The role of the grotesque in the story of the golden pot. Analysis of the romantic fairy tale "The Golden Pot" by Hoffmann

Subject.Hoffmann "The Golden Pot".

Target: to acquaint students with the work of one of the outstanding romantics of Europe; show the features of Hoffmann's romantic concept; learning to analyze a romantic work; strengthening the skills of asking questions; developing the skills of a coherent answer to a question.

Equipment: a portrait of the writer, a filmstrip on the biography and creative path of the writer; a book exhibition of Hoffmann's works, a selection of illustrations for The Golden Pot by various artists.

Epigraph: One minute, I wanted to ask:

Is it easy for Hoffmann to bear three names?

Oh, to grieve and be tired for three people

To the one who Ernst, and Theodore, and Amadeus.

A. Kushner

During the classes

1. Checking homework on the biography of the writer .

C/D - 3rd group (reproducing level) - answer the quiz questions.

Quiz questions

1. Where and when was E. born? (January 24, 1776 in Konigsberg)

2. What is the tragedy of the Hoffmann family? (In 1778, parents divorced, stayed with his mother)

3. Name the people with whom the writer cherished friendship all his life. (Theodor Gippel, Eduard Gitzig)

4. What was the reading circle of Hoffmann in his youth? (“The Suffering of Young Werther” by Goethe, “Confession” by Rousseau, Shakespeare, Stern, Jean-Paul)

5. Own Hoffmann replaced the third name "Wilhelm" with "Amadeus". What was the reason for this change? (Love for Mozart's music - took Mozart's name)

6. What education did Hoffmann receive and what did he do after graduation? (Legal, serviceable judicial officer)

7. Why was he exiled to Plock and then often persecuted, even before his death? (For caricatures of the authorities and for the fact that the authorities recognized themselves in his heroes)

8. How did creative recognition begin? (From a musical theater production of The Merry Musicians)

9. What role did Julia Mark play in Hoffmann's life? (Tragic love)

10. How did Hoffmann act in the Bamberg musical theater? (Composer, director, decorator, librettist, critic)

11. Name the work that brought Hoffmann the greatest fame. (Ondine" to Fouquet's libretto)

12. Name the most famous prose works of Hoffmann written over the last 9 years of his life. (“Kallo's Fantasies”, “Kreisleriana”, “Serapion Brothers”, “Devil's Elixirs”, “Worldly Views of Cat Murr”, “Golden Pot”, “The Nutcracker”, “Corner Window”, etc.)

13. Give the date of the writer's death. (June 25, 1822 - 46 years old)

B/D - For the 1st group (creative level) and the 2nd (constructive level) - a business game: "Editor of the ZhZL publishing house."

- You are the editor of the ZhZL publishing house, you need to prove the legitimacy of the publication of the volume “E. The Life of a Wonderful Man. Give arguments from the biography of the writer, formulate it in the form of an oral presentation to members of the editorial board. Convince your colleagues.

Oral presentations of students of these groups are heard, the best are noted.

Self-checking quiz answers by group 3..

2.Analysis of the fairy tale "The Golden Pot". The form is a round table discussion.

Even before the discussion begins, the students take their places so that they sit facing each other so that they can see each other well. The environment should be relaxed. Students ask home-prepared questions about the content of this work. Questions can be asked not only to a specific student who must answer this question, but questions can be directed to the teacher. Asking a question, the student says to whom he is addressing the question.

Indicative range of questions for discussion

What is the genre of this work? (Fairy tale)

Is this tale folklore? (No, a literary fairy tale, the so-called fairy tale from modern times)

What can you say about the main character of the story? (Student, poor, unlucky, sometimes funny loser - that is, endowed with individual traits, not always positive)

What draws the reader to this character? (Enthusiast, imaginative poet)

What is the conflict of the tale? (Conflict - a collision of the real world with the world of dreams: pushed a basket of apples from an evil old woman)

· How is the collision of Hoffmann's dual world reflected in the depiction of the love line of the plot? (Serpentina - Veronica)

What are Serpentina and Veronica? (Both are attractive in their own way: Veronica represents the sphere of everyday life, dreams of achieving everything in real life: she dreams of being a court adviser. Serpentina is the embodiment of a high spirit)

How is the world of everyday life reflected in a fairy tale through a symbol? (The sorceress is a domestic force, terrible, but also attractive, attractive)

· What is philistinism and how does it affect the person portrayed by Hoffmann? (It deprives a person of high aspirations)

How does Hoffmann depict the triumph of things over man? (Things live a human life)

· What is Hoffmann opposed to this terrible world of materialism? (Dream world)

Which of the characters in the fairy tale belongs to the dream world? (Fairy-tale characters: the prince of spirits, Soloman, his daughters are three green snakes)

What is the world in which these characters live? (The objects in it lose their material omnipotence: music, colors, poetry, the high dream world)

Is this world open to everyone? (Enthusiasts only)

How does the main character behave? Which world does he choose? (Anselm either rushes into the world of poetry, then into everyday life - to Veronica)

What role does the feeling of being in a closed glass vessel play in choosing Anselm? (Thus, he understands even more strongly his loneliness in the world of materialism, the vacuum of spiritual life, emotional poverty)

What choice does the hero make? (After she shakes off everyday life, marries Serpentina, they will move to the fabulous kingdom of Atlantis)

Why is the ending ironic? (Atlantis is a dream, but not a reality. Hoffmann questions the very romantic dream. He feels fear of the phenomena of life in their irrationality)

What is Hoffmann's aesthetic ideal? (Creative world, dream world)

W/a – What are the features of Hoffmann's romanticism in the fairy tale "The Golden Pot". Write them down in your notebooks.

Features of romanticism in the fairy tale "The Golden Pot"

1. Subjectivism.

2. The connection of romanticism with folklore.

3. the position of a "natural" person.

4. A combination of reality and fantasy.

5. Showing the complexity and inconsistency of the human character.

6. Synthesis of arts (literature, music, visual arts, light music).

7. Use of symbols.

8. Grotesque.

Conclusion: The main conflict of the work is between the dream and reality, which is reflected in the construction of the work - in the romantic dual world. The aesthetic ideal of Hoffmann is the creative world, the world of dreams, the beautiful. The combination of reality and fantasy in the narrative further emphasizes the incompatibility of these two worlds. Synthesis of the Arts

Music and poetry are ideal forms of expressing the romantic idea of ​​the world and man, the author's "I". The fairy tale is dominated by subjectivism as the leading principle in the approach to the world and man in romantic art. Fantasy and imagination play a big role. Ironically, Hoffmann destroys normative aesthetics. "Fairy tale" as "canon of poetry" (Novalis). Grotesque, the connection of romanticism with folklore is not only at the level of the genre. Poetization of the "natural" person as the bearer of the individual, unique. Hoffmann develops an idea of ​​the complexity and inconsistency of human nature.

3. The result of the lesson.

4. Homework.

On the Feast of the Ascension, about three o'clock in the afternoon, a young man, a student named Anselm, was rapidly walking through the Black Gate in Dresden. By chance, he knocked over a huge basket of apples and pies sold by an ugly old woman. He gave the old woman his skinny purse. The peddler hurriedly seized him and burst into terrible curses and threats. “You will fall under glass, under glass!” she screamed. Accompanied by malevolent laughter and sympathetic glances, Anselm turned onto a secluded road along the Elbe. He began to complain loudly about his worthless life.

Anselm's monologue was interrupted by a strange rustling coming from the elder bush. Sounds like crystal bells rang out. Looking up, Anselm saw three lovely golden-green snakes twined around the branches. One of the three snakes stretched its head towards him and looked at him tenderly with wonderful dark blue eyes. Anselm was seized by a feeling of the highest bliss and the deepest sorrow. Suddenly a rough, thick voice was heard, the snakes rushed into the Elbe and disappeared as suddenly as they appeared.

Anselm in anguish embraced the trunk of an elderberry, frightening with his appearance and wild speeches the townspeople walking in the park. Hearing unforest remarks at his own expense, Anselm woke up and rushed to run. Suddenly he was called. It turned out to be his friends - the registrar Geerbrand and the director Paulman with their daughters. The rector invited Anselm to take a boat ride on the Elbe with them and finish the evening with dinner at his house. Now Anselm clearly understood that the golden snakes were just a reflection of the fireworks in the foliage. Nevertheless, that same unknown feeling, bliss or sorrow, again squeezed his chest.

During the walk, Anselm almost capsized the boat, shouting strange speeches about golden snakes. Everyone agreed that the young man was clearly not himself, and his poverty and bad luck were to blame. Geerbrand offered him a job as a scribe for the archivist Lindgorst for decent money - he was just looking for a talented calligrapher and draftsman to copy manuscripts from his library. The student was sincerely happy about this offer, because his passion was to copy difficult calligraphic works.

On the morning of the next day, Anselm dressed up and went to Lindhorst. He was just about to grab the knocker on the door of the archivist's house, when suddenly the bronze face contorted and turned into an old woman, whose apples Anselm scattered at the Black Gate. Anselm recoiled in horror and grabbed the cord of the bell. In his ringing, the student heard ominous words: "You will be in glass, in crystal." The bell cord went down and turned out to be a gigantic white transparent snake. She wrapped around and squeezed him, so that the blood spattered from the veins, penetrating the snake's body and turning it red. The snake raised its head and laid its tongue of red-hot iron on Anselm's chest. From a sharp pain he lost his senses. The student woke up in his poor bed, and over him stood the director Paulman.

After this incident, Anselm did not dare to approach the archivist's house again. No persuasion of friends led to anything, the student was considered in fact mentally ill, and, according to the registrar Geerbrand, the best remedy for this was to work with an archivist. In order to introduce Anselm and Lindgorst closer, the registrar arranged a meeting for them one evening in a coffee shop.

That evening, the archivist told a strange story about a fiery lily that was born in a primeval valley, and about the young Phosphorus, for whom the lily was inflamed with love. Phosphorus kissed the lily, it flared up in a bright flame, a new creature came out of it and flew away, not caring about the young man in love. Phosphorus began to mourn his lost girlfriend. A black dragon flew out of the rock, caught this creature, hugged it with its wings, and it again turned into a lily, but her love for Phosphorus became a sharp pain, from which everything around faded and withered. Phosphorus fought the dragon and freed the lily, who became the queen of the valley. “I come from that valley, and the fiery lily was my great-great-great-great-grandmother, so I myself am a prince,” Lindhorst concluded. These words of the archivist caused awe in the soul of the student.

Every evening the student came to that same elderberry bush, hugged it and exclaimed sadly: “Ah! I love you, snake, and I will die of sadness if you do not return! On one of these evenings, the archivist Lindgorst approached him. Anselm told him about all the extraordinary events that had happened to him lately. The archivist informed Anselm that the three snakes were his daughters, and that he was in love with the youngest, Serpentina. Lindgorst invited the young man to his place and gave him a magical liquid - protection from the old witch. After that, the archivist turned into a kite and flew away.

Paulman's daughter Veronica, having accidentally heard that Anselm could become a court adviser, began to dream of the role of a court adviser and his wife. In the midst of her dreams, she heard an unknown and terrible creaky voice that said: “He will not be your husband!”.

Having heard from a friend that an old fortune-teller Frau Rauerin lives in Dresden, Veronica decided to turn to her for advice. “Leave Anselm,” said the witch to the girl. - He's a bad person. He contacted my enemy, the evil old man. He is in love with his daughter, a green snake. He will never be a court adviser." Dissatisfied with the words of the fortune teller, Veronica wanted to leave, but then the fortune teller turned into the girl's old nanny, Lisa. To delay Veronica, the nanny said that she would try to heal Anselm from the spell of the sorcerer. To do this, the girl must come to her at night, on the future equinox. Hope again woke up in the soul of Veronica.

Meanwhile, Anselm set to work with the archivist. Lindhorst gave the student some kind of black mass instead of ink, strangely colored pens, unusually white and smooth paper, and ordered him to copy the Arabic manuscript. With every word, Anselm's courage increased, and with it, skill. It seemed to the young man that the serpentine was helping him. The archivist read his secret thoughts and said that this work is a test that will lead him to happiness.

On a cold and windy night of the equinox, a fortune teller led Veronica into a field. She kindled a fire under the cauldron and threw into it those strange bodies that she had brought with her in a basket. Following them, a curl from Veronica's head and her ring flew into the cauldron. The witch told the girl to keep looking into the boiling brew. Suddenly, Anselm came out of the depths of the cauldron and held out his hand to Veronica. The old woman opened the faucet at the boiler, and molten metal flowed into the substituted form. At the same moment, a thunderous voice rang out over her head: “Get away, hurry!” The old woman fell to the ground with a howl, and Veronica fainted. When she came to her senses at home, on her couch, she found in the pocket of her soaking raincoat a silver mirror, which had been cast by a fortune-teller the previous night. From the mirror, as at night from a boiling cauldron, her lover looked at the girl.

The student Anselm had been working for the archivist for many days. The writing went fast. It seemed to Anselm that the lines he was copying had long been known to him. He always felt Serpentina next to him, sometimes her light breath touched him. Soon Serpentina appeared to the student and said that her father actually comes from the Salamander tribe. He fell in love with a green snake, the daughter of a lily, which grew in the garden of the prince of spirits Phosphorus. The Salamander embraced the snake, it disintegrated into ashes, a winged creature was born from it and flew away.

In desperation, the Salamander ran through the garden, devastating it with fire. Phosphorus, the prince of the country of Atlantis, became angry, put out the flame of the Salamander, doomed him to life in the form of a man, but left him a magical gift. Only then will the Salamander throw off this heavy burden, when there are young men who will hear the singing of his three daughters and fall in love with them. As a dowry, they will receive a Golden Pot. At the moment of betrothal, a fiery lily will grow out of the pot, the young man will understand its language, comprehend everything that is open to incorporeal spirits, and with his beloved will begin to live in Atlantis. The Salamander, having finally received forgiveness, will return there. The old witch strives for possession of the golden pot. Serpentina warned Anselm: "Beware of the old woman, she is hostile to you, since your childishly pure disposition has already destroyed many of her evil spells." In conclusion, the kiss burned Anselm's lips. Waking up, the student found that Serpentina's story was imprinted on his copy of the mysterious manuscript.

Although Anselm's soul was turned to dear Serpentina, he sometimes involuntarily thought of Veronica. Soon Veronica begins to appear to him in a dream and gradually takes possession of his thoughts. One morning, instead of going to the archivist, he went to visit Paulman, where he spent the whole day. There he accidentally saw a magic mirror in which he began to look along with Veronica. A struggle began in Anselm, and then it became clear to him that he always thought only of Veronica. A hot kiss made the feeling of a student even stronger. Anselm promised Veronica to marry her.

After dinner, the registrar Geerbrand appeared with everything needed to make punch. With the first sip of the drink, the oddities and wonders of the last weeks rose again before Anselm. He began to dream aloud of the Serpentine. Suddenly, after him, the owner and Geerbrand begin to shout and roar, as if possessed: “Long live the Salamander! Let the old woman perish!" Veronica tried in vain to convince them that old Liza would certainly defeat the sorcerer. In mad terror, Anselm fled to his closet and fell asleep. Waking up, he again began to dream about his marriage to Veronica. Now neither the archivist's garden nor Lindhorst himself seemed so magical to him.

The next day, the student continued his work with the archivist, but now it seemed to him that the parchment of the manuscript was covered not with letters, but with intricate scribbles. Trying to copy the letter, Anselm dripped ink on the manuscript. Blue lightning flew out of the spot, an archivist appeared in thick fog and severely punished the student for his mistake. Lindhorst imprisoned Anselm in one of those crystal jars that stood on the table in the archivist's office. Next to him stood five more flasks, in which the young man saw three scholars and two scribes, who once also worked for the archivist. They began to mock Anselm: "The madman imagines that he is sitting in a bottle, while he himself is standing on a bridge and looking at his reflection in the river!" They also laughed at the crazy old man who showered them with gold for drawing scribbles for him. Anselm turned away from his frivolous comrades in misfortune and directed all his thoughts and feelings to dear Serpentina, who still loved him and tried her best to alleviate Anselm's situation.

Suddenly Anselm heard a muffled grumbling and recognized the witch in the old coffee pot opposite. She promised him salvation if he marries Veronica. Anselm proudly refused. Then the old woman grabbed a golden pot and tried to hide, but the archivist overtook her. The next moment, the student saw a mortal battle between the sorcerer and the old woman, from which the Salamander emerged victorious, and the witch turned into an ugly beet. At this moment of triumph, Serpentina appeared before Anselm, announcing to him the granted forgiveness. The glass cracked and he fell into the arms of the lovely Serpentina.

The next day, Registrar Geerbrand and Con-Rector Paulman could not understand in any way how an ordinary punch had brought them to such excesses. Finally, they decided that the damned student, who infected them with his madness, was to blame for everything. Many months have passed. On the day of Veronica's name day, the newly-made court adviser Geerbrand came to Paulman's house and offered the girl a hand and a heart. She agreed and told her future husband about her love for Anselm and about the witch. A few weeks later, Mrs. Geerbrand, the court adviser, settled in a beautiful house on the New Market.

The author received a letter from the archivist Lindhorst with permission to publicize the story of the strange fate of his son-in-law, a former student, and now the poet Anselm, and with an invitation to complete the story of the Golden Pot in the very hall of his house where the illustrious student Anselm worked. Anselm himself became engaged to Serpentina in a beautiful temple, inhaled the scent of a lily that grew from a golden pot, and found eternal bliss in Atlantis.

retold

The world of Hoffmann's fairy tale has pronounced signs of a romantic dual world, which is embodied in the work in various ways. Romantic duality is realized in the story through a direct explanation by the characters of the origin and structure of the world in which they live.

“There is a local, earthly, everyday world and another world, magical Atlantis, from which man once originated. This is exactly what Serpentina tells Anselm about her father, the archivist Lindhorst, who, as it turned out, is the prehistoric elemental spirit of fire Salamander, who lived in the magical land of Atlantis and was exiled to earth by the prince of spirits Phosphorus for his love for the daughter of a lily snake "Chavchanidze D. L. "Romantic irony" in the work of E.T.-A. Hoffmann // Scientific notes of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. IN AND. Lenin. - No. 280. - M., 1967. - S.73 ..

This fantastic story is perceived as an arbitrary fiction that is not of serious importance for understanding the characters of the story, but it is said that Phosphorus, the prince of spirits, predicts the future: people will degenerate (namely, they will no longer understand the language of nature), and only longing will vaguely remind of the existence of another world (the ancient homeland of man), at that time the Salamander will be reborn and in its development it will reach a person who, having been reborn in this way, will again perceive nature - this is already a new anthropodicy, the doctrine of man. Anselm belongs to the people of the new generation, as he is able to see and hear natural miracles and believe in them - after all, he fell in love with a beautiful snake that appeared to him in a flowering elderberry bush.

Serpentina calls this the “naive poetic soul” possessed by “those young men who, due to the excessive simplicity of their morals and their complete lack of so-called secular education, are despised and ridiculed by the crowd” Hoffman E.T.-A. "Golden Pot" and other stories. -M., 1981. - P. 23. Man on the verge of two worlds: partly earthly being, partly spiritual. In fact, in all the works of Hoffmann, the world is arranged in this way. Hoffman.-M., 1982. - S.118..

The duality is realized in the system of characters, namely, in the fact that the characters are clearly distinguished by belonging or inclination to the forces of good and evil. In The Golden Pot, these two forces are represented, for example, by the archivist Lindgorst, his daughter Serpentina on the side of good, and the old witch on the side of evil. An exception is the protagonist, who is under the equal influence of both forces, is subject to this changeable and eternal struggle between good and evil.

Anselm’s soul is a “battlefield” between these forces, see, for example, how easily Anselm’s worldview changes when he looks into Veronica’s magic mirror: only yesterday he was madly in love with Serpentina and wrote down the history of the archivist in his house with mysterious signs, and today it seems to him that he only thought about Veronica, “that the image that appeared to him yesterday in the blue room was again Veronica and that the fantastic tale of the marriage of Salamander with a green snake was only written by him, and not told to him in any way . He himself marveled at his dreams and attributed them to his exalted, due to love for Veronica, state of mind ... ”Hoffman E.T.-A. "Golden Pot" and other stories. -M. 1981. - P. 42. The human consciousness lives in dreams and each of these dreams always, it would seem, finds objective evidence, but, in fact, all these states of mind are the result of the influence of the fighting spirits of good and evil. The extreme antinomy of the world and man is a characteristic feature of the romantic worldview.

“The dual world is realized in the images of a mirror, which are found in large numbers in the story: a smooth metal mirror of an old fortune-teller, a crystal mirror made of rays of light from a ring on the hand of the archivist Lindhorst, Veronica’s magic mirror that enchanted Anselm” Chavchanidze D.L. "Romantic irony" in the work of E.T.-A. Hoffmann // Scientific notes of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. IN AND. Lenin. - No. 280. - M., 1967. - S.84 ..

The color scheme used by Hoffmann in the depiction of objects from the artistic world of the "Golden Pot" betrays that the story belongs to the era of romanticism. These are not just subtle shades of color, but necessarily dynamic, moving colors and whole color schemes, often completely fantastic: “pike-gray tailcoat” Hoffman E.T.-A. "Golden Pot" and other stories. -M., 1981. - P.11., “Snakes shining with green gold” Ibid. - P.15., "sparkling emeralds fell on him and wrapped around him with sparkling golden threads, fluttering and playing around him with thousands of lights" Ibid. - P.16., "blood spattered from the veins, penetrating into the transparent body of the snake and coloring it red" Ibid. - P.52., “beams came out of the precious stone, as from a burning focus, in all directions, which, when combined, made up a brilliant crystal mirror” Ibid. - P.35..

The same feature - dynamism, elusive fluidity - is possessed by sounds in the artistic world of Hoffmann's works (the rustle of elderberry leaves gradually turns into the ringing of crystal bells, which, in turn, turns out to be a quiet, intoxicating whisper, then bells again, and suddenly everything is cut off by rude dissonance, noise water under the oars of the boat reminds Anselm of a whisper).

Wealth, gold, money, jewelry are presented in the artistic world of Hoffmann's tale as a mystical object, a fantastic magic tool, an object partly from another world. “Spices-thaler every day - it was this payment that seduced Anselm and helped him overcome his fear to go to the mysterious archivist, it is this spices-taler that turns living people into chained, as if poured into glass” Hoffman E.T.-A. "Golden Pot" and other stories. -M., 1981. - P.33. Lindhorst's precious ring is able to charm a person. In dreams of the future, Veronica imagines her husband, the court councilor Anselm, and he has “a gold watch with a rehearsal, and he gives her the latest style, nice, wonderful earrings” Ibid. - P.42..

The heroes of the story are distinguished by a clear romantic specificity. Archivist Lindgorst is the keeper of ancient mysterious manuscripts, containing, apparently, mystical meanings, in addition, he is also engaged in mysterious chemical experiments and does not let anyone into this laboratory. Anselm is a copyist of manuscripts, who is fluent in calligraphic writing. Anselm, Veronica, Kapellmeister Geerbrand have an ear for music, are able to sing and even compose music. In general, all belong to the scientific community, are associated with the extraction, storage and dissemination of knowledge.

The nationality of the heroes is definitely not mentioned, but it is known that many heroes are not people at all, but magical creatures born from marriage, for example, a black dragon's feather and a beetroot. Nevertheless, the rare nationality of the heroes as an obligatory and habitual element of romantic literature is still present, although in the form of a weak motive: the archivist Lindgorst keeps manuscripts in Arabic and Coptic, as well as many books “of those that are written in some strange signs, not belonging to any of the known languages" Ibid. - P.36..

The style of the "Golden Pot" is distinguished by the use of the grotesque, which is not only the individual identity of Hoffmann, but also of romantic literature in general. “He stopped and examined a large knocker attached to a bronze figure. But as soon as he wanted to take up this hammer at the last resounding strike of the tower clock on the Cross Church, when suddenly the bronze face twisted and grinned into a disgusting smile and terribly flashed with rays of metal eyes. Oh! It was an apple vendor from the Black Gate…” Hoffman E.T.-A. "Golden Pot" and other stories. -M., 1981. - P.13., “The cord of the bell went down and turned out to be a white transparent gigantic snake ...” Ibid. - P.42., “With these words, he turned and left, and then everyone realized that the important little man was, in fact, a gray parrot” Ibid. - P.35..

Fiction allows you to create the effect of a romantic dual world: there is the local, real world, where ordinary people think about a portion of coffee with rum, double beer, smart girls, etc., and there is a fantasy world. Fantasy in Hoffmann's story comes from grotesque imagery: one of the signs of an object with the help of the grotesque is increased to such an extent that the object, as it were, turns into another, already fantastic. For example, the episode with Anselm moving into a bottle.

The image of a man bound by glass, apparently, is based on Hoffmann's idea that people sometimes do not realize their lack of freedom - Anselm, having got into a bottle, notices the same unfortunate people around him, but they are quite satisfied with their position and think that they are free, that they they even go to taverns, etc., and Anselm has gone mad (“imagines that he is sitting in a glass jar, but stands on the Elbe bridge and looks into the water” Ibid. - P. 40.).

The author's digressions quite often appear in the relatively small text of the story (almost in each of the 12 vigils). Obviously, the artistic meaning of these episodes is to clarify the author's position, namely the author's irony. “I have the right to doubt, kind reader, that you ever happened to be corked in a glass vessel…” Ibid. - P.40.. These obvious authorial digressions set the inertia of perception of the rest of the text, which turns out to be all permeated with romantic irony See: Chavchanidze D. L. "Romantic irony" in the work of E.T.-A. Hoffmann // Scientific notes of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. V. I. Lenin. - No. 280. - M., 1967. - P.83.

Finally, the author's digressions play another important role: in the last vigil, the author announced that, firstly, he would not tell the reader how he got to know all this secret history, and secondly, that Salamander Lindhorst himself suggested and helped him complete the story about the fate of Anselm, who moved, as it turned out, along with Serpentina from ordinary earthly life to Atlantis. The very fact of the author’s communication with the elemental spirit Salamander casts a shadow of madness over the entire narrative, but the last words of the story answer many questions and doubts of the reader, reveal the meaning of the key allegories: “Anselm’s bliss is nothing but life in poetry, which is the sacred harmony of all things reveals itself as the deepest of the mysteries of nature!” Hoffman E.T.-A. "Golden Pot" and other stories. -M., 1981. - P.55..

Sometimes two realities, two parts of the romantic dual world intersect and give rise to funny situations. So, for example, drunken Anselm begins to talk about the other side of reality known only to him, namely, about the true face of the archivist and Serpentina, which looks like nonsense, since those around are not ready to immediately understand that “Mr. the garden of the prince of spirits Phosphorus in hearts because a green snake flew away from him ”Ibid. - P.45 .. However, one of the participants in this conversation - the registrar Geerbrand - suddenly showed awareness of what was happening in the parallel real world: “This archivist is really the damned Salamander; he flicks fire with his fingers and burns holes in frock coats in the manner of a fiery pipe ”Ibid. - P.45 .. Carried away by the conversation, the interlocutors completely stopped responding to the amazement of those around them and continued to talk about heroes and events understandable only to them, for example, about the old woman - “her dad is nothing but a torn wing, her mother is a bad beet” Hoffman E.T.-A. "Golden Pot" and other stories. -M., 1981. - P.45..

The author's irony makes it especially noticeable that the characters live between two worlds. Here, for example, is the beginning of Veronica's remark, who suddenly entered into a conversation: "This is a vile slander," Veronica exclaimed with eyes sparkling with anger ... "Ibid. - P.45 .. It seems to the reader for a moment that Veronika, who does not know the whole truth about who an archivist or an old woman is, is outraged by these crazy characteristics of Mr. Lindhorst and old Liza, whom she knows, but it turns out that Veronika is also in the know and outraged by a completely different one: “... Old Liza is a wise woman, and the black cat is not at all an evil creature, but an educated young man of the most subtle treatment and her cousin germain” Ibid. - P.46..

The conversation of the interlocutors takes quite ridiculous forms (Geerbrand, for example, asks the question “can the Salamander eat without burning his beard ..?” Ibid. - P. 46.), any serious meaning of it is finally destroyed by irony. However, irony changes our understanding of what was before: if everyone from Anselm to Geerband and Veronica is familiar with the other side of reality, then this means that in ordinary conversations that happened between them before, they withheld from each other their knowledge of a different reality, or these conversations contained hints, ambiguous words, which were invisible to the reader, but understandable to the characters, and so on. Irony, as it were, dispels a holistic perception of a thing (a person, an event), settles a vague feeling of understatement and “misunderstanding” of the surrounding world See: Skobelev A.V. On the problem of the correlation of romantic irony and satire in the work of Hoffmann // The Artistic World of E.T.-A. Hoffmann. - M., 1982. - S. 128.

The listed features of Hoffmann's story "The Golden Pot" clearly indicate the presence in this work of elements of a mythological worldview. The author constructs two parallel worlds, each with its own mythology. The ordinary world with its Christian worldview does not attract the author's close attention in terms of mythology, however, the fantastic world is described not only in the brightest details, but for it the author also invented and described in detail the mythological picture of its structure. That is why Hoffmann's fantasy is not inclined to the forms of implicit fantasy, but on the contrary, it turns out to be explicit, emphasized, magnificently and unrestrainedly developed - this leaves a noticeable imprint on the world order of Hoffmann's romantic fairy tale.

Every nation has its own stories. They freely intertwine fiction with real historical events, and they are a kind of encyclopedia of traditions and everyday features of different countries. Folk tales have existed in oral form for centuries, while author's tales began to appear only with the development of printing. The tales of Gesner, Wieland, Goethe, Hauff, Brentano were fertile ground for the development of romanticism in Germany. At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the name of the Grimm brothers sounded loudly, who created an amazing, magical world in their works. But one of the most famous fairy tales was The Golden Pot (Hoffmann). A summary of this work will allow you to get acquainted with some features of German romanticism, which had a huge impact on the further development of art.

Romanticism: origins

German romanticism is one of the most interesting and fruitful periods in art. It began in literature, giving a powerful impetus to all other art forms. Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries bore little resemblance to a magical, poetic country. But the burgher life, simple and rather primitive, turned out, oddly enough, the most fertile ground for the birth of the most spiritualized direction in culture. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann opened the door to it. The character of the insane Kapellmeister Kreisler, created by him, became the herald of a new hero, overwhelmed by feelings only in the most superlative degree, immersed in his inner world more than in the real one. Hoffmann also owns the amazing work "The Golden Pot". This is one of the peaks of German literature and a real encyclopedia of romanticism.

History of creation

The fairy tale "The Golden Pot" was written by Hoffmann in 1814 in Dresden. Shells exploded outside the window and bullets of the Napoleonic army whistled, and at the writer's table an amazing world was born, filled with miracles and magical characters. Hoffmann had just experienced a severe shock when his beloved Yulia Mark was married off by his parents to a wealthy businessman. The writer once again faced the vulgar rationalism of the philistines. An ideal world in which the harmony of all things reigns - this is what E. Hoffmann longed for. The "Golden Pot" is an attempt to invent such a world and settle in it, at least in the imagination.

Geographical coordinates

An amazing feature of the "Golden Pot" is that the scenery for this fairy tale is based on a real city. The heroes walk along Zamkova Street, bypassing Link's Baths. Pass through the Black and Lake gates. Miracles happen at real festivities on Ascension Day. The heroes go boating, the Osters ladies pay a visit to their friend Veronica. The registrar Geerbrand tells his fantastic story about the love of Lilia and Phosphorus, drinking punch at the evening at the director Paulman, and no one even raises an eyebrow. Hoffmann so closely intertwines the fictional world with the real one that the line between them is almost completely erased.

"Golden Pot" (Hoffmann). Summary: the beginning of an amazing adventure

On the day of the Feast of the Ascension, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, the student Anselm strides along the pavement. After passing through the Black Gate, he accidentally knocks over an apple seller's basket and, in order to somehow make amends for his guilt, gives her his last money. The old woman, however, not satisfied with the compensation, pours out a whole stream of curses and curses on Anselm, from which he catches only what threatens to be under glass. Dejected, the young man starts wandering aimlessly around the city when he suddenly hears the slight rustle of elderberry. Peering into the foliage, Anselm decided that he saw three wonderful golden snakes writhing in the branches and whispering something mysteriously. One of the snakes brings its graceful head closer to him and looks intently into his eyes. Anselm becomes wildly delighted and begins to talk with them, which attracts the bewildered glances of passers-by. The conversation is interrupted by the registrar Geerbrand and the director Paulman with their daughters. Seeing that Anselm is a little out of his mind, they decide that he is crazy from incredible poverty and bad luck. They offer the young man to come to the director in the evening. At this reception, the unfortunate student receives an offer from the archivist Lindhorst to enter his service as a calligrapher. Realizing that he can’t count on anything better, Anselm accepts the offer.

This initial section contains the main conflict between the soul looking for miracles (Anselm) and the mundane, preoccupied with everyday consciousness (“Dresden characters”), which forms the basis of the dramaturgy of the story “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). A summary of Anselm's further adventures follows.

magic house

Miracles began as soon as Anselm approached the archivist's house. The knocker suddenly turned into the face of an old woman whose basket was overturned by a young man. The cord of the bell turned out to be a white snake, and again Anselm heard the prophetic words of the old woman. In horror, the young man ran away from the strange house, and no amount of persuasion helped convince him to visit this place again. In order to establish contact between the archivist and Anselm, the registrar Geerbrand invited them both to a coffee shop, where he told the mythical story of the love of Lily and Phosphorus. It turned out that this Lilia is Lindgorst's great-great-great-grandmother, and royal blood flows in his veins. In addition, he said that the golden snakes that so captivated the young man were his daughters. This finally convinced Anselm that he needed to try his luck again in the archivist's house.

Visit to a fortune teller

The daughter of the registrar Geerbrand, imagining that Anselm could become a court adviser, convinced herself that she was in love, and set out to marry him. To be sure, she went to a fortuneteller, who told her that Anselm had contacted evil forces in the person of the archivist, fell in love with his daughter - a green snake - and he would never become an adviser. In order to somehow console the unfortunate girl, the sorceress promised to help her by making a magic mirror through which Veronica could bewitch Anselm to herself and save him from the evil old man. In fact, there was a long-standing enmity between the fortune teller and the archivist, and in this way the sorceress wanted to settle accounts with her enemy.

magic ink

Lindgorst, in turn, also provided Anselm with a magical artifact - he gave him a bottle with a mysterious black mass, with which the young man was supposed to rewrite the letters from the book. Every day the symbols became more and more understandable to Anselm, soon it began to seem to him that he had known this text for a long time. On one of the working days, Serpentina appeared to him - a snake with which Anselm fell unconsciously in love. She said that her father comes from the Salamander tribe. For his love for the green snake, he was expelled from the magical land of Atlantis and doomed to remain in human form until someone can hear the singing of his three daughters and fall in love with them. As a dowry, they were promised a golden pot. When betrothed, a lily will grow out of him, and whoever can learn to understand her language will open the door to Atlantis for himself and for the Salamander.

When Serpentina disappeared, giving Anselm a burning kiss as a farewell, the young man looked at the letters he was copying and realized that everything said by the snake was contained in them.

happy ending

For a while, Veronica's magic mirror had an effect on Anselm. He forgot Serpetina and began to dream of Paulman's daughter. Arriving at the archivist's house, he found that he had ceased to perceive the world of miracles, the letters, which until recently he had read with ease, again turned into incomprehensible squiggles. Having dripped ink on the parchment, the young man was imprisoned in a glass jar as punishment for his oversight. Looking around, he saw several more of the same cans with young people. Only they did not understand at all that they were in captivity, mocking Anselm's suffering.

Suddenly, grumbling came from the coffee pot, and the young man recognized in it the voice of the notorious old woman. She promised to save him if he marries Veronica. Anselm angrily refused, and the witch tried to escape with the golden pot. But then the formidable Salamander blocked her path. A battle took place between them: Lindgorst won, Anselm's mirror spell fell off, and the sorceress turned into a nasty beetroot.

All attempts by Veronica to tie Anselm to her ended in failure, but the girl did not lose heart for long. Con- rector Paulman, who was appointed court councilor, offered her his hand and heart, and she gladly gave her consent. Anselm and Serpentina are happily engaged and find eternal bliss in Atlantis.

"Golden Pot", Hoffmann. Heroes

Enthusiastic student Anselm is unlucky in real life. There is no doubt that Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann associates himself with him. The young man passionately wants to find his place in the social hierarchy, but stumbles upon the rough, unimaginative world of the burghers, that is, the townsfolk. His inconsistency with reality is clearly demonstrated at the very beginning of the story, when he overturns the basket of an apple seller. Powerful people, firmly standing with their feet on the ground, make fun of him, and he keenly feels his exclusion from their world. But as soon as he gets a job with the archivist Lindhorst, his life begins to improve immediately. In his house, he finds himself in a magical reality and falls in love with a golden snake - the youngest daughter of the archivist Serpentina. Now the meaning of his existence is the desire to win her love and trust. In the image of Serpentina, Hoffmann embodied the ideal beloved - elusive, elusive and fabulously beautiful.

The magical world of the Salamander is contrasted with "Dresden" characters: the director Paulman, Veronica, the registrar Geerbrand. They are completely deprived of the ability to observe miracles, considering belief in them a manifestation of mental illness. Only Veronica, in love with Anselm, sometimes opens the veil over the fantastic world. But she loses this susceptibility as soon as a court adviser appears on the horizon with a marriage proposal.

Genre features

"A Tale from New Times" - this is the name Hoffmann himself suggested for his story "The Golden Pot". An analysis of the features of this work, carried out in several studies, makes it difficult to accurately determine the genre in which it is written: the chronicle plot makes it possible to attribute it to a story, an abundance of magic - to a fairy tale, a small volume - to a short story. The real, with its dominance of philistinism and pragmatism, and the fantastic land of Atlantis, where access is available only to people with heightened sensitivity, exist in parallel. Thus, Hoffmann affirms the principle of two worlds. Blurring of forms and duality in general were characteristic of romantic works. Drawing inspiration from the past, the Romantics looked longingly into the future, hoping to find in such unity the best of all possible worlds.

Hoffmann in Russia

The first translation from the German fairy tale by Hoffmann “The Golden Pot” was published in Russia in the 20s of the 19th century and immediately attracted the attention of all thinking intelligentsia. Belinsky wrote that the prose of the German writer is opposed to vulgar everyday life and rational clarity. Herzen devoted his first article to an essay on the life and work of Hoffmann. In the library of A.S. Pushkin there was a complete collection of Hoffmann's works. Translation from German was made into French - according to the then tradition to give preference to this language over Russian. Oddly enough, in Russia the German writer was much more popular than in his homeland.

Atlantis is a mythical country where the unattainable in reality harmony of all things was realized. It is in such a place that the student Anselm seeks to get in the fairy tale story “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). The brief summary of his adventures, unfortunately, cannot allow one to enjoy either the smallest twists in the plot, or all the amazing miracles that Hoffmann's fantasy scattered on his way, or the refined style of narration peculiar only to German romanticism. This article is intended only to awaken your interest in the work of the great musician, writer, artist and lawyer.

The fairy tale "The Golden Pot" most fully reflects the multidirectionality and broad outlook of its author. Hoffmann was not only a gifted and successful writer, but also a talented artist and composer, and had a legal education. That is why the chimes of crystal bells and the colors of the magical world are so vividly conveyed in it. In addition, this work is valuable because it reflects all the main trends and themes of romanticism: the role of the arts, duality, love and happiness, routine and dream, knowledge of the world, lies and truth. The "Golden Pot" is truly unique in its extraordinary versatility.

Romanticism is not only dreaming of magic or seeking adventure. It is important to keep in mind the historical events against which this trend developed. "Golden Pot" is part of the collection "Fantasy in the manner of Callot." It was created in 1813-15, and this is the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Dreams of freedom, equality and fraternity have collapsed, the ordinary world can only be countered by a fictional, illusory one. The publisher of the collection is K.-F. Kunz, wine merchant and close friend of Hoffmann. The connecting link of the works of the collection "Fantasy in the manner of Callo" was the subtitle "Leaves from the diary of a Wandering Enthusiast", which, by compositional unity, gives even more mystery to the tales.

The Golden Pot was created by Hoffmann in Dresden in 1814. During this period, the writer is experiencing a mental shock: his beloved was married to a wealthy businessman. Historical events and personal drama prompted the writer to create his own fairy-tale fantasy.

Genre and direction

From the first pages of The Golden Pot, a riddle awaits the reader. It is worth thinking about the author's definition of the genre - "a fairy tale from new times", a more literary definition - a fairy tale story. Such a symbiosis could only be born in the context of romanticism, when the study of folklore is gaining popularity among many writers. Thus, in one creation, a story (a medium-sized prose literary work with one storyline) and a fairy tale (a kind of oral folk art) were combined.

In the work under consideration, Hoffmann expounds not only folklore motifs, but also acute social problems: philistinism, envy, the desire not to be, but to seem. Through a fairy tale, a writer can express his criticism of society with impunity and good-naturedly, because a fantastic story can only cause a smile, and laughing at yourself is the biggest punishment for the reader of that time. This technique was also used by writers of the period of classicism, such as La Bruyère, J. Swift.

The presence of a fantastic element in the work is also a very controversial fact. If we assume that the hero really visited the magical Atlantis, then this is certainly a fairy tale. But here, as in any other book by Hoffmann, everything illusory can be explained rationally. All wonderful visions are nothing more than a dream, a consequence of the use of tobacco and alcohol. Therefore, it is up to the reader to decide what it is: a fairy tale or a story, reality or fiction?

About what?

On Ascension Day, student Anselm ran into an old woman selling apples. All the goods crumbled, for which the young man heard a lot of curses and threats addressed to him. Then he did not yet know that this was not just a merchant, but an evil witch, and the apples were also not simple: they were her children.

After what happened, Anselm settled down under an elderberry bush and lit a pipe filled with useful tobacco. Saddened by another trouble, the poor hero hears either the rustle of leaves, or someone's whisper. They were three shiny golden snakes, one of which showed particular interest in the young man. He falls in love with her. Further, the character is everywhere looking for dates with bewitching creatures, for which they begin to consider him crazy. At one of the evenings at the rector Paulman, Anselm talks about his visions. They are very interested in the registrar Geerbrand, and he sends the student to the archivist Lindhorst. The old archivist arranges for the young man to be a copyist and explains to him that the three snakes are his daughters, and the object of his adoration is the youngest, Serpentina.

The daughter of Con-Rector Paulman, Veronika, is not indifferent to Anselm, but she is tormented by the question: is her feeling mutual? To find out, the girl is ready to turn to a fortune teller. And she comes to Rauerin, who is the same merchant witch. Thus begins the confrontation between the two blocks: Anselm with Lindhorst and Veronica with Rauerin.

The climax of this struggle is the scene in the archivist's house, when Anselm is imprisoned in a glass jar for dropping ink on the original manuscript. Rauerin, who appears, offers the student release, but for this she demands to give up Serpentina. The young man, passionately in love, does not agree, insults the witch, and this drives her into a frenzy. The archivist, who came to the aid of his scribe in time, defeats the old sorceress and frees the captive. A young man who has passed such a test is honored with the happiness of marrying Serpentina, and Veronica easily gives up her hopes for Anselm, breaks the magic mirror given by the fortuneteller, and marries Geerbrand.

Main characters and their characteristics

• From the first to the last page of the fairy tale, we follow the fate and transformation of the character of the student Anselm. At the beginning of the story, he appears to us as a complete loser: there is no work, he spent the last pennies because of his negligence. Only fantasies and relaxation over punch or tobacco can dispel his pressing problems. But in the course of the development of the action, the hero proves to us that he is strong in spirit. He is not just a dreamer - he is ready to fight for his love to the end. However, Hoffmann does not impose such a point of view on the reader. We can assume that all ephemeral worlds are the impact of punch and a smoking pipe, and those around them do the right thing, that they laugh at him and fear his madness. But there is another option: only a person endowed with a poetic soul, sincere and pure, can open a higher world where harmony reigns. Ordinary inhabitants, such as the director Paulman, his daughter Veronica and the registrar Geerbrand, can only occasionally dream and wallow in routine.
• The Paulman family also has its own desires, but they do not go beyond a rather narrow consciousness: the father wants to marry his daughter to a wealthy fiancé, and Veronika dreams of becoming a “madam court adviser”. The girl does not even know what is more precious to her: a feeling or social status. In a young friend, the girl saw only a potential court adviser, but Anselm was ahead of Geerbrand, Veronika gave him her hand and heart.
• For several hundred years now, the archivist Lindhorst has been suffering his exile in the world of earthly souls - in the world of everyday life and philistinism. He is not imprisoned, not burdened with hard work: he is punished by misunderstanding. Everyone considers him an eccentric and only laughs at his stories about his past life. An insert short story about the youth Phosphorus tells the reader about the magical Atlantis and the origin of the archivist. But the audience of the exile does not want to believe him, only Anselm was able to comprehend the secret of Lindhorst, heed Serpentina's pleas and stand against the witch. Curiously, the author himself admits to the public that he is communicating with a foreign guest, because he is also involved in higher ideas, which serves to give some credibility to the fairy tale.

Subject

1. Theme of love. Anselm sees in feeling only an exalted poetic meaning, inspiring a person to life and work. An ordinary and petty-bourgeois marriage, based on mutually beneficial use, would not suit him. In his understanding, love inspires people, and does not nail to the ground with conventions and everyday aspects. The author fully agrees with him.
2. The conflict of the individual and society. Surrounding only mock Anselm, do not accept his fantasies. People tend to be afraid of not typical ideas and extraordinary aspirations, they rudely suppress them. The writer calls to fight for his beliefs, even if they are not shared by the crowd.
3. Loneliness. The protagonist, like the archivist, feels misunderstood and cut off from the world. At first, this upsets him, makes him doubt himself, but over time he realizes his dissimilarity to the others and gains the courage to defend it, and not be led by society.
4. Mystic. The writer models an ideal world where vulgarity, ignorance and everyday problems do not follow a person on his heels. This fiction, although devoid of plausibility, is fraught with deep meaning. We just need to strive for the ideal, one striving already ennobles the soul and elevates it above the routine existence.

the main idea

Hoffmann gives the reader complete freedom in interpreting The Golden Pot: for some it is a fairy tale, for others it is a story interspersed with dreams, and someone can see here notes from the writer's diary full of allegories. Such an extraordinary perception of the author's intention makes the work relevant to this day. Doesn't a person today choose between household chores and self-development, career and love? The student Anselm had the good fortune to make a decision in favor of the poetic world, so he is freed from illusions and routine.

In a special way, Hoffmann depicts the two worlds inherent in romanticism. To be or to seem? - the main conflict of the work. The writer depicts a time of coarsening and blindness, where even people captured in flasks do not notice their stiffness. It is not the person himself that is important, but his function. It is no coincidence that all heroes are often mentioned with their positions: archivist, registrar, con-rector. So the author emphasizes the difference between the poetic and ordinary world.

But these two areas are not only opposed. There are cross-cutting motives in the fairy tale that unite them. For example, blue eyes. For the first time they attract Anselm in the Serpentine, but Veronica is also the owner of those, as the young man later notices. So, maybe the girl and the golden snake are one? Miracles and reality are connected by earrings that Veronica dreamed of in a dream. Exactly the same on the day of the engagement, her newly-minted court adviser Geerbrand gives her.

“Only from struggle will your happiness in the higher life arise,” and the symbol of it is the golden pot. Having overcome evil, Anselm received it as a kind of trophy, an award giving the right to possess Serpentina and stay with her in magical Atlantis.

"Believe, love and hope!" - this is the main idea of ​​this tale, this is the motto that Hoffmann wants to make the meaning of everyone's life.

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