Describe the Snow Maiden's character, behavior, appearance, speech. Ostrovsky, "The Snow Maiden", act four

Characteristics of a literary hero

The Snow Maiden is the heroine of the “spring fairy tale” by A. N. Ostrovsky “The Snow Maiden” (1873). The play takes place in “the country of the Berendeys in prehistoric times.” The mythopoetic image of the Berendey kingdom is inspired by oral folk art. This is an idyllic kingdom of peace and harmony. Love is the core of the life of the Berendeys, the form of their service to the mighty pagan god of the Sun - Yaril. The appearance of “cold” S. among people brings “jealousy, abuse, strife” into their lives. “A considerable chill” penetrates into the hearts of people. The daughter of Spring and Frost, S. is a stranger to everyone. She “does not know love at all.” She is attracted by “human songs”, passionate and sad melodies of love. S. is languishing with curiosity and is surprised at the power of this feeling, which makes people suffer and cry. But S.’s “infant soul” is sleeping, no one can awaken in her the “desire for love.” Not yet knowing love, S. recognizes “tormenting jealousy,” envy of someone else’s happiness. She feels “deceived, offended, killed” when the shepherd Lel easily leaves her for the warm-hearted and full-of-life Kupava. S. turns to Mother Spring with a prayer for the “gift of love.” A magical wreath given in Spring awakens the “slumber of the soul”, reveals to S. the beauty of the world, the joy of life. “Proud in spirit,” Mizgir becomes the “chosen one of the soul” of S. Her “cold heart,” having known love, turns into an ordinary, living, human heart, and S. dies with the words: “I love and melt, I melt from the sweet feelings of love.” Her “miraculous death” restores the epic balance of the kingdom of the Berendeys, as an atoning sacrifice designed to appease the formidable Yarila. S.’s image served as the prototype for the heroine of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snow Maiden” (1881). The first performer of the role of S. was G. N. Fedotova (1873). Other performers include V. F. Komissarzhevskaya (1900), M. P. Lilina (1900).

Essay on literature on the topic: Snow Maiden (Snegurochka Ostrovsky A. N.)

Other writings:

The entire spring fairy tale by A. N. Ostrovsky “The Snow Maiden” is covered in good romance. This play is the embodiment of the playwright’s dream about a social future, about the peaceful life of the people, free from the power of arbitrariness and violence, that good must be done with one’s own hands. It draws Read More......
Snow Maiden The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring flies to Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Spring's retinue. Cold Read More ......
The poetic fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” stands apart from a number of other works by Ostrovsky. In other plays, Ostrovsky paints gloomy pictures of the merchant environment, criticizes harsh morals and shows all the tragedy of a lonely soul forced to exist in the conditions of the “dark kingdom.” The work “The Snow Maiden” is an amazing Read More ......
The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring flies to Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Spring's retinue. The cold greets Read More......
Two capacious artistic symbols cement the meaning of “The Thunderstorm”. The first is the main, powerful cataclysm that swept through not only nature, but also the human community and broke the heroine’s soul, exhausted from an excess of unclaimed love. The second is the great river into which the unfortunate woman threw herself, Read More ......
The opera “The Snow Maiden” based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky is one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most beloved works. It was written unusually quickly, in the summer of 1880. The composer wrote about it this way: “The attraction that gradually manifested itself in me towards the ancient Russian custom and pagan Read More ......
Two capacious artistic symbols cement the meaning of “The Thunderstorm”. The first is the main, powerful cataclysm that swept through not only nature, but also the human community and broke the heroine’s soul, exhausted from an excess of unclaimed reserves of love. The second is the great river into which the unfortunate Read More ......
Larisa Characteristics of a literary hero Larisa Dmitrievna Ogudalova is the main character of the play. She is young and beautiful, but poor, so they do not give her a dowry. The position of a homeless woman is humiliating, and L. especially feels this - she is an intelligent and proud girl. L. loves Paratov. But he loves Read More......

Snegurochka (Snegurochka Ostrovsky A.N.)

There are a lot of good, interesting fairy tales that have long become popular tales for children. One of these fairy tales is “The Snow Maiden,” which was written by the famous Russian writer Alexander Ostrovsky back in one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three. Despite the fact that the Snow Maiden is still a winter character, this fairy tale turned out to be spring-like, exciting and intriguing. The entire action of this fairy tale takes place in the fictional country of the Berendeys, and the main character, of course, is the daughter of the already coming into its own Spring and the still not retreating Frost, the Snow Maiden.

According to the story, the main character turns out to be a stranger to everyone. But, despite this, she is very much attracted to human songs, conversations, games and fun. The Snow Maiden tries with all her might to understand the feelings that people experience, sometimes rejoicing, sometimes crying. She doesn’t understand this feeling, but the more it attracts her.

By nature, the main character is still just a child, and her childish darling is sleeping in a sweet dream, and no one can awaken these feelings in her. Despite this, not yet knowing the feeling of love, she is able to experience a feeling of real envy of someone else's happiness and someone else's joy. The main character feels defeated after the ordinary rural shepherd Lel prefers the hot, village girl Kupava to her. The main character, in sadness, turns to her mother Vesna with a request to give her the gift of love. In response to this, her mother gives her a wreath, which helps the main character take the slumber from her soul and understand what love is.

At the same time, the proud, wayward and strong Mizgir turns out to be the chosen one of the Snow Maiden. Having experienced a real, human feeling of love, her heart becomes real, human, alive, and the Snow Maiden dies. Her death, completing the tale, seems to restore the balance of the kingdom of the Berendeys. And the Snow Maiden becomes a kind of atoning sacrifice for the mercy of the formidable and powerful Yaril.

Several interesting essays

Characteristics and image of Kusaka in Andreev’s story Kusaka essay
Leonid Andreev's story "Bite" is an amazing story about the relationship between a dog and people. In it, the author reacted with touching sympathy to the difficult fate of the dog, which from birth did not even have a name.
Analysis of Perrault Riquet's tale with the tuft
The fairy tale “Rike with the Tuft” is included in the collection “Tales of Mother Goose”. Charles Perrault did not use a folklore plot to write this work. The basis of the fairy tale is the plot
Analysis of the Tale of the Priest and his Worker Balda Pushkin
Once upon a time there lived a priest. One day he went to the market to buy something. And suddenly I saw Balda, who was wandering around the market without anything to do. So Balda asks the priest why he’s walking around here so early
Analysis of Kuprin's story Gambrinus
In the story “Gambrinus” the writer reveals different images of a person. Sasha is the most unique and at the same time the most colorful character. At first glance, he is an ordinary pub violinist
Heroes of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
Mark Twain's novel "Tom Sawyer" will not leave the reader indifferent. Along with a lot of bright and intricate adventures, the story of childhood love and true friendship is very touching.

Russian folk tale "Snow Maiden"

Genre: folk fairy tale

The main characters of the fairy tale "Snow Maiden" and their characteristics

Ivan and Marya, childless old men, peasants. Kind and God-fearing.
Snow Maiden. A girl made of snow, beautiful, pale, sad in summer, cheerful in winter. Affectionate and friendly, sociable.

Plan for retelling the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden"

Ivan and Marya
Snowmen
Snow doll
Eyes
The Revived Snow Girl
Snow Maiden is a beauty
Spring
Sad Snow Maiden
With the girls in the forest
Jumping over the fire
Disappearance of the Snow Maiden
Search
light cloud

The shortest summary of the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" for a reader's diary in 6 sentences

Ivan and Marya lived in the village, and they had no children.
They made a snowman in winter and the snow doll came to life
Ivan and Marya named the girl Snegurochka.
Spring came, and then summer, and the Snow Maiden was sad from the heat.
The girls invited her to jump over the fire into the forest
The Snow Maiden melted and flew away in a light cloud.

The main idea of the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden"
There can be no happy family without children.

What does the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" teach?
The fairy tale teaches us to love nature, to know the characteristics of each season, and teaches folk traditions and holidays. Teaches you to be obedient, to love your parents, and not to upset them. Teaches you to be kind, to be friends, to be cheerful.

Review of the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden"
I like this simple and at the same time interesting fairy tale. Its main character, Snegurochka, was made of snow and therefore was very afraid of the sun. She felt bad in the summer. It is a pity that the Snow Maiden began to jump over the fire and the heat of the flame melted her. So parents lost their beloved child due to simple carelessness.

Proverbs for the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden"
God gave, God took away.
Which have not be avoided.
Without children it is sad, with children it is troublesome.
Those who have many children are not forgotten by God.
Children are joy, children are sorrow.

Read the summary, a brief retelling of the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden"
Once upon a time there lived a peasant Ivan and his wife Marya. They had everything on the farm, only there were no children. And then one winter, Ivan watched the neighbor kids making a snowman, and suggested that Marya should go too, build a snowman, and take her mind off sad thoughts.
They went outside and made a snowman. They sculpted the head, sculpted the nose, made dimples on the forehead. As soon as Ivan began to sculpt his mouth, he suddenly felt like a breath of warmth came over him. He looks, and the holes have already become his eyes. The snow doll tilts its head.
Ivan was scared, he thought it was some kind of obsession. And Marya immediately understood that it was the Lord who was giving them a child. The Snow Maiden shook off the snow and now a living girl was standing in front of them.
And Ivan and Marya began to live happily. The girl Snegurochka grew up quickly and became a beauty, but she didn’t have any blush at all.
And then winter flew by, followed by spring. The Snow Maiden is sad on sunny days, hides in the shadows, and bathes in the cold water of the spring. And when the hail began, the Snow Maiden was completely overjoyed. But the hailstones melted quickly.
And so, on the eve of Midsummer's Day, the neighbor's girl called Snegurochka to go for a walk in the forest. And Ivan and Marya released their daughter, and the girls were told to keep an eye on the Snow Maiden. Don't leave alone.
And the girls watched the Snow Maiden and had fun. And then the Snow Maiden began jumping over the fire with them. The girls jumped over the fire and looked - the Snow Maiden had disappeared. The girls searched for her for a long time, but they did not find her.
Ivan and Marya cried bitterly. Marya kept going into the forest, looking for the Snow Maiden. But it’s just not there anywhere. When she jumped over the fire, she melted and flew into the sky with a light vapor.

Drawings and illustrations for the fairy tale "The Snow Maiden"

The entire action of this fairy tale takes place in the fictional country of the Berendeys, and the main character, of course, becomes the daughter who is already entering

Your rights of Spring and the still not retreating Frost, Snow Maiden.

She doesn’t understand this feeling, but the more it attracts her.

The main character, in sadness, turns to her mother Vesna with a request to give her the gift of love. In response to this, her mother gives her a wreath, which helps the main character take the slumber from her soul and understand what love is.

And the Snow Maiden becomes a kind of atoning sacrifice for the mercy of the formidable and powerful Yaril.

(No Ratings Yet)

The play takes place in “the country of the Berendeys in prehistoric times.” The mythopoetic image of the Berendey kingdom is inspired by oral folk art. This is an idyllic kingdom of peace and harmony. Love is the core of the life of the Berendeys, the form of their service to the mighty pagan god of the Sun - Yaril. The appearance of “cold” S. among people brings “jealousy, abuse, strife” into their lives. A “coolness” penetrates into people’s hearts […]...
How would you characterize the Snow Maiden in this action? The Snow Maiden is sad in the Bobyls' house. She loves Lelya's songs. But when Lel comes, without joy, almost under duress, she gives him a flower, although she is offended that he abandoned her when other girls beckoned. Kupava’s fiancé Mizgir, captivated by the beauty of the Snow Maiden, calls her, and she agrees to the invitation of a rich groom, […]...
Work: The Snow Maiden The Snow Maiden is the heroine of the “spring fairy tale” by A. N. Ostrovsky “The Snow Maiden” (1873). The play takes place in “the country of the Berendeys in prehistoric times.” The mythopoetic image of the Berendey kingdom is inspired by oral folk art. This is an idyllic kingdom of peace and harmony. Love is the core of the life of the Berendeys, the form of their service to the mighty pagan god of the Sun - Yaril. The appearance of “cold” S. among people […]...
V. M. VASNETSOV. “SNOW MAIDEN” Cold winter night. Silence. Glade. Moonlight illuminates the lonely figure of the Snow Maiden. In her appearance there is tenderness, purity, inaccessibility. Her eyes are inexpressibly beautiful. She was thinking about something. Maybe about the transience, the short duration of life? Or about the impossibility of hopes, about the uniqueness of every moment, about the inevitability of parting with the indescribable beauty that is nearby? Dark skies and [...]
“The Snow Maiden” was written by Ostrovsky based on material. oral folk art. The playwright gives the play the subtitle ^ “Spring Tale” and explains: “The action takes place in St. * Berendeev in prehistoric times.” In the play, as in a fairy tale, Spring-Red, Grandfather Frost, Leshy, Eda Lenitsa, and the heroine herself act alongside people - Snegurochka, daughter of Frost and Spring. And in the Country of the Berendeys [...]
Why does Lel, who undertook to awaken the Snow Maiden’s heart, still choose Kupava? Lel is a kind and sympathetic young man; he sincerely wants to save the Berendey kingdom from misfortune. The beautiful Snow Maiden is dear to him. But he is unable to warm a cold heart and melt the ice of indifference. And Lel chooses Kupava, capable of love, who became unhappy due to the fault of Mizgir and the Snow Maiden. […]...
How is Ostrovsky’s “spring tale” related to the legends and rituals you know? The play “Snow Maiden” has the subtitle “spring fairy tale”. It involves heroes who are familiar to us from many fairy tales, legends and traditions. Among them are the Snow Maiden, her parents, Spring and Frost, the Leshy, and Elena the Beautiful, known from folk tales. Farewell to Maslenitsa - welcoming spring, songs associated with it, [...]
Two capacious artistic symbols contain the main theme of the drama “The Thunderstorm”. The first is the main, powerful cataclysm that swept through not only nature, but also the human community and broke the heroine’s soul, exhausted from an excess of unclaimed reserves of love. The second is the great river into which the unfortunate woman threw herself, her cradle and her grave. The general meaning of these images-symbols is […]...
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky can rightfully be considered the creator of the repertoire for the national Russian theater. Despite the fact that he became most famous for his works about the morals of the Russian merchants (which the critic Nikolai Dobrolyubov very aptly nicknamed “the dark kingdom”), among the gloomy and slightly scary stories from the life of Zamoskvoretsky merchants there is a very bright and fairy-tale work - “The Snow Maiden”, […]...
Prologue 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 painting by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov depicts a winter night. In a dark, snow-covered forest it is very dark and only diamond stars illuminate the clearing, and the moonlight falls on the lumps of snow so that its shine is blinding, and bright shadows dance on the snow cover. A shining, bluish color stands out on the canvas, and sometimes looking at it, it seems that you can hear a crunch [...]
What did the wise king see as the reason why Yarilo was angry with his people? Reference. Yarilo is a deity of Slavic mythology associated with fertility. Carnivals and mass celebrations were usually held in his honor. The wise Tsar Berendey immediately realized that Yarilo was dissatisfied with the fact that the boys and girls were not having much fun, that treason had arisen among them. What they […]...
The entire spring fairy tale by A. N. Ostrovsky “The Snow Maiden” is covered in good romance. This play is the embodiment of the playwright’s dream about a social future, about the peaceful life of the people, free from the power of arbitrariness and violence, that good must be done with one’s own hands. It depicts the kingdom of happy Berendeys, who do not know destructive strife and bloody wars: Merry are the cities in the land of the Berendeys, […]...
Solution of exercises. Pages 122-129: Essay on a meeting with V. M. Vasnetsov’s painting “The Snow Maiden” HUMORIC WORKS p. 122. “Fedina’s task” (N. Nosov) Genre – story. In this story, the author condemns the guys who are distracted from work and waste their time. “Helen with a bouquet” (A. Barto) Genre – poem. The author condemns Lena for the fact that, while carrying out an assignment, [...]
Essay 1 Before us is a picture of a winter night, cold and mysterious. A ringing silence reigns in the forest clearing. Not a soul around. And among this icy silence, the young Snow Maiden looks especially fragile and touching. All of her is the embodiment of snowy purity and amazing tenderness. This is a fairy tale come to life, which does not belong to the ordinary world of people. The Snow Maiden's beautiful eyes conceal many mysteries. […]...
ACT THREE Why does Lel, who undertook to awaken the Snow Maiden’s heart, still choose Kupava? Lel is a kind and sympathetic young man; he sincerely wants to save the Berendey kingdom from misfortune. The beautiful Snow Maiden is dear to him. But he is unable to warm a cold heart and melt the ice of indifference. And Lel chooses Kupava, capable of love, who became unhappy due to the fault of Mizgir […]...
The painting by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov depicts a girl in winter clothes. She stands in a dense forest in a clearing. The forest clearing is covered with a thick layer of snow, as evidenced by the deep footprints left by the girl. There are beautiful, green fir trees and some bare trunks scattered around; probably, in the warm season, these bare trunks turn into lush birch trees. Judging by the title of the picture, [...]
Often depicting fairy-tale characters, artists use familiar stories, taking them as a basis. But V.M. Vasnetsov was not like that. He walked his own path, sometimes incomprehensible to everyone at once. And only over time it became clear that he was not only a great artist, but also an attentive observer who noticed all the subtleties of the psychological portrait of his characters. The painting “The Snow Maiden” is so [...]
The drama “Dowry” was written in 1878, in the new conditions of social life, in the post-reform period of the development of bourgeois relations. Patriarchal life and morals are a thing of the past. The main character is a richly gifted person, talented, poetic, sensitive, impressionable, trusting, sincere. The key to her character is the translation of her name (“Larissa” in Greek means “seagull”). She dreams of something bright and sublime, but around her [...]
A. N. Ostrovsky is not only a wonderful playwright, but also a true innovator in the field of plays. No one before him had examined the merchant environment, its characters, types, and destinies in such a multifaceted way. Ostrovsky introduced the problem of the “dark kingdom” into Russian literature. He showed that behind the walls of handsome merchant houses, lawlessness, tyranny, and cruelty were happening. Here young lives and destinies are ruined, [...]
Class. Russian folk tale “The Snow Maiden”. Equipment: Illustrations with characters, a picture in which there are two different snowmen. Objectives: – develop auditory and visual attention, observation, imagination; – develop the ability to think logically when solving problematic problems; – enriching children’s vocabulary, both quantitatively and qualitatively, teaching sound analysis and synthesis in word games; […]...
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky Snow Maiden A spring tale in four acts with a prologue Fairy-tale play (1873) The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring flies to Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Spring's retinue. The country welcomes Spring with cold […]...
Ostrovsky A. N. The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring flies to Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Spring's retinue. The land of the Berendeys greets Spring with cold, and all because of Spring’s flirtations with Frost, the old grandfather, […]...
A. N. Ostrovsky Snow Maiden The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring flies to Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Spring's retinue. The land of the Berendeys greets Spring with cold, and all because of Spring’s flirtations with Frost, the old […]...
The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring flies to Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Spring's retinue. The land of the Berendeys greets Spring with cold, and all because of Spring’s flirtations with Frost, the old grandfather, Spring herself admits. […]...
A. N. Ostrovsky, an outstanding Russian playwright, had a unique skill in comprehending and conveying the deepest human feelings, aspirations, and dreams. All his works are marked by unique psychologism and truthfulness. In any life situation, especially a tragic one, he found the very essence and masterfully reflected it in his plays. Ostrovsky’s best dramatic work is rightfully considered the play “The Dowry […]...
THE SNOW Maiden (Spring Tale) Opera in four acts with a prologue Libretto by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Characters: Tsar Berendey Bermyata, close boyar Spring-red Santa Claus Snow Maiden Girl Bobyl Bakula Bobylikha, his wife Lel, shepherd Kupava a young girl, daughter of a wealthy Sloboda citizen Mizgir, trade guest from Berendeev Posad First privet Second privet Tsar's Youth Leshy Maslenitsa, straw effigy Tenor Bass Mezzo soprano […]...
Katerina Katerina is the wife of Tikhon Kabanov and daughter-in-law of Kabanikha. This is the central character of the play, with the help of which Ostrovsky shows the fate of a strong, extraordinary personality in the conditions of a small patriarchal town. Since childhood, Katerina has a very strong desire for happiness, which, as she grows up, develops into a desire for mutual love. Despite her religiosity, Katerina remains an earthly and lively girl, experiencing […]...
The nineteenth century in Russia was a time of liberation from serfdom. During these years, writers, poets and other creative people visited more and more often. They talked about freedom, and not only of peasants. In these times, women did not have the same rights that men had: a woman was subordinate to a man and could even serve his whims. This problem of the era of A.N. […]...
Anna Karenina is the main character of the novel of the same name by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. The image of Anna Karenina is extremely tragic. Being a strong and beautiful woman, Anna Karenina faced problems that were insurmountable for herself, which led her to such a tragic end. At the same time, her image is not without inconsistency, so the attitude towards her cannot be unambiguous. The first [...]
Ostrovsky wrote a wonderful play “Dowry”. It describes the life of one beautiful, young and beautiful girl - Larisa Dmitrievna Ogudalova, who turned out to be a victim of unfortunate circumstances. “Dowry” is similar in meaning to the drama “The Thunderstorm”. In these plays, even the main characters are similar in character and the plays end equally tragically. And we, of course, feel very sorry for both heroines. If Katerina dies from [...]
I say, why don’t people fly like birds? A. N. Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in his plays created a gallery of unforgettable Russian characters, an entire repertoire of Russian theater. The images of Katerina from “The Thunderstorm” and Larisa Ogudalova from “The Dowry” seem reverent, romantic and so different. These two dramas were written at different times, maybe that’s why the heroines are so different [...]
A conflict is a clash between two or more parties that do not coincide in their views or worldview. There are several conflicts in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” but how can you decide which one is the main one? In the era of sociology in literary criticism, it was believed that social conflict was the most important in the play. Of course, if we see in the image of Katerina a reflection of the spontaneous protest of the masses against the constraining conditions [...]
Essay “My favorite hero of a Russian fairy tale is Baba Yaga” I like to read Russian folk tales in which there is the character of Baba Yaga. This is a colorful fairy-tale heroine, although a bit scary in appearance. They called it “Bone Leg.” Baba Yaga has a long hooked nose and shaggy gray hair. She is dressed in a long skirt, an old apron, and ties a scarf around her head. Baba lives [...]
A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is known to many. It is on many school lists of literary works. The play takes place near the Volga River in the city of Kalinov. In this city everyone knows each other, but everyone protects themselves from each other - they build fences to fence themselves off. They live a closed life and do not know what is happening in other cities. […]...
Most of all I liked Ivan Tsarevich in this fairy tale. True, in the first half of the tale, Ivan evokes pity rather than sympathy. Because of his unusual wife, Ivan becomes the subject of ridicule by his older brothers and their wives. He also endures the orders of the king, his father, very painfully, because he does not hope that they will be carried out. However, already at the beginning of the tale [...]
the epic slowness of the development of the action and the thoroughness of the stage characters; detailed descriptions of patriarchal merchant life; emphasis on the individual destiny of the individual and the pursuit of happiness of the individual ordinary person; at the same time, the hero’s life story acts as a measure for assessing the state of society; the type of hero (heroine) of a “warm heart”, who is endowed with a natural sublime impulse towards happiness, cannot imagine life without “will” and desperately defends his [...]
A crime is an atrocity. For every crime there is punishment. What pushes people to commit a crime, what motivates them? What are the motives? To commit a crime means to go against any moral foundations, moral principles of both society and the individual himself. Therefore, there is something much more powerful, something that prevails over a person. Let's try to compare two heroines: Katerina […]...

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 fused with realistic, often everyday pictures; folk language, which includes elements of vernacular and, on the other hand, turns in some places into high poetic, solemn speech.

Critical literature has expressed the opinion that the appearance of such a play was associated with random circumstances: in 1873, the Maly Theater was closed for repairs, the troupe moved to the Bolshoi Theater building to occupy the artists of the drama and opera and ballet theaters, the management decided to ask A.N. Ostrovsky to write a corresponding play. He agreed.

In fact, everything was more serious. The move of the Maly Theater was only a pretext, an impetus for the implementation of the theatrical genre conceived by Ostrovsky. 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, “every working person is drawn to spend the evening away from home... 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 the fairy-tale land of the Berendeys, as the playwright writes, in “prehistoric times.” The name of the Berendey tribe appears in the Tale of Bygone Years. The writer also heard oral stories about the ancient city of Berendey and Tsar Berendey.”

Mythological characters pass before the viewer - gods (Yarilo), demigods (Frost, Vesna-Krasna), the daughter of Frost and Vesna-Krasna Snegurochka (the 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.

Living 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 a model of 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 depicted in folk tales in some places in Rus').

There are not 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 us note the 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 of various professions and positions: farmers, kissers, fishermen, merchants, masters, servants, privet, 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 ryuchi, calling the Berendeys to a meeting with the Tsar, in a joking manner give evil but truthful characteristics 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 of the 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, and this harmony is not present in the character of the 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:

More precious to me are 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.

Ostrovsky's play is rich in its artistic merits. Let us note, first of all, the clarity and clarity of the composition - the order of development of the plot from the prologue, introducing the reader and viewer to the essence of the conflict, to the climax (the Snow Maiden's break with Lel and Kupava) and to the denouement in the fourth act. The verses in which the play is written are original and expressive.

Stanislavsky spoke about the great and sonorous poems of the playwright. Kupava's dialogue with Tsar Berendey is considered the pearl of Russian lyric poetry. Turgenev admired the beauty and ease of Ostrovsky's language. The play organically absorbed folk speech, as mentioned above, with elements of vernacular.

At the beginning of the play, the Snow Maiden is the daughter of Frost and Spring.
It combines a fatal contradiction: “spring”,
restless, creative beginning of Spring and coldness,
“chill of feelings” inherited from Frost.

Frost hides her from people, he is afraid of the prediction:
...like the Sun
He is going to destroy the Snow Maiden; only
And is waiting to be planted in her heart
With its ray the fire of love; Then
There is no salvation for the Snow Maiden, Yarilo
It will burn it, incinerate it, melt it.
I don’t know how, but it will kill.
That is, unlike a fairy tale, the Snow Maiden must die
not just from the sun, but from the fire of love.
But Spring believes that the time has come for the Snow Maiden to leave
your mansion, to experience life among people.
The decision is made by the Snow Maiden.
Captivated by Lelya's songs, which are dearer to her than
"The larks are singing", the Snow Maiden does not want to stay
in the wilderness, she reaches out to people, dreams of singing
together with the girls and dance in circles.
And Moroz reluctantly gives her to the Bobyl family.

Her new life begins, the Snow Maiden goes to people.
The family in which the Snow Maiden lives is not capable
appreciate neither her beauty nor her hard work.
Together with Bobylikha, envious and cunning, who
in the eyes there is only “horned kika with rolled pearls”,
they use the Snow Maiden and her beauty in their
for selfish purposes, they don’t like her.
The Snow Maiden is beautiful:
Your maiden beauty is like wealth.
Because of her beauty: from matchmakers and matchmakers
There is no lights out, the rapids have been trampled.

But the Snow Maiden does not know love, her heart is cold:
...My problem is that there is no affection in me.
Everyone interprets what love is in the world,
That a girl cannot escape love;
But I don’t know love; What a word
Heart friend and what is darling,
I don't know. And tears of separation,
And joy when meeting a dear friend

Before love, she experiences jealousy, bitterness, resentment:
...How painful it is here, how heavy my heart has become!
With a heavy insult, like a stone,
A flower crushed by Lelem fell on my heart
And abandoned. And it's like I do too
Abandoned and abandoned, withered...
From his mocking words.

She has to experience a lot: undeserved
Kupava's accusation that she separated her from
Mizgirem, who, seeing the Snow Maiden,
I was so captivated by her beauty that I left Kupava.
Her words sound like a reproach to Mizgir:
You can't buy my love.
Priceless pearl
Keep it for yourself; I don't value it dearly
My love, but I won’t sell it:
I change from love to love,
But not with you, Mizgir.
With fear she listens to Mizgir’s declaration of love,
and then watches the happiness of others Lelya and Kupava.
The desire to love as people love makes her
make a detrimental decision:
...O mother, Spring is Red!
I am running to you with a complaint and a request:
I ask for love, I want to love! Give it back
The Snow Maiden has a girl's heart, mother!
Give me my love or take my life!
Let me perish, one moment of love
More precious to me are the years of melancholy and tears.

The power of love is contained in the magical wreath of Spring,
which she puts on the Snow Maiden.
The Snow Maiden takes on a different look at
the world:
Oh, mom, what's wrong with me? What a beauty
The green forest has dressed! Shores
And you can’t stop admiring the lake.
The water beckons, the bushes are calling me
Under your canopy; and the sky, mother, the sky!
Now she notices the beauty around her, before she
I admired only my beauty.
Spring-Red gives her the great gift of nature - love.
The Snow Maiden died.
It is no coincidence that she dies precisely when she accepted
the law of life of the Berendeys and is ready to realize her
awakened love into everyday forms.
This is inaccessible to either her or Mizgir, whose passion
unfamiliar to the Berendeys, pushes them out of the circle
peaceful life.
The death of the Snow Maiden is atonement for the sins of the Berendeys.
Accepting this sacrifice, Yarila returns the berendnyam
light and warmth.

Describe the Snow Maiden's character, behavior, appearance, speech. Ostrovsky, "The Snow Maiden", act four

Essay on literature on the topic: Snow Maiden (Snegurochka Ostrovsky A. N.)

Other writings:

Several interesting essays

Related posts: