About Hoffmann's fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Analysis of Hoffmann's fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" Analysis of the work The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Hoffmann E. fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"

Genre: literary fairy tale

The main characters of the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" and their characteristics

1. Marie Stahlbaum, girl 7 years old. Kind, dreamy, affectionate. Honest and open, strives for justice, falls in love with the Nutcracker.
2. Franz Stahlbaum. Marie's brother, passionate about soldiers, can be cocky and insensitive, but in difficult times he is ready to help.
3. Advisor Drosselmeyer. The personality is mysterious and a little magical. Handyman
4. The Nutcracker, Drosselmeier's young nephew. He became a puppet king, fell in love with Marie, and married her.

1. Evening waiting for gifts
2. Dolls and soldiers
3. Magic castle
4. Nutcracker
5. The nutcracker is broken
6. Mice near the closet
7. Battle on the floor
8. Destruction
9. cut hand
10. Disease
11. Drosselmeier's tale
12. Saber for the Nutcracker
13. last fight
14. Marie in fairyland
15. Meeting my nephew.

1. Among all the Christmas gifts, Marie likes the Nutcracker the most and she carefully looks after him when the Nutcracker breaks his teeth.
2. At night, the dolls are attacked by mice, the Nutcracker leads the defense and Marie is seriously injured by glass.
3. Marie is sick, and Councilor Drosselmeyer tells a fairy tale about himself, his nephew, the scary princess, Queen Myshilda and the Krakatuk nut
4. The Nutcracker gets a new saber and kills the mouse king
5. The Nutcracker takes Marie to a magical land of sweets and introduces her to the palace
6. Drosselmeyer's real nephew arrives and thanks Marie for saving him, offering to become his bride.

What does the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” teach?
This fairy tale teaches you to be brave and decisive. Teaches to appreciate goodness. Teach loyalty and devotion. Teaches true love. It teaches that miracles happen and you just have to really want to experience them.

Review of the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"
I really liked this fairy tale. Her heroine, the girl Marie, was ready to make any sacrifice to save the Nutcracker from the mouse king. No matter how sorry she was for her dolls, she gave them to the evil monster. But the Nutcracker received a saber and dealt with the enemy like a real man.
What I especially liked about this tale is that it is about a fragile but devoted girl and a strong and faithful Nutcracker.

Proverbs for the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"
To believe firmly means to win
Faithful - proven in practice.
The devil is not as scary as he is painted.

Summary, brief retelling of the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" chapter by chapter
Christmas tree
On Christmas Eve, the children of medical adviser Stahlbaum, Marie and Franz, were waiting for gifts.
They knew that the gifts would be wonderful, especially those made by their godfather, court advisor Drosselmeyer, who was an ugly and unprepossessing man, but a very skilled craftsman, capable of creating the most perfect mechanical toy and repairing any watch.
From his parents, Franz expected new soldiers and a horse, and Marie a doll.
When it was completely dark, the bells rang and the children were invited into the room with the Christmas tree.
Present.
The gifts that were piled around the tree were magnificent - soldiers and a horse, dolls and dresses, dishes and much more.
When the children's first delight passed, they were shown Drosselmeyer's gift - a huge castle in which music played and toy men walked around. Even Drosselmeyer himself was there, looking out of the castle doors.
True, Fritz didn’t like the fact that the little men did the same thing all the time.
Favorite.
At this time, Marie noticed a wonderful man on the table with gifts. Dressed smartly and with a long braid. Marie especially liked this toy and she asked dad what kind of person was standing under the tree.
Dad answered the girl that this was a man from the Nutcracker family. He will crack nuts with them at the table.
Marie tried giving the Nutcracker small nuts and he cracked them perfectly.
But Franz began to push the largest and strongest nuts at the Nutcracker, and suddenly a crash was heard and several of the Nutcracker’s teeth fell out.
Marie took pity on the Nutcracker, tied his jaw with a ribbon and picked up his fallen teeth.
Miracles.
In the Stahlbaums' living room there was a huge closet in which all the toys were stored. On the lower shelves are dolls and hussars, and on the upper shelves are Drosselmeyer's wonderful toys.
That evening, Marie put the Nutcracker to bed. She asked the Clarchen doll to give way to the Nutcracker because he was injured.
Marie was about to leave, but suddenly the clock began to strike midnight and play a strange song about mice. Advisor Drosselmeier looked out of them instead of an owl, and gray mice crawled out of all the cracks.
Marie pressed herself against the closet and watched in horror. as a seven-headed mouse emerges from under the floor, each head wearing a golden crown.
She pressed her hand against the glass cabinet door and it cracked. Shards of glass fell onto the floor.
At this time, the toys in the closet came to life. The Nutcracker began to gather an army of puppets to fight the mice. The dolls willingly obeyed him and called him their king.
The Nutcracker jumped from the shelf onto the floor and could have broken, but the Klarchen doll picked him up in her arms - she was in love with the Nutcracker.
Clarchen wanted to hang her sash on the Nutcracker, but he pulled away and tied Marie’s ribbon on his hand, which was tied around his jaw.
Battle.
A real battle broke out on the floor. Fritz's soldiers marched and cannons fired at the mice with jelly beans and gingerbread. The mice attacked, brought new forces into the battle and soon crushed the right flank.
But the dolls on the left held on and believed in victory. There, the defense was led by the Chinese emperors, whose subordinates were the Tungus, monkeys, and troubadours.
But even there the mice broke through, and now the mouse king is pushing back the Nutcracker. Fritz's hussars run cowardly, and the mice surround the Nutcracker.
Marie throws a shoe at the mice, a loud ringing sound is heard and she falls unconscious.
Disease.
Marie comes to in bed. She was severely cut by glass from the closet and could have died from loss of blood if her mother had not found the girl in the living room in time.
Marie talks about mice and the Nutcracker, but everyone thinks she's just delusional.
When godfather Drosselmeier arrives, Marie attacks him with reproaches. She believes that the godfather helped the mouse king, and the godfather sings the mouse song.
Everyone looks at the godfather in bewilderment, and he explains that he often sang this song to children.
Then Drosselmeyer takes out the Nutcracker and Marie sees that he is whole again, and his teeth are better than before.
Drosselmeyer did not give the Nutcracker a saber, but said that the man must get the saber himself.
Drosselmeyer tells a fairy tale.
The Tale of the Hard Nut.
In one kingdom, Princess Pirlipat was born and everyone was happy. The princess grew up very beautiful.
One day, many guests gathered in the palace and the king asked the queen to cook her signature sausage. The Queen went to the kitchen and started cooking. But when she was frying lard, Myshilda, the mouse queen, appeared and asked for lard.
The queen was a kind woman and gave Myshilda some bacon, but then many of Myshilda’s relatives came running and stole most of the bacon.
The queen somehow distributed the lard into the sausages and took them to the king. But the King began to feel sad because there was little fat in the sausage.
He found out that Myshilda was to blame and ordered Advisor Drosselmeyer to create mousetraps.
The seven sons of Myshiltda, and her aunts, and godfathers were caught in these mousetraps. And they were all executed. Myshilda was furious and promised revenge.

Continuation of the tale of the hard nut.
Knowing Myshilda’s vindictive nature, the queen ordered several nannies to guard Princess Pirlipat, and always with cats. But one day one of the nannies dozed off, and when she woke up, the cat was not on her lap. The nannies saw Myshilda rising above the princess and screamed.
Myshilda ran away, but the princess turned into an ugly creature.
For some reason, the king blamed Drosselmeyer for what happened and ordered to find a way to save the princess within a month. The month was coming to an end, and Drosselmeyer still did not know how to disenchant the princess.
And then one day he saw how joyfully the princess cracked nuts with her teeth. Drosselmeyer was delighted and turned to his friend, an astrologer, who compiled the princess’s horoscope and learned that only the Krakatuk nut, which cannot be crushed, can save her, and the young man who cracks this nut will give it to the princess and retreat seven steps, not looking back and not tripping.
Drosselmeyer reported this to the king, but also said that the remedy was known, but neither the young man nor the nut were yet available. The king was angry and sent Drosselmeyer and the astrologer on a journey to get a nut.
The end of the tale of the hard nut.
Drosselmeyer and Astrologer wandered around different countries for fifteen years, but could not find the Krakatuk nut. Then the happy thought occurred to them that instead of wandering somewhere far away, they could look for a nut in their native Nuremberg.
They returned and Drosselmeyer told his cousin about his trouble. And he said that he had the krakatuk nut. He bought it a long time ago, when a whole bag of nuts was crushed by a heavy truck and only one nut survived.
It was indeed a Krakatuk nut, but all that remained was to find the young man. To Drosselmeyer's surprise, this man turned out to be his cousin's son, a handsome young man.
And now everything was ready to disenchant the princess. Many young men broke their jaws trying to split the krakatuk when young Drosselmeier stepped forward. He easily bit the nut and served it to the princess. She ate the nut and immediately became beautiful... Drosselmayer was retreating the required seven steps when Myshilda threw herself under his foot and young Drosselmayer stumbled.
And the witchcraft turned on him. Instead of a handsome young man, he became a freak, a Nutcracker. He crushed Myshilda, but it was too late.
Of course, the princess refused to marry such a freak. And the king got angry with Drosselmeyer and drove him away.
Drosselmayer read in the horoscope that the Nutcracker will be disenchanted if he kills Myshilda’s son and if a beautiful lady falls in love with him.
Uncle and nephew.
When Marie recovered, she began to spend a lot of time near the closet and talked with the Nutcracker, not expecting him to answer her. But one day a thin voice sang to her like bells, “Marie, I will be yours.”
Marie told Drosselmayer that she knew that her Nutcracker was his nephew, talked about the puppet battle with the mice and asked why Drosselmayer would not help the Nutcracker.
Drosselmeyer replied that only Marie herself could help the Nutcracker.
Victory
The Mouse King began to pester Marie. Threatening to kill the Nutcracker, he demanded that Marie give him candy, marzipan, and sugar dolls.
Marie's parents didn't know what to do with the mice. They placed several mousetraps around, which Drosselmeyer brought, but the mice did not disappear.
Marie was crying and also didn’t know what to do. But one day, she noticed a bloody stain on the Nutcracker that remained from that memorable battle and began to wipe it off. Suddenly the Nutcracker warmed up and moved. He asked with difficulty to give him a saber.
Marie did not know where to get the saber, but she was helped by Franz, who was worried about the cowardly behavior of his hussars during the battle. He gave Marie the cuirassier colonel's saber and Marie gave the saber to the Nutcracker.
The next night, Marie heard a strange sound and thought it was the mouse king. But it was the Nutcracker, who brought her the seven crowns of the mouse king, and announced that he had killed the monster.
Puppet kingdom.
The Nutcracker invited Marie to the doll kingdom. They climbed the stairs through the sleeves of the fur coat in the wardrobe and Marie found herself in the Candy Meadow.
Marie and the Nutcracker walked through the Christmas Forest, Orange Creek, Gingerbread Village and many other beautiful places in the fairy tale kingdom. But the Nutcracker hurried Marie to the capital.
Capital.
Having crossed the Pink Lake, Marie and the Nutcracker found themselves near Confetenburg, the capital of the kingdom. Residents joyfully greeted the Nutcracker as if they were their prince. There were many miracles on the streets of the city, whose residents were afraid only of the pastry chef.
Finally Marie approached the Marzipan Castle. There the Nutcracker was met by four beautiful princesses - his sisters - and he introduced Marie to them. The Nutcracker spoke about his victory and the role of Marie, and everyone decided that Marie was the most beautiful girl in the world.
Conclusion.
Marie woke up in bed and saw her mother. She talked about the wonderful castle, but of course everyone decided that it was a dream. Marie showed the seven crowns of the mouse king and everyone was surprised, but Drosselmeier said that these were crowns from a chain that he gave to Marie a long time ago.
And when Marie directly told Drosselmeier that the Nutcracker was his nephew, he frowned - it was an invention.
Marie no longer began to talk about the wonderful country, but one day, sitting near the closet, she told the Nutcracker that she would not reject him as Princess Pirlipat, because he had lost his beauty because of her.
And there was a roar. Marie fell out of her chair. Her mother ran up to her and said that Drosselmeyer’s young nephew had arrived, a very handsome young man who was great at gnawing nuts.
When young Drosselmeyer saw Marie and was left alone with her, he thanked the girl for his salvation and offered to become his wife.
And Marie became Drosselmeyer’s bride, and soon he took her away on a golden carriage with silver horses.

Drawings and illustrations for the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"

Title of the work: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Year of writing: 1816

Genre of the work: story

Main characters: Nutcracker- enchanted prince, Marie- the girl who was given the Nutcracker by her godfather, Fritz- the girl's brother, Drosselmeyer- godfather of children, mouse king.

A brief summary of the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” for a reader’s diary, on the basis of which one of the most famous ballets and many animated films was created, will help you immerse yourself in the magical world of children’s fantasy.

Plot

Marie and Fritz receive gifts on New Year's Eve. Among them, the girl notices the Nutcracker, an ugly doll. While playing with him, Fritz breaks his jaw. Marie ties the doll's head with a scarf. At night, she sees the toys fighting the mouse king and his army. Drosselmeyer tells the girl a fairy tale about Prince Nutcracker. Marie helps him win the fight with the king of mice. In the morning she realizes that she had a dream. Drosselmeyer's nephew, the Nutcracker, comes to their home and asks for Marie's hand in marriage.

Conclusion (my opinion)

Inner beauty is more important than outer beauty, and kindness makes a person beautiful. Marie noticed an ugly doll among the others and felt sympathy for the enchanted prince because of his kind soul. Love helped her to be brave and decisive and not to be afraid of the mouse king. Marie's nobility, sincerity and courage allowed the Nutcracker to fall in love with her and take her to his kingdom of dolls.

Widely known thanks to the ballet P.I. Tchaikovsky (1892) fairy tale was written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1816. Name "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" is connected with the plot basis of the work, built on the collision of two fairy-tale kingdoms - the Puppet and the Mouse.

The main character The daughter of a medical adviser, seven-year-old Marie Stahlbaum, becomes part of the fairy tale. The narrative is told in two artistic spaces - real (the Stahlbaums' house) and fantastic, splitting into two fantasies (Marie - a transformed living room with animated toys and a journey through the Doll Kingdom; senior court adviser Drosselmeyer - "The Tale of a Hard Nut") and uniting in a single fabulous plot.

What is happening to the girl is presented by Hoffman as a real story, which each reader can explain in his own way. The author's messages at the beginning of several chapters are addressed to little Fritz and Marie, that is, children who perceive everything told as the truth. Adults can be satisfied with the point of view of the girl’s parents, who believe that Marie had a wonderful dream. Skeptics will like the opinion of the medical adviser and surgeon Wendelstern, who believe that the baby’s story is an ordinary fever caused by an illness. Fritz, as a representative of the older generation of children, treats his sister's story as a fantasy with the help of which he himself makes his soldiers come to life. Each version of what is happening has its right to life, but Hoffmann himself does everything so that the reader believes Marie.

One of the adult heroes of the fairy tale is the girl’s godfather, Drosselmeyer, and, in Marie’s opinion and in his own words, he belongs to two worlds at once: in the real world he is a senior adviser to the court and at the same time a skilled watchmaker and mechanic, in the fantasy world he is a court wizard and watchmaker . At first, Drosselmeyer is perceived by the girl as a hostile, evil principle - she believes that, under the guise of an owl, he jammed the clock and called the Mouse King into the living room; she is offended by him for refusing to help her nephew, who was turned by Mouseilda into the Nutcracker; Deep down, she is unhappy that he does not take her side too clearly when adults make fun of her, but “The Tale of the Hard Nut” explains a lot to Marie, and she begins to act within the framework of her own strengths and ideas about the future of the Nutcracker.

The fantastic world of the fairy tale is depicted in the work in two time layers - the past (the story of the conflict between the royal family, who loves sausages, and the queen of mice - Myshilda, who turned the beautiful princess Pirlipat into an ugly one) and the present (the story of the return of the Nutcracker to his former appearance and his fight with the seven-headed son of Myshilda) . Marie's wonderful adventures begin on Christmas night (from December 24 to 25) and continue for at least a week and three nights: the girl spends the first seven days after her elbow injury in bed, listening to fairy tales; On subsequent nights, she gives her sweets to the Mouse King in exchange for the Nutcracker's life.

The fairy-tale world of the work periodically penetrates into the real world of the Stahlbaums: the parents see their daughter’s chewed sweets, completely sincerely surprised at how this became possible, because they never had mice in their house; Marie presents to the adults the seven golden crowns of the Mouse King, given to her by the Nutcracker; Godfather Drosselmeyer brings his nephew into the house, who is remarkably similar (in appearance, clothing) to the young man from “The Tale of the Hard Nut.”

The doll kingdom, through which Marie travels with the Nutcracker, represents a world of sweets and is another Hoffmann interpretation of the classic romantic symbol of a sublime dream– in this case, a child’s dream. Little Mademoiselle Stahlbaum sees around her an ideal space from a child’s point of view, the basis of which consists of candies, oranges, almonds, raisins, lemonade, almond milk, gingerbread, honey and sweets. The inhabitants of the Puppet Kingdom are distinguished by their amazing beauty and grace and are made either of sweets or precious metals and stones. Christmas theme in the fairy-tale world, it is embodied in the form of the Christmas forest and the periodic appearance of the number twelve (according to the number of months in the year) - at the beginning in the form of twelve blackrabs accompanying Marie and the Nutcracker on the Pink Lake, then - twelve pages meeting children near the Marzipan Castle. The third element of a child's dream is flowers - for example, “luxurious bouquets of violets, daffodils, tulips, gillyflowers”, decorating the main building of the Puppet Kingdom.

Into the fantastic world of a children's fairy tale, Hoffman introduces features inherent in real, adult life: so Confectioner image, whom Marie encounters in Confetenburg, embodies idea of ​​God in whose power "do whatever you want to a person".

The magical kingdom from The Tale of the Hard Nut has no name. It represents the world of a classic fairy tale about a beautiful princess bewitched by an evil witch, with the only difference that Hoffmann already at the initial stage includes his inimitable irony in it (the king is a lover of sausages, the queen personally prepares lard for the royal husband, the court magician, so that to return the princess to her former appearance, at the beginning he dismantles her for parts), and ends in a completely unconventional way - with the second transformation of the main character and the princess’s refusal to marry a freak. The fairy tale is destroyed by Pirlipat’s inner callousness, but becomes a reality thanks to the kind heart of Marie Stahlbaum. An ordinary girl is a princess not by birth, but by spirit: it is no coincidence that she is reflected in the waters of the Pink Lake in an appearance that she remembers from her godfather’s stories as belonging to a fairy-tale princess.

The fine line between the real and fantasy worlds relies on darkness, silence and/or the absence of adult characters: the toys in the living room come to life at midnight; The Mouse King and the Nutcracker come to Marie's room when everyone is sleeping; the battle between toys and mice ends with a girl's shoe falling; Marie's return from the Doll Kingdom occurs in the morning, after waking up; The transformation of the Nutcracker into Drosselmeyer's nephew is realized when Marie says that she would never refuse him because of his unattractive appearance, and falls from her chair with a sharp crash.

THE MAGIC OF A CHRISTMAS TALE

A Christmas fairy tale is always a miracle, enchantment, magic, surprise, a lot of joyful emotions and heartbreaks!
The famous fairy tale story of the German writer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann “The Nutcracker” unusually subtly and colorfully conveys the atmosphere of the favorite holiday of old Europe - Christmas, when a fluffy Christmas tree, decorated with hundreds of small candles, shines in the living room, when wonderful gifts are given to children, and flowers are hung on the branches of a forest beauty. only toys, but also sweets - candied nuts, colorful candies, gold and silver apples. Isn't it a miracle? All kind people and obedient children love this holiday. But there are in our world, as elsewhere, evil forces that do not recognize faith, beauty, harmony and kindness, and are trying to destroy the ideal, magical world of children's fantasies. What is a fairy tale without the struggle between good and evil?
In the fairy-tale story there is an enchanted prince, a princess upon whom an evil spell fell (which is why she grew up unkind), and a sweet girl who has to experience a lot and find her happiness. From the very beginning, the funny little man Nutcracker, who comes to life and performs feats after feats and becomes a real hero, seems very charming to the reader. But the main character, the lovely seven-year-old Marie, is dearest to a child’s heart. Her kindness and selflessness work real miracles. But her brother Fritz is completely different: he thinks only about his war games and entertainment, he cannot pity or caress anyone. He breaks three of the Nutcracker's teeth, beats his toy horses, and lets the toy soldiers kill each other. Well, how can we not remember modern computer shooting games, in which our children, without pity or regret, kill their enemies or think about aggressive military plans and strategies...
But Marie loves and takes pity on her toy Nutcracker, and as a reward he opens the way for her to the fairy-tale world.
In general, any fairy tale, even the most tinsel-Christmas one, would be boring if insidious enemies with evil intentions and intrigues did not appear on the horizon, and, of course, they had to be fought and definitely defeated. So here, suddenly, in a rich house, countless hordes of nasty, rustling and squeaking mice appeared out of nowhere, led by the Mouse King with seven heads. The Gray Army is launching serious military operations against toys. And the brave Nutcracker commands the revived dolls that have entered the battle. Either the girl is dreaming about all this, or the fairy tale really visited her house, only Marie herself has to participate in all the amazing events.
Boys will clearly be intrigued by the description of the battle raging in this toy world, skillfully constructed by the author, and young readers will probably be interested to know how the elegant dolls behaved when they saw serious battles. And the Nutcracker is, of course, the best in battle, even though he doesn’t win...
But the main thing is that Marie showed herself to be a very fearless girl, ready to come to the aid of a friend and sacrifice her favorite gifts, sweets and even her health to save him. No wonder her uncle warned her: “You will have to endure a lot if you take the poor freak Nutcracker under your protection... You alone can save him. Be steadfast and faithful." Kind, affectionate, gentle Marie, in gratitude for her devotion and courage, will receive a worthy reward.
The insert “The Tale of the Hard Nut” seems to connect the toy world with the real world. And so Marie, accompanied by the Nutcracker, crosses this line and finds herself in a wonderful fantasy land, in the doll kingdom, where her friend the Nutcracker is the king. All little children probably dream of such a country. Everything here is whimsical, elegant, magical, everything shines and sparkles. Here lemonade rivers flow and sugared almonds bloom in the meadows, oranges fragrant in the branches, and the capital of the kingdom-state is named Confetenburg! So many joys and pleasures at once! But the author always emphasizes that a wonderful reward is not given in vain. After all, it was necessary to earn the favor and love of the ruler of the puppet kingdom by showing courage, loyalty, kindness and generosity. The ideal country of happiness, where everyone feels good, is accessible only to ideal heroes.
The young reader, of course, understands that the wooden Nutcracker is bewitched by evil spells and will inevitably turn into a beautiful young man, a prince. But the hero, even in his funny guise, behaves like a knight without fear or reproach: he is ready to perform feats for the sake of a beautiful lady. Marie senses this and tells him in response: “Count on my help when you need it.”
And, as in the fairy tales of many peoples of the world, the hero’s ugliness will disappear if a beautiful girl loves him (let’s remember Aksakov’s “The Scarlet Flower”). Indeed, in the minds of any people, from time immemorial, the idea has been cherished that the true beauty of a person is not in appearance, but in his wonderful inner qualities, in worthy deeds and, of course, in the ability for high, devoted love - the main human gift and eternal happiness !

The idea for "The Nutcracker" was born as a result of Hoffmann's communication with the children of his friend Yu.E.G. Hitzig - Marie and Fritz (it’s not for nothing that the heroes of the fairy tale bear their names). The writer often made toys for them for Christmas, and among them could well be the so-called Nubknacker.
Directly translated, the German word Nubknacker means “nut cracker.” Hence the ridiculous names of the first Russian translations of the fairy tale - “The Rodent of Nuts and the King of Mice”, or even worse - “The History of Nutcrackers”, although it is clear that for Hoffmann these are clearly not tongs at all. The Nutcracker was a popular mechanical doll of those times - a soldier with a large mouth, a curled beard and a pigtail at the back. A nut was put into the mouth, the pigtail twitched, the jaws closed - crack! - and the nut is cracked.

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Analysis of Hoffmann's fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"

The idea for "The Nutcracker" was born as a result of Hoffmann's communication with the children of his friend Yu.E.G. Hitzig - Marie and Fritz (it’s not for nothing that the heroes of the fairy tale bear their names). The writer often made toys for them for Christmas, and among them could well be the so-called Nubknacker.

Directly translated, the German word Nubknacker means “nut cracker.” Hence the ridiculous names of the first Russian translations of the fairy tale - “The Rodent of Nuts and the King of Mice”, or even worse - “The History of Nutcrackers”, although it is clear that for Hoffmann these are clearly not tongs at all. The Nutcracker was a popular mechanical doll of those times - a soldier with a large mouth, a curled beard and a pigtail at the back. A nut was put into the mouth, the pigtail twitched, the jaws closed - crack! - and the nut is cracked.

In The Nutcracker it is not difficult to see the duality of the plot characteristic of Hoffmann. You can believe in the wonderful events that happen in it, or you can easily attribute them to the imagination of a girl who has been playing too much, which, in general, is what all adults do.

Speaking about composition, we note the presence of strong compositional positions, which traditionally include the beginning and ending of the text. The beginning is like an invitation to conversation, the ending is like a peak, allowing you to review what you read in a new way. Thus, the Christmas atmosphere set at the beginning of “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffmann, leaves a special imprint on the entire development of the plot. The tale is built on the principle of “a story within a story”, which are connected by two characters - master Drosselmeyer and his nephew, young Drosselmeyer from Nuremberg. In the foreground, in the present tense, the story unfolds before the reader's eyes about how Marie, the daughter of the medical adviser Stahlbaum, saves the enchanted Nutcracker

young Drosselmeyer. Interspersed in this story is a story from the past about how young Drosselmeyer turned into a freak Nutcracker - the tale of the hard nut Krakatuk and Princess Pirlipat.

From the very first chapter you are immersed in a mysterious, enigmatic, fantastic world. You read a fairy tale, and your imagination pictures a Christmas table, all filled with wonderful gifts, a festive tree, a little girl Marie, a fairy-tale lake with beautiful swans. You anxiously flip through the pages that describe the battle between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker. The main characters of the work are Marie, the Nutcracker, Drosselmeyer and the Mouse King. Marie is a little girl of about seven years old, smart, kind, brave and determined. She is the only one who understood and loved the Nutcracker, who saw an honest and noble heart behind the unsightly appearance. Marie's love is selfless. Saving the Nutcracker during the battle, she, dying of fear, threw a shoe at the mice, and then, crying, gave them her favorite sugar dolls, as long as they didn’t touch them.

The story of Marie and the Nutcracker completes and “mirrors” the story of Pirlipat and the Nutcracker. The evil fairy Myshilda turned the beautiful Pirlipat into an ugly monster. Young Drosselmeyer cracked the Krakatuk nut for the princess, eating the kernel of which, she returned to her appearance as a beauty. But the evil Myshilda turned the young man into a freak Nutcracker for this. According to the promise of the king, the princess's father, the hero who would break Pirlipat's spell was to receive her hand and the kingdom. However, when the poor young man appeared before the rescued princess in all his ugliness, “the princess covered her face with both hands and shouted:

“Get out of here, you nasty Nutcracker!”

Marie saw the Nutcracker in the form of a funny and not very foldable toy. “Looking carefully at the nice little man who fell in love with her at first sight, Marie noticed how good-natured his face shone.” Suddenly caught in a whirlpool of magical

events, Marie saved the Nutcracker and helped him defeat the Mouse King. She learned that the Nutcracker is the king of a magical doll country. Having heard her godfather's story about the Krakatuk nut, Marie realized that the Nutcracker was the enchanted young Drosselmeyer. She

continued to believe in this when everyone around was laughing at her. One day Marie burst out loud: “Oh, dear Mr. Drosselmeyer, if you really lived, I would not reject you, like Princess Pirlipat, because because of you have lost your beauty!” After this phrase, she suddenly lost consciousness, and when she woke up, she found out that Drosselmeyer’s young nephew had just come to visit the Stahlbaums from Nuremberg (that is, the Nutcracker had returned to his human appearance). He thanks Marie and asks her

hands. The tale ends with a story about their wedding a year later and that “Marie, as they say, is still the queen in a country where, if only you have eyes, you will see sparkling candied fruit groves, transparent marzipan castles everywhere - in a word, all sorts of miracles and curiosities.” In literary works, the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” is an intricate variation on the theme of the famous fairy tale motif “Beauty and the Beast”. The Beauty and the Beast storyline typically involves three characters: the beauty heroine, the beauty's father, who brings the beauty into the story, and the monster, who turns out to be the bewitched prince and is saved by the beauty.

In The Nutcracker, the first storyline revolves around Marie, her godfather-adviser Drosselmeyer, and the Nutcracker, the enchanted young Drosselmeyer. In the second storyline - the tale of the Krakatuk nut - Princess Pirlipat, her father-king, act (because of whom the whole story begins and who shifts its development to

court wizard Drosselmeyer), Drosselmeyer (involved in the story, further occupying the position of the father and, in turn, involving his nephew, young Drosselmeyer from Nuremberg) and young Drosselmeyer in the story.

Hoffmann, with his characteristic virtuosity and humor, plays with the “beauty and the beast” scheme. The beautiful Pirlipat turns into a monster. Young Drosselmeyer (in the position of a “handsome hero”) dispels the spell of the monster Pirlipat. For this, Myshilda turns him into a freak toy (the “monster” position). Beauty Pirlipat

should have saved him in return, but she banishes him. Marie (in position

"beautiful heroine") finds the Nutcracker ("monster") and disenchantes him.

The beauty of Pirlipat is external. The first thing that is told about the princess in the fairy tale is that the king gave birth to a beautiful daughter, and then her lily-white face, azure eyes and golden hair are described. The fairy tale shows that external beauty is unreliable and ungrateful.

There is no description of Marie’s appearance during the tale, almost until the very end, because it doesn’t matter. The beauty of Marie and young Drosselmeyer is internal, the beauty of the heart, which is saving and capable of working miracles. Shchelkinchik is described in the text"The large head looked ridiculous compared to the thin legs, and the cloak on the Nutcracker was narrow and funny, sticking out like it was made of wood, and on his head was a miner’s cap.” But the main thing in the Nutcracker is not his ugliness, but his inner world and his soul.

In the story of The Nutcracker, three different worlds come into contact and interact - the world of people, the world of mice and the world of dolls. The events of the tale take place at a specially designated time. The fairy tale begins with the words: “The twenty-fourth of December...”. Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, is associated with the time of waiting for a miracle in the Christian tradition, and

Christmas itself is a time of miracles. The battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King takes place after the clock has struck 12, a time symbol associated with tasks, often twelve, that must be completed before the hero can be freed (similar to the twelve labors of Hercules,

For example).

The past (the story of Pirlipat and the Nutcracker) must be completed and resolved “when the time comes” - in the present (the time of the story of Marie and the Nutcracker). And in the present itself, two different times also coexist: day (the world of everyday life of the family of medical adviser Stahlbaum) and night (when mice and dolls act, witness and

in which Marie becomes a participant). All these worlds and times are connected by Christian Elias Drosselmeyer. In the past, he was a court watchmaker and wizard at the court of Princess Pirlipat's father. In the present, he is Marie's godfather, a senior court advisor, and a "great craftsman" who can repair watches and create amazing mechanical gifts for his friends. Both in the past and in the present, both among people and among dolls, Drosselmeyer acts as a master of time and miracles.

The image of Drosselmeyer manifests itself as both a good and an evil principle. Often he is embodied in the guise of a person - a wizard, an old man, a storyteller, sometimes in the form of supernatural creatures - for example, gnomes, elves, goblin, etc., in a number of fairy tales - in the guise of a magical animal that behaves and talks like a person .

Usually the “spirit” appears when the hero is in a desperate situation and could not get out of it without some additional knowledge or idea (which, according to Jung, are “spiritual functions”).

In full accordance with this, Master Drosselmeyer first appears in The Nutcracker as a “little dark man with a large box under his arm,” slipping through the Stahlbaums’ hallway on Christmas Eve. In the form of a small doll man, Drosselmeyer appears and disappears through the doors of the doll castle he made for Marie and Fritz. It is he who Marie unexpectedly sees sitting on the clock instead of an owl before the battle of dolls and mice. Drosselmeyer tells Marie a fairy tale about Princess Pirlipat and, as it were, “leads” her through the events: “Ah, dear Marie, you have been given more than me and all of us. You, like Pirlipat, are a born princess: you rule a beautiful, bright kingdom. But you will have to endure a lot if you take the poor freak Nutcracker under your protection! After all, the mouse king guards him on all paths and roads.

Know: not me, but you, you alone can save the Nutcracker. Be steadfast and faithful."

There are also magical objects in Hoffmann's tale: Marie's slipper and the Nutcracker's saber. Hoffmann disposes of them in his own way. The heroine is associated with magical objects. At the tragic moment of the battle, Marie, in order to save the Nutcracker, throws her shoe into the thick of the mice, right at the king, and this decides the outcome of the battle. When asked by Fritz, Marie's brother, about

As to why the Nutcracker, whom Drosselmeyer repaired, does not have a saber, he grumbled angrily: “The Nutcracker’s saber does not concern me. I cured him - let him get himself a saber wherever he wants.” The Nutcracker will ask Marie for a saber, and she will find him a saber, with which he will then kill the Mouse King.

The beauty is a person from the real world, the monster is a creature from the conventional, fairy-tale world, who, thanks to the beauty, will return to the real world. In a state of "monster"

his gender can generally be defined as “it”. When the beauty takes pity on the monster, accepts him in his ugly form and voluntarily admits out loud her affection and love for him and they are united in marriage, the circle is closed - the two are united into one. This is precisely the traditional ending of many fairy tales. And that is why humanity loves “happy endings” so much, stories with a happy ending that returns us to our origin, to integrity.

There is another couple in Hoffmann's fairy tale - the Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

In the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” Hoffmann, like his character Drosselmeyer, clearly enjoyed talking about imaginary and real beauty, about how sheer nonsense (like throwing a shoe at mice) can have great consequences, and about How

Worlds and times coexist and intersect very close together. Accordingly, romance and parody are intertwined in Hoffmann’s text, creating a story intended for those who “have eyes” and who are able to see “...all sorts of wonders and wonders.”

The fairy tale ends with the victory of good over evil, hope over unbelief, patience over indifference. As a reward for everything, Marie not only becomes a friend of the Nutcracker, but also in real life meets the nephew of Councilor Drosselmeyer - her love. Thus, Goffman tells us that kindness, patience, care, sensitivity, courage, faith can defeat any evil and make a person truly happy.