The main theme of the tale of Shchedrin is the wise minnow. Analysis of the work "The Wise Gudgeon" Saltykov-Shchedrin. A brief analysis of the tale the Wise Gudgeon

Saltykov - Shchedrin, a Russian satirist, wrote his moralizing stories in the form of fairy tales. Difficult years of reaction and strict censorship, which carefully monitored the activities of writers, blocked all roads to writers expressing their opinions on political events. Fairy tales gave the author the opportunity to express his opinion without fear of censorship. We offer a brief analysis of the tale, this material can be used both for working in literature lessons in grade 7, and for preparing for the exam.

Brief analysis

Year of writing - 1883

History of creation - The years of reaction could not allow to openly express their Political Views, and the writer veiled the socio - political meaning of his statements in the form of fairy tales.

Theme- Socio-political background implies political theme, expressed in ridicule of the Russian liberal intelligentsia.

Composition- The compositional structure of the tale is simple: the beginning of the tale, the description of life, and the death of the gudgeon.

genre- The genre "The Wise Gudgeon" is an epic allegorical tale.

Direction- Satire.

History of creation

The great Russian satirist had the time to live and create during the years of reaction. The authorities and censorship carefully monitored what fell into the minds of citizens, in every possible way hushing up political problems.

The harsh reality of the events taking place had to be hidden from the people. People who openly express their progressive views were severely punished. People involved literary activity, tried in every way to convey revolutionary ideas to the people. Poets and prose writers used various artistic means to tell the whole truth about fate ordinary people and their oppressors.

The history of the creation of the satirical tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin was a direct necessity against the policy of the state. To ridicule human vices, civil cowardice and cowardice, the writer used satirical devices, giving human characteristics to various beasts and animals.

Theme

The topic "The Wise Gudgeon" includes the socio - political problems of society of that era. The work mercilessly ridicules the behavior of the inhabitants of the reactionary era, their cowardly inaction and indifference.

In the moralizing work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the main character is a liberal fish, who by its existence fully reflects the politics of the liberal-minded intelligentsia. This image contains the main idea of ​​the tale, which denounces intellectuals - liberals, hiding from the truth of life behind their own cowardice, trying to spend their lives unnoticed. Here again pops up eternal theme of the time when everyone behaves like this, thinking only about "no matter how something happens, no matter how something happens."

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The exposure of such a society clearly proves that such behavior will not lead to anything, the point is that everything - it will not be possible to escape, hiding in your hole.

In The Wise Gudgeon, an analysis of the work is impossible without defining the meaning of the title that the author gave to his fairy tale. An allegorical and satirical tale also implies a satirical name.

There is a gudgeon who considers himself "wise." In his understanding, this is true. The minnow's parents managed to live a long time, they died of old age. This is what they bequeathed to their own son, the gudgeon, "live quietly and calmly, do not go anywhere, you will live happily ever after." The author puts sarcasm in the name of the gudgeon "wise". It is impossible to be wise, living a gray, meaningless life, fearing everyone and everything.

Composition

The peculiarities of the composition of the writer's tale is that this tale is an allegory. Exposition of the tale at the beginning of the development of the action. The beginning begins in it: it tells about the gudgeon and its parents, about a hard life and ways of survival. The father makes a testament to the gudgeon how to live in order to preserve his life.

The plot of the action: the gudgeon understood his father well, accepted his wishes for action. Next comes the development of the action, the story of how the gudgeon lived, did not live, but vegetated. All his life he trembled from any sound, noise, knock. He was afraid all his life, and hid all the time.

The climax of the tale is that when, finally, the gudgeon thought about what would happen then, if everyone lived the way he lives. Gudgeon was horrified to imagine such a picture. After all, the whole gudgeon genus would have been bred.

There comes a denouement: the gudgeon disappears. Where and how remained unknown, but everything suggests that he died a natural death. The author sarcastically emphasizes that no one will eat an old, skinny gudgeon, and even a "wise" one.

The whole satirist's tale is built on allegory. Heroes of a fairy tale, events, environment- all this in an allegorical sense reflects the human life of that time.

All satirical tales of the writer are written in response to some event or social phenomenon. Fairy tale " Wise minnow"- this is the reaction of the writer to the assassination attempt of the Narodnaya Volya forces on the monarch Alexander II.

What the satirist's work teaches is shown by the death of a gudgeon. We must live brightly, for the benefit of society, and not hide from problems.

genre

The reactionary era led to the birth of different ways of expressing one's thoughts; the author of The Wise Gudgeon used for this the genre of an allegorical fairy tale, of course, a satirical trend. Fairy tale "Wise gudgeon" - epic composition for adults. The satirical orientation indicates the exposure of social vices, their harsh ridicule. In a short story, the author revealed the interconnected vices - cowardice and inaction. It is typical for Saltykov-Shchedrin to depict the hard-hitting sides of life through hyperbolic images and grotesque.

Saltykov-Shchedrin, "The Wise Gudgeon", we will start the analysis of the tale with the personality of the writer.

Mikhail Evgrafovich was born in 1826 (in January) in the Tver province. On his father's side, he belonged to one very old and wealthy family of nobles, and on his mother's side - to the class of merchants. Saltykov-Shchedrin successfully graduated and then took up the post of an official in the military department. Unfortunately, he was very little interested in the service.

In 1847, his first literary works- "Confused Case" and "Contradictions". Despite this, it was only in 1856 that they started talking about him seriously as a writer. At this time, he began to publish his "Provincial Essays".

The writer tried to open his readers' eyes to the lawlessness happening in the country, to ignorance, stupidity, bureaucracy.

Let us dwell in more detail on the cycle of fairy tales written by the writer in 1869. It was a kind of synthesis of the ideological and creative searches of Saltykov-Shchedrin, a certain result.

Mikhail Evgrafovich could not completely expose all the vices of society and the failure of management because of the censorship that existed at that time. That is why the writer chose the form of a fairy tale. So he was able to sharply criticize the existing order, without fear of prohibitions.

The fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon", the analysis of which we are doing, is quite rich from the artistic side. The author resorts to the use of grotesque, antithesis, hyperbole. An important role is played and It is these techniques that helped to hide the true meaning of what is written.

The tale appeared in 1883, it is famous to this day, it has even become a textbook. Its plot is known to everyone: there lived a gudgeon who was quite ordinary. His only difference was cowardice, which was so strong that the gudgeon decided to spend his whole life in a hole, not sticking out from there. There he sat, afraid of every rustle, every shadow. And so his life passed, no family, no friends. The question arises as to what kind of life it is. What good has he done in life? Nothing. He lived, trembled, died.

That's the whole plot, but it is just a surface.

Analysis of the tale "The Wise Gudgeon" implies a deeper study of its meaning.

Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts the mores of contemporary philistine Russia. In fact, a gudgeon does not mean a fish, but a cowardly man in the street, who is afraid and trembles only for his own skin. The writer set himself the task of combining the traits of both fish and humans.

The tale depicts philistine alienation and isolation in oneself. The author is offended and bitter for the Russian people.

It is not very easy to read the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin, which is why not everyone could comprehend the true intention of his tales. Unfortunately, the level of thinking and development modern people do not really correspond to the due.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the thoughts expressed by the writer are relevant to this day.

Read again the tale "The Wise Gudgeon", analyze it based on what you have now learned. Look deeper with the idea of ​​the works, try to read between the lines, then you can not only analyze the fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" yourself, but also all works of art.

Composition

A special place in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin is occupied by fairy tales with their allegorical images, in which the author was able to say more about Russian society in the sixties and eighties of the nineteenth century than the historians of those years. Chernyshevsky asserted: "None of the writers who preceded Shchedrin painted the pictures of our life with more gloomy colors. Nobody punished our own ulcers with more mercilessness."

Saltykov-Shchedrin writes "fairy tales" "for children of fair age," that is, for an adult reader who needs to open his eyes to life. By the simplicity of its form, the tale is accessible to anyone, even an inexperienced reader, and therefore is especially dangerous for the "top". It was not for nothing that the censor Lebedev reported: "Mr. S.'s intention to publish some of his tales in separate brochures is more than strange. What Mr. S. calls tales does not at all correspond to its name; his tales are the same satire, and caustic, tendentious satire. more or less directed against our social and political system. "

The main problem of fairy tales is the relationship between the exploiters and the exploited. In fairy tales, a satire is given on tsarist Russia: on bureaucracy, on bureaucrats, on landowners. Images of the rulers of Russia ("The Bear in the Voivodeship", "The Eagle-Patron"), the exploiters and the exploited ("The Wild Landowner", "How One Man Fed Two Generals"), the townsfolk ("The Wise Gudgeon", "Dried Vobla" other).

The tale "The Wild Landowner" is directed against the entire social system based on exploitation and anti-people in its essence. Preserving the spirit and style of a folk tale, the satirist talks about real events in his contemporary life. Although the action takes place in "a certain kingdom, a certain state," the pages of the tale depict a very specific image of the Russian landowner. The whole raison d'être of his existence boils down to "soak his white, loose, crumbly body." He lives off

his peasants, but he hates them, is afraid, cannot stand their "servile spirit." He considers himself a true representative of the Russian state, his support, is proud that he is a hereditary Russian nobleman, Prince Urus-Kuchum-Kildibaev. He rejoices when some kind of chaff whirlwind carried away all the peasants who knew where, and the air in his domain became pure and pure. But the peasants disappeared, and there was such a famine that in the city "... at the bazaar, you cannot buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread." And the landowner himself went completely wild: "All of him, from head to toe, was overgrown with hair ... and his legs became like iron ones. He stopped blowing his nose for a long time, but he walked more and more on all fours. He even lost the ability to pronounce articulate sounds .. . ". In order not to starve to death, when the last gingerbread was eaten, the Russian nobleman began to hunt: he will notice a hare - "like an arrow will jump from a tree, cling to its prey, tear it apart with nails, and so with all the insides, even with the skin, will eat it."

The wildness of the landowner testifies to the fact that he cannot live without the help of the "muzhik". After all, it was not for nothing that as soon as the "swarm of peasants" was caught and put in place, "there was a smell of chaff and sheepskin in that district; flour and meat, and all kinds of livestock appeared in the bazaar, and so many taxes were received in one day that the treasurer, seeing such a heap of money , just threw up his hands in surprise ... "

If we compare the well-known folk tales about the gentleman and the peasant with the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, for example, with "The Wild Landowner", we will see that the image of the landowner in Shchedrin's tales is very close to folk tales. But the Shchedrin peasants are different from the fabulous ones. In folk tales, a man is quick-witted, dexterous, resourceful, and defeats a stupid master. And in "The Wild Landowner" there appears a collective image of toilers, breadwinners of the country and at the same time martyrs-sufferers, their "tearful prayer of an orphan" sounds: "Lord, it is easier for us to perish with small children than to languish like this all our lives!" So, modifying folk tale, the writer condemns the long-suffering of the people, and his tales sound like a call to rise up to fight, to abandon the slavish worldview.

Many tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are devoted to exposing the philistine. One of the most poignant is the Wise Gudgeon. Gudgeon was "moderate and liberal." Papa taught him the "wisdom of life": not to interfere in anything, take care of yourself. Now he sits in his hole all his life and trembles, as if not to hit the ear or be in the mouth of a pike. He lived like this for over a hundred years and kept trembling, and when the time came to die, then dying - he trembled. And it turned out that he had not done anything good in his life, and no one remembers him and does not know.

The political orientation of Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire demanded new art forms... To get around the censorship obstacles, the satirist had to turn to allegories, hints, to the "Aesopian language." So, in the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner", telling about the events "in a certain kingdom, in a certain state," the author calls the newspaper "Vest", mentions the actor Sadovsky, and the reader will immediately recognize Russia mid XIX century. And in "The Wise Gudgeon" the image of a small, pitiful fish, helpless and cowardly, is displayed. She perfectly characterizes the trembling man in the street. Shchedrin ascribes human properties to fish and at the same time shows that a person can also have “fishy” traits. The meaning of this allegory is revealed in the words of the author: "Those who think that only those minnows can be considered worthy citizens, who, mad with fear, sit in a hole and tremble, are wrongly believed. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows." ...

Saltykov-Shchedrin until the end of his life remained faithful to the ideas of his friends in spirit: Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov. The significance of M.E.Saltykov-Shchedrin's work is all the more great because during the years of the most difficult reaction he continued the progressive ideological traditions of the sixties almost alone.

The tales of M. Saltykov-Shchedrin are addressed primarily to adults, because under the guise of his characters the author skillfully hid the vices of society. Nevertheless, the works of Mikhail Evgrafovich are also interesting for children of average school age... They teach adolescents to analyze their behavior, suggest the "right way." Schoolchildren study the fairy tale "Wise Gudgeon" in the 7th grade. Getting acquainted with it, you need to take into account the historical and cultural context of its creation. We offer a brief analysis of the tale, which will facilitate the search for what is hidden between the lines, and will also become an assistant in preparing for the exam.

Brief analysis

History of creation- The creation of M. Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale was prompted by social and political events. Liberal-minded intellectuals tried to "hide" from the authorities' reaction so as not to risk their lives. The analyzed work is a criticism of this position.

Theme- You can perceive a fairy tale both literally and figuratively, therefore, several themes can be distinguished in it: the life of a wise gudgeon; inaction due to fear of danger.

Composition- Both the semantic and formal organization of the fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" is simple. The author begins it with the traditional "Once upon a time", introduces the fish family and gradually moves on to a story about the main events. The work ends with a rhetorical question that pushes the reader to reflect on what has been said.

genre- Fairy tale.

Direction- Satire.

History of creation

The history of the creation of the work is closely related to the socio-political situation of the second half of the XIX century. In 1881, members of the Narodnaya Volya organization made an attempt on the life of Alexander II. The death of the emperor intensified the persecution of intellectuals. Liberal intellectuals decided to take a passive position so as not to risk their freedom and life. Mikhail Evgrafovich did not share this opinion, but he could not openly criticize the liberals. This is how Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" appeared. Years of writing - December 1882 - January 1883.

For a long time, the Russian censorship did not allow Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" to be published, so it was first published in 1883 in the emigre newspaper Obshche Delo in Geneva. “The wise gudgeon was placed under the heading“ Fairy tales for children of fair age ”, as if hinting that it is not childish motives that are revealed in it. In Russia, a Geneva newspaper with the analyzed work was distributed by members of Narodnaya Volya.

Theme

For a better understanding of the meaning of the tale "The Wise Gudgeon", its analysis should begin with a description of the motives.

There are many works in literature in which themes prohibited by the authorities are veiled. M. Saltykov-Shchedrin is one of the most famous Russian writers who worked with allegorical images. His fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" can be read both superficially, without thinking about the figurative sense, and taking into account the allegorical meaning, therefore two main themes: life of a gudgeon and inaction, the cause of which is fear.

In the context of these topics, problematic... The work raises such problems: parental education and its influence on the fate of children, fear, the meaning of life, a person and society, etc.

To create allegories, the author immerses the reader in underwater world, therefore the main characters of the tale- fishes. Nevertheless, there is also a place for images of people. The work begins with a story about a family of minnows. The head of the family taught the children to be extremely careful, as danger lurks for small fish at every step. The main character Having listened to these instructions, he decided to hide from the world in order to live to old age and die a natural death.

Gudgeon dug a hole for himself, where he hid during the day. Even to eat, he swam out at night. So in loneliness and constant trembling with fear, he lived for more than a hundred years. And, indeed, he died a natural death. The hero did not understand that the essence of life is in the struggle for your happiness, in the joy that you feel in the circle of friends and relatives, in simple fun.

Only after reading the tale to the end, you can understand "Meaning of the name"... Calling the gudgeon wise, Mikhail Evgrafovich, in fact, hints at the stupidity of the hero. The prefix pre- in this case is synonymous with the word “too much”, because the minnow was too afraid for his life and therefore thought too much how to protect himself.

To hint to the reader that there are such minnows among people as well, the author introduces human realities into the story about fish: “He doesn't play cards, doesn't drink wine, doesn't smoke tobacco, doesn't chase red girls”; "It was as if he won two hundred thousand, grew by a whole half, and swallows pike himself."

Composition

The compositional features of the work are the same as those of folk tales... Its organization is extremely simple, the text begins with a traditional introduction. All elements of the plot are arranged in a logical sequence.

On display the reader gets acquainted with the main character of the tale and his family, learns about the dangers of small fish. After reading this part, you get your first impression of the gudgeon. Tie- stories and instructions of the gudgeon-father. The development of events is a story about the life of a gudgeon-son after the death of his parents, the thoughts of a fish, how his life would turn out if he lived differently.

Pronounced climax not in the tale, but the culminating points can be considered episodes where cancer and pike lie in wait for the gudgeon. Interchange works - the death of a gudgeon.

It is noteworthy that the tale ends with a rhetorical question that suggests what the writer teaches.

genre

The genre of "The Wise Gudgeon" by Saltykov-Shchedrin - satirical tale... The work contains real and fantastic events, and the author hides human qualities and characters under the images of fish. At the same time, the writer used satirical techniques to expose the liberals. He makes fun of the gudgeon by describing his character and behavior, artistic means, for example, the constant repetition of the epithet "wise".

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Problems of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon"

In the complex sense of Shchedrin's tales, small in volume and large in their ideological content, the following themes can be distinguished: satire on the autocratic government and on the exploiting classes, the depiction of the life of the people in tsarist Russia, exposure of the behavior and psychology of the populist-minded layers of the intelligentsia, disclosure of the individual morality and propaganda of the socialist ideal and new morality.
In the fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon," Shchedrin exposed the cowardice of that part of the intelligentsia, which, during the years of political reaction, succumbed to a mood of shameful panic, to condemnation. The depiction of the miserable fate of the hero, who was mad with fear, walled himself up in a dark hole for life, the satirist showed his warning and contempt to 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 both, protecting themselves. Their son was smart and took the 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 do more harm, in his opinion. He was completely furious with fear and was even afraid to have a wife and children.
Shchedrin also ridiculed the gudgeon'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. "Although this is the stupidest tool, but with us, piskars, the more stupid, the more true," - this is how the old gudgeon thinks about the life of the people, who in no way wants to learn even from their mistakes.
That gudgeon did not live, but only did that, that he trembled and was glad that he was alive. Even the pikes began to praise him, hoping that he would come out of the hole. But he is not. For more than a hundred years he sat and thought that he was the smartest. But Saltykov-Shchedrin speaks of the wrong line of reasoning of the gudgeon that the wrong gudgeons are becoming 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 to be smart, but only a fool and dignified.
Originality artistic skill Shchedrina 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 its assessment from progressive public positions... In his tales, those who tried to hide from the enemy, to avoid social struggle, to live by their own needs perish. He tried to instill in the reader a sense of public duty, to teach him to live social life, public needs. Only under these conditions can a person be called smart and wise.