“Scarlet Sails” by Alexander Green captivates the reader not only with its romantic and fairy-tale plot, but also with its main characters. The image of Assol in the story embodies a bright faith in dreams and fairy tales, kindness and tenderness, meekness and love.
Childhood Assol
Assol was born into the family of a sailor Longren. The girl's mother died when she was not even a year old. Assol was raised by his father. The girl helped him in everything, was obedient and kind, and learned everything quickly. A characterization of Assol from the work “Scarlet Sails” is impossible without mentioning some moments of her life in Kapern.
In her early childhood, the heroine suffered because other children, on the instructions of their parents, were afraid of her and did not play with her, because they considered the girl’s father a murderer. Soon, having cried a sea of tears and overcome resentment, the girl learned to play herself, living in her mysterious world of fantasy and dreams. In her own world, completely different from reality, Assol did not lose the ability to rejoice and love. Her love and kindness extend to nature and the only person, besides her father, who understands her in Caperne - the coal miner Philip.
The girl is kind, she does not remember the insults and malice with which the inhabitants of Kaperna shower her, she is smart and hardworking, never despairs, and also knows how to truly dream - this is the characteristic of Assol from “Scarlet Sails”.
Meeting with a storyteller
Assol often helped her father; she took toys to the city for sale and bought the necessary products. One day, while walking through the forest, the girl met an old collector of legends, Egl, who told her about how a ship with scarlet sails would sail to Kaperna and take her away from here forever.
“One morning a scarlet sail will sparkle in the distance of the sea... Then you will see a brave and handsome prince; he will stand and stretch out his hands to you.” So said the old storyteller, and Assol began to wait for the scarlet sails, believing the prediction with all her heart. Old Longren decided not to deprive the girl of such a gift, thinking that she would grow up and forget about this strange meeting in the forest.
Dream and Kaperna
Unfortunately, Assol lives in a very mundane place. It is very difficult for her here, because both she and those around her are aware of her alienation and peculiarity.
“But you don’t tell fairy tales... don’t sing songs. And if they tell and sing, then these are stories about cunning men and soldiers, dirty as unwashed feet... quatrains.” - this is what Aigle says about Caperne.
It would seem that in such a place it is impossible for Assol’s fragile dream to survive, but the girl carefully carries it through dirty ridicule and insults. And it doesn’t matter that she is considered crazy and is evilly called “the ship’s Assol”; Gray only needs one look at her to understand that all the stories are vile fiction.
The characteristics of Assol and Gray are completely different from the characteristics of the inhabitants of the town, both of them are from a completely different world. There is no place for them in Kaperna.
Scarlet Sails
Little Assol, like an insanely expensive toy, keeps the prediction of an old collector of legends. And even though they laugh at her and consider her crazy, the girl does not despair.
When Assol wakes up one day with Gray's ring on her finger, she realizes that her Scarlet Sails are already on their way.
The main idea of the work is that you need to be able to dream, not forget and not betray your dream, and then it will definitely come true. The description of Assol from the story “Scarlet Sails” confirms this.
Work test
Assol is a girl’s name that has become a household name. It symbolizes romance, openness and the truth of real feelings. Assol and faith in love are two synonymous concepts. The image and characterization of Assol in the story “Scarlet Sails” will help to understand the characteristics of the heroine of the work of art.
The heroine's appearance
The reader meets Assol as an eight-month-old baby, left without a mother, waiting for her sailor father in the care of a kind neighbor's old man, he looked after the child for 3 months. At the end of the book the girl is already between 17-20. At this age, her dream comes true and she meets Gray.
The girl's appearance changes:
- 5 years old – a kind, nervous face that brings a smile to his father’s face.
- 10-13 years old - a thin, tanned girl with dark thick hair, dark eyes and a gentle smile with a small mouth. Her appearance is expressive and clean; the author compares her to a swallow in flight.
- 17-20 years old - amazing attractiveness shows through in all features: short, dark brown. Long eyelashes fall like a shadow on her cheeks, the delicate contours of her face make anyone passing by look at her.
At every age, one epithet is suitable for a girl - charm. This is also surprising because Assol’s clothes are poor and cheap. It’s difficult to become noticeable in such outfits, but this is not for Assol. She has her own style, a special ability to dress. A scarf runs through the exterior like a subtle detail: it covers the young head, hides the thick strands, and hides the gaze.
The appearance of a charming, modest woman is not popular in Kaperna; she frightens residents with her wildness and intelligence hidden inside her deep dark eyes. It is impossible to imagine a girl at the market among women with rough hands and loose speech.
Family and raising a girl
The family lives in a village by the sea. Much is unknown: the country, the nearby city, the sea. The village of Kaperna, where is such a village located? Only on the pages of a novel. The sailor's family is an ordinary family from seaside villages. The father's name is Longren, the mother's name is Mary. Unable to cope with the disease, the mother dies when the child was only 5 months old. Longren begins to take care of his daughter, he leaves his fishing business and tries to make toys. Assol grows up and helps her father; she goes to the city to leave her father’s fakes for sale. Assol and Longren live in poverty, but in love. Life is simple and monotonous.
Character of the heroine
The formation of character takes place against the background of loneliness. The family is treated with caution after the incident with Menners. Loneliness was boring, but Assol found someone to be friends with. Nature became her closest environment. Melancholy made the girl timid and suffering. Animation in the face rarely appeared.
Main character traits:
Deep soul. The girl feels everything and everyone around her. She sincerely experiences the hardships of life and tries to help those she meets. Assol takes the insults hard and shrinks as if from a blow.
Thrift. She sews, tidies, cooks, saves - does everything that a woman from a poor family needs to be able to do.
Individuality. The girl did not fit into the usual characters of the seaside village. They don’t understand her, they call her crazy, touched. They laugh and make fun of this special girl, but in their hearts they understand that they cannot become like that, they cannot understand her thoughts.
Love for nature. Assol talks to the trees, they are her friends, loyal and honest, unlike people. They are waiting for the girl, greeting her with the trembling of leaves.
Even while reading, the girl is connected with nature. A little green bug crawls across the page and knows where to stop. He seems to be asking her to turn her gaze to the sea, where a ship with scarlet sails awaits.
The fate of the heroine
The children's fairy tale that the song collector Egle told the girl lives in her soul. Assol does not refuse her, is not afraid of ridicule, does not cheat on her. True to her dream, she looks into the distance, waiting for a ship in the depths of the sea. And he comes.
It is interesting that the reader continues to talk about Assol after Gray appears in her life. I would like to imagine how the sweet beauty’s life, stingy with joy, will change when the book has already been read. This author’s skill has captivated more than one generation of readers. The fairy tale has become reality. You need to believe in your destiny for it to happen.
Presentation of the heroine. My own composition, including, of course, quotes from the one and only work of A. Green “Scarlet Sails”. I apologize for the speech, spelling and punctuation errors and inaccuracies, this is an unedited text...
Assol is the main character of Alexander Green's story "Scarlet Sails". We know the whole story of her life. Assol's mother died when she was still a baby, so the girl lived with her father Longren in Kapern. He tried in every possible way to protect the sensitive, impressionable girl from the influence of the rude inhabitants of this city. They did not love either father or daughter, remembering how Longren left the drowning Menners to die when he could have helped him. But he had his own reasons for this, which the residents of Kaperna could not understand.
Well, the girl had no friends. “One after another, her naive attempts at rapprochement ended in bitter crying, bruises, scratches and other manifestations of public opinion.”
But the father, who was always withdrawn and taciturn, loved his little Assol very much. Therefore, in the evenings she climbed onto his lap and listened to the stories and fables of the old sailor. “The girl listened to all this more attentively than perhaps she listened to Columbus’s story about the new continent for the first time.” What wonderful pictures Assol must have drawn from her childhood imagination!
One day, on the way to Liss (a city neighboring Kaperna), the girl met Egl/ya/, a traveling “collector of songs, legends, tales and fairy tales.” He, enchanted by the sweet girl, told Assol that a wonderful future awaited her, that one day, when she grew up, a ship with Scarlet Sails would sail for her, and a prince would meet her on board, who would take her to his kingdom. Of course, Egle was telling a lie. He hoped that Assol would soon forget his words. But this fairy tale settled so deeply in her imagination that the girl believed and never forgot that someday this would happen.
Assol has grown up. Now it was
“a thin, short girl. The half-childish, lightly tanned face was mobile and expressive; Beautiful, somewhat serious eyes for her age looked with the timid concentration of deep souls. Her irregular face could touch one with its subtle purity of outline; every curve, every bulge of this face, of course, would have found a place in many female forms, but their totality, their style, was completely original - originally sweet; We'll stop there. The rest is beyond words, except for the word “charm.”
Even seven years after Egle told Assol an amazing story, she continued to believe in it. She knew for sure that the ship would come for her and take her away from these evil people who insulted her, called her “touched,” “out of her mind.” Assol was sure that the prince whom she had so often imagined would still come.
“More than once, worried and timid, she went to the seashore at night, where, after waiting for dawn, she quite seriously examined the ship with the Scarlet Sails. These moments were happiness for her; It’s hard for us to escape into a fairy tale like that; it would be no less difficult for her to get out of her power and charm.”
Assol believed that the fairy tale would certainly happen. And when one day she found on her finger the ring that Gray had put on her in a dream, she was not at all surprised, she felt that the dream was beginning to come true. “There were no explanations for what happened, but without words or thoughts she found them in her strange feeling, and the ring already became close to her.”
Her fairy tale came true. And when Assol boarded the long-awaited ship,
she was happy. The very prince that Aigle told her about was waiting for her. Everything was so magical that she was afraid that everything would disappear like a dream. But it was not a dream, it was the truth.
Assol always dreamed, despite the ridicule and insults of her neighbors. Having believed in magic as a child, she had no doubt about its existence. She lived a dream and believed in the inevitability of what would happen to her someday. And the ship with Scarlet Sails found her, because Assol believed in a dream, and dreams, as we know, come true.
Nowadays, the girl Assol has become a household name. It is associated with romance, openness, true, real feelings. This name and belief in love are considered synonymous concepts. Using the characterization of Assol from the work “Scarlet Sails” by Alexander Greene, we explore the characteristics of the heroine of this wonderful book. "Scarlet Sails" is an extravaganza story with the most romantic heroine of Russian literature of the 20th century. Any modern reader will be interested in learning more about the heroine’s appearance, her character traits, upbringing, and fate. Some girls can take note of the actions and behavior of a dreamy beauty.
Before characterizing Assol ("Scarlet Sails" by A. Green), it is worth introducing you to the main plot lines. From the extravaganza we learn the story of the girl Assol, who lost her mother at the age of 8 months. Together with her father, sailor Longren, she lives in the village of Kaperna. Her father was unsociable and reserved; he made and sold toys in the form of sailboats and steamships. This is how he earned a living for himself and his little daughter.
When Assol was 8 years old, the song collector Egle gave her a small sailboat and said that someday a prince would come for her on a ship with scarlet sails and take her to a distant country. Since then, she had a dream about an overseas prince. Because of this, everyone considered the girl crazy.
On the other hand, the author shows us Gray. He was the scion of a noble and wealthy family, had a living soul, and strived for exploits. One day he went fishing by boat and stopped for the night near Kaperna. In the morning, in the thickets, he came across a sleeping Assol. He really liked this extraordinary girl.
Being a little “out of this world,” Gray goes to the shop to buy scarlet silk and make sails from it. Gray on his sailboat sailed to the shore where Assol was, and music was playing on the ship. All the villagers ran to the sea. Gray swam up to the girl in a boat and took her with him, as the storyteller had predicted.
The charm of the heroine
At the beginning of the extravaganza, the writer shows Assol as an eight-month-old baby, left without a mother, who was looked after by a kind old neighbor for three months while her father was swimming. At the end of the story we see a seventeen-year-old girl whose dream came true after meeting Gray.
At the age of five, Assol was distinguished by a kind, nervous face, which her father really liked. At 12 years old, she was a thin, tanned girl. She had thick dark hair, expressive eyes, a small mouth with a gentle smile. The girl was so pure and expressive that she was compared to a swallow in flight.
At the age of 17, all her features were amazingly attractive: dark brown, short in stature. Her long eyelashes cast shadows on her cheeks, and anyone passing by tried to take in her delicate contours.
Assol's characterization proves that she was charming at any age (despite her poor and cheap clothes). Assol was even noticed in such outfits. Green uses a very subtle detail to describe the girl - a scarf, under which the girl’s thick locks and her gaze are hidden.
In Kaperna they did not really admire the appearance of the charming modest woman; the inhabitants were frightened by her wildness and intelligence hiding in her deep dark eyes. This is not at all the girl from the market with rough hands and loose speech.
Assol's childhood years
The girl's father was a sailor. Assol quickly learned everything, helped her parent, obeyed, showed kindness and affection. The girl suffered because of the attitude of other children, whose parents frightened her with her evil father and called him a murderer. Assol cried a lot, was offended, and then began to play by herself and not pay attention to anyone.
The young heroine lived in her dreams and fantasies. Her world was completely different from the real one. The girl continued to love life and enjoy it. She especially loved the nature around her and treated with kindness the person in the village who understood her - the coal miner Philip. The heroine’s kind soul never accumulated resentment and anger (unlike other inhabitants of Kaperna). Smart and hardworking Assol truly knew how to dream and never despaired. Over time, she began going to the city to put her father’s handicrafts up for sale. Although her childhood was spent in poverty, it was filled with love.
Character traits of the heroine
The girl's character developed in solitude. When she was bored, she went to her only friend - nature. Out of melancholy, she turned into a timid and suffering girl, only occasionally her face would come to life. But the heroine found a deep soul that subtly felt everything around. She lends a helping hand to anyone she meets. Her most important character traits are:
- Very economical. Knows how to sew, cook, clean, and save money.
- Individual personality. Others, however, call her touched or crazy.
- Loves nature. All living things were her true friend: trees, birds, the sea.
- An educated girl. She read a lot of books and worried about their characters.
A dream comes true
Throughout her childhood and adolescence, Assol carried a fairy tale about a ship with red sails, which was told to her by the storyteller Egl. The girl believes in her and does not give up on her dream. Often she looked at the sea and looked out at the treasured ship in the depths of the sea. And one day her dream came true! Gray appeared in her life. The book ends so optimistically that you want to believe in the joyful future life of the young beauty.
The main idea of the work
The "Scarlet Sails" extravaganza is a beautiful example of a dream that comes true thanks to the faith and hope of the charming Assol. Green teaches people to believe in dreams and miracles. Life is completely empty without cherished dreams. You need to strive for them, then they will definitely come true. You need to go boldly towards your future!
Comparative characteristics of Assol and Gray
Assol was the daughter of a poor toy maker, a former sailor. Gray was born into a wealthy family and was given an excellent education and upbringing. He experienced love and respect from childhood. Mother and father tried to give the boy the best. The girl had a difficult childhood, all the children refused to be friends with her, her only friends were her father and God. She addressed him with requests very often and talked to him. The heroine did not receive an education, but she read a lot of books.
Gray had a good inheritance, thanks to which he could not work. But he persists, studies maritime affairs and runs away from home. Assol's father makes toys and fishes. This is how they live, barely making ends meet.
What Assol and Gray have in common is that they were both romantics and dreamers. Gray makes his dreams of the sea come true himself, and Assol lives in a world of dreams and fairy tales. The young man became an excellent captain, and the girl waited for her prince on a ship with scarlet sails. Both heroes are honest and decent, they believe in love.
In addition to romance and determination, Gray has nobility, courage and determination. He became a kind wizard for the dreamy Assol. The girl charmed the young man with her pure and sincere beauty. Having given Assol a dream, Gray himself became bright and sincere. He simply and truly performed a miracle on another person.
The image of Assol in cinema and art
Imbued with the spirit of the romantic times, "Scarlet Sails" is liked by our contemporaries. The story is reminiscent of a very good fairy tale. In 1961, director Alexander Ptushko made the film "Scarlet Sails". The role of Assol in the fairy tale film was played by the magnificent Anastasia Vertinskaya, and the role of Gray by the famous Vasily Lanovoy. You can see some shots from this wonderful film in the photo.
Many theaters have staged dozens of productions and musical performances based on the Scarlet Sails extravaganza. Composers also did not stand aside and composed many songs on this topic. Contemporaries especially like the song by Tatyana Snezhina, the rock group "Marshal", and Alexey Sviridov - "Assol". Many people know the musical of the same name by Maxim Dunaevsky. Monuments have also been erected to the main character in several Russian cities: Kirov, Gelendzhik, Khanty-Mansiysk, Cherepovets.
The romantic story “Scarlet Sails” became the calling card of its author. The heroine of this work is a girl who lost her mother. She lives with her father, who is honest and kind. Her whole world is fantasies and dreams, once inspired by the prediction of a song collector. Such a romantic image as Assol became the embodiment of a dream that will come true if you just believe in it. The characterization of the heroine is the topic of this article.
Extravaganza
Authors of literary works sometimes use various elements of a fairy tale in their work. This technique allows you to reveal the plot, characters, and give the work a lyrical or philosophical meaning. He called his story an extravaganza. In this work, realism is combined with magic, and fantasy with reality. And, perhaps, thanks to the use of such artistic means, the image of a girl named Assol became the most touching and sublime in Russian literature.
The characteristics of this heroine once seemed consonant with the adherents of the socialist idea with their main postulates. That is why Green’s work was widely popular in the Soviet Union. Today the passions for “Scarlet Sails” have subsided. And the image of the main character of this story took its rightful place in literature. But what inspired the author to write such a romantic story?
Creating the image of Assol
The characteristics of this character include traits that were also characteristic of its author. Since childhood, Alexander Grinevsky dreamed of the seas and distant countries. But the romantic personality was increasingly faced with harsh reality. In his dreams he saw beautiful things in reality - a coaster. Grinevsky strove for sublime friendship, but experienced only contempt and ridicule from professional sailors. The desire to defeat rudeness and skepticism arose in the soul of a romantic man, but outwardly reminiscent of the hero of his main book - Longren, Assol's father.
The characteristics of the unlucky sailor, but a talented writer, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, are as follows: a rather gloomy, ugly person, unable to win over his interlocutor at the first meeting. The writer's fate was also unlike a fairy tale. But it is known that it was precisely in the years when he had nowhere to lay his head that he created one of the most famous literary heroines - the girl Assol.
“Scarlet Sails” was written by Green at a time when all the foundations of life were collapsing around him. The writer sometimes even went hungry, since his creativity did not bring him any income. But he carried with him everywhere the manuscript, which later became one of the greatest works in Russian literature. He put all his aspirations and hopes into the plot of this story and believed, like Assol: “Scarlet Sails” will one day be seen by Petrograd. This was during the period of revolutionary events, but the color of the banner on the treasured ship had nothing to do with the red rebel banner. These were only his “Scarlet Sails”. Assol’s characterization echoed the characteristics of the author’s own mental make-up. And it was extremely difficult to exist with them in the world of ordinary people and skeptics.
Do scarlet sails exist?
The characterization of Assol is used by the author only to the extent necessary. The main theme in the story is hope. The character of the main character is not decisive. It is known that she is a reserved, modest and dreamy girl. She lost her mother very early, and since her father lost his job, the only source of food for their family was the sale of wooden toys.
The girl was lonely, although her father loved her dearly. One day she met the storyteller Egle, who predicted the arrival of a magical ship with sails. There would be a prince on board, and he would certainly take Assol with him.
The girl believed in the fairy tale, but those around her laughed at her and thought she was crazy. And yet the dream came true. One day Assol saw scarlet sails.
Characteristics of the heroine from a romantic fairy tale
There is an artistic movement in literature, which is characterized by the affirmation of spiritual and almost unattainable values. It's called romanticism. The works of this direction contain fairy-tale and mythological motifs. And their heroes are in a constant search for some ideal. German romantics dreamed of a blue flower. Scarlet sails became a similar ideal for Assol. The characterization of Alexander Greene's heroine in this regard includes typical
Arthur Gray image
The prince, whose appearance the storyteller predicted, was an ordinary young man, although from a wealthy family. Since childhood, like the author of the story, he dreamed of becoming a captain. An irresistible desire to comprehend the wisdom of marine science pushed him to leave his home. At first he was a simple sailor, but years later his dream came true. Gray acquired his own ship and became captain. And one day he heard stories about the crazy dreams of a girl who couldn’t wait for a prince on a fairy-tale ship. He was touched by Assol's dream, and he decided to make it come true.
Dreams Come True…
The captain ordered the scarlet sails to be raised. The ship entered the port, and a girl was waiting for him on the shore. Everything happened exactly as good Egle prophesied. And it doesn’t matter that Assol Gray learned about the dream in advance. The main thing is faith and hope. After all, they can save a person even in the most difficult times. The characterization of Assol and Gray was compiled by the author based on his personal worldview and life experience. The main feature of these characters is the ability to believe in a dream. And this is precisely what, perhaps, saved the writer when he was in exile. A. Green's life was quite difficult, but he always found a place for miracles in his heart. Even when those around him did not understand and condemned him.
The appearance of the heroine
The appearance and character of the girl with the beautiful name Assol are not of paramount importance in the story. The characterization of the heroine, as already mentioned, is less significant than her ability to believe in a dream. But still, a little should be said about the appearance of this character.
Assol is presented in the story as the owner of a thick head of hair, tied up in a headscarf. Her smile was gentle, and her gaze seemed to contain some sad question. The figure of the heroine is depicted by A. Green as fragile and thin. The girl worked diligently, helping her father create miniature ships from wood.
Assol is the personification of gentle beauty, spiritual meekness and hard work. And this is not surprising, because this is precisely the typical heroine of many well-known romantic fairy tales, who spends a long time waiting for a handsome prince. As it should be according to the laws of the genre, at the end of the magical story all Assol’s dreams come true.
