Fox in Russian folk tales. Heroes of Russian folk tales about animals and their role in the formation of national character Animal heroes in Russian folk tales

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St. Petersburg State University

Faculty of Philology

Program "Linguistics and Intercultural Communication"

Test on the topic:

Heroes of Russian folk tales about animals and their role in the formation of national character

Saint Petersburg

Introduction

Over the course of many centuries, in the process of developing the current images of animals in Russian folk tales, literature was created that explored and described the folklore characteristics of the heroes of fairy tales from various regions, countries, etc.

In such works V.Ya. Propp as “Historical roots of a fairy tale”, “Russian fairy tale” and “Morphology of a fairy tale”, E.V. Pomerantseva “The Fates of a Russian Fairy Tale”, V.P. Anikin “Russian folk tale” gives an idea of ​​the structure of a fairy tale, its types, and the large number of different types of fairy tale heroes. Books by O.M. Ivanova-Kazas “Mythological Zoology (dictionary)” and E. A. Kostyukhin “Types and Forms of Animal Epic” help to examine in detail the most famous heroes of fairy tales about animals and create their collective image based on a comparative analysis of these heroes and their actions.

The heroes of fairy tales are often animals, personifying people with different characters. Enough attention is paid to the consideration of such characters, but there is not enough literature explaining the role of their existence in fairy tales about animals, which is due to the relevance of the topic of the course work.

Goal: Describe the heroes of Russian folk tales about animals.

A study of Russian folk tales and its animal heroes.

Creation of a comparative analysis of the data of the heroes and their actions.

To prove the educational role of fairy tales through the necessity of the existence of animal heroes.

Subject of study.

Object of study.

Animal heroes of Russian folk tales.

Theoretical method

Method of analysis

Survey/questionnaire method

Comparative method

Research material.

Russian folk tales about animals.

The choice of this literature is due to the fact that in Russian folk tales about animals the characters of animal heroes and their features are especially clearly manifested. And books such as A.N. Afanasyeva “Russian folk tales: complete edition in one volume”, “Tales of animals”, “Tales of hares”, “Tales of a fox” give a complete picture of the heroes of fairy tales about animals, describe their character traits, appearance and actions.

Tales about animals, their characteristics and varieties

In fairy tales about animals, certain characters can be traced in different time frames. Therefore, one of the most important issues is the problem of differentiating fairy tales about animals and fairy tales of other genres in which animals take part.

The key to solving this problem is given by the definition of fairy tales about animals proposed by V.Ya. Proppom: By animal tales we will mean those tales in which the animal is the main object or subject of the story. On this basis, fairy tales about animals can be distinguished from others, where animals play only a supporting role and are not the heroes of the story.

Fairy tales about animals, of course, include fairy tales where only animals act ( Fox and Crane , Fox, hare and rooster , Fox midwife , Fox and blackbird , Fool Wolf etc.). Of the tales about the relationship between humans and animals, this genre should include those in which animals are the main characters, and people are the objects of their action, and in which the narrative is told from the point of view of animals, not humans ( Wolf at the ice hole , Dog and wolf , Man, bear and fox, etc.).

Tales about animals bear little resemblance to stories from the lives of animals. Animals in fairy tales act only to some extent in accordance with their nature, and to a much greater extent act as bearers of one or another character and producers of certain actions that should be attributed primarily to humans. Therefore, the world of animals in fairy tales is supplemented by human imagination; it is a form of expression of a person’s thoughts and feelings, his views on life.

Animals that speak, reason and behave like people are just a poetic convention: “The adventures of animals are projected onto human life - and it is their human meaning that makes them interesting.” Hence the main themes of Russian fairy tales about animals - human characters, virtues and vices of people, types of human relationships in everyday life, in society, sometimes these images even look satirical.

Most researchers note the problem of classifying tales about animals due to their diversity. V.Ya. wrote about the complexity of typologizing fairy tales about animals. Propp, noting the following varieties: tales about animals that exist in a cumulative form ( Teremok , Kolobok , Cockerel and bean seed and so on.); tales about animals, close in structure to fairy tales ( The wolf and the seven Young goats , Cat, rooster and fox and etc.); tales about animals, close in structure to fables ( Wolf and fox ); tales about animals, approaching literary works and having the form of a political pamphlet ( The Tale of Ersha Ershovich).

Developing a classification of Russian fairy tales about animals based on texts collected by A.N. Afanasyev, V.Ya. Propp identifies the following groups: Tales about wild animals ( Animals in the pit , Fox and wolf , Fox midwife , Fox and Crane , Fox Confessor and etc.); Tales about wild and domestic animals ( Dog and wolf , The wolf and the seven Young goats , Cat, fox and rooster and etc.); Tales of Man and Wild Animals ( Fox and her tail , Man and bear , The old bread and salt is forgotten , Bear - fake leg , Fox with a rolling pin and etc.); Tales of Pets ( Whacked goat , Horse and dog and etc.); Tales of Birds and Fishes ( Crane and heron , Cockerel and bean seed , Chicken Ryaba and etc.); Tales about other animals, plants, mushrooms and elements ( Fox and cancer , Teremok , Kolobok , Sun, frost and wind , War of the mushrooms, etc.).

The characters of Russian folk tales about animals are represented, as a rule, by images of wild and domestic animals. Images of wild animals clearly prevail over images of domestic animals: these are fox, wolf, bear, hare, among birds - crane, heron, thrush, woodpecker, sparrow, raven, etc. Domestic animals are much less common, and they do not appear as independent or leading characters, but only in combination with forest ones: this is a dog, a cat, a goat, a ram, a horse, a pig, a bull, and among poultry - a goose, a duck and a rooster. There are no tales only about domestic animals in Russian folklore. Each of the characters is an image of a very specific animal or bird, behind which stands one or another human character, therefore the characteristics of the characters are based on observation of the habits, demeanor of the animal, and its appearance. The difference in characters is especially clearly and definitely expressed in the images of wild animals: thus, the fox is depicted primarily as a flattering, cunning deceiver, a charming robber; wolf - how greedy and slow-witted gray fool , always getting into trouble; the bear is like a stupid ruler, forest oppression who uses his power not according to reason; a hare, a frog, a mouse, forest birds - like weak, harmless creatures, always serving on errands. The ambiguity of assessments also persists when describing domestic animals: for example, a dog is portrayed as an intelligent animal, devoted to humans; the cat shows a paradoxical combination of courage and laziness; The rooster is noisy, self-confident and curious.

To understand the meaning of Russian folk tales about animals, it is necessary to work on their plot organization and composition. The plot of animal tales is characterized by clarity, clarity and simplicity: “Tales about animals are built on elementary actions underlying the narrative, representing a more or less expected or unexpected end, prepared in a certain way. These simplest actions are phenomena of a psychological nature...” Animalistic tales are distinguished by their small volume, persistence of plot scheme and laconic artistic means of expression.

The composition of Russian fairy tales about animals is also distinguished by its simplicity and transparency. They are often one-episode (“The Fox and the Crane”, “The Crane and the Heron”, etc.). In this case, they are characterized by exaggeration of the main properties and traits of the character, which determines the unusualness and fantastic nature of their actions. However, much more often there are fairy tales with plots based on the sequential linking of the same plot links-motives. The events in them are connected by actions of cross-cutting characters of a similar nature: for example, in the fairy tale “The Fox and the Wolf” there are three plot motifs - “The Fox steals fish from the sleigh”, “The wolf at the ice hole”, “The beaten one is lucky.” Multiple episodes, as a rule, do not complicate the composition, since we are usually talking about the same type of actions of characters performed in different plot situations.

In this work, we will conduct a study of two negative heroes of Russian folk tales about animals - the fox and the wolf. This choice is due not only to their popularity, but also to the fact that, using the example of these heroes, one can clearly see what vices are ridiculed and condemned in fairy tales, thereby influencing the formation of the national character of readers. Both characters are found both in different fairy tales separately, and in one together. And despite the fact that both the wolf and the fox are negative heroes, and it seems that they have a lot in common: they live in the same forests, attack the same animals, and are also afraid of the same opponents, in fairy tales they endowed with different human qualities, which is quite interesting. It is also interesting that one negative hero is male and, it turns out, he is endowed with male negative character traits, and the other hero is female, endowed with female traits, respectively, which is why the methods of achieving their goals are different, despite the fact that these the goals are the same. Thus, based on analyzes of various Russian folk tales about animals, it is possible to consider these heroes from the same positions: their appearance, features, actions, and determine which of them is smarter, smarter or more cunning, and who is stupid and naive. A comparative analysis of the wolf and the fox will also help to identify the main human vices that are ridiculed in society and find out how the presence of these heroes in Russian folk tales influences the formation of national character, which is the goal of this work.

Fox in animal tales

One of the most famous fairy tales involving a fox is the Tale of the Fox and the Wolf.

It begins with the fact that the fox wants to eat fish, but doesn’t know where to get it. And, to achieve her goal, she decides to lie down on the road. A man notices her on the road and puts her in his cart with fish. While the man is riding and rejoicing at his good find, the fox gnaws a hole in the sleigh and lowers the fish down to the ground. The fox fishes out almost all the fish, and then runs off into the forest. When the man saw that there was no fox or fish, he was very upset. Meanwhile, the fox runs to collect fish and feast on it. On the road she meets a wolf who asks her where the fish is from, how she caught it and where. In order to get rid of the wolf and not share the prey with him, she tells him that the tail must be lowered into the hole and utter special words so that the fish will catch better. So the stupid wolf ran to the ice hole. While he was sitting and waiting for the fish, the tail froze in the hole so that there was no way to get it out. A woman with a rocker saw a wolf. At first she chased him, and when she realized that he was frozen, she began to beat him so that the wolf’s tail came off. And at this time the fox runs into the hut where the woman lived and begins to knead the dough. While she was kneading, she got all dirty in the dough, went and lay down on the road. The wolf met her again, said that nothing had worked out for him, and noticing that the fox was lying all white, he got scared and began to ask what happened to her. The fox told him that they had broken her head with a yoke. The wolf took pity on her, put her on his back and took her home. And the fox rode on his back and said, smiling: “The beaten one carries the unbeaten!”

In Russian folk tales about animals, the fox is often the enemy of the wolf. This “gossip darling” often arouses our sympathy for her dexterity, courage and resourcefulness in fooling the wolf. And in the fairy tale presented above, the fox’s imagination and resourcefulness have no boundaries. For the sake of her own benefit, the fox deceives the wolf, the man, and, most likely, would be ready to deceive and frame anyone for the sake of her goal - food and warm shelter. And therefore, despite all the sympathy for her, it would still be a mistake to talk about her as a positive character. The fox's cunning and ingenuity coexist with unbridled arrogance, hypocrisy and betrayal.

Among the tales about animals, there are also those in which not only human, but also social vices are condemned, although there are few of them. For example, the fairy tale “The Fox and Kotofey Ivanovich”. Worship of rank and bribery are depicted in it with inimitable brilliance. A cat, expelled from home, thanks to a resourceful fox who supposedly marries him, becomes Kotofey Ivanovich - the “boss” of all forest animals, because the fox, through deception, passes him off to everyone as a terrible beast. Even the strongest inhabitants of the forest - the bear and the wolf - are forced to serve him, and the cat freely robs and presses everyone.

In Russian folk tales about animals, the fox also appears before us in the form of a sweet-voiced red-haired beauty who can talk to anyone. Thus, in the fairy tale “The Fox Confessor,” before eating the rooster, she convinces him to confess his sins; at the same time, the hypocrisy of the clergy is wittily ridiculed. The fox turns to the rooster: “Oh, my dear child, rooster!” She tells him the biblical parable of the publican and the Pharisee, and then eats him.

Another fairy tale whose plot is known to everyone is Kolobok. The tale is a chain of homogeneous episodes depicting Kolobok's meetings with various talking animals intending to eat him, but the Kolobok escapes from everyone except the fox. With each animal, the bun enters into a discussion, in which each time he explains his departure: “I left my grandmother, I left my grandfather, and I will leave you, bear (wolf, hare),.” The fox, as usual, with the help of deception, pretending to be partially deaf, catches Kolobok in his vanity and, taking advantage of his kindness, which is expressed in his readiness to repeat the song closer to the ear and mouth of the fox, eats him.

The fox's stupidity is described in the fairy tale The Fox and the Blackbird. The thrush built a nest and brought out the chicks. The fox found out about this and began to scare the blackbird by saying that he would destroy his nest. First, the fox demanded that the thrush give her food. The blackbird fed the fox pies and honey. Then the fox demanded that the blackbird give her something to drink. The thrush gave the fox beer. Again the fox came to the thrush and demanded to make her laugh. The thrush made the fox laugh. The fox came to the thrush again and demanded to scare her. So the thrush led the fox to a pack of dogs. The fox got scared, ran away from the dogs, climbed into a hole, and started talking to itself. She quarreled with the tail and stuck it out of the hole. So the dogs grabbed her by the tail and ate her. This is how stupidity and greed are always punished in Russian folk tales about animals.

Having examined several fairy tales with the participation of a fox, we can conclude that in most cases the fox is a negative hero, personifying cunning, deceit, deceit, guile and selfishness. But you can also notice that if she, together with other animals, opposes the wolf, she receives a positive assessment, and if she herself harms others, she receives a negative assessment. Quite often you can see fairy tales about the cunning fox and the stupid wolf, in which the fox deceives the wolf for her own benefit. But the fox is just as much a predator as the wolf. She drives the bunny out of his hut, eats thrush chicks, deceives other animals, for example, a bear, or even people, and she always wants to eat a rooster, black grouse, bun, and hare. And she pays cruelly for these actions. After all, cunning bordering on betrayal cannot be justified. Even the fox's appearance is deceptive: it is usually described as very attractive, red-haired, with eyes that speak of its cunning.

Wolf in fairy tales about animals

fairy tale animal moral lesson

The wolf is a fairly popular character in Russian folk tales, but in the minds of Russian people his image is endowed with mostly negative characteristics. Most often in Russian folk tales, the wolf is a stupid and simple-minded animal, which everyone is constantly deceiving and setting up (Sister Fox and the Wolf, Wolf and Goat, Fool Wolf, Wintering of Animals). But it should be noted that even when a wolf is portrayed as a fool in fairy tales, he is never mean and low, unlike a fox.

It was already said earlier that fairy tales about animals were created not only for the edification of little ones. Many of them use funny fiction and jokes to ridicule vices. And, for example, the embodiment of stupidity in fairy tales is often the wolf. His stupidity is the stupidity of a cruel and greedy beast. Storytellers seem to deliberately put the wolf in conditions that justify his actions, which should make the listener feel pity for him, but this does not happen, because there is no place in life for stupidity, cruelty and greed - this is the main thesis of fairy tales.

One of the most famous fairy tales about the wolf is the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats. A mother goat, leaving the house, warns her kids to beware of the wolf that wanders nearby. Meanwhile, the wolf, taking advantage of the opportune moment, knocks on the goat's door and declares that he is their mother. And the kids respond by saying that their mother’s voice is soft, while his voice is rough. To soften his voice, the wolf eats a piece of honey, but the kids still don’t let him in because their mother’s paws are white, not black, like the wolf’s. Then he goes to the mill and gets his paws dirty in flour. The kids let the wolf in, who immediately eats them all, except for the smallest one, hidden in the stove. Returning home, the mother goat sees the destruction caused by the wolf and the smallest kid who escaped, who tells her about what happened. She goes after the wolf and finds him sleeping with a full stomach, in which something is stirring. The mother goat rips open the wolf's belly, and six kids emerge alive. Instead of kids, their mother fills the wolf's belly with stones. The next morning, the goat met the wolf and invited him to compete in jumping over the fire, the goat jumped over, the wolf also jumped, but the stones pulled him down. So the wolf burned. Another version of the ending - the wolf woke up with stones in his stomach, became thirsty, went to the stream, slipped, fell into the water and drowned from the weight.

In this fairy tale, the wolf is cruel and merciless; for the sake of his prey, he is able to deceive the little goats who are left alone at home. By deception (speaking in the voice of a mother goat), he tells the kids that he is their mother and asks to let him in home. And when they let him in, the wolf eats all the kids except one, which he did not notice. It is thanks to the little goat that evil, greed and mercilessness are punished in this fairy tale.

In the Tale of the Wolf and the Fox, the wolf appears before readers in a slightly different image - a stupid and naive animal who is easy to deceive. The fox in his house manipulates and controls the wolf, cleverly charming him. At the very beginning of the fairy tale, it is said that the fox lived in an ice hut, and the wolf lived in a twig hut, and when spring came, the fox’s hut melted, and she began to ask the wolf to live in the wolf’s house. The wolf took pity on her and foolishly let her in. Every day the fox managed to deceive the wolf: she said that guests were coming to her and went out to them to eat his sour cream and butter, and slowly changed her sleeping place so that it was closer to the stove. So, the fox moved to sleep on the stove, and the wolf moved under the stove. The fairy tale ended with the fact that, continuing to deceive the wolf, the fox remained to live in his house forever, becoming the mistress there, and making the wolf a servant.

The stupidity of the wolf is also described in the fairy tale How the Fox Sewed a Fur Coat for the Wolf. The stupid wolf asked the sly fox to sew him a fur coat. The fox received sheep from the wolf: she ate the meat and sold the wool. And when the wolf ran out of patience and asked for his fur coat, the fox killed him by deception.

So, from the fairy tales discussed above, we can conclude that the wolf is often stupid, but this is not his main feature: he is cruel, ferocious, angry, greedy - these are his main qualities. He eats a poor old man's horse, breaks into the animals' winter quarters and disrupts their peaceful life, wants to eat the kids, deceiving them with a song. But such qualities are never encouraged in fairy tales, so the wolf always gets what he deserves.

The role of fairy tales about animals in the formation of national character

Russian folk tales about animals show what the people condemned in society, their enemies and even in themselves. They ridiculed cruelty, boasting, flattery, corruption and much more. And, often, thus, in fairy tales, precisely due to the presence of animals, in simple content such ideas are hidden that form the essence of the moral code of the people. Those stories that unfold in fairy tales about animals are a kind of dramatization of real life situations. It is not for nothing that such fairy tales have a morally instructive role, because their heroes personify certain human qualities, and that is why a cunning person is called a fox, a cowardly person is called a hare, and a stupid person is called a wolf. Tales about animals are parables that show the reader what is respected and what is not.

The character of each person is made up of emotional, volitional and moral traits, the foundations of which are laid in early childhood. Parents read fairy tales to their children, with the help of which they learn about the world. Therefore, fairy tales have an educational role, because a fairy tale is centuries-old folk wisdom. Through it, the child learns about the world around him and his place in this world, receives his first ideas about good and evil, friendship and betrayal, courage and cowardice. These ideas appear precisely through the images of heroes of fairy tales, including animals, because sometimes animals at the end of a fairy tale become more moral, going through certain moralizing tests, and sometimes it is animals that are those “moral teachers” in a fairy tale, with the help of which morality is determined . There are many similar characters in Russian folk tales, the consideration of which has led to very interesting results. The identification of similar features in animals and humans (speech - cry, behavior - habits) served as the basis for combining their qualities with human qualities in the images of animals: animals speak and behave like people. This combination also led to the typification of the characters of animals, which became the embodiment of certain qualities: the fox - cunning, the wolf - stupidity and greed, the bear - gullibility, and the hare - cowardice. Thus, fairy tales acquired an allegorical meaning: animals began to mean people of certain characters. Images of animals became a means of moral teaching, and then social satire, which led to the development of national character, because in fairy tales about animals not only negative qualities (stupidity, laziness, talkativeness) are ridiculed, but also the oppression of the weak, greed, and deception for profit are condemned .

Bibliography

1.Afanasyev A.N. “Russian folk tales: complete edition in one volume”, M., 2010.

2.Anikin V.P. Russian folktale. M., 1984.

.Vedernikova N.M. Russian folktale. M., 1975.

.Ivanova-Kazas O.M. Mythological zoology (dictionary), St. Petersburg, Faculty of Philology, 2004.

.Kostyukhin E. A. Types and forms of animal epic. Moscow, 1987

.Nikiforov A.I. Folk children's tale of dramatic genre. L., 1928.

.Propp V.Ya. Historical roots of fairy tales.<#"justify">8.Propp V.Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale. M., 98.

.Propp V.Ya. Russian fairy tale. L., 1984.

.Pomerantseva E.V. The fate of the Russian fairy tale, M., 1965.

.Tales about animals, Tula, 2000.

.Tales of hares, Tyumen, 1959.

.Fairy tales about the fox, retold by O. Kapitsa and A. Tolstoy for preschool children, Leningrad, 1970.

.Fundamental electronic library. Russian literature and folklore. http://feb-web.ru/feb/feb/atindex/atindx01.htm#Afanasyev A.N.

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Krendelev Anton

Tales about animals are not only entertaining and funny, but also instructive.

Man attributed to animals the ability to reason and speak, but people’s misconceptions were also permeated by the desire to understand the life of animals, to master the means of taming them, protecting them from attack, and methods of hunting.

The most common heroes of fairy tales about animals are the fox and the wolf. This is explained by the fact that, firstly, people most often had to deal with them in economic activity; secondly, these animals occupy the middle in the animal kingdom in size and strength; finally, thirdly, thanks to the previous two reasons, a person had the opportunity to get to know them very closely.

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IV regional youth “Philological readings”

Municipal educational institution Mikhailovskaya secondary school

Krendelev Anton

Municipal educational institution Mikhailovskaya secondary school, 5th grade, 11 years old

Competition entry

Genre: Exploration

“Images of animals in Russian folk tales”

Teacher-mentor:

Yablokova Svetlana Vladimirovna

Teacher of Russian language and literature

Mikhailovsky village, Yaroslavl municipal district, 2010.

1.Introduction 2 pages

2. Chapter “Images of animals in Russian folk tales”

1.1 The Fox of the Seven Wolves will spend 5 pages.

1.2. The wolf changes its fur, but not its character 7 p.

1.3. A bear, although old, is worth two foxes 9 p.

1.4. Soft paws, and in the paws there are scratches 11 p.

3. Conclusion 12 pages.

4. References 14 pages.

Introduction

What is a fairy tale? This is a beautiful world of magic and transformation in which we live in childhood, where reality ends and this world, amazing and incomprehensible, begins. This is a world in which good triumphs over evil, which is probably why this genre is so loved by children.

And speaking in scientific language, a fairy tale is a type of narrative, mostly prosaic folklore. Its history goes back a long way. Word " fairy tale " recorded in written sources of the 16th century. From the word"show". Meaning: list, list, exact description. The word has acquired its modern meaning since the 19th century. Until the 19th century, the 11th century word was used - blasphemy.

There are several types of Russian folk tales: magical, everyday, tales about animals.The purpose of my work is to identify the features of animal images in folk tales. To achieve the goal, a number of tasks must be solved:

1. identify the place and features of the depiction of animals in fairy tales;
2. see whether they are the main or secondary person;
3. consider character traits;

I used several folk tale sources to write my work.

This type of fairy tales differs significantly from other types of fairy tales. A fairy tale about animals is a work in which the main characters are animals, birds, fish, as well as objects, plants and natural phenomena. The question of the original origins of fantasy in fairy tales about animals has worried scientists for many decades. The beliefs of the Russian people and, in general, the beliefs of the East Slavic peoples allow us to assume with all confidence which animals were the heroes of mythical stories and legends of ancient fables. The peculiarity of these legends was that the animals were endowed with various human qualities, but in the animals they saw precisely the animals. Not all stories and legends of this kind have disappeared from the memory of the people. Their traces are preserved in fairy tales thattraditionally acceptedfrom ancient fables some of its essential features. This is the tale of the bear on a fake leg. This fairy tale is unknown in Western Europe. Its origin is purely East Slavic. The system of characters in Russian folk tales about animals is represented, as a rule, by images of wild and domestic animals. Images of wild animals clearly prevail over images of domestic animals: these are fox, wolf, bear, hare, and among birds - crane, heron, thrush, woodpecker, sparrow, raven, etc. Domestic animals are much less common, and do not appear as independent or leading characters, but only in conjunction with forest birds: a dog, a cat, a goat, a ram, a horse, a pig, a bull, and among domestic birds - a goose, a duck and a rooster. There are no tales only about domestic animals in Russian folklore.

In fairy tales about animals, animals implausibly argue, talk, quarrel, love, make friends, and quarrel: the cunning “fox is beautiful in conversation,” the stupid and greedy “wolf-wolf who grabs from under a bush,” the cowardly bow-legged bunny who hops up the hill "

The fox will lead seven wolves

The favorite hero of Russian fairy tales about animals, as well as all East Slavic fairy tales, was the fox.

The image of the fox is stable. She is portrayed as a lying, cunning deceiver: she deceives a man by pretending to be dead (“The Fox steals fish from a sleigh”); deceives the wolf (“The Fox and the Wolf”); deceives the rooster (“The Cat, the Rooster and the Fox”); drives the hare out of the bast hut (“The Fox and the Hare”); exchanges a goose for a lamb, a lamb for a bull, steals honey (“The Bear and the Fox”). In all fairy tales, she is flattering, vengeful, cunning, calculating.Lisa Patrikeevna, the beautiful fox, the butterfly sponge fox, the godmother fox, Lisafya. Here she lies on the road with glassy eyes. She was numb, the man decided, he kicked her, she wouldn’t wake up. The man was delighted, took the fox, put it in a cart with fish, covered it with matting: “The old woman will have a collar for her fur coat,” and started the horse from its place, walking in front. The fox threw all the fish out of the cart and left. The man realized that the fox was not dead, but it was already too late. There's nothing to do.

The fox is true to herself everywhere in fairy tales. Her cunning is conveyed in the proverb: “When you look for a fox in front, it is behind.” She is resourceful and lies recklessly until the time when it is no longer possible to lie, but even in this case she often indulges in the most incredible invention. The fox thinks only about his own benefit. If the deal does not promise her acquisitions, she will not sacrifice anything of hers. The fox is vindictive and vindictive.

Fairy tales often depict the triumph of a fox. She revels in revenge, feels complete superiority over the gullible heroes. How much resourcefulness she has and how much vengeful feeling she has! Both are so often found in people with a practical, resourceful mind, overwhelmed by petty passions... Infinitely deceitful, she takes advantage of gullibility, plays on the weak strings of friends and foes.

I have a lot of pranks and pranks in my memory.foxes. She chases the hare out of the bast hut (“The Fox and the Hare”), exchanges the rolling pin for a goose, the goose for a lamb, the lamb for a bull, threatens the thrush to eat the chicks, forces him to water, feed, and even make himself laugh (“The Fox and the Blackbird”) . The fox marries the cat-voivode with the hope of seizing power in the entire forest district (“The Cat and the Fox”), learns to fly (“How the Fox Learned to Fly”), orders the wolf to take the oath to be sure of the correctness of his words: indeed Is the sheep wearing a wolf caftan? The wolf foolishly stuck his head into a trap and got caught (“Sheep, Fox and Wolf”). The fox steals the stored honey (“The Bear and the Fox”).

The fox is a pretender, a thief, a deceiver, evil, unfaithful, flattering, vindictive, clever, vindictive, cunning, selfish, calculating, cruel. In fairy tales, she is faithful to these traits of her character throughout.

The wolf changes its fur, but not its character

Another hero that the fox often encounters is the wolf. He is stupid, which is expressed in the attitude of the people towards him, he devours kids (“Wolf and Goat”), is going to tear apart a sheep (“Sheep, Fox and Wolf”), fattens a hungry dog ​​in order to eat it, is left without a tail (“Fox and wolf").More often than other animals, the fox deceives the wolf and laughs cruelly at him. Who do people understand in this image?? In fairy tales, the wolf is infinitely stupid.Phenomenal stupidity discredits the wolf. This image expressed not so much the real characteristics of the human type that the wolf personifies, but rather the attitude towards it.

Let us think about why the wolf takes blows from angry women who come to the river by water, why, having barely survived one misfortune, the wolf ends up in another. The tale ends with the death of the wolf. The wolf dies a cruel death, only to come to life in a new fairy tale and again accept an evil death. What ineradicable evil is being driven out and executed by the people?

An insatiable thirst for blood, the traits of a rapist who recognizes one right - the right of the strong, the right of the teeth - without this trait a wolf is not a wolf. The social prototype of this fairy-tale character becomes clear. The people knew many scoundrels and criminals from whom they had a hard time.

Tales about the wolf do not hide who they mean... The irony of fiction lies in playing on a folk custom.

The tale of how a wolf slaughtered a pig (“The Pig and the Wolf”) depicts in the image of a wolf a cruel and unforgiving master who exacted money from the peasants for poisoning. There lived an old man and with him an old woman. The only livestock they have is a pig. The devil took her, and into someone else's lane - into oats. A wolf came running there, “he grabbed the pig by the bristles, dragged it away by the legs and tore it to pieces.”

Such tales contain that sharp social allegory that made the tale interesting for adults as well. Fantasy narratives talk about social class relations. We cannot ignore this meaning if we do not want to see Fairy tales are just fun.

Fantastic fiction in these fairy tales is also connected with their ideological concept. Boyar, the master is cruel as a wolf, you cannot expect mercy from him, you can only deal with him as the proverb advises: “Trust the wolf in the torok,” that is, the killed one. The fairy tale conveys, as it were, the essence of the wolf law, according to which the weak becomes a victim of the strong. The prince, the boyar, did not need to be cunning. His right is the right of a cruel and strong master. Such is the fairy-tale wolf. The storytellers took revenge on the oppressors, exposed their moral rudeness and lack of intelligence: the system of social oppression, resorting to the force of the fist, rod and weapon, did not require mental effort from its founders and defenders.

A bear, although old, is worth two foxes

Another hero of fairy tales about animals is the bear. He personifies brute strength and has power over other animals. In fairy tales he is often called “the oppressor of everyone.” The bear is also stupid. Persuading with the peasant to harvest the harvest, he is left with nothing each time (“The Man and the Bear”).

The human type embodied in the bear is partly similar to that reproduced in the image of the wolf. It is not for nothing that the wolf often replaces the bear in fairy tales. These are the numerous versions of fairy tales: “A Man, a Bear and a Fox”, “A Bear, a Dog and a Cat”, etc. However, the similarity of the images is only partial. In the minds of any person familiar with fairy tales, the bear is a beast of the highest rank. He is the most powerful forest animal. When in fairy tales one animal replaces another, the bear is in the position of the strongest. Such is the tale of the little tower, the beasts in the pit, and other tales. One must think that this position of the bear in the animal hierarchy is explained in its own way by its connection with those traditional pre-story mythological legends in which the bear occupied the most important place as the owner of forest lands. Perhaps, over time, the bear began to be seen as the embodiment of the sovereign, the ruler of the district. Fairy tales constantly emphasized the enormous strength of the bear. He crushes everything that comes under his feet.

The stupidity of a bear is the difference between the stupidity of a wolf. The wolf is slow-witted, not stupid. The stupidity of a bear is the stupidity of a person in power. The bear does not use his strength wisely. There is an assumption that the bear represents a person in authority.

The bear is the owner of the forest, has great strength and a rich fur coat, which is obviously why he was assigned the role of a landowner. These tales describe the life of captivity of the Russian people, the period of serfdom. Then the peasants paid rent (half a field of wheat, which for some reason was called tithe) and worked off corvée (they worked in a bear’s house, sometimes it lasted 6 days). The bear decided when to let Masha go and how much to rip off the man. Through such a prism, it becomes clear not only the difficult life of the once free Russian people, but also why they constantly tried to outwit the bear, and even hunt it down with dogs. It is worth noting that in Russian fairy tales the landowner is always stupider than the peasant, and the image of the landowner - the bear - is endowed with the same intelligence. Behind these images is the thought: “You may be a strong gentleman, but I’m smart and will stick to my guns!”

There are fairy tales where the bear gives Masha gifts and punishes her lazy sister. Here the image of a bear carries within itself the image of nature, good and evil. If a person works honestly, then nature rewards him with its gifts, but whoever is lazy has no water flowing.

Soft paws, and scratches in the paws

Among domestic animals and birds, the cat is a positive hero in fairy tales. In a Russian folk tale, a cat (it's a cat, not a cat) is often found in the image of a savior from various misfortunes. For example, take the cycle of fairy tales" Cat, rooster and fox", which A.N. Afanasyev go by numbers. These tales are very similar, and in essence almost the same. They only replace some of the heroes. He acts as a gallant defender of the rooster. Moreover, the cat has excellent hearing, he is smart and caring. That is, in these fairy tales the cat acts as a positive hero. To summarize the conversation about the cat, we can note some common features. Firstly, animals everywhere are afraid of cats. Secondly, a cat always has a name, and with a patronymic. The cat is selfless in friendship. The warlike rooster is ready to come to the aid of anyone who is offended. However, the positivity of these characters is very conditional. The tale of how a rooster drove a fox out of a hare's hut (“The Fox, the Hare and the Rooster”) is basically a cheerful humoresque. The irony is that the rooster - the fox's prey - managed to scare the lover of white chicken meat. The fairy tale “Cat in the Voivodeship” is ironic - it makes a lover of hut warmth, a bakery resident, a hero by coincidence of circumstances: the wolf, hiding in a pile of leaves, began to stir; the cat thought there was a mouse there, jumped, the wolf jumped to the side, and a general commotion began - the flight of the animals. Only in the fairy tale “The Cat, the Rooster and the Fox” is the cat truly a hero. This fairy tale was probably created for children from the very beginning.

It should be concluded that in all the Russian fairy tales reviewed, the cat is shown to be dexterous and cunning. In a number of fairy tales, he is a warrior and comes to the aid of his friends. He loves to bask on the stove and enjoy sour cream or fresh mouse. He might stage a “massacre”, or he might resign himself to death. The characteristics of fairy tales certainly depend on the characteristics of the people of a particular region. After all, despite the fact that there is one people - Russian, people are still different.

Conclusion

In the course of working on this topic, we conducted a survey among students in grades 3-6. The following questions were proposed:

1. How many fairy tales about animals have you read?
2. What animals were most common in fairy tales?
3. What features are present?
4. What do fairy tales about animals teach?

The survey yielded the following results:

1 question: 1 fairy tale-6%

2 fairy tales -18%

Several - 76%

Question 2: wolf - 7%

Bear-18%

Fox – 75%

Question 3: The fox is cunning

Bear - stupidity

The wolf is angry

1. question: Kindness

Love

Don't hurt the little ones.

To summarize all of the above, it should be noted: fairy tales about animals are not only entertaining and funny, but also instructive.

Man attributed to animals the ability to reason and speak, but people’s misconceptions were also permeated by the desire to understand the life of animals, to master the means of taming them, protecting them from attack, and methods of hunting.

The most common heroes of fairy tales about animals are the fox and the wolf. This is explained by the fact that, firstly, people most often had to deal with them in economic activity; secondly, these animals occupy the middle in the animal kingdom in size and strength; finally, thirdly, thanks to the previous two reasons, a person had the opportunity to get to know them very closely.

The wolf, like the bear, in popular beliefs appears as an animal in whose honor holidays were held. They did not call him by his real name, fearing that he himself would be called out by doing so. A hostile and dangerous creature, the wolf evoked respect and fear.

From experience, people knew that the wolf is a predatory, cunning, intelligent, resourceful, and evil creature. Meanwhile, in fairy tales the wolf is stupid and easy to deceive. There seems to be no such trouble, no matter what this unlucky, always hungry, always beaten beast might find himself in.

The respectful attitude towards the fox expressed in beliefs also contradicts the outright mockery with which fairy tales tell about its frequent mistakes and failures. The beliefs of the Russian people and, in general, the beliefs of the East Slavic peoples allow us to assume with all confidence which animals were the heroes of mythical stories and legends of ancient fables.

References

1. Anikin V.P. Russian folk tale M., “Enlightenment”, 1977
2. Afanasiev. A.N. Russian folk tales / Ed. Georgian. - Ed. 3rd. - 1897.
3. Vedernikova N .M. Russian folk tale M., “Science”

4) Fokeev A.L. “An inexhaustible source. Oral folk art" ed. "Lyceum"

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1. Goal of the work

All people love fairy tales from early childhood. Thanks to fairy tales, we get a unique opportunity to plunge into a magical world. By getting to know the magical world of fairy tales, we cultivate a love of words and an interest in reading.

Do we believe in the reality of fairy tales? We believe and we don’t believe, but for some reason we really want to believe in a fabulous miracle in reality, in magic in everyday life. What is a fairy tale and when did it appear? These questions interested me, and I decided to explore fairy tales:

1. get acquainted with the history of folk tales; 2. analyze tales about animals; 3. identify the main character traits of the heroes of fairy tales about animals.

1.2. Research objectives

The objectives of my research work are to:

1. study tales about animals; 2. identify the character traits of fairy-tale animals; 3. compare the character traits of animals with the character traits of humans;4. identify the influence of reading fairy tales on the formation of a child’s personality5. make a presentation “The main character traits of heroes in fairy tales about animals”

Object research are folk tales about animals; subject research is the distinctive character traits of the heroes of these fairy tales.

Introduction. What is a fairy tale?

A fairy tale is an entertaining story about extraordinary events. Fairy tales were created by the people, which is why they are called Russian folk tales. They arose in ancient times, when people did not yet know how to write and were passed on from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation.

All fairy tales are divided into: magical, everyday and fairy tales about animals. Tales about animals have a special meaning. Their heroes are animals, birds and fish, but very similar in character to people. The main task of such fairy tales is to ridicule bad character traits, negative actions and evoke compassion for the weak and offended. For fairy tales about animals, the idea is important that revived nature is capable of acting independently, animals and plants have the right to their lives.

In fairy tales about animals there are the cunning Fox, the evil and stupid Wolf, the cowardly Hare, the proud Rooster, the good-natured Bear and other animals and birds. Tales about animals, as a rule, are moralizing and edifying. The favorite hero of such fairy tales - a cunning and deceiver (fox) - is necessarily contrasted with a positive character (bear, hare).

3. Main part. The main characters of fairy tales about animals and their character traits

3.1. The main character is Fox.

The favorite hero of fairy tales about animals is the fox. She is resourceful and very cunning, often ready for the most incredible inventions. The fox thinks only about his own benefit. The fox is vindictive and vindictive. She revels in revenge, feels complete superiority over the gullible and stupid wolf. How much resourcefulness she has and how much vengeful feeling she has! Stupidity and gullibility are as endless as cunning and calculation. The people gave her different names: Lisa Patrikeevna, Kumushka Fox, Plutovka. Fairy tales: “Sister Fox and the Wolf”, “Cat, Rooster and Fox”, “Fox and Hare”, “Bear and Fox”, “Kolobok”, “Fox and Crane”.

3.2. The main character is the Wolf.

Another hero that the fox often encounters is the wolf. This is the exact opposite of the fox image. In fairy tales, the wolf is stupid and easy to deceive. There seems to be no such trouble, no matter what this unlucky, always beaten beast finds himself in. The image of a wolf in fairy tales is always hungry and lonely. He always finds himself in a funny, absurd situation. Fairy tales: “The old bread and salt is forgotten”, “The Wolf and the Goat”, “The Stupid Wolf”, “The Insatiable Wolf”, “Kolobok”.

3.3. The main character is Bear

Also, one of the main characters in fairy tales about animals is the bear. The bear often gets into funny situations, but never attacks anyone. The image of the bear, while still remaining the main figure of the forest kingdom, appears before us as a slow, gullible loser, often stupid and clumsy, with club feet. He constantly boasts of his exorbitant strength, although he cannot always use it effectively. Fairy tales: “The Man and the Bear”, “Teremok”, “Masha and the Bear”, “Winter Hut of Animals”, “The Bear and the Dog”, “The Bear is a Lime Leg”.

3.4. The main character is the Hare.

The hare in Russian folk tales represents a positive hero. In some fairy tales, this is a victim, a weak and helpless hero who is afraid of everything. In others, he appears as a clever cunning man who, despite fear, is capable of brave deeds. Fairy tales: “The Bunny’s Hut”, “Hares and Frogs”.

Questionnaire “Russian folk tales about animals in our lives” among students in grades 3-5

I conducted a survey “Russian folk tales about animals in our lives”:

among classmates (3rd grade students),

among 5th grade students.

25 people took part in the survey. Of these, 21 people answered that they like to read Russian folk tales about animals.

Research results

After analyzing the questionnaire data, I concluded that almost all children know and love Russian folk tales about animals and their main characters. Children more often choose positive characters who have a positive impact on the child’s behavior. I also learned that reading Russian folk tales about animals has a positive impact on the formation of a child’s personality.

Conclusion

In fairy tales about animals, there is always a victory of positive heroes over negative ones, a victory of good over evil. Each animal has its own character, its own distinctive features, but they all personify a person and the characteristics of his make-up.

List of used literature

1. Afanasyev A.N. “Russian folk tales”, M., 2010.

2. Anikin V.P. Russian folktale. M., 1984.

3. Vedernikova N.M. Russian folktale. M., 1975.

4. Russian folk tales / processed by M. Bulatov, I. Karnaukhova - M.: 2014

In fairy tales about animals, certain characters can be traced in different time frames. Therefore, one of the most important issues is the problem of differentiating fairy tales about animals and fairy tales of other genres in which animals take part.

The key to solving this problem is given by the definition of fairy tales about animals proposed by V.Ya. Propp: By fairy tales about animals we will mean those tales in which the animal is the main object or subject of the narrative. On this basis, fairy tales about animals can be distinguished from others, where animals play only a supporting role and are not the heroes of the story.

Fairy tales about animals, of course, include fairy tales where only animals act (Fox and Crane, Fox, Hare and Rooster, Fox-Midwife, Fox and Blackbird, Wolf-Fool, etc.). Of the fairy tales about the relationship between humans and animals, this genre should include those in which animals are the main characters, and people are the objects of their action, and the narrative in which is told from the point of view of animals, not humans (Wolf at the Ice-hole, Dog and Wolf, Man , bear and fox, etc.).

Tales about animals bear little resemblance to stories from the lives of animals. Animals in fairy tales act only to some extent in accordance with their nature, and to a much greater extent act as bearers of one or another character and producers of certain actions that should be attributed primarily to humans. Therefore, the world of animals in fairy tales is supplemented by human imagination; it is a form of expression of a person’s thoughts and feelings, his views on life.

Animals that speak, reason and behave like people are just a poetic convention: “The adventures of animals are projected onto human life - and it is their human meaning that makes them interesting.” Hence the main themes of Russian fairy tales about animals - human characters, virtues and vices of people, types of human relationships in everyday life, in society, sometimes these images even look satirical.

Most researchers note the problem of classifying tales about animals due to their diversity. V.Ya. wrote about the complexity of typologizing fairy tales about animals. Propp, noting the following varieties: tales about animals that exist in a cumulative form (Teremok, Kolobok, Cockerel and the Bean Seed, etc.); tales about animals, close in structure to fairy tales (The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, the Cat, the Rooster and the Fox, etc.); tales about animals, close in structure to fables (The Wolf and the Fox); tales about animals, approaching literary works and having the form of a political pamphlet (The Tale of Ersha Ershovich).

Developing a classification of Russian fairy tales about animals based on texts collected by A.N. Afanasyev, V.Ya. Propp identifies the following groups: Tales about wild animals (Beasts in the Pit, Fox and Wolf, Fox the Midwife, Fox and the Crane, Fox the Confessor, etc.); Tales about wild and domestic animals (The Dog and the Wolf, The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, The Cat, the Fox and the Rooster, etc.); Tales about man and wild animals (The Fox and her tail, The Man and the Bear, The old bread and salt is forgotten, The Bear is a linden leg, The Fox with a rolling pin, etc.); Tales about domestic animals (Whacked Goat, Horse and Dog, etc.); Tales about birds and fish (Crane and Heron, Cockerel and Bean Seed, Ryaba Hen, etc.); Tales about other animals, plants, mushrooms and elements (Fox and Crayfish, Teremok, Kolobok, Sun, Frost and Wind, War of the Mushrooms, etc.).

The characters of Russian folk tales about animals are represented, as a rule, by images of wild and domestic animals. Images of wild animals clearly prevail over images of domestic animals: these are fox, wolf, bear, hare, among birds - crane, heron, thrush, woodpecker, sparrow, raven, etc. Domestic animals are much less common, and they do not appear as independent or leading characters, but only in combination with forest ones: this is a dog, a cat, a goat, a ram, a horse, a pig, a bull, and among poultry - a goose, a duck and a rooster. There are no tales only about domestic animals in Russian folklore. Each of the characters is an image of a very specific animal or bird, behind which stands one or another human character, therefore the characteristics of the characters are based on observation of the habits, demeanor of the animal, and its appearance. The difference in characters is especially clearly and definitely expressed in the images of wild animals: thus, the fox is depicted primarily as a flattering, cunning deceiver, a charming robber; the wolf is like a greedy and slow-witted gray fool, always getting into trouble; the bear is like a stupid ruler, a forest oppressor who uses his power not according to reason; a hare, a frog, a mouse, forest birds - like weak, harmless creatures, always serving on errands. The ambiguity of assessments also persists when describing domestic animals: for example, a dog is portrayed as an intelligent animal, devoted to humans; the cat shows a paradoxical combination of courage and laziness; The rooster is noisy, self-confident and curious.

To understand the meaning of Russian folk tales about animals, it is necessary to work on their plot organization and composition. The plot of animalistic tales is characterized by clarity, clarity and simplicity: “Tales about animals are built on elementary actions that underlie the narrative, representing a more or less expected or unexpected end, prepared in a certain way. These simple actions are phenomena of a psychological order...” Animalistic tales are distinguished by their small volume, persistence of plot scheme and laconic artistic means of expression.

The composition of Russian fairy tales about animals is also distinguished by its simplicity and transparency. They are often one-episode (“The Fox and the Crane”, “The Crane and the Heron”, etc.). In this case, they are characterized by exaggeration of the main properties and traits of the character, which determines the unusualness and fantastic nature of their actions. However, much more often there are fairy tales with plots based on the sequential linking of the same plot links-motives. The events in them are connected by similar in nature actions of cross-cutting characters: for example, in the fairy tale “The Fox and the Wolf” there are three plot motifs - “The Fox steals fish from the sleigh”, “The wolf at the ice hole”, “The beaten one is lucky.” Multiple episodes, as a rule, do not complicate the composition, since we are usually talking about the same type of actions of characters performed in different plot situations.

In this work, we will conduct a study of two negative heroes of Russian folk tales about animals - the fox and the wolf. This choice is due not only to their popularity, but also to the fact that, using the example of these heroes, one can clearly see what vices are ridiculed and condemned in fairy tales, thereby influencing the formation of the national character of readers. Both characters are found both in different fairy tales separately, and in one together. And despite the fact that both the wolf and the fox are negative heroes, and it seems that they have a lot in common: they live in the same forests, attack the same animals, and are also afraid of the same opponents, in fairy tales they endowed with different human qualities, which is quite interesting. It is also interesting that one negative hero is male and, it turns out, he is endowed with male negative character traits, and the other hero is female, endowed with female traits, respectively, which is why the methods of achieving their goals are different, despite the fact that these the goals are the same. Thus, based on analyzes of various Russian folk tales about animals, it is possible to consider these heroes from the same positions: their appearance, features, actions, and determine which of them is smarter, smarter or more cunning, and who is stupid and naive. A comparative analysis of the wolf and the fox will also help to identify the main human vices that are ridiculed in society and find out how the presence of these heroes in Russian folk tales influences the formation of national character, which is the goal of this work.