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Section 2. Literature
Vorova Tatyana Petrovna, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Candidate of Philological Science E-mail: [email protected]
SPECIFICITY OF THE ART CONCEPT IN THE FAIRY TALE "PUSS IN BOOTS" BY V. A. ZHUKOVSKY
Abstract: In this article an attempt is made to reveal new aspects in the interpretation of the well-known fairy tale Puss in Boots by V. A. Zhukovsky; with that end in view we investigate the accumulative principle that is analogous to that used in the The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish by A. S. Pushkin. We analyse the peculiarity of the fabulous image-symbols and their influence on the general understanding of the fairy tale by V. A. Zhukovsky, and place particular emphasis on the specific character of the use of the central images of the Marquis / Puss in Boots. Special note is made of the absence of fortuitousness and the significance of author's attentiveness to the particular image of wizard in the castle, which has a substantial effect on the general interpretation of the fabulous model employed.
Keywords: fairy tale, image-symbol, zoomorphic personage, alter ego of the heroes.
Being one of the founders of Romanticism folklore and popular poetical tradition. While recog-
in nineteenth century Russian poetry, V. A. Zhu- nizing the validity of such an approach, at the same
kovsky directed his energies towards several literary time it remains necessary to note the existence of a
genres, including the fabulous one, where his work definite gap in the research on Zhukovsky's works
is characterised by an inspired and refined simplic- in the fabulous genre. Therefore, the current article
ity, originality of plot and his authorial imprint of aims to make up for a deficiency and highlight hith-
poetical charm in combination with the depth of erto neglected sides of the tale Puss in Boots. the approach to life presented in these works; one of The plain and uncomplicated plot of this fabu-
his masterpieces in this genre is the fairy tale Puss in lous piece by V. A. Zhukovsky represents a variant
Boots (1845), which presents the versification of the of the cumulative fairy tale, in which the events un-
generally known French fairy tale of Ch. Perrault. fold on the principle of interlocking cog-wheels:
The fabulous works of V. A. Zhukovsky have joining each other, they inevitably set in motion the
always been at the centre of attention of a number whole narrative mechanism, with an open ending.
of specialists in the study of literature (Yu. V. Mann The scenes of the analyzed fabulous plot form the
[1], A. S. Yanushkevitch [6], E. P. Zvantseva [5] following succession of events: under pressure of
et al.). These authors have mainly emphasised the danger of death a cat performs valuable favours for
evolution of the author's mastery in interaction with his poor owner and, after a sequence of events sees
him married to the king's daughter, in the end the humble youth becomes the king's son-in-law (at the same time inheriting the enormous real estate of a sorcerer) and in the foreseeable future he will govern the country as a crowned person; thus, in the plot is embedded the principle from rags to riches, also involved in the narrative of Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (1835) by A. S. Pushkin.
With the purpose of comparison of these two works of art, the key elements of the fairy tale of V. A. Zhukovsky should be marked, the most important of which lies in the fact that the cat is threatened with mortal danger (the poor master believes that this hanger-on with a tail is of no use, which is why he plans to eat the cat and sew a muff from its fur); a combination of circumstances forces the wretched animal to reveal his gift of human speech in order to strike a profitable bargain with his master (receiving top-boots in exchange for regulating the master's life) and thus save his precarious life; on the whole, at the beginning of the fairy tale the situation is palpably similar to the fishing episode from A. S. Pushkin's work of art: having got into difficulties, the mistress of the sea also shows her ability to speak the language of humans and is obliged to compromise, by promising a ransom to the old man in exchange for her own life.
The strange desire of the cat to have a pair of top-boots is founded on the planning of certain practical matters; on the one hand, it only underlines the fact of the independence of the cat (the frequent appearances of the hero with a tail in human society are invariably highlighted with the presence of his top-boots as the characteristic feature, allegorically pointing to the new social function of the personage - his execution of a role of middleman / mediator between the upper and lower social structures) since, symbolically, topboots or any boots are the embodiment of freedom and prestige (at the royal court everyone in the court circle shakes the paw of the booted cat and bows to him, taking the cat for a very impor-
tant person). On the other hand, having got the top-boots from his master, the cat is placed under his authority / humiliating personal dependence, as now the cat's life depends on the master's favour / goodwill and desire / intention: the general control over someone's shoes also means the control over a being who wears the shoes; it signifies that, having agreed to accept the master's gift, the cat is entirely at the mercy of his self-willed young master; consequently, the top-boots simultaneously represent an ambivalent symbol of freedom and slavery. The introduction of such an image of an extraordinary cat indicates his astonishing flexibility / adaptability to circumstances, his capability for transformation and the force of transformation in the material world; at the same time it should be noted that cats are often used as an image-symbol of the manifested divine benevolence of the Great Mother in her protective aspect regarding the person who is served by the cat. Thus, the use of the zoomorphic personage of a booted cat represents an image-symbol of the mighty transforming earthly force that is both independent and subordinated at the same time (in this connection it is essential to emphasize the analogous features of masterfulness / obedience that are observed in the relationship of the goldfish and the poor old man in the fairy tale of A. S. Pushkin).
The next key factor, which relates the analyzed fairy tale and that of A. S. Pushkin, is the concentration of chronology of development of events within a four-week period (it is quite astonishing that the events in the Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish are limited to the same four weeks): during this period of time the cat catches in turn rabbits and quails and offers them to the king, knowing that the king adores fresh game and rabbit meat (in view of the aforesaid it is helpful to point at the brightly lit allegory of the used combinative couple rabbit / quail: it is well-known that the symbolism of rabbit includes its worship as the moon animal in different ethnocultures, as a result it is connected with
all kinds of moon goddesses / cults, whereas quail is related to the transition from night to day or, in a figurative sense, the transition from darkness to light; i.e., the rabbit / quail pairing represents the cult animals of the Sun / the Moon and in this context contains the indications of lapse of time of short duration within a solar / moon month). In the foreground, the meaningfulness of the cat's personal acquaintance with the monarch is distinguished, however, the second, less noticeable level of understanding the background of the scenes lies in the intention of the zoomorphic hero to confer on his master a name, title and social status with the help of his contact with a royal person (the same analogy is drawn in the Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, in which the goldfish contributed to transforming the social image / status of the old woman), since the gifts are offered to the king in the name of the non-existent Marquis Karabas, whose name is a recognizable anagram of Abraxas - a mystically significant being in the world of alchemists. Abraxas is an invisible creature that supervises the material world in all its manifestations, its gifts in the form of rabbit / quail symbolize the Sun / the Moon and all the solar / moon life forms / activities. In this way (with the help of introduction of the indicative name Karabas / Abraxas) an additional mystical level of the fairy tale's interpretation is put into operation.
Another key factor, which relates the analyzed fairy tale and that of A. S. Pushkin, is revealed in the concentration of all the important final events in the fairy tale in the framework of the most active day, rich in diverse actions: a) the walk of the king and his daughter along the river, b) a meeting of the king and the marquis, organized by the cat, c) the provision of the marquis by the cat with material prosperity, d) a destruction of the sorcerer-cannibal by the hero with a tail, e) the wedding of the already recognized / confessed (and, consequently, realized) Marquis Karabas and the royal daughter in the cannibal's castle. If during the preceding stage
the cat was occupied with making a name / image for his poor master, the following step inevitably has to be the materialization of the earlier declared wealth of the master. Astonishingly, the cat easily solves these problems, firstly, providing his master with the sumptuous attire suitable for his new status (it is illustrated in a scene of pretended robbery next to a river: the incident encouraged the king to present the pretended victim - the marquis -with a minister's uniform), secondly, producing someone else's fields, estates and belongings as evidence of the marquis's properties; the effectiveness of the plain scheme of mass fraud / deception invented by the cat is amazing: initially, a non-existent name and title are devised, which are afterwards supplemented with the addition of some valuable estates. (Like the poor master with his cat from the fairy tale ofV. A. Zhukovsky, the old woman from Pushkin's fairy tale does not think of the possible consequences of her actions either; she is not stopped by the old man's warning about her lack of necessary skills and qualifications, which is why she must not have pretensions of holding a high social position: in some measure, it is another reason for the disaster that overtakes the old woman).
This stage of the analysis reveals a fundamentally important difference in the plots of the two fairy tales: Pushkin's old woman, having encroached on power in the magical kingdom of the golden fish, was sharply repulsed by the mistress of the sea, and afterwards returned to her poor hut by the sea, remaining in her former social status as the fisherman's wife, whereas in the fairy tale ofV. A. Zhukovsky the dangerous magical episode of the meeting between the cat and the wizard-cannibal terminated in favour of the cat because the good friends of the wizard, mentioned in the narration and hypothetically capable of interfering and preventing the rootless marquis from settling down in the cannibal's castle, simply remained potential heroes: being in terror, they left the castle as the main trophy of the newly arrived king and his suite and the marquis-impostor.
As a whole, Puss in Boots can be considered as the zoomorphic double of the poor master in his role / image of some artful adventurer who uses all available ways and methods in order to reach his indubitably selfish ends - the achievement of the peak of power and wealth (for instance, the hay-makers and reapers in the fields were strongly recommended by the cat to name the Marquis Karabas as their master, all those not agreeing were cruelly threatened with slaughter). The scheme employed here is simultaneously an example of the use of the method of falsification and forgery, as the cat has specially taught all people to give the correct (from his point of view) answers the king; as a result of the use of this simple trick, the cat manages to stun the king (in a literal sense) with the imaginary riches of the marquis.
It is evident from the fairy tale's text that there is no shame or comprehension of the immorality of his behavior, or the unfairness / unlawfulness of the obtained benefits on the part of the cat; consequently, the similar qualities are inherent in his young master. Therefore, the final settling down of the heroes in the castle is a test either for the cat or its master; at the same time the penetration into the castle represents the image-symbol of a spiritual peak or the mystery wisdom needed to be obtained and symbolizes the final spirit trial. It was exactly this point that the cat had in mind during his audience with the wizard, asking him the intriguing question about his ability to transform himself into different animals (a special accent was put on the word wisdom). In order to increase the degree of difficulty for grasping this wisdom and reinforcing its significance, the owner of the castle is presented as a wizard-cannibal, which considerably augments the possible risk and danger in the field of acquiring magic knowledge.
The necessity of indication of the double status of the castle host (wizard / cannibal) is additionally grounded on the fact that when a person finds himself at a critical juncture, he willy-nilly is made to pass tests, on completion of which he loses his
human nature: this specific aspect is allegorically reinforced with the epithet cannibal, this hero is also called a wizard because he is skillful in witchery / sorcery, which is illustrated by the hero's ability to turn himself into something very big or small. Consequently, it would be a gross simplification to consider the introduction of the episode of transformation of the wizard into a mouse as simply the author's original fantasy employed with the mere object of diminution of the physical parameters of the personage in order that he be eaten by the cat; in connection with this it is worth recalling the allegorical meaning of the castle as a place of secret wisdom and the magical supervisor of the castle -as the keeper of wisdom. The first transformation into a lion (which almost frightened the cat to death) should be just considered as the death test because the enraged lion symbolizes physical death or the power of omnivorous time. In this case, the wizard's second transformation into a tiny mouse demonstrates the chthonic forces in their incessant movement; this image also embodies the birth of the human spirit with the subsequent fall of the soul into material embodiment, in which it has to learn a lesson many times over. The following wedding of the marquis and the king's daughter serves as an apparent proof of the successful passing of the test in the castle, attested by the conferral of the reward.
The fairy tale Puss in Boots by V. A. Zhukovsky should be regarded as a work of art with three levels of interpretation: 1) a description of the life story of a poor youth who gains surprisingly rapid advancement in the social hierarchy, 2) a narration of the risky adventures of a cunning cat, 3) a reflection of the hidden mystical level indirectly displayed through the interpretation of definite image-symbols. When the analyzed work of art of V. A. Zhukovsky is compared with the Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish by A. S. Pushkin, certain common points of contact in the plots are revealed, which permit us to affirm the inner compatibility of the investigated works.
References:
1. Mann Yu. V. Poetics of Russian Romanticism.- Moscow, 1976.
2. Pushkin A. S. Poems. Fairy tales. Ruslan and Ludmila. Collected works,- vol. 1.- Moscow, 1985.
3. Zhukovsky V. A. Poems. Ballads. Stories. Fairy Tales.- Moscow, 2010.
4. Zhukovsky and the Literature of the End of XVIIIth-XIXth Centuries.- Moscow, 1988.
5. Zvantseva E. P. The Genre of Literary Fairy Tale in the Creative Work of V. A. Zhukovsky // Traditions and Innovation in Fiction.- Gorky, 1979.
6. Yanushkevitch A. S. The Stages and Problems of the Creative Evolution of V. A. Zhukovsky.- Tomsk, 1985.
