This article will examine one of the pages of the work of the famous Russian writer Mikhail Efgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin - the story "The Wise Gudgeon". A summary of this work will be considered in conjunction with its
historical context.
Saltykov-Shchedrin is a famous writer and satirist who created his literary works in an interesting style - in the form of fairy tales. The Wise Gudgeon is not an exception, the summary of which can be described in two sentences. However, it raised acute socio-political problems. This story was written in 1883, during the period of repressions of Emperor Alexander III that began against the intensified opponents of the tsarist regime. At that time, many progressively minded people already understood the whole depth of the problems of the existing system and tried to convey this to the masses. However, unlike anarchist students who dreamed of a military coup, the advanced intelligentsia tried to find a way out of the situation by peaceful means, with the help of appropriate reforms. Only with the support of the entire public could it be possible to influence the situation and prevent the existing disorder, Saltykov-Shchedrin believed. The “wise gudgeon”, a brief summary of which will be given below, sarcastically tells us about a certain part of the Russian intelligentsia, who in every possible way evades social activities out of fear of punishment for freethinking.
The Wise Gudgeon: Summary
Once upon a time there lived a gudgeon, not an ordinary one, but an enlightened one, moderately liberal. From childhood, his father instructed: "Beware of the dangers that await you in the river, all around are full of enemies." Pescara decided: "And the truth is, at any moment you are either hooked
they’ll catch or eat pike. But you yourself cannot harm anyone. "And he decided to outwit everyone: he built himself a hole where he lived without any danger," lived and trembled ", he came to the surface only at noon to catch some midge, which was not always possible But the gudgeon was not upset, the main thing was intact, and he lived his whole life like that, and he had neither family nor friends, and he lived in constant fear for his life, but he was very proud of the knowledge that he would not die in the ear or in the mouth of the fish, and by his death, like his venerable parents, and here lies a gudgeon in its burrow, dying of old age, fleeing to lazy thoughts were in his head, and suddenly someone seemed to whisper to him: “But you lived in vain, did nothing neither useful nor harmful ... Only translated the feed. You die, no one will remember about you. For some reason no one even calls you wise, only a fool and a mutt. “And then the gudgeon realized that he himself had deprived himself of all the joys that his place was not in this artificially dug half-dark mink, but in a natural environment. But it was too late, he was lying and falling asleep. And suddenly the gudgeon disappeared, no one knows how Most likely, he died and surfaced, because no one would eat it - the old, and even the "wise."
This is a summary. The “wise gudgeon” tells us about people who are useless to society who live their life in fear, avoiding struggle in every possible way, arrogantly believing themselves to be enlightened. Saltykov-Shchedrin once again brutally ridiculed the miserable life and way of thinking of such people, urging them not to hide in a hole, but to boldly fight for a place in the sun for themselves and their descendants. Not only respect, but even pity or sympathy in the reader does not cause a wise gudgeon, a brief summary of the existence of which can be expressed in two words: "lived and trembled."