Analysis of the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” (M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin)
The well-known writer Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin was a truly great creator. As an official, he skillfully denounced the ignorant nobles and praised the ordinary Russian people. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the list of which numbers more than a dozen, are the property of our classical literature.
"Wild Landowner"
All tales of Mikhail Evgrafovich are written using sharp sarcasm. With the help of heroes (animals or people), he ridicules not so much human vices as the feeblemindedness of higher ranks. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the list of which would be incomplete without the story about the wild landowner, help us see the attitude of the 19th century nobles towards their serfs. The story is small, but it makes you think about many serious things.
A landowner with the strange name Urus Kuchum Kildibaev lives for his own pleasure: he reaps a rich harvest, has luxurious housing and a lot of land. But one day he got tired of the abundance of peasants in his house and decided to get rid of them. The landowner prayed to God, but he did not heed his requests. He began to mock the men in every possible way and began to pressure them with taxes. And then the Lord took pity on them, and they disappeared.
At first, the stupid landowner was happy: now no one bothered him. But later he began to feel their absence: no one cooked his food or cleaned the house. The visiting generals and the police chief called him a fool. But he didn’t understand why they treated him like that. As a result, he became so wild that he even began to look like an animal: he grew hair, climbed trees, and tore his prey with his hands and ate it.
Saltykov-Shchedrin masterfully portrayed the satirical portrayal of the nobleman’s vices. The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” shows how stupid a person can be who does not understand that he lived well only thanks to his men.
In the end, all the serfs return to the landowner, and life flourishes again: meat is sold at the market, the house is clean and orderly. But Urus Kuchum never returned to its previous appearance. He still moos, missing his old wild life.
"The Wise Minnow"
Many people remember Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tales from childhood, the list of which is quite large: “How a Man Fed Two Generals”, “The Bear in the Voivodeship”, “Kisel”, “The Horse”. True, we begin to understand the real meaning of these stories when we become adults.
Such is the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”. He lived all his life and was afraid of everything: cancer, water fleas, people and even his own brother. His parents bequeathed to him: “Look both ways!” And the minnow decided to hide all his life and not catch anyone’s eye. And he lived like this for more than a hundred years. I have never seen or heard anything in my entire life.
Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wise Minnow" makes fun of stupid people who are ready to live their whole lives in fear of any danger. Now the old fish thought about what he lived for. And he felt so sad because he did not see the white light. I decided to emerge from behind my snag. And after that no one saw him.
The writer laughs that even a pike won’t eat such an old fish. The gudgeon in the work is called wise, but this is undoubtedly because it is extremely difficult to call him smart.
Conclusion
The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin (their list is listed above) have become a real treasure trove of Russian literature. How clearly and wisely the author describes human shortcomings! These stories have not lost their relevance in our time. In this they are similar to fables.
Composition
A special place in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin is occupied by fairy tales with their allegorical images, in which the author was able to say more about Russian society in the sixties, eighties, and tens of the nineteenth century than the historians of those years. Chernyshevsky argued: “None of the writers preceding Shchedrin painted pictures of our life in darker colors. No one punished our own ulcers with greater mercilessness.”
Saltykov-Shchedrin writes "fairy tales" for children of considerable age", that is, for an adult reader who needs to open his eyes to life. The fairy tale, due to the simplicity of its form, is accessible to anyone, even an inexperienced reader, and therefore is especially dangerous for the “top.” It was not for nothing that the censor Lebedev reported: “Mr. S.’s intention to publish some of his fairy tales in separate brochures are more than strange. What Mr. S. calls fairy tales does not at all correspond to its name; his fairy tales are the same satire, and the satire is caustic, tendentious, more or less directed against our social and political structure.”
The main problem of fairy tales is the relationship between exploiters and exploited. The fairy tales provide satire on Tsarist Russia: on bureaucrats, on bureaucrats, on landowners. The reader is presented with images of the rulers of Russia (“Bear in the Voivodeship”, “Eagle Patron”), exploiters and exploited (“Wild Landowner”, “How One Man Fed Two Generals”), ordinary people (“The Wise Minnow”, “Dried Roach” and others).
The fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" is directed against the entire social system, based on exploitation, and anti-people in its essence. Preserving the spirit and style of a folk tale, the satirist talks about real events in contemporary life. Although the action takes place in “a certain kingdom, a certain state,” the pages of the fairy tale depict a very specific image of a Russian landowner. The whole meaning of his existence comes down to “pampering his white, loose, crumbly body.” He lives off
his men, but hates them, is afraid, cannot stand their “servile spirit.” He considers himself a true representative of the Russian state, its support, and is proud that he is a hereditary Russian nobleman, Prince Urus-Kuchum-Kildibaev. He rejoices when some chaff whirlwind carried away all the men to God knows where, and the air in his domain became pure and pure. But the men disappeared, and there was such a famine that in the city “... you can’t buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread at the market.” And the landowner himself went completely wild: “He was all overgrown with hair, from head to toe... and his legs became like iron. He stopped blowing his nose a long time ago, and walked more and more on all fours. He even lost the ability to utter articulate sounds...” ". In order not to die of hunger, when the last gingerbread was eaten, the Russian nobleman began to hunt: if he spots a hare, “like an arrow will jump from a tree, grab onto its prey, tear it apart with its nails, and eat it with all the insides, even the skin.”
The landowner's savagery indicates that he cannot live without the help of the "man." After all, it was not for nothing that as soon as the “swarm of men” was caught and put in place, “the smell of chaff and sheepskin began to smell in that district; flour and meat and all kinds of livestock appeared at the market, and so many taxes arrived in one day that the treasurer, seeing such a pile of money , just clasped his hands in surprise..."
If we compare the well-known folk tales about the master and the peasant with the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, for example, with “The Wild Landowner,” we will see that the image of the landowner in Shchedrin’s tales is very close to folk tales. But Shchedrin’s men are different from those in fairy tales. In folk tales, a quick-witted, dexterous, resourceful man defeats a stupid master. And in “The Wild Landowner” a collective image of workers, breadwinners of the country and at the same time martyrs-sufferers appears, their “tearful orphan’s prayer” sounds: “Lord, it is easier for us to perish with small children than to suffer like this all our lives!” Thus, modifying a folk tale, the writer condemns the long-suffering of the people, and his fairy tales sound like a call to rise up to fight, to renounce the slave worldview.
Many of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s tales are dedicated to exposing philistinism. One of the most poignant is “The Wise Minnow.” Gudgeon was "moderate and liberal." Dad taught him the “wisdom of life”: not to interfere in anything, take care of yourself. Now he sits all his life in his hole and trembles, lest he get hit in the ear or end up in the mouth of a pike. He lived like this for more than a hundred years and trembled all the time, and when the time came to die, he trembled even as he died. And it turned out that he had not done anything good in his life, and no one remembers or knows him.
The political orientation of Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire required new artistic forms. To get around censorship obstacles, the satirist had to turn to allegories, allusions, and “Aesopian language.” Thus, in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner,” telling about events “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state,” the author calls the newspaper “Vest,” mentions the actor Sadovsky, and the reader immediately recognizes Russia in the mid-19th century. And in “The Wise Minnow” the image of a small, pathetic fish, helpless and cowardly, is depicted. It perfectly characterizes the trembling man in the street. Shchedrin attributes human properties to fish and at the same time shows that humans can also have “fish” traits. The meaning of this allegory is revealed in the words of the author: “Those who think that only those minnows can be considered worthy citizens who, mad with fear, sit in a hole and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows.” .
Until the end of his life, Saltykov-Shchedrin remained faithful to the ideas of his spiritual friends: Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov. The significance of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work is all the greater because during the years of severe reaction he almost alone continued the progressive ideological traditions of the sixties.
Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tales, intended for adults, introduce the peculiarities of Russian society better than historical works. The story of the wild landowner is similar to an ordinary fairy tale, but it combines reality with fiction. The landowner, who becomes the hero of the story, often reads the actually existing reactionary newspaper “Vest”.
Left alone, the landowner at first rejoices that his wish has come true. Later comes the realization of one's own stupidity. The arrogant guests do not hesitate to tell him about his stupidity, realizing that the landowner has only candy left from the treats. This is also the official opinion of the police officer who collects taxes, who understands the inseparability of peasant taxes from the stability of the state.
But the landowner does not heed the voice of reason and does not listen to other people's advice. He remains strong-willed and dreams of fantastic foreign cars designed to replace men. A naive dreamer does not realize that in reality he is not able to wash himself. He is completely helpless because he doesn’t know how to do anything.
The fairy tale ends sadly: the stubborn man grows fur, gets on all fours and begins to throw himself at people. It turned out that the gentleman, noble on the outside, had the essence of a simple creature. He remained human as long as he was served food on a plate and dressed in clean clothes.
The higher authorities decided to return the peasants to the estate so that they would work, pay taxes to the treasury and produce food for their owners.
But the landowner remained wild forever. He was caught and cleaned, but he still gravitates towards forest life and does not like to wash himself. This is the hero: a ruler in the serf world, but under the care of a simple peasant, Senka.
The author laughs at the morals of Russian society. He sympathizes with the peasants and accuses them of being too patient and submissive. At the same time, the writer demonstrates the powerlessness of landowners who cannot live without servants. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin call for respect for the people, which is the basis that supports the well-being of such landowners.
Option 2
Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote his famous work, which was called "Wild Landowner", in 1869. There he examines quite topical issues that are relevant both at that time and now. For him, the genre of fairy tales is central, which he writes far from being for children. The author juxtaposes the tragic with the comic in his work, using techniques such as grotesque and hyperbole, as well as Aesopian language. Thus, he ridicules autocracy and serfdom, which still exist in the country.
At the center of events is an ordinary landowner who takes special pride in the fact that noble blood flows in his veins. His goal is simply to pamper the body, relax and be yourself. He is actually resting and he can afford such a lifestyle only thanks to the men, whom he treats very cruelly; he cannot even stand the spirit of ordinary men.
And so the landowner’s desire is fulfilled, and he is left alone, while God fulfilled not the desire of the landowner, but the desire of the peasants, who are completely exhausted from constant control and supervision.
Thus, Shchedrin ridicules the fate of the Russian people, which is quite difficult. Only after a while does the hero realize that he has committed real stupidity.
And in the end, the landowner has completely gone wild, inside the supreme being of man, the most ordinary animal is hidden, which lives only to fulfill its desires.
The hero has been restored to serf society, and a simple Russian peasant named Senka will take care of him.
The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is one of the brilliant works of a writer working in the genre of satire. He has to ridicule the socio-political system, he has to expose the existing morals and types of society, in which there is a rather strange morality that is not subject to comprehension. It shows how helpless landowners are, who are constantly looked after by simple serfs. All this is ridiculed by the author, who is forced to live in such a society; it is difficult for him to cope with the existing situation, so he tries to show its absurdity and condemn what is happening in society.
Analysis of the Wild Landowner
One of best works Saltykova-Shchedrin was published in 1869 and it is called the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”. This work can be classified as satire. Why a fairy tale? The author chose this genre for a reason; in this way he bypassed censorship. The heroes of the work do not have names. A kind of hint from the author that the landowner is a composite image and corresponds to many landowners in Rus' in the 19th century. Well, take the rest of the heroes, men and Senka, these are peasants. The author raises very interesting topic. The main thing for the author is that the peasant, honest and hardworking people are always higher in everything than the nobles.
Thanks to the fairy tale genre, the author's work is very simple and full of irony and various artistic details. With the help of details, the author can very clearly convey the images of the characters. For example, he calls the landowner stupid and soft-bodied. Who knew no grief and enjoyed life.
The main problem of this work is the difficult life of ordinary people. In the author’s fairy tale, the landowner appears as a soulless and cruel monster; all he does is humiliate the poor peasants and try to take away even the last thing from them. The peasants prayed, there was nothing else they could do, they, as people, wanted a normal life. The landowner wanted to get rid of them and in the end, God fulfilled the desire of the peasants to live better and the desire of the landowner to get rid of the peasants. After this, it becomes clear that the entire luxurious life of the landowner is provided by the peasants. With the disappearance of the “slaves”, life changed, now the landowner became like an animal. He changed in appearance, became scarier, overgrown, and stopped eating normally. The men disappeared and life changed from bright colors to gray and dull ones. Even spending time as before, in entertainment, the landowner feels that it’s still not the same. The author reveals the real meaning of the work, which relates to real life. The boyars and landowners oppress the peasants and do not consider them as people. But, in the absence of "slaves" they cannot live normal life, because it is the peasants and workers who provide all the good for them personally and for the country. And the upper strata of society bring nothing more than problems and misfortunes.
The people in this work, namely the peasants, are honest people, open and loving to work. With the help of their labor, the landowner lived happily ever after. By the way, the author shows the peasants not just as one thoughtless crowd, but as smart and insightful people. In this work, justice is very important for the peasants. They considered this attitude towards themselves unfair and therefore asked God for help.
Saltykov-Shchedrin himself has great respect for the peasants, which he shows in the work. This can be seen, very clearly, when the landowner disappeared and lived without peasants and at the time when he returned. As a result, it turns out that the author leads the reader to one true opinion. It is not high-ranking officials, not officials who decide the fate of the country and each of the landowners, but the peasants. All the well-being and all the benefits of rich people rest on them. That's what it is main idea works.
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Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire on the landed nobility occupies a significant place in Russian literature of the nineteenth century. Vivid images and bold decisions allowed the writer to wittily but mercilessly brand the reactionary nobility, which had exhausted its usefulness for Russia and had become its ballast. His fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is a classic of Russian satire and one of the most famous creations of Saltykov-Shchedrin on the theme of the peasant question in Russia, in which he revealed the relationship between two classes: the landed nobility and the peasantry. The many-wise Litrekon offers you an analysis of the work.
The history of the writing of the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” boasts interesting facts about the work:
- Like many other works, “The Wild Landowner” was inspired by the writer’s short-term exile to the Vyatka region, where he could observe the life of people in the Russian province in its entirety.
- The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” was written in 1869 as a response to disappointment in the peasant reform of the year sixty-five, which did not solve the land issue. In this situation, Saltykov-Shchedrin returned to those images that, it would seem, had already disappeared from everyday life, but in fact existed on the territory of Russia for a long time.
- The author managed to publish his work in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski thanks to the media editor Nikolai Nekrasov. He also held oppositional views on the fate of Russia. To publish daring literary works, he bribed censors with hunting trips and sumptuous dinners. At the cost of a bribe, he managed to publish the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner.”
Direction and genre
The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” was created within the framework of the direction. Despite some fantastic assumptions, the writer set as his goal a naturalistic depiction of the surrounding reality. The images he created are quite realistic, although somewhat exaggerated. The reader can believe that the characters described in this tale could actually exist.
The genre of “The Wild Landowner” can be defined as a satirical fairy tale. The plot is based on a fantastic assumption, designed to disguise and soften the harsh ridicule of the nobility, characteristic of all satirical works. The fabulous atmosphere is emphasized by the verbiage characteristic of folklore, like “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state” and “once upon a time.”
Table: Features of a fairy tale in the work “The Wild Landowner”
Composition
- Plot: acquaintance with the landowner and his hostility towards the peasants;
- Climax: disappearance of peasants;
- Development of action: degradation of a nobleman;
- Denouement: the return of the master to the fold of civilization and the return of slaves.
The point: what is the fairy tale about?
The plot tells us about a certain rich landowner who suffered from irrational hatred of the peasants and prayed to God that all commoners would disappear from his domain.
Having decided to eliminate the peasants on his own, the landowner began to drive his peasants out of the world through numerous fines and oppression. When they prayed to God for deliverance, he heeded their grief and took all the peasants from the landowner’s possessions.
The hero's initial joy was somewhat shaken by the cold reaction of those around him, who called him a fool. There was no one left to manage the house, clean the estate, or even wash the master himself. However, he still did not want to admit his mistake, considering his struggle with the common people a manifestation of firmness and fortitude and dreaming of purchasing steam engines from England to replace the men.
After some time, the landowner's possessions fell into disrepair and desolation, main character completely loses his human appearance. He grows hair, begins to walk on all fours, eats raw meat, becomes friends with a bear, and even loses the ability to speak human language.
In the end, the provincial authorities decide to stop this madness, find the missing men and return them to the landowner's possessions. The landowner himself was eventually captured and forcibly returned to the fold of civilization, but until the end of his days he never learned to speak again, greatly yearning for his old life in the forest.
The main characters and their characteristics
The system of images in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is described by the Many-Wise Litrecon in table format:
heroes of the fairy tale "wild landowner" | characteristic |
landowner | an arrogant, but rude and simple-minded nobleman. an unimaginably stupid person, unable to even understand what his wealth rests on. despises the common people and wishes them only harm. a person who is not independent and not adapted to real life. incapable of any physical labor and economic activity. without care and service from her men, she quickly loses her human appearance. The life of an animal seems to him much preferable to the life of a person. |
guys | the Orthodox Russian peasantry, providing a comfortable existence for the tyrant landowner. economic people who, in a matter of days, eliminated all the damage caused by the master to the household. at the same time, they are dependent and inert, they prefer to blindly obey their superiors, and instead of fighting injustice, turn to God for help. |
Themes
The theme of the book “The Wild Landowner” does not seem archaic to us. All the main topics are still relevant:
- People- simple Russian peasants in the work are presented as talented and economic people, but at the same time they are deprived of any willpower and self-respect, becoming mute slaves of a system that sees them only as living tools.
- Motherland– Saltykov-Shchedrin sees enormous potential in Russia and the Russian people, which, however, is limited by landlord and state oppression, as well as the inertia of the peasantry, which silently endures all injustices.
- Contrasting the nobility with the peasantry- in the person of the peasants the entire Russian peasantry is represented, which is endowed with skill and intelligence, but deprived of rights and will, and therefore is forced to carry the privileged noble minority, represented in the image of a stupid, insignificant and evil landowner.
- Life and customs of Russia- in his fairy tale, the writer makes fun of the way of life and customs that reigned in Russia during his time. The huge and clumsy bureaucratic apparatus that allowed such an absurd situation to happen, social inequality and noble oppression - all this was a sad commonplace for Russian Empire even after the abolition of serfdom.
- Folklore motives– in the text of a fairy tale there are often verbal expressions characteristic of folk art, like “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state,” “once upon a time,” “he looked at the light and rejoiced.” All this is necessary in order to emphasize the deep nationality of this work.
Problems
The problematic of the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is a product of the state system in Russia of that period. Officials solved personal, not public problems, so the common people were left to themselves and their tormentors (if the section needs additions, write about it to the Many-Wise Litrekon):
- Social inequality- in his fairy tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin perfectly depicted the gap between the peasant and noble classes, which consisted not only in material wealth, but also in worldview. The peasants had a “servile mentality” and were hostages of their long-suffering and ignorance. Their masters were just as stupid and even stupider, but bolder and more cunning.
- Serfdom– the work reflects the entire absurdity of serfdom, considered by Saltykov-Shchedrin, as a terrible abomination in the history of the Russian people, not only causing enormous harm to the economy of the Russian Empire and breeding poverty, but also disfiguring human souls, making them faceless slaves of the system.
- Ignorance of the ruling class- describing the thoughts of a stupid landowner, the writer thereby emphasizes the insignificance of the landowner nobility, its limitations and ignorance. Therefore, the situation seems even more unfair that it is people like the wild landowner who determine the fate of the Russian Empire and its people.
Meaning
The landowner's peasants personify the entire Russian peasantry, which is endowed with intelligence and talents, but is forced to eke out a slave existence due to its own inertia and inability to realize its interests and fight for them.
The main idea of the author of the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is that the enslaving dependence of the peasants on the nobles harms both sides: if simple people turn into stupefied slaves and spend their lives in the darkness of ignorance, then the aristocrats also degrade and become pests for their own country.
What does it teach?
Using the example of the landowner, Saltykov-Shchedrin condemns ignorance, rudeness and tyranny. The writer defends the idea of equality, believing that it is not origin or rank that determines a person, but his own skills and real achievements. The moral of the tale brings us closer to the ideal of Peter's times, when a simple person could achieve success and high status through work and knowledge.
The writer praises the thriftiness and hard work of the common people. He is trying to convey to the reader the idea of how important it is to respect oneself, to be aware of one’s interests, and not to blindly obey the state machine. A person who does not fight for his rights, but simply goes with the flow, will remain a powerless slave. This is the conclusion from the work “The Wild Landowner”.
Means of expression
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin built the entire tale on hyperbole and absurdity. So, the landowner became friends with the bear, grew bigger and began to live in the forest, like a wild animal. Of course, the writer exaggerated, and in reality this could not have happened, but the genre of the book gave him a lot of room for imagination.
Another important artistic device is the antithesis: the peasants are hardworking, kind and modest, but the landowner is lazy, angry and arrogant, although he has absolutely nothing to be proud of.
artistic means in the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”
Criticism
Contemporaries greeted The Wild Landowner as warmly as other works by Saltykov-Shchedrin that were published in the same period. Already during his lifetime, the writer stood on the same level as such a classic as Turgenev.
Nowadays, Saltykov-Shchedrin’s satire allows us to understand how the Russian intelligentsia of the mid-nineteenth century thought and lived.
In the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the theme of serfdom and the oppression of the peasantry always played a large role. Since the writer could not openly express his protest against the existing system, almost all of his works are filled with fairy-tale motifs and allegories. The satirical fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” was no exception, the analysis of which will help 9th grade students better prepare for a literature lesson. A detailed analysis of the fairy tale will help highlight the main idea of the work, the features of the composition, and will also allow you to better understand what the author teaches in his work.
Brief Analysis
Year of writing– 1869
History of creation– Unable to openly ridicule the vices of autocracy, Saltykov-Shchedrin resorted to an allegorical literary form - a fairy tale.
Subject– Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work “The Wild Landowner” most fully reveals the theme of the situation of serfs in the conditions of Tsarist Russia, the absurdity of the existence of a class of landowners who cannot and do not want to work independently.
Composition– The plot of the tale is based on a grotesque situation, behind which the real relations between the classes of landowners and serfs are hidden. Despite the small size of the work, the composition is created according to a standard plan: beginning, climax and denouement.
Genre- A satirical tale.
Direction- Epic.
History of creation
Mikhail Evgrafovich was always extremely sensitive to the plight of the peasants who were forced to be in lifelong servitude to the landowners. Many of the writer’s works, which openly touched upon this topic, were criticized and not allowed to be published by censorship.
However, Saltykov-Shchedrin still found a way out of this situation by turning his attention to the outwardly quite harmless genre of fairy tales. Thanks to the skillful combination of fantasy and reality, the use of traditional folklore elements, metaphors, and bright aphoristic language, the writer managed to disguise the evil and sharp ridicule of the landowners' vices under the guise of an ordinary fairy tale.
In an environment of government reaction, only through fairy-tale fiction was it possible to express one’s views on the existing political system. The use of satirical techniques in folk tale allowed the writer to significantly expand the circle of his readers and reach the masses.
At that time, the magazine was headed by the writer’s close friend and like-minded person, Nikolai Nekrasov, and Saltykov-Shchedrin did not have any problems with the publication of the work.
Subject
Main theme The tale “The Wild Landowner” lies in social inequality, the huge gap between the two classes that existed in Russia: landowners and serfs. Enslavement of the common people, complex relationships between exploiters and exploited - main issue of this work.
In a fairytale-allegorical form, Saltykov-Shchedrin wanted to convey to readers a simple idea- it is the peasant who is the salt of the earth, and without him the landowner is just an empty place. Few of the landowners think about this, and therefore the attitude towards the peasant is contemptuous, demanding and often downright cruel. But only thanks to the peasant does the landowner get the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits that he has in abundance.
In his work, Mikhail Evgrafovich concludes that it is the people who are the drinker and breadwinner not only of their landowner, but of the entire state. The true stronghold of the state is not the class of helpless and lazy landowners, but exclusively the simple Russian people.
It is this thought that haunts the writer: he sincerely complains that the peasants are too patient, dark and downtrodden, and do not fully realize their full strength. He criticizes the irresponsibility and patience of the Russian people, who do nothing to improve their situation.
Composition
The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is a small work, which in “Notes of the Fatherland” took up only a few pages. In it we're talking about about a stupid master who endlessly pestered the peasants working for him because of the “slave smell.”
In the beginning In the work, the main character turned to God with a request to forever get rid of this dark and hateful environment. When the landowner's prayers for deliverance from the peasants were heard, he was left completely alone on his large estate.
Climax The tale fully reveals the master's helplessness without the peasants, who were the source of all blessings in his life. When they disappeared, the once polished gentleman quickly turned into a wild animal: he stopped washing himself, taking care of himself, and eating normal human food. The life of a landowner turned into a boring, unremarkable existence in which there was no place for joy and pleasure. This was the meaning of the title of the fairy tale - the reluctance to give up one’s own principles inevitably leads to “savagery” - civil, intellectual, political.
In denouement works, the landowner, completely impoverished and wild, completely loses his mind.
Main characters
Genre
From the first lines of "The Wild Landowner" it becomes clear that this fairy tale genre. But not good-naturedly didactic, but caustic and satirical, in which the author harshly ridiculed the main vices of the social system in Tsarist Russia.
In his work, Saltykov-Shchedrin managed to preserve the spirit and general style of the nationality. He masterfully used such popular folklore elements as fairy-tale beginnings, fantasy, and hyperbole. However, he managed to tell about modern problems in society, describe events in Russia.
Thanks to fantastic, fairy-tale techniques, the writer was able to reveal all the vices of society. The work in its direction is an epic in which real-life relations in society are grotesquely shown.
Work test
Rating analysis
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