Portrait characteristic of Lelya from the play The Snow Maiden. ‹‹The Snow Maiden›› A. N. Ostrovsky and the folk tale. The main characters of the work
Summary fairy tales
The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin hides in a hollow. Spring arrives on Krasnaya Gorka near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and birds return with it: cranes, swans, the retinue of Spring. The country of the Berendeys meets Spring with cold, and all because of Spring's flirtations with Frost, the old grandfather, Spring herself admits.
They had a daughter, the Snow Maiden. Spring is afraid to quarrel with Frost for the sake of her daughter and is forced to endure everything. The “jealous” Sun itself is also angry. Therefore, Spring calls all the birds to warm themselves with a dance, as people themselves do in the cold. But as soon as the fun begins - the choirs of birds and their dances - as a blizzard rises. Spring hides the birds in the bushes until the new morning and promises to warm them. Meanwhile, Frost comes out of the forest and reminds Spring that they have a common child.
Frost, Spring, Snow Maiden. The Snow Maiden (Spring Tale) by A. N. Ostrovsky, illustration by Adrian Mikhailovich Ermolaev
Each of the parents takes care of the Snow Maiden in their own way. Frost wants to hide her in the forest so that she lives among obedient animals in a forest tower. Spring wants a different future for her daughter: for her to live among people, among cheerful friends and children who play and dance until midnight. The peace meeting turns into a spor. Frost knows that the sun god of the Berendeys, hot Yarilo, vowed to destroy the Snow Maiden.
As soon as the fire of love ignites in her heart, it will melt her. Spring does not believe. After a quarrel, Frost offers to give their daughter to be raised by a childless Bobyl in the suburb, where the guys are unlikely to pay attention to their Snow Maiden. Spring agrees.
Frost calls the Snow Maiden out of the forest and asks if she wants to live with people. The Snow Maiden admits that she has long yearned for girlish songs and round dances, that she likes the songs of the young shepherd Lel.
Snow Maiden, artist A. M. Ermolaev
This especially frightens the father, and he punishes the Snow Maiden more than anything in the world to beware of Lel, in whom the "scorching rays" of the Sun live. Parting with his daughter, Frost entrusts the care of her to his "leshutki" forest. And, finally, gives way to Spring. Folk festivities begin - seeing off Shrovetide. The Berendeys greet the arrival of Spring with songs.
Bobyl went to the forest for firewood and sees the Snow Maiden dressed like a hawthorn. She wanted to stay with Bobyl with Bobyl's adopted daughter.
Bobyl and Bobylikha. V.M. Vasnetsov
It is not easy for the Snow Maiden to live with Bobyl with Bobylikh: the named parents are angry that she, with her excessive bashfulness and modesty, discouraged all suitors and they fail to get rich with the help of a profitable marriage of their adopted daughter. Lel comes to the Bobyls to wait, because they alone, for the money collected by other families, are ready to let him into the house. The rest are afraid that their wives and daughters will not resist Lel's charm.
Snow Maiden and Lel. Vasnetsov, sketch
The Snow Maiden does not understand Lel's requests for a kiss for a song, for a flower gift. She picks off the flower with surprise and gives it to Lelya, but he, having sung a song and seeing other girls calling him, throws the already wilted flower of the Snow Maiden and runs away to new amusements.
Many girls quarrel with guys who are inattentive to them because of their passion for the beauty of the Snow Maiden. Only Kupava, the daughter of the wealthy Slobozhan Murash, is affectionate towards the Snow Maiden. She informs her of her happiness: a wealthy merchant guest from the royal settlement Mizgir has engaged to her. Then Mizgir himself appears with two bags of gifts - a bride price for girls and boys.
Kupava, together with Mizgir, approaches the Snow Maiden, who is spinning in front of the house, and calls her for the last time to lead the girl's round dances. But when he saw the Snow Maiden, Mizgir fell passionately in love with her and rejected Kupava. He orders to carry his treasury to Bobyl's house. The Snow Maiden resists these changes, not wishing harm to Kupava, but the bribed Bobyl and Bobylikha force the Snow Maiden to even drive Lel away, which is demanded by Mizgir.
Mizgir and Kupava. Vasnetsov, sketch 1885-1886
The shocked Kupava asks Mizgir about the reasons for his betrayal and hears in response that the Snow Maiden won his heart with her modesty and bashfulness, and Kupava's courage now seems to him a harbinger of future betrayal. The offended Kupava asks for protection from the Berendeys and sends curses to Mizgir. She wants to drown herself, but Lel stops her, and she falls unconscious into his arms. In the chambers of Tsar Berendey, a conversation takes place between him and his close associate Bermyata about the troubles in the kingdom: for fifteen years, Yarilo has been unkind to Berendey, winters are getting colder, springs are getting colder, and in some places there is snow in summer.
Berendeyka in "The Snow Maiden". V. Vasnetsov.
Berendey is sure that Yarilo is angry with the Berendeys for cooling their hearts, for the "cold of feelings." To quench the wrath of the Sun, Berendey decides to propitiate him with a sacrifice: on Yarilin's day, the next day, to tie as many grooms and brides as possible by marriage. However, Bermyata reports that because of some Snow Maiden who showed up in the settlement, all the girls quarreled with the guys and it is impossible to find brides and grooms for marriage.
Then Kupava, abandoned by Mizgir, runs in and cries out all her grief to the king. The king orders to find Mizgir and convene the Berendeys for trial. Mizgir is brought in, and Berendey asks Bermyata how to punish him for cheating on his bride. Bermyata proposes to force Mizgir to marry Kupava. But Mizgir boldly objects that his bride is the Snow Maiden.
Kupava also does not want to marry a traitor. The Berendeys do not death penalty, and Mizgir is sentenced to exile. Mizgir only asks the king to look at the Snow Maiden himself. Seeing the Snow Maiden who came with Bobyl and Bobylikha, the tsar is struck by her beauty and tenderness, wants to find a worthy husband for her: such a “sacrifice” will surely appease Yarila.
The Snow Maiden admits that her heart does not know love. The king turns to his wife for advice. Elena the Beautiful says that the only one who can melt the heart of the Snow Maiden is Lel. Lel calls the Snow Maiden to twist wreaths until the morning sun and promises that by morning love will wake up in her heart. But Mizgir does not want to give in to the Snow Maiden and asks for permission to join the fight for the heart of the Snow Maiden. Berendey allows and is sure that at dawn the Berendey will gladly meet the Sun, which will accept their expiatory "sacrifice". The people glorify the wisdom of their king Berendey.
At the evening dawn, the girls and boys begin to dance, in the center - the Snow Maiden with Lel, Mizgir either appears or disappears in the forest. Delighted by Lel's singing, the tsar invites him to choose a girl who will reward him with a kiss. The Snow Maiden wants Lel to choose her, but Lel chooses Kupava. Other girls put up with their sweethearts, forgiving them past betrayals. Lel is looking for Kupava, who has gone home with her father, and meets the weeping Snow Maiden, but he does not feel sorry for her for these “jealous tears”, caused not by love, but by envy for Kupava.
Sketch for a poster for the opera by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Snow Maiden". Artist K.A. Korovin
He tells her about secret lovemaking, which is more valuable than a public kiss, and only for true love is he ready to take her to meet the Sun in the morning. Lel recalls how he cried when the Snow Maiden had not previously answered his love, and goes to the guys, leaving the Snow Maiden to wait. And yet, in the heart of the Snow Maiden, it is not love that still lives, but only pride that Lel will lead her to meet Yarila. But then Mizgir finds the Snow Maiden, he pours out his soul to her, full of burning, real male passion.
He, who never prayed for love from girls, falls on his knees before her. But the Snow Maiden is afraid of his passion, and the threats to avenge the humiliation are also terrible. She also rejects the priceless pearl with which Mizgir tries to buy her love, and says that she will exchange her love for Lel's love. Then Mizgir wants to get the Snow Maiden by force. She calls Lelya, but "leshutki" come to her aid, whom Father Frost instructed to take care of her daughter.
Elena Katulskaya as the Snow Maiden in N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden
They take Mizgir into the forest, beckoning him with the ghost of the Snow Maiden, and in the forest he wanders all night, hoping to overtake the Snow Maiden-ghost.
Meanwhile, even the heart of the tsar's wife was melted by Lel's songs. But the shepherd deftly dodges both from Elena the Beautiful, leaving her in the care of Bermyata, and from the Snow Maiden, from whom he runs away when he sees Kupava. It was this kind of reckless and ardent love that his heart was waiting for, and he advises the Snow Maiden to “eavesdrop” on Kupavina’s hot speeches in order to learn to love. The Snow Maiden, in her last hope, runs to Mother Spring and asks her to teach her real feelings.
Actress Alyabyeva as Spring in the play "The Snow Maiden";
Viktor Vasnetsov. Spring. Sketch for the play "The Snow Maiden";
Nadezhda Zabela (Vrubel) as the Snow Maiden (1890).
One of the main characters of the work is a seven-year-old girl named Lelya, presented by the writer in the form of her older sister Minka, a boy of five.
Lelya is described in the story as a tall thug with a huge appetite, adoring delicious sweets, characterized by impatience, a cunning mind, the ability to competently manipulate the feelings of people from whom she demands a fair attitude towards her.
The storyline of the story is built on the eve of the approaching Christmas holiday, which everyone is looking forward to, around a New Year tree dressed up for the celebration. Children, entering the room, see a decorated symbol of the holiday, on which, in addition to funny toys and animals, sweet goodies and treats are hung everywhere.
Lelya, seeing her favorite delicacies, does not hold back, removes snow-white marshmallow from the Christmas tree and instantly puts it in her mouth. Feeling the unique taste of sweetness, the girl's hand reaches for a bright candy, which also turns out to be eaten by Lelya. Little Minka, looking at the actions of his sister, who is the greatest authority for him, decides to also join the sweet eating, however, being the owner of a short stature, Minka manages to get only an apple, which the boy begins to gnaw with extraordinary pleasure. Lelya, taking the opportunity not to share the tidbit with her brother, continues to enjoy sweets, nuts, simultaneously removing from the Christmas tree and an overflowing large cracker.
Minka, who is tired of the apple, also decides to get something from the sweet, so taking a chair and standing on it, he reaches for the sweets hanging high, but at that moment, having lost his balance, the boy falls with a crash.
The run-in mother is shocked by the act of the children and, together with the angry father, punishes the naughty ones, depriving them of Christmas gifts, which are given to other children who came to visit them.
Narrating his childhood memories, the writer, using the example of naughty and impudent children, emphasizes for the younger generation the need to listen to the advice of elders, without challenging the correctness and fairness of their actions.
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The Snow Maiden is perhaps the least typical of all the plays by Alexander Ostrovsky, which stands out sharply among other things in his work with lyricism, unusual problems (instead of social drama, the author paid attention to personal drama, designating the theme of love as the central theme) and absolutely fantastic surroundings. The play tells the story of the Snow Maiden, who appears before us as a young girl, desperately longing for the only thing she never had - love. Remaining faithful to the main line, Ostrovsky simultaneously reveals a few more: the structure of his semi-epic, semi-fairytale world, the customs and customs of the Berendeys, the theme of continuity and retribution, and the cyclical nature of life, noting, albeit in an allegorical form, that life and death always go hand in hand.
History of creation
The Russian literary world owes the birth of the play to a happy accident: at the very beginning of 1873, for overhaul The building of the Maly Theater was closed, and a group of actors temporarily moved to the Bolshoi. Deciding to take advantage of the opportunities of the new stage and attract the audience, it was decided to arrange an extravaganza performance unusual for those times, immediately involving the ballet, drama and opera components of the theater team.
It was with the proposal to write a play for this extravaganza that they turned to Ostrovsky, who, taking advantage of the opportunity to put a literary experiment into practice, agreed. The author changed his habit of looking for inspiration in the unattractive aspects of real life, and in search of material for the play he turned to the work of the people. There he found a legend about the girl-Snow Maiden, which became the basis for his magnificent work.
In the early spring of 1873, Ostrovsky was hard at work on the creation of the play. And not alone - since staging on stage is impossible without music, the playwright worked together with the still very young then Pyotr Tchaikovsky. According to critics and writers, this is precisely one of the reasons for the amazing rhythm of The Snow Maiden - words and music were composed in a single impulse, close interaction, and imbued with each other's rhythm, initially making up one whole.
It is symbolic that Ostrovsky put the last point in The Snow Maiden on the day of his fiftieth birthday, March 31. A little more than a month later, on May 11, the premiere performance was shown. He received quite different reviews among critics, both positive and sharply negative, but already in the 20th century literary critics firmly agreed that The Snow Maiden was the brightest milestone in the work of the playwright.
Analysis of the work
Description of the artwork
At the heart of the story - life path the girl-Snow Maiden, born from the union of Frost and Spring-Red, her father and mother. The Snow Maiden lives in the Berendey kingdom invented by Ostrov, but not with her relatives - she left her father Frost, who protected her from all possible troubles - but with the family of Bobyl and Bobylikh. The Snow Maiden longs for love, but she cannot fall in love - even her interest in Lelya is dictated by the desire to be the only and unique, the desire that the shepherd, who evenly gives all the girls warmth and joy, be affectionate with her alone. But Bobyl and Bobylikha are not going to bestow their love on her, they have a more important task: to cash in on the beauty of the girl by marrying her off. The Snow Maiden looks indifferently at the Berendey men, who change their lives for her sake, reject brides and violate social norms; she is internally cold, she is alien to the full of life Berendei - and therefore attracts them. However, misfortune also falls to the lot of the Snow Maiden - when she sees Lel, who is favorable to the other and rejects her, the girl rushes to her mother with a request to let her fall in love - or die.
It is at this moment that Ostrovsky clearly expresses the central idea of his work to the limit: life without love is meaningless. The Snow Maiden cannot and does not want to put up with the emptiness and cold that exists in her heart, and Spring, which is the personification of love, allows her daughter to experience this feeling, despite the fact that she herself thinks bad.
The mother turns out to be right: the Snow Maiden, who has fallen in love, melts under the first rays of the hot and clear sun, having managed, however, to discover a new world filled with meaning. And her lover, who had previously left his bride and was expelled by the Tsar, Mizgir, parted with his life in the pond, seeking to reunite with the water, which became the Snow Maiden.
Main characters
(Scene from the ballet-performance "The Snow Maiden")
The Snow Maiden is the central figure of the work. A girl of extraordinary beauty, desperate to know love, but at the same time cold at heart. Pure, partly naive and completely alien to Berendey people, she is ready to give everything, even her life, in exchange for knowing what love is and why everyone is so hungry for it.
Frost is the father of the Snow Maiden, formidable and strict, who sought to protect his daughter from all sorts of troubles.
Spring-Krasna is the mother of a girl who, despite a premonition of trouble, could not go against her nature and her daughter's pleas and endowed her with the ability to love.
Lel is a windy and cheerful shepherd who was the first to awaken some feelings and emotions in the Snow Maiden. It was because she was rejected by him that the girl rushed to Spring.
Mizgir is a merchant guest, or, in other words, a merchant who fell in love with the girl so much that he not only offered all his wealth for her, but also left Kupava, his failed bride, thereby violating the traditionally observed customs of the Berendey kingdom. In the end, he gained the reciprocity of the one he loved, but not for long - and after her death he himself lost his life.
It is worth noting that despite the large number of characters in the play, even the secondary characters turned out to be bright and characteristic: that the king Berendey, that Bobyl and Bobylikh, that the former bride of Mizgir Kupava - all of them are remembered by the reader, have their own hallmarks and features.
"The Snow Maiden" is a complex and multifaceted work, both compositionally and rhythmically. The play is written without rhyme, but thanks to the unique rhythm and melodiousness that literally exists in every line, it sounds smoothly, like any rhymed verse. Decorates the "Snow Maiden" and the rich use of colloquial phrases - this is a completely logical and justified step by the playwright, who, when creating the work, relied on folk tales telling about a girl from the snow.
The same statement about versatility is also true in relation to the content: behind the outwardly simple story of the Snow Maiden (went out into the real world - rejected people - received love - imbued with the human world - died) lurks not only the assertion that life without love is meaningless, but also many other equally important aspects.
So, one of the central themes is the interconnection of opposites, without which the natural course of things is impossible. Frost and Yarilo, cold and light, winter and the warm season outwardly oppose each other, enter into an irreconcilable contradiction, but at the same time, the thought runs through the text that one does not exist without the other.
In addition to lyricism and the sacrifice of love, the social aspect of the play, displayed against the backdrop of fairy-tale foundations, is also of interest. The norms and customs of the Berendey kingdom are strictly observed, for violation they face expulsion, as happened with Mizgir. These norms are fair and to some extent reflect Ostrovsky's idea of an ideal old Russian community, where fidelity and love for one's neighbor, life in unity with nature are at a premium. The figure of Tsar Berendey, the “kind” Tsar, who, although he is forced to make harsh decisions, regards the fate of the Snow Maiden as tragic, sad, evokes unambiguously positive emotions; such a king is easy to sympathize with.
At the same time, in the Berendey kingdom, justice is observed in everything: even after the death of the Snow Maiden, as a result of her acceptance of love, Yarila's anger and argument disappear, and the Berendey people can again enjoy the sun and warmth. Harmony prevails.
Below we characterize the play-tale of A.N. Ostrovsky, making the necessary, from our point of view, accents.
The Snow Maiden extravaganza appeared one hundred and forty years ago, in 1873, in the journal Vestnik Evropy. Everything was unusual in this play: genre (fairy tale play, extravaganza); a combination of dramatic poetic text with music and elements of ballet; plot; heroes - gods, demigods, ordinary inhabitants of the country - Berendey; fantasy, organically merged with realistic, often everyday paintings; folk language, which includes elements of vernacular and, on the other hand, turning in some places into high poetic, solemn speech.
In critical literature, the opinion has been expressed that the appearance of such a play was due to random circumstances: in 1873, the Maly Theater was closed for repairs, the troupe moved to the Bolshoi Theater building to occupy the artists of the drama and opera and ballet theater, the management decided to ask A.N. Ostrovsky to write an appropriate play. He agreed.
In fact, everything was more serious. The move of the Maly Theater was only an excuse, an impetus for the implementation of the theatrical genre conceived by Ostrovsky. The playwright's interests had long been associated with plays of this kind, folklore was his favorite and native element, and the folk extravaganza occupied his thoughts long before 1873 and much later.
“On a holiday,” he wrote in 1881, “every working person is drawn to spend an evening outside the home ... I want to forget the boring reality, I want to see a different life, a different environment, other forms of hostel. I want to see boyar, princely mansions, royal chambers, I want to hear heated and solemn speeches, I want to see the triumph of truth.
The action takes place in the fabulous country of the Berendeys, as the playwright writes, in "prehistoric times." The name of the Berendey tribe is found in The Tale of Bygone Years. The writer also heard oral stories about the ancient city of the Berendeys and Tsar Berendey.
Mythological characters pass before the viewer - gods (Yarilo), demigods (Moroz, Spring-Krasna), the daughter of Frost and Spring-Krasna Snegurochka (the child of marriage, contrary to Yarila), goblin, talking birds, reviving bushes, ghosts. But all this fantasy is closely combined with realistic, everyday scenes. The great realist, writer of everyday life could not chain his imagination into the framework of fiction.
live real life breaks into the play and gives a special brightness to the time and place of its action.
Snegurochka, Kupava, Lel, Frost, Spring-Krasna, Mizgir are endowed with features of unique characters. There is something in them from the people of the time of Ostrovsky and later years.
The dialogue of Frost and Spring-Red about the future of their daughter is indistinguishable in tone even from the conversations of parents of our time. Bobyl is a chip from a typical idle peasant, a drinker, even Yarilo appears in the guise of a young pariah in white clothes with a human head in one hand and a rye sheaf in the other (as he was depicted in folk tales in some places in Rus').
There are not so many traces of the primitive communal system in the fairy tale play (mostly mythological images). But there is plenty of evidence for the conventions of "prehistoric time".
First of all, let us note the social inequality in the Berendey kingdom. Society is divided into rich and poor, with the latter openly envying the former. Not to mention Bobylikha, who dreams of “filling her pockets thicker” and commanding the family like Kabanikha, let’s pay attention to the pure and noble Kupava, who, about to marry Mizgir, paints her future like this: “8 to his house, in a large royal settlement , / In all appearance, a rich mistress / I will reign ...
The rich Murash refuses to accept the shepherd Lel for the night, despising him as a poor man and not believing in his honesty: “Deceive others with bows, / And we know you enough, my friend, / They say that everything is safe, it’s whole.”
It is no coincidence that in the remark to the first act we read: “On the right side is Bobyl’s poor hut, with a staggering porch; a bench in front of the hut; on the left side is a large Murash hut decorated with carvings; in the depths of the street; Across the street is a hop farm and beekeeper Murash. A small sketch becomes symbolic.
In the Berendey kingdom, elements of the social hierarchy are strong. Talking birds, singing about their way of life, essentially recreate a picture of the social structure of the Berendeys; they have governors, clerks, boyars, nobles (this is in "prehistoric times"), peasants, serfs, centurions, people of various professions and positions: farmers, kissers, fishermen, merchants, masters, servants, biryuchi, youths, buffoons.
The tsar and his faithful assistant boyar Bermyata crown all this feasting. Can the life of the Berendeys be considered a kind of idyll, serene and happy, as some researchers say?
Yes, in comparison with the surrounding world, where there are continuous wars (buffoons sing about them, depicted in the colors of The Tale of Igor's Campaign), the land of the Berendeys may seem like a corner of paradise.
For a peaceful life, for relative freedom, for the opportunity to turn to the king in any difficult case, the Berendeys praise without any measure the wise father of their land. And the king takes this praise for granted.
Nevertheless, life in the Berendeev kingdom is far from ideal. No wonder the action of the play is opened by the words of Spring-Krasna:
Unhappy and cold greets
Spring its gloomy country.
This remark applies not only to the weather, then it turns out that the supreme deity Yarilo (Sun) is angry with the Berendeys because Frost and Spring-Krasna, violating the canons and traditions, got married and gave birth to an unprecedented creature - a beautiful girl. Yarilo swore a terrible oath to destroy both this girl - the Snow Maiden, and her father, and brought all sorts of troubles to the inhabitants of the country (however, they experienced these troubles even without the will of Yarila).
The tsar himself is forced to admit that he has not seen well-being among the people for a long time. And the point is not only that, according to Bermyata, compatriots “steal a little” (this sin is unforgivable, but we can correct it from the point of view of the king), the point is that the moral state of the country's inhabitants has changed:
The service to beauty has disappeared in them ...
And see completely different passions:
Vanity, envy of other people's outfits ...
People envy wealth, lovers often cheat on each other, ready to fight with a rival. Biryuchi, calling the Berendeys to a meeting with the tsar, jokingly give evil, but truthful characteristics to their contemporaries: “Tsar's people: / Boyars, nobles, / Boyar children, / Merry heads / Wide beards! / Do you, gentlemen, / Borzoi dogs, / Barefoot serfs! / Trade guests, / beaver hats, / Thick necks, / Thick beards, / Tight purses. / Deacons, clerks, / Hot guys, / Your business is to drag and reap, / yes, hold a hand with a hook (i.e., take bribes, bribes) / Old women / Your business; stir up, spit, / Dilute the son with the daughter-in-law. / Young fellows, / Daring daring, / people for the cause, / You are for idleness. / Your business is to look around the towers, / To lure the girls out.
Such a "prehistoric time" is not much different from later times - the great playwright remains true to himself in exposing human vices and shortcomings. The researcher is hardly wrong when she writes that "the Berendey society is cruel, it no longer lives according to natural, but human laws, covering its imperfection with the desires of the Yaripa-Sun."
A few words about the king should be added here. In critical literature, his figure is evaluated positively. He really ensured peace for his people, in any case, he did not embark on reckless wars, he thinks a lot about the happiness of young people, does not shy away from communicating with ordinary Berendeys, to some extent he is not alien to art - he paints his palace. But unlimited power, as usual, left its mark on his thoughts, feelings and behavior.
He is convinced that the will of the king has no boundaries. When he decides to gather all the lovers and arrange a collective wedding on Yarilin's solemn day, and Bermyata doubts the possibility of such a holiday, the king exclaims in anger: What? What's wrong, motherfucker? Is it impossible to fulfill what the king desires? Are you in your mind?
Having learned from Kupava that Mizgir cheated on her for the sake of the Snow Maiden, he considers Mizgir a criminal worthy of death. But since “there are no laws in our bloody code,” the tsar, on behalf of the people, sentences Mizgir to ostracism - eternal exile - and calls on those who want to fall in love with the Snow Maiden before the end of the night (no later!)
True, loves and disappointments in the Berendeev kingdom flare up and go out at the speed of a match, but such is the tradition of literature, dating back to the Renaissance, - remember Romeo and Juliet, who fell in love in a matter of seconds, in fact, without recognizing each other. But even taking into account this tradition, the order of the king looks like an act of arbitrariness.
Hearing that the appearance of the Snow Maiden on Berendeevo land caused a complete commotion among young people because of jealousy, the tsar orders Bermyata to “settle everyone and reconcile until tomorrow” (!), And the Snow Maiden to look for a “friend after her own heart”.
The promised holiday is coming, a friend - Mizgir - is found, young people are in love without memory, but the vengeful Yarilo remembers his oath. Hot passion destroys the Snow Maiden, she melts under the influence sun rays. Mizgir commits suicide, and the tsar, who shortly before this admired the beauty of the Snow Maiden and promised to arrange a feast with a mountain to the one who "manages to captivate the Snow Maiden with love before dawn," now solemnly says:
Snow Maiden sad death
And the terrible death of Mizgir
They cannot disturb us. The sun knows
Whom to punish and pardon. Happened
Righteous Judgment! Frost spawn,
The cold Snow Maiden died.
Now, the tsar believes, Yarilo will stop his acts of revenge and "look at the devotion of the submissive Berendeys." the king most of all adores the obedience of his subjects to himself and to the highest deity - Yarila-Sun. Instead of a mourning one, he proposes to sing a cheerful song, and the subjects gladly fulfill the will of the king. The death of two people in comparison with the life of the mass does not matter.
In general, Ostrovsky's entire play, for all its seeming gaiety, is built on an antithesis that creates a contradictory, sometimes bleak picture. Heat and cold, wealth and poverty, love and infidelity, contentment with life and envy, war and peace, in a broader sense - good and evil, life and death are opposed to each other and determine the general atmosphere of the Berendey kingdom, and the contradictions and disharmony in the characters actors.
The hostile principle has penetrated even into space. Yarilo-Sun, the blessed sun, which gives wealth and joy to earthlings, sends bad weather, crop failures, all sorts of sorrows to the Berendeys and destroys the innocent illegitimate daughter of illegitimate parents, taking revenge not only on Frost, but also on Spring-Krasna, close in spirit, depriving her beloved daughter.
If we talk about the philosophical aspect of the play, then we do not see the embodiment of the dream of an ideal "prehistoric" kingdom, but a fairy-tale work imbued with a thirst for the harmony of life in the present and the future. This harmony is deprived of Berendey's kingdom, this harmony is not in the character of the main character.
It merged physical beauty with spiritual nobility, some kind of almost childish naivety and defenselessness with heart coldness, inability to love. A desperate attempt to go beyond the circle designated by nature causes an inhuman tension of forces and emotions and ends in tragedy.
We can say that the playwright's idea to show "a different life, a different environment", so that the audience would at least temporarily forget the "boring reality", was not entirely successful. On the other hand, the depiction of the truth of life was fully succeeded, as A.N. Ostrovsky wrote about in the letter cited above.
It attracts the persistent and irrepressible desire of the main character to reverse her fate, her high understanding of love, for the sake of which one can accept death:
Let me die, one moment of love
Dearer than years of melancholy and tears ...
Everything that is precious in the world,
Lives in just one word. This word
Love.
With her songs, the softness of her nature, Lel first enchants her. Her mother reminds her that Lel is the beloved son of the Sun, hostile to the father of the Snow Maiden.
I'm not afraid of either Lelya or the Sun, -
she answers...
… Happiness
Whether I find it or not, I'll look for it.
Love is above all, dearer than earthly existence - this is the leitmotif of the play. As noted in critical literature, “in the late phase of creativity (since the second half of the 1870s), the playwright's main concern was the fate of loving women.
In the chronological gap between The Thunderstorm and The Dowry, Ostrovsky creates the Snegurochka extravaganza. And those unfortunate fate of a woman, albeit in a fabulous interpretation, is in the foreground. The physical cold that surrounds the daughter of Father Frost can be endured - the spiritual cold is unbearable. Love warms, makes a person a person. This is a great feeling, but it requires the willingness of the lover to fight for his happiness.
Sometimes, unfortunately, a high romantic feeling ends tragically - for a number of reasons, among which is a conflict with society or supermundane forces, as the classics of distant and closer times showed, and as A.N. Ostrovsky in his fairy tale play.
But the strength of the spirit of the dying hero gives rise to deep respect for him on the part of the recipient of art and does not pass without a trace for the consciousness and emotional world of the reader and viewer. From these positions, he can evaluate the tragedy of the Snow Maiden.
Ostrovsky's play is rich in its artistic merit. First of all, we note the clarity and clarity of the composition - the order of the plot unfolding from the prologue, which introduces the reader and the viewer to the essence of the conflict, to the culmination (the break of the Snow Maiden with Lel and Kupava) and to the denouement in the fourth act. The verses with which the play is written are original and expressive.
Stanislavsky spoke about the great and sonorous poems of the playwright. Kupava's dialogue with Tsar Berendey is considered the pearl of Russian lyric poetry. Turgenev admired the beauty and lightness of Ostrovsky's language. The play organically absorbed folk speech, as mentioned above, with elements of vernacular.
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