Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote a great many works, all of his works are transparent and understandable. He did not know how to hide behind words: even the style of Aesopian tales interwoven merciless directness of images and thoughts. After all, the meaning and ideas of his fairy tales are open, as if in the palm of your hand. An analysis of Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is to quote the writer directly. But it is far from being as simple as it might seem at first glance. We are now distantly perceiving the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, and in the century before last, in the days of our birth, they were more journalism than fiction.
The materials that underlie the "Wild Landowner"
After the gracious reform of Alexander the Liberator, the empire, however, did not rush to catch up with European countries. She skidded and pushed bloody revolutions, but those who were supposed to be responsible for analyzing the situation did not notice anything. A resource-rich country provided a comfortable life for a huge army of loafers who lived on unearned funds. Writers also began to conduct economic analysis. The “Wild Landowner” reveals his secrets in this particular channel.
Before him, Shchedrin created the journalistic work Poshekhonskaya Antiquity, in which he depicted 20 different landowners of a new, post-reform time. It would seem, as it is clearer to say to those who run a huge state, about overdue and overripe problems. Then “Golovlev’s” appear - concentrated horror and savagery that corrode the very foundations of life. A deathly silence followed from those for whom the works were written. No, it’s obviously not for the general public that Shchedrin created works that are devoid of both plot and intriguing plot.
The writer is tired and exhausted
But his soul could not remain indifferent to the fate of his homeland. Fairy tales begin to be born - short, capacious stories on a specific topic that excites a person. So the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" was born. Its content does not imply any allegoricality.
The average Russian landowner in his imagination sees himself as an elite, the peak of society. And accordingly expressed. And the word is not a sparrow, it can be realized.
Shchedrin deliberately simplifies and hyperbolizes the situation. Deprived of the words of his peasantry, the landowner runs wild, all civilization is leaving his face, and he finally climbs a tree. It can’t be like that, but that’s how it happened. And not for a long time - for some two generations.
The moral of the tale is simple - if you have already been freed from worries about daily bread, then you have to think in order to work the bread, that’s the analysis. "The Wild Landowner" - a work for centuries!
I wanted to insult, so they began to think
There it was. It turns out one after another about fifty fairy tales. And it was the thinkers who were offended for the thoughtless. How so, a distortion of reality! But the writer did not hide the fact that he was writing a fairy tale in which there was a lie with a hint. An analysis of Shchedrin’s fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is useful to carry out at leisure from the labors of hard statesmen. This work is written for them, and not for those who daily care for daily bread. And the elite cannot be compared with those whom they govern and who live for their bellies. After all, the landowner in a wild state led precisely to fattening his life and ignoring his direct duties as a more developed member of society.
Wild Landowner Analysis: Depth and Superficiality
Shchedrin did not know how to create weak tales. The same “Bogatyr” who slept his glory until the snake ate his body. "Trizor" is about canine heroism, not humanity. A whole series of tales of “Bears in the Voivodeship” about incorrect management methods, but the tale “The Wild Landowner” turned out to be special, which describes exactly that spiritual infantility, which is worse than any terrible voivodship. In those fairy tales, extraneous factors act on the characters to varying degrees, and in this one there is an internal destructive force, from which it is even difficult to escape.
And the writer took a not-so-missing person: he has friends and they worry about him. When, at the end of the tale, the feral landowner regains his human appearance, then for some reason it is vaguely believed. And Shchedrin openly hints at the same.
How fairy tales jump over centuries
Concentrated truth, concentrated thought is capable of returning to a new level of social life in a generation or two. The powerful works of Saltykov-Shchedrin, “Lord Golovlev,” in which he proved to be a brilliant artist, became obsolete after 10-15 years. Life has changed, and it’s hard for a modern reader to understand what he wrote and what worried the writer without special preparation. But the analysis of The Wild Landowner (a small work) is given to almost everyone without exception. Time has passed and taken away the circumstances that were the reason for creating the fairy tale, but it surprisingly makes sense for the living Russians. And this happens because Shchedrin grabbed one of our bad traits and presents it to us so that we get rid of it. This is spiritual laziness, which is the mother of the wild.