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

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, a person most often had to encounter 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 work

Genre: Exploration

"Images of animals in Russian folk tales»

Teacher-mentor:

Yablokova Svetlana Vladimirovna

Teacher of Russian language and literature

Mikhailovsky village, Yaroslavsky 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 there are scratches in the paws 11 p.

3. Conclusion 12 pages.

4. References 14 pages.

Introduction

What is a fairy tale? This beautiful world magic and transformations 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 if he speaks in scientific language, fairy tale-type 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. Modern meaning the word has been acquired 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:

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

I used several folk tale sources to write my work.

This type of fairy tales differs significantly from other types fairy tale genre. 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 concerned 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 a variety of human qualities, but in animals they saw precisely 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 narrative 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: this is 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 the 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 herself 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 so that a new fairy tale come to life and again accept an evil death. What ineradicable evil is 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 and 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 I’ll 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, water does not flow.

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:

How many fairy tales about animals have you read?
What animals were most common in fairy tales?
What features are present?
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

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.

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 as 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

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

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

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Animals in fairy tales represent certain human types: a cunning fox, a kind and defenseless hare, a strong but stupid bear. The relationship between such characters is a human relationship, a person as such is “superfluous” in this world, and people, as a rule, do not appear in such fairy tales.

On the other hand, animals that behave like people (speak, make decisions, give advice, etc.) often appear in fairy tales about people. They seem to become intermediaries between two fairy-tale “universes” - the world of animals and the world of people. Most often, either a horse or a wolf acts as such an “intermediary.” In fairy tales entirely devoted to animals, the wolf appears much more often than the horse.

It is noteworthy that the interpretation of the image of the wolf in Russian fairy tales is practically no different from its embodiment in the folklore of other peoples, which indicates the antiquity of the plots associated with it. Therefore, when talking about the image of the wolf in Russian fairy tales, one cannot confine oneself to the confines of Russian folklore itself.

Wolf as a negative character

In fairy tales about animals, the wolf most often appears as an aggressive, dangerous creature - a real robber who should be feared. One of the most famous examples This kind of fairy tale “The Wolf and”, known not only in the Russian tradition. A meeting with such a character does not bode well even for a person. It is no coincidence that in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, also taken by Charles Perrault from European folklore, it is the wolf who becomes the enemy of the main character.

If a wolf can be defeated, it is done not by force, but by cunning. Most often this is done by the fox, to which this quality is traditionally attributed. This asserts that it is impossible to defeat force with force, aggression with aggression.

This perception of the wolf is not surprising. Fear of these animals arose long before the advent of cattle breeding, for which they became “enemy No. 1.” There was nothing irrational in this guard: the wolf is a predator, quite capable of killing a person.

The fear was aggravated by the nocturnal lifestyle of wolves. The night has always scared people. In the dark, vision, the main human “supplier of information,” does not work well; a person becomes defenseless. Nocturnal animals, which are well oriented in an alien and dangerous environment for humans, have never inspired confidence in people. This was especially true for dangerous predators, who had an advantage over humans at night.

The demonization of the wolf was aggravated by the binary opposition “friend or foe.” Before the advent of cattle breeding, any animal was “alien” from a human point of view. But if a deer, for example, was to a certain extent “one of ours” because it could be eaten, then the wolf was not a source of food. Ancient people did not know that they were forest orderlies, and they did not immediately realize that a wolf cub could be tamed, raised and used for hunting. They did not see any practical benefit from wolves, so wolves in their eyes were completely alien to the human world. Alien means enemy.

But, paradoxically, the wolf does not always appear as a negative character in fairy tales. And even such familiar stories from childhood as “The Wolf and the Little Goats” and “Little Red Riding Hood” are not as clear-cut as they might seem.

The duality of the wolf

If in fairy tales about animals the image of a wolf is more or less unambiguous - a cruel but not endowed with intelligence robber, then in fairy tales about people the wolf often acts as a magical assistant. It is this fairy-tale wolf that A.S. Pushkin mentions in the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”:

“In the dungeon there the princess is grieving,
And the brown wolf serves her faithfully.”

In the fairy tale “Ivan Tsarevich and Gray wolf“It is the wolf who comes to the aid of the hero, and here he can no longer be called a negative character.

The duality of the folklore image of the wolf becomes even more obvious if you go beyond the fairy tale itself and look at the image in a broader mythological context.

Notable in this regard is the famous notebook of Novgorod Onfim, which lifted the veil of secrecy over inner world child from medieval Rus'. The drawings in this notebook embody ordinary boyish dreams of exploits and military glory. But one drawing causes bewilderment: a four-legged creature, in which one can guess a wolf, and next to it is the inscription “I am a beast.” If the boy identified himself with the werewolf, it means that this character was not negative in his eyes.

The Tale of Igor’s Campaign mentions Vseslav, Prince of Polotsk, who “prowled like a wolf in the night.” This is hardly a figurative literary expression: the chronicles mention that “his mother gave birth to this prince from sorcery,” and the author of “The Lay ...” could well attribute werewolf to such a person.

A werewolf is a creature that belongs simultaneously to both the human world and the world of wild nature, which for ancient man identified with the other world. The wolf, as already mentioned, due to its special “alienity” to man, is an ideal expression of this world. It is his appearance that must be accepted in order to become involved in the other world. Therefore, werewolfism (originally a type of magical practice) is associated with the wolf form.

So the wolf turns into an intermediary between the human world and the other world. Such an intermediary is necessary for a person going to the “other world” for a rite of passage. Many fairy-tale motifs originate from this ritual, including the motif of “difficult tasks.” In this light, the origin of the fairytale wolf-magic assistant becomes clear.

The plot of a wolf swallowing the heroes of a fairy tale can also go back to the rite of passage. As you know, goat kids swallowed by a wolf eventually return safely to their mother goat. And this is not a fake “happy ending” pasted on to a fairy tale to keep children from crying. Teenagers who went to the “kingdom of the dead” for an initiation rite also, in most cases, happily returned to the village. Among many primitive peoples, ethnographers observed huts where rituals took place, built in the shape of an animal’s head. This animal seemed to “swallow” the initiates. Probably similar customs existed among the Proto-Slavic peoples. A wolf swallowing and then releasing the heroes of a fairy tale is a distant echo of such customs.

The wolf in Russian fairy tales and in Russian folklore in general is a dual character, which cannot be unambiguously called either positive or negative. This duality is associated with the antiquity of the image, rooted in pagan times.

Project “Animal Characters in Russian
folk tales"

Target: get acquainted with animal characters in Russian folk tales.

Tasks: learn the features of fairy tales about animals, the history and reasons for the appearance of fairy tales with main animal characters, identify the animals most often found in Russian folk tales.

While working on the project, we came to the conclusion that fairy tales about animals- the oldest group of fairy tales based on unusual heroes. These tales are associated with outdated worlds in which animal characters stood at the origins of the creation of the world. The fairy tale shows that people used to try to explain phenomena occurring in nature and were in awe of animals. This is how animal characters appeared in Russian folk tales. In a fairy tale, as in life there is positive and negative characters. Each hero has his own individual character and unique traits. The characteristics of animals in the fairy tale include several distinct characters personifying weakness, awkwardness, stupidity, cunning, cowardice, anger, and strength. We remember Russian folk tales from early childhood, our parents told us when we were 1.2 years old, they remained in our memory. After reading and remembering Russian folk tales, we came to the conclusion that out of the numerous series of animal characters, six of them are the most common.

Fox.

This is a stable image dominated by cunning, a tendency to deception and tricks. The fox will do anything to get what she wants - she will pretend to be weak and helpless, and use all her charm and eloquence.

Bear.

The cat in fairy tales openly demonstrates his playful disposition; in many stories he turns out to be a robber or even a thief. But at the same time, the cat is distinguished by justice and a lively resourceful mind. Thanks to his eloquence, he gets out of any difficult situations, helps the offended, and protects his friends.

Hare.

Hare- the hero is weak, but cunning. He often acts as the personification of cowardice, however, thanks to his dexterity and resourcefulness, he easily gets out of difficult situations. He can outsmart even a wolf and save his friends.

Rooster.

Rooster in fairy tales appears before us in two forms. In many fairy tales the rooster is portrayed as frivolous and very self-confident. Sometimes he shows disobedience and violates some prohibition. And sometimes in fairy tales he acts as a wise assistant to his friends. He shows himself to be a truly fearless and strong positive character in Russian fairy tales.

Wolf.

Conclusions:

Some fairy-tale heroes cause us antipathy.

We define such heroes by their negative qualities and actions.

We also find the appearance of such heroes unpleasant.

There is no need to try to be like such heroes.

Fairy tales are passed down from generation to generation.

At their core - moral values, which are relevant at all times: kindness, mercy, compassion, mutual assistance. The epigraph from the fairy tale “The Raven King” reads:

Evil lives not only in fairy tales -

He walks in life without fear.

But goodness is still alive -

The ancient tale is not false.

Therefore, our life is impossible without fairy tales!

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 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 they 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); animal tales coming to 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, and therefore the characterization characters 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 laconicism. artistic means expressions.

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 meet 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, are also afraid of the same opponents, in fairy tales they endowed with different human qualities, which is quite interesting. Also interesting is the fact that one negative hero is male and, it turns out, he is endowed with masculine negative traits character, and the other hero is female, endowed with feminine traits, accordingly, which is why the methods of achieving their goals are different, despite the fact that these 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. Comparative analysis 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.

Tales about animals are the oldest group of fairy tales, which are based on totemistic and animistic cults. These tales are associated with archaic worlds in which animal characters stood at the origins of the creation of the world. In the stories that have come down to us, these mythological elements are reinterpreted differently. The fairy tale shows that in the past people tried to explain phenomena occurring in nature and felt sacred awe of animals symbolizing strength. This is how the negative characters of Russian fairy tales appeared. Each hero has his own individual character and unique traits. The characteristics of animals in the fairy tale include several distinct characters who personify strength and cunning, anger and brute force.

In the animal world of fairy tales, there is a special type of hero - the trickster, the rogue and the deceiver. The fox in fairy tales is the main trickster. This is a stable image in which cunning, a tendency to deception and tricks dominate. The fox will do anything to get what she wants - she will pretend to be weak and helpless, and use all her charm and eloquence. In Russian fairy tales, the trickster is contrasted with a simpleton character. It could be a wolf, whom the fox successfully fools, a rooster (“Cat, Rooster and Fox”), or a weak hare, whom she drives out of her hut (“The Fox and the Hare”). Initially, in the myth, it was his unusual behavior that contributed to the creation of the world and the acquisition of knowledge. Unlike the myth, the trickster fox is often punished for his misdeeds, especially when he attacks weak, helpless heroes. For example, the Fox in the fairy tale “The Fox with a Rock” runs away and hides in a hole.

The wolf in fairy tales traditionally represents greed and malice. He is often portrayed as stupid, so he is often fooled by more cunning characters in fairy tales, such as the Fox. The contrast between these two strong animal characters occurs in many fairy tales, and in almost all of them the wolf, being slow-witted and short-sighted, allows himself to be deceived again and again. However, in ancient cultures the image of a wolf was associated with death, so in fairy tales this animal character often eats someone (“The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats”) or disrupts the quiet life of animals (“The Winter of Animals”). But in the end, good fairy-tale characters from Russian fairy tales always deceive or defeat the wolf. For example, the wolf in the fairy tale “Sister Fox and the Wolf” is left without a tail.

The bear in fairy tales represents the embodiment of brute force. Sometimes he is fierce, sometimes he is naive and kind. Being the owner of the forest, he has power over other animals, but, nevertheless, he has a simple character. The presence of physical strength in a given animal character practically excludes intelligence - the bear in fairy tales is stupid and is fooled by weak animals. You can see a parallel between the image of a bear and the image of rich landowners during serfdom. Therefore, people and other animals, symbolizing the free and cunning Russian people in fairy tales, often try to outwit and fool the bear. For example, a bear is left with nothing (the fairy tale “The Man and the Bear”) or is completely eaten by a crowd of people (“The Bear is a Lime Leg”). In some fairy tales, the bear is lazy, calm and values his peace very much. There are also fairy tales in which the bear manifests itself as a kind animal character who helps people. For example, the bear gives gifts to Masha, thereby acting as a symbol of the good forces of nature that love hard work and honesty.