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Vorova Tatyana Petrovna, candidate, of philological science Oles' HoncharDniproNationalUuniversity, E-mail: [email protected]
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE ART WORLD IN THE FAIRY TALE "THE RED CARBUNCLE" BY V. A. ZHUKOVSKY
Abstract: This article examines the peculiarities of the art world in the early fairy tale "The Red Carbuncle" by V. A. Zhukovsky in which irreality combines in an intricate way with the patriarchal character of the narrative and the common didacticism of the contents.The sources of viciousness of the protagonist as the root cause of his misfortunes are analyzed; the behavioural analogies of the main characters from three fairy tales (including fabulous pieces by A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol) are investigated.
Keywords: fairy tale, irreality, didacticism, occult personage, contrast of good and evil.
Among the dazzling brilliance of creative efflo- fairy tale The Red Carbuncle by V. A. Zhukovsky in
rescence of the Russian writers of the first half of the XIX-th century, the poetic gift of eloquence of V. A. Zhukovsky occupies a highly important place, the poet wrote within several literary genres but his fairy tales are without doubt his most noteworthy creations. The writer revisited the fairy tale genre over a period of almost thirty years, skillfully exploiting both native and foreign plot sources; a particularly striking example of the author's specific fabulous world with its diverse cast of heroes is presented in the poetical fabulous piece The Red Carbuncle (first published in the edition Works of the Society of Literature-Lovers at Moscow University" in 1817), realizing an original sophisticated experiment of verse translation of a German story.
Many literary critics (Bessarab M. Ya. [1], Zvant-seva H. P. [6], Semenko I. M. [4] et al.) have concentrated their attention on the fabulous creative work of V. A. Zhukovsky as an essential part of his artistic literary heritage; nevertheless, we believe that our research will shed light on a number of indisputably interesting aspects of the poet's fairy tales which have escaped the attention of contemporary specialists in literature. The purpose of the present article is to study the specific features of the art world in the early
comparison with the fairy tales of some other masters of Russian literature.
With the object of more productive analysis, it is worth introducing a condensed version of the fairy tale content: inclined to adventurism, a poor man and unlucky person Walter undertakes contractual obligations with the sinister Buka in order to succeed in a gambling game and attract fortune to his side; the contract is considered to be valid only as long as Walter observes the agreed conditions, right after the first breach of the contract the hero meets with a violent end; being beside himself with rage and fierce aggression, just before his own death, Walter kills his wife Mina and their children. Generally, V. A. Zhukovsky precisely set out the plotline of the authentic German story, he only changed the names of the protagonists: in the original variant the hero is called Michel, his bride - a daughter of a tavern owner - Catherine; the narration of Michel's misfortunes is conducted by the respectable head of a family, while in the fairy tale of V. A. Zhukovsky a very old man surrounded by his grandchildren attentively listening to their grandfather performs the duties of story-teller: this technique helps to reinforce the atmosphere of a patriarchal character / family ties on
the general narrative background and contributes to the increasing of the level of demonstrative (didactic) lessons and moral and ethical criteria (their obligatory presence comes from the poet's conviction that besides being superstitious legends fairy tales transmit significant conceptions which serve as a basis for morals, manners and enlightenment for the coming generation). Presumably, the peculiarity of the art world is based on the plot and distinctive thematic features and the specificity of representation of images of the protagonists from the fairy tale, which is clearly manifested in the process of comparative analysis of the poetic piece of V. A. Zhukovsky and St John's Eve from the cycle Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1832) by N. V. Gogol.
In the presence of the external formal differences, the key moments in The Red Carbuncle correlate with St John's Eve as the work of art that bears a definite plot similarity to the analyzed fairy tale. To begin with, the main narrative lines and the key personages of V. A. Zhukovsky should be marked: the protagonists are Walter and the occult character Buka; Walter is handsome, clever, energetic, however he is keen on pubs and gambling; he is antisocial in his behaviour, uses bad language and curses in the name of God in public, has a quarrelsome, unbalanced, trouble-making nature; thus, the main distinctive feature of the hero is viciousness / depravity, as he willingly embarks on shady enterprises with Buka and puts his principal treasure (well-being / happiness of his family, his wife's / children's life together with his own life) in the kitty. In the same way, in the story by N. V Gogol, the main protagonist is a poor man Peter who falls in love with his master's daughter Pidorka; Peter attempts to collect the money necessary for his wedding and finds it by means of a devilish agreement with a servant of hell Basavruk; while in sway to an evil suggestion, Peter ritually murders Pidorka's little brother, celebrates a lavish wedding, but he eventually dies, and Pidorka goes into a convent. It is obvious that the Gogol's hero Peter is vicious and identical (in this way) with Walter as he turns out to
be so greedy that he thoughtlessly gives Basavruk an opportunity to inveigle himself into a gambling game where the principal prize (happiness and lives of Peter and his young wife) is put into the kitty.
The mysterious Buka possesses some uncanny abilities for unusual actions, the main one being permanent availability of money: he helpfully lends it to those people whom he wants catch in his net; extraordinary luck in gambling games is also peculiar to Buka - never losing, he has always profited and been the gainer. This hero corresponds to Gogol's Basavruk in his astonishing abiity to lure adventurers who are prone to making reckless deals: for example, when the imprudent Peter enters a contract of doubtful value for the sake of acquiring gold, which brings a fatal result as Peter is even prepared to murder a child to achieve his end; it is notable that Basavruk is the winner in any circumstances and his opponents always lose.
It should be accepted that the story of Peter demonstrates the equivalent variant of the story ofWalter, which is presented by Gogol-narrator in a skillful and emotional way and is equally compared with the tragic talent of Zhukovsky-dramatist. From point of view of the poet / stage manager of tragedy, the introduction of two main narrative lines is justified (instead of one in the work of art of N. V. Gogol) - the plotline ofWalter and the other one - of his wife Mina with use of the proper names for both heroes (N. V Gogol used the same technique for all dramatic personae except an incidental occult character - a forest witch, acting under a common name as the generalizing image-symbol of all evil forces, opposing to light and good). The plotline of Mina represents a description of the tragedy of the suffering woman and wife; from the very beginning her ill-fated lot is marked by the author in the abject details of the prophetic dream of the miserable girl: having complied in blind submission with her parents' desire for her to marry, in her dream Mina asked a black monk to foretell her a fortunate marriage, however, instead of happiness the heroine was predicted an unhappy family life, a
broken heart and a violent death from the side of her husband, this prophecy is completely realized later. The thematic line of Mina is comparable with the narrative line of Pidorka in the work of N. V. Gogol, but this time it is registered in genuinely tragic style through the fine details of the terrible way of life of the destitute family, whose head is a confirmed drunkard-husband, an unsociable person and an inveterate card-player. One of the cards from the prophetic dream of Mina appears to be the ace of diamonds, which embodies evil destiny and is at the same time the image-symbol of material realization of money in the form of a magical red carbuncle, whose genuine owner turns out to be Buka (personifying the malicious fraternity of hell); consequently, Walter's receipt of the carbuncle from Buka is equated with the fact of handing over his own soul to the devil. Having concluded the treaty, Walter is not able to dissolve it on his own in order to get rid of Buka (similarly, up to his death Peter cannot reject the services of Basavruk, which were agreed in advance), meanwhile restless and indefatigable Buka makes Walter's blood burn hotter and hotter and pushes the thoughtless and foolhardy hero to perform the very last fatal action, shoving him into the fathomless pit. The unwise and unreasonable behaviour of Walter (as with Peter, his emotions prevail over common sense) results in his actions being motivated exclusively by advice from the side of Buka; submitting to his infatuations due to lack of resolution, the weak-willed Walter has already lost his ability to keep his presence of mind and preserve his selfhood, rapidly bringing himself to ruin under the influence of evil forces (reaching the end, the satisfied Buka states that his disciple has ended up in total defeat and coolly hands him a knife with which he can commit suicide).
In addition to everything analyzed above, it is also necessary to point out the curious coincidence of plotline between The Red Carbuncle by V. A. Zhu-kovsky and Tale of Priest (1830) by A. S. Pushkin (these poetic pieces present, perhaps, the only fairy tales in the creative work of the two writers in which
money or gold are used as an independent imagesymbol exerting exceptional influence upon the plot development). The well-being of the families in both fairy tales is obviously connected with the availability / lack of money to the heroes: the image-symbol of wealth in the fairy tale of V. A. Zhukovsky is the red carbuncle gifted by Buka (which is allegorically duplicated by means of the image-symbol of the ace of diamonds in the narration); in the fairy tale of A. S. Pushkin there are the bags filled with tribute / gold taken away from devil by Balda. In both cases, as soon as the heroes (the priest / Walter) receive riches for their private use, they condemn themselves to death (because Buka's carbuncle and Balda's gold kill their owners); the described mechanism / process of interconnection - wealth from the Evil One / spiritual death / physical death - is distinctly and clearly registered by both authors. The priest and Walter represent heroes with the same level of consciousness as both of them are linked with the same vice - covetousness and greed for tangible assets (the difference in social status of the personages does not have any importance: being a ubiquitous quality, greed can be equally inherent in the representatives of any social class).
It is indicative that in both fairy tales the principle of triplicity is involved: in A. S. Pushkin's masterpiece the priest thinks up diverse tricks three times (because they could help him escape being ensnared by Balda's penalty and caught in his threads), but Balda successfully accomplishes the priest's tasks three times as well; in the same way in V. A. Zhukovsky's poem, in the scene of Walter's temptation with the help of the magical red carbuncle from Buka, a fair-haired little boy knocks at the window three times (an allegory of the vigilant and watchful human conscience trying to prevent the lost soul of the hero from going astray and taking a false step). In the light of the tragic endings that are characteristic in both fairy tales, the principle of triplicity highlights even more the fateful interdependence between the boundless thirst for money and the terrible end of the main heroes and focuses
the reader's principal attention on the vanity of their attempts to resolve a desperate situation through their own efforts: the immeasurable power of Buka / Balda and the minimal will of Walter / the priest are simply incommensurable in scale and strength. The occult images of Buka / Balda undoubtedly have much in common with each other: both characters are able to provide for the material and financial well-being of the other characters through mystical means; however, the price of this well-being is the life of those who take the risk of tying themselves to the terms of the mystical treaty and undergo the consequent inevitable destruction of themselves as personalities. Even the names of two mystical heroes are brought into definite correlation: Balda is a common noun and abusive one, delineating a cunning, smart, ruthless and pitiless fabulous hero who always defeats his opponents; Basavruk is evidently a compound name, indicating the basic Russian root bas- / besand the second basic combination of letters -vr- from the Russian verb to lie, as a whole the name means a lying demon or a being who is not worth trusting; the personage is also a merciless hunter of human souls, which he ruins by indulging the viciousness and depravity of their weak nature.
At first sight, the destinies of female personages (the priest's wife / Mina) in the two analyzed fairy tales differ from each other to a considerable degree: the priest's wife, perhaps, is shown to be luckier and happier than Mina, who is murdered by her husband; yet the hope of the priest's wife (becoming a widow), her chances of remarrying are infinitesimally slight, the financial position of the family was poor enough even when the priest was alive; consequently, hunger and poverty await the widow and her children after the death of the head of their family, therefore, the fortune of the lonely widow of the priest and her
children is not better in any way than the fate of the dead Mina.
It is important to emphasize that in both fairy tales, concluding transactions with the representatives of hellish forces of the mystical world for the sake of possessing money causes personal difficulties to the heroes (for all that, it is unimportant in what way the mystical representative is described by the author -positively and humorously in the story by A. S. Pushkin or negatively and tragically in the poetical piece of V A. Zhukovsky); as a consequence of the contact between the flawed, human main characters and the mysterious Balda / Buka, both writers depict the identical ending in a fully predictable way - unavoidable death as a form of payment for consumerism and as a tough and ruthless warning for those who oppose the mercantilism, callousness and heartlessness of the material world to spiritual evolution.
Thus, the conclusion should be drawn that the unknown and mysterious, fantastical and irreal, mystical and sometimes frightening / dreadful world of The Red Carbuncle by V. A. Zhukovsky simultaneously remains irresistibly attractive / inviting owing to the brightly coloured patriarchal tinge and the evident notes of didacticism which are felt with special intensity at the beginning and the end of the analyzed fairy tale; it is significant that the poet purposefully underlines the negative / obscure traits of character as a root cause of the unfolding private drama of the protagonist; later the same underlying causes will be pointed out in two more fairy tales by well-known masters of the written word; it is essential to note that the edificatory plot proves to be in great demand in the creative work of A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol, in such a way confirming their keen interest in a subject first touched by V. A. Zhukovsky in The Red Carbuncle.
References:
1. Bessarab M. Ya. Zhukovsky: Book about a Great Russian Poet.- Moscow,- 1975.
2. Gogol N. V. Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. Collected works,- Vol. 1.- Moscow,- 1959.
3. Pushkin A. S. Poems. Fairy Tales. Ruslan and Ludmila. Collected works,- Vol. 1.- Moscow,- 1985.
4. Semenko I. M. Life and Poetry of V. A. Zhukovsky.- Moscow,- 1975.
5. Zhukovsky V. A. Poems. Ballads. Stories. Fairy Tales.- Moscow,- 2010.
6. Zvantseva E. P. The Genre of Literary Fairy Tale in the Creative Work of V. A. Zhukovsky // Traditions and Innovation in Fiction.- Gorky,- 1979.
