Snow Maiden. Spring Tale (Fragment). The Snow Maiden (A Spring Tale) A. N. Ostrovsky The work of the Ostrovsky Snow Maiden
The action takes place in the land of the Berendei in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin is hiding in a hollow. Spring arrives on Krasnaya Gorka near Berendey Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Vesna's retinue. Spring is greeted with cold by the country of the Berendeys, and all because of Spring's flirting with Frost, the old grandfather, is recognized by Spring itself. Their daughter, Snegurochka, was born. Spring is afraid to quarrel with Frost for the sake of her daughter and is forced to endure everything. The "jealous" Sun itself is also angry. Therefore, Spring calls all birds to warm up with a dance, as people themselves do in the cold. But the fun just begins - the choirs of birds and their dances - as a blizzard rises. Spring hides the birds in the bushes until the next morning and promises to warm them. Meanwhile, Frost comes out of the forest and reminds Vesna that they have a common child. Each of the parents takes care of the Snow Maiden in their own way. Frost wants to hide her in the forest so that she can live among obedient animals in a forest chapel. Spring wants a different future for her daughter: to live among people, among cheerful friends and children who play and dance until midnight. Peaceful meeting turns into cpop. Frost knows that the God of the Sun of the Berendeys, hot Yarilo, has vowed to destroy the Snow Maiden. As soon as the fire of love is kindled in her heart, it will melt her. Spring does not believe. After a quarrel, Frost suggests giving their daughter to be raised by a childless Bean in a suburb, where the guys are unlikely to pay attention to their Snow Maiden. Spring agrees.
Frost calls the Snow Maiden from the forest and asks if she wants to live with people. The Snow Maiden admits that she has long longed for girlish songs and round dances, that she likes the songs of the young shepherd Lelia. This especially frightens the father, and he punishes the Snow Maiden more than anything else in the world to beware of Lel, in which the "scorching rays" of the Sun live. Parting with his daughter, Moroz entrusts the care of her to his forest "leshutki". And, finally, it gives way to Spring. Folk festivities begin - seeing off Maslenitsa. The Berendeys greet the arrival of Spring with songs.
Bobyl went into the forest for firewood and sees the Snow Maiden, dressed like a hawthorn. She wanted to stay with Bobyl and Bobylikha's adopted daughter.
It is not easy for the Snow Maiden to live with Bobyl and Bobylikha: the named parents are angry that she, with her excessive bashfulness and modesty, has discouraged all the suitors and they cannot get rich with the help of a profitable marriage of their adopted daughter.
Lel comes to the Bobyls to stay, because they alone are ready to let him into the house for the money collected by other families. The rest are afraid that their wives and daughters will not resist Lel's charm. The Snow Maiden does not understand Lel's requests for a kiss for a song, for a flower gift. She picks a flower with surprise and gives it to Lel, but the latter, having sung a song and seeing other girls calling him, throws the already withered flower of the Snow Maiden and runs away to new fun. Many girls quarrel with guys who are inattentive to them because of their passion for the beauty of the Snow Maiden. Only Kupava, the daughter of a wealthy Slobozhan Murash, is affectionate to the Snow Maiden. She informs her of her happiness: a rich merchant guest from the royal settlement Mizgir wooed her. Here Mizgir himself appears with two bags of gifts - a ransom for a bride for girls and boys. Kupava, together with Mizgir, approaches the Snow Maiden, who is spinning in front of the house, and calls her for the last time to lead a girl's round dances. But when he saw the Snow Maiden, Mizgir fell passionately in love with her and rejected Kupava. He orders to carry his treasury to the Bobyl's house. The Snow Maiden resists these changes, not wishing Kupava any harm, but the bribed Bobyl and Bobylikha make the Snow Maiden even drive Lel away, which Mizgir demands. The shocked Kupava asks Mizgir about the reasons for his betrayal and hears in response that the Snow Maiden has won his heart with her modesty and bashfulness, and Kupava's courage now seems to him a harbinger of future betrayal. The offended Kupava asks for protection from the Berendeys and sends curses to Mizgir. She wants to drown herself, but Lel stops her, and she falls unconscious into his arms.
In the chambers of Tsar Berendey, a conversation takes place between him and his confidant Bermyata about trouble in the kingdom: for fifteen years Yarilo has been unmerciful to the Berendey, winters are getting colder, springs are getting colder, and in some places there is snow in summer. Berendey is sure that Yarilo is angry with the Berendey for cooling their hearts, for the “cold of feelings”. In order to extinguish the anger of the Sun, Berendey decides to appease him with a victim: on Yarilin's day, the next day, tie as many grooms and brides as possible by marriage. However, Bermyata reports that because of some Snow Maiden who showed up in the settlement, all the girls quarreled with the guys and it is impossible to find grooms and brides for marriage. Then Kupava, abandoned by Mizgir, runs in and weeps all his grief to the king. The Tsar orders to find Mizgir and summon the Berendeys to trial. Misgir is brought in, and Berendey asks Bermyata how to punish him for betraying his bride. Bermyat proposes to force Mizgir to marry Kupava. But Mizgir boldly objects that his bride is the Snow Maiden. Kupava also does not want to marry a traitor. The Berendeys do not have the death penalty, and Mizgir is sentenced to exile. Mizgir only asks the Tsar to look at the Snow Maiden himself. Seeing the Snow Maiden who came with Bobyl and Bobylikha, the tsar was struck by her beauty and tenderness, wants to find a worthy husband for her: such a “sacrifice” will surely cajole Yarila. The Snow Maiden admits that her heart does not know love. The king seeks advice from his wife. Elena the Beautiful says that the only one who can melt the heart of the Snow Maiden is Lel. Lel calls the Snow Maiden to twine wreaths until the morning sun and promises that love will wake up in her heart by morning. But Mizgir does not want to give up the Snow Maiden to an opponent and asks permission to join the fight for the Snegurochka's heart. Berendey allows and is confident that at the dawn of the Berendei they will gladly meet the Sun, which will accept their atoning “sacrifice”. The people glorify the wisdom of their king Berendey.
At the dawn of the evening, girls and boys begin to dance in circles, in the center - the Snow Maiden with Lel, Mizgir appears and disappears in the forest. Delighted with Lel's singing, the tsar invites him to choose a girl who will reward him with a kiss. The Snow Maiden wants Lel to choose her, but Lel chooses Kupava. Other girls put up with their sweethearts, forgiving their past infidelities. Lel is looking for Kupava, who has gone home with her father, and meets a crying Snow Maiden, but he does not pity her for these "jealous tears", caused not by love, but by envy of Kupava. He tells her about secret lovemaking, which is more valuable than a public kiss, and only for true love is he ready to lead her to meet the Sun in the morning. Lel recalls how he cried when the Snow Maiden had not previously responded to his love, and goes to the guys, leaving the Snow Maiden to wait. And yet, not love lives in the heart of the Snow Maiden, but only pride that it is Lel who will lead her to meet Yarila.
But then Mizgir finds the Snow Maiden, he pours out his soul to her, full of burning, real male passion. He, who never prayed for love from girls, falls on his knees in front of her. But the Snow Maiden is afraid of his passion, and threats to avenge his humiliation are also terrible. She also rejects the priceless pearls with which Misgir is trying to buy her love, and says that she will exchange her love for Lel's love. Then Mizgir wants to get the Snow Maiden by force. She calls Lelya, but "Leshutki" come to her aid, whom Father Frost instructed to take care of his daughter. They take Mizgir into the forest, beckoning him with the ghost of the Snow Maiden, in the forest he wanders all night, hoping to overtake the Snow Maiden-ghost.
Meanwhile, even the heart of the tsar's wife was melted by Lel's songs. But the shepherd deftly dodges both Elena the Beautiful, leaving her in the care of Bermyaty, and from the Snow Maiden, from whom he runs away, seeing Kupava. It was such a reckless and ardent love that his heart was waiting for, and he advises the Snow Maiden to "eavesdrop" on Kupavin's hot speeches in order to learn to love. The Snow Maiden, in her last hope, runs to her mother Vesna and asks her to teach her real feelings. On the last day, when Spring can fulfill her daughter's request, since the next day Yarilo and Summer take over, Spring, rising from the water of the lake, reminds Snegurochka of her father's warning. But the Snow Maiden is ready to give her life for a moment of true love. The mother puts on her a magic wreath of flowers and herbs and promises that she will love the very first young man she meets. The Snow Maiden meets Mizgir and responds to his passion. The immensely happy Mizgir does not believe in danger and considers the Snow Maiden's desire to hide from Yarila's rays as empty fear. He solemnly brings the bride to Yarilina Mountain, where all the Berendeys have gathered. At the first rays of the sun, the Snow Maiden melts, blessing the love that brings her death. It seems to Mizgir that the Snow Maiden deceived him, that the gods made fun of him, and in despair he rushes from Yarilina Mountain into the lake. “The Snow Maiden’s sad death and the terrible death of Mizgir cannot disturb us,” says the tsar, and all the Berendei hope that Yarila's anger will now go out, that he will give the Berendey strength, harvest, and life.
Retold by E. P. Sudareva.
Ostrovsky, A. N. Snegurochka: a spring tale in 4 houses with a prologue / A. N. Ostrovsky; artist V.M. Vasnetsov. - Moscow: Goslitizdat, 1954 .-- 141 p. : rice.
April 12, 2018 marked the 195th anniversary of the birth of the Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823-1886) and 145 years old, when the spring fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" was written.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on April 12, 1823 in Moscow into the family of a judicial officer. He spent his childhood and early youth in the merchant Zamoskvorechye, which is the scene of action in many of the playwright's plays.
Literary fame for Ostrovsky was brought by the play "Our people - we will be numbered!" Initially, it was banned from theatrical performance by censors, and the author himself was placed under police supervision.
A. N. Ostrovsky published his first works in the "Moskvityanin" magazine. The plays "The Poor Bride", "Don't Sit in Your Sleigh", "Poverty is Not a Vice" reflected, as the playwright himself defined, the "moral and social collisions" of his time. For more than thirty years, not a year has passed without premieres of his dramas and comedies at the Moscow Maly and St. Petersburg Alexandria theaters. His plays "The Thunderstorm", "Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man", "Warm Heart", "Mad Money", "Forest", "Wolves and Sheep", "Dowry", "Talents and Admirers", "Snow Maiden" entered the golden fund of Russian drama. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky called them "stories in roles."
The work of A. N. Ostrovsky had a great influence on the further searches and the fate of the national theater. His realistic plays do not leave the stage today.
The Snow Maiden stands out sharply against the background of all the work of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, his numerous dramas and comedies, based on purely everyday material. The tale is striking in its amazing poetic beauty.
The Rare Books Fund owns the fairy tale "Snow Maiden", published in 1954 in Moscow by the State Publishing House of Fiction.
The idea of "The Snow Maiden" came to A. N. Ostrovsky at the beginning of 1873. The fairy tale, according to literary scholars, was created in happy moments of creative inspiration. The playwright began work on it at the end of February 1873 and completed it on April 4 at 10 o'clock in the evening. One of the whitewashed autographs of the "spring tale" has a different date - March 31st. It is noteworthy that this is the birthday of the writer, who turned 50 in 1873. It is possible that Alexander Nikolaevich wanted to specially time the completion of the work for his birthday. In The Snow Maiden, a very dear brainchild for the playwright, “a lot came together and a lot was revealed. Ostrovsky believed that with this work he was entering a new road in Russian drama ”. Therefore, he highly appreciated his "spring tale" and was jealous of reviews about it.
The poems of the "spring tale" long "wandered in the soul of the writer." A. N. Ostrovsky's spiritual appeal to the country of wise and kind Berendeys began in his youth, when in April 1848 he and his household went to the wilderness of the Kostroma province, to the Shchelykovo estate. The path lay through the ancient Russian cities of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, Rostov, Yaroslavl, which lasted a whole week. The future playwright described his impressions in his travel diary, which became "a kind of prelude to a fairy tale." Records indicate that Ostrovsky listened carefully and looked closely to the people's world. It is possible that it was here that he heard the legend of the Berendei. Not far from Pereslavl-Zalessky there was the famous Berendeevo swamp, in the center of which, on the island, the remains of some ancient settlement have been preserved. In the popular legend, it was said that on the site of the swamp there was a kingdom of happy Berendeys, ruled by an intelligent and kind king.
And the picturesque nature of the Shchelykovo family estate, which was subsequently visited by the playwright every year, will fully appear in mythological form in the spring fairy tale "The Snow Maiden". Ostrovsky made frequent walks around the area here. And naturally, having passed through the writer's creative imagination, they became the medium of his work.
A. N. Ostrovsky has been raising the "Spring Fairy Tale" in his soul for more than twenty years. The playwright's sister recalled that the writer was in love with the Shchelykov spring. His best ideas were created during a country holiday, in the midst of Russian nature.
Snegurochka's sources are the way of life and language of the native land, its history, ancient rituals, songs, general Russian motives of folk tales, legends, the very charm of patriarchal Russian life, natural and simple, with traditions and hospitality.
The Snow Maiden organically combines reality and fantasy, truth and fiction. Ostrovsky brought the features of the Shchelykov peasants familiar to him into the characters of his fairy tale. Numerous conversations with local peasants may have fueled the playwright's creative imagination. So, a friend of the writer was Ivan Viktorovich Sobolev, a landless peasant, a local self-taught artist, a woodcarver. Under the influence of a skilled folk craftsman, A.N. Ostrovsky himself became addicted to woodcarving.
Alexander Nikolaevich drew folklore images not from books, but from life. He repeatedly had to observe folk holidays in the vicinity of Shchelykov. Probably, not without the influence of these impressions, a poetic picture of Yarila's holiday arose in The Snow Maiden. At the time of Ostrovsky, the place where the festivities were held was called the Key Log, later it became known as the Yarilin Valley. The little key with dark bluish water, called the Blue, because it remains so all year round, the water in it does not freeze even in severe frosts, they began to call the Snegurochkin key, because, according to Shchelykov's legend, it was here that the Snegurochka melted under the rays of the Sun-Yarila and precisely here her eternally living loving heart beats.
Literary critics believe that in the "spring tale" one can conditionally distinguish three planes: a fairy tale, the author's thoughts about reality, and a philosophical and ethical plan. They "are not isolated from each other, but intersect, interact with each other and agree with Ostrovsky in a single thought, affirmed by him: only love and spiritual beauty should reign in the world!"
"Snow Maiden" by A. N. Ostrovsky also contributed to the improvement of Russian theatrical and decorative art. The presented edition of the "Spring Tale" uses illustrations by the Russian artist Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926), who in 1882-1883 worked on the decoration of the play "The Snow Maiden" in Mamontov's house.
V.M. Vasnetsov also created master sketches of costumes for the play:
"Santa Claus" and "Spring"
"Snow Maiden" and "Lel"
"Kupava" and "Mizgir"
"Berendey" and "Berendeyki"
V. Vasnetsov also embodied the image of the Snow Maiden in a pictorial image. The artist painted the picture in 1899 and you can see it in the presented edition and in the State Tretyakov Gallery.
The master portrayed the heroine of the fairy tale in a new way. “She is unusually young and poetic in her fluffy hat and old light coat ... baby face speaks of the delight that gripped her ... ".
Apart from V. Vasnetsov, M. Vrubel also portrayed the image of "The Snow Maiden".
First of all, the fairy tale play contributed to the formation of the Russian drama theater. Putting it on stage required a serious adaptation on the stage: the effects of electric lighting, the movement of clouds, the image of the heroine melting ... different time were Glykeriya Fedotova, A.P. Lensky, Prov Sadovsky, E.D. Turchaninova, M.P. Lilina and others.
The Snegurochka also influenced the enrichment of Russian classical music and the operatic genre. The musical interpretation was made by P. I. Tchaikovsky, operas were written by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. T. Grechaninov.
Experts believe that Snegurochka has absorbed significant layers of Russian culture and, in turn, stimulated further development many areas of Russian art: drama theater, acting, music, opera, decorative arts, painting, graphics and sculpture. Outside of this broad context, A. N. Ostrovsky's play is unthinkable. "
List of used literature:
- Famous museums-estates of Russia / comp. I. S. Nenarokomova. - Moscow: AST-Press, 2010 .-- S. 220-247.
- Lebedev, Yu. V. "The Snow Maiden", "Spring Tale" by A. N. Ostrovsky: (genre origins) / Yu. Lebedev // Genre and composition of a literary work. - Issue. 1. - Kaliningrad: KSU Publishing House, 1974.
- Rogover, E. S. "Snow Maiden" by A. N. Ostrovsky in the context of Russian literature // Literature at school. - 2015. - No. 10. - S. 2-6.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky
Snow Maiden
A Spring Tale in four acts with a prologue
The action takes place in the land of the Berendei in prehistoric times. Prologue on Krasnaya Gorka, near Berendey Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey. The first action in the Berendeyevka settlement beyond the river. The second act in the palace of King Berendey. The third act in the reserved forest. The fourth act in the Yarilin valley.
Faces :
Spring-Red.
Father Frost.
Girl - Snow Maiden.
Goblin.
Pancake week- straw stuffed animal.
Bean Bakula.
Bobylikha, his wife.
Berendei of both sexes and all ages.
Spring retinue, birds: cranes, geese, ducks, rooks, magpies, starlings, larks and others.
The beginning of spring. Midnight. Red hill covered with snow. To the right are bushes and a rare leafless birch grove; to the left there is a dense dense forest of large pines and firs with branches hanging from the weight of the snow; in the depths, under the mountain, the river; openings and ice-holes are lined with spruce trees. Across the river Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey: palaces, houses, huts - all wooden, with fanciful painted carvings; there are lights in the windows. The full moon gives silver to the entire open area. Roosters are crowing in the distance.
The first phenomenon
Goblin sitting on a dry tree stump. The whole sky is covered with birds that have flown in from overseas. Spring-Red on cranes, swans and geese descends to the ground, surrounded by a retinue of birds.
Goblin
The roosters crowed the end of winter,
Spring-Red descends to the ground.
The midnight hour has come, the goblin's lodge
Fenced off - dive into the hollow and sleep!
(Falls into a hollow.)
Spring-Red goes down to Krasnaya Gorka, accompanied by birds.
Spring-Red
At the appointed hour, as usual
I come to the land of the Berendeys,
Cheerfully and coldly meets
Spring is its gloomy country.
Sad Look: Under the Shroud of Snow
Deprived of living, cheerful colors,
Deprived of the fruitful power
The fields lie cold. In chains
Playful streams - in the quiet of midnight
You can't hear their glass murmur.
The forests stand silent, under the snow
Thick paws of firs are lowered,
Like old furrowed brows.
In the raspberries, under the pines, they were shy
Cold darkness, icy
Icicles amber resin
Hangs from straight trunks. And in the clear sky
As the heat burns the moon and the stars shine
Enhanced radiance. Earth,
Covered with down powder
In response to their hello, it seems cold
Same shine, same diamonds
From the tops of trees and mountains, from gentle fields,
From the potholes of the road
And the same sparks hung in the air
They oscillate without falling, shimmer.
And everything is just light, and everything is just a cold shine,
And there is no warmth. Not the way they meet me
The happy valleys of the south are there
Carpets of meadows, acacia scents,
And the warm steam of the cultivated gardens,
And milky, lazy radiance
From the dull moon on the minarets,
On poplars and black cypresses.
But I love midnight countries
I love their mighty nature
Wake up from sleep and call from the bowels of the earth
A giving birth, a mysterious force,
Carrier to the careless berendey
Abundance lives unpretentious. Lubo
Warm for the joys of love,
For frequent games and festivities, clean up
Secluded shrubs and groves
Silk carpets of colored herbs.
(Referring to birds that shiver from the cold.)
Comrades: white-sided magpies,
Cheerful chatterboxes,
Gloomy rooks, and larks,
Singers of the fields, heralds of spring,
And you, crane, with your friend the heron,
Beauties, swans, and geese
Noisy, and bustling ducks,
And little birds - are you chilled?
Though I'm ashamed but I have to confess
Before the birds. I myself am to blame
What's cold for me, Spring, and you.
Sixteen years since I was for a joke
And amusing your fickle disposition,
Changeable and whimsical, has become
Flirt with Frost, old grandfather,
Gray-haired prankster; and since then
I'm in captivity with the old one. Man
Always like this: give a little will,
And he will take everything, this is how it is
From antiquity. Leave the gray-haired
But the trouble is, we have an old daughter -
Snow Maiden. In a deep forest slum
Returns to the abysmal bums
The old man is his child. Loving Snow Maiden,
Feel sorry for her in an unhappy lot,
I'm afraid to quarrel with the old;
And he is glad of that - chills, freezes
Me, Vesna, and Berendeev. The sun
Jealous looks at us angrily
And frowns on everyone and that's the reason
Severe winters and cold spring.
Are you trembling, poor things? Dance
You will get warm! I have seen more than once
That people were warmed up by dancing.
Albeit reluctantly, albeit from the cold, but dance
Let's celebrate our arrival for a housewarming party.
Some birds are taken for instruments, others are singing, and still others are dancing.
Chorus of birds
The birds were gathering
The singers were gathering
Herds, herds.
Birds sat down
The singers sat down
Rows, rows.
And who are you, birds,
And who are you, singers,
Big, big?
The Snow Maiden is perhaps the least typical of all of Alexander Ostrovsky's plays, which stands out sharply among other things in his work for lyricism, unusual problems (instead of social drama, the author paid attention to personal drama, designating love as the central theme) and absolutely fantastic entourage.
The play tells the story of the Snow Maiden, who appears before us as a young girl desperate for the only thing she never had - love. While remaining faithful to the main line, Ostrovsky simultaneously reveals a few more: the structure of his half-dusty, half-fairy world, the customs and customs of the Berendeys, the theme of continuity and retribution, and the cyclical nature of life, noting, albeit in an allegorical form, that life and death always go hand in hand.
History of creation
The Russian literary world owes the appearance of the play to a happy accident: at the very beginning of 1873, the building of the Maly Theater was closed for major repairs, and a group of actors temporarily moved to the Bolshoi. Having decided to take advantage of the opportunities of the new stage and attract the audience, it was decided to stage an extravaganza performance, unusual for those times, using at once the ballet, dramatic and opera components of the theater collective.
It was with the proposal to write a play for this extravaganza that they turned to Ostrovsky, who, taking the opportunity to implement a literary experiment, agreed. The author changed his habit of looking for inspiration in the unsightly sides of real life, and in search of material for the play turned to the creativity of the people. There he found the legend about the Snow Maiden, which became the basis for his magnificent work.
In the early spring of 1873, Ostrovsky was busy working on the creation of the play. And not alone - since staging on stage is impossible without music, the playwright worked together with the then very young Pyotr Tchaikovsky. According to critics and writers, this is one of the reasons for the amazing rhythm of The Snow Maiden - words and music were composed in a single impulse, close interaction, and imbued with the rhythm of each other, initially making up one whole.
It is symbolic that Ostrovsky put the last point in The Snow Maiden on the day of his fiftieth birthday, March 31. A little more than a month later, on May 11, the premiere performance was shown. He received quite different reviews among critics, both positive and sharply negative, but already in the 20th century literary critics firmly agreed that The Snow Maiden was the brightest milestone in the work of the playwright.
Analysis of the work
Description of the work
At the heart of the plot - life path Snow Maiden girl born from the union of Frost and Spring-Red, her father and mother. The Snow Maiden lives in the Berendey kingdom invented by Ostrovsky, but not with her relatives - she left her father Frost, who protected her from all possible troubles, but in the family of Bobyl and Bobylikha. The Snow Maiden thirsts for love, but cannot fall in love - even her interest in Lelia is dictated by the desire to be the only and unique, the desire that the shepherd, who evenly gives all the girls warmth and joy, was affectionate with her alone. And Bobyl and Bobylikha are not going to give her their love, they have a more important task: to cash in on the girl's beauty by marrying her. The Snow Maiden looks with indifference at the Berendei men, for her sake changing their lives, rejecting brides and violating social foundations; she is inwardly cold, she is alien to the full of life berendey - and therefore attracts them. However, the Snegurochka also bears misfortune - seeing Lel, who is supportive of the other and rejected her, the girl rushes to her mother with a request to let her fall in love - or perish.
It was at this moment that Ostrovsky clearly expresses the central idea of his work to the limit: life without love is meaningless. The Snow Maiden cannot and does not want to put up with the emptiness and cold existing in her heart, and Spring, which is the personification of love, allows her daughter to experience this feeling, despite the fact that she herself thinks bad.
The mother turns out to be right: the loving Snow Maiden melts under the first rays of the hot and clear sun, having managed, however, to discover a new world filled with meaning. And her lover, who had previously left his bride and expelled by the king Mizgir, parted with life in the pond, trying to reunite with the water that the Snow Maiden became.
main characters
(Scene from the ballet-play "Snow Maiden")
The Snow Maiden is the central figure of the work. A girl of extraordinary beauty, desperate to know love, but at the same time cold at heart. Pure, partly naive and completely alien to people-berendees, she turns out to be ready to give everything, even her life, in exchange for the knowledge of what love is and why everyone is so thirsty for it.
Frost is the father of the Snow Maiden, formidable and stern, who sought to protect his daughter from all kinds of troubles.
Vesna-Krasna is the mother of a girl who, despite a presentiment of trouble, could not go against her nature and her daughter's prayers and endowed her with the ability to love.
Lel is a windy and cheerful shepherd boy who was the first to awaken some feelings and emotions in the Snow Maiden. Precisely because she was rejected by him, the girl rushed to Spring.
Misgir is a merchant guest, or, in other words, a merchant who fell in love with a girl so much that he not only offered all his riches for her, but also left Kupava, his failed bride, thereby violating the primordially observed customs of the Berendean kingdom. In the end, he found the reciprocity of the one he loved, but not for long - and after her death he lost his life.
It is worth noting that despite the large number of characters in the play, even the minor characters turned out to be bright and characteristic: that Tsar Berendey, that Bobyl and Bobylikha, that the former bride of Mizgir Kupava - all of them are remembered by the reader, have their own distinctive features and features.
Composition and main theme of the work
The Snow Maiden is a complex and multifaceted work, including compositionally and rhythmically. The play is written without rhyme, but thanks to the unique rhythm and melodiousness found in literally every line, it sounds smoothly, like any rhymed verse. The Snegurochka is also decorated with rich use of vernacular phrases - this is a completely logical and justified step of the playwright, who, when creating the work, relied on folk tales telling about the girl from the snow.
The same statement about versatility is also true in relation to the content: behind the seemingly simple story of the Snow Maiden (she went out into the real world - rejected people - received love - imbued with the human world - died) lurks not only the statement that life without love is meaningless, but also many other equally important aspects.
So, one of the central themes is the relationship of opposites, without which the natural course of things is impossible. Frost and Yarilo, cold and light, winter and the warm season are outwardly in conflict with each other, enter into an irreconcilable contradiction, but at the same time the idea that one does not exist without the other runs through the text as a red line.
In addition to the lyricism and sacrifice of love, the social aspect of the play, displayed against the background of fairy-tale foundations, is also of interest. The norms and customs of the Berendey kingdom are strictly observed, for violation they face expulsion, as happened with Mizgir. These norms are fair and to some extent reflect Ostrovsky's idea of the ideal old Russian community, where loyalty and love for one's neighbor, life in unity with nature are at a premium. The figure of Tsar Berendey, the "good" Tsar, who, although forced to make harsh decisions, regards the fate of the Snow Maiden as tragic, sad, evokes unambiguously positive emotions; such a king is easy to sympathize with.
At the same time, in the Berendey kingdom, justice is observed in everything: even after the death of the Snow Maiden, due to her acceptance of love, Yarila's anger and disputes disappear, and the Berendey people can again enjoy the sun and warmth. Harmony triumphs.
In the forest edge of the Kostroma region, among the wonderful nature, there is Shchelykovo, a former estate, and now a museum-reserve of the great Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky.
Ostrovsky first came to these places as a young man. He was twenty-five years old.
Since then, the writer has had a cherished dream - to settle in Shchelykovo. He was able to fulfill this dream only 19 years later, when, together with his brother, he bought the estate from his stepmother. Having become a co-owner of the estate, Ostrovsky came there every year in early May and left only in late autumn.
Nature appeared before him in bright variety, changing her clothes. He watched her rebirth, lush bloom and withering away.
He also had his favorite places here.
Ostrovsky from an early age was distinguished by a passion for fishing. At the dam of the winding river Kueksha, he spent long hours with fishing rods. Near the steep banks of the Sendega River, it could be seen from a prison. On the wide river Meru, which flows into the Volga, he rode out with a seine.
It was a great pleasure for the writer to walk through the surrounding villages, forest tracts and glades.
He often went to the grove with the strange name "Pig's Forest". Century birches grew in this grove.
Alexander Nikolaevich descended from the mountain on which the estate is located, to the old channel of the Kuekshi River and walked along a wide valley, which served as a place for festive games and entertainment for the surrounding youth. There is a small spring in the upper part of this sloping valley. In the days of Ostrovsky, a fair was held here every spring, which gathered crowds of people.
The writer also visited a round meadow near the village of Lobanovo. Surrounded by the forest, it also served as a Sunday resting place for peasant youth. Here the playwright watched round dances and listened to songs.
Ostrovsky often visited the village of Berezhki with his friend I.V. Sobolev, a skilled woodcarver. The extraordinary silence of this forest corner, the low population (there were only a few houses) and the peculiar northern architecture of the tall, pointed-topped barns that belonged to the inhabitants of this village created the impression of some kind of detachment from the world, fabulousness.
Ostrovsky also had other places he liked.
His attachment to Shchelykov only grew stronger over the years. He expressed his admiration for the beauties of Shchelykov's nature more than once in letters to his friends. So, on April 29, 1876, he wrote to the artist M. O. Mikeshin: “It's a pity that you are not a landscape painter, otherwise you would have visited my village; you can hardly find a similar Russian landscape anywhere. "
Ostrovsky's observations of people and the nature of the Shchelykovsky environs were reflected in many of his works.
They were most vividly reflected in the spring fairy tale The Snow Maiden (1873). The basis of this poetic work was made up of folk tales, legends and legends, rituals and customs, sayings and songs, with which the writer got acquainted from childhood. He blossomed the folk fantasy with the bright colors of his own invention, saturated the work with subtle humor and inserted the images of his fairy tale into the frame of the picturesque nature of Shchelykov.
The Snow Maiden is a tale about the beauty of a mighty, ever-renewing nature and at the same time about human feelings, about the people, their aspirations and dreams.
In this life-affirming work, Ostrovsky draws his ideal public life defining fair and beautiful human relationships.
The playwright begins his tale with the meeting of Frost and Spring on Krasnaya Gorka.
The builder of ice palaces, the master and lord of blizzards and blizzards, Frost is the poetic embodiment of winter, cold, chilling nature. Spring-Red, accompanied by birds, is a warm breath and light that penetrates the kingdom of winter, the personification of all fertilizing power, a symbol of awakening life.
The Snow Maiden is a wonderful child of Frost and Spring. There is a coldness in her soul - the harsh heritage of her father, but life-giving forces are also in her, bringing her closer to her mother in Spring.
Frost and Vesna gave Snegurochka, when she was 15 years old, to the Berendey Posad settlement across the river, the capital of Tsar Berendey. And so Ostrovsky draws before us the kingdom of the happy Berendeys.
What prompted the poet to create an image of the fabulous Berendey kingdom?
Ostrovsky had obviously heard that there was a Berendeevo swamp in the Vladimir province. The legend about the ancient city of the Berendeys was associated with it. This legend could have suggested to Ostrovsky a fantastic image of the Berendey kingdom.
Russian village life, ancient rituals and customs, folk types, which Ostrovsky admired in Shchelykovo, helped him to recreate the look of merry Berendeys.
A remarkable feature of Ostrovsky's fairy tale is that it is fantastic and at the same time true, that in its conventional, bizarre images, the deep truth of human feelings is clearly seen.
Ostrovsky embodied in the Berendey kingdom the people's dream of a fabulous country where peaceful labor, justice, art and beauty rule, where people are free, happy and cheerful.
Tsar Berendey personifies folk wisdom... This is “the father of his land”, “the intercessor for all orphans”, “the guardian of the world”, confident that the light “only holds on with truth and conscience”. Berendey is alien to the bloody deeds of war. His state is glorious for its working, peaceful and joyful life. He is a philosopher, worker and artist. Berendey paints his chambers with a skillful brush, enjoys the luxurious colors of nature.
Berendey also loves fun. His close boyar Bermyata is a joker and witty, to whom the tsar entrusts the arrangement of folk amusements and games.
Ostrovsky admires the common people in his fairy tale - noble, humane, cheerful, tireless in work and fun.
King Berendey, addressing the singing and dancing Berendey, says:
The people are generous
Great in everything: to interfere with idleness
He will not - to work so hard,
Dance and sing - so much, until I drop.
Looking at you with a reasonable eye, you will say
That you are an honest and kind people, for
Only the kind and honest are capable of
Sing so loud and dance so bravely.
The inner world of the Berendeys is vividly revealed in their attraction to art. They love songs, dances, music. Their houses are painted with multi-colored paints, decorated with intricate carvings.
Berendei are distinguished by strong moral foundations. They highly respect love. For them, love is an expression of the best feelings of a person, his service to beauty.
