political vocabulary, clerical turns, French words into the narrative. On the pages of his fairy tales there are episodes of modern society.

life. So there is a mixture of styles, creating a comic effect, and the connection of the plot with the problems of the present.

Thus, having enriched the tale with new satirical devices, Saltykov-Shchedrin turned it into an instrument of socio-political satire.