A work by Ostrovsky's Snow Maiden. "The Snow Maiden" (Ostrovsky): description and analysis of the play. Brief summary of actions

In the forested region of the Kostroma region, among wonderful nature, is located Shchelykovo, a former estate, and now a museum-reserve of the great Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky.

Ostrovsky first came to these places as a young man. He was twenty-five years old.

Since then, the writer had a cherished dream - to settle in Shchelykovo. He was able to realize this dream only 19 years later, when, together with his brother, he bought the estate from his stepmother. Having become a co-owner of the estate, Ostrovsky came there every year in early May and left only in late autumn.

Nature appeared before him in bright diversity, changing its clothes. He observed its revival, lush flowering and withering.

He also had his favorite places here.

Ostrovsky was distinguished by his passion for fishing from an early age. At the dam of the winding Kuekshi river, he spent long hours with fishing rods. Near the steep banks of the Sendega River he could be seen with a spear. He went with a seine to the wide Meru River, which flows into the Volga.

The writer found great pleasure in walking through the surrounding villages, forest tracts and clearings.

He often went to a grove with the strange name “Pig Forest”. Centuries-old birch trees grew in this grove.

Alexander Nikolaevich descended from the mountain on which the estate is located to the old bed of the Kueksha River and walked along the wide valley, which served as a place of festive games and entertainment for the surrounding youth. At the top of this sloping valley there is a spring. During Ostrovsky’s time, a fair was held here every spring, which attracted crowds of people.

The writer also visited a round clearing near the village of Lobanovo. Surrounded by forest, it was also a place for Sunday rest for peasant youth. Here the playwright watched the round dances and listened to the songs.

Ostrovsky often visited his friend I.V. Sobolev, a skilled woodcarver, in the village of Berezhki. The extraordinary silence of this forest corner, the sparseness of people (there were only a few houses there) and the peculiar northern architecture of the tall, sharp-topped barns that belonged to the residents of this village created the impression of some kind of detachment from the world, a fairy-tale quality.

Ostrovsky also had other places he liked.

His affection for Shchelykov only grew stronger over the years. He more than once expressed his admiration for the beauty of Shchelykovsky nature in letters to friends. So, on April 29, 1876, he wrote to the artist M. O. Mikeshin: “It’s a pity that you are not a landscape painter, otherwise you would have visited my village; You’ll hardly find a Russian landscape like this anywhere.”

Ostrovsky's observations of the people and nature of the Shchelykovo environs were reflected in many of his works.

They were most clearly reflected in the spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” (1873). The basis of this poetic work was made up of folk tales, traditions and legends, rituals and customs, sayings and songs, which the writer became familiar with from childhood. He colored folk fantasy with the bright colors of his own invention, imbued the work with subtle humor and inserted the images of his fairy tale into the frame of Shchelykov’s picturesque nature.

“The Snow Maiden” is a fairy tale about the beauty of mighty, ever-renewing nature and at the same time about human feelings, about the people, their aspirations and dreams.

In this life-affirming work, Ostrovsky paints his ideal of social life, which defines fair, beautiful human relationships.

The playwright begins his tale with the meeting of Frost and Spring on Red Hill.

Builder of ice palaces, owner and ruler of blizzards and blizzards, Frost is the poetic embodiment of winter, cold, freezing nature. Spring-Red, appearing accompanied by birds, is a warm breath and light penetrating the kingdom of winter, the personification of the fertilizing force, a symbol of awakening life.

The girl Snegurochka is a beautiful child of Frost and Spring. There is coldness in her soul - the harsh legacy of her father, but it also contains life-giving forces that bring her closer to her mother Spring.

Frost and Spring gave the Snow Maiden, when she was 15 years old, to the trans-river settlement of Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey. And so Ostrovsky paints before us a kingdom of happy Berendeys.

What gave the poet the idea to create the image of the fabulous Berendey kingdom?

Ostrovsky obviously heard that in the Vladimir province there is a Berendeevo swamp. The legend about the ancient city of the Berendeys was associated with it. This legend could have suggested to Ostrovsky a fantastic image of the Berendey kingdom.

Russian village life, ancient rituals and customs, folk types that Ostrovsky admired in Shchelykov helped him recreate the appearance of the cheerful Berendeys.

The remarkable feature of Ostrovsky’s fairy tale is that it is fantastic and at the same time true, that in its conventional, bizarre images one can clearly see the deep truth of human feelings.

Ostrovsky embodied in the Berendey kingdom the people's dream of a fairy-tale country where peaceful labor, justice, art and beauty reign, where people are free, happy and cheerful.

Tsar Berendey personifies folk wisdom. This is “the father of his land”, “an intercessor for all orphans”, “a guardian of peace”, confident that the light “only holds on to truth and conscience.” The bloody deeds of war are alien to Berendey. His state is famous for its working, peaceful and joyful life. He is a philosopher, worker and artist. Berendey paints his chambers with a skillful brush and enjoys the luxurious colors of nature.

Berendey loves fun too. His close boyar Bermyata is a joker and wit, to whom the king entrusts the organization of folk amusements and games.

Ostrovsky admires in his fairy tale the simple people - noble, humane, cheerful, tireless in work and fun.

Tsar Berendey, addressing the singing and dancing Berendeys, says:

The people are generous

Great in everything: interfering with idleness

He won’t work and work like that,

Dance and sing to the fullest, until you drop.

Looking at you with a reasonable eye, you will say,

That you are an honest and kind people, for

Only the kind and honest are capable

Sing so loudly and dance so bravely.

The inner world of the Berendeys is clearly revealed in their attraction to art. They love songs, dances, music. Their houses are painted with colorful paints and decorated with intricate carvings.

Berendeys are distinguished by strong moral principles. They highly honor love. For them, love is the expression of a person’s best feelings, his service to beauty.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky can rightfully be considered the creator of the repertoire for the national Russian theater. Despite the fact that he became most famous for his works about the morals of the Russian merchants (which the critic Nikolai Dobrolyubov very aptly nicknamed “the dark kingdom”), among the gloomy and slightly scary stories from the life of Zamoskvoretsky merchants there is a very bright and fabulous work - "Snow Maiden", written in 1873.

At the core plot For the play, the playwright used a Russian folk tale from Alexander Afanasyev’s collection “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature.” That is why the Slavic higher and lower deities act in the play: Yarilo, Frost, Spring, Leshy. The peculiarity is that the play “The Snow Maiden”, unlike all the previous ones, is written in verse, but without rhyme. However, the single rhythm of the work made it possible to set it to music. The whole play is a kind of poetic stylization of Russian folklore, which Ostrovsky was then passionate about.

This is explained by the fact that in 1873 the Maly Theater troupe was forced to move to the Bolshoi Theater for the duration of repairs. This is how opera, ballet and drama troupes found themselves under one roof. Then the commission of management of the Moscow Imperial Theaters decided to stage an extravaganza with the participation of all the artists. Ostrovsky composed the play in a short time, finishing it on his fiftieth birthday. And the music for the play was written by a young and then little-known composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Thus, Ostrovsky’s lyrical play became a multi-level, multi-layered work, as it embodied the folk tale about the Snow Maiden girl, the folk legend about the ancient Berendey tribe, the mythological features of Slavic legends, and ancient rituals and songs. And Ostrovsky’s “spring tale” breathes such purity of poetry that it is reminiscent of Pushkin’s fairy tales. And in its meaning there is a lot of Pushkin in it: life appears as the magic of beauty and tragedy at the same time, and goodness in a person turns out to be the natural basis.

Therefore, the life of nature in the play looks like a kingdom of harsh contrasts of cold and heat, lifelessness and bloom. Ostrovsky writes about nature as about man. The landscape resembles a portrait into which the artist peers. The abundance of emotional epithets, comparisons that put natural phenomena on a par with human feelings, emphasize the closeness of natural and human principles in the minds of the playwright.

The play takes place in the kingdom of Berendey. It is more reminiscent of a kind of utopian state in which people live according to the laws of honor and conscience, fearing the wrath of the gods: this is a certain ideal of social order created by Ostrovsky. Even the tsar, who in Rus' was the sole ruler, autocrat, embodies folk wisdom in his work. He worries about his people in a fatherly way: it seems to him that his subjects have stopped noticing the beauty of nature, but are more likely to experience vanity and envy. This is why Yarilo got angry with the Berendeys, who every year freezes people more and more. Then Berendey reveals one of the main laws of nature: “Every living thing must love”. And he asks his assistant Bermyata to gather as many brides and grooms as possible on Yarilin’s day in order to sanctify their marriage and make a sacrifice to the Sun God.

However, the main dramatic conflict is connected precisely with the confrontation between love and "cold heart" in the soul of the Snow Maiden, who lives in the cold purity of loneliness, and with her soul strives for the fire of love, which is why she must die. Father Frost warns mother Vesna-Krasna about this: he says that Yarilo has vowed to take revenge on him using their daughter Snegurochka. They say that when she truly falls in love, Yarilo will melt her with his hot rays.

The Snow Maiden did not immediately learn what true love was. Finding herself in the family of childless Bobyl, the girl expects the same love that she received from her mother and father. But Bobyl and Bobylikha perceive their adopted daughter as a kind of bait for rich suitors. Only the suitors are not the same: many guys quarreled with their girlfriends because of the Snow Maiden, but neither she is ready to give her heart, nor are the adoptive parents satisfied with ordinary Berendeys.

The Snow Maiden herself likes the shepherd boy Lel, who generously bestows his songs on all the girls in the area. This is what hurts the heroine: she wants only her to be loved. When the rich groom arrives, "trade guest" Mizgir, ready to give up all his wealth for the sake of the Snow Maiden, she cannot find feelings for him in her heart. Everyone is unhappy: Kupava, Mizgir’s failed bride, Mizgir, who can no longer think about anyone except the Snow Maiden, who captivated him with her beauty, and the Snow Maiden herself suffers because she does not know what true love is.

By turning to her mother for help, the heroine receives what she wanted more than anything else in the world - the opportunity to love. Spring-Red says that she will love the first person she meets. Fortunately, it turns out to be Mizgir, and the reader can imagine that now everything will end happily. But no, Mizgir, intoxicated by the Snow Maiden’s love, wants to show everyone that he was able to achieve his goal - the beauty’s reciprocity. Not listening to the girl’s requests, he literally drags her up the mountain where the Berendeys met the dawn, and under the first rays of the sun the Snow Maiden dissolves. Having yielded to human law, she melts “from the sweet feelings of love.”

The melting of the Snow Maiden is a victory over the “traces of cold” in the heart. She was ready to die for the right to love with all her heart. Mizgir said about this: “Love and fear fought in her soul”. Now fear has been abandoned, and the Snow Maiden in the last minutes of her short life is given only to love.

Mizgir is also fearless. He kept his promise: “Trouble will come - we will die together”. The death of the Snow Maiden is a disaster for him, so he rushes into the lake to unite with the cool water into which the Snow Maiden has turned, recently warm in his hot embrace.

But Tsar Berendey calls the death of the Snow Maiden "sad", Then "wonderful". The difference between these epithets suggests to the reader a way out of tragedy into affirmation of life. The death of the Snow Maiden and the Berendey holiday are nearby. Its extinction brings a flood of light into the world. No wonder the king says:

Snow Maiden's sad death
And the terrible death of Mizgir
They cannot disturb us; The sun knows
Whom to punish and pardon...

Thus, the tragedy of the individual dissolves in the general chorus of nature. In the words of Pushkin, the author’s sadness is light because the human soul is light: it turns out to be free and fearless in love, it is stronger than the fear of self-preservation.

“Snow Maiden” - “spring fairy tale” by A.N. Ostrovsky. Written in March-August 1873. First publication: “Bulletin of Europe” (1873, No. 9). After finishing work on the play by A.N. Ostrovsky told N.A. Nekrasov: “In this work I take a new road.” The novelty of the play, perceived as the playwright’s “entry to the historical galleries,” did not meet with unambiguous approval. I.S. Turgenev was “captivated by the beauty and lightness of the play’s language” and highly appreciated the poetry of national tradition contained in it. But those who valued Ostrovsky’s gift as a satirist and exposer were disappointed. Critics ironically noted the similarity of some motifs of the “spring tale” with Shakespeare’s comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The habit of perceiving Ostrovsky as a writer of everyday life of the “dark kingdom” led to the rejection of the “ghostly and meaningless” images of the play and the assessment of the Berendeys as “a people as stupid as they are fantastic” (V.P. Burenin).

The source of the poetic imagery of Ostrovsky’s play “The Snow Maiden” was Slavic mythology. The plot was based on a folk tale about a Snow Maiden girl (published by I.A. Khudyakov in 1862). Ostrovsky gleaned information about the beliefs and religious ideas of the ancient Slavs from the fundamental research of A.N. Afanasyev “Poetic views of the Slavs on nature” (1865-1869). Ritual songs, games, figurative motives of lyrical monologues were compiled from the recordings of folklorists and ethnographers A.V. Tereshchenko, T.I. Filippova, P.N. Rybnikova and others. The playwright brought the meter of the song of the guslar choir, which begins the second act, closer to the rhythm of the prose of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” “The Snow Maiden” can be considered as a mythical and poetic prologue to Ostrovsky’s late drama, the result of his reflections on the spiritual foundations of Russian life. The author's definition of the genre as a “spring tale” gives the key to the content of the play about the spring of folk life.

The “initial”, “early” time of action is the right time of the Slavic tribe. The space of life of the Berendeys (the name is taken from the Tale of Bygone Years, but there it belongs to the Turkic tribe allied with Rus') is spiritualized and animated, material and beautiful. This is the dawn of the universe - the golden age: “Merry are the cities in the land of the Berendeys, joyful are the songs in the groves and valleys / The kingdom of Berendey is red with peace.” The fabulously utopian Berendey kingdom is built on the principles of truth and love. The religion of the Berendeys is the “natural”, “natural” religion of the people, for whom the work of the law is “written in their hearts” and is sacredly observed by everyone. The wise and fair guardian of the law is Berendey, “the great king of the happy Berendeys,” “the intercessor for all orphans,” “the father of his land.”

Children of nature, the Berendeys live with her in happy harmony, joyfully obeying her basic law - the law of love: “Nature has invariably laid down the time of love for everyone...” Love for the Berendeys is the beginning of life; “ardor of love” is a necessary condition for its continuation. It binds together all the elements of the universe and ensures its epic balance. Ritual, ritual love is the earthly embodiment of the sacred marriage of earth and Heaven, the guarantee of the well-being of the Berendey kingdom. During sacred time (Yarilin’s day) in the reserved forest, a marriage celebration is celebrated in honor of the supreme deity Yarila: “There is no sacrifice more pleasing to Yarila!” Like children of nature, Berendeys are paganly indifferent to the “personal” principle in love. (This is especially noticeable in the impersonal affection of the “favorite of the sun” shepherd Lel, in the “love” of Elena the Beautiful, etc.) Here lies the seed of the tragic conflict.

The appearance of the Snow Maiden among people threatens to destroy the natural order of life. The daughter of Spring and Frost, she does not “know love at all” and therefore, in the eyes of the Berendeys, she acts as a violator of natural law: “Every living thing in the world must love...”. The coldness of the heroine, her “unearthly” beauty gives rise to jealousy, abuse, and strife among the Berendeys. “There is a considerable chill in the hearts,” the religious “service to beauty” disappears, and the entire way of life of people is disrupted. In anger, Yarila knows no mercy and deprives the Berendeys of the blessed warmth: the short summer “gets shorter every year, and the springs get colder...”.

The seed of a tragic conflict sprouts when the “proud in spirit” Mizgir, captivated by the beauty of the Snow Maiden, cheats on the beautiful Kupava. This unheard of violation of human law heralds the end of a carefree and problem-free golden age. The personal self-will of the love feeling encroaches on the very essence of the Berendeys’ religion of love. Mizgir and Snegurochka, alien to the tribal unity of the Berendeys, bring chaos and destruction to their harmonious and orderly existence. The “personal” comes into an insoluble contradiction with the “generic” and its destruction becomes inevitable. The Snow Maiden dies, having begged Mother Spring for the gift of love for the sake of joining the human race. Her “unearthly” beauty melted under the furious rays of the supreme patron of this world. Mizgir, “deceived by the gods,” dies, throwing himself into the lake from Yarilina Mountain: “If the gods are deceivers, it is not worth living in the world!”

Cruelty towards lawless manifestations of personal feelings is heard in the words of the reigning sage Berendey: “The Snow Maiden’s sad death and the terrible death of Mizgir cannot disturb us. The sun knows who to punish and have mercy on. A truthful judgment has taken place!..” The conflict between “law” and “will”, “one’s own” and “strangers” leads to the final catastrophe. This is how “the birth of tragedy from the spirit of the epic” occurs.

Ostrovsky's The Snow Maiden was first staged on May 11, 1873 at the Maly Theater (Moscow). The music for the play was written by P.I. Chaikovsky. The title role was played by G.N. Fedotova. The play was staged for the first time at the Alexandrinsky Theater (St. Petersburg) on ​​December 27, 1900 - at a benefit performance by K.A. Varlamov, who plays the role of Tsar Berendey. The title role was played by V.F. Komissarzhevskaya. Among other productions, noteworthy is the performance of the New Theater (Moscow), which premiered on September 8, 1900. Directed by A.P. Lensky's play sounded like a love drama. At the Art Theater (Moscow) the play was staged by K.S. Stanislavsky (first performance - September 24, 1900, the role of Berendey was played by V.I. Kachalov).

In 1881 N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the opera “The Snow Maiden,” first staged on January 29, 1882 at the Mariinsky Theater (St. Petersburg) under the baton of conductor E.F. Napravnik. Among other productions of the opera, it should be noted the premiere on October 8, 1885 of the Private Russian Opera by S.I. Mamontov (artistic design of the performance - V.M. Vasnetsov, I.I. Levitan, K.A. Korovin). The first premiere of the opera took place at the Bolshoi Theater (Moscow) on January 26, 1893.

A.N. Ostrovsky, the leading playwright of the Maly Theatre, wrote almost all of his plays in prose (sometimes with a little interspersed poetry). “The Snow Maiden” is an unusual play because it is written entirely in verse. Public I didn’t appreciate it at first a fairy tale play, because the audience is accustomed to Ostrovsky’s serious prose. But the play was destined to have a long, happy history. We provide a brief summary of the fairy tale “The Snow Maiden”.

In contact with

• Red hill
• settlement Berendeyevka
• royal castle
• reserved forest
• Yarila Valley

Characters

Main characters:

• Lel, young shepherd
• Mizgir, young merchant
• Tsar Berendey

The main female characters are Kupava and Snegurochka. Also in the fairy tale-play there is a “behind the scenes” character - Yarilo, he is constantly mentioned. At the end of the play he will appear in the guise of a young guy.

Characteristics of the influence of Frost on the kingdom of Berendey is unambiguous: where there is cold and frost, bad feelings like envy, indifference, cruelty, and deceit are born.

Prologue

Midnight, Red Hill. Spring is beginning, but there is snow everywhere. Spring-Red appears along with the bird retinue. It would seem, why should the country of the Berendeys greet spring so coldly? It turns out there is a reason, and a very good one: Vesna-Krasna tried it play in love with Santa Claus, but everything turned into a difficult marriage. It seems that we need to leave the stern grandfather, but it’s just difficult to decide on this: Spring and Frost are the parents of the girl Snow Maiden.

Soon Frost himself appears. A conversation ensues between him and Vesna. We learn about the enmity of the lord of winter with the sun god Yaril. God longs to destroy his sworn enemy, and knows about his weakness - the Snow Maiden. It is not surprising that Moroz is seriously worried and strictly instructs his wife to make sure that her daughter does not find out about love.

At the end of the prologue, the Berendeys appear, saying goodbye to the winter and burning the effigy of Maslenitsa.

First action

Bobyl Bakula and his wife became the adoptive parents of the Snow Maiden. A conversation began between them. It turned out that the male and female were hoping for a happy life: the guy might like the girl, you see, and there would be a good wedding.

But, unfortunately, everything turned out differently. The beauty with an icy heart turned the heads of many guys, they forgot about the brides, and dogged each other like classic jealous people. Gradually, the intrigue of the play begins to emerge: because of the Snow Maiden, the guys cannot make peace with the girls. The young shepherd Lel sang a song to a girl with an icy heart, and then simply threw it away withered flower - a modest gift. The Snow Maiden felt only indignation, resentment, but not the pangs of love.
Only Kupava remained friendly with Moroz’s daughter. It would seem that the Snow Maiden will see the wedding of Kupava and the young merchant Mizgir. But a new drama begins: the merchant loses his head from a girl with an icy heart. Kupava wants to drown himself in the river, but Lel rushes to the rescue.

Second act

We are transported to the castle of Tsar Berendey. The ruler is busy - paints with intricate patterns one of the pillars. Two buffoons (simply put, jesters) are arguing about what kind of drawing this is - an image of a cow's or a dog's leg. The dispute becomes more and more serious, and almost turns into a fist fight. The king drives both buffoons away.

Later, an adviser comes to the ruler. During the conversation, the king notes that things in the state are bad: spring and autumn have been cold for fifteen years, snow lies until mid-summer. According to Berendey, Yarilo is very angry with people - because in their souls coldness, indifference, and other bad feelings. The only way to appease God is through prayers and sacrifices. The Tsar hopes to marry the brides and grooms just on Yarilin’s day, and not just anywhere, but in a reserved forest. A friendly marriage song should appease God.

The adviser says that the plan is unlikely to work - the brides and grooms quarreled, the reason is the appearance of the girl Snow Maiden. The king at first does not believe his ears, and then wants to see Frost’s daughter.

Kupava enters the royal castle and talks about his grief. Having learned that her heart was broken by her fiancé, the young merchant Mizgir, Berendey promises to punish the culprit.

Later, the culprit of Kupava’s grief, Snegurochka, appears. The king is surprised: how can such a beauty know absolutely nothing about love! Let someone be able to melt the ice in this girl’s heart.

Third act

The night begins on the eve of Yarilin's day. The fun begins, and the shepherd Lel became the lead singer. Gradually, the girls begin to make peace with the guys, everything goes well. Lel kisses Kupava in front of the Snow Maiden. How does the daughter of Frost feel? Jealousy? No, in the heart of a cold girl pride spoke.

Mizgir is blinded by love and wants to marry the Snow Maiden at all costs. But Frost’s daughter refuses. A little later the goblin intervenes. And the young merchant begins to be attracted by the mirage of a cold girl. And Mizgir will run after this mirage all night.

After a conversation with Lel and Kupava, Snegurochka finally realized that life without love is empty.

Fourth act

The Snow Maiden calls her mother - Vesna Krasna. The Spring Sorceress listens to her daughter's complaints and asks what she wants. Frost's daughter is tired of the cold life and wants love. The mother reminds her daughter of her father’s worries: love is deadly for a cold heart.

Snow Maiden ready to pay with my life for “one moment of love.” And he receives the gift of love from his mother.

The girl looks at the world in a new way. Having met Mizgir, the Snow Maiden admits that she loves him. And soon what needs to happen happens: falling under the ray of the Sun, the daughter of Frost melts. Mizgir, in despair over the loss of his beloved, drowns himself in the lake.

Tsar Berendey and the shepherd Lel call the god Yarilo. And God responded to the call: Yarilo stopped being angry, because his sworn enemy, Frost, was defeated.

Conclusion

The image of the Snow Maiden came from Russian folklore. In folk tales there are descriptions of a girl created from snow and melted in the spring. This is a poetic image of the changing seasons. Ostrovsky was inspired by folk art, and a string of works was created based on his play:

• Opera by Rimsky-Korsakov;
• Painting by V.M. Vasnetsov;
• Children's films and cartoons;

The Snow Maiden, together with Father Frost, became a decoration of the New Year holidays in Russia.

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