The idea of "The Nutcracker" was born as a result of Hoffmann's communication with the children of his friend Yu.E.G. Hitzig - Marie and Fritz (no wonder the heroes of the fairy tale bear their names). The writer often made toys for them for Christmas, and among them there could well be the so-called Nubknacker.
In direct translation german word Nubknacker means "nut cracker". Hence the ridiculous titles of the first Russian translations of the tale - "The Rodent of Nuts and the King of Mice", or even more so - "The History of Nutcrackers", although it is clear that Hoffmann clearly does not have any tongs. The Nutcracker was a mechanical doll popular in those days - a soldier with a large mouth, a curled beard and a pigtail at the back. A nut was put into the mouth, a pigtail twitched, the jaws closed - crack! - and the nut is split.
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Analysis of the fairy tale by Hoffmann E. "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"
The idea of "The Nutcracker" was born as a result of Hoffmann's communication with the children of his friend Yu.E.G. Hitzig - Marie and Fritz (no wonder the heroes of the fairy tale bear their names). The writer often made toys for them for Christmas, and among them there could well be the so-called Nubknacker.
In direct translation, the German word Nubknacker means "nut cracker". Hence the ridiculous titles of the first Russian translations of the tale - "The Rodent of Nuts and the King of Mice", or even more so - "The History of Nutcrackers", although it is clear that Hoffmann clearly does not have any tongs. The Nutcracker was a mechanical doll popular in those days - a soldier with a large mouth, a curled beard and a pigtail at the back. A nut was put into the mouth, a pigtail twitched, the jaws closed - crack! - and the nut is split.
In The Nutcracker it is easy to see the duality of the plot characteristic of Hoffmann. You can believe in the wonderful events that take place in it, or you can easily attribute them to the fantasy of a girl who has played too much, which, in general, is what all adults do.
Speaking of composition, we note the presence of strong compositional positions, which traditionally include the beginning and end of the text. The beginning is like an invitation to a conversation, the ending is like a peak that allows you to review what you have 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 - the master Drosselmeyer and his nephew, the young Drosselmeyer from Nuremberg. In the foreground, in the present tense, the reader's eyes unfold the story of how Marie, the daughter of Stahlbaum's medical adviser, saves the Nutcracker, enchanted
young Drosselmeyer. Interspersed in this story is a story from the past about how the young Drosselmeyer turned into a freak Nutcracker, a tale of the hard nut Krakatuk and Princess Pirlipat.
From the very first chapter you are immersed in a mysterious, mysterious, fantastic world. You read a fairy tale, and your imagination draws a Christmas table full of wonderful gifts, a festive tree, a little girl Marie, a fabulous lake with beautiful swans. With anxiety, you 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 her unsightly appearance. Marie's love is selfless. Saving the Nutcracker during the fight, she, dying with fear, threw a shoe at the mice, and then, crying, gave them her favorite sugar dolls, if only they would not 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. The young Drosselmeyer split the Krakatuk nut for the princess, eating the kernel of which, she returned to her beauty. But the evil Myshilda turned the young man into a freaky Nutcracker for this. According to the promise of the king, the father of the princess, the hero who will disenchant Pirlipat was to receive her hand and kingdom. However, when the poor youth appeared before the rescued princess in all his ugliness, “the princess covered her face with both hands and shouted:
“Get out, get out of here, you nasty Nutcracker!”
Marie saw the Nutcracker as 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 rescued the Nutcracker and helped him defeat the Mouse King. She learned that the Nutcracker is the king of a magical doll land. Having heard the godfather's story about the Krakatuk nut, Marie realized that the Nutcracker was the bewitched young Drosselmeyer. She
continued to believe in this when everyone around laughed at her. Once Marie burst out aloud: “Ah, dear Mr. Drosselmeyer, if you really lived, I would not me you have lost your beauty!”. After this phrase, she suddenly lost consciousness, and when she woke up, she found out that a young nephew of Drosselmeyer from Nuremberg had just come to visit the Stahlbaums (that is, his human appearance returned to the Nutcracker). 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 everywhere sparkling candied groves, transparent marzipan castles - in a word, all kinds 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 ”. There are usually three characters in the "Beauty and the Beast" plot scheme: the beauty heroine, the father, who gets the beauty involved in the story, and the monster, who turns out to be an enchanted prince and is saved by the beauty.
In The Nutcracker, the first storyline revolves around Marie, her godfather Drosselmeyer, and the Nutcracker, the bewitched young Drosselmeyer. In the second storyline - the tale of the Krakatuk nut - Princess Pirlipat, her father-king (because of whom the whole story is tied up and who shifts its development to
court magician Drosselmeyer), Drosselmeyer (involved in history, further taking the position of father and, in turn, involving his nephew, the young Drosselmeyer from Nuremberg), and young Drosselmeyer.
Hoffmann, with his characteristic virtuosity and humor, plays with the "beauty and the beast" scheme. Beauty Pirlipat turns into a monster. Young Drosselmeyer (in the position of "handsome hero") disenchants 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 disenchants him.
The beauty of Pirlipat is external. The first thing that is told about the princess in the fairy tale is that a beautiful daughter was born to the king, and then her lily-white face, azure eyes and golden hair are described. The tale shows that external beauty is unreliable and ungrateful.
Description of Marie's appearance in the course of the tale, almost to its very end, is not given at all, because it does not matter. The beauty of Marie and the young Drosselmeyer is internal, the beauty of the heart, which is saving and capable of working miracles. The clicker is described in the text "The big head looked ridiculous compared to the thin legs, and the cloak on the Nutcracker was narrow and funny, sticking out like a wooden one, and a miner’s cap was on his head. ”But the main thing in the Nutcracker is not his ugliness, but 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 tale begins with the words: "December twenty-fourth ...". Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, is associated with the time of waiting for a miracle in Christian tradition, A
Christmas itself - with the time of the miracle. The fight between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King takes place after the clock has struck 12, a time symbol associated with tasks, often also 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 end and be 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 Stahlbaum medical adviser's family) and night (when mice and dolls act, witness and
Marie becomes a participant). All these worlds and times are connected by Christian Elias Drosselmeyer. In the past, he was a court watchmaker and a miracle worker at the court of Princess Pirlipat's father. In the present, he is Marie's godfather, senior councilor of the court and a "great craftsman" who can fix watches and create amazing mechanical gifts for his friends. And in the past, and in the present, and 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 beginning. Often he is embodied in the guise of a man - a wizard, an old man, a storyteller, sometimes in the form of supernatural beings - 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 he himself could not get out of it without some additional knowledge or idea (which are, according to Jung, "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," sneaking through the hallway of the Stahlbaums on Christmas Eve. In the form of a little puppet man, Drosselmeyer appears and disappears at the door of the puppet castle he made for Marie and Fritz. It is him that 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 under your protection the poor freak Nutcracker! 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 dedicated."
There are magical objects in Hoffmann's tale: Marie's shoe 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 midst of mice, right at the king, and this decides the outcome of the battle. To the question of Fritz, Marie's brother, about
about why the Nutcracker, whom Drosselmeyer had repaired, did 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 for Marie's 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, which, thanks to the beauty, will return to the real world. In a monster state
its gender can generally be defined as “it.” When a beauty pities the monster, accepts him in his ugly form and voluntarily aloud confesses her affection and love for him, and they are married, the circle closes - two are united into one. This is 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 source, to wholeness.
There is another couple in Hoffmann's 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 How
worlds and times coexist and intersect very close. Accordingly, romance and parody intertwined in Hoffmann's text, creating a story intended for those who "have eyes" and who are able to see "... all sorts of miracles and curiosities."
The tale ends with the victory of good against 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 - his love. Thus, Hoffmann tells us that kindness, patience, care, sensitivity, courage, faith can overcome any evil and make a person truly happy.
Preview:
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was a German romantic writer, composer, artist and lawyer. Originally Ernst Theodor Wilhelm but, as an admirer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, changed his name in 1805.
Hoffmann was born to the Prussian lawyer Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann (1736-1797). When the boy was three years old, his parents separated, and he was brought up in the house of his maternal grandmother under the influence of his uncle, a lawyer, an intelligent and talented man, prone to science fiction and mysticism. It was he who raised in a boy creative personality and drew attention to his penchant for music and drawing, although he insisted that Hoffmann receive legal education and worked in law to provide an acceptable standard of living. Ernst was grateful to him for the rest of his life, because it was not always possible to earn a living with the help of art, and it happened that he had to starve.
In 1813, Hoffmann received an inheritance, although it was small, it nevertheless allowed him to get on his feet. Just at that time, he had already got a job in Berlin, which came in very handy, by the way, because there was still time to devote himself to art. It was then that Hoffmann first thought about the fabulous ideas that hovered in his head.
Hoffmann spends his worldview in a long series of fantastic stories and fairy tales, incomparable in their kind. In them, he skillfully mixes the miraculous of all ages and peoples with personal fiction, sometimes darkly painful, sometimes gracefully cheerful and mocking. "I'm like children born on Sunday: they see what other people can't see." Hoffmann's fairy tales and short stories could be funny and scary, bright and sinister, but the fantastic in them arose unexpectedly, from the most ordinary things, from life itself. This was the great secret that Hoffmann was the first to guess.
The hatred of all social meetings and parties led Hoffmann to drink alone and write his first works at night, which were so terrible that they led him to despair.
In his time, German criticism did not have a very high opinion of Hoffmann; there they preferred romanticism, thoughtful and serious, without admixture of sarcasm and satire. Hoffmann was much more popular in other European countries and in North America; in Russia, Belinsky called him "one of the greatest German poets, a painter of the inner world", and Dostoevsky re-read the entire Hoffmann in Russian and in the original language.
To our great regret, Hoffmann finally exhausted his body with an unhealthy lifestyle and died at the age of 46, and Hoffmann's fairy tales, as he dreamed, became immortal.
Hoffmann's tales are not really fairy tales, but rather prose works of a mystical and romantic nature. Sometimes there are fantastic elements in them. And sometimes a gothic novel.
If we wanted to somehow characterize in what direction Hoffmann wrote, we would call him a romantic realist. What is the most important thing in Hoffmann's work? One line through all his works is the awareness of the deep difference between reality and the ideal and the understanding that it is impossible to get off the ground, as he himself said.
Hoffmann's whole life is a continuous struggle. For bread, for the opportunity to create, for respect for yourself and your works. Hoffmann's fairy tales, which both children and their parents are advised to read, will show this struggle, the strength to make difficult decisions and even greater strength not to give up in case of failure.
The first tale of Hoffmann was the tale of the Golden Pot. Already from it it became clear that a writer from ordinary everyday life is able to create a fabulous miracle. There, people and objects are real magic. Like all the romantics of that time, Hoffmann is fond of everything mystical, everything that usually happens at night. One of the best works became the Sandman. Continuing the theme of mechanisms coming to life, the author created a real masterpiece - the fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (some sources also call it The Nutcracker and the Rat King). Hoffmann's fairy tales are written for children, but the topics and problems that they touch on are not entirely childish.
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is one of the famous fairy tales written by Hoffmann.
The plot of the tale was born in his communication with the children of his friend Hitzig. He was always a welcome guest in this family, and the children were waiting for his delightful gifts, fairy tales, toys that he made with his own hands. Like the crafty godfather Drosselmeyer, Hoffmann made a skillful model of the castle for his little friends. He captured the names of the children in The Nutcracker. Marie Stahlbaum, a tender girl with a brave and loving heart, who managed to restore the Nutcracker to his real appearance, is the namesake of Hitzig's daughter, who did not live long. But her brother Fritz, the valiant commander of the toy soldiers in the fairy tale, grew up, became an architect, and then even took over as president of the Berlin Academy of Arts.
"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" is a fairy tale within a fairy tale, because here another story is revealed - the history of the Stahlbaum family. This fairy tale is filled with incredible and unforgettable magic, which the reader is imbued with literally from the first page.
T. Hoffmann's amazing Christmas tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" is mysterious in itself - either the story of the Nutcracker was just a dream of little Marie, or it actually happened.
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 tale begins with the words: "December twenty-fourth ...". Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, is associated with the time of waiting for a miracle in the Christian tradition, and Christmas itself is associated with the time of a miracle. From the very first chapter you are immersed in a mysterious, mysterious, fantastic world. You read a fairy tale, and your imagination draws a Christmas table full of wonderful gifts, a festive tree, a little girl Marie, a fabulous lake with beautiful swans. With anxiety, you 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 her unsightly appearance.
Description of Marie's appearance in the course of the tale, almost to its very end, is not given at all, because it does not matter. The beauty of Marie and the young Drosselmeyer is internal, the beauty of the heart, which is saving and capable of working miracles. The Nutcracker is described in the text "The big head looked ridiculous compared to the thin legs, and the cloak on the Nutcracker was narrow and funny, sticking out like a wooden one, and a miner's cap was on his head." But the main thing in the Nutcracker is not his ugliness, but his inner world and his soul.
Marie helps her pet in every possible way - for the sake of a friend, she is ready for anything. The girl fearlessly enters the battle with the mouse king, gives him all her delicacies, so long as he does not touch the little man: “Marie did not regret the sweets at all: in the depths of her soul she was happy, because she thought that she had saved the Nutcracker.”
In The Nutcracker, the first storyline revolves around Marie, her godfather Drosselmeyer, and the Nutcracker, the bewitched young Drosselmeyer. In the second storyline - the tale of the Krakatuk nut - Princess Pirlipat, her father-king (because of whom the whole story is tied up and who shifts its development to the court magician Drosselmeyer), Drosselmeyer (involved in history, further occupying the position of father and, in in turn, involving his nephew, the young Drosselmeyer from Nuremberg) and the young Drosselmeyer in the story.
There are magical objects in Hoffmann's tale: Marie's shoe and the Nutcracker's saber. Hoffmann disposes of them in his own way. The heroine is associated with magical items. At the tragic moment of the battle, Marie, in order to save the Nutcracker, throws her shoe into the midst of mice, right at the king, and this decides the outcome of the battle. When Fritz, Marie's brother, asked why the Nutcracker, whom Drosselmeyer had repaired, did 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 for Marie's saber, and she will find him a saber, with which he will then kill 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 very close coexist and intersect worlds and times. Accordingly, romance and parody intertwined in Hoffmann's text, creating a story intended for those who "have eyes" and who are able to see "... all sorts of miracles and curiosities."
The tale ends with the victory of good against 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, Hoffmann tells us that kindness, patience, care, sensitivity, courage, faith can overcome any evil and make a person truly happy.
Marius Petipa created the libretto and choreography based on Hoffmann's fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, while P.I. It seems that the fairy tale is written not just with words, but it already has sound, rhythm, melody. Hoffmann did not write it as a libretto for a ballet, but that is how it looks. There is a mystery, and love, and the struggle between good and evil, and a wonderful divertissement at the end. Music initially lives in this fairy tale and turns it into a special magical work art. This fairy tale attracted attention because it became a cult phenomenon and an invariable attribute of winter holidays in Western culture of the 20th century, primarily due to the ballet of the same name by P. I. Tchaikovsky.
THE MAGIC OF A CHRISTMAS TALE
A Christmas fairy tale is always a miracle, magic, magic, surprise, it is a lot of joyful emotions and heartfelt feelings!
famous fairy tale 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 shines in the living room, decorated with hundreds of small candles, when children are given wonderful gifts, and not only toys are hung on the branches of the forest beauty, but also sweets - sugared nuts, colorful sweets, golden and silver apples. Isn't it a miracle? All good 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, they are trying to destroy the ideal, magical world of children's fantasies. What is a fairy tale without the struggle between good and evil?
There is an enchanted prince in the fairy tale, and a princess who has fallen under evil spells (which is why she grew up unkind), and a sweet girl who has a lot to experience and find her happiness. From the very beginning, the reader seems very charming to the come to life funny little man the Nutcracker, who performs feat after feat and becomes a real hero. But cutest of all to a child's heart- the main character is a lovely seven-year-old Marie. Her kindness and dedication work wonders. But her brother Fritz is completely different: he thinks only about his military games and entertainment, he cannot pity and caress anyone. He breaks three of the Nutcracker's teeth, beats his toy horses, and lets tin soldiers kill each other. Well, how can one not recall modern computer shooting games, in which our children, without pity or regret, "wet" enemies or think over aggressive military plans and strategies...
But Marie loves and pities her toy Nutcracker, and as a reward he opens the way to the fairy-tale world for her.
In general, any fairy tale, even the most Christmas-leaf 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 won. Here, too, suddenly appeared in a rich house from nowhere appeared countless hordes of nasty, rustling and squeaking mice led by the Mouse King with seven heads. The gray army unfolds serious military operations against the toys. And the brave Nutcracker commands the animated puppets that entered the battle. Either the girl is dreaming of all this, or the fairy tale really visited her house, only Marie herself has to participate in all the amazing events.
The boys will obviously be intrigued by the description of the battle that is boiling in this toy world, skillfully designed by the author, and young readers will surely be interested to know how elegant dolls behaved when they saw serious battles. And the Nutcracker in battle, of course, is the best, although he does not win ...
But the main thing is that Marie showed herself to be a very fearless girl, ready to help a friend and sacrifice her favorite gifts, sweets and even her health for his salvation. 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 dedicated." Kind, affectionate, gentle Marie, in gratitude for her devotion and courage, a worthy reward awaits.
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 puppet kingdom, where her friend the Nutcracker is the king. Such a country, for sure, is the dream of all small children. Here everything is whimsical, elegant, magical, everything shines and sparkles. Lemonade rivers flow here and sugar-coated almonds bloom in the meadows, oranges are fragrant in the branches, and the capital of the kingdom-state is named Konfetenburg! So many joys and pleasures at once! But the author emphasizes all the time that the miraculous reward is not given in vain. After all, it was necessary to earn the favor and love of the ruler of the puppet kingdom, showing courage, loyalty, kindness and generosity. An ideal country of happiness, where everyone is happy, is available 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 handsome young man, a prince. But the hero, even in his ridiculous guise, behaves like a knight without fear and reproach: he is ready to perform feats for the sake of a beautiful lady. Marie feels 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 ugliness of the hero will disappear if a beautiful girl falls in love with him (remember, for example, Aksakov's "The Scarlet Flower"). Indeed, in the minds of any people, from time immemorial, the idea has been cherished that true beauty of a person - not in appearance, but in his beautiful inner qualities, in worthy deeds and, of course, in the ability to high, devoted love - the main human gift and eternal happiness!
Everything is too banal: small children find themselves in a fairy tale on Christmas night, toys come to life thanks to the wild imagination of the child, good heroes defeat evil ones, hides under the guise of a freak noble knight. There are hundreds of such books! Hoffmann is not at all original, because he went the beaten path ...
But why is his "Nutcracker" so captivating? Why, turning the last page, do you want to immediately return to the first chapter and again plunge into the sacrament? Because Hoffmann did not fantasize at all - from time to time he simply wandered around other worlds, and then shared his living impressions with those who were not given it.
Real and fictional
The plot basis fully reflects the features of Hoffmann's romanticism: good and bad, beautiful and ugly, honest and deceitful are very closely intertwined in everyday life. You can't tell them apart unless you look at reality through a magic magnifying glass. After all, scoundrels and respectable people wear the same coats, live in similar houses, go to work along the same streets. Both of them eat buns for breakfast, and sausages with cabbage for dinner. Only storytellers and children can look behind the scenes of the theater, in which unimagined, living characters play their roles. This concept of Hoffmann's worldview was allegorically embodied in The Nutcracker.
Synopsis
First, scenery appears before the reader and main character- a toy castle and a strange, unaesthetic doll designed for cracking nuts. These are gifts Fritz and Marie received from a longtime family friend, their godfather Drosselmeyer. To all the gifts of a skilled craftsman, brother and sister show genuine interest, as if feeling their hidden purpose.
It is no coincidence that something prompts the girl to go to the shelf with new toys in the middle of the night. Marie Stahlbaum finds herself at the epicenter of amazing events in time - the battle of the mouse army with the army of peace-loving dolls. She will be not only a witness, but also a character of a magical action: she becomes a victim of the spell of the treacherous Myshilda. Turning into almost a double of the Nutcracker helps Marie to feel the tragedy of the bewitched young man - Drosselmeyer's nephew.
Mastering the Krakatuk, healing Fraulein Stahlbaum with this powerful nut, and slaying the seven-headed monster mark a plot twist towards a happy climax. The Nutcracker and his owner now have a short but bright journey to the Country
Sweets, followed by a change in the appearance of a toothy little man, and then, as in many similar stories, the wedding of a young mistress and a handsome young man who regained his handsome appearance.
Features of understanding the intention
The story told by Hoffmann is fascinating and dynamic. Although the writer's style can hardly be called easy (especially from the point of view of a modern audience), young readers easily comprehend the main meaning of a wonderful story. However, there is a double bottom in the fairy tale, which was mentioned a little higher.
To see what the symbols hide, to understand the deep thoughts embodied in them, is the task of adults. The Nutcracker is one of those amazing books that aren't aimed at a specific age group. Everyone who comes into contact with this fairy tale is given the opportunity to perceive it at their own discretion - with their soul or mind or heart and consciousness at the same time.
This fairy tale does not contain a single funny or amusing scene. There are very few humorous episodes in Hoffmann's works. At the same time, they are bright and optimistic - like all fairy tales with a good ending.
Reviewed by Fedor Korneichuk.
Composition
The tale of E. T. Hoffmann "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" is one of the most famous works writer. In it, the author teaches us lessons of kindness, understanding, mercy, courage and selflessness.
We can say that Hoffmann teaches us morality - those norms that are accepted in society and should determine human behavior. So, we all know that we need to be kind, to treat each other with attention and sensitivity, to help our neighbor in trouble, to protect the weak, not to lie, to fight boldly for a just cause. The characters in The Nutcracker do just that.
The girl Marie fell in love with the unsightly and ugly Nutcracker at first sight. She was able to look into his soul and understand that this is a kind and courageous creature: "Marie noticed how kindly his face shone."
That is why Marie was very upset when her brother Fritz broke three of the little man's teeth. The heroine is ready to protect her pet with all her might: “No, no! Marie cried out in tears. “I won’t give you my dear Nutcracker.” She takes care of the poor Nutcracker, trying to make him feel less pain that Fritz caused him.
And in the future, Marie helps her pet in every possible way - for the sake of a friend, she is ready for anything. The girl fearlessly enters the battle with the mouse king, gives him all her delicacies, so long as he does not touch the little man: “Marie did not regret the sweets at all: in the depths of her soul she was happy, because she thought that she had saved the Nutcracker.”
But the mice are not enough - they wanted to get all the wealth of Marie.
In the fight against the mouse king, everyone unites - both Marie and her brother Fritz, and, of course, the Nutcracker. This little man takes the fight and defeats the mouse villain. And then, as a token of gratitude and love for Marie, he takes her to the Puppet Kingdom and introduces her as his savior: “Here is Mademoiselle Marie Stahlbaum, the daughter of a very worthy medical adviser and my savior.”
The tale ends with the victory of good against 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, Hoffmann tells us that kindness, patience, care, sensitivity, courage, faith can overcome any evil and make a person truly happy.
