Fairy tale " Selfless hare" fairy tale " Sane Hare»
The theme of denouncing cowardice is similar to “The Wise Minnow,” which was written at the same time as “The Selfless Hare.” These tales do not repeat, but complement each other in exposing slave psychology, illuminating its different sides.
The tale of the selfless hare is a vivid example of Shchedrin’s crushing irony, exposing, on the one hand, the wolfish habits of the enslavers, and on the other, the blind obedience of their victims.
The fairy tale begins with the fact that a hare was running not far from the wolf’s den, and the wolf saw him and shouted: “Bunny! Stop, honey! And the hare only increased his pace. The wolf got angry, caught him, and said: “I sentence you to be deprived of your belly by being torn to pieces. And since now I’m full, and my wolf is full... then sit under this bush and wait in line. Or maybe...ha-ha...I’ll have mercy on you!” What about the hare? He wanted to run away, but as soon as he looked at the wolf’s den, “the hare’s heart started pounding.” A hare sat under a bush and lamented that he had so much time left to live and his hare dreams would not come true: “I was counting on getting married, bought a samovar, dreamed of drinking tea and sugar with a young hare, and instead of everything - where did I end up?” ! One night his fiancée's brother galloped up to him and began to persuade him to run away to the sick little bunny. The hare began to lament his life more than ever: “For what? what did he do to deserve his bitter fate? He lived openly, did not start revolutions, did not go out with weapons in his hands, ran according to his needs - is this really what death is for? But no, the hare cannot move: “I can’t, the wolf didn’t tell me!” And then the wolf and she-wolf came out of the den. The hares began to make excuses, convinced the wolf, pityed the wolf, and the predators allowed the hare to say goodbye to the bride and leave her brother as her husband.
The hare, released for leave, “like an arrow from a bow,” hurried to the bride, ran, went to the bathhouse, they wrapped him up, and ran back to the den - to return by the specified time. The return journey was difficult for the hare: “He runs in the evening, runs at midnight; His legs are cut by stones, his fur hangs in tufts on his sides from thorny branches, his eyes are clouded, bloody foam is oozing from his mouth...” After all, “he gave his word, you see, but the hare is the master of his word.” It seems that the hare is very noble, he only thinks about how not to let his friend down. But nobility towards the wolf stems from slavish obedience. Moreover, he realizes that the wolf can eat him, but at the same time stubbornly harbors the illusion that “maybe the wolf will...ha-ha...have mercy on me!” This type of slave psychology overpowers the instinct of self-preservation and is elevated to the level of nobility and virtue.
The title of the fairy tale outlines its meaning with amazing accuracy, thanks to the oxymoron used by the satirist - a combination of opposite concepts. The word hare is always in figuratively serves as a synonym for cowardice. And the word selfless in combination with this synonym gives an unexpected effect. Selfless cowardice! This is main conflict fairy tales Saltykov-Shchedrin shows the reader the perversity of human properties in a society based on violence. The wolf praised the selfless hare, who remained true to his word, and gave him a mocking resolution: “... sit for the time being... and later I will... ha ha... have mercy on you!”
The wolf and the hare not only symbolize the hunter and the prey with all their corresponding qualities (the wolf is bloodthirsty, strong, despotic, angry, and the hare is cowardly, cowardly and weak). These images are filled with topical social content. Behind the image of the wolf is an exploitative regime, and the hare represents an ordinary person who believes that a peace agreement with the autocracy is possible. The wolf enjoys the position of a ruler, a despot, the entire wolf family lives according to “wolf” laws: the wolf cubs play with the victim, and the wolf, ready to devour the hare, pities him in her own way...
However, the hare also lives according to wolf laws. Shchedrinsky's hare is not just cowardly and helpless, but cowardly. He gives up resistance in advance, going into the wolf’s mouth and making it easier for him to solve the “food problem.” The hare believed that the wolf had the right to take his life. The hare justifies all his actions and behavior with the words: “I can’t, the wolf didn’t tell me!” He is used to obeying, he is a slave of obedience. Here the author's irony turns into caustic sarcasm, into deep contempt for the psychology of a slave.
The hare from Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Sane Hare”, “although it was an ordinary hare, it was an extraordinary one. And he reasoned so sensibly that it fits a donkey.” This hare usually sat under a bush and talked to himself, discussing various topics: “Every animal, he says, is given its own life. For a wolf - wolf's, for a lion - lion's, for a hare - hare's. Whether you are happy or dissatisfied with your life, no one asks you: live, that’s all,” or “They eat us and eat us, but we, hares, breed more every year,” or “These wolves are a vile people - the truth must be told . All they have on their minds is robbery!” But one day he decided to show off his sound thoughts in front of the hare. “The hare talked and talked,” and at that time the fox crawled up to him and let’s play with him. The fox stretched out in the sun, told the hare to “sit closer and poop,” and she herself “played comedies in front of him.”
Yes, the fox taunts the “sane” hare in order to eventually eat him. Both she and the hare understand this perfectly well, but they can’t do anything. The fox is not even very hungry to eat the hare, but since “where has it been seen that foxes let go of their own dinner,” then one has to obey the law, willy-nilly. All the smart, justifying theories of the hare, the idea of regulating the wolf's appetites that has completely taken possession of him, are smashed to smithereens by the cruel prose of life. It turns out that hares were created to be eaten, and not to create new laws. Convinced that wolves “will not stop eating hares,” the sensible “philosophist” developed a project for more rational eating of hares - not all at once, but one by one. Saltykov-Shchedrin here ridicules attempts to theoretically justify slavish “rabbit” obedience and liberal ideas about adaptation to a regime of violence.
The satirical sting of the fairy tale about the “sensible” hare is directed against petty reformism, cowardly and harmful populist liberalism, which was especially characteristic of the 80s.
The tale "The Sane Hare" and the preceding tale "The Selfless Hare", taken together, provide a comprehensive satirical characterization“rabbit” psychology in both its practical and theoretical manifestations. In "Selfless Hare" we're talking about about the psychology of an unconscious slave, and in “The Sane Hare” - about a perverted consciousness that has developed servile tactics of adaptation to a regime of violence. Therefore, the satirist treated the “sensible hare” more harshly.
These two works are one of the few in the cycle of Shchedrin’s fairy tales that end in a bloody denouement (also “Crucian the Idealist”, “The Wise Minnow”). With the death of the main characters of the fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin emphasizes the tragedy of ignorance of the true ways to fight evil with a clear understanding of the need for such a fight. In addition, these tales were also influenced by the political situation in the country at that time - ferocious government terror, the defeat of populism, and police persecution of the intelligentsia.
Comparing the fairy tales “The Selfless Hare” and “The Sane Hare” in artistic rather than ideological terms, one can also draw many parallels between them.
The plots of both tales are based on folklore, colloquial speech heroes are in tune. Saltykov-Shchedrin uses already classical elements of living, folk speech. The satirist emphasizes the connection of these fairy tales with folklore using numerals with non-numerical meanings (“ far away kingdom”, “from far away lands”), typical sayings and sayings (“the trail is gone”, “he runs, the earth trembles”, “you can’t tell in a fairy tale, you can’t describe with a pen”, “soon the fairy tale will tell...”, “fingers in don’t put your mouth down”, “no stake, no yard”) and numerous constant epithets and vernacular (“fed up”, “fox-catcher”, “you’re melting away”, “the other day”, “oh you goryun, goryun!”, “hare’s life”, “sort out”, “tidbit”, “bitter tears”, “great troubles”, etc.).
When reading the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, it is always necessary to remember that the satirist wrote not about animals and about the relationship between predator and prey, but about people, covering them with animal masks. The same is true in fairy tales about the “sane” and “selfless” hares. The language favored by the author of Aesops gives the fairy tales richness, richness of content and does not in the least complicate the understanding of all the meaning, ideas and morality that Saltykov-Shchedrin puts into them.
In both fairy tales, fantastic, fairy tales elements of reality are intertwined. The “sane” hare daily studies “statistical tables published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs...”, and the newspaper writes about the “selfless” hare: “In the Moskovskie Vedomosti they write that hares do not have a soul, but steam - and there he’s like... running away!” The "sane" hare also tells the fox a little about the real human life- about peasant labor, about market entertainment, about the recruit share. The fairy tale about the “selfless” hare mentions events that were invented by the author, unreliable, but essentially real: “In one place the rains poured, so that the river, which the hare had jokingly swam across a day earlier, swelled and overflowed ten miles. In another place, King Andron declared war on King Nikita, and on the very hare’s path the battle was in full swing. In the third place, cholera appeared - it was necessary to go around the whole quarantine chain by a hundred miles...”
Saltykov-Shchedrin, in order to ridicule all the negative traits of these hares, used appropriate zoological masks. If he is a coward, submissive and humble, then he is a hare. The satirist puts this mask on the faint-hearted ordinary people. And the formidable force that the hare is afraid of - a wolf or a fox - personifies autocracy and the arbitrariness of royal power.
Evil, angry ridicule of slave psychology is one of the main objectives of Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tales. In the fairy tales “The Selfless Hare” and “The Sane Hare” the heroes are not noble idealists, but ordinary cowards who rely on the kindness of predators. The hares do not doubt the right of the wolf and the fox to take their lives; they consider it quite natural that the strong eat the weak, but they hope to touch the wolf’s heart with their honesty and humility, and to speak to the fox and convince them of the correctness of their views. Predators remain predators.
Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin is one of the most famous Russian writers mid-19th century. His works are written in the form of fairy tales, but their essence is far from being so simple, and the meaning does not lie on the surface, as in ordinary children's analogues.
About the author's work
Studying the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, one can hardly find at least one children's fairy tale in it. In his writings the author often uses this literary device like a grotesque. The essence of the technique is gross exaggeration, bringing to the point of absurdity both the images of the characters and the events that happen to them. Therefore, the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin may seem creepy and overly cruel even to an adult, not to mention children.
One of the most famous works Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Selfless Hare". In it, as in all his creations, lies deep meaning. But before we begin the analysis of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Selfless Hare,” we need to remember its plot.
Plot
The fairy tale begins with the fact that main character, a hare, runs past the wolf's house. The wolf shouts to the hare, calling him to him, but he does not stop, but speeds up his pace even more. Then the wolf catches up with him and accuses him of not obeying the hare the first time. The forest predator leaves him near the bush and says that he will eat him in 5 days.
And the hare ran to his bride. Here he sits, counting the time until death and sees the bride’s brother rushing towards him. The brother tells how bad the bride is, and this conversation is heard by the wolf and the she-wolf. They go outside and say that they will release the hare to the bride to say goodbye. But on the condition that he will return to be eaten in a day. And the future relative will remain with them for now and, in case of non-return, will be eaten. If the hare returns, then perhaps they will both be pardoned.
The hare runs to the bride and comes running quite quickly. He tells her and all his relatives his story. I don’t want to go back, but my word is given, and the hare never breaks his word. Therefore, having said goodbye to the bride, the hare runs back.
He runs, but on his way he encounters various obstacles, and he feels that he is not on time. He fights off this thought with all his might and only gains momentum. He gave his word. In the end, the hare barely manages to save the bride's brother. And the wolf tells them that until he eats them, let them sit under a bush. Maybe he will have mercy someday.
Analysis
In order to give a complete picture of the work, you need to analyze the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” according to the plan:
- Characteristics of the era.
- Features of the author's creativity.
- Characters.
- Symbolism and imagery.
The structure is not universal, but it allows you to build the necessary logic. Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin, whose analysis of the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” needs to be carried out, often wrote works on topical topics. So, in the 19th century, the topic of dissatisfaction with the royal power and oppression by the government was very relevant. This must be taken into account when analyzing Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Selfless Hare.”
Different layers of society reacted to the authorities in different ways. Some supported and tried to join, others, on the contrary, tried with all their might to change the current situation. However, most people were shrouded in blind fear and could do nothing but obey. This is what Saltykov-Shchedrin wanted to convey. An analysis of the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” should begin with showing that the hare symbolizes precisely the latter type of people.
People are different: smart, stupid, brave, cowardly. However, none of this matters if they do not have the strength to fight back against the oppressor. In the form of a hare, the wolf ridicules the noble intelligentsia who show their honesty and loyalty towards the one who oppresses them.
Speaking about the image of the hare, which Saltykov-Shchedrin described, the analysis of the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” should explain the motivation of the main character. The hare's word - honestly. He couldn't break it. However, this leads to the fact that the hare’s life collapses, because he shows his best qualities towards the wolf, who initially treated him cruelly.
The hare is not guilty of anything. He simply ran to the bride, and the wolf arbitrarily decided to leave him under a bush. Nevertheless, the hare steps over himself to keep his word. This leads to the fact that the entire family of hares remains unhappy: the brother was unable to show courage and escape from the wolf, the hare could not help but return so as not to break his word, and the bride is left alone.
Conclusion
Saltykov-Shchedrin, whose analysis of the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” turned out to be not so simple, described the reality of his time in his usual grotesque manner. After all, there were quite a lot of such people-hares in the 19th century, and this problem of unrequited obedience greatly hampered the development of Russia as a state.
In conclusion
So, this was an analysis of the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” (Saltykov-Shchedrin), according to a plan that can be used to analyze other works. As you can see, the tale, simple at first glance, turned out to be a vivid caricature of the people of that time, and its meaning lies deep inside. In order to understand the author’s work, you need to remember that he never writes anything just like that. Every detail in the plot is necessary for the reader to understand the deep meaning inherent in the work. This is why the tales of Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin are interesting.
Grotesque is a term meaning a type of artistic imagery (image, style, genre) based on fantasy, laughter, hyperbole, bizarre combination and contrast of something with something. In the grotesque genre, ideological and artistic features Shchedrin's satire: its political sharpness and purposefulness, the realism of its fiction, the ruthlessness and depth of the grotesque, the sly sparkle of humor.
Shchedrin's "Fairy Tales" in miniature contain the problems and images of the entire work of the great satirist. If Shchedrin had not written anything other than “Fairy Tales,” then they alone would have given him the right to immortality. Of Shchedrin's thirty-two fairy tales, twenty-nine were written by him in last decade his life (most from 1882 to 1886) and only three fairy tales created in 1869. Fairy tales seem to sum up the forty years creative activity writer. Shchedrin often resorted to the fairy-tale genre in his work. Elements fairy tale fiction is also in “The History of a City”, and in satirical novel“Modern Idyll” and the chronicle “Abroad” include completed fairy tales.
And it’s no coincidence that it blossomed fairy tale genre Shchedrin falls in the 80s. It was during this period of rampant political reaction in Russia that the satirist had to look for a form that was most convenient for circumventing censorship and at the same time the closest, most understandable to the common people. And the people understood the political acuteness of Shchedrin’s generalized conclusions, hidden behind Aesopian speech and zoological masks. The writer created a new one, original genre a political fairy tale that combines fantasy with real, topical political reality.
In Shchedrin's fairy tales, as in all of his work, two social forces confront each other: the working people and their exploiters. The people act under the masks of kind and defenseless animals and birds (and often without a mask, under the name “man”), the exploiters act in the guise of predators. Symbol peasant Russia is the image of Konyaga - from the fairy tale of the same name. Horse is a peasant, a worker, a source of life for everyone. Thanks to him, bread grows in the vast fields of Russia, but he himself has no right to eat this bread. His destiny is eternal hard labor. “No end to work! Work exhausts the whole meaning of his existence...” exclaims the satirist. Konyaga is tortured and beaten to the limit, but only he is able to free home country. “From century to century, the menacing, motionless bulk of the fields remains numb, as if it were guarding a fairy-tale power in captivity. Who will free this force from captivity? Who will bring her into the world? This task fell to two creatures: the peasant and the Horse.” This tale is a hymn to the working people of Russia, and it is no coincidence that it had such a great influence on Shchedrin’s contemporary democratic literature.
In the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner,” Shchedrin seemed to summarize his thoughts on the reform of the “liberation” of the peasants, contained in all his works of the 60s. He poses here an unusually acute problem of the post-reform relationship between the serf-owning nobles and the peasantry completely ruined by the reform: “The cattle go out to water - the landowner shouts: my water! a chicken wanders into the outskirts - the landowner shouts: my land! And the earth, and the water, and the air - everything became his! There was no torch to light the peasant's light, there was no rod to sweep out the hut with. So the peasants prayed to the Lord God all over the world: - Lord! It’s easier for us to perish with our children than to suffer like this all our lives!”
This landowner, like the generals from the tale of two generals, had no idea about work. Abandoned by his peasants, he immediately turns into a dirty and wild animal. He becomes a forest predator. And this life, in essence, is a continuation of his previous predatory existence. The wild landowner, like the generals, regains his outward human appearance only after his peasants return. Scolding wild landowner for stupidity, the police officer tells him that without peasant “taxes and duties” the state “cannot exist”, that without peasants everyone will die of hunger, “you can’t buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread at the market” and the gentlemen won’t have any money . The people are the creator of wealth, and ruling classes only consumers of this wealth.
The raven-petitioner turns in turn to all the highest authorities of his state, begging to improve the unbearable life of the raven-men, but in response he hears only “cruel words” that they cannot do anything, because under the existing system the law is on the side of the strong. “Whoever wins is right,” the hawk instructs. “Look around - there is discord everywhere, there is quarrel everywhere,” the kite echoes him. This is the “normal” state of a proprietary society. And although “the crow lives in society, like real men,” it is powerless in this world of chaos and predation. Men are defenseless. “They are firing at them from all sides. That railway it shoots, then the car is new, then there is a crop failure, then there is a new harvest. And they just know they turn over. In what manner did it happen that Guboshlepov got the road, after which they lost a hryvnia in their wallet - how can a dark person understand this? * laws of the world around them.
The crucian carp from the fairy tale “Crucian carp the idealist” is not a hypocrite, he is truly noble, pure in soul. His socialist ideas deserve deep respect, but the methods of their implementation are naive and ridiculous. Shchedrin, being himself a socialist by conviction, did not accept the theory of utopian socialists, considering it the fruit of an idealistic view of social reality and the historical process. “I don’t believe... that struggle and quarrel are a normal law, under the influence of which everything living on earth is supposedly destined to develop. I believe in bloodless success, I believe in harmony...” the crucian carp ranted. It ended with the pike swallowing him, and swallowing him mechanically: she was struck by the absurdity and strangeness of this sermon.
In other variations, the theory of the idealistic crucian carp was reflected in the fairy tales “The Selfless Hare” and “The Sane Hare.” Here the heroes are not noble idealists, but ordinary cowards who rely on the kindness of predators. The hares do not doubt the right of the wolf and the fox to take their lives; they consider it quite natural that the strong eat the weak, but they hope to touch the wolf’s heart with their honesty and humility. “Or maybe the wolf... ha ha... will have mercy on me!” Predators remain predators. The Zaitsevs are not saved by the fact that they “didn’t start revolutions, didn’t come out with weapons in their hands.”
Shchedrinsky became the personification of wingless and vulgar philistinism wise minnow- the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. The meaning of life for this “enlightened, moderate-liberal” coward was self-preservation, avoiding conflicts and fighting. Therefore, the gudgeon lived to a ripe old age unharmed. But what a humiliating life it was! She consisted entirely of continuous trembling for her skin. “He lived and trembled - that’s all.” This fairy tale, written during the years of political reaction in Russia, hit without a miss on liberals, groveling before the government for their own skin, and on ordinary people hiding in their holes from the social struggle. For many years, the passionate words of the great democrat sank into the souls of thinking people in Russia: “Those who think that only those minnows can be considered worthy citizens who, mad with fear, sit in holes and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows.” Shchedrin also showed such “minnows” in his novel “Modern Idyll.”
The Toptygins from the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship,” sent by the lion to the voivodeship, set the goal of their reign to commit “bloodshed” as much as possible. By this they aroused the wrath of the people, and they suffered “the fate of all fur-bearing animals” - they were killed by the rebels. The wolf from the fairy tale “Poor Wolf”, who also “robbered day and night,” suffered the same death from the people. The fairy tale “The Eagle Patron” gives a devastating parody of the king and the ruling classes. The eagle is the enemy of science, art, the defender of darkness and ignorance. He destroyed the nightingale for his free songs, “dressed up the literate woodpecker... in shackles and imprisoned him in a hollow forever,” and ruined the crow men to the ground. It ended with the crows rebelling, “the whole herd took off from their place and flew away,” leaving the eagle to die of starvation. “Let this serve as a lesson to the eagles!” - the satirist meaningfully concludes the tale.
All of Shchedrin's fairy tales were subject to censorship persecution and many alterations. Many of them were published in illegal publications abroad. The masks of the animal world could not hide the political content of Shchedrin's fairy tales. The transfer of human traits - both psychological and political - to the animal world created comic effect, clearly exposed the absurdity of existing reality.
The fantasy of Shchedrin's fairy tales is real and carries a generalized political content. Eagles are “predatory, carnivorous...”. They live “alienated, in inaccessible places, they do not engage in hospitality, but they commit robbery” - this is what the fairy tale about the Medenatus eagle says. And this immediately depicts the typical circumstances of the life of a royal eagle and makes it clear that we are not talking about birds at all. And further, combining the setting of the bird world with affairs that are not at all avian, Shchedrin achieves high political pathos and caustic irony. There is also a fairy tale about the Toptygins, who came to the forest “to pacify their internal adversaries.” The beginnings and endings, taken from magical folk tales, do not obscure the political meaning of the image of Baba Yaga, Leshy. They only create a comic effect. The discrepancy between form and content here contributes to a sharp exposure of the properties of the type or circumstance.
Sometimes Shchedrin, taking traditional fairy tale images, does not even try to introduce them to a fairy-tale setting or use fairy-tale techniques. Through the mouths of the fairy tale heroes, he directly sets out his idea of social reality. This is, for example, the fairy tale “Neighbors”.
The language of Shchedrin's tales is deeply folk, close to Russian folklore. The satirist uses not only traditional fairy-tale techniques and images, but also proverbs, sayings, sayings (“If you don’t give a word, be strong, but if you give, hold on!”, “You can’t have two deaths, you can’t avoid one,” “Ears don’t grow higher than your forehead.” , “My hut is on the edge”, “Simplicity is worse than theft”). Dialogue characters colorful, the speech paints a concrete picture social type: an imperious, rude eagle, a beautiful-hearted idealistic crucian carp, an evil reactionary woman in a blue shirt, a prude priest, a dissolute canary, a cowardly hare, etc.
The images of fairy tales have come into use, become household names and live for many decades, and the universal types of objects of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s satire are still found in our lives today, you just need to take a closer look at the surrounding reality and reflect.
The storyline of the work reveals the relationship between the predator and his prey, represented in the form of a cowardly hare and a cruel wolf.
The conflict of the fairy tale described by the writer is the offense of a hare, who did not stop at the call of a stronger animal, for which he is sentenced to death by the wolf, but at the same time the wolf does not strive to destroy the prey at that very second, but enjoys his fear for several days, forcing the hare is expected to die under a bush.
The narration of the fairy tale is aimed at describing the feelings of the little hare, who is afraid not only of the disastrous moment, but also worries about the abandoned hare. The writer depicts the whole gamut of suffering of an animal, unable to resist fate, timidly, submissively accepting its own dependence and lack of rights in front of a stronger beast.
The main feature psychological portrait The writer calls the main character the hare's manifestation of slavish obedience, expressed in complete obedience to the wolf, overpowering the instincts of self-preservation and elevated to an exaggerated degree of vain nobility. Thus, in a fairy-tale-satirical manner, the writer reflects the qualities typical of the Russian people in the form of an illusory hope for a merciful attitude on the part of a predator, which have been brought up since ancient times by class oppression and elevated to the status of virtue. At the same time, the hero does not even dare to think about any manifestations of disobedience to his tormentor, believing his every word and hoping for his false pardon.
The hare rejects not only own life, being paralyzed by fears, but also by the fate of his hare and future offspring, justifying his actions to his conscience with the cowardice and inability to resist inherent in the hare family. The wolf, watching the torment of its victim, enjoys its visible selflessness.
The writer, using the techniques of irony and humorous form, shows, using the example of the image of a hare, the need to reform one’s own self-awareness, driven into a dead end by fears, servility, admiration for the omnipotent and superiors, blind submission to any manifestations of injustice and oppression. Thus, the writer creates a socio-political type of person who embodies unprincipled cowardice, spiritual limitations, submissive poverty, expressed in the perverted consciousness of the people, who have developed the harmful servile tactics of adapting to a violent regime.
Option 2
The work “Selfless Hare” by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin tells about the relationship between the strengths and weaknesses of character.
The main characters of the story are a wolf and a hare. The wolf is a powerful tyrant who increases his self-esteem at the expense of the weakness of others. The hare is by nature a cowardly character, following the lead of the wolf.
The story begins with the bunny hurrying home. The wolf noticed him and called out to him. Kosoy increased his pace even faster. Because the hare did not listen to the wolf, he sentenced him to death. But, wanting to mock the weak and helpless bunny, the wolf puts him under a bush in anticipation of death. The wolf scares the hare. If he disobeys him and tries to escape, the wolf will eat his entire family.
The hare is no longer scared for himself, but for his hare. He calmly submits to the wolf. And he simply mocks the victim. He lets the poor guy go to the hare for just one night. The hare must produce offspring - a future meal for the wolf. The cowardly hare must return by morning, otherwise the wolf will eat his entire family. The hare submits to the tyrant and does everything as ordered.
The hare is the wolf's slave, fulfilling his every whim. But the author makes it clear to the reader that such behavior does not lead to good. The outcome was still disastrous for the hare. But he didn’t even try to fight the wolf and show the courage of his character. Fear clouded his brain and consumed him completely. The hare justified himself before his conscience. After all, his entire family is characterized by cowardice and oppression.
The author describes in the face of a hare most of humanity. IN modern life we are afraid to make decisions, bear responsibility, go against the foundations and prevailing circumstances. This is the most common type of people who are spiritually limited and do not believe in own strength. It's easier to adapt to bad conditions. But the outcome remains disastrous. It will be good only for the tyrant. Struggle is the key to success.
We, together with the hare, must fight violence and injustice. After all, for every action there is a reaction. This is the only way to win.
Several interesting essays
- Essay based on the work of Yushka Platonov (discussion)
The story “Yushka” is the life story of a man who knew how to love those around him selflessly and unselfishly. He gave all of himself to this love, completely dissolving in it. But it is also a story about the imperfections of this world.
There is probably no person who has not been offended at least once, and maybe more than once, by his family or close people, and maybe even by strangers. And each person reacts to this differently.
("Selfless Hare")
“The Selfless Hare” was written in 1883 and is organically included in the most famous collection of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Fairy Tales”. The collection is provided with an explanation from the author: “Fairy tales for children of considerable age" “The Selfless Hare”, as well as the fairy tales “Poor Wolf” and “Sane Hare” within the entire collection form a kind of trilogy, which belongs to the group of fairy tales that are a sharp political satire on the liberal intelligentsia and bureaucracy.
It turns out that the hare’s dedication lies in the fact that he does not want to deceive the wolf, who sentenced him to death, and, having hastily married, overcoming terrible obstacles (a river flood, the war between King Andron and King Nikita, a cholera epidemic), with the last of his strength he rushed to the lair wolf at exactly the appointed time. The hare, identifying himself as a liberal-minded bureaucrat, does not even think about the fact that the wolf has no right to pass judgment: “... I sentence you to deprivation of the belly by being torn to pieces.” The writer angrily exposes the slavish obedience of enlightened people to those in power; even Aesopian language does not prevent the reader from understanding that the hare, with his far-fetched dedication, looks like a nonentity. All the newly-minted relatives of the hare, to whom the wolf gave two days to get married, approve of the hare’s decision: “You, scythe, said the truth: if you don’t give a word, be strong, but if you give, hold on! Never in our entire hare family has it happened that hares deceive!” The satirical writer leads the reader to the conclusion that verbal fluff can justify inaction. All the hare’s energy is directed not at resisting evil, but at carrying out the wolf’s orders.
“I, your honor, will come running... I’ll turn around in an instant... that’s how holy God is I’ll come running! - the condemned man hurried and, so that the wolf would not doubt... he suddenly pretended to be such a fine fellow that the wolf himself fell in love with him and thought: “If only my soldiers were like that!” Animals and birds marveled at the hare’s agility: “In the Moskovskie Vedomosti they write that hares do not have a soul, but steam, and how he runs away!” On the one hand, the hare is, of course, a coward, but, on the other hand, the wolf’s brother-in-law remains hostage. However, in the writer’s opinion, this is not a reason to meekly comply with the wolf’s ultimatum. After all, the gray robber was well-fed, lazy, and did not keep the hares captive. One cry of a wolf was enough for the hare to voluntarily agree to accept his evil fate.
“Selfless hare” does not have a fairy tale beginning, but there are fairy tale sayings (“neither to say in a fairy tale, nor to describe with a pen”, “soon the fairy tale will tell...”) and an expression (“Runs, the earth trembles”, “far away kingdom”). Fairy tale characters, as in folk tales, are endowed with the properties of people: the hare wooed, went to the bathhouse before the wedding, etc. The language of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale is full of colloquial words and expressions (“they will run playfully”, “the heart will roll”, “he has looked out for his daughter”, “fell in love with someone else”, “the wolf devoured”, “the bride is dying”), proverbs and sayings (“caught in three leaps”, “grabbed by the collar”, “drink tea and sugar”, “loved with all my heart”, “rubs from fear”, “don’t put your finger in your mouth”, “it was shot like an arrow from a bow”, “it spills with bitter tears”). All this brings the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” closer to folk tales. In addition, the use of the magical fairy-tale number “three” (three obstacles on the way back to the wolf’s lair, three enemies - wolves, foxes, owls, the hare had to have three hours left, the hare urged himself three times with the words: “There’s no time for grief now , not to tears... just to snatch a friend from the wolf's mouth! he will take it “to the Ura”; the river - he doesn’t even look for a ford, he just scratches the swamp - he jumps from the fifth bump to the tenth,” “neither mountains, nor valleys, nor forests, nor swamps - he doesn’t care about anything. ", "cried like a hundred thousand hares together") enhance the similarity with a folk tale.
“The Selfless Hare” contains concrete everyday details and signs of real historical time, which does not happen in folk tales (the hare dreamed that he became an “official of special assignments” under the wolf; the wolf, “while he was running around on audits, visited his hare walks”, “he lived openly, did not start revolutions, did not go out with weapons in his hands”, “conspiracy of the sentries to escape”, the hares called the wolf “your honor”). Thirdly, the writer uses words and expressions from book vocabulary, and the more insignificant the occasion, the higher the vocabulary used (“luminous wolf eye”, “the condemned man seemed transformed for a minute”, “praises the hare for his nobility”, “his legs are cut with stones” ”, “bloody foam oozes at the mouth”, “the east turned red”, “fire splashed”, “the heart of a tormented beast”). The originality of the fairy tale by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin lies precisely in the features of its difference from folk tale. A folk tale strengthened faith ordinary people that evil will someday be defeated, thereby, according to the writer, accustomed people to passively waiting for a miracle. The folk tale taught the most simple things, her task was to entertain, to amuse. The satirical writer, preserving many of the features of the folk tale, wanted to ignite people's hearts with anger and awaken their self-awareness. Open calls for revolution, of course, would never be allowed to be published by censorship. Using the technique of irony, resorting to Aesopian language, the writer in the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare” showed that the power of wolves rests on the slavish habit of hares to obedience. There is a particularly bitter irony at the end of the tale:
“- Here I am! Here! - the scythe shouted, like a hundred thousand hares together.
"Poor wolf." Here is its beginning: “Another animal would probably be touched by the hare’s selflessness, would not limit itself to a promise, but would now have mercy. But of all the predators found in temperate and northern climates, the wolf is least capable of generosity. However, it is not of his own free will that he is so cruel, but because his complexion is tricky: he cannot eat anything except meat. And in order to get meat food, he cannot do otherwise than deprive a living creature of life.” The compositional unity of the first two tales of this unique trilogy helps to understand politically active position satirical writer. Saltykov-Shchedrin believes that social injustice inherent in human nature itself. It is necessary to change the thinking of not just one person, but the entire nation.
