Analysis of the story of the wild landowner. Analysis of the fairy tale wild landowner by Saltykov-Shchedrin essay

The tale “The Wild Landowner” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, like his other satirical works, is intended for an adult audience. It was first published in the progressive literary magazine Otechestvennye zapiski in 1869, when it was headed by editor-publisher Nikolai Nekrasov, a friend and like-minded person of the writer.

Fairytale plot

The small work took up several pages of the magazine. The tale tells of a stupid landowner who pestered the peasants living on his land because of their "slave smell". The peasants disappear, and he remains the only occupant on his estate. The inability to take care of oneself and run a household leads first to impoverishment, and later to savagery and complete loss of sanity.

A madman hunts hares, which he eats alive, and talks to a bear. The situation reaches the provincial authorities, who order the peasants to be returned, the wild ones to be caught and left under the supervision of the servant.

Literary devices and images used

The work was typical of the author, who used satire and metaphorical devices to convey his ideas to the general public. The cheerful style, lively dialogues written in everyday colloquial language, cynical humor attracted readers with the ease of presentation. The allegorical images were thought-provoking and were extremely understandable both for serious subscribers of the magazine and for young cadets and young ladies.

Despite the fairy-tale narrative, Saltykov-Shchedrin directly mentions several times the real newspaper “Vest”, with whose editorial policy he did not agree. The author makes it the main reason for the protagonist's insanity. Using a satirical technique helps to ridicule a competitor and at the same time convey to the reader the inconsistency of ideas that can lead to absurdity.

The mention of the Moscow theater actor Mikhail Sadovsky, who was at the peak of his popularity at that time, is designed to attract the attention of an idle audience. Sadovsky's remarks in interrogative form indicate the absurdity of the actions of a madman and set the reader's judgments in the direction intended by the author.

Saltykov-Shchedrin uses his writing talent to present his political position and personal attitude to what is happening in an accessible form. The allegories and metaphors used in the text were perfectly understandable to his contemporaries. The reader from our time needs clarification.

Allegories and political background

The abolition of serfdom in 1861 caused violent cataclysms in the economic state of Russia. The reform was timely, but had a lot of controversial issues for all classes. Peasant uprisings caused civil and political aggravation.

The wild landowner, whom both the author and the characters constantly call stupid, is a collective image of a radical nobleman. The mental breakdown of centuries-old traditions was difficult for landowners. The recognition of the “man” as a free person with whom it was necessary to build new economic relations was happening with difficulty.

According to the plot, the temporarily obliged, as the serfs began to be called after the reform, were carried away by God in an unknown direction. This is a direct hint at the implementation of the rights that the reform has given them. The retrograde nobleman rejoices in the absence "manly smell", but demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the consequences. It is difficult for him to come to terms with the loss of free labor, but he is ready to starve, just not to have relations with former serfs.

The landowner constantly reinforces his delusional ideas by reading the newspaper Vest. The publication existed and was distributed at the expense of part of the nobility, dissatisfied with the ongoing reform. The materials published in it supported the destruction of the serfdom system, but did not recognize the peasants' ability to administrative organization and self-government.

Propaganda blamed the peasant class for the ruin of landowners and economic decline. In the finale, when the madman is forcibly brought back into human form, the police officer takes the newspaper from him. The author’s prophecy came true; a year after the publication of “The Wild Landowner,” the owner of “Vesti” went bankrupt and circulation ceased.

Saltykov describes the economic consequences that can occur without the labor of those temporarily obliged, without allegories: “not a piece of meat or a pound of bread in the market”, “robberies, robbery and murders have spread in the district”. The nobleman himself lost “its body is loose, white, crumbly”, became impoverished, became wild and finally lost his mind.

The police captain is responsible for straightening out the situation. A representative of the civil service voices the author’s main idea that “the treasury cannot exist without taxes and duties, and even more so without wine and salt regalia”. He shifts the blame for disruption of order and ruin from the peasants to “the stupid landowner who is the instigator of all the troubles”.

The tale of the “Wild Landowner” is a typical example of a political feuilleton, timely and vividly reflecting what was happening in the 60s of the 19th century.

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

This is Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”. In it, the stupidity of the landowner is taken to the limit. The writer sneers at the master’s “merits”: “The men see: although their landowner is stupid, he has a great mind. He shortened them so that there was nowhere to stick his nose; No matter where they look, everything is forbidden, not allowed, and not yours! The cattle go to water - the landowner shouts: “My water!” The chicken goes outside the outskirts - the landowner shouts: “My land!” And the earth, and the water, and the air - everything became his!”

The landowner considers himself not a man, but a kind of deity. Or at least a person of the highest rank. For him, it’s normal to enjoy the fruits of other people’s labor and not even think about it.

The men of the “wild landowner” are exhausted from hard work and cruel need. Tortured by oppression, the peasants finally prayed: “Lord! It’s easier for us to perish even with small children than to suffer like this all our lives!” God heard them, and “there was no man in the entire domain of the stupid landowner.”

At first it seemed to the master that he would now live well without the peasants. And all the noble guests of the landowner approved of his decision: “Oh, how good it is! - the generals praise the landowner, - so now you won’t have that slave smell at all? “Not at all,” the landowner answers.”

It seems that the hero does not realize the deplorability of his situation. The landowner only indulges in dreams, empty in essence: “and so he walks, walks from room to room, then sits down and sits. And he thinks everything. He thinks what kind of cars he will order from England, so that everything is steam and steam, and so that there is no servile spirit at all; he thinks what a fruitful garden he will plant: here there will be pears, plums...” Without his peasants, the “wild landowner” did nothing but caress his “loose, white, crumbly body.”

It is at this moment that the climax of the tale begins. Without his peasants, the landowner, who cannot lift a finger without a peasant, begins to run wild. In Shchedrin's fairy tale cycle, full scope is given for the development of the motif of reincarnation. It was the grotesque in the description of the process of the landowner's savagery that helped the writer show with all clarity how greedy representatives of the “conducting class” can turn into real wild animals.

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

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

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

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 a 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. It talks 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, at the same time, he managed to talk about modern problems in society and 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

Average rating: 4.1. Total ratings received: 520.

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 swaggering 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 “The 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 the autocracy and serfdom that 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 Saltykov-Shchedrin’s best works was published in 1869 and 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 a very interesting topic. The main thing for the author is that the peasant, honest and hardworking people are always higher in everything than the nobles.

Thanks to the fairy tale genre, the author's work is very simple and full of irony and various artistic details. With the help of details, the author can very clearly convey the images of the characters. For example, he calls the landowner stupid and soft-bodied. Who 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 a 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. This is the main idea of ​​the work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The people in the work of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are hardworking people in whose hands any business “argues.” It was thanks to them that the landowner always lived in abundance. The people appear before us not just as a weak-willed and reckless mass, but as smart and insightful people: “The men see: although their landowner is stupid, he has been given a great mind.” Peasants are also endowed with such an important quality as a sense of justice. They refused to live under the yoke of a landowner who imposed unfair and sometimes insane restrictions on them, and asked God for help.

The author himself treats the people with respect. This can be seen in the contrast between how the landowner lived after the disappearance of the peasantry and during his return: “And suddenly again there was a smell of chaff and sheepskins in that district; but at the same time, flour, 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...”, it can be argued that the people are the driving force of society, the foundation on which the existence of such “landowners” is based, and they certainly owe their well-being to the simple Russian peasant. This is the meaning of the ending of the fairy tale “The Wild Landowner”.