CC BY
21
Section 2. Literature
Vorova Tatyana Petrovna, Candidate of Philological Science Oles' Honchar Dnipro National University E-mail: [email protected]
USE OF THE IMAGE OF THE MEN'S HOUSE IN "THE TALE OF THE DEAD PRINCESS AND THE SEVEN BOGATYRS" BY A. S. PUSHKIN
Abstract. This article investigates "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs" by A. S. Pushkin as an artistic and informative source of the particular lifestyle of the fabulous dramatis personae. The role and the functions of the specific forest community denoted as "the male household" is analyzed. The typical features of the relationship between the female / male personages are examined; the specificity of introduction of the episode linked with the heroine's temporary death is studied as an obligatory element in the conducting of initiation.
Keywords: fairy tale, male household, specificity of relationship among the personages, mystery.
The literary heritage of the Russia's poet and ge- literature have not shown special interest in the par-
nius A. S. Pushkin is extensive and varied, a highly important place in it being occupied by the fairy tales written by the author at the peak of his creativity. Perhaps, it could be affirmed with a degree of certainty that the poet turned to the embodiment in his fairy tales of some special concentrated philosophy, conveyed with the aid of picturesque images and forms and presenting the world with the features different from reality, it is in this world that the majestic structure of the universe is intricately decorated with the routine of life and people's precious experience.
The verse fairy tales ofA. S. Pushkin and, in particular, "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs" (1833) have been the focus of attention of many researchers (Azadovsky M. K. [1], Alex-eyev M. P. [2], Dereza L. V. [3] et al.), who rightly saw a reflection of ethical and moral principles and a philosophy condensed by time in Pushkin's works of art. Unfortunately, the specialists in the study of
ticular artistic informational stratum linked with the specific lifestyle of the male personages in the above fairy tale, which is why the present article may help to shed some new light on this aspect. The task of our work involves the investigation of role and function of the men's household in "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs" and the study of its impact on the general plot development and the narrative fulfillment of the analyzed work of art.
Owing to the familiarity of the fairy tale's plot, its retelling is omitted, but it should be noted that the theme of the mysterious seven bogatyrs (bogatyr in Russian folklore means warrior endowed with prodigious size and strength) becomes latently apparent even in the vain and forlorn attempt of the king's son Elysey to inquire of other people at the initial stage of his search for the lost princess ("Everyone who is asked by him / Does not know what to answer: / Either one laughs up his sleeve / Or turns away from him" [6, 644]), these inquiries are worth analyzing
in further detail. The question asked by the king's son and groom (and two variants of reaction for it) is rather intriguing: the hero is laughed at or not answered at all. The most satisfactory explanation for this is a version based on the use of the motive of men's household in the fairy tale.
The tower-chamber located in the backwoods, where the lost young tsarevna casually wanders, is easily recognized as a big or men's house - a special type of community or social institution that is typical for a definite (presumably, archaic) time period. Earlier the folklore motif of the big house was investigated in detail by the talented Soviet Russian scholar V. Ya. Propp: the results of his study of this motif in fabulous and mythological texts were presented in the author's classic work "Historical Roots of Fairy Tale". The researcher noticed that "starting from the moment of puberty and till marriage, young men do not live in the family with their parents, but move to big, specially built houses called "houses for men", "men's houses" or "houses for bachelors". Here they live in a special kind of commune. Generally, all the men who have passed through a ritual of initiation are gathered into a union with a definite name <...>. The functions of the union <...> are very broad and various. It exerts de facto control over the whole tribe" [5, C. 203-204] ( in the analyzed work of art there are bogatyrs melded into a union as well, however, they do not make a particular impact upon a rest of the society, being politically neutral, for in society there is the tsar, whose task is to solve whatever social disputes may arise). In the description of such houses it can be possible to find common features: they are located in the heart of the forest and surrounded by a fence or wall, are large in size; the houses are raised above the ground and even stand on posts, consist of rooms or chambers, there is a separate room for the newly arrived travellers or pilgrims; the houses are well guarded by different animals, several bogatyrs live together on amicable terms, they are often called brothers; when the fabulous hero / heroine comes into the house, it
is empty, but the brothers appear later (and always together); the strong men have an elected head. In the fairy tale ofA. S. Pushkin, the same information is used with the methodical enumeration of all the obligatory details (a considerable stretch of narrative including four strophes or 88 lines is devoted to the description of the forest tower-chamber).
In the men's house, the role of a woman or "sister" is significant, but the reasons for her coming to the forest brothers may be various (in the analyzed fairy tale the heroine finds herself at the bogatyrs' place owing to her stepmother's persecution). However, all misadventures of a girl usually end at the moment of her appearance at the house, where her treatment is tender and respectful: she is loved and recognized as if she were the men's natural sister. For the sake of justice, it is necessary to notice the high probability of appearance of an elderly woman / man or young man instead of a girl at the men's house; in every case the forest fellowship establishes a special type of connection with a newcomer which is advantageous for both sides: the novice takes upon himself the performance of housekeeping duties, and the brothers-bogatyrs are occupied, among other things, with supplying provisions and other material goods, obtained in different ways including robbery. For this reason, in the fairy tale ofA. S. Pushkin the senior of the bogatyrs methodically lists all the possible variants of relationship between the hosts and unknown newcomer in the tower-chamber in order to establish the precise status of the novice in their community: if the novice is an old man, he will become an uncle to the others; if he is a young man, he will become a sworn brother; if a person is an old woman, she will become a mother to the others; and, finally, if a person is a bonny lass, she will become a darling sister [6, 638]. The tsarevna, in conformity to the ritual, answers and appears to the residents of the forest tower-chamber only after the promise of the senior that a young guest will become a "sister" for them. It should be especially noticed that the "sisters" were present at men's houses for a short term,
even though the relationship of the "sister" and her "brothers" often overstepped the limits of family relations, taking the form of extramarital relationship / liaison with one of the men, who took the initiative: a proposal was made openly, but the girl was not forced. A. S. Pushkin described exactly this state of affairs in three consecutive strophes when once at dawn the seven bogatyrs came into the tsarevna's room and the senior told her that even though she was a sister, all the brothers had fallen in love with her, which is why the girl was offered the choice of marrying one of them according to her free choice [6, 639]. After the reasonable refusal of the tsarevna ("I am a bride" [6, 640]), the brothers did not hold any grievance against her ("if so, we will not go into the question anymore" [6, 640]).
Strictly speaking, everything in the fairy tale that is connected with the tower-chamber and the bogatyrs is so important that it can be asserted that the main or core part of this work of art is based precisely on the scenes depicting the men's house and the residence there of tsarevna, whereas the episodes linked with her stepmother serve only as the narrative frame, introducing the logically grounded worldly reason for sending the heroine to the forest and her staying in the house of the strongmen. As a consequence, the most movable and mobile part of the fairy tale is the introductory one which demonstrates and illustrates some personal drama (of a hero or a heroine), as a result of which the leaving home of the main protagonist in the drama and her coming to the forest become inevitable, and the advent of the personage to the mysterious men's house is motivated purely by this fact; which is why the fabulous beginning can be varied within certain limits, whereas the central, root part of the narration is always stable and fixed.
In further development of the plot three key motifs connected with the young tsarevna are emphasized: her death (temporary), resurrection and marriage, artistically united into an indivisible complex of certain actions, codified as "conducting
an initiation of the sister". This plot move is logically supported by the reality of life, as sooner or later the "sister" leaves the big house in order to marry and establish her own family life in comfort. However, the men's house was a specific place not only from the point of view of permanent residence of the brothers-bogatyrs, but also from the perspective of the conducting of initiation mysteries, execution of definite magic rituals, storage of some cult objects etc., in consequence of it, any information of this kind was interpreted as secret in nature, being a rigid taboo for the uninitiated, and at the same time it was to be common knowledge to the "sister" (i.e. the young heroine in the analyzed fairy tale). For the purpose of keeping secrets of the men's house, the "sister"-tsarevna had to go through some particular mysterious rite, ensuring non-disclosure of mystery beyond the bounds of this specific community: the presence of temporary death during the performance of the ritual was the main sign of the initiation. This information is so crucial that the indication in its specific content is fixed even in the title of the fairy tale, in which the poet ignored all the personages except the dead princess and seven bogatyrs as the key heroes of the work of art.
The realization of the rite of temporary death could take different forms, but one of the most commonly used was poisoning; it is worth noticing that in order to raise someone from the dead it was enough just to shake the body, which was performed by the king's son Elysey: he struck the coffin "with all his might" [6, 646]. At the same time, it should be noted that in Pushkin's fairy tale the tsarevna lies in a particular crystal coffin, which is broken by her groom: the significance ofthis detail is based on the postulate that crystal possesses certain wonderful, miraculous, magical properties, which is why it plays the special role of a peculiar trigger of the fabulous action in the described rite of initiation. Taken together, it helps to explain logically the fact that the marriage of the heroine follows only after the performance of acts of
initiation which are connected with funerals (this undoubtedly correlates with the mystical tradition). The astonishing and striking accuracy, precision, compactness and laconic brevity of the form of the rhymed fairy tale helped the poet to convey an extensive, wide ranging and utterly significant content, including the basic details of the initiation ritual; as a whole, it gives grounds for distinguishing the above analyzed theme into the separate fabulous dominant.
As is obvious from the foregoing, the tsar also originates from amongst the same forest brothers, which is why in the fairy tale he is called a "wished for and welcome guest" because he has been absent from the family for a long time, staying in the big house (it is well known that those who wanted to settle down to married life were not obstructed in their wish by the forest fellowship). At least, such an assumption might explain rationally the fact that the tsar-father did not express any concern over disappearance of his daughter in the forest, as he had passed a definite period of life in the same community and, surely, knew how affairs were regulated in the big house (in addition to the above, it should be noted that to send a daughter in service to the men's house was a common custom on the part of parents since a girl who had passed through service there obtained a particular status).
An important confirmation of this assumption about the specificity of the personal relationships in the community, similar to that described in Pushkin's fairy tale, is a motive that can be figuratively marked as a mythologem of Amor and Psyche: in conformity with the famous myth Amor came to his beloved only at night in order to hide his face from his lady during their meetings (this fact could be successfully correlated with the particular rules governing visits of the forest brothers to their "sisters": for some reasons the girls were not allowed to see the faces of their nightly lovers and, consequently, the personalities of the visitors remained unrecognized). According to the myth, Psyche resorted to cunning for the sake of the opportunity to behold her mys-
terious lover with her own eyes: at night she lit a lamp and her hands trembled because of admiration at the sight ofAmor's beauty, as a result the heroine dripped hot oil on the sleeper by accident, it woke him up, after that he disappeared. In this connection, it is important to remember that in the fairy tale of A. S. Pushkin the tsarina-mother also saw the tsar only at night ("waits for him from morning till night" [6, 634), and he was for her exactly "the guest", "who was waited for day and night" [6, 634]. When she first saw him in the daytime after their daughter's birth, she was really struck by his beauty (quite as in the myth ofAmor and Psyche). But the truth is that this episode of the fairy tale served as the reason for the death of the tsarina-mother, while in the myth Psyche set out in search of her handsome lover and eventually found him after many trials. A. S. Pushkin presented this motif in a slightly changed form: the tsarina-mother (who corresponds to the mythical Psyche) dies of admiration but her daughter is sent to the forest, where after many trials she is found by her groom - the king's son Elysey (who corresponds to the mythical Amor). Nevertheless, the main components of the motif in the myth and Pushkin's fairy tale coincide.
At this stage of our investigation it is possible to give a reasoned answer to the question put above: about what Elysey asked the other people and why they showed two different reactions while answering. In the process of his search Elysey doubtlessly asked the local residents about the location of the vanished bride, and they being aware of the existence of the men's house and the custom of sending the girls there before their marriage either smiled (making a secret of the fact that the tsarevna might lose her virginity there) or said nothing, as they did not want to reveal the specific character of this local custom to a foreigner till his marriage (Elysey, certainly, was a foreigner owing to his belonging to the royal family: in contrast to the local tsar's elite he was the king's son and, consequently, lived in another territory or in another kingdom). It is not
unlikely that this is the underlying reason behind the unwarrantably long period of searching for the tsarevna (in the narration the duration of stay of the heroine in the big house is underlined twice with the help of special notes bearing a time character [6, 639]). As a result, the despairing groom has to resort to his own powers (presumably, those of a shaman), only after he has displayed understanding of the languages of nature does he rescue the bride. However, the hero successfully copes with the difficult tasks he faces.
Thus, it is possible to arrive at the well founded conclusion that in "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs" by A. S. Pushkin an archaic social institution is depicted in the recognizable form of the "men's house": the seven brother-bogatyrs should be considered as its permanent residents, the young princess arrived there by accident - as a "sister" having the right to leave this community after passing through a specific ritual, whose obligatory element is crossing the threshold of supposed death which is succeeded by resurrection.
References:
1. Azadovsky M. K. Literature and Folklore.- M., 1938.
2. Alexeyev M. P. Pushkin and World Literature.- L., 1987.
3. Dereza L. V. Russian Literary Fairy Tale of the First Half of the XlX-th Century: Monograph.- Dnepropetrovsk, 2001.
4. Propp V. Ya. Folklore and Reality // Selected works. - M., 1976.
5. Propp V. Ya. Morphology of <Magical> Fairy Tale. The Historical Roots of the Fairy Tale // Collected works of V. Ya. Propp.- M., 1998.
6. Pushkin A. S. Poems. Fairy Tales. Ruslan and Ludmila: Poem // Collected works in three volumes,-Vol. 1.- M., 1985.
