Saltykov-Shchedrin is a writer who very often resorted to such a genre as a fairy tale, because with its help, in an allegorical form, it was always possible to reveal the vices of humanity, while his creative activity was surrounded by unfavorable conditions. With the help of this genre, he was able to write during the difficult years of reaction and censorship. Thanks to fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin continued to write, despite the fear of liberal editors. Despite censorship, he gets the opportunity to scourge reaction. And we got acquainted with one of his fairy tales called The Wise Minnow in class and now we will make a short one according to plan.

Brief analysis of the fairy tale The Wise Minnow

Analyzing Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale The Wise Minnow, we see that the main character is an allegorical image. The fairy tale begins, as usual, with the words Once upon a time. Next we see advice from the minnow's parents, followed by a description of the life of this little fish and its death.

Reading Shchedrin's work and analyzing it, we trace a parallel between life in the real world and the plot of a fairy tale. We meet the main character, a minnow, who lived at first as usual. After the death of his parents, who left him parting words and asked him to take care of himself and keep his eyes open, he became pitiful and cowardly, but considered himself wise.

At first we see in the fish a thinking creature, enlightened, with moderately liberal views, and his parents were not at all stupid, and managed to live until their natural death. But after the death of his parents, he hid in his little hole. He trembled all the time as soon as someone swam past his hole. He swam out from there only at night, sometimes during the day for a snack, but immediately hid. I didn’t finish eating or get enough sleep. His whole life was spent in fear, and thus Gudgeon lived until he was a hundred years old. No salary, no servants, no playing cards, no fun. Without family, without procreation. There were somehow thoughts of swimming out of the shelter, living a full life, but then fear conquered his intentions and he abandoned this idea. So he lived, seeing nothing and knowing nothing. Most likely, the wise Minnow died a natural death, because even a pike would not covet a sick minnow.

All his life the gudgeon considered himself wise, and only closer to death he saw a life lived aimlessly. The author managed to show us how dull and miserable life becomes if you live by the wisdom of a coward.

Conclusion

In his fairy tale The Wise Minnow, a brief analysis of which we have just done, Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts the political life of the country in past years. In the image of a minnow, we see the liberals of the inhabitants of the era of reaction, who only saved their skins by sitting in holes and caring only about their own welfare. They don’t try to change anything, they don’t want to direct their strength in the right direction. They only had thoughts about their own salvation, and none of them was going to fight for a just cause. And at that time there were a lot of such minnows among the intelligentsia, so when reading Shchedrin’s fairy tale at one time, the reader could draw an analogy with officials who worked in the office, with editors of liberal newspapers, with employees of banks, offices and other people who did nothing , fearing everyone who is higher and more powerful.

The fairy 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 middle school age. They teach teenagers to analyze their behavior and suggest the “right path.” Schoolchildren study the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” in the 7th grade. When getting to know it, you need to take into account the historical and cultural context of its creation. We offer a brief analysis of the fairy tale, which will make it easier to find what is hidden between the lines, and will also become an assistant in preparing for the Unified State Exam.

Brief Analysis

History of creation- Socio-political events prompted M. Saltykov-Shchedrin to create a fairy tale. Liberal-minded intellectuals tried to “hide” from the reaction of the authorities so as not to risk their lives. The analyzed work is a critique of this position.

Subject- You can perceive the fairy tale both in a literal and figurative sense, so several themes can be distinguished in it: the life of a wise minnow; inaction caused by fear of danger.

Composition- Both the semantic and formal organization of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” 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 think about what was said.

Genre- Fairy tale.

Direction- Satire.

History of creation

The history of the creation of the work is closely connected with the socio-political situation of the second half of the 19th century. In 1881, members of the Narodnaya Volya organization attempted to assassinate 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 lives. 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 Minnow” appeared. Years of writing: December 1882 - January 1883.

Russian censorship for a long time did not allow Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” to be published, so it was first published in 1883 in the emigrant newspaper “Common Cause” in Geneva. “The wise minnow was placed in the section “Fairy tales for children of a fair age,” as if hinting that it does not reveal childish motives at all. In Russia, the Geneva newspaper with the analyzed work was distributed by members of Narodnaya Volya.

Subject

To better understand the meaning of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow,” its analysis should begin with a description of the motives.

There are many works in literature that covertly develop topics prohibited by the authorities. M. Saltykov-Shchedrin is one of the most famous Russian writers who worked with allegorical images. His fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” can be read both superficially, without thinking about the figurative meaning, and taking into account the allegorical meaning, therefore it develops two main topics: the life of a minnow and inaction, the reason for which is fear.

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

To create allegories, the author immerses the reader in the underwater world, therefore the main characters of the fairy tale- fish. However, 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, since danger awaits small fish at every step. The main character, having heard enough of these instructions, decided to hide from the world in order to live to old age and die a natural death.

The gudgeon dug a hole for itself where it hid during the day. He even swam out at night to eat. So, in solitude and constant trembling from fear, he lived for more than a hundred years. And, indeed, he died a natural death. The hero never understood that the essence of life is in the struggle for one’s happiness, in the joy that one feels in the circle of friends and loved ones, in simple fun.

Only after reading the fairy tale to the end can you understand "the meaning of the name". By calling the gudgeon wise, Mikhail Evgrafovich, in fact, hints at the stupidity of the hero. The prefix pre- in this case is a synonym for the word “too much”, because the gudgeon was too afraid for its life and therefore thought too much about how to protect itself.

To hint to the reader that there are such minnows among people, 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’s as if he won two hundred thousand, grew by a whole half a larshin and swallows the 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 plot elements are arranged in a logical sequence.

On display the reader gets acquainted with the main character of the fairy tale and his family, learns about the dangers that lie in wait for small fish. After reading this part, the first impression of the gudgeon is formed. The beginning- stories and instructions from the gudgeon father. The development of events is a story about the life of a gudgeon-son after the death of his parents, the fish’s reflections on how his life would have turned out if he had lived differently.

Pronounced climax not in the fairy tale, but the climactic points can be considered the episodes where the crayfish and the pike lie in wait for the gudgeon. Denouement works - the death of a minnow.

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

Genre

Genre of “The Wise Minnow” 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 liberals. He ridicules the minnow through descriptions of his character and behavior, artistic means, for example, the constant repetition of the epithet “wise.”

Work test

Rating analysis

Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 290.

Fairy tale "The Wise Minnow"

Many fairy tales by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are dedicated to exposing philistinism. One of the most poignant is “The Wise Minnow.” The fairy tale appeared in 1883 and over the past hundred years has become one of the most famous, a textbook tale of a satirist.

At the center of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” is the fate of a cowardly man in the street, a man lacking a social outlook and with bourgeois demands. The image of a small, helpless and cowardly fish perfectly characterizes this trembling man in the street. In the work, the writer poses important philosophical problems: what is the meaning of life and the purpose of man.

Saltykov-Shchedrin puts into the title of the tale a telling, unambiguously evaluative epithet: “The Wise Minnow.” What does the epithet “wise” mean? Synonyms for it are the words “smart”, “reasonable”. At first, the reader retains the belief that it was not in vain that the satirist characterized his hero this way, but gradually, as events unfold and gudgeon conclusions, it becomes clear that the meaning that the author puts into the word “wise” is undoubtedly ironic. The gudgeon considered himself wise, and the author called his fairy tale that way. The irony in this title reveals the worthlessness and uselessness of the average person, trembling for his life.

“Once upon a time there was a minnow,” and he was “enlightened, moderately liberal.” Smart parents lived in the river “Aridian eyelids” “Aridian eyelids lived in the river...” - the expression “Aridian (or Aredian) eyelids” means extreme longevity. It goes back to a biblical character named Jared, who, as stated in the Bible, lived 962 years (Genesis, V, 20). and, dying, bequeathed to him to live, looking both ways. The gudgeon understands that he is in danger of trouble from everywhere: from big fish, from his gudgeon neighbors, from a man (his own father was once almost boiled in his ear). The gudgeon builds a hole for itself, where no one except it fits, swims out at night for food, and during the day “shivers” in the hole, lacks sleep, is malnourished, but does its best to protect its life. Crayfish and pike lie in wait for him, but he avoids death. The gudgeon has no family: “he would like to live on his own.” “And the wise gudgeon lived in this way for more than a hundred years. Everything was trembling, everything was trembling. He has no friends, no relatives; neither he is to anyone, nor anyone is to him.” Only once in its life does a gudgeon decide to crawl out of its hole and “swim like a goldeneye all over the river!”, but it gets scared. Even when dying, the gudgeon trembles. No one cares about him, no one asks his advice on how to live a hundred years, no one calls him wise, but rather a “dumb” and “hateful.” In the end, the gudgeon disappears to God knows where: even the pikes don’t need it, sick and dying.

The tale is based on the satirist’s favorite techniques - grotesque and hyperbole. Using the grotesque, Saltykov-Shchedrin brings to the point of absurdity the idea of ​​the squalor of a lonely, selfish existence and the fear for one’s life that suppresses all other feelings. And by using the technique of hyperbolization, the satirist emphasizes the negative qualities of the minnow: cowardice, stupidity, narrow-mindedness and conceit that is exorbitant for a small fish (“Not a single thought will come to mind: “Let me ask the wise minnow how he managed to live for more than a hundred years, and neither the pike swallowed him, nor the crayfish with his claws, nor the fisherman caught him with a fishing rod?

The tale is distinguished by its harmonious composition. In a small work, the author manages to describe the entire life of the hero from birth to death. Gradually, tracing the course of the minnow’s life, the author evokes in the reader a variety of feelings: ridicule, irony, turning into a feeling of disgust, and in the end, compassion for the everyday philosophy of a quiet, wordless, but useless and worthless creature.

In this tale, as in all other tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, there is a limited circle of characters: the gudgeon himself and his father, whose behests the son faithfully followed. People and other inhabitants of the river (pike, perch, crayfish and other minnows) are only named by the author.

The author in the fairy tale denounces the cowardice, mental limitations, and failure in life of the average person. Allegory (allegory) and the technique of zoological likening help the satirist to deceive the tsarist censorship and create a sharply negative, repulsive image. Zoological comparisons serve the main purpose of satire - to show negative phenomena and people in a low and funny way. Comparing social vices with the animal world is one of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s witty satire techniques; he uses it both in individual episodes and in entire fairy tales. Attributing human properties to fish, the satirist simultaneously shows that humans also have “fishy” traits, and “minnow” is the definition of a person, an artistic metaphor that aptly characterizes ordinary people. 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, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows.”

In this tale, as in many of his other works, the writer combines fantasy with a realistic depiction of everyday life. Before us is a gudgeon - a small fish that is afraid of everything in the world. But we learn that this little fish “does not receive a salary,” “does not keep servants,” “does not play cards, does not drink wine, does not smoke tobacco, does not chase red girls.” This unusual combination achieves a sense of the reality of what is happening. The fate of the law-abiding official is also guessed in the fate of the gudgeon.

Saltykov-Shchedrin in the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” adds modern concepts to the fairy-tale speech, thereby connecting the folklore beginning of the fairy tale with reality. Thus, Shchedrin uses the usual fairy-tale beginning (“once upon a time there was a minnow”), common fairy-tale phrases (“neither in a fairy tale can you tell, nor can you describe with a pen,” “began to live and live well,” “bread and salt”), folk expressions (“uma ward”, “out of nowhere”), colloquialisms (“disgraceful life”, “destroy”, “take a nap”) and much more. And next to these words there are words of a completely different style, belonging to real time: “chew with life”, “did exercise at night”, “will recommend”, “life process completes”.

This combination of folklore motifs and fantasy with real, topical reality is one of the main features of Shchedrin’s satire and his new genre of political fairy tale. It was this special form of storytelling that helped Saltykov-Shchedrin increase the scale of artistic depiction, give the satire on the small man in the street a huge scope, and create a real symbol of a cowardly person.

In the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow,” Saltykov-Shchedrin traditionally interweaves comic elements with tragic ones. With humor, the satirist conveys to the reader the fish’s opinion about man: “What about man? - what kind of malicious creature is this! no matter what tricks he came up with in order to destroy him, the minnow, in vain! And the seine, and the nets, and the tops, and the hole, and, finally... I’ll fish!”, describes the flattering speeches of the pikes: “Now, if everyone lived like this, it would be quiet in the river!” But they said it on purpose; they thought that he would recommend himself for praise - here, they say, I am! then bang! But he didn’t fall for this trick either, and once again, with his wisdom, he defeated the machinations of his enemies.” And the author himself constantly laughs at the gudgeon, his fears and imaginary victories over predators.

However, Saltykov-Shchedrin, being an ardent opponent of such a cowardly and meaningless existence, describes the death of the gudgeon, his slow decline and dying thoughts with bitterness and even some pity: “In his hole it is dark, cramped, there is nowhere to turn, not a ray of sunshine can look in , no smell of warmth. And he lies in this damp darkness, blind, exhausted, useless to anyone...” The lonely and unnoticed death of the minnow is truly tragic, despite his entire previous worthless life.

How much Saltykov-Shchedrin despises such a humiliating life for a person! He reduces the entire biography of the gudgeon to a brief formula: “He lived and trembled, and he died and trembled.” This expression has become an aphorism. The author claims that one cannot live with the only joy in life: “Glory to you, Lord, I am alive!” It is this philosophy of life-fear that the author ridicules. Saltykov-Shchedrin shows the reader a terrible self-isolation and philistine alienation.

Before his death, the gudgeon asks himself rhetorical questions: “What joys did he have? Who did he console? Who gave good advice to whom? Who did you say a kind word to? Whom did you shelter, warm, protect?” There is one answer to all these questions - no one, no one, none. These questions are introduced into the fairy tale for the reader, so that he asks himself and thinks about the meaning of his life. After all, even the minnow’s dreams are connected with his empty womb existence: “It’s as if he won two hundred thousand, grew by as much as half an arshin and swallows the pike himself.” This, of course, would be the case if dreams became reality, because nothing else was implanted in the soul of the average person.

Saltykov-Shchedrin is trying to convey to the reader the idea that one cannot live only for the sake of preserving one’s life. The story of the wise minnow in an exaggerated form teaches the need to set high goals for oneself and go towards them. It is necessary to remember human dignity, courage and honor.

The writer “forces” the gudgeon to die ingloriously. In the final rhetorical question, a devastating, sarcastic sentence is heard: “Most likely, he himself died, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow a sick, dying gudgeon, and also a wise one?”

fairy tale artistic political satirist

Saltykov-Shchedrin, “The Wise Minnow”, let’s start the analysis of the fairy tale with the personality of the writer.

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

In 1847, his first literary works were published - “A Tangled Affair” and “Contradictions”. Despite this, it was only in 1856 that people started talking about him seriously as a writer. At this time he began to publish his “Provincial Sketches”.

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

Let's take a closer look at the cycle of fairy tales written by the writer in 1869. This was a kind of synthesis of the ideological and creative quest of Saltykov-Shchedrin, a certain result.

Mikhail Evgrafovich could not fully expose all the vices of society and the failure of management due to 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 Minnow,” which we are analyzing, is quite rich in artistic terms. The author resorts to the use of grotesque, antithesis, and hyperbole. An important role is played by these techniques that helped hide the true meaning of what was written.

The fairy 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 completely ordinary. His only difference was cowardice, which was so strong that the gudgeon decided to spend his entire life in a hole, without sticking out of there. There he sat, afraid of every rustle, every shadow. This is how his life passed, no family, no friends. The question arises: what kind of life is this? What good has he done in his life? Nothing. Lived, trembled, died.

That's the whole story, but it's just the surface.

Analysis of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” implies a deeper study of its meaning.

Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts the morals of contemporary bourgeois Russia. In fact, a minnow does not mean a fish, but a cowardly man in the street who fears and trembles only for his own skin. The writer set himself the task of combining the features of both fish and humans.

The fairy tale depicts philistine alienation and self-isolation. The author is offended and bitter for the Russian people.

Reading the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin is not very easy, which is why not everyone was able to comprehend the true intent of his fairy tales. Unfortunately, the level of thinking and development of modern people does not really correspond to what it should be.

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

Read the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” again, analyze it based on what you have now learned. Look deeper into the intent of the works, try to read between the lines, then you will be able to analyze not only the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” 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, eighties, and tens of the nineteenth century than the historians of those years. Chernyshevsky argued: “None of the writers preceding Shchedrin painted pictures of our life in darker colors. No one punished our own ulcers with greater mercilessness.”

Saltykov-Shchedrin writes “fairy tales” “for children of a fair age,” that is, for an adult reader who needs to open his eyes to life. The fairy tale, due to the simplicity of its form, is accessible to anyone, even an inexperienced reader, and therefore is especially dangerous for the “tops.” No wonder the censor Lebedev reported: “Mr. S.’s intention to publish some of his fairy tales in separate brochures is more than strange. What Mr. S. calls fairy tales does not at all correspond to its name; his fairy tales are the same satire, and the satire is caustic, tendentious , more or less directed against our social and political structure."

The main problem of fairy tales is the relationship between exploiters and exploited. The fairy tales provide satire on Tsarist Russia: on bureaucrats, on bureaucrats, on landowners. The reader is presented with images of the rulers of Russia (“Bear in the Voivodeship”, “Eagle Patron”), exploiters and exploited (“Wild Landowner”, “How One Man Fed Two Generals”), ordinary people (“The Wise Minnow”, “Dried Roach” and others).

The fairy 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 contemporary life. Although the action takes place in “a certain kingdom, a certain state,” the pages of the fairy tale depict a very specific image of a Russian landowner. The whole meaning of his existence comes down to “pampering his white, loose, crumbly body.” He lives off

his men, but hates them, is afraid, cannot stand their “servile spirit.” He considers himself a true representative of the Russian state, its support, and is proud that he is a hereditary Russian nobleman, Prince Urus-Kuchum-Kildibaev. He rejoices when some chaff whirlwind carried away all the men to God knows where, and the air in his domain became pure and pure. But the men disappeared, and there was such a famine that in the city “... you can’t buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread at the market.” And the landowner himself went completely wild: “He was all overgrown with hair, from head to toe... and his legs became like iron. He stopped blowing his nose a long time ago, and walked more and more on all fours. He 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: if he spots a hare, “like an arrow will jump from a tree, grab onto its prey, tear it apart with its nails, and eat it with all the insides, even the skin.”

The landowner's savagery indicates that he cannot live without the help of the "peasant". After all, it was not for nothing that as soon as the “swarm of men” was caught and put in place, “the smell of chaff and sheepskin began to smell in that district; flour and meat and all kinds of livestock appeared at the market, and so many taxes arrived in one day that the treasurer, seeing such a pile of money , just clasped his hands in surprise..."

If we compare the well-known folk tales about the master 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 Shchedrin’s men are different from those in fairy tales. In folk tales, a smart, dexterous, resourceful man defeats a stupid master. And in “The Wild Landowner” a collective image of workers, breadwinners of the country and at the same time martyrs-sufferers appears, their “tearful orphan’s prayer” sounds: “Lord, it is easier for us to perish with small children than to suffer like this all our lives!” Thus, modifying a folk tale, the writer condemns the long-suffering of the people, and his fairy tales sound like a call to rise up to fight, to renounce the slave worldview.

Many of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s tales are dedicated to exposing philistinism. One of the most poignant is “The Wise Minnow.” Gudgeon was "moderate and liberal." Dad taught him the “wisdom of life”: not to interfere in anything, take care of yourself. Now he sits all his life in his hole and trembles, lest he get hit in the ear or end up in the mouth of a pike. He lived like this for more than a hundred years and trembled all the time, and when the time came to die, he trembled even as he died. And it turned out that he had not done anything good in his life, and no one remembers or knows him.

The political orientation of Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire required new artistic forms. To get around censorship obstacles, the satirist had to turn to allegories, allusions, and “Aesopian language.” Thus, in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner,” telling about events “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state,” the author calls the newspaper “Vest,” mentions the actor Sadovsky, and the reader immediately recognizes Russia in the mid-19th century. And in “The Wise Minnow” the image of a small, pitiful fish, helpless and cowardly, is depicted. It perfectly characterizes the trembling man in the street. Shchedrin attributes human properties to fish and at the same time shows that humans can also have “fish” 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, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows.” .

Until the end of his life, Saltykov-Shchedrin remained faithful to the ideas of his spiritual friends: Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov. The significance of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work is all the greater because during the years of severe reaction he almost alone continued the progressive ideological traditions of the sixties.