The satirical depiction of reality manifested itself in Saltykov-Shchedrin (along with other genres) in fairy tales. Here, as in folk tales, fantasy and reality are combined. So, often in Saltykov-Shchedrin animals are humanized, they personify the vices of people.
But the writer has a cycle of fairy tales, where people are the heroes. Here Saltykov-Shchedrin chooses other methods for ridiculing vices. It is, as a rule, grotesque, hyperbole, fantasy.

Such is Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wild Landowner". In it, the stupidity of the landowner is brought to the limit. The writer sneers at the "merits" of the gentleman: "The peasants see: although they have a stupid landowner, he has been given a great mind. He shortened them so that there was nowhere to stick out his nose; wherever they look - everything is impossible, but not allowed, but not yours! The cattle will go to the watering place - the landowner shouts: “My water!” The chicken will come out of the village - the landowner shouts: "My land!" And the earth, and water, and air - everything became his!

The landowner considers himself not a man, but a kind of deity. Or, at least, a person of the highest rank. It is in the order of things for him to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor and not even think about it.

The peasants of the "wild landowner" are languishing from hard work and severe need. Tormented by oppression, the peasants finally prayed: “Lord! It’s easier for us to disappear even with small children than to suffer like this all our lives!” God heard them, and "there was no peasant in the entire space of the possessions of the stupid landowner."

At first it seemed to the master that now he would live well without the peasants. Yes, and all the noble guests of the landowner approved of his decision: “Oh, how good it is! - the generals praise the landowner, - so now you will not have this servile smell at all? “Not at all,” the landowner replies.

It seems that the hero does not realize the deplorability of his situation. The landowner only indulges in dreams, empty in their essence: “and now he walks, walks around the rooms, then sits down and sits. And everyone thinks. He thinks what kind of cars he will order from England, so that everything is by ferry and steam, but there is not at all a servile spirit; he thinks what a fruitful garden he will plant: here there will be pears, plums ... ”Without his peasants, the“ wild landowner ”was only engaged in the fact that he did not live his“ loose, white, crumbly body ”.

This is where the climax of the story begins. Without his peasants, the landowner, unable to lift a finger without a peasant, begins to run wild. In Shchedrin's fairy tale cycle, full scope is given for the development of the motive of reincarnation. It was the grotesque in describing the process of the savagery of the landowner that helped the writer to clearly show how greedy representatives of the "conducting class" can turn into real wild animals.

But if in folk tales the process of transformation itself is not depicted, then Saltykov reproduces it in all details and details. This is the unique artistic invention of the satirist. It can be called a grotesque portrait: the landowner, completely run wild after the fantastic disappearance of the peasants, turns into a primitive man. “All of him, from head to toe, was overgrown with hair, like the ancient Esau ... and his nails became like iron,” Saltykov-Shchedrin slowly narrates. He stopped blowing his nose a long time ago, walked more and more on all fours and was even surprised how he had not noticed before that this way of walking was the most decent and most convenient. I even lost the ability to utter articulate sounds and learned some special victory cry, the average between whistling, hissing and barking.

Under the new conditions, all the severity of the landowner lost its strength. He became helpless, like a little child. Now even “the little mouse was smart and understood that the landowner without Senka could not do him any harm. He only wagged his tail in response to the landowner's menacing exclamation, and in a moment was already looking at him from under the sofa, as if to say: Wait a minute, stupid landowner! it's only the beginning! I will not only eat cards, but I will also eat your robe, how you oil it properly!

Thus, the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” shows the degradation of a person, the impoverishment of his spiritual world (and did he exist at all in this case ?!), the withering away of all human qualities.
This is explained very simply. In his fairy tales, as in his satires, for all their tragic gloominess and accusatory severity, Saltykov remained a moralist and enlightener. Showing the horror of human fall and its most sinister vices, he nevertheless believed that in the future there would be a moral revival of society and times of social and spiritual harmony would come.

Analysis of fairy tales by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin

Shchedrin's fairy tales in miniature contain the problems and images of the entire work of the great satirist. Of the thirty-two tales, twenty-nine were written in the last decade of his life (most from 1882 to 1886), and only three tales were created in 1869. Fairy tales, as it were, sum up the forty years of the writer's creative activity.

Shchedrin often resorted to the fairy-tale genre in his work. There are also elements of fairy-tale fantasy in The History of a City, while the satirical novel Modern Idyll and the chronicle Abroad include completed fairy tales. It is no coincidence that this genre flourished with Shchedrin in the 1980s. 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 and most understandable to a simple reader.

Creating his fairy tales, Shchedrin relied not only on the experience of folk art, but also on the satirical fables of the great Krylov, on the traditions of the Western European fairy tale. He created a new, original genre of political fairy tale, which combines fantasy with reality.

As in all of Shchedrin's work, two social forces confront each other in fairy tales: the working people and their exploiters. The people appear under the masks of kind and defenseless animals and birds (and often without a mask, under the name "man"), the exploiters - in the images of predators. The symbol of peasant Russia, tortured by the exploiters, is the image of Konyaga from the fairy tale of the same name. Konyaga 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 “There is no end to work! The whole meaning of his existence is exhausted by work ... ”- exclaims the satirist

The generalized image of the worker - the breadwinner of Russia, who is tormented by the oppressors, is also in the earliest fairy tales of Shchedrin: "How one peasant fed two generals", "The Wild Landowner". Showing the hard labor life of the working people, Shchedrin mourns the obedience of the people, their humility before the oppressors. He laughs bitterly at how the peasant, on the orders of the generals, himself weaves a rope, with which they then tie him up.

In almost all fairy tales, the image of the peasant people is depicted by Shchedrin with love, breathes indestructible power, nobility. The man is honest, straightforward, kind, unusually quick-witted and smart. He can do everything: get food, sew clothes; he conquers the elemental forces of nature, jokingly swims across the "ocean-sea". And the muzhik treats his enslavers with derision, without losing his self-esteem. fairy tale generals “Like one man of two generals procormil" look like miserable pygmies compared to the giant man. To depict them, the satirist uses completely different colors. They "understand nothing", they are cowardly and helpless, greedy and stupid. Meanwhile, they imagine themselves to be noble people, pushing around the peasant: "Sleep, couch potato! ... Now the march to work!" Having escaped death and made rich thanks to the peasant, the generals send him a miserable handout to the kitchen: "... a glass of vodka and a nickel of silver - have fun, man!" The satirist emphasizes that it is useless to wait for the people from the exploiters for a better life. The people can get their happiness only by throwing off their parasites.

In a fairy tale "Wild Landlord" Shchedrin, as it were, summarized his thoughts on the liberation of the peasants. Here he poses an unusually acute problem of the post-reform relations between the feudal nobility and the peasantry completely ruined by the reform: “A cattle will go to the watering place - the landowner shouts: my water! a chicken will wander out of the village - the landowner shouts: my land! And earth, and water, and air - all of it became! There was no torch for the peasant to light in the light, there was no more rod than to sweep the hut. So the peasants prayed with the whole world to the Lord God:

God! it’s easier for us to disappear even with small children than to suffer like this all our lives!”

This landowner, like the generals from another fairy tale, had no idea about labor. Abandoned by his peasants, he immediately turns into a dirty and wild animal. He becomes a forest predator. The savage landowner, like the generals, acquires the external human appearance again only after his peasants return. Scolding the wild landowner for his stupidity, the police officer tells him that the state cannot exist without peasant taxes and duties, that without peasants everyone will starve to death, “you can’t buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread in the market,” and the masters will have no money. . The people are the creator of wealth, and the ruling classes are only consumers of this wealth.

Over the question of ways to change the social system of Russia, Leva the Fool (in the fairy tale "The Fool"), seasonal workers from "The Way-by-Road", the raven-petitioner from the fairy tale of the same name, the crucian idealist, the boy Seryozha from the "Christmas Tale" and many other.

Heroes of fairy tales "Selfless Bunny" and "Sanious Hare" are cowardly townsfolk, hoping for the kindness of predators. Hares do not doubt the right of the wolf and 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. “Maybe the wolf… ha ha… will have mercy on me!” Predators remain predators. It does not save Zaitsev that they "did not let revolutions in, they did not go out with weapons in their hands."

The personification of the wingless and vulgar philistine was Shchedrin's wise scribbler - the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. The meaning of life for this "enlightened, moderately liberal" coward was self-preservation, avoiding clashes, avoiding struggle. Therefore, the scribbler lived unharmed to a ripe old age. But this life was humiliating. It consisted of continuous trembling for its own skin. "He lived and trembled - that's all."

Shchedrin's sarcasm manifested itself most sharply and openly in fairy tales depicting the bureaucratic apparatus of the autocracy and the ruling elites up to the tsar. In the fairy tales "Toy business little people", "Watchful eye", "Idle conversation" images of officials robbing the people appear.

In a fairy tale "Eagle-philanthropist" given a devastating parody of the king and the ruling classes. The eagle is the enemy of science, art, the protector of darkness and ignorance. He destroyed the nightingale for his free songs, literate woodpecker "dressed ... in shackles and imprisoned in a hollow forever", ruined the raven-muzhiks. It ended up that the ravens rebelled, "the whole herd took off and flew away", leaving the eagle to die of starvation. “Let this serve as a lesson to the eagles!” - the satirist concludes the tale meaningfully.

With extraordinary courage and directness, the death of the autocracy is spoken of in the fairy tale "Bogatyr". In it, the author ridicules faith in the "rotten" Bogatyr, who gave his long-suffering country to defeat and mockery. Ivan the Fool "knocked out the hollow with his fist" where the Bogatyr slept, and showed everyone that he had rotted long ago, that help from the Bogatyr could not be expected.

The masks of the animal world could not hide the political content of Shchedrin's fairy tales. The transfer of human traits to the animal world created a comic effect, clearly exposed the absurdity of the existing reality.

The language of Shchedrin's fairy tales is deeply folk, close to Russian folklore. The satirist uses traditional fairy tale tricks, images, proverbs, sayings, sayings.

In the fairy tale-elegy, the hero pours out his soul, reproaches himself for being separated from active action. These are the thoughts of Shchedrin himself.

The images of fairy tales have come into use, become common nouns and live for many decades.

A brief analysis of Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wild Landowner": idea, problems, themes, image of the people

The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” was published by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in 1869. This work is a satire on the Russian landowner and the common Russian people. In order to circumvent censorship, the writer chose a specific genre of "fairy tale", within which a notorious fable is described. In the work, the author does not give his heroes names, as if hinting that the landowner is a collective image of all landowners in Russia in the 19th century. And Senka and the rest of the men are typical representatives of the peasant class. The theme of the work is simple: the superiority of a hardworking and patient people over mediocre and stupid nobles, expressed in an allegorical manner.

Problems, features and meaning of the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner"

Fairy tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin are always distinguished by simplicity, irony and artistic details, using which the author can absolutely accurately convey the character of the character “And that landowner was stupid, he read the newspaper Vest and his body was soft, white and crumbly”, “he lived and looked at the light rejoiced."

The main problem in the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" is the problem of the difficult fate of the people. The landowner in the work appears as a cruel and ruthless tyrant who intends to take away the last from his peasants. But having heard the prayers of the peasants for a better life and the desire of the landowner to get rid of them forever, God fulfills their prayers. The landowner ceases to be disturbed, and the "muzhiks" get rid of oppression. The author shows that in the world of the landowner, the creators of all goods were the peasants. When they disappeared, he himself turned into an animal, overgrown, stopped eating normal food, since all food disappeared from the market. With the disappearance of the peasants, a bright, rich life left, the world became uninteresting, dull, tasteless. Even the pastimes that had brought pleasure to the landowner before - playing pulca or watching a play in the theater - no longer seemed so tempting. The world is empty without the peasantry. Thus, in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” the meaning is quite real: the upper strata of society oppress and trample the lower ones, but at the same time they cannot remain at their illusory height without them, since it is the “serfs” who provide the country, but their master is nothing but problems, unable to provide.

The image of the people in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin

The people in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are hard-working people, in whose hands any business “argues”. Thanks to them, the landowner always lived in abundance. The people appear before us not just as a weak-willed and reckless mass, but as smart and insightful people: "The peasants see: although they have a stupid landowner, they have a great mind." Peasants are also endowed with such an important quality as a sense of justice. They refused to live under the yoke of the landowner, who imposed unfair and sometimes insane restrictions on them, and asked God for help.

The author himself treats the people with respect. This can be seen in the contrast between how the landowner lived after the disappearance of the peasantry and during its return: “And suddenly again there was a smell of chaff and sheepskins in that district; but at the same time, flour, and meat, and all kinds of living creatures appeared in the bazaar, and so many taxes were received in one day that the treasurer, seeing such a pile of money, only threw up his hands in surprise ... ”, - it can be argued that the people are the driving force of society, the foundation on which the existence of such "landlords" is based, and they certainly owe their well-being to a simple Russian peasant. This is the meaning of the finale of the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner".

The fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, intended for adults, acquaint with the peculiarities of Russian society better than historical works. The story of the wild landowner is like an ordinary fairy tale, but it combines reality with fiction. The landowner, who has become the hero of the story, often reads the actually existing reactionary newspaper Vest.

Left alone, the landowner at first rejoices that his wish has come true. Later comes the realization of one's own stupidity. The swaggering guests, without embarrassment, tell him about stupidity, realizing that the landowner had only candy left from the treats. This is also the official opinion of the police officer who collects taxes, who understands the inseparability of peasant taxes from the stability of the state.

But the landowner does not heed the voice of reason and does not listen to other people's advice. He maintains a firm spirit and dreams of fantastic foreign cars, designed to replace the peasants. A naive dreamer does not realize that in reality he is not able to wash himself. He is completely helpless because he can't do anything.

The tale ends sadly: the stubborn man becomes overgrown with hair, gets on all fours and starts throwing himself at people. It turned out that the gentleman, noble on the outside, had the essence of the simplest creature. He remained human as long as food was brought to him on a plate and dressed in clean clothes.

The higher authorities decided to return the peasants to the estate so that they would work, pay taxes to the treasury and produce food for their masters.

And the landowner remained wild forever. He was caught, cleaned, but he still gravitates towards the forest life and does not like to wash himself. Such is the hero: the ruler in the serf world, but guarded by the simple peasant Senka.

The author laughs at the mores of Russian society. He sympathizes with the peasants and accuses them of being too patient and submissive. At the same time, the writer demonstrates the impotence of the landlords, who cannot live without servants. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin call for respect for the people, who are the foundation supporting the well-being of such landowners.

Option 2

Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote his famous work, which was called "The Wild Landowner", in 1869. There he considers quite topical issues, relevant both at that time and now. For him, the genre of fairy tales is central, which he writes far from for children. The author confronts the tragic with the comic in his work, uses such techniques as the grotesque and hyperbole, as well as Aesopian language. Thus, he ridicules autocracy and serfdom, which still exist on the territory of the country.

In the center of events is an ordinary landowner who has a special pride in the fact that noble blood flows in his veins. His goal is just to pamper the body, relax and be yourself. He actually rests and he can afford such a lifestyle only thanks to the peasants, to whom he treats very cruelly, he cannot even bear the spirit of ordinary men.

And now the desire of the landowner is fulfilled, and he is left alone, while God fulfilled not the desire of the landowner, but the desire of the peasants, who are completely exhausted from constant control and supervision.

Thus, Shchedrin ridicules the share of the Russian people, which is quite difficult. Only after a while the hero realizes that he has committed a real stupidity.

And in the end, the landowner is completely wild, inside the highest being of man, the most ordinary animal is hiding, which lives only for the sake of fulfilling its desires.

The hero was restored in a serf society, and a simple Russian peasant named Senka will take care of him.

The fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" is one of the brilliant works of the writer working in the genre of satire. He has to ridicule the socio-political system, he has to expose the existing mores and types of society in which there is a rather strange morality that is not subject to reflection. It shows how helpless the landlords are, who are constantly looked after by simple serfs. All this is ridiculed by the author, who is forced to live in such a society, it is difficult for him to cope with the existing situation, so he tries to show its absurdity, to condemn what is happening in society.

Analysis of the Wild Landlord

One of the best works of Saltykov-Shchedrin was published in 1869 and it is called the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner". This work can be attributed to the genre of satire. Why fairy tale? The author chose this genre for a reason, so he bypassed censorship. The characters in the story do not have names. A peculiar hint from the author that the landowner is a composite image and corresponds to many landowners in Russia in the 19th century. Well, take the rest of the heroes, the peasants and Senka, these are peasants. The author raises a very interesting topic. The main thing for the author is that the peasant, honest and hardworking people are always higher in everything than the nobles.

Thanks to the fairy tale genre, the author's work is very simple and full of irony and various artistic details. With the help of details, the author can very clearly convey the images of the characters. For example, he calls the landowner stupid and soft-bodied. Who did not know grief and rejoiced in life.

The main problem of this work is the difficult life of the common people. In the author's tale, the landowner acts as a soulless and tough monster, he only does what humiliates the poor peasants and tries to take even the last thing from them. The peasants prayed, there was nothing left for them, they, like people, wanted a normal life. The landowner wanted to get rid of them, and in the end, God fulfilled the desire of the peasants to live better and the desire of the landowner to get rid of the peasants. After that, it becomes clear that the whole luxurious life of the landowner is provided by the peasants. With the disappearance of the "serfs", life has changed, now the landowner has become like an animal. He changed outwardly, became more terrible, overgrown, stopped eating normally. The men disappeared and life changed bright colors to gray and dull. Even while spending time as before, in entertainment, the landowner feels that all the same, this is not it. The author reveals the real meaning of the work, which refers to real life. The boyars, the landowners oppress the peasants, they do not read them as people. But, in the absence of "serfs" they cannot live a normal life, because it is the peasants and workers who provide everything that is good for them personally and for the country. And the upper strata of society, apart from problems and troubles, do not carry anything else.

The people in this work, namely the peasants, are honest people, open and loving work. With the help of their labor, the landowner lived happily ever after. By the way, the author shows the peasants not just as one thoughtless crowd, but as smart and insightful people. In this work, justice is very important for the peasants. They considered such an attitude towards themselves unfair and therefore asked God for help.

Saltykov-Shchedrin directly respects the peasants very much, which he shows in the work. This can be seen, very clearly, when the landowner disappeared and lived without peasants, and at the time when he returned. As a result, it turns out that the author brings the reader to one true opinion. Not high-ranking officials, not officials decide the fate of the country and each of the landowners, namely the peasants. All the well-being and all the benefits of rich people rest on them. This is the main idea of ​​the work.

The well-known writer Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin was a truly great creator. As an official, he masterfully denounced the ignorant nobles and praised the simple Russian people. Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the list of which includes more than a dozen, are the property of our classical literature.

"Wild Landlord"

All Mikhail Evgrafovich's fairy tales are written with sharp sarcasm. With the help of heroes (animals or people), he ridicules not so much human vices as the stupidity of higher ranks. Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the list of which would be incomplete without a story about a wild landowner, help us to see the attitude of the nobles of the 19th century towards their serfs. The story is short, but it makes you think about many serious things.

The landowner with a strange name Urus Kuchum Kildibaev lives for his own pleasure: he gathers a rich harvest, has luxurious housing and a lot of land. But one day he got tired of the abundance of peasants in his house and decided to get rid of them. The landowner prayed to God, but he did not heed his requests. He began to mock the peasants in every possible way, began to crush them with taxes. And then the Lord took pity on them, and they disappeared.

At first, the stupid landowner was happy: now no one bothered him. But later he began to feel their absence: no one prepared food for him, no one cleaned the house. The visiting generals and police officer called him a fool. But he did not understand why they treated him like that. As a result, he became so wild that he even became like an animal: he was overgrown with hair, climbed trees, and tore his prey with his hands and ate.

Saltykov-Shchedrin skillfully portrayed the satirical guise of the vices of a nobleman. The fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" shows how stupid a person can be who does not understand that he lived well only thanks to his peasants.

In the finale, all the serfs return to the landowner, and life flourishes again: meat is sold in the market, the house is clean and tidy. Yes, but Urus Kuchum never returned to its former appearance. He still hums, missing his former wild life.

"Wise Gudgeon"

Many from childhood remember the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the list of which is not small: “How a man fed two generals”, “A bear in the province”, “Kissel”, “Konyaga”. True, we begin to understand the real meaning of these stories when we become adults.

Such is the tale "The Wise Gudgeon". He lived all his life and was afraid of everything: cancer, a water flea, a man, and even his own brother. Parents bequeathed to him: "Look at both!" And the scribbler decided to hide all his life and not come across anyone's eyes. And he lived like that for more than a hundred years. I haven't seen or heard anything in my entire life.

The tale of Saltykov-Shchedrin "The Wise Minnow" makes fun of stupid people who are ready to live their whole lives in fear of any danger. Now the old fish-man thought about what he lived for. And he became so sad because he did not see the white light. Decided to emerge from behind his driftwood. And after that no one saw him.

The writer laughs that even a pike will not eat such an old fish. The minnow in the work is called wise, but this is undoubtedly because it is extremely difficult to call him smart.

Conclusion

The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin (listed above) have become a real treasure trove of Russian literature. How clearly and wisely the author describes human shortcomings! These stories have not lost their relevance in our time. In this they resemble fables.