Krylov's fables "Crow and Fox", "Swan, Pike and Cancer" and many others are familiar to everyone. They are small poetic works in which the author makes fun of and exposes a certain human vice. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the features of Krylov’s fable “The Bear and the Desert”, in which stupidity and inability to choose friends are ridiculed in an acute manner. Interestingly, a similar plot can be found in the work of another fabulist, La Fontaine.
Plot
Krylov’s fable “The Bear and the Desert” has a fairly simple linear plot. So, the hermit - a resident of the desert - tired of his loneliness, went to the forest to meet his neighbors and start a friendship with them. However, who can survive more often than wild animals? Indeed, a bear came out to meet the hermit, whom the author refers to as Mishka or Mishuk. Nothing to do, the hermit decides to get to know him. Newly made friends spend all their time together, both are not polite, and, as the fabulist points out, the dirty linen was not taken out.
Friendship was short-lived. During a walk with a new friend, the wilderness got tired and, on Mishka’s advice, lay down to rest under a tree. Alas, a fly landed on his cheek. And the simple-minded bear, deciding to save a friend, picked up a weighty cobblestone and hit a man on the head, opening his skull. This is the plot of a small work. But what did the author want to convey to his readers? Let's figure it out.
Heroes
The whole Krylov’s fable “The Bear and the Desert” is based on the interaction of two characters in its name. This is a bear and a resident of the desert. The images are spelled out very briefly, but succinctly:
- So, it’s said about a man that he is “rootless, lonely”, tired of a solitary existence. Although after a few stanzas the author makes fun of this hero as well - he strove for communication so much, and after meeting with the bear we learn that the hermit is silent and laconic. Why did he so eagerly look for an interlocutor?
- The second key character is the bear. He is shown to be quite good-natured, also uncommunicative, but sincerely in love with the person who compiled him. All that is said about this hero is that he is "big." And, as the subsequent narration will show, this characteristic is key in the image.
Both images are collective, Krylov does not name, therefore, anyone can hide under the masks of a bear and a hermit. However, this feature as a whole is inherent in the work of the great fabulist, for which we value him. So, in the fable “The Bear and the Desert”, Krylov painted two capacious images - a lonely man who was tired of his solitude, but was already so used to it that he forgot how to lively speech, and a giant bear, not evil, but also silent. And both characters were imbued with sympathy for each other. If the image of the hermit remains static, then the figure of the bear undergoes evolution:
- At the first meeting with a person, he is simply "big."
- Further - he extends his paw to a new acquaintance, that is, shows friendliness.
- Then - attached to it.
- He takes care during the walk.
- Finally, he tries to help and accidentally kills a friend.
Both heroes symbolize stupidity at once: both the person who trusted in the wild big animal, which, although it shows sympathy, but is unable to control its inner essence, and the bear, who wanted to help, but only did harm. This is precisely the meaning of the well-known expression “bear service”.
Morality
“The Hermit and the Bear” is Krylov’s fable, the moral of which is spelled out at the very beginning. The work teaches us to carefully choose friends, because "an obliging fool is more dangerous than the enemy." The fabulist advises to use the help of only those who do no harm by their efforts. So, the unfortunate hermit became a victim of a helpful bear who only wanted to help him, but did not think, did not calculate his strength and accidentally killed a friend. Therefore, we must carefully approach the choice of friends and sincerely appreciate those who were chosen. This is what Krylov is interested in - in a short poem text he managed to illuminate the most important problem of human stupidity.