One of the great poets of the XIX century - Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The tale "The Sleeping Princess", the ballad "Lyudmila" and many other works belong to his pen.
Short biography of the poet
V.A. Zhukovsky was born in 1783, January 29. He is the illegitimate son of the landowner A. I. Bunin from E. D. Turchaninova, a former captured Turkish woman. Vasily received his surname from his godfather, who subsequently adopted the boy at the request of Bunin.
Vasily received a good education, at the age of 18 he graduated from the Moscow University noble guesthouse. He started publishing as an author early - at the age of 14 he made his debut with his work “Thoughts on the Tomb”. In 1808, Vasily Andreyevich wrote his famous ballad “Lyudmila”, then created many more wonderful works in verse, and in 1809 wrote the prose novel “Maryina Roscha”.
In late summer and early fall of 1831, Zhukovsky wrote his interpretation of the plot of the sleeping princess, and after 2 years on the same topic he created a poem by A. S. Pushkin. In order not to confuse these two different works, the article will sometimes give an explanation - the name of the author in brackets. Find out what the poem of the son of Bunin, will help a brief summary.
The Sleeping Princess, Zhukovsky, the plot of the work
The poetic story begins with the acquaintance of the reader with Tsar Matthew and his wife, the queen. They lived together for many years, everything was fine, but one thing overshadowed their union - there were no children in the family.
And then one day the sad queen went to the stream, sat on its green shores and began to weep bitterly. But her tears did not remain unrequited, the young woman regretted the cancer and crawled to her. He said that she should not be sad, that she would get pregnant that night, and after the appropriate time she would give birth to a daughter.
The tsarina answered the beautiful news with gratitude, but he already disappeared. It turns out that cancer was a prophet, and his predictions came true. Here, on such a positive note, a fairy tale begins, and accordingly its short content. The “Sleeping Princess” (V. Zhukovsky) continues with a joyful event - a beautiful baby was born among noble women. The further narration of the two great poets - Pushkin and Zhukovsky - is different. In the first case, the mother died during childbirth, in the second - no. Vasily Andreevich says that happy parents decided to call sorceresses to a feast. About it right now will tell a brief summary. The Sleeping Princess (V. Zhukovsky) is a wonderful work that will be interesting not only to children but also to adults. So, the baby was so beautiful that it’s hard to describe how much. And in honor of the birth of the beauty, sorceresses came to her.
Predictions of sorceresses
At first, Tsar Matthew wanted to invite 12 sorceresses; the same number of dishes was prepared according to the number of guests. But then it turned out that one was missing. Therefore, the king decided the twelfth, old and evil, not to call.
After the guests sat well, drank and ate, they began to present the princess with all kinds of joyful predictions. Since sorceresses were sorceresses, all these wonderful moments should have come true over time. But, as it turned out, there were not only joyful predictions. After 10 magicians said their word, an uninvited guest appeared at the feast. What she said will tell you a brief summary right now. The Sleeping Princess (V. Zhukovsky) is a fairy tale full of miracles and magic. So, according to the evil predictor, the girl will only have to live to the age of fifteen, and in the sixteenth year - to die due to the fact that she will be pricked with a spindle. If we analyze this event and compare Zhukovsky’s work with Pushkin’s poem, it becomes clear that a sad event awaited both girls, but the first had to be pricked with a spindle, and the second had to be poisoned with an apple.
The optimistic prophecy of the good sorceress
This is the wish the little witch made to the baby. But the girl was lucky, because before that only 10 sorceresses managed to predict her all the best, and the eleventh had not yet spoken magic words. To smooth the witch's spell, the last of the guests said that the girl would not die, but would fall asleep for 300 years. After this period, the evil spell will be dispelled, and the princess will live happily until old age. All this was written in verse in his work by Zhukovsky (The Sleeping Princess). The main characters of the story are not only the tsar, the queen, the princess and two sorceresses, the reader will learn about the others a bit later.
The witch's prediction comes true
Hearing what the evil witch wished his beloved daughter, the king was very upset. He began to eat poorly, sleep, and then issued a decree to prohibit sowing flax, to make yarn from it, to knit it with a spindle. This tool of ancient needlework was forbidden to have in any house. After this decree, Matvey calmed down, and life flowed on as usual.
Time passed, the princess turned 15 years old, she became even more beautiful, blossomed like a flower in May. Once her parents went for a walk, and the young girl stayed at home. She became bored, and she decided to inspect the palace. After all, in some rooms the girl has never been.
She began to walk around the mansions and saw a steep staircase, climbed along it, and there was a small komorka. The girl became curious, she opened the door and sees an old woman sitting and spinning yarn. The old woman took and handed the girl a spindle, because it was that very sorceress. Immediately the young virgin pricked her hand and fell asleep. So the sleeping princess appeared in the palace. Zhukovsky, whose heroes in this tale are both positive and negative, further describes the picture of universal sleep.
Sleepy Kingdom
At the same second, the entire palace and its inhabitants were seized by a general nap. The king and his wife stood on the porch, and fell asleep right there. Their retinue stood still, not letting go of the arms of their guns. Khorunzhiy fell asleep on a horse, the animal also plunged into long-term nap. Even the dogs, the flies froze, and remained immovable. The cook, as he cooked the meal, remained in the kitchen. Even the fire fell into a nap.
Since then, a bird could not fly into this sleepy kingdom, and the beast would not have gone there either. Thorny thorns grew like a high fence, wild forest also blocked the path-way.
100 years have passed. During this time, some daredevils, listening to the stories of their grandfathers, tried to find the palace and the princess, but none of them returned back, so everyone abandoned desperate attempts to get there.
King's son
So 300 years have passed. Somehow the young prince rode through the forest with his retinue and lagged behind her. He appeared near that treasured boron, met an old man. He told the young man that he had heard from his grandfathers that the tsar’s palace was standing in these places, the beautiful princess was sleeping in it, and now for 3 centuries he was waiting for his savior.
The hero rode where the old man had pointed. Before the youth, the dense forest had blossomed, nature was clearly glad for his appearance - the birds began to twitter, streams began to grow, flowers began to bloom right before their eyes. Zhukovsky beautifully spoke about all this in verses.
The Sleeping Princess: the main characters
In addition to the girl herself, there are characters who played a significant role in her fate. These are both positive and negative characters. Only one person can be assigned to the last category - the old sorceress. She did evil. The author assigned her a considerable role in his work, because of the old woman the girl almost died in the prime of life, and therefore gave the name to his opus Zhukovsky - “The Sleeping Princess”. What does this moment teach? What if you invite guests, you need to think about who exactly. After all, you can offend a person by inviting 11 close friends, but not the twelfth. Then he can hold a grudge, as a fairy-tale sorceress did.
But her spell was destined to dispel the prince, who is one of the main good characters along with the girl and her parents.
Since the main actors in this work are few, they are easy to remember. Now, if someone says: “Zhukovsky, The Sleeping Princess”, the main characters of this poem will immediately pop up in your memory.
And the spell fell
To spell the princess was destined to one of the main positive heroes - the prince. Hearing the old man’s story, he was not afraid and went to look for the palace. I found it quickly and was surprised that everyone, from people to animals and insects, was sleeping.
On the porch lay the king. Having crossed himself, the young man stepped over him and went to his chosen one. Further, Zhukovsky for a long time describes how she was pretty. As they say, years have no power over beauty. The prince fell in love at first sight, kissed a sweet girl, she woke up, and not only her. The palace came to life instantly, everyone began to continue to do what he was doing before.
Of course, the tsar and the tsarina blessed their daughter, she married a savior, and it ended, as in many Russian folk tales, with a feast for the whole world. Here is a poem composed by Vasily Zhukovsky. The sleeping princess woke up and everything ended well.
Opus Analysis
What is he telling us about? If students have to write an essay on the subject “Zhukovsky, The Sleeping Princess”, the analysis of the work will help to get an excellent mark. First, you can compare the plot with the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, mention that their story called “Sleeping Beauty” is similar to Zhukovsky’s opus, like the work of Charles Perrault, entitled “Beauty in the Sleeping Forest”. Zhukovsky called “The Sleeping Princess” his own work. Reviews will also help to better understand poetic work.
Readers like that in this work brave heroes triumph, love and good triumph. It is customary to compare the poetic opus of A.S. Pushkin's “The Tale of the Sleeping Princess and the Seven Knights” with the work created by Zhukovsky. The Sleeping Princess (reviews will help to better understand the structure of the work) is a must-have poem for extracurricular reading. Reviews relate to the structure of poems, heroes, the main storyline.
In Vasily Ivanovich, the plot is based on similar West European stories told earlier by the brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. But Zhukovsky Russified the tale, he introduced some Russian folk features. The composition is built on sequentially passing events, each period of the heroes' life is described. So, at first it is said that the tsar and the princess lived together for many years, then a daughter was born, 15 years passed, and after that another 300 years.
The tale is written in the technique of a four-foot chorea with one male paired rhyme. In this we can draw an analogy with some of Pushkin’s works, but in the latter, male pairs alternate with female rhymes.