Animal heroes in Russian folk tales. Competition work Genre “Research” “Images of animals in Russian folk tales. Russian folk tales

St. Petersburg State University

Faculty of Philology

Program "Linguistics and Intercultural Communication"

Test on the topic:

Heroes of Russian folk tales about animals and their role in the formation of national character

Saint Petersburg

Introduction

Over the course of many centuries, in the process of developing the current images of animals in Russian folk tales, literature was created that explored and described the folklore characteristics of the heroes of fairy tales from various regions, countries, etc.

In such works V.Ya. Propp as “Historical roots of a fairy tale”, “Russian fairy tale” and “Morphology of a fairy tale”, E.V. Pomerantseva “The Fates of a Russian Fairy Tale”, V.P. Anikin “Russian folk tale” gives an idea of ​​the structure of a fairy tale, its types, and the large number of different types of fairy tale heroes. Books by O.M. Ivanova-Kazas “Mythological Zoology (dictionary)” and E. A. Kostyukhin “Types and Forms of Animal Epic” help to examine in detail the most famous heroes of fairy tales about animals and create their collective image based on a comparative analysis of these heroes and their actions.

The heroes of fairy tales are very often animals, personifying people with different characters. Enough attention is paid to the consideration of such characters, but there is not enough literature explaining the role of their existence in fairy tales about animals, which is due to the relevance of the topic of the course work.

Goal: Describe the heroes of Russian folk tales about animals.

A study of Russian folk tales and its animal heroes.

Creation of a comparative analysis of the data of the heroes and their actions.

To prove the educational role of fairy tales through the necessity of the existence of animal heroes.

Subject of study.

Object of study.

Animal heroes of Russian folk tales.

Theoretical method

Method of analysis

Survey/questionnaire method

Comparative method

Research material.

Russian folk tales about animals.

The choice of this literature is due to the fact that in Russian folk tales about animals the characters of animal heroes and their features are especially clearly manifested. And books such as A.N. Afanasyeva “Russian folk tales: complete edition in one volume”, “Tales of animals”, “Tales of hares”, “Tales of a fox” give a complete picture of the heroes of fairy tales about animals, describe their character traits, appearance and actions.

Tales about animals, their characteristics and varieties

In fairy tales about animals, certain characters can be traced in different time frames. Therefore, one of the most important issues is the problem of differentiating fairy tales about animals and fairy tales of other genres in which animals take part.

The key to solving this problem is given by the definition of fairy tales about animals proposed by V.Ya. Proppom: By fairy tales about animals we will mean those tales in which the animal is the main object or subject of the story. On this basis, fairy tales about animals can be distinguished from others, where animals play only a supporting role and are not the heroes of the story.

Fairy tales about animals, of course, include fairy tales where only animals act ( Fox and Crane , Fox, hare and rooster , Fox midwife , Fox and blackbird , Fool Wolf etc.). Of the tales about the relationship between humans and animals, this genre should include those in which animals are the main characters, and people are the objects of their action, and in which the narrative is told from the point of view of animals, not humans ( Wolf at the ice hole , Dog and wolf , Man, bear and fox, etc.).

Tales about animals bear little resemblance to stories from the lives of animals. Animals in fairy tales act only to some extent in accordance with their nature, and to a much greater extent they act as bearers of one or another character and producers of certain actions that should be attributed primarily to humans. Therefore, the world of animals in fairy tales is supplemented by human imagination; it is a form of expression of a person’s thoughts and feelings, his views on life.

Animals that speak, reason and behave like people are just a poetic convention: “The adventures of animals are projected onto human life - and it is their human meaning that makes them interesting.” Hence the main themes of Russian fairy tales about animals - human characters, virtues and vices of people, types of human relationships in everyday life, in society, sometimes these images even look satirical.

Most researchers note the problem of classifying tales about animals due to their diversity. V.Ya. wrote about the complexity of typologizing fairy tales about animals. Propp, noting the following varieties: tales about animals that exist in a cumulative form ( Teremok , Kolobok , Cockerel and bean seed and so on.); tales about animals, close in structure to fairy tales ( The wolf and the seven Young goats , Cat, rooster and fox and etc.); tales about animals, close in structure to fables ( Wolf and fox ); tales about animals, approaching literary works and having the form of a political pamphlet ( The Tale of Ersha Ershovich).

Developing a classification of Russian fairy tales about animals based on texts collected by A.N. Afanasyev, V.Ya. Propp identifies the following groups: Tales about wild animals ( Animals in the pit , Fox and wolf , Fox midwife , Fox and Crane , Fox Confessor and etc.); Tales about wild and domestic animals ( Dog and wolf , The wolf and the seven Young goats , Cat, fox and rooster and etc.); Tales of Man and Wild Animals ( Fox and her tail , Man and bear , The old bread and salt is forgotten , Bear - fake leg , Fox with a rolling pin and etc.); Tales of Pets ( Whacked goat , Horse and dog and etc.); Tales of birds and fish ( Crane and heron , Cockerel and bean seed , Chicken Ryaba and etc.); Tales about other animals, plants, mushrooms and elements ( Fox and cancer , Teremok , Kolobok , Sun, frost and wind , War of the mushrooms, etc.).

The characters of Russian folk tales about animals are represented, as a rule, by images of wild and domestic animals. Images of wild animals clearly prevail over images of domestic animals: these are fox, wolf, bear, hare, among birds - crane, heron, thrush, woodpecker, sparrow, raven, etc. Domestic animals are much less common, and they do not appear as independent or leading characters, but only in combination with forest ones: this is a dog, a cat, a goat, a ram, a horse, a pig, a bull, and among poultry - a goose, a duck and a rooster. There are no tales only about domestic animals in Russian folklore. Each of the characters is an image of a very specific animal or bird, behind which stands one or another human character, therefore the characteristics of the characters are based on observation of the habits, demeanor of the animal, and its appearance. The difference in characters is especially clearly and definitely expressed in the images of wild animals: thus, the fox is depicted primarily as a flattering, cunning deceiver, a charming robber; wolf - how greedy and slow-witted gray fool , always getting into trouble; the bear is like a stupid ruler, forest oppression who uses his power not according to reason; a hare, a frog, a mouse, forest birds - like weak, harmless creatures, always serving on errands. The ambiguity of assessments also persists when describing domestic animals: for example, a dog is portrayed as an intelligent animal, devoted to humans; the cat shows a paradoxical combination of courage and laziness; The rooster is noisy, self-confident and curious.

To understand the meaning of Russian folk tales about animals, it is necessary to work on their plot organization and composition. The plot of animal tales is characterized by clarity, clarity and simplicity: “Tales about animals are built on elementary actions underlying the narrative, representing a more or less expected or unexpected end, prepared in a certain way. These simplest actions are phenomena of a psychological nature...” Animalistic tales are distinguished by their small volume, persistence of plot scheme and laconic artistic means of expression.

The composition of Russian fairy tales about animals is also distinguished by its simplicity and transparency. They are often one-episode (“The Fox and the Crane”, “The Crane and the Heron”, etc.). In this case, they are characterized by exaggeration of the main properties and traits of the character, which determines the unusualness and fantastic nature of their actions. However, much more often there are fairy tales with plots based on the sequential linking of the same plot links-motives. The events in them are connected by similar in nature actions of cross-cutting characters: for example, in the fairy tale “The Fox and the Wolf” there are three plot motifs - “The Fox steals fish from the sleigh”, “The wolf at the ice hole”, “The beaten one is lucky.” Multiple episodes, as a rule, do not complicate the composition, since we are usually talking about the same type of actions of characters performed in different plot situations.

In this work, we will conduct a study of two negative heroes of Russian folk tales about animals - the fox and the wolf. This choice is due not only to their popularity, but also to the fact that, using the example of these heroes, one can clearly see what vices are ridiculed and condemned in fairy tales, thereby influencing the formation of the national character of readers. Both characters are found both in different fairy tales separately, and in one together. And despite the fact that both the wolf and the fox are negative heroes, and it seems that they have a lot in common: they live in the same forests, attack the same animals, and are also afraid of the same opponents, in fairy tales they endowed with different human qualities, which is quite interesting. It is also interesting that one negative hero is male and, it turns out, he is endowed with male negative character traits, and the other hero is female, endowed with female traits, respectively, which is why the methods of achieving their goals are different, despite the fact that these the goals are the same. Thus, based on analyzes of various Russian folk tales about animals, it is possible to consider these heroes from the same positions: their appearance, features, actions, and determine which of them is smarter, smarter or more cunning, and who is stupid and naive. A comparative analysis of the wolf and the fox will also help to identify the main human vices that are ridiculed in society and find out how the presence of these heroes in Russian folk tales influences the formation of national character, which is the goal of this work.

Fox in animal tales

One of the most famous fairy tales involving a fox is the Tale of the Fox and the Wolf.

It begins with the fact that the fox wants to eat fish, but doesn’t know where to get it. And, to achieve her goal, she decides to lie down on the road. A man notices her on the road and puts her in his cart with fish. While the man is riding and rejoicing at his good find, the fox gnaws a hole in the sleigh and lowers the fish down to the ground. The fox fishes out almost all the fish, and then runs off into the forest. When the man saw that there was no fox or fish, he was very upset. Meanwhile, the fox runs to collect fish and feast on it. On the road she meets a wolf who asks her where the fish is from, how she caught it and where. In order to get rid of the wolf and not share the prey with him, she tells him that the tail must be lowered into the hole and utter special words so that the fish will catch better. So the stupid wolf ran to the ice hole. While he was sitting and waiting for the fish, the tail froze in the hole so that there was no way to get it out. A woman with a rocker saw a wolf. At first she chased him, and when she realized that he was frozen, she began to beat him so that the wolf’s tail came off. And at this time the fox runs into the hut where the woman lived and begins to knead the dough. While she was kneading, she got all dirty in the dough, went and lay down on the road. The wolf met her again, said that nothing had worked out for him, and noticing that the fox was lying all white, he got scared and began to ask what happened to her. The fox told him that they had broken her head with a yoke. The wolf took pity on her, put her on his back and took her home. And the fox rode on his back and said, smiling: “The beaten one carries the unbeaten!”

In Russian folk tales about animals, the fox is often the enemy of the wolf. This “gossip darling” often arouses our sympathy for her dexterity, courage and resourcefulness in fooling the wolf. And in the fairy tale presented above, the fox’s imagination and resourcefulness have no boundaries. For the sake of her own benefit, the fox deceives the wolf, the man, and, most likely, would be ready to deceive and frame anyone for the sake of her goal - food and warm shelter. And therefore, despite all the sympathy for her, it would still be a mistake to talk about her as a positive character. The fox's cunning and ingenuity coexist with unbridled arrogance, hypocrisy and betrayal.

Among the tales about animals, there are also those in which not only human, but also social vices are condemned, although there are few of them. For example, the fairy tale “The Fox and Kotofey Ivanovich”. Worship of rank and bribery are depicted in it with inimitable brilliance. A cat, expelled from home, thanks to a resourceful fox who supposedly marries him, becomes Kotofey Ivanovich - the “boss” of all forest animals, because the fox, through deception, passes him off to everyone as a terrible beast. Even the strongest inhabitants of the forest - the bear and the wolf - are forced to serve him, and the cat freely robs and presses everyone.

In Russian folk tales about animals, the fox also appears before us in the form of a sweet-voiced red-haired beauty who can talk to anyone. Thus, in the fairy tale “The Fox Confessor,” before eating the rooster, she convinces him to confess his sins; at the same time, the hypocrisy of the clergy is wittily ridiculed. The fox turns to the rooster: “Oh, my dear child, rooster!” She tells him the biblical parable of the publican and the Pharisee, and then eats him.

Another fairy tale whose plot is known to everyone is Kolobok. The tale is a chain of homogeneous episodes depicting Kolobok's meetings with various talking animals intending to eat him, but the Kolobok escapes from everyone except the fox. With each animal, the bun enters into a discussion, in which each time he explains his departure: “I left my grandmother, I left my grandfather, and I will leave you, bear (wolf, hare),.” The fox, as usual, with the help of deception, pretending to be partially deaf, catches Kolobok in his vanity and, taking advantage of his kindness, which is expressed in his readiness to repeat the song closer to the ear and mouth of the fox, eats him.

The fox's stupidity is described in the fairy tale The Fox and the Blackbird. The thrush built a nest and brought out the chicks. The fox found out about this and began to scare the blackbird by saying that he would destroy his nest. First, the fox demanded that the thrush give her food. The blackbird fed the fox pies and honey. Then the fox demanded that the blackbird give her something to drink. The thrush gave the fox beer. Again the fox came to the thrush and demanded to make her laugh. The thrush made the fox laugh. The fox came to the thrush again and demanded to scare her. So the thrush led the fox to a pack of dogs. The fox got scared, ran away from the dogs, climbed into a hole, and started talking to itself. She quarreled with the tail and stuck it out of the hole. So the dogs grabbed her by the tail and ate her. This is how stupidity and greed are always punished in Russian folk tales about animals.

Having examined several fairy tales involving foxes, we can conclude that in most cases the fox is a negative hero, personifying cunning, deceit, deceit, guile and selfishness. But you can also notice that if she, together with other animals, opposes the wolf, she receives a positive assessment, and if she herself harms others, she receives a negative assessment. Quite often you can see fairy tales about the cunning fox and the stupid wolf, in which the fox deceives the wolf for her own benefit. But the fox is just as much a predator as the wolf. She drives the bunny out of his hut, eats thrush chicks, deceives other animals, for example, a bear, or even people, and she always wants to eat a rooster, black grouse, bun, and hare. And she pays cruelly for these actions. After all, cunning bordering on betrayal cannot be justified. Even the fox's appearance is deceptive: it is usually described as very attractive, red-haired, with eyes that speak of its cunning.

Wolf in fairy tales about animals

fairy tale animal moral lesson

The wolf is a fairly popular character in Russian folk tales, but in the minds of Russian people his image is endowed with mostly negative characteristics. Most often in Russian folk tales, the wolf is a stupid and simple-minded animal, which everyone is constantly deceiving and setting up (Sister Fox and the Wolf, Wolf and Goat, Fool Wolf, Wintering of Animals). But it should be noted that even when a wolf is portrayed as a fool in fairy tales, he is never mean and low, unlike a fox.

It was already said earlier that fairy tales about animals were created not only for the edification of little ones. Many of them use funny fiction and jokes to ridicule vices. And, for example, the embodiment of stupidity in fairy tales is often the wolf. His stupidity is the stupidity of a cruel and greedy beast. Storytellers seem to deliberately put the wolf in conditions that justify his actions, which should make the listener feel pity for him, but this does not happen, because there is no place in life for stupidity, cruelty and greed - this is the main thesis of fairy tales.

One of the most famous fairy tales about the wolf is the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats. A mother goat, leaving the house, warns her kids to beware of the wolf that wanders nearby. Meanwhile, the wolf, taking advantage of the opportune moment, knocks on the door of the kids and declares that he is their mother. And the kids respond by saying that their mother’s voice is soft, while his voice is rough. To soften his voice, the wolf eats a piece of honey, but the kids still don’t let him in because their mother’s paws are white, not black, like the wolf’s. Then he goes to the mill and gets his paws dirty in flour. The kids let the wolf in, who immediately eats them all, except for the smallest one, hidden in the stove. Returning home, the mother goat sees the destruction caused by the wolf and the smallest kid who escaped, who tells her about what happened. She goes after the wolf and finds him sleeping with a full stomach, in which something is stirring. The mother goat rips open the wolf's belly, and six kids emerge alive. Instead of kids, their mother fills the wolf's belly with stones. The next morning, the goat met the wolf and invited him to compete in jumping over the fire, the goat jumped over, the wolf also jumped, but the stones pulled him down. So the wolf burned. Another version of the ending - the wolf woke up with stones in his stomach, became thirsty, went to the stream, slipped, fell into the water and drowned from the weight.

In this fairy tale, the wolf is cruel and merciless; for the sake of his prey, he is able to deceive the little goats who are left alone at home. By deception (speaking in the voice of a mother goat), he tells the kids that he is their mother and asks to let him in home. And when they let him in, the wolf eats all the kids except one, which he did not notice. It is thanks to the little goat that evil, greed and mercilessness are punished in this fairy tale.

In the Tale of the Wolf and the Fox, the wolf appears before readers in a slightly different image - a stupid and naive animal who is easy to deceive. The fox in his house manipulates and controls the wolf, cleverly charming him. At the very beginning of the fairy tale, it is said that the fox lived in an ice hut, and the wolf lived in a twig hut, and when spring came, the fox’s hut melted, and she began to ask the wolf to live in the wolf’s house. The wolf took pity on her and foolishly let her in. Every day the fox managed to deceive the wolf: she said that guests were coming to her and went out to them to eat his sour cream and butter, and slowly changed her sleeping place so that it was closer to the stove. So, the fox moved to sleep on the stove, and the wolf moved under the stove. The fairy tale ended with the fact that, continuing to deceive the wolf, the fox remained to live in his house forever, becoming the mistress there, and making the wolf a servant.

The stupidity of the wolf is also described in the fairy tale How the Fox Sewed a Fur Coat for the Wolf. The stupid wolf asked the sly fox to sew him a fur coat. The fox received sheep from the wolf: she ate the meat and sold the wool. And when the wolf ran out of patience and asked for his fur coat, the fox killed him by deception.

So, from the fairy tales discussed above, we can conclude that the wolf is often stupid, but this is not his main feature: he is cruel, ferocious, angry, greedy - these are his main qualities. He eats a poor old man's horse, breaks into the animals' winter quarters and disrupts their peaceful life, wants to eat the kids, deceiving them with a song. But such qualities are never encouraged in fairy tales, so the wolf always gets what he deserves.

The role of fairy tales about animals in the formation of national character

Russian folk tales about animals show what the people condemned in society, their enemies and even in themselves. They ridiculed cruelty, boasting, flattery, corruption and much more. And, often, thus, in fairy tales, precisely due to the presence of animals, in simple content such ideas are hidden that form the essence of the moral code of the people. Those stories that unfold in fairy tales about animals are a kind of dramatization of real life situations. It is not for nothing that such fairy tales have a morally instructive role, because their heroes personify certain human qualities, and that is why a cunning person is called a fox, a cowardly person is called a hare, and a stupid person is called a wolf. Tales about animals are parables that show the reader what is respected and what is not.

The character of each person is made up of emotional, volitional and moral traits, the foundations of which are laid in early childhood. Parents read fairy tales to their children, with the help of which they learn about the world. Therefore, fairy tales have an educational role, because a fairy tale is centuries-old folk wisdom. Through it, the child learns about the world around him and his place in this world, receives his first ideas about good and evil, friendship and betrayal, courage and cowardice. These ideas appear precisely through the images of heroes of fairy tales, including animals, because sometimes animals at the end of a fairy tale become more moral, going through certain moralizing tests, and sometimes it is animals that are those “moral teachers” in a fairy tale, with the help of which morality is determined . There are many similar characters in Russian folk tales, the consideration of which has led to very interesting results. The identification of similar features in animals and humans (speech - cry, behavior - habits) served as the basis for combining their qualities with human qualities in the images of animals: animals speak and behave like people. This combination also led to the typification of the characters of animals, which became the embodiment of certain qualities: the fox - cunning, the wolf - stupidity and greed, the bear - gullibility, and the hare - cowardice. Thus, fairy tales acquired an allegorical meaning: animals began to mean people of certain characters. Images of animals became a means of moral teaching, and then social satire, which led to the development of national character, because in fairy tales about animals not only negative qualities (stupidity, laziness, talkativeness) are ridiculed, but also the oppression of the weak, greed, and deception for profit are condemned .

Bibliography

1.Afanasyev A.N. “Russian folk tales: complete edition in one volume”, M., 2010.

2.Anikin V.P. Russian folktale. M., 1984.

.Vedernikova N.M. Russian folktale. M., 1975.

.Ivanova-Kazas O.M. Mythological zoology (dictionary), St. Petersburg, Faculty of Philology, 2004.

.Kostyukhin E. A. Types and forms of animal epic. Moscow, 1987

.Nikiforov A.I. Folk children's tale of dramatic genre. L., 1928.

.Propp V.Ya. Historical roots of fairy tales.<#"justify">8.Propp V.Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale. M., 98.

.Propp V.Ya. Russian fairy tale. L., 1984.

.Pomerantseva E.V. The fate of the Russian fairy tale, M., 1965.

.Tales about animals, Tula, 2000.

.Tales of hares, Tyumen, 1959.

.Fairy tales about the fox, retold by O. Kapitsa and A. Tolstoy for preschool children, Leningrad, 1970.

.Fundamental electronic library. Russian literature and folklore. http://feb-web.ru/feb/feb/atindex/atindx01.htm#Afanasyev A.N.

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For children, a fairy tale is an amazing but fictitious story about magical objects, monsters and heroes. However, if you look deeper, it becomes clear that a fairy tale is a unique encyclopedia that reflects the life and moral principles of any people.

Over the course of several hundred years, people have come up with a huge number of fairy tales. Our ancestors passed them on from mouth to mouth. They changed, disappeared and came back again. Moreover, there can be completely different characters. Most often, the heroes of Russian folk tales are animals, and in European literature the main characters are often princesses and children.

Fairy tale and its meaning for the people

A fairy tale is a narrative story about fictional events that did not occur in reality with the participation of fictional heroes and magical characters. Fairy tales, composed by the people and being the creation of folklore traditions, exist in every country. Residents of Russia are closer to Russian folk tales about animals, kings and Ivan the Fool, residents of England are closer to leprechauns, gnomes, cats, etc.

Fairy tales have a powerful educational power. A child from the cradle listens to fairy tales, associates himself with the characters, puts himself in their place. Thanks to this, he develops a certain model of behavior. Folk tales about animals teach respect for our smaller brothers.

It is also worth noting that Russian fairy tales of an everyday nature include words such as “master”, “man”. This awakens curiosity in the child. With the help of fairy tales, you can interest your child in history.

Everything that is invested in a child in childhood remains with him forever. A child properly raised on fairy tales will grow up to be a decent and sympathetic person.

Composition

Most fairy tales are written according to one system. It represents the following diagram:

1) Inception. This describes the place where the events will take place. If it’s about animals, then the description will begin with the forest. Here the reader or listener gets acquainted with the main characters.

2) The beginning. At this stage of the tale, the main intrigue occurs, which turns into the beginning of the plot. Let's say the hero has a problem and he must solve it.

3) Climax. It is also called the pinnacle of a fairy tale. Most often this is the middle of the work. The situation is heating up, the most responsible actions are taking place.

4) Denouement. At this point, the main character solves his problem. All characters live happily ever after (as a rule, folk tales have a good, kind ending).

Most fairy tales are built according to this scheme. It can also be found in original works, only with significant additions.

Russian folk tales

They represent a huge block of folklore works. Russian fairy tales are varied. Their plots, actions and characters are somewhat similar, but, nevertheless, each is unique in its own way. Sometimes you come across the same folk tales about animals, but their names are different.

All Russian folk tales can be classified as follows:

1) Folk tales about animals, plants and inanimate nature (“Terem-Teremok”, “Rock-hen”, etc.)

2) Magical (“Self-assembled tablecloth”, “Flying ship”).

3) "Vanya rode on a horse...")

4) (“About the white bull”, “The priest had a dog”).

5) Household (“The Master and the Dog”, “Good Priest”, “Good and Bad”, “Pot”).

There are quite a lot of classifications, but we looked at the one proposed by V. Ya. Propp, one of the outstanding researchers of Russian fairy tales.

Animal images

Every person who grew up in Russia can list the main animals that are characters in Russian fairy tales. Bear, wolf, fox, hare - these are the heroes of Russian fairy tales. Animals live in the forest. Each of them has its own image, which in literary criticism is called an allegory. For example, the wolf we meet in Russian fairy tales is always hungry and angry. It is always because of his anger or greed that he often gets into trouble.

The bear is the owner of the forest, the king. He is usually portrayed in fairy tales as a fair and wise ruler.

The fox is an allegory of cunning. If this animal is present in a fairy tale, then one of the other heroes will definitely be deceived. The hare is an image of cowardice. He is usually the eternal victim of the fox and wolf who intend to eat him.

So, these are the heroes that Russian folk tales about animals present to us. Let's see how they behave.

Examples

Let's look at some folk tales about animals. The list is huge, we will try to analyze only a few. For example, let's take the fairy tale "The Fox and the Crane". It tells the story of the Fox, who called the Crane to her place for dinner. She prepared some porridge and spread it on a plate. But Crane is uncomfortable eating, so he didn’t get any porridge. Such was the cunning of the thrifty Fox. The Crane invited the Fox to dinner, made okroshka and offered to eat from a high-necked jug. But Lisa never got to the okroshka. Moral of the story: whatever comes around, unfortunately, comes around.

An interesting tale about Kotofey Ivanovich. One man brought a cat to the forest and left it there. A fox found him and married him. She began to tell all the animals how strong and angry he was. The wolf and the bear decided to come and look at him. The fox warned them that it was better for them to hide. They climbed a tree, and laid the meat of a bull under it. A cat and a fox came, the cat pounced on the meat and began saying: “Meow, meow...”. And the wolf and the bear think: “Not enough! Not enough!” They marveled and wanted to take a closer look at Kotofey Ivanovich. The leaves rustled, and the cat thought it was a mouse and grabbed their faces with its claws. The wolf and fox ran away.

These are Russian folk tales about animals. As you can see, the fox is fooling everyone.

Animals in English fairy tales

Positive characters in English fairy tales are a hen and a rooster, a cat and a cat, and a bear. The fox and the wolf are always negative characters. It is noteworthy that, according to research by philologists, the cat in English fairy tales has never been a negative character.

Like Russian, English folk tales about animals divide characters into good and evil. Good always triumphs over evil. Also, the works have a didactic purpose, that is, at the end there are always moral conclusions for readers.

Examples of English fairy tales about animals

The work "The Cat King" is interesting. It tells the story of two brothers who lived in the forest with a dog and a black cat. One brother was once delayed while hunting. Upon his return, he began to tell miracles. He says he saw the funeral. Many cats carried a coffin with a depicted crown and scepter. Suddenly the black cat lying at his feet raised his head and screamed: “Old Peter is dead! I am the cat king!” After that he jumped into the fireplace. Nobody saw him again.

Let's take the comical fairy tale "Willy and the Little Pig" as an example. One owner entrusted his stupid servant to take a pig to his friend. However, Willie's friends persuaded him to go to the tavern, and while he was drinking, they jokingly replaced the pig with a dog. Willie thought it was the devil's joke.

Animals in other genres of literature (fables)

It is worth noting that Russian literature includes not only Russian folk tales about animals. It is also rich in fables. Animals in these works have such human qualities as cowardice, kindness, stupidity, and envy. I. A. Krylov especially liked to use animals as characters. His fables “The Crow and the Fox” and “The Monkey and the Glasses” are known to everyone.

Thus, we can conclude that the use of animals in fairy tales and fables gives literature a special charm and style. Moreover, in English and Russian literature the heroes are the same animals. Only their stories and characteristics are completely different.

All over the world, people tell stories to entertain each other. Sometimes fairy tales help to understand what is bad and what is good in life. Fairy tales appeared long before the invention of books, and even writing.

Scientists have interpreted the tale in different ways. A number of folklore researchers called everything that was “told” a fairy tale. The famous fairytale expert E.V. Pomerantseva accepted this point of view: “A folk tale is an epic oral work of art, predominantly prosaic, magical or of an everyday nature with a focus on fiction.”

Tales about animals differ significantly from other types of fairy tales. The appearance of fairy tales about animals was preceded by stories directly related to beliefs about animals. The Russian fairy tale epic about animals is not very rich: according to N.P. Andreev (ethnographer, art critic), there are 67 types of fairy tales about animals. They make up less than 10% of the entire Russian fairy-tale repertoire, but at the same time this material is distinguished by its great originality. In fairy tales about animals, animals implausibly argue, talk, quarrel, love, make friends, and quarrel: the cunning “fox is beautiful in conversation,” the stupid and greedy “wolf-wolf—grabbing from under a bush,” “gnawing mouse,” “cowardly The little bastard is bow-legged and jumps up the hill.” All this is implausible, fantastic.

The appearance of various characters in Russian fairy tales about animals is initially determined by the range of representatives of the animal world that is characteristic of our territory. Therefore, it is natural that in fairy tales about animals we meet the inhabitants of forests, fields, steppes (bear, wolf, fox, wild boar, hare, hedgehog, etc.). In fairy tales about animals, animals themselves are the main characters, and the relationships between them determine the nature of the fairy-tale conflict.

The purpose of my research work is to compare images of wild animals from Russian folk tales with the habits of real animals.

A hypothesis is my conjectural judgment that the images of wild animals, their characters correspond to the habits of their prototypes.

1. Characters in the animal epic.

Observing the composition of animals acting as characters in the animal epic, I note the predominance of wild, forest animals. These are fox, wolf, bear, hare, and birds: crane, heron, thrush, woodpecker, crow. Pets appear in conjunction with forest animals, and not as independent or leading characters. Examples: cat, rooster and fox; sheep, fox and wolf; dog and woodpecker and others. The leading characters, as a rule, are forest animals, while domestic animals play a supporting role.

Tales about animals are based on elementary actions. Fairy tales are built on an ending that is unexpected for the partner, but expected by the listeners. Hence the humorous nature of fairy tales about animals and the need for a cunning and insidious character, such as the fox, and a stupid and fooled one, which we usually have the wolf. So, by animal tales we will mean those tales in which the animal is the main object. The characters are only animals.

The fox has become a favorite hero of Russian fairy tales: Fox Patrikeevna, Fox is a beauty, fox is an oil sponger, fox is a godmother, Lisafya. Here she lies on the road with glassy eyes. She was numb, the man decided, he kicked her, she wouldn’t wake up. The man was delighted, took the fox, put it in the cart with fish: “The old woman will have a collar for her fur coat,” and he touched the horse, he himself went ahead. The fox threw away all the fish and left. When the fox began to have dinner, the wolf came running. Why would a fox give a treat to a wolf? Let him catch it himself. The fox instantly has an idea: “You, little kuman, go to the river, lower your tail into the hole - the fish itself attaches to the tail, sit and say: “Catch it, fish.”

The proposal is absurd, wild, and the stranger it is, the more readily one believes in it. But the wolf obeyed. The fox feels complete superiority over his gullible and stupid godfather. Other fairy tales complete the image of the fox. Infinitely deceitful, she takes advantage of gullibility, plays on the weak strings of friends and foes. The fox has a lot of tricks and pranks in his memory. She chases a hare out of a bast hut, carries away a rooster, luring him out with a song, by deception she exchanges a rolling pin for a goose, a goose for a turkey, etc. up to a bull. The fox is a pretender, a thief, a deceiver, evil, flattering, dexterous, cunning, calculating. In fairy tales, she is faithful to these traits of her character throughout. Her cunning is conveyed in the proverb: “When you look for a fox in front, then she is behind.” She is resourceful and lies recklessly until the time when it is no longer possible to lie, but even in this case she often indulges in the most incredible invention. The fox thinks only about his own benefit.

If the deal does not promise her acquisitions, she will not sacrifice anything of hers. The fox is vindictive and vindictive.

In fairy tales about animals, one of the main characters is the wolf. This is the exact opposite of the fox image. In fairy tales, the wolf is stupid and easy to deceive. There seems to be no such trouble, no matter what this unlucky, always beaten beast finds himself in. So, the fox advises the wolf to fish by dipping his tail into the hole. The goat invites the wolf to open his mouth and stand downhill so that he can jump into the mouth. The goat knocks over the wolf and runs away (fairy tale “The Fool Wolf”). The image of a wolf in fairy tales is always hungry and lonely. He always finds himself in a funny, absurd situation.

In numerous fairy tales, a bear is also depicted: “A Man, a Bear and a Fox”, “A Bear, a Dog and a Cat” and others. The image of the bear, while still remaining the main figure of the forest kingdom, appears before us as a slow, gullible loser, often stupid and clumsy, with club feet. He constantly boasts of his exorbitant strength, although he cannot always use it effectively. He crushes everything that comes under his feet. The fragile little mansion, a house in which a variety of forest animals lived peacefully, could not withstand its weight. In fairy tales, the bear is not smart, but stupid; it embodies great, but not smart, strength.

Fairy tales in which small animals (hare, frog, mouse, hedgehog) act are predominantly humorous. The hare in fairy tales is quick on his feet, stupid, cowardly and fearful. The hedgehog is slow, but reasonable, and does not fall for the most ingenious tricks of his opponents.

The idea of ​​fairy tales about animals turns into proverbs. The fox, with its fabulous features of a cheat, a cunning rogue, appeared in proverbs: “A fox does not dirty its tail,” “A fox was hired to keep a poultry yard from the kite and the hawk.” The stupid and greedy wolf also passed from fairy tales into proverbs: “Don’t put your finger in a wolf’s mouth,” “Be a wolf for your sheepish simplicity.” And here are the proverbs about the bear: “The bear is strong, but he lies in the swamp,” “The bear has a lot of thoughts, but he doesn’t go anywhere.” And here the bear is endowed with enormous, but unreasonable strength.

In fairy tales there is constant struggle and rivalry between animals. The fight, as a rule, ends in cruel reprisals against the enemy or evil ridicule of him. The condemned beast often finds himself in a funny, absurd position.

Prototypes of fairy-tale heroes.

Now we will look at the habits and lifestyle of real animals. I was guided by the book “The Life of Animals” by the German zoologist Alfred Brem. Thanks to his vivid descriptions of the “lifestyle” and “character” of animals, Brem’s work became for many generations the best popular guide to zoology. So he denies the superior cunning of the fox and asserts the exceptional cunning of the wolf. Wolves do not hunt alone, but together. They usually roam in small flocks of 10-15 individuals. The pack maintains a strict hierarchy. The leader of the pack is almost always a male (the “alpha” wolf). In a flock it can be recognized by its raised tail. Females also have their own “alpha” wolf, who usually walks ahead of the leader. In moments of danger or hunting, the leader becomes the head of the pack. Further on the hierarchical ladder are adult members of the pack and lone wolves. The lowest of all are the grown-up wolf cubs, which the pack accepts only in the second year. Adult wolves constantly test the strength of their superior wolves. As a result, young wolves, growing up, rise higher on the hierarchical ladder, and aging wolves fall lower and lower. Such a developed social structure significantly increases the efficiency of hunting. Wolves never lie in wait for their prey, they chase it down. When chasing prey, wolves are divided into small groups. The prey is divided among members of the pack according to rank. Old wolves, unable to participate in joint hunting, follow the pack at a distance and are content with the remains of its prey. The wolf buries the remains of food in the snow, and in the summer hides it as a reserve in a secluded place, where it later returns to eat the uneaten food. Wolves have a very acute sense of smell, detecting scent at a distance of 1.5 km. A wolf is a predatory, cunning, intelligent, resourceful, and evil creature.

When I studied the material about the habits of the fox, I found some similarities with the fairy-tale fox. For example, a real fox, like a fairy fox, loves to visit the chicken coop. It avoids deep taiga forests, preferring forests in the area of ​​agricultural land. And he is looking for a ready-made mink for himself. Can occupy the burrow of a badger, arctic fox, or marmot. The fox's tail is also mentioned in fairy tales. Indeed, the fluffy tail can be considered its feature. The fox acts as a steering wheel, making sharp turns during pursuit. She also covers herself with it, curling up into a ball while resting and burying her nose in its base. It turns out that in this place there is a fragrant gland that emits the smell of violets. It is believed that this odorous organ has a beneficial effect on the fox’s charm, but its precise purpose remains unclear.

6 The mother fox guards the cubs and does not let anyone get close. If, for example, a dog or a person appears near the hole, then the fox resorts to “cunning” - she tries to take them away from her home, luring them with her.

But the heroes of fairy tales are the crane and the heron. About the non-fairytale, real gray or common crane in A. Brem’s book “The Life of Animals” it is said: “The crane is very sensitive to affection and insult - he can remember the insult for months and even years.” The fairy-tale crane is endowed with the features of a real bird: it is bored and remembers insults. The same book says about the heron that it is evil and greedy. This explains why the heron in the folk tale thinks first of all about what the crane will feed her. She is angry, like a real, not a fairy-tale heron: she accepted the matchmaking unkindly, scolds the wooing groom: “Go away, lanky one!”

In fairy tales and sayings they say “cowardly as a hare.” Meanwhile, hares are not so much cowardly as they are cautious. They need this caution, because it is their salvation. Natural flair and the ability to quickly escape with large leaps, combined with techniques for confusing their tracks, compensate for their defenselessness. However, the hare is capable of fighting back: if it is overtaken by a feathered predator, it lies on its back and fights off with strong kicks. The mother hare feeds not only her cubs, but in general all the discovered hares. When a man appears, the hare leads him away from the hares, pretending to be wounded or sick, trying to attract attention to herself by beating her feet on the ground.

The bear in fairy tales appears to us as slow and clumsy. Meanwhile, the clumsy-looking bear runs extremely fast - at a speed of over 55 km/h, swims excellently and climbs trees well in his youth (in old age he does this reluctantly). And it turns out that the bear is active throughout the day, but more often in the mornings and evenings. They have a well-developed sense of smell, but their vision and hearing are rather weak. In fairy tales, the bear embodies great strength and its prototype is capable of breaking the back of a bull or bison with one blow of its paw.

In studying animal epics, we must beware of the very common misconception that animal tales are really stories from the lives of animals. Before researching this topic, I also held this judgment. As a rule, they have very little in common with the actual life and habits of animals. True, to some extent, animals act according to their nature: the horse kicks, the rooster crows, the fox lives in a hole (however, not always), the bear is slow and sleepy, the hare is cowardly, etc. All this gives fairy tales the character of realism.

The depiction of animals in fairy tales is sometimes so convincing that from childhood we are accustomed to subconsciously determine the characters of animals from fairy tales. This includes the idea that the fox is an exceptionally cunning animal. However, every zoologist knows that this opinion is not based on anything. Each animal is cunning in its own way.

Animals enter into a community and keep company, which is impossible in nature.

But still, I want to note that in fairy tales there are many such details in the depiction of animals and birds that people spy on from the lives of real animals.

After reading the literature about fairy tales, about the life and behavior of animals and comparing the images and their prototypes, I came up with two versions. On the one hand, the images of animals are similar to their prototypes (an angry wolf, a clumsy bear, a fox dragging chickens, etc.). On the other hand, having studied the observations of zoologists, I can say that the images and their prototypes have little in common with the actual habits of animals.

The art of folk tales consists of a subtle rethinking of the true habits of birds and animals.

And one more thing: after studying the history of fairy tales about animals, I came to the conclusion: fairy tales about animals most often take the form of stories about people under the guise of animals. The animal epic widely reflects human life, with its passions, greed, greed, deceit, stupidity and cunning, and at the same time with friendship, loyalty, gratitude, that is, a wide range of human feelings and characters.

Tales about animals are the “encyclopedia of life” of the people. Tales about animals are the childhood of humanity itself!

Kushakova Sayohatbonu

Design and research work.

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Municipal educational institution Kamenskaya secondary school No. 1

Work completed:

Kushakova Sayohatbonu

4th grade

Supervisor:

Pushkina Ekaterina Vladimirovna

Kamenka 2012

Subject. Fox. Habits of a fox. The image of a fox in Russian folk tales.

Target. Analyze the image of a fox in Russian folk tales and draw a conclusion about its essence.

Tasks .

1. Learn from additional literature about the fox;
2. study the habits of a fox in different sources;
3. conduct a survey on the topic of work among students;
4. read Russian folk tales in which a fox acts;
5. analyze the image of the fox and draw conclusions.

Object of study. Fox.

Subject of study.Russian folk tales. Additional literature and various sources about the fox.

Hypothesis . Let's assume that the fox is the most intelligent and cunning character in Russian folk tales.

Research methods. Reflections, reading books, searching for information about the fox in different sources, surveying, analyzing the results.

Work plan

1. Introduction.
2. Main part:

1. Fox Habits of a fox.

2. The image of a fox in Russian folk tales.

3. Questionnaire and analysis of responses.

4. Reading books and studying the image of a fox in Russian folk tales. Conclusion.

1. Conclusion.

Introduction

I love animals very much, so I read a lot of literature: fiction, encyclopedias about animals and fairy tales about animals. Lately I have become very interested in such an animal as the fox. I read all the material in home books about the fox, in the library I read encyclopedic articles dedicated to this animal, etc. I found and read a lot of material about the fox on the Internet. Having studied the material about the fox, I suddenly became interested in why the Russian people began to write fairy tales about the fox, what kind of fox is in fairy tales, and whether they always “come out of the water unscathed.” I decided to answer the questions that interest me. The previously studied material was also very useful to me.

Main part

Fox. Habits of a fox.

Fox - one of the most beautiful predators. It belongs to the canine family, although it is somewhat similar to cats. The color of the skin is red, the tail is long and fluffy, the muzzle is long and narrow, and the eyes are smart and cunning. The fox is the size of a small dog. The color of the red cheater varies from fiery red to gray.

The fox lives in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. The fox is a very dexterous and playful animal. She runs so fast that it is very difficult for dogs to catch up with her. In addition, this is a very cunning animal: it can resort to various tricks, confusing its own tracks or getting food for itself.

The fox is a great hunter. In addition to observation and intelligence, she has excellent memory, a good sense of smell and remarkably acute hearing.

Being a predator, the fox eats a wide variety of animals. She happily eats mice, hares, rabbits, amphibians, and reptiles, digs earthworms out of the ground after rain, and catches fish and crayfish in the river. But the redhead especially loves to feast on birds. That's why he looks into chicken coops. The fox successfully supplements its meat diet with berries, apples, and vegetables.

Despite the fact that the fox will not miss an opportunity to feast on a gaping hare, catch a grouse or destroy a bird's nest, in the forest it brings much more benefit than harm. The main food of foxes remains voles, mice, gophers and other small rodents that cause harm to agriculture. And growing fox cubs in large numbers destroy cockchafers - known pests in forest areas.

Foxes usually live alone and unite only during the rutting season. Males help females raise young offspring.

Little fox cubs are usually born at the end of April, beginning of May. The young generation grows up quickly; by the 20th day of life they already begin to crawl out of the hole and feed not on mother’s milk, but on live food. Parents bring live mice, birds and small animals into the hole, which the fox cubs happily feast on. Kids immediately begin to learn the basics of hunting. At first, the fox cubs hunt for May beetles and grasshoppers, but gradually they become accustomed to larger prey: voles, lizards, and frogs.

Fox cubs grow quickly, and already in August they are difficult to distinguish from an adult animal from a distance. In November, young foxes begin an independent life and scatter in all directions.

Foxes don't always live in holes. They use these dwellings only when raising offspring, and spend the rest of their time in the open. The fox has practically no sense of home. They settle wherever they like, and even then not for long. The fox willingly digs holes near human dwellings; sometimes foxes even wander into cities. A fox often does not want to dig a hole on its own and uses other people’s homes; for example, a fox greatly respects convenient holes dug by a badger.

A seasoned fox acquires burrows not only to raise offspring in them or to shelter from prolonged bad weather. Burrows often serve as refuge for them in case of danger.

An old fox, as usual, has not one hole, but several at once. Fox hatching holes are mainly located on the slopes of a ravine, not far from a stream, in a forest thicket, i.e. where people don't go. It happens that a fox returns from year to year to a hole once dug. Then such “apartments” are constantly expanded, renovated, acquiring several “rooms”, which are located on 2–3 floors. Hunters are well acquainted with such holes and call them “centuries-old”.

Typically, a fox's hatching hole is equipped with several exits - holes, which allow it to quietly leave its shelter in case of danger. The main hole, which the fox often uses to exit and enter, is visible from afar. Usually this is a clean area, sprinkled with sand, which appeared here as a result of many years of cleaning the hole. Here oftenyou can see fox cubs playing.

The fox is on the move almost all the time, preferring to hunt at dawn and dusk; at night and during the hottest hours of the day, it usually rests in open dens, surveying the expanses around it. Honing the filigree technique of hunting skills, the restless animal devotes itself to mouseing with all the passion, resembling a playful kitten from the outside. It seems that she likes the process of hunting itself, she is constantly tracking someone, sniffing out, looking out. Walking around its grounds day after day, this animal never misses the opportunity to catch someone, even without being hungry: the result of its labor can be hidden in one of the many storerooms “for a rainy day,” which sooner or later comes. A fox never eats from its belly, as a wolf or a bear does; it always remains light, agile and swift, ready for new hunting exploits.

This cunning beast almost never walks straight, she constantly changes direction, turns, returns, circles and meanders, she is curious, she cares about everything. She also avoids the chase, inventing some tricks or new tricks on the go. The fox is very hardy, it can lead dogs all day long, if the terrain is uneven, it will prefer to walk through ravines, going down to the very bottom or walking half the height, confusing tracks and walking long distances.

The fox shows ingenuity and resourcefulness in any situation. For example, when she has fleas, she finds a woolen rag, approaches a pond and very slowly, starting from the tail, plunges into the water. Everyone knows that fleas do not like water and therefore run up to the head. There is a woolen rag in the fox's mouth. The fox plunges headlong into the water, and the fleas remain on the rag. This is how the cunning fox gets rid of fleas.

The image of a fox in Russian folk tales.

I thought that the fox in Russian folk tales was a cunning cheat and a deceiver. All the animals in the forest suffer from her tricks: the hare, the bear, the wolf. The fox lives in the house that he took from the hare. The fox in fairy tales loves to dress up. The fox is a big gourmet. That's the little I knew about the fairy fox.

Questioning and analysis of responses.

First, I decided to conduct a survey among primary school students at our school, because... I wondered what they knew about the fox, the heroine of Russian folk tales. They were asked to answer the following questions:

1. What kind of fox is in Russian folk tales?
2. Where does the fox live?
3. What is a fox called in fairy tales?
4. Who does the fox deceive in fairy tales?

35 students from our school took part in the survey. I wrote down their answers in the table.

Reading books and studying the image of a fox in Russian folk tales. Conclusion.

After studying 15 fairy tales about the fox, I came to the following conclusion: Fox in fairy tales acts as the main character. This is a stable image in which cunning, a tendency to deception and tricks dominate. The fox will do anything to get what she wants - she will pretend to be weak and helpless, and use all her charm and eloquence. In Russian fairy tales, the fox is contrasted with a simpleton character. It could be a wolf, which the fox successfully fools, a rooster (“Cat, rooster and fox"), or a weak hare, which she drives out of her hut ("Fox and Hare» ). The fox is often punished for his misdeeds, especially when he attacks weak, helpless heroes. For example, the Fox in the fairy tale “The Fox with a Rolling Pin”, “The Man, the Bear and the Fox”. “The Fox and the Blackbird” escapes and hides in a hole, and then the dog pulls it out of the hole by the tail and tears it apart. In some fairy tales, the fox herself is deceived (“The Fox and the Crane”, “The Fox the Confessor”), and in one fairy tale she dies from her own stupidity, putting a jug on her head and drowning in the river (“The Fox and the Jug”).

comparison table

Conclusion

During my research, I found answers to many questions. I read a lot of Russian folk tales and conducted a survey among students on the research topic. Based on the fairy tales, I drew a conclusion about the image of the fox in Russian folk tales.I really enjoyed analyzing fairy tales. But my hypothesis was not fully confirmed; nevertheless, the fox can also be deceived.

While analyzing the fairy tales, I came across outdated words, the meaning of which I had to find out.

Hog - piglet, pig.

Confession - a ritual of repentance for sins before the priest.

Kvashnya – wooden or clay dishes for leavening dough, fermented dough, dough.

Choir - a place for singers in the church on both sides of the altar.

Povoy – reception of a newborn

Motherland - birthday.

I realized that you should always be very careful when reading any work of fiction, since only thoughtful reading will allow you to make some new discoveries.

Used literature and Internet sites.

1. Russian folk tales: Book. For self reading. Compiled, author of the preface, notes, dictionary by Yu.G. Kruglov. - M.: Education, 1983.
2. www.manorama.ru/article/hunting9.html
3. sinzhany.ru/povadki_dikoj_lisy.html
4. www.hunt-dogs.ru ›
5. rus-oxota.ru/4/16/lisa/lisa-opisanie

In fairy tales about animals, certain characters can be traced in different time frames. Therefore, one of the most important issues is the problem of differentiating fairy tales about animals and fairy tales of other genres in which animals take part.

The key to solving this problem is given by the definition of fairy tales about animals proposed by V.Ya. Propp: By fairy tales about animals we will mean those tales in which the animal is the main object or subject of the narrative. On this basis, fairy tales about animals can be distinguished from others, where animals play only a supporting role and are not the heroes of the story.

Fairy tales about animals, of course, include fairy tales where only animals act (Fox and Crane, Fox, Hare and Rooster, Fox-Midwife, Fox and Blackbird, Wolf-Fool, etc.). Of the fairy tales about the relationship between humans and animals, this genre should include those in which animals are the main characters, and people are the objects of their action, and in which the narrative is told from the point of view of animals, not humans (Wolf at the Ice-hole, Dog and Wolf, Man , bear and fox, etc.).

Tales about animals bear little resemblance to stories from the lives of animals. Animals in fairy tales act only to some extent in accordance with their nature, and to a much greater extent they act as bearers of one or another character and producers of certain actions that should be attributed primarily to humans. Therefore, the world of animals in fairy tales is supplemented by human imagination; it is a form of expression of a person’s thoughts and feelings, his views on life.

Animals that speak, reason and behave like people are just a poetic convention: “The adventures of animals are projected onto human life - and it is their human meaning that makes them interesting.” Hence the main themes of Russian fairy tales about animals - human characters, virtues and vices of people, types of human relationships in everyday life, in society, sometimes these images even look satirical.

Most researchers note the problem of classifying tales about animals due to their diversity. V.Ya. wrote about the complexity of typologizing fairy tales about animals. Propp, noting the following varieties: tales about animals that exist in a cumulative form (Teremok, Kolobok, Cockerel and the Bean Seed, etc.); tales about animals, close in structure to fairy tales (The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, the Cat, the Rooster and the Fox, etc.); tales about animals, close in structure to fables (The Wolf and the Fox); tales about animals, approaching literary works and having the form of a political pamphlet (The Tale of Ersha Ershovich).

Developing a classification of Russian fairy tales about animals based on texts collected by A.N. Afanasyev, V.Ya. Propp identifies the following groups: Tales about wild animals (Beasts in the Pit, Fox and Wolf, Fox the Midwife, Fox and the Crane, Fox the Confessor, etc.); Tales about wild and domestic animals (The Dog and the Wolf, The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, The Cat, the Fox and the Rooster, etc.); Tales about man and wild animals (The Fox and her tail, The Man and the Bear, The old bread and salt is forgotten, The Bear is a linden leg, The Fox with a rolling pin, etc.); Tales about domestic animals (Whacked Goat, Horse and Dog, etc.); Tales about birds and fish (Crane and Heron, Cockerel and Bean Seed, Ryaba Hen, etc.); Tales about other animals, plants, mushrooms and elements (Fox and Crayfish, Teremok, Kolobok, Sun, Frost and Wind, War of the Mushrooms, etc.).

The characters of Russian folk tales about animals are represented, as a rule, by images of wild and domestic animals. Images of wild animals clearly prevail over images of domestic animals: these are fox, wolf, bear, hare, among birds - crane, heron, thrush, woodpecker, sparrow, raven, etc. Domestic animals are much less common, and they do not appear as independent or leading characters, but only in combination with forest ones: this is a dog, a cat, a goat, a ram, a horse, a pig, a bull, and among poultry - a goose, a duck and a rooster. There are no tales only about domestic animals in Russian folklore. Each of the characters is an image of a very specific animal or bird, behind which stands one or another human character, therefore the characteristics of the characters are based on observation of the habits, demeanor of the animal, and its appearance. The difference in characters is especially clearly and definitely expressed in the images of wild animals: thus, the fox is depicted primarily as a flattering, cunning deceiver, a charming robber; the wolf is like a greedy and slow-witted gray fool, always getting into trouble; the bear is like a stupid ruler, a forest oppressor who uses his power not according to reason; a hare, a frog, a mouse, forest birds - like weak, harmless creatures, always serving on errands. The ambiguity of assessments also persists when describing domestic animals: for example, a dog is portrayed as an intelligent animal, devoted to humans; the cat shows a paradoxical combination of courage and laziness; The rooster is noisy, self-confident and curious.

To understand the meaning of Russian folk tales about animals, it is necessary to work on their plot organization and composition. The plot of animalistic tales is characterized by clarity, clarity and simplicity: “Tales about animals are built on elementary actions that underlie the narrative, representing a more or less expected or unexpected end, prepared in a certain way. These simple actions are phenomena of a psychological order...” Animalistic tales are distinguished by their small volume, persistence of plot scheme and laconic artistic means of expression.

The composition of Russian fairy tales about animals is also distinguished by its simplicity and transparency. They are often one-episode (“The Fox and the Crane”, “The Crane and the Heron”, etc.). In this case, they are characterized by exaggeration of the main properties and traits of the character, which determines the unusualness and fantastic nature of their actions. However, much more often there are fairy tales with plots based on the sequential linking of the same plot links-motives. The events in them are connected by actions of cross-cutting characters of a similar nature: for example, in the fairy tale “The Fox and the Wolf” there are three plot motifs - “The Fox steals fish from the sleigh”, “The wolf at the ice hole”, “The beaten one is lucky.” Multiple episodes, as a rule, do not complicate the composition, since we are usually talking about the same type of actions of characters performed in different plot situations.

In this work, we will conduct a study of two negative heroes of Russian folk tales about animals - the fox and the wolf. This choice is due not only to their popularity, but also to the fact that, using the example of these heroes, one can clearly see what vices are ridiculed and condemned in fairy tales, thereby influencing the formation of the national character of readers. Both characters are found both in different fairy tales separately, and in one together. And despite the fact that both the wolf and the fox are negative heroes, and it seems that they have a lot in common: they live in the same forests, attack the same animals, and are also afraid of the same opponents, in fairy tales they endowed with different human qualities, which is quite interesting. It is also interesting that one negative hero is male and, it turns out, he is endowed with male negative character traits, and the other hero is female, endowed with female traits, respectively, which is why the methods of achieving their goals are different, despite the fact that these the goals are the same. Thus, based on analyzes of various Russian folk tales about animals, it is possible to consider these heroes from the same positions: their appearance, features, actions, and determine which of them is smarter, smarter or more cunning, and who is stupid and naive. A comparative analysis of the wolf and the fox will also help to identify the main human vices that are ridiculed in society and find out how the presence of these heroes in Russian folk tales influences the formation of national character, which is the goal of this work.