The basis of the plot of the fairy tale is the life story of the Snow Maiden, the daughter of Spring and Frost. The girl really wanted to be free to people, so her parents allowed her to live with the childless Bobyls. The Snow Maiden does not know love. She asks her mother to reward her with this feeling, despite the fact that she might melt from love. The Snow Maiden falls in love with Mizgir, who is also in love with her, and melts with the first rays of the summer sun. Mizgir also dies from his grief - he throws himself from the mountain into the lake.
The main idea of the work is the great feeling of love, for which it is not a pity to give your life. It is absolutely natural and inevitable for all people.
Read a summary of Ostrovsky's fairy tale The Snow Maiden
The events of this tale take place in prehistoric times in the country of the Berendeys.
The beginning of spring, the eve of Maslenitsa. Red hill, all covered with snow. At midnight, Spring-Red appears with her retinue of birds. Severe frost, the blizzard begins.
Spring admits that it is her own fault that she and the birds are freezing. There was no need to flirt with old Santa Claus sixteen years ago. They have common daughter- Snow Maiden. Therefore, Spring cannot quarrel with Frost. And he takes advantage of this - he enveloped Spring itself and the Berendeys in cold.
The sun is angry with them for the long cold weather.
Santa Claus appears.
Frost's peaceful conversation with Vesna about his daughter turns into an argument. Spring thinks that she is bored living in the forest among animals. The Snow Maiden needs freedom, communication with people, girlfriends and boys, love. Frost is categorically against it. He insists that a girl’s place is in the forest with hares, martens and squirrels. As a result, they agree to give the Snow Maiden to the childless Bobyl family. The girl will have a lot of work there, and the guys have no interest in pestering her.
There is a rumor that if the Snow Maiden falls in love with someone, then there is no salvation for her - the Sun will melt her.
Father Frost is calling the Snow Maiden. He wonders if the girl wants to go live with people. The Snow Maiden admits that she has been dreaming about this for a long time. She likes the songs of the shepherd Lel and round dances. Moroz was upset by his daughter’s answer. But he, reluctantly, released the Snow Maiden to the people, giving at the same time a punishment - to beware of the shepherd Lelya and the Sun.
Frost takes from the goblin a promise to protect and protect the Snow Maiden from evil people and leaves. Spring is beginning.
Berendeys welcome spring with cheerful festivities and celebrate Maslenitsa. Bobyl went into the forest to chop firewood and met the Snow Maiden there. He was very surprised and called his wife Bobylikha. Having met them, Snegurochka asks the Bobyls to take her as their adopted daughter. The Bobylis took the girl to their place, hoping to find her a rich groom and make money from it.
It’s not easy for the Snow Maiden with the Bobyls. The girl is overly bashful and modest, which caused dissatisfaction with her parents. She refused all the suitors, she can’t fall in love with anyone.
Many guys in the settlement were struck by the beauty of the Snow Maiden, and they quarreled with their girls. That's why she had almost no girlfriends. Only Kupava, the daughter of Murash, is friends with the Snow Maiden.
Kupava shared with her friend her happiness that she had mutual love with a guest from Tsar's Posad - Mizgir. The girl wants to introduce the Snow Maiden to her fiancé.
Then Mizgir appears with expensive gifts and woos Kupava. But as soon as he saw the Snow Maiden, he immediately forgot about his bride. Kupava is offended by her friend and offended, her heart is broken. Mizgir brings his gifts to the Bobyls and woos the Snow Maiden. The Bobyls force their named daughter to accept Mizgir. The Snow Maiden obediently carries out their orders.
Meanwhile, Tsar Berendey talks with his subject about the affairs of the state. Yarilo, the Sun God, is angry with the Berendeys. For fifteen years now there has been cold and crop failure in the kingdom. The warmth in people's hearts has disappeared. And Berendey decides on Yarilin’s day to make a sacrifice to the sun god - to marry all the young people. Only now all the boys and girls were quarreling over some Snow Maiden.
Then Kupava comes to Berendey and talks about his grief, asks to punish Mizgir. The king orders the criminal to be called. Mizgir appears and talks about his love for the Snow Maiden. And he also assures Berendey that he must definitely see this girl in order to understand everything.
The Snow Maiden appears with the Berendeys. Seeing her, the king was amazed by such beauty. He decides that the one who melts the Snow Maiden’s heart before dawn will be her husband.
The festivities begin. In the center of the round dance are Lel and Snegurochka. When asked by the king to choose a mate, Lel chooses Kupava. The Snow Maiden is very offended and runs away in tears. In the forest she meets Mizgir and begins to pester her. The girl pushes him away, and the goblin leads the guy through the forest all night.
The Snow Maiden asks Spring for love at least for one moment. The mother endows her daughter with this feeling and promises that the Snow Maiden will fall in love with the first person she meets, who turns out to be Mizgir. The girl falls in love with him. Mizgir is immensely happy and takes the Snow Maiden to the king. The first rays of the summer sun appear, and she melts in the arms of her beloved. Mizgir, out of grief, throws himself off a cliff into the lake and dies. The king decides that Yarila’s sacrifice has been made and orders the festivities to continue.
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The action takes place in prehistoric times in the kingdom of the Berendeys. Spring is beginning, but Krasnaya Gorka is still covered with snow. Not far away is Berendeyev Posad - the capital of Tsar Berendey. All the houses and the palace itself are wooden, decorated with intricate carvings.
Leshy sits on the Red Hill and watches the Red Spring descend on cranes, swans and geese. However, the country of the Berendeys greets her with cold - the birds are freezing. Vesna admits that all this is happening because she once began to flirt with old Frost and is now in his captivity. She would like to leave the old one, but they have a daughter, Snegurochka. Therefore, Spring, and with it the Berendeys, endure the whims of Frost: now the heat, now the bitter cold. And the “jealous Sun” frowns, which is why severe winters and cold springs occur.
Spring invites the birds to warm up by dancing, but as the fun begins, the wind rises, snow falls and Frost appears. He says that he had a good time this winter, which the Berendeys will not forget. Spring invites Frost to go north. He replies that he will soon leave for Siberia, where his rule is eternal, and here Yarilo is interfering with him.
Spring is concerned about where their daughter Snegurochka will remain. Her father believes that her place is in a deep forest - in a mansion among forest animals, so that "neither on foot nor on horseback" there was no way there. But the mother says that the Snow Maiden is alive, which means she needs girlfriends, funny Games, and then she will fall in love with one of the guys. Then Frost tells her terrible secret: Yarilo vowed to take revenge on Frost through his daughter. When the Snow Maiden truly loves, he will melt her. Vesna doesn’t want to believe it, and she and Moroz quarrel, and then decide to give the girl to be raised in the family of the childless Bobyl.
Frost calls Snow Maiden from the forest, and Spring asks her where she wants to live. The girl admits that she dreams of living among the Berendeys: she wants to sing songs with the girls and dance in circles to the music of the young shepherd Lelya. Father asks to beware of Lelya, because “it is permeated through and through by the blazing sun”. But the Snow Maiden replies that she is not afraid of Lelya or the Sun, but will obey her father. And the mother says goodbye that if she feels sad, let her come to the Yarilina Valley and call her, Vesna.
Frost punishes Leshy to keep an eye on the Snow Maiden, and if a stranger or Lel pesters, he will confuse him in the forest thicket. Frost leaves along with snowstorms and blizzards, giving way to Spring. Berendeys celebrate Maslenitsa with a stuffed animal of winter - folk festivities begin.
There is a quarrel in Bobylikh's family: Bobylikh's wife swears that there is no firewood in the house, and he has to go to the forest. He notices the Snow Maiden, dressed like "hawthorn". He is surprised, and the Berendeys are amazed. The Snow Maiden tells who she is and says that the one who found her first will become an adopted daughter. She says goodbye to the forest. The trees bow to her, and the Berendeys run away in horror. Bobyl and his wife take the Snow Maiden to their place.
Act I
Soon in the settlement they learned about the beauty of the Snow Maiden, the guys quarreled with their girls and began to woo her. But Snegurochka refuses everyone, for which Bobyl and Bobylikha scold her. They hoped that they were lucky, that now the future grooms would give gifts to their adoptive mother and drink honey and home brew to their adoptive father. But the Snow Maiden scared everyone away with her stern appearance. The girl explains that she will marry the one she loves, but she does not know what love is.
Lel stays at Bobyl's house. The Snow Maiden asks you to sing a song for her. Lel agrees and asks only for a kiss, but the girl does not agree. Then the shepherd boy offers to give him a flower and pins it on his chest. He begins to sing, but the other girls beckon to him and he runs away, throwing the withered flower on the ground. The Snow Maiden is offended, so she decides that her heart will be cold for everyone.
But the guys continue to look at the Snow Maiden, causing jealousy among the girls. Only Kupava is kind to the Snow Maiden. She says that she met a young man: handsome, handsome, ruddy. This is Mizgir, the son of a rich father, "trade guest from Tsar's Posad". Mizgir promised to marry Kupava, and she dreams of being the mistress of a big house. She says that Mizgir will soon come to meet her, and invites Snegurochka to be happy for her.
Mizgir appears with two bags of gifts to ransom his bride Kupava. Everyone is having fun and joking, and Kupava takes Mizgir to the Snow Maiden’s house to introduce them and invite them to last time before the wedding, play on Krasnaya Gorka. But Mizgir, seeing the Snow Maiden, falls in love with her so much that he is ready to leave Kupava for her. Kupava curses her friend, but Snegurochka does not want to upset her and tells Mizgir that she cannot love him. He tries to appease her with expensive gifts, but the Snow Maiden replies that her love cannot be bought.
Only Bobyl and Bobylikha want to get hold of Mizgir’s money so that they can get plenty of booze. Mizgir orders Lel to be driven away, and Snegurochka, forced to obey this demand, hears from him words that she too will know why people crying. Kupava tells the Berendeys about Mizgir’s frivolity, and they demand an answer from Kupava’s ex-fiancé. Mizgir explains that for him, the most important thing in a girl is modesty and modesty - he saw them in the Snow Maiden. A Kupava “loved without looking back, hugged with both hands and looked cheerfully”, and Mizgir decided that she could replace him with another.
Kupava asks natural forces to defend her honor: at the end she turns to the river and runs to it to drown herself, but Lel stops her, consoling her that the melancholy will soon pass. The Berendeys suggest turning to the king for help.
Act II
Tsar Berendey sits on a golden chair surrounded by buffoons and guslar players. The king himself paints one of the pillars, and the buffoons argue about what is depicted. At some point, their quarrel leads to a fist fight, but the king separates them, and the nearby boyar Bermyata, who appears, drives them away.
Berendey asks how things are in Berendey's kingdom, and Bermyata claims that everything is fine. However, Berendey is not sure that everything is fine, because for fifteen years they have been very short summer, springs are cold, just like autumn, and even in summer there is snow in the ravines. And the reason is that Yarilo is angry with the Berendeys: in the hearts of people there is no longer the same "heat of love", people have ceased to serve beauty, there is no sublime longing for love. Other feelings live in our hearts now: “vanity, envy of other people’s outfits”. Therefore, Berendey makes a disappointing conclusion: “For the cold of our feelings, Yarilo-Sun is angry with us and takes revenge with the cold”.
He proposes his plan: tomorrow, on Yarilin’s day, at dawn all the brides and grooms should gather to unite in marriage. This will be the best sacrifice for Yarile. However, Bermyata reports that this is impossible, since all the brides quarreled with their grooms because of the Snow Maiden, who settled in the settlement. Berendey does not believe and demands that his order be carried out. Then a boy appears and brings Kupava, and she talks about how the Snow Maiden stole her fiancé Mizgir from her.
Berendey orders Mizgir to be brought to "court of sovereigns". In front of all the honest people, the king accuses him of deceiving poor Kupava, and asks for advice on how best to punish Mizgir so that punishment does not fall on all the Berendeys. Bermyata offers to force Mizgir to marry the bride he abandoned, but he objects: now his bride is Snegurochka. And Kupava says that her heart is broken and now there will only be hatred in it for Mizgir. Then the king proposes to expel him forever from the country of the Berendeys.
Mizgir invites the king to look at the Snow Maiden himself. When Bobyl brings adopted daughter, the king is amazed by her beauty and wants to find her a worthy groom, so that this sacrifice will appease Yarila. But the Snow Maiden admits that her heart does not yet know love. Bermyata's wife, Elena the Beautiful, says that only Lel can melt the Snow Maiden's heart. The shepherd invites the girl to make wreaths until the morning: he promises that love will awaken in the Snow Maiden’s heart. But Mizgir also wants to achieve love from the Snow Maiden.
Act III
At dawn, boys and girls dance in circles. In the center - Lel with the Snow Maiden. Berendey is amazed by Lel’s singing and offers to choose a girl who will reward him with a kiss. The Snow Maiden asks to choose her, but the shepherd chooses Kupava. The rest of the girls make peace with their boyfriends, and the Snow Maiden cries. Lel says that this is not love, but resentment. If the Snow Maiden really loves him, then he is ready to take her to meet the Sun in the morning.
Mizgir confesses his feelings to Snegurochka, but frightens her with his passion and readiness to die. She is not attracted to priceless pearls either. Then Mizgir wants to achieve reciprocity by force. Leshy comes to the rescue and leads Mizgir aside with the ghost of the Snow Maiden. Lel, with her singing, drives crazy not only Kupava, who confesses her love, but also Elena the Beautiful.
The story of Lelya and Kupava is so romantic that it has become a symbol of the purest, most sincere and honest love. It once existed in the form of a folk legend, but since the 19th century it has been better known from author's fairy tale playwright Alexander Ostrovsky and the opera “The Snow Maiden” written by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov.
The central place in this work is occupied by the Snow Maiden herself and her tragic story: the daughter of Frost and Spring, she dies as soon as her heart is warmed by love. Lel and Kupava find their happiness after experiencing their own dramas: Lelya is denied love by the Snow Maiden, and because of her, Mizgir leaves his fiancée Kupava.
In this “love quadrangle”, everyone has a specific role. Kupava embodies the living, earthly, human feminine principle. The character of the beautiful shepherd Lelya is borrowed from Slavic mythology: Ostrovsky’s contemporaries believed that in ancient times in Rus' this was the name of the divine patron of love and marriage, who could be compared to Cupid (modern researchers do not support this point of view). In the fairy tale, he has truly magical power over women's hearts, to the point that he is simply not allowed to spend the night in houses where there are daughters of marriageable age. Both Lel and his beloved Kupava do big way to gain true love: Kupava refuses the “marriage of convenience”, and Lel is ready to overcome his frivolity and open his heart. And while Snegurochka and Mizgir are in literally passions burn, Kupava and Lel experience the most real and living love.
The events of the fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” take place in pre-Christian times: the fictional kingdom of Berendey meets the arrival of spring and summer according to pagan customs. Alexander Ostrovsky handled the folk heritage very carefully when creating his own work, so plots and motifs borrowed from folklore culture are carefully woven into this story.
Master stone-cutters also sought to preserve this charm: the lyricism of the musician’s image is emphasized by the delicate range of stone used. The meticulous detail of the work was evident in the design of the clothing: embroidery on the shirt, variegated plaid fabric on the pants, and an abundant pattern on the boots. And the patterned carved malachite of the base and the equally whimsically crafted fairy-tale grass-ant from the opite unite the characters of one fairy tale in this series - Lelya and Kupava.
From A. Ostrovsky’s spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden”
Kupava:
I found you by force, my darling,
Heart friend, blue-winged darling!
Not on the eyes, no, not on the cheeks, -
Lie at your feet, blue-winged darling,
Kupava should lie at your feet.
Lel:
Flies fly and cling to the honeycomb,
A leaf clings to the water, a bee clings to the flower -
To Kupava Lel.
Kupava:
Blue-winged darling!
My heart is warm, grateful
I will remain with you forever; you are shameful
From the burning needles of ridicule and subjugation
Kupave saved the girl's pride.
In front of all honest people with a kiss
He compared me, forgotten, with everyone.
Lel:
Didn't I know what kind of heart
I'll buy it for myself while kissing you. If
From a stupid shepherd boy
There is no reason, so the prophetic heart will find
He has a girlfriend.
Kupava:
Girlfriend? No, a dog.
Beckon me when you want to caress me,
Drive and hit if the caress gets boring.
I'll leave without a complaint, just with a glance
I'll tell you that I'm tearing up, that I, they say,
I'll come again when you beckon.
Lel:
My soul, Kupava, orphan
I had my fun and freedom.
The winning head has rocked
To dear hands, eyes filled with admiration
To the sweet eyes, the heart ached
To a warm shelter.
Kupava:
Lel is handsome,
I don’t know how long your love will last;
My love forever and ever
The last one, blue-winged darling!
Lel:
Let's go quickly! The shadows of the night are fading.
Look, the dawn is a barely visible stripe
Cut through the eastern sky,
It grows, clearer, wider. This
The day woke up and opened his eyelids
Shining eyes. Let's go to! The time has come
Meet the rising of Yaril the Sun. Proudly
Lel will show the Sun in front of the crowd
My beloved friend.
In The Snow Maiden, lyricism is combined with epic, the poetry of nature is combined with human experiences, serious passions, “purified” from modern ones. social conditions. History intertwined with fairy tale. At the same time, the play, with its pathos and its entire focus, was addressed to modern man, his spiritual world, for in it rise the eternal and always modern moral issues: love and happiness, life and death, good and evil.
Dramatic action is enriched with elements of oral folk art, ritual games and amusements that came from the hoary centuries and were preserved in people's memory. The text combines tragic and comic episodes, monologues alternate with short, dynamic lines of characters, recitation with pantomime, ballet with singing. All this is based on a rhymeless, but variedly rhythmic poetic text.
The modern reader, from whom Russian rituals are moving away more and more, seems to be taking part in the farewell to Maslenitsa and the wonderful, fantastic Kupala night; finds himself in the fairy-tale kingdom of the Berendeys, meets pagan god Yarila, assimilates folk ideas about Spring, Winter, the Sun... “Snow Maiden” is woven from folklore motifs, which came from fairy tales, songs and works of other genres of folk art.
Where did the author get the material for his brainchild? A.N. Ostrovsky seriously studied the works of folklorists, ethnographers, and historians. He read Russian chronicles, became acquainted with expedition materials, and talked with experts ancient life, consulted with archaeologists and listened sensitively to their advice.
A number of plot situations are similar to the fairy tale about the Snow Maiden girl; This tale was published in the collection of I.A. Khudyakov "Great Russian Tales". The image of the Berendey kingdom is associated with the folk legend about ancient tribe Berendeev. The Berendey tribe is mentioned in the chronicles of the 11th-13th centuries. The image of the Sun-Yarila goes back to ancient calendar rituals, and the god Yaril himself is one of the main gods of the Slavs.
The infinitely distant past in “The Snow Maiden” is recreated with the help of folk poetry. The folklore principle is carefully preserved by Ostrovsky as a fact of the deepest respect for our distant ancestors, their life, their way of life, their ideas and beliefs. The image of “past times” is not an end in itself, and certainly not a background. The play naturally intertwines the motifs of antiquity with the shift of time and characters closely related to history. Only modernity is not presented directly; it must be felt by the reader of the play and the viewer. theatrical performance. “The Snow Maiden” anticipated the discoveries of new art of the coming 20th century.
The artistic originality of “The Snow Maiden” is an organic, natural combination of words and music, but the poetry of the word is at the center of the play.
Heroes " spring fairy tale"Ostrovsky live in a world of nature inspired by their beliefs, in the world of a fairy tale. At the same time, unlike a folk tale, the living conditions of the heroes, their “life” are conveyed by the writer quite definitely and specifically. Already from the “Prologue” it is obvious that the country where the events take place is located in the middle zone of the Slavic lands. Its nature is long, harsh winters, a slowly coming and initially cold spring, which approaches gradually, not suddenly. It is replaced by summer bloom, but it is also interspersed with hot and cool summer months. The Slavic people, living in the lap of nature, bearing the code name “Berendei”, are full of unspent, primordial spiritual and physical forces. For his tireless work he is rewarded by the fertility of the lands.
The world of the Berendeys is cozy. In the second act of the play, it is contrasted with the internecine wars waged by “close neighbors and surrounding kingdoms.”
Heroes of Ostrovsky real people unreal land. They are related, close modern people. The capital of Tsar Berendey stands on the banks of the river. Behind it, on a hill in the forest, is the sanctuary of the main, but not the only god of the pagan Berendeys - Yarila, the god of the Sun, fertility and warmth. There are settlements around the capital's suburbs. Farmers live across the river; They also raise livestock. Among them is a trade guest from Berendeyev Posad, Mizgir. Their distance from us in time and their inclusion in fairy-tale circumstances allow Ostrovsky to create characters in a deeply generalized and symbolic way when depicting life poetically. The motives that emerge in the Prologue largely determine further action and its outcome.
Snow Maiden. The motive for the miraculous birth of the Snow Maiden is one of the oldest fairy tales. But the story of the Snow Maiden in the play does not entirely coincide with any of the versions of the folk tale - Ostrovsky interprets the folklore plot in his own way. From a fairy tale about an “unlucky” man, miraculous birth which from the fragile material of clay, sand, snow - predetermines its rapid destruction, the writer creates a story about a “dangerous” birth that conceals the seeds tragic fate. The image of the Snow Maiden combines two opposite principles: beauty, inner purity, divine virginity, on the one hand, and the need for reckless love, on the other. This is the basis of the “spring fairy tale”. The heroine is tested by human indifference and love, which are equally destructive. These tests are real.
IN fairy tale one of the techniques is a prohibition that is violated central character, but it is important that this prohibition is not justified in folklore works psychologically. He is a given, which is accepted by both the narrator and the listener (reader). The Snow Maiden also violates the ban. But her action is deeply justified: following the insurmountable laws of youth and nature, she strives for communication with people, warmth, and love. Her purity and innocence are cold, but she is painfully aware of the indifference and coldness of others. The “spring”, awakening, “spring” principle lives in it. Perhaps that is why her appearance disrupts the usual and decorous, seemingly forever established order of life in the Berendey settlement: the guys “went crazy, in hordes, herds / They rushed without memory” after her.
The Snow Maiden brings confusion into the hearts of the simple-minded Berendeys. Moroz's simple calculation does not work. Her divine essence and unusualness are visible to everyone and recognized by everyone. “The Snow Maiden doesn’t look like our women and girls,” says the rich Sloboda resident Murash, meaning that in her moral fortitude you can be sure. Snegurochka is reproached for her excessive severity and modesty, which is “indecent” for a poor girl, by her adoptive father Bobyl. He also understands that she is different from other girls in the settlement: “Some rich man is ready to buy for money / For his daughter, at least a little modesty...”, and the Snow Maiden - poor girl- it's in abundance. Her beauty attracts the attention of suburban guys, but these are only external, superficial, fleeting feelings. Not getting what they want, they easily return to their former hobbies, brides, because “the new bribe makes them smooth.”
Co fairy-tale characters The Snow Maiden is united by ideal purity, chastity and spiritual generosity. The heat of the soul, awakened in spring, gives it the ability to love. Berendey’s comparison of the Snow Maiden with a modest, “thoughtfully bowed” lily of the valley, lost in the wilderness, is unusually close folklore performances about beauty and goodness. But the difference is that the “lily of the valley essence” is one side of the heroine’s character; there is another - “ice”, coldness that can melt under the bright rays of the sun. It is no coincidence that one of the main words of the Prologue is precisely this: “melt.” Perhaps the heroine is comparable to the entire northern nature, which slowly, with difficulty wakes up after a long winter sleep, in short term blooms wildly and almost unexpectedly suddenly fades.
Mizgir. Even more unpredictable, at least unusual for a fairy tale, is the image of the beloved Snow Maiden Mizgir. IN folk tales a hero of this type is certainly a savior; he saves his beloved from the magical evil action, revives her, his love is ardent, faithful and always saving. So it is here: it seems that it is Mizgir who is obliged to snatch the Snow Maiden from the cold captivity of Frost, to save her from the threat of the burning and cruel warmth of Yarila the Sun.
The Snow Maiden received a magical gift from her mother, a wreath of “love” enchanting flowers. According to fairy tale motif, she must love the first person she meets. However, the meeting with Mizgir is not an accident. Mizgir was looking for her, for this he was in the forest, struggling with obstacles - obsession and Leshim. But what distinguishes Mizgir is that he does not seek salvation, the deliverance of the girl, as happens in a folk tale, but only thinks of mastering her and saving himself. To her timid plea: “Save your Snow Maiden!” - he emphatically prosaically, cruelly, although in form he answers “politely”:
Child,
Save you? Your love is salvation
To the exile. At sunrise
Mizgir will show you as his wife,
And the king’s truthful anger will be tamed.
This is his main benefit: marriage with the Snow Maiden should save him from the royal wrath. He does not even admit the thought that higher powers can interfere in his fate and the fate of his beloved, that only sincere and selfless love. These reasonings are especially significant because they are not put into the mouth of a coward, not weak person, but a powerful and courageous hero.
Mizgir evaluates the Snow Maiden as a commodity: she can be exchanged for a rare unique pearl mined in distant seas and countries. He expresses this idea frankly, referring to the appreciation of beauty in markets in Eastern countries, where robbers trade in slaves.
The Snow Maiden objects to Mizgir: “I value / My love inexpensively, but I will not sell it.” The difference from others, the uniqueness of not only his face, but also his personality, only fuels Mizgir’s interest, forcing him to achieve his goal at any cost. The Snow Maiden becomes for him the goal of life, the subject of an all-encompassing passion. Ostrovsky does not simplify anything, does not make Mizgir an ordinary tempter-villain. Everything is more complicated. At the strict trial before Tsar Berendey, Mizgir does not betray his love for the Snow Maiden. “Mizgir’s bride is the Snow Maiden,” he calmly and adamantly declares and promises the king:
The fire of my love will ignite
The Snow Maiden's untouched heart.
I swear to you by the great gods,
The Snow Maiden will be my wife,
And if not, let him punish me
The law of the king and the terrible wrath of the gods!
Mizgir violates the law of the Berendey kingdom, abandons Kupava, explaining to her the reason: her former lover can no longer correspond to his ideas about the female ideal. The meeting with the Snow Maiden changed his life values.
For Kupava, Mizgir is desirable because he is stately, strong, and handsome; she admires the “coarse male blush” of her loved one.
The Snow Maiden, who received the gift of love from the hands of Spring, has a different idea about her beloved. The Snow Maiden not only sees in front of her a curly-haired guy, a “father of a son,” “the Mizgiry family,” similar to the others, but with all her soul she feels exactly this, a one-of-a-kind man, proud, brave, courageous, who has experienced a lot and is powerful. The Snow Maiden in Mizgir appreciates his courage, his imperious will, ready to bow before her feminine charm- and this is precisely the most important thing for her.
Lel. In the original plan, Ostrovsky wrote: “Lel is the son of the sun.” In the final text of the play, Moroz’s speech contains the words: “The Sun’s beloved son is a shepherd.” He is truly the son of the Sun and is not afraid of its burning rays; he lies down “when all living things flee from the Sun.” This is its unusualness. But Lel acts in the play as a simple resident of the Berendey settlement. He differs from other villagers only in that he is less tied to the land, but is closer to nature than they are.
The image of Lel may evoke in the reader’s mind an association with cupid, but there are no direct indications in this regard in “The Snow Maiden”. Ostrovsky did not liken him to anyone. Lel is only pleasing to the god Yarila, he is his favorite, because Yarilo patronizes the herds. Shepherd Lel is named after the deity. The gods gifted him with another wonderful quality: he composes songs and hymns.
Lel in the play is a poetic image that plays an important artistic role: connects concrete imagery with artistic metaphor. He is a man for whom the impossible is familiar. The poet Lel seems to demonstrate the confidence of ancient people in the correctness of their understanding of the world, for example, he tells that the day has eyes and opens them: “The day has woken up and opens the eyelids / Of shining eyes.” At the same time, there is another thought of the writer here: ancient man was capable of a poetic attitude towards life. Lelya's speech is bright and figurative. His singing attracts girls, and Tsar Berendey is sure: the young man’s singing was gifted by the gods.
Lelya's songs have stable connection with both folklore and myth. This is most clearly manifested in the song “A cloud conspired with thunder...”. It was performed during a ritual celebration at the request of the priest-king. In the spirit of folk symbolism, clouds meet thunder (thunderstorm) here. This meeting symbolizes a love union that encourages nature to bear fruit and man to love.
Berendey. Often in folk tales the image of the king is unusual, sometimes even funny. He is also unusual in “The Snow Maiden”. Berendey is shown surrounded by buffoons and guslars. This is a kind and intelligent ruler who knows how to appreciate beauty in art and nature. He considers the greatest good for the state to be the increase in natural resources and the preservation of a reasonable and fair order.
Love, according to Berendey, is “a great gift of nature” that should be protected and appreciated. That is why breaking love vows is a state crime for him. Berendey in highest degree democratic: he believes that love “does not tolerate coercion.”
Below we characterize the fairy tale play by A.N. Ostrovsky, making the necessary, from our point of view, accents.
The extravaganza “The Snow Maiden” appeared one hundred and forty years ago, in 1873, in the magazine “Bulletin of Europe”. Everything was unusual in this play: genre (fairy tale play, extravaganza); a combination of dramatic poetic text with music and ballet elements; plot; heroes - gods, demigods, ordinary residents of the country - Berendeys; fantasy, organically merged with realistic, often everyday paintings; vernacular, which includes elements of vernacular and, on the other hand, turns in some places into lofty poetic, solemn speech.
IN critical literature the opinion was expressed that the appearance of such a play was associated with random circumstances: in 1873, the Maly Theater was closed for repairs, the troupe moved into the building Bolshoi Theater In order to keep the artists of the drama and opera and ballet theater busy, the management decided to ask A.N. Ostrovsky to write a corresponding play. He agreed.
In fact, everything was more serious. The relocation of the Maly Theater was only a pretext, an impetus for the implementation of Ostrovsky’s plans theatrical genre. The playwright's interests have long been connected with plays of this kind, folklore was his favorite and native element, and folk extravaganza occupied his thoughts long before 1873 and much later.
“On a holiday,” he wrote in 1881, “everyone is drawn to working person spend an evening outside the house... I want to forget the boring reality, I want to see a different life, a different environment, other forms of community life. I want to see boyars, princes’ mansions, royal chambers, I want to hear passionate and solemn speeches, I want to see the triumph of truth.”
The action takes place in fairyland Berendeev, as the playwright writes, in “prehistoric times.” The name of the Berendey tribe appears in the Tale of Bygone Years. I heard the writer and oral histories about the ancient city of Berendey and Tsar Berendey."
They pass in front of the viewer mythological characters- gods (Yarilo), demigods (Frost, Vesna-Krasna), daughter of Frost and Vesna-Krasna Snegurochka (child of a marriage opposed to Yarila), goblins, talking birds, animated bushes, ghosts. But all this fantasy is closely combined with realistic, everyday scenes. The great realist and writer of everyday life could not chain his imagination within the framework of fiction.
Live real life bursts into the play and gives a special brightness to the time and place of its action.
Snegurochka, Kupava, Lel, Moroz, Vesna-Krasna, Mizgir are endowed with unique character traits. There is something in them from the people of Ostrovsky’s time and later years.
The dialogue between Frost and Vesna-Krasna about their daughter’s future is indistinguishable in tone even from the conversations of parents of our time. Bobyl is modeled after a typical peasant slacker, a drinker, even Yarilo appears in the guise of a young pariah in white clothes with a human head in one hand and a sheaf of rye in the other (as he was painted in folk tales in some places in Rus').
There are not so many traces of the primitive communal system in the fairy tale play (mostly mythological images). But there is plenty of evidence for the conventions of “prehistoric time.”
First of all, let's note social inequality in Berendey's kingdom. Society is divided into rich and poor, with the latter openly jealous of the former. Not to mention Bobylikha, who dreams of “filling her purse thicker” and commanding the family like Kabanikha, let’s pay attention to the pure and noble Kupava, who, getting ready to marry Mizgir, pictures her future like this: “8 to his house, in the big royal settlement , / In full view, as a rich housewife / I will reign...
The rich Murash refuses to accept the shepherd Lelya for the night, despising him as a poor man and not believing in his honesty: “Deceive others with your bows, / But we, my friend, know you well enough, / What is safe is intact, they say.”
It is no coincidence that in the stage directions to the first act we read: “On the right side is Bobyl’s poor hut, with a rickety porch; there is a bench in front of the hut; on the left side there is a large Murash hut decorated with carvings; in the background there is a street; Across the street is the Murash hop and bee garden.” A small sketch takes on a symbolic character.
In Berendey's kingdom, elements of social hierarchy are strong. Talking birds, singing about their way of life, essentially recreate a picture of the social structure of the Berendeys; they have governors, clerks, boyars, nobles (this is in “prehistoric times”), peasants, serfs, centurions, people different professions and positions: farmers, kissers, fishermen, merchants, masters, servants, privets, youths, buffoons.
The whole feast is crowned by the king and his faithful assistant, boyar Bermyata. Can the life of the Berendeys be considered a kind of idyll, serene and happy, as some researchers say?
Yes, in comparison with the outside world, where there are continuous wars (the buffoons sing about them, depicted in the colors of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”), the land of the Berendeys may seem like a corner of paradise.
For a peaceful life, for relative freedom, for the opportunity to turn to the king in any difficult case, the Berendeys praise beyond measure the wise father of their land. And the king takes this praise as due.
Nevertheless, life in the Berendey kingdom is far from ideal. It is not for nothing that the action of the play opens with the words of Spring-Red:
Greets you sadly and coldly
Spring its gloomy country.
This remark applies not only to the weather; it further turns out that the supreme deity Yarilo (the Sun) is angry with the Berendeys because Frost and Spring-Red, violating canons and traditions, entered into marriage and gave birth to an unprecedented creature - a beautiful girl. Yarilo swore a terrible oath to destroy both this girl, the Snow Maiden, and her father, and brought all sorts of troubles upon the inhabitants of the country (however, they experienced these troubles even without Yarila’s will).
The Tsar himself is forced to admit that he has not seen prosperity among the people for a long time. And the point is not only that, according to Bermyata, compatriots “steal little by little” (this sin is unforgivable, but we can correct it from the tsar’s point of view), the point is that the moral state of the country’s inhabitants has changed:
The service of beauty has disappeared in them...
But we see completely different passions:
Vanity, envy of other people's outfits...
People envy wealth, lovers often cheat on each other, and are ready to get into a fight with a rival. The Biryuchi, who call the Berendeys to a meeting with the Tsar, jokingly give evil but truthful descriptions to their contemporaries: “The sovereign's people: / Boyars, nobles, / Boyar children, / Cheerful heads / Wide beards! / Do you, nobles, / Have greyhound dogs, / Are barefoot serfs! / Trade guests, / beaver hats, / Thick necks, / Thick beards, / Tight purses. / Clerks, clerks, / Hot guys, / Your job is to drag and reap, / and hold your hand with a hook (that is, take bribes, bribes) / Old old women / Your business; to trouble, to weave, / to separate a son from his daughter-in-law. / Young fellows, / Daring daredevils, / people for work, / You for idleness. / Your job is to look around the towers, / To lure out the girls.”
This “prehistoric time” is not much different from later times - the great playwright remains true to himself in exposing human vices and shortcomings. The researcher is hardly wrong when she writes that “Berendey’s society is cruel, it no longer lives according to natural, but human laws, covering up its imperfection with the desires of Yaripa the Sun.”
Here we should add a few words about the king. In critical literature, his figure is assessed positively. He really ensured peace for his people, in any case, he did not go into reckless wars, he thinks a lot about the happiness of young people, does not shy away from communicating with ordinary Berendeys, and to some extent is not alien to art - he paints his palace. But unlimited power, as usual, left its mark on his thoughts, feelings and behavior.
He is convinced that the will of the king has no boundaries. When he decides to gather all the lovers and arrange a collective wedding on the solemn day of Yarilin, and Bermyata doubts the possibility of such a holiday, the king exclaims in anger: What? What can't you do, motherfuckers? Is it impossible to fulfill what the king desires? Are you sane?
Having learned from Kupava that Mizgir cheated on her for the sake of the Snow Maiden, he considers Mizgir a criminal worthy death penalty. But since “there are no laws in our bloody code,” the king, on behalf of the people, sentences Mizgir to ostracism - eternal exile - and calls on those who want to make the Snow Maiden fall in love with them before the end of the night (no later!).
True, loves and disappointments in the Berendey kingdom flare up and go out like a match, but this is the tradition of literature, going back to the Renaissance - let's remember Romeo and Juliet, who fell in love in a matter of seconds, essentially without recognizing each other. But even taking into account this tradition, the king’s order looks like an act of arbitrariness.
Having heard that the appearance of the Snow Maiden on Berendey's land caused a complete commotion among the young people due to jealousy, the Tsar orders Bermyata to “settle everyone and reconcile before tomorrow” (!), and the Snow Maiden to look for herself “a friend after her own heart.”
The promised holiday comes, a friend - Mizgir - is found, the young people are madly in love, but the vengeful Yarilo remembers his oath. Hot passion destroys the Snow Maiden; she melts under the influence of the sun's rays. Mizgir commits suicide, and the Tsar, who shortly before admired the beauty of the Snow Maiden and promised to arrange a feast for the one who “manages to captivate the Snow Maiden with love before dawn,” now solemnly says:
Snow Maiden's sad death
And the terrible death of Mizgir
They can't disturb us. The sun knows
Whom to punish and have mercy on? Finished
Truthful trial! Frost's spawn,
The Cold Snow Maiden died.
Now, the tsar believes, Yarilo will stop his acts of revenge and “look at the devotion of the obedient Berendeys.” The king most of all adores the submission of his subjects to himself and the highest deity - Yaril the Sun. Instead of a mourning song, he suggests singing a cheerful song, and the subjects gladly fulfill the will of the king. The death of two people does not matter compared to the life of the masses.
In general, Ostrovsky’s entire play, for all its apparent gaiety, is built on an antithesis, creating a contradictory, sometimes joyless picture. Warmth and cold, wealth and poverty, love and infidelity, contentment with life and envy, war and peace, in a broader sense - good and evil, life and death are opposed to each other and determine the general atmosphere of the Berendey kingdom, and contradictions and disharmony in characters actors.
The hostile principle has even penetrated into space. Yarilo-Sun, the blessed sun that gives wealth and joy to earthlings, sends bad weather, crop failures, all sorts of sorrows to the Berendeys and destroys the innocent illegitimate daughter of illegitimate parents, taking revenge not only on Frost, but also on his congenial Spring-Red, depriving her beloved daughter.
If we talk about the philosophical aspect of the play, then we are not looking at the embodiment of a dream about an ideal “prehistoric” kingdom, but a fairy-tale work, imbued with a thirst for the harmony of life in the present and future. The Berendey kingdom is deprived of this harmony, this harmony is not present in the character main character.
She merged physical beauty with spiritual nobility, a kind of almost childish naivety and defenselessness with heartfelt coldness and inability to love. A desperate attempt to go beyond the circle designated by nature causes inhuman tension of strength and emotions and ends in tragedy.
We can say that the playwright’s idea to show “another life, a different environment” so that the audience would at least temporarily forget the “boring reality” was not entirely successful. But the depiction of the truth of life was fully successful, as A.N. Ostrovsky wrote about in the letter quoted above.
What is attractive is the persistent and irrepressible desire of the main character to change her fate, her high understanding of love, for the sake of which one can accept death:
Let me perish, one moment of love
More precious to me than years of melancholy and tears...
Everything that is precious in the world,
Lives in just one word. This word
Love.
At first Lel captivates her with her songs and soft nature. Her mother reminds her that Lel is the beloved son of the Sun, who is hostile to the Snow Maiden’s father.
I’m not afraid of Lelya or the Sun,
she answers...
… Happiness
Whether I find it or not, I’ll look.
Love is above all, more expensive than earthly existence - this is the leitmotif of the play. As noted in the critical literature, “in the late phase of his work (from the second half of the 1870s), the playwright’s main concern became the fate of his lovers.
In the chronological interval between “The Thunderstorm” and “The Dowry,” Ostrovsky creates the extravaganza “The Snow Maiden.” And the unfortunate fate of a woman, albeit in a fairy-tale interpretation, is in the foreground. The physical cold that surrounds Father Frost’s daughter can be endured, but the spiritual cold is unbearable. Love warms, makes a person human. This is a great feeling, but it requires the lover to be ready to fight for his happiness.
Sometimes, unfortunately, a high romantic feeling ends tragically - for a number of reasons, among which is a conflict with society or supermundane forces, as was shown by the classics of distant and closer times and as directly pointed out by A.N. Ostrovsky in his fairy tale play.
But the strength of spirit of the dying hero gives rise to deep respect for him on the part of the perceiver of art and does not pass without a trace for the consciousness and emotional world of the reader and viewer. From these positions he can evaluate the tragedy of the Snow Maiden.
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