Question: A brief analysis of the fable of the frog asking the king. Historical foundations of fables dedicated to Russia in the 19th century (based on the fables “Frogs Asking for the Tsar” and “Wagon Train”)

Toads and frogs live in large numbers in the vast expanses of swamps, they may differ appearance, but are very similar in their lifestyle and similar anthropometric features.

Lifestyle of marsh toads with frogs

Marsh toads with frogs have an undeveloped neck and a fixed head; the larvae still have a tail, but in adults it is reduced, since the remaining caudal vertebrae merge into a rod-shaped bone.

Toads with frogs belong to the order of anurans, they are predators and catch with the help of their tongue, insects stick to its tip and are drawn into the oral cavity. In most cases, their diet consists of mollusks, worms and arthropods.

These swamp animals can also be viviparous, for example, like African toads or tree frogs, living in Puerto Rico. However, most representatives of tailless amphibians are born in the form of free-swimming larvae - tadpoles.

Sharp-faced marsh frog

One of the brightest representatives of frogs living in swamps is the sharp-faced marsh frog.

This species is not large - only six centimeters in length. The color of individuals is most often grayish and Brown, sometimes it reaches a chocolate shade with spots, but there are no spots on the abdomen and in general it is light in color.

Among the features of the species, one can highlight a dark temporal spot that stretches to the shoulder from the eye, bypassing the eardrum; the frog’s muzzle is sharp.

Features of marsh frogs

Frogs and toads that live in swampy areas often have six-toed webbed feet, which makes them stand out compared to representatives of the tailless class that live in fresh water bodies.

In most cases, marsh frogs and toads lead a twilight lifestyle, but they often go hunting in daytime. When spawning occurs, they move away from the water and can be as close as 0.3 hectares from the swamp. But if there is a lack of food supply, they raid the swamp.

A fairy tale is a beautiful creation of art.

Scientists interpret the fairy tale differently.

Some of them, with absolute clarity, strive to characterize fairy-tale fiction as independent of reality, while others want to understand how the attitude of folk storytellers to the surrounding reality was refracted in the fantasy of fairy tales.

Should any fantastic story be considered a fairy tale in general, or should we distinguish other types of it in oral folk prose - non-fairy tale prose? How to understand fantastic fiction, without which none of the fairy tales can do?

These are the problems that have long troubled researchers.

The famous fairytale expert E.V. Pomerantseva gives a definition of a fairy tale, which is worth agreeing with: “A folk tale (or kazka, tale, fable) is an epic oral work of art, predominantly prosaic, magical, of an adventurous or everyday nature with a focus on fiction. The last feature distinguishes a fairy tale from other genres of oral prose: tales, legends and tales, that is, from stories presented by the narrator to listeners as a narration about events that actually took place, no matter how unlikely and fantastic they may be."

Probably the most common and most beloved fairy tale among people is the fairy tale.

It goes back to ancient times.

All fairy tales have common features. Firstly, they are similar in the generality of their construction.

different sides: where the arrow falls, take the bride there! This episode cannot seem like anything other than a free invention to a modern reader with views alien to the ideas of those times, when people attached importance to this peculiar fortune-telling and firmly believed in the fate to which they entrusted themselves. But this belief still persisted, and the ancient motif was retained in the fairy-tale narrative.

The eldest son's arrow fell into the boyar's courtyard, the arrow fired by the middle son landed in a merchant's courtyard, and the youngest son's arrow fell into a swamp and was picked up by a frog. The older brothers were cheerful and happy, but the younger brother cried: “How can I live with a frog?” The brothers got married: the eldest - to a hawthorn tree, the middle one - to a merchant's daughter, and the younger brother - to a frog.

They were married according to the ritual.

The younger brother did not receive any dowry for his wife: a frog lived in a dirty and swampy swamp. On the contrary, the older brothers married with benefits. The ancient motif of the destitute son takes on new meaning in this tale. In the artistic narrative, the life situation turned out to be changed. All that remains from the long-standing tradition is the memory that it is the younger brother who should have the hardest time.

Poetic imagination recreated a picture full of lively ironic meaning - a frog is held on a platter during a wedding: how else could Ivan, the youngest son, stand next to him and lead the frog bride by the hand.

The hero's bitter thoughts about the power of fate, which gave him a bug-eyed green and cold frog as his wife, are conveyed in the fairy tale with naive simplicity and psychological clarity: “How to live? To live is not to cross a field, not to cross a river!” A fairy tale seeks to capture the hero’s state of mind; it specifically speaks about a person’s experiences.

Communication with the powerful forces of nature makes the hero of a fairy tale strong. He and his wife are helped by “nurses” whom the priest once assigned to the frog. The fairy tale almost forgot that it is the family connection with the natural world that makes the hero both powerful and strong. It talks about the youngest son in the family as a person who remained faithful to the previous ethical standards. He does not seek wealth and marries a simple swamp frog.

The title character, the frog, is a character widely represented in the myths and legends of many peoples.

In various mythological and poetic systems there are both positive (connection with fertility, productive power, rebirth) and negative (connection with the chthonic world, pestilence, illness, death) functions of the frog, determined primarily by its connection with water, in particular with rain . In some cases, the frog, like a turtle, fish or any sea animal, holds the world on its back, in others it acts as the discoverer of some important cosmological elements. Among the Altai people, the frog discovers a mountain with a birch tree and stones from which the first fire is made.

Sometimes the frog is associated with the water elements of chaos, the original silt (or mud) from which the world arose. In Burma and Indochina, the image of a frog is often associated with a spirit that swallows the moon (therefore, the frog is considered the cause of an eclipse).

A childish, naive attitude towards living nature became the basis of man’s views on the living world: the beast is intelligent and speaks. Tales about animals took forms of fiction from the ideas and concepts of primitive people, who attributed to animals the ability to think, speak and act intelligently.

The ideas of people who attributed human thoughts and rational actions to the beast arose in the vital struggle for mastery of the forces of nature.

Fairy tales constantly emphasized the enormous strength of the bear. He crushes everything that comes under his feet. Even in ancient times, the bear was considered a special creature; one had to beware of it. The pagan belief in the bear was so strong that in Ancient Rus', in one of the canonical questions they asked: “Is it possible to make a fur coat from a bear?” The answer was: “Yes, you can.” Why is this question asked specifically about the bear?

Let's draw some conclusions. The appearance of fairy tales about animals was preceded by stories directly related to beliefs about animals. These stories did not yet have an allegorical meaning. The animal images meant animals and no one else. Existing totemic concepts and ideas obligated animals to be endowed with the traits of mythical creatures; animals were surrounded by reverence. Such stories directly reflected ritual, magical and mythical concepts and ideas.

This was not yet art in the literal and precise sense of the word. Stories of a mythical nature were distinguished by a narrowly practical, life purpose. It can be assumed that they were told for edifying purposes and taught how to treat animals. By observing certain rules, people sought to subordinate the animal world to their influence. This was the initial stage of the emergence of fantastic fiction. Later, fairy tales about animals and tales with their participation were based on it.“How long, how short, the ball rolled towards the forest. There stands a hut on chicken legs, turning around itself.” TO

number of images , which arose on an ancient basis of life, includes the image of a female assistant, enchantress and sorceress. A rare fairy tale is complete without a story about the sinister old woman, Baba Yaga, who, however, turns out to be very caring and attentive to the hero. Let us remember what features and what role Yaga is endowed with. She lives in a dense forest, in a strange hut on chicken legs. According to the wonderful spell “Hut, hut, stand in the old way, as your mother put it: with your back to the forest, with your front towards me,” the hut turns towards the hero and he enters this strange dwelling. Baba Yaga greets the daredevil with the same traditional grunts and snorts., that Yaga is uncomfortable with the smell of a living person.

“The smell of the living is just as disgusting and terrible to the dead as the smell of the dead is terrible and disgusting to the living.” Baba Yaga is dead. She lies across her hut “from corner to corner, her nose rooted in the ceiling.” Ieba is too tight for Yaga, she feels like she’s in a coffin. That Yaga is a dead man is also indicated by her bone-legged appearance. Baba Yaga is blind: she does not see the hero, but smells him. In Yaga, apparently, people saw an ancestor on the female line, who lived beyond the line that separates living people from the dead. The cult of female ancestors was closely related to totemism and the cult of nature. This explains the old woman’s special power over the living world of nature, and she herself has many animal traits. In some fairy tales, Yaga is replaced by a goat, a bear, or a magpie. Yaga herself has the ability to transform into different birds and animals. Yaga’s closeness to the mythical images of the rulers of the natural world also explains the special character of her hut on chicken legs. The hut, reminiscent of a coffin in its cramped space, is perhaps evidence of the late poetic development of the ancient custom of burying the dead in trees or on a platform (the so-called air burial)., “at the end of a needle, that needle is in an egg, the egg is in a duck, the duck is in a hare, that hare sits in a stone chest, and the chest stands on a tall oak tree, and Koschey the Immortal protects that oak tree like his own eye.” The hero overcomes all obstacles, picks up a needle, breaks the tip - and now “no matter how much Koschey fought, no matter how much he rushed in all directions, he had to die.”

This is where we end our far from comprehensive, but quite complete analysis of the Russian folk tale “The Frog Princess,” which is a fairy tale - an example of national Russian art. A fairy tale has its deepest roots in the psyche, in the perception, culture and language of the people.

Used Books:

1. Anikin V.P. Russian folk tale. - M.: "Enlightenment", 1977.

2. Meletinsky E. M. Hero of a fairy tale. Origin of the image. M., 1958.

3. Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia. - M.: "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1988,

4. Pomerantseva E.V. Some features of the Russian post-reform fairy tale. -

M.: "Soviet ethnography", 1956, N4, p. 32-44.

5. Propp V. Ya. Historical roots of a fairy tale. M., 1946.

6. Russian folk tales. Collection. - M.: "Children's Literature", 1966, p. 3-12.

Purpose: To introduce students to I.A.’s fable. Krylov “Frogs asking for the Tsar.” Continue to develop the ability to understand the allegorical meaning of fables and their morals.

Equipment: books from Krylov, portraits of the fabulist, illustrations for fables.

Methodological techniques: lecture with elements of conversation, listening to audio tapes, analysis of fables listened to, expressive reading, text analysis, conversation on issues.

In the 1800s, I.A. Krylov reconsiders his attitude both to the very course of history and to the conscious intervention of “theory” in the historical practice of mankind. Krylov completely rejects theoretical interference in the course of events; it can only lead to even greater evil.

Before french revolution Krylov, like other educators, placed great hopes on reason, broad education and upbringing of the nobles, on the introduction of reasonable social concepts into their minds. Such mental enlightenment was capable, in his opinion, of transforming the entire society. If the majority of nobles understand the benefits of reasonable behavior, do not oppress the serfs, take care of the social needs of the poor, put public duty above selfish, selfish desires, etc., then a state of justice and prosperity will arise.

But then the French Revolution happened. Krylov, like other progressive people, was faced with the fact that the predictions of the enlighteners did not come true. It was necessary to reconsider previous positions, drawing lessons from history. The question arose before him: why did history “not listen” to the enlighteners, why did it deceive their hopes?

IN early XIX century, Krylov turned to the genre of fables associated with folk culture. In his fables, he gave answers to pressing life problems.

Krylov clarified the truth that history moves according to its own laws, and not according to the “logical”, “head” instructions of people, that attempts to impose certain “reasonable” requirements on history that do not take into account all previous historical experience are doomed to failure and lead to much worse consequences than those resulting from natural movement.

In this regard, Krylov’s development of the famous and popular fable plot, “Frogs Asking for the Tsar” (1809), is very indicative. The general idea of ​​this fable, developed by Lafontaine, was also preserved by Krylov: the frogs themselves are to blame for their misfortunes, for the fact that, not being content with the rule of the people, they asked for a king.

2. Reading and analysis of the fable

– What doubt is expressed in this fable? (deep doubt in the contractual theory of the state, especially in the version that was developed by Rousseau and put into practice by the Jacobins. It expresses doubt that it is possible to build history consciously, on the basis of preconceived, head Theories).

– But in Krylov’s development of this plot there is also something that belongs entirely to himself. What is the difference between Krylov’s fable? (a detailed, much more detailed description of the reign of the Crane than in La Fontaine. In La Fontaine, the Crane King acts with frogs exactly as the Crane does: catches, kills and swallows. All this description of the crane’s actions takes two lines from La Fontaine. In Krylov, the reign of the Crane is depicted in 12 lines:

This king is not a blockhead, he has a completely different disposition:
He does not like to pamper his people;
He eats the guilty: and at his trial
No one is right;
But he already has
Whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner, there's punishment.
To the inhabitants of the swamps
The black year is coming.
Every day there is a great flaw in the Frogs.
From morning to evening their King walks around the kingdom
And everyone he meets,
He will immediately judge and swallow it.

– What traits does Krylov give to the Crane? (Krylov’s Crane, under his own name, appears in the fable only once; then he is referred to everywhere as the Tsar and all his actions are depicted in a double plan: as a crane he eats frogs, as a king he judges his “people” and sentences everyone to execution).

Live with him so that things don’t get worse for you!)

– Why were the frogs punished? (the frogs were punished for their passion for change, for their unwillingness to reckon with the existing state of affairs, for their desire to change their way of life without regard to the past and their own experience)

And it seemed to them not at all noble
Without service and in freedom to live.

Lafontaine has no last words. It is possible that Krylov had in mind V. Maikov, who, in his translation and adaptation of La Fontaine, gave a detailed criticism of democratic government. His frogs complain to Jupiter like this:

We live willfully; We have enough lies
We have
For every hour
They hate each other;
The powerful will offend the powerless;
And the strong consider the strong to be an enemy. 1

The “stupidity” of frogs, according to Krylov, lies in the theoretical nature of their aspirations, in their conviction that they need to try another government.

The path of testing that the frogs go through is a refutation of Enlightenment optimism with its conviction that ultimately the rule of “pure reason” will be established on earth (Karamzin). 2

– What conclusion can we draw after reading Krylov’s fable? What does she teach us? (history moves according to its own laws, and not according to the “logical”, “head” instructions of people, that attempts to impose on history certain “reasonable” requirements that do not take into account all previous historical experience are doomed to failure and lead to much worse consequences than those which are a consequence of natural movement.

If it is impossible to predict the development of reality and make forecasts, then, one might ask, what is the role of reason? Krylov answers this way: it is equally dangerous to exaggerate the role of reason and to neglect it. Non-interference of the mind in practical activities leads to stagnation, inertia, and routine.

Compose quotation plan fable “Frogs asking for a king.”

Just as figurative parallelism prepared the emergence of symbolism, image-symbols grew into allegorical images. An allegory, like a symbol, is also an allegorical image based on the similarity of life phenomena and can occupy a large, sometimes even central place in a verbal work.

But in a symbol, the depicted phenomenon of life is perceived primarily in its direct, independent meaning, its allegorical meaning is clarified in the process of freely arising emotional associations; an allegory is a biased and deliberate means of allegory, in which the image of one or another phenomenon of life immediately reveals its auxiliary, figurative meaning.

Allegories began to appear in lyrical folk songs, when, from the frequent repetition of certain images, initially symbolic, they became familiar to everyone long ago and quite understandable in their allegorical meaning. A falcon leads a falcon or a peacock - a peahen - a groom - a bride, etc. The process of transforming symbols into allegories occurred even more clearly in epic creativity.

Thus, the images of ancient fairy tales, generalizing the morals of animals, first became symbols of the moral properties and relationships of people, and later, with the emergence of the genre, they acquired a traditional, generally accepted meaning in this allegorical sense and became allegories.

In the plots of fables, the fox is immediately perceived as a means of allegorically depicting a cunning person, a lion or wolf - bloodthirsty, cruel, a snake - insidious, a raven - stupid, a jackal - evil and vile, etc. Such fable allegories were passed on by tradition from one author to another - from Aesop to Phaedrus, then to La Fontaine, Chemnitzer, Krylov. All these authors, except Aesop, wrote their fables in verse.

But still verbally folk art prosaic fables with original allegorical imagery arose. In Russian folklore, the “Tale of Ruff Ershovich, the son of Shchetinnikov” is especially famous. Saltykov-Shchedrin followed this tradition in his fables. Almost all of his “fairy tales” are prosaic fables with a pronounced allegorism of images. But he has fairy tales that combine symbolism and allegorism. Thus, in the fairy tale “The Horse,” Shchedrin created, in addition to the original symbolic image of a peasant horse, allegorical images of four “idle dancers.” These are also horses, but, unlike Konyaga, they were groomed in the master’s stable.

When they begin to talk about Konyag, who lies silently, then from the speeches of each of them we immediately recognize in them not animals, but people, exponents different opinions about the life of the people, representatives of certain privileged strata of Russian society in the 70s. At the same time, the satirical nature of the tale, of course, increased, but its artistry suffered greatly.

Something similar happened in Gorky’s “Song of the Petrel”, where also, following the main symbolically, allegorical images of “moaning” loons and penguins appear, hiding their “fat bodies” in the cliffs.

Allegorical images are also found in lyric poetry. Such, for example, is the image of a cloud in Pushkin’s poem “Cloud” (“The last cloud of a scattered storm...”), which, especially in connection with his other poem “Premonition” (“Again clouds above me...”), is not perceived symbolically, not as an independent image of nature, exciting various emotional parallels with human life, but allegorically, as an allegorical reasoning about very specific circumstances - about the political dangers that recently threatened the poet.

Introduction to literary criticism: Proc. for philol.. special. un-tov / G.N. Pospelov, P.A. Nikolaev, I.F. Volkov and others; Ed. G.N. Pospelov. - 3rd ed., rev. and additional - M.: Higher. school, 1988. - 528 p.

In the fable “Frogs Asking for a Tsar,” funny and sad things happen at the same time. The frogs were unable to live under “people's rule,” that is, without supreme power. They began to ask the gods for a king.

Twice the gods sent them a ruler, both times it had dire consequences. In the first case, “this king was a log of aspen,” and in the second, “the Crane.”

The first ruler did not suit the frogs with his tolerance, and they began to behave as they pleased. The crane was cool and quick to judge, “whomever it does not meet, it will immediately judge and swallow.” The gods did not satisfy the third request (to replace this ruler).

The allegory in the fable is transparent. Frogs are common people who make up most of the state. Kings - through these images two types of government are shown.

The fable reflects the following thoughts of the fabulist:

The people cannot manage their own lives; they are ready to give up freedom for unknown reasons;

If the king is calm, the people begin to abuse their official position, but they do not like it;

A ruler of a “different character” does not suit the people with his cruelty;

- “a voice from heaven” (the opinion of the gods) evaluates the behavior of frogs as madness;

The gods do not offer the option of a “good” king, since the people do not deserve it.

We really find it funny and sad at the same time. The behavior of common frogs is described in a funny way, and the first ruler is funny characterized. It’s sad because it shows a lack of self-awareness among the people, that the rulers are far from ideal, but there will not be better ones.

Russian history has many similar examples.

The fable begins with an ironic and slightly sad story that the frogs were not satisfied with a free life, a life “without service and in freedom.” They themselves, voluntarily, asked the gods to give them a king.

The rule of the first king was that he was passive, which led to some chaos: the frogs became insolent and stopped respecting and honoring him. The rule of the Crane was exactly the opposite: punishment was its main rule, the frogs were scared because they began to see danger to life everywhere.

It turns out that the real government Krylov did not show. Perhaps he believed that the government and the people are always in conflict. It can also be assumed that the people deserved such rulers, having been guilty of not being able to live under “people's rule.”

Help - help; aspen log - an uncouth, “heavy”, stupid and rude person; there is a great flaw in frogs every day - every day a large number of frogs are punished (die); A black year is coming - a time of failure and sadness.

The moral of the fable is contained in the final lines. These words (“Why didn’t you know how to live happily before?”, “Live with him so that things don’t get worse for you!”) are pronounced by the gods from heaven.

IN ordinary life These words can be said when you need to remind someone or yourself that we always have opportunities that, due to thoughtlessness, we do not use; then there are many problems, the occurrence of which we ourselves are to blame for.