Images of animals in Krylov's fables. Essay "Images of animals in Russian fairy tales and fables by I. Krylov" Is the choice of certain animals in fables random?

A fable is a short story that has an allegorical meaning. Usually one of the main types of allegory in a fable is allegory, the embodiment of an abstract idea in a material image. As a rule, the main characters of a fable are conventional fable animals. It is generally accepted that images of animals are allegorical.

In I. A. Krylov’s fables, animals act more often than people. Animals are present in all types of fables by I. A. Krylov: philosophical (“Two Doves”), social (“The Wolf and the Lamb”), historical (“The Wolf in the Kennel”), everyday (“The Pig under the Oak”). It is generally accepted that the image of each animal is from a fabulist; this is an allegory of some character trait, for example, a monkey, a pig, an allegory of ignorance; donkey of stupidity; cat; tricks; Rooster, cuckoo of mediocrity, etc. The allegorical nature of animal images originates from Aesop's fables. Aesop wrote fables for the sake of establishing morality in society, and allegory helped him ridicule a certain human trait, a bad inclination, it served as an illustration of morality. In the fables of I. A. Krylov, not only morality is important as the highest category of human behavior in society, in many ways he is a follower of La Fontaine, a picturesque fabulist. We read I. A. Krylov’s fables not because of the morality, but because of the most interesting and witty story told. Therefore, one may not agree that the author’s image of any animal is only an allegory of one human vice. In most cases, the image of an animal by I. A. Krylov includes a set of certain qualities and properties that make up a certain human character.

For example, the image of a fox is composed not only of cunning and flattery, but of cunning, flattery, and deceit at the same time. And in accordance with the endowed character, she behaves in each specific everyday situation. In the fable “The Peasant and the Fox,” the Fox at the end acts as a fox should, without contradicting his character:

The fox has become more satisfying,
The fox has become fatter,
But things didn’t become more honest...
...Choosing a darker night,
Kumanka strangled all his chickens.

The donkey, one of the most frequently encountered heroes of I. A. Krylov’s fables, is also endowed with a human character. He is stupid, stupid, ignorant, stubborn. And in the fable he always acts like a donkey. The man entrusted him with guarding the garden, “the donkey, chasing the birds with all the donkey’s legs ‹…› got into such a gallop that he crushed and trampled everything in the garden.” Zeus made him taller. But still the donkey remained a donkey:

Not even a year has passed
How everyone found out who Donkey is:
My stupidity has become a proverbial donkey,
And they carry water on a donkey.

From folk tales and proverbs, certain images of many animals, for example, a fox, a wolf, a hare, are formed in the minds of Russian people. I. A. Krylov uses this in his fables, this is the nationality of Krylov’s fables. But, of course, not all the animals in his fables represent complete characters. For example, a bee is just a generalized allegory of hard work.

Every animal in I. A. Krylov also personifies a representative of some social group. The lion is always the king; Wolf, Fox, Bear - court nobles, officials; Lamb, Frog, Ant are “little” people standing at the very bottom of the social ladder: minor officials, peasants. Often the human character with which the beast in I. A. Krylov’s fable is endowed merges with its social characteristics, and then real social types existing in society appear before the reader. For example, in the fable “The Education of Leo”, behind the image of the old Leo we see a typical image of the Russian Tsar. Leo trusts to raise his Lion Cub to a representative of another nation, a foreigner; he cannot teach his own son to run the state, because he does not know how to do it, does not know what is really going on in his state. And as a result, the Lion Cub grows up to be the same as his father, a stranger to his people, cut off from the national soil.

Often in I. A. Krylov’s fables it is easy to detect specific historical figures behind the images of animals. The lion cub from the fable “The Education of the Lion” is Alexander I; The wolf from the fable “The Wolf in the Kennel” is Napoleon. We can say that the Wolf is not an allegory, but rather a metaphor related to Napoleon.

The artistic perfection and realism of I. A. Krylov’s fables lie in the breadth of generalization, in the typicality, in the accuracy of the selection of the fact that prompted the fabulist to create the fable.

The images of animals among fabulists are not just allegories of one human trait; many of them convey various traits of human character, representing a certain class type, and are a metaphor for a specific historical person. Krylov creates living, typical, realistic characters, generalizing and typifying the very situation in which they act. This is the realism, innovation and durability of I. A. Krylov’s fables.

ANNOTATION

Kazak Oksana Nikolaevna Nazarovo, municipal educational institution secondary school No. 3, 5A class

“The Image of the Wolf in the Fables of I.A. Krylov”

supervisor: Oksana Leonidovna Kabasheva, teacher of Russian language and literature.

The purpose of the scientific work: to show how in various fables, through the images of a wolf, Krylov portrayed representatives of various social levels: kings, nobles, officials, etc., what human vices, ridiculed in the image of a wolf, have survived to this day.

Research methods: study, analysis, synthesis

The main results of the scientific research (scientific, practical): a comparison of several fables was carried out, on the basis of which different characters and images of the allegorical character - the Wolf - were identified.

INTRODUCTION

Relevance(slide No. 2). Back in Ancient Greece, the fable genre was glorified by the witty Aesop. In Russia in the 18th century, the fable became one of the most beloved genres in literature. Winged expressions from fables spread among the people. The moral of the fable always taught unobtrusively, passed on wisdom from older generations to younger ones. Ivan Andreevich Krylov became a famous fabulist. Of most children's fairy tales and poems, Krylov's fables are always the best, because they are etched in the memory and arise throughout life when encountering human vices. People can often say that Krylov did not write for children at all, but is the meaning of his fables really not at all clear to children? The moral is clearly and competently written, which is why absolutely any child can read Krylov’s fables with great benefit. Nowadays, satirists often use fables to ridicule any vices in society or their political rivals.

The purpose of the work (slide No. 3) is to show how in various fables, through the images of a wolf, Krylov portrayed representatives of various social levels: kings, nobles, officials, etc., what human vices, ridiculed in the image of a wolf, have survived to this day.

Hypothesis (slide No. 4). The wolf in Krylov's fables is the personification of greed, stupidity, injustice and other vices of people.

Tasks (slide No. 5):

analyze the selected fables,

generalize allegorical images, draw conclusions,

Methods (slide No. 6): study, analysis, synthesis.

Object of study – fables by I.A. Krylov.

Subject of study – the image of the Wolf in Krylov's fables.

Chapter I. ALLEGORY AS A MEDIUM

EXPRESSIVENESS IN A FABLE

We have loved reading Krylov's Fables since childhood. Our memory stores various Krylov images, which often arise in our memory in completely different life situations, and, turning to them, we never cease to be amazed at Krylov’s talent.

What is a fable? According to the explanatory dictionary, this is a “short, mostly poetic, moralizing text,” that is, a fairy tale containing a teaching that is directly related to the internal spiritual qualities of a person, based on such moral ideals as goodness, responsiveness, duty, justice and others . Heroes in fables can be anything or anyone: people, animals, objects or plants that are endowed with various human qualities.

As a trope, allegory is used in poetry, parables, and fables. The main way to depict an allegory is to generalize human concepts; representations are revealed in the images and behavior of animals, plants, mythological and fairy-tale characters, inanimate objects and acquire figurative meaning.

Chapter II. THE IMAGE OF THE WOLF IN KRYLOV'S FABLES

"Wolf and Lamb"

2. “Wolf in the kennel”

3. "The Wolf and the Crane"

4. "Wolf and Sheep"

5. "The Wolf and the Fox"

Let us select for analysis several of the most famous fables.

1. Krylov's fable "Wolf and Lamb"( slide number 9) , at first glance, it represents a fairly traditional interpretation of the well-known plot. The fable has two main characters, whose images are equally important and cannot exist one without the other. If you remember the plot of the work, then already in its elements you can see a clearly expressed author’s principle: the “hungry Wolf” prowls near the stream, hoping to somehow satisfy his hunger, and at this time the Lamb comes to the same stream, who wants to get drunk. .. A “hungry” predator simply cannot refuse the food that appears! Shouldn’t he really go look for some other “food” if it has already appeared? The worst thing about his behavior, according to Krylov, is not this. The author probably would not have found why he should have condemned the Wolf if the predator had immediately eaten the unfortunate Lamb? Then, strictly speaking, there would be no fable. To show not just strength, but immoral, hypocritical force and in this way, especially terrible in moral terms, Krylov portrays the Wolf, who persistently strives to justify his attitude towards the defenseless Lamb on some, if not moral, then at least “legal” grounds. It is through the use of the epithet “legitimate” that Krylov’s moral and aesthetic position is revealed. The very meaning of this word, the very “legitimacy” implies that the Wolf wants, with the help of high motives, to justify his behavior in the eyes of... the same Lamb. After all, no one will ever know what exactly happened between the Wolf and the Lamb, no one will care that the Wolf ate the latter - another victim of a ferocious predator... And if anyone found out, would any of that I would dare to condemn the environment in which the heroes of the fable live.

Wolf Character:

- Characterizes a person who has power and takes advantage of his position.

In his own words he shows his disregard for the rules and his understanding of his own impunity.

Shows rudeness and anger when addressing the Lamb, calling him both a dog and an unclean snout.

He turns his essence inside out with just the words “It’s your fault that I want to eat,” showing arrogance and undisguised shamelessness.

Moral of the fable "The Wolf and the Lamb"

“The powerful are always to blame for the powerless”... The Wolf and the Lamb is one of the rare fables that begins with a moral. Krylov immediately sets us up for what will be discussed. The prevailing opinion that he who is stronger is right is shown in all its glory. Well, in fact, what can the Lamb prove to the hungry Wolf? But for the Wolf, on the contrary, it would be worth thinking that at any moment a power greater than his would be found. How will he speak then? How's the Lamb?

What conclusions can be drawn?

Krylov in the fable “The Wolf and the Lamb” describes his favorite theme - the lack of rights of the common people. The human vices ridiculed in the fable must be eradicated from human society and corrected. Krylov understands that a force that acts as it pleases is difficult to stop. People like the Wolf don’t even need to justify themselves to anyone! I wanted human power to work to restore justice.

In a fable "Wolf in the kennel"( slide No. 10) we can already talk not so much about allegory as about metaphor. In this fable, the image of a wolf refers to Napoleon. We can say for a long time that Napoleon was cunning, dexterous, intelligent, and knew how to quickly and deftly adapt to the situation. But he did not calculate his capabilities and ended up “in the kennel” instead of the “sheepfold”...

Moral of the fable “Wolf in the kennel”

Krylov’s fable “The Wolf in the Kennel” is a patriotic work about significant historical events of 1812. The Hunter is Kutuzov, the Wolf is Napoleon, but even a detailed knowledge and understanding of history with a comparison of the behaviors of these individuals does not completely cover the deep moral of the fable “The Wolf in the Kennel.”

In Krylov's fable, much attention is paid to conveying the picturesqueness of all the pictures and the moods of the participants. The anxiety in the kennel is excited by the use of vivid and figurative expressions: “the dogs are eager to fight”... Moreover, the dangerous cunning of the wolf and resourcefulness are especially clearly described: “I did not come to make peace with you for the sake of a quarrel.” The wolf's behavior is hypocritical, hiding his evil essence, he tries to flatter.

Krylov very easily conveys the mind of the Hunter, showing that he does not even listen to the end of the wolf, because his hypocrisy in trying to save his own skin is already clear. Comparing the wolf and the dog, the author gives preference to the second, whose words become the beginning of the emerging morality: “You are gray, and I, my friend, am gray.”

Correlating the image of the wolf with the entire allegorical meaning of the fable, we immediately recognize the conqueror Napoleon in him. But at the same time, the image of a wolf is in no way narrowed to the image of a specific person; it is so broad and comprehensive that the fable does not lose its value even outside the context of the era.

In the fable “The Wolf and the Crane” there are two main characters. The wolf in this fable is cunning and treacherous. And the crane is stupid because it fell for such a trick.

Moral of the story:

Sometimes it happens that instead of gratitude, insidious people say that it is not they who owe it, but we owe it to them that everything ended so well. Indeed, under other circumstances, the crane could become dinner for the wolf. Therefore, when helping such people, you should not count on their gratitude. The moral lies much deeper, since the fable says that the crane not only took its nose, but was also able to save its stupid head from the wolf’s mouth. Listeners need to learn the lesson that when faced with an insidious and evil person in life, you should not help him, expecting to receive a reward. The wolf in this fable is the personification of deceit and cruelty.

The fable “The Wolf and the Sheep” says that the government of animals decided to protect the sheep and passed a law:

How soon will the Wolf begin to rage among the herd,

And he will offend the Sheep,

Then the Wolf is ruled by the Sheep,

Can't make out faces

Grab him by the collar and immediately present him to the court,

To the neighboring forest or to the forest.

But the wolves still dragged the sheep.

Moral of the story: In the time of Krylov there were many laws that protected the rights of only the powerful class, and those who were in serfdom had absolutely no rights. This fable ridicules a law that is impossible to fulfill, and everyone understands that it will not protect the powerless. Strong, i.e. wolves can do as they please, despite the fact that the law is weak, i.e. the sheep could deal with the offenders themselves. In real life this cannot be done, i.e. such a law is just hypocrisy. The wolf in this fable is the image of a landowner, a nobleman who understands that everything is allowed to him.

The fable “The Wolf and the Fox” talks about how the fox, having had its fill in the chicken coop, also grabbed some in reserve. Suddenly a hungry wolf comes to her, the cunning fox doesn’t say a word to him in reserve, but offers him some hay to eat. Confused by the fox's kind words, the Wolf left, fooled and hungry.

Morality:

We gladly give

What we don’t need ourselves.

We'll explain this with a fable,

Because the truth is more tolerably half-open.

The wolf in this fable is the personification of a loser, a naive and stupid person who is easily fooled. He will buy any kind word or flattery.

CONCLUSION

The writer has many plots borrowed from the works of other fabulists. But Ivan Andreevich’s connection with folk art, with the language of folk tales, was so close that even these borrowed fables do not sound like translations. After all, Krylov’s bright, accurate, lively Russian language could not be borrowed from anyone (slide No. 11).

Krylov's poems, easily remembered, became proverbs and entered the golden fund of popular speech. There are many such proverbs and sayings from his fables that remain in the Russian language: “And the casket just opened” (“Casket”), “It’s your fault that I want to eat” (“The Wolf and the Lamb”), “Your stigma is covered in fluff.” "("The Fox and the Marmot"), "Ai, Moska! She is strong to know that she barks at the Elephant” (“Elephant and Moska”), “And Vaska listens and eats” (“Cat and the Cook”) and many, many others no less wonderful and expressive.

Krylov is a truly people's writer, an artist of enormous power, and his influence on Russian literature was profound and positive.

In Krylov's fables, the vices of people are unobtrusively ridiculed through the images of animals. In folk tales, the Wolf is most often the personification of evil. Following the tradition of folklore, Krylov also attributes various atrocities, deceit, and cruelty to the Wolf. But Krylov’s Wolf is also stupid and naive.

So, in Krylov’s fables there is an image of the Wolf - greedy, insidious, cunning, cruel, naive, stupid, and there is even a Wolf in the image of Napoleon.

Research Institute

Appendix 1. Fables by I.A. Krylov

Wolf and Lamb

The powerful are always to blame for the powerless:
We hear countless examples of this in history.
But we don't write history,
But what they say in fables...

On a hot day, a lamb went to a stream to drink:
And something must happen,
That a hungry Wolf was prowling around those places.
He sees a lamb and strives for the prey;
But, to give the matter at least a legal look and feel,
Shouts: “How dare you, insolent, with an unclean snout
Here is the pure muddying of my drink
With sand and silt?
For such insolence
I'll rip your head off." -
"When the brightest Wolf allows,
I dare say that down the stream
From the Lordship of his steps I drink a hundred;
And he deigns to be angry in vain:
There’s no way I can make him drink worse."
"That's why I'm lying!
Waste! Never heard of such insolence in the world!
Yes, I remember that you were still last summer
Somehow he was rude to me here;
I haven’t forgotten this, buddy!” -
“For mercy, I’m not even a year old yet.” -
The lamb speaks. - “So it was your brother.” -
"I have no brothers." - “So this is godfather or matchmaker.
And, in a word, someone from your own family.
You yourself, your dogs and your shepherds,
You all want me harm
And if you can, then you always harm me;
But I will clear away their sins with you." -
"Oh, what is my fault?" - “Be quiet! I’m tired of listening.
It’s time for me to sort through your faults, puppy!
It’s your fault that I want to eat.”
He said and dragged the Lamb into the dark forest.

Wolf at the kennel

The wolf at night, thinking of getting into the sheepfold,
I ended up at the kennel.
Suddenly the whole kennel yard rose up -
Smelling gray so close to the bully,
The dogs are flooded in the barns and are eager to fight;
The hounds shout: “Wow, guys, thief!”
And instantly the gates are locked;
In a minute the kennel became hell.
They run: another with a club,
Another with a gun.
“Fire!” they shout, “fire!” They came with fire.
My Wolf sits with his backside pressed into the corner.
Teeth snapping and fur bristling,
With his eyes, it seems he would like to eat everyone;
But, seeing what is not here in front of the herd
And what finally comes
He has to pay for the sheep, -
My cunning man set off
In negotiations
And he started like this: “Friends! Why all this noise?
I, your old matchmaker and godfather,
I came to make peace with you, not at all for the sake of a quarrel;
Let's forget the past, let's establish a common harmony!
And not only will I not touch the local herds in the future,
But I’m happy to fight for them with others
And I affirm with a wolf’s oath,
What am I..." - "Listen, neighbor, -
Here the hunter interrupted in response, -
You are gray, and I, buddy, are gray,
And I have long known your wolfish nature;
Therefore, my custom is:
There is no other way to make peace with wolves,
Like skinning them off.”
And then he released a pack of hounds at the Wolf.

Wolf and crane

Everyone knows that wolves are greedy;

Wolf, eating, never

Doesn't understand bones

Slide 2

Epigraph

With fun he corrected people, sweeping away the dust of their vices; He glorified himself with fables, And this glory is our reality. And they will not forget this one, While they say in Russian: We solidified it long ago, Her grandchildren will solidify it too. Book P. Vyazemsky

Slide 3

KRYLOV Ivan Andreevich Russian fabulist, playwright, journalist. Member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (1816), full member of the Russian Academy (1811), St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1841). In 1809, the first book of Krylov's fables was published. In total, he wrote about 200 fables. Krylov's fables quickly became widely known; already in 1824 a two-volume set of his fables, translated into French and Italian, was published in Paris. This was followed by translations into most European languages.

Slide 4

A fable is a short work, written in verse or prose, in which there is a mockery of some bad or stupid act. Fables usually feature animals, in whose images we easily recognize people.

Slide 5

Krylov inherited the tradition of identifying people with animals from his predecessors. For the purpose of allegory, fabulists of different times used images of animals and even objects. For artistic reasons (and sometimes for censorship reasons), people in fables are replaced by animals endowed with individual human traits: cowardice, bravery, kindness, courage, etc. Such allegorical images of animals, that is, animals personifying one particular trait human character, were widely used in their fables by Aesop, Lafontaine, Lessing. But Krylov’s images of animals play a more important role - they carry not only individual traits, but also entire characters.

Slide 6

Man is inseparable from his social position, and through the images of animals one can see representatives of various social levels. Kings, nobles, officials, “little people” also found their metaphorical reflection in Krylov’s images of animals. For example, in the fable “The Lion and the Leopard,” where the lion and leopard are the upper strata of society, the fox and the cat are bureaucrats. This also includes the fable “The Wolf and the Lamb.” “The strong are always to blame for the powerless,” says the moral. The image of the lamb used not only as an allegory of weakness and defenselessness, but this image also appears as a metaphor for a certain social level, perhaps for minor officials.

Slide 7

Sometimes Krylov makes irony not only about social vices, but also about the very support of the social ladder - state institutions. For this purpose, images of animals are used. An example is the fable “Quartet,” which parodies the State Council, created in 1801, and its four departments: the Naughty Monkey, the Donkey, the Goat, and the clumsy Bear. They started to play a Quartet... They hit the bows, they fight, but there’s no point.

Slide 8

In the fable “The Crow and the Fox,” Krylov, in the image of the Crow, ridicules vain, arrogant people striving for glory and honor, and in the image of the Fox, those who achieve their goal with cunning and flattery.

Slide 9

"Pig under the Oak"

The ignoramus also, in blindness, scolds science and learning, And all scientific works, Not feeling that he tastes their fruits. Krylov ridicules the stupidity of an uneducated person.

Slide 10

"Mirror and Monkey"

The stupid and uneducated Monkey did not recognize himself in the Mirror and laughed at his own antics. The calm and reasonable Bear gave her advice: “Why should godmothers work? Isn’t it better to turn on yourself, godmother?”

Slide 11

"Dragonfly and Ant"

The dragonfly, having fun all summer, simply does not think about what awaits it in the cold autumn and winter. The hard worker Ant understands that in cold and hunger, without an anthill and supplies, he will die. The ant is the personification of hard work, the dragonfly is the personification of idleness and frivolity.

Slide 12

"Elephant and Moska"

Ay, Moska, I know she is strong, That she barks at the Elephant! Moska’s inner weakness makes her bark at the Elephant - while realizing that there will be no reaction to the barking from the Elephant. That is, Moska does not try to stop the Elephant, but rather uses his movement as a reason for his own “promotion” in the minds of other dogs. She understands her powerlessness and does not at all strive for a real fight: she just wants to become famous, “to get into big bullies.” It is easy for the reader to apply the conclusion of this fable to human relationships and characters.

Essay text:

As the dictionary tells us, a fable is a short story that has an allegorical meaning. For the purpose of allegory, fabulists of different times used images of animals and even objects. For artistic reasons (and sometimes for censorship reasons), people in fables are replaced by animals endowed with individual human traits: cowardice, bravery, kindness, courage, etc. d. Such allegorical images of animals, that is, animals personifying one trait of human character, were widely used in their fables by Aesop, Lafontaine, and Lessing. Krylov inherited this tradition from his predecessors. But the skill of Krylov the fabulist, of course, does not consist in the complete and constant maintenance of this tradition. To understand Krylov’s innovation, let us first turn to what he used from the experience of his predecessors.
Allegory came to literature from folklore: medieval morality plays, tales, fairy tales, especially from fairy tales about animals, where traditional fairy-tale animal characters acted, each of which was obviously endowed with a certain character trait. The technique of allegory was also used by classicists (for example, in odes).
No one doubts that the fabled Ant is the personification of hard work (Dragonfly and Ant), Pig of ignorance (Pig under the oak tree), Lamb of meekness (like the lamb of God, Wolf and lamb). Krylov believed that the vices of humanity can be eradicated by ridiculing them. In Krylov's fables, animals are used to ridicule stupidity, greed, and ignorance. I make fun of it starting from the beginning (by outlining an initially ridiculous situation, as, for example, in the Quartet), by then putting forward a counterargument that is absurd, from our point of view, and, finally, all this is supported by morality. The vices of humanity, of which animals are allegories, are ridiculed by the author. But... A translator in prose is a slave, a translator in verse is a rival (Zhukovsky). And Krylov was just such a rival, for he often turned to images and plots borrowed from great fabulists.
As a true rival of Aesop and La Fontaine, he does not limit himself to mere allegories. Krylov’s images of animals play a more important role; they carry within themselves not only individual traits, but also entire characters. Krylov's fables are not only of an everyday nature; only a part of them can be called purely everyday. Krylov also has historical and social fables. For example, in the fable The Education of Leo, the lion father is not only the embodiment of strength and courage. He is also the king of beasts, this creates a certain subtext in the fable: this refers to the education of Alexander I by the foreign teacher La Harpe. The lion father appears here not only as a formidable king, but at the same time as a caring but narrow-minded father who entrusted the upbringing of his son to the bird, forgetting that the son would reign over the animals. In the image of the lion father, a whole character is depicted, with all its advantages and disadvantages, and not just one trait of human character.
This is what happens with other historical fables by Krylov, that is, with those fables that have real historical overtones. Here we can already talk not so much about allegory as about metaphor, for example in the fables The Wolf in the Kennel and The Pike and the Cat. In these two fables, the images of a wolf and a pike mean Napoleon. Not a single, even the most detailed description of this man, given simply in words, will allow one to guess in him a great commander: one can say for a long time that Napoleon was cunning, dexterous, intelligent, able to quickly and deftly adapt to the situation, but at the same time not I calculated my capabilities and ended up in a kennel instead of a sheepfold. Correlating the image of the wolf with the entire allegorical meaning of the fable, we immediately recognize in him the great conqueror Napoleon. But at the same time, the image of the wolf is in no way narrowed to the image of this particular person; it is so broad and comprehensive that the fable does not lose its value even outside the context of the era.
Krylov's images of animals can be compared with the images of animals in the fairy tales of Salykov-Shchedrin, where sometimes, without knowing the historical background, it is difficult to guess the purpose of this image in the work. So, having found out that images of animals sometimes carry the entire characters of specific people, we can reveal the following: a person is inseparable from his social position, and images of animals can also be classified as metaphors of certain social levels. For example, in the fable The Lion and the Leopard, where the lion and leopard are the highest strata of society, the fox and the cat are officials. This also includes the fable The Wolf and the Lamb. The powerful always have the powerless to blame, so goes the moral. The image of a lamb is not only an allegory of weakness and defenselessness, but also a metaphor of a certain social level, reflecting the character of petty officials. Sometimes Krylov makes irony not only about social vices (the fable Two Dogs), but also about the very support of the social ladder - state institutions. An example is the fable Quartet, which parodies the State Council, created in 1801, and its four departments, headed by the Prankish Martyshka,
A donkey, a goat and a clumsy bear.
Indeed, what awaits such a quartet of State Council in the future if such different types are placed at its head. So, the images of various animals with different characters widely used by Krylov also indicate the realistic basis of Krylov’s fables. Krylov’s naturalism, the connection of his fables with a folk basis gives his fables a Russian national color. The images of animals (which are sometimes depicted in Russian national costumes in illustrations) carry a satirical typification of the Russian national character.
To create it, Krylov also uses the technique of individualizing the character’s speech. The fabulist puts into the mouths of animals individual elements of colloquial speech of different classes of that time. For example, in the fable Dragonfly and the Ant, the ant says:
Gossip, this is strange to me... So go ahead and dance.
It is worth paying attention to the rhyme of this fable. The image of a jumping dragonfly is created by the special jumping size of the trochee. Krylov also widely uses sound painting to create a sound image of an animal. For example, in the fable of the Snake the instrumentation is based on hissing sounds and z, in the fable of the Sea of ​​Beasts there is repetition of the sounds m, u, s.
So, we see how deeply the traditions of the allegorical fable were perceived and reworked by Krylov, we see how at the same time Krylov enriched the Russian fable with new realistic images of animals. It was in the fable that Krylov developed the principles of realistic typification, without which the capacious satirical images of Salykov-Shchedrin in his fairy-tale satires would have been impossible, and in Woe from Wit the Russianness and accuracy of the great fabulist were reflected in Griboyedov’s aphorism.

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Essay “Images of animals in Russian fairy tales and fables of Krylov”

A fable is a short story that has an allegorical meaning. For the purpose of allegory, fabulists of different times used images of animals and even objects. For artistic reasons, and sometimes for censorship reasons, people in the fable are replaced by animals endowed with individual human traits: rudeness, courage, kindness, courage.

Allegory came to literature from folklore, from medieval parables, fairy tales, where traditional fairy-tale characters acted: fox, bear, hare, wolf. Krylov combined the experience of using different literary genres into one whole.

The ant is the personification of hard work, the pig - ignorance, the lamb - meekness. As a classicist, Krylov believed that the vices of humanity can be eradicated through ridicule. Fables ridicule greed, ignorance, and stupidity.

Images of animals play an important role in Krylov - they carry not only individual features, but also entire characters. His fables are not only of an everyday nature. Krylov has historical and social fables where human vices are ridiculed through allegorical images of animals. For example, in the fable “The Education of Leo,” Leo the Father is not only the embodiment of strength and courage. He is also the king of beasts, which creates a certain subtext in the fable: this refers to the upbringing of Alexander I by the Swiss Laharpe. The lion father appears here not only as a formidable king, but also as a caring but narrow-minded father who entrusted the upbringing of his son to a bird, forgetting that he would reign over the animals. In the image of the lion father, a whole character is depicted, with all its advantages and disadvantages, and not just some property of human nature.

Tsars, nobles, officials, “little people” also found their metaphorical reflection in Krylov’s images of animals. For example, in the fable “The Lion and the Leopard,” where the lion and leopard are the upper strata of society, the fox and the cat are bureaucrats. This also includes the fable “The Wolf and the Lamb.” “The powerful are always to blame for the powerless,” says the moral. The image of a lamb is used not only as an allegory of weakness and defenselessness, but this image also appears as a metaphor for a certain social level, perhaps minor officials.

The fabulist puts into the mouths of animals individual elements of colloquial speech of different classes of that time. Krylov - truly folk , an artist of enormous power, his influence on Russian literature was enormous.

Such masters of words as Nekrasov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ostrovsky studied with Ivan Andreevich. Nowadays, Krylov's fables have found a new . They are still fighting against hypocrisy and hypocrisy, vulgarity and arrogance - this is the secret of their longevity.