The image of the little robber is contradictory. We meet this character in the fifth chapter of the fairy tale. We don’t know her name, but from the first words we understand that she is a wayward and unbridled girl: she bit her mother’s ear when she was about to kill Gerda. But the robber did this not at all because she felt sorry for Gerda; she decided that the girl would now be her new toy. She already had a collection of “toys” - pigeons and reindeer. The girl treats her animals cruelly - she grabs pigeons by the paws and shakes them, tickles the neck of a deer with a knife. The fact is that she does not know how to behave differently, because no one taught the robber to show kindness and mercy.

The loneliness of the little robber

Spoiled and stubborn - this is how the author describes the character in his fairy tale. And then he adds: “Her eyes were completely black, but somehow sad.” As the plot develops, we begin to notice that despite her character, the little robber is capable of sympathy. After hearing Gerda's story, she learned that there is true and sincere love and friendship in the world. Now before us is not just a cruel robber, but a little lonely girl who grew up among rude, uncouth people. She simply never knew what tenderness and pity were. In the morning, the robber let Gerda go; moreover, she gave her her deer so that he could take Gerda to Lapland and, finally, the robber returned her fur boots to the girl. The little robber did not want to give Gerda’s muff, but even here she showed concern - she gave Gerda “huge mother’s mittens” so that she would not freeze.

At the end of this episode, we understand that the little robber, despite her ostentatious toughness, has a very kind heart.

Essay » Andersen » Essay on the topic “The Little Robber (based on the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by H. C. Andersen)

Revealing images and understanding the main conflict of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen”

The Queen is depicted by the author in the fairy tale with a certain irony: “In the kingdom where you and I are, there is a Queen who is so smart that it’s impossible to say! She read all the newspapers in the world and has already forgotten everything she read - that’s how smart she is!” Such an event as choosing a groom happened through a boring life: “One day she was sitting on the throne - and there is little fun in this, as people say - and sang a song: “Why don’t I get married? “And really!” she thought, and she wanted to get married.” The Queen is the mistress of the world into which Gerda finds herself. In order to understand this world, you should learn more about its ruler. The author emphasizes that, unlike Gerda, who is looking all over the world for her adopted brother, the princess does not even need to rise from the throne to find her betrothed. Although, unlike the heroines of S. Ya. Marshak’s work, Gerda and the Queen do not come into conflict; on the contrary, the Queen sincerely sympathizes with Gerda and helps her.

While working on a fairy tale play by S. Ya. Marshak, you can pay attention to this fact and propose to conduct an analytical study and find out what is the secret of the fact that the heroines are from such different worlds in one fairy tale they come into conflict, in another - on the contrary, they find mutual language? Author's intention: S. Ya. Marshak is important to show the conflict between the “artificial” world and the light of natural harmony; in G. X. Andersen’s fairy tale, the author’s attention is directed to the inner strength of Gerda, her ability to change people for the better, to awaken Goodness and Love in their hearts.

The heroine sincerely loves the named brother, considers him the best, and the young man whom the raven described is smart and witty, he is conveniently different from other contenders for the princess’s hand: “He generally behaved very freely and sweetly and said that he did not come to woo, but only to listen clever conversations of the princess."

Gerda lives only in search of Kai, this is the goal of her life, so main reason that the girl immediately believed the raven. Gerda came barefoot, which means that she is not a noble person and cannot interest the princess.

Why did the Queen, who sat on the throne all her life and was not particularly interested in the fates of others, help Gerda? Perhaps love has changed her. The author constantly emphasizes how great the power of this feeling is. Sophistication, elegance, idleness - on the one hand, and savagery, self-will, cruelty - on the other: “In the middle of a huge hall with dilapidated smoke-filled walls and a stone floor, a fire was blazing.”

How did Gerda's story affect the little robber? Why is this so? They won't kill you even if I'm angry with you. “I’d rather kill you myself!” For the first time, the little robber saw with her own eyes real sincere feelings, saw how a fragile girl is ready to give her life for the one she loves. The soul of the little robber begins to awaken for Good. Animals for the little robber are just living toys, she holds them for the sake of entertainment. The little robber feels lonely, pigeons and deer are her only consolation, and she behaves cruelly with them due to the fact that no one taught her to take care of her neighbors.

The little robber was as tall as Gerda, but stronger, broader in the shoulders and darker. Her eyes were completely black, but somehow sad." The little robber from the outside is the complete opposite of Gerda, who is blond, with a delicate pink face, and this dissimilarity in appearance leads the reader to the conclusion that inner world The heroines are diametrically opposed, nevertheless, the sad eyes of the little robber (students highlight this word as the key word in describing her appearance) rather indicate that this is an unfortunate girl who has never encountered love, kindness and mercy. The motherly “caresses” of the old robber cannot be an example of a loving relationship.

Before the last, most difficult tests of his heroine, the author leads the reader to understand his own author's position, what is the real strength: the warmth of a loving heart or a cold, soulless mind? (antithesis again!)

What happened in the Snow Queen's castle and what happened next. "Cold, deserted, dead!" This world, in which order and cold reign, is dead, there are no feelings, no warmth, no life, even such an amazingly beautiful phenomenon as northern lights, flashes "... so correctly that you can... accurately calculate at what minute the light will intensify and at which it will weaken."

In Scandinavian mythology you can find a description of the oldest of the worlds: “Niflheim is one of the nine worlds of the Scandinavian mythological universe, a land of cold that existed before the beginning of creation. The poisonous icy streams of Niflheim filled the world abyss. The land of cold has always existed, Gerda belongs to fight the original evil. Palace - a symbol of its world, it is not just a building where its rulers live, it is a space in which everything that this world lives is concentrated: the luxury of the princess’s palace, where barefoot people are not allowed, the dilapidated castle of robbers with wolves and crows and the dead ice palace of the Snow Queen .

The old woman's world is locked, it is only her world, it does not affect the lives of other people, because the grandmother casts magic only for her own satisfaction, and therefore instead of the palace there is a small hut, nevertheless surrounded by a wall. And the small houses of Laplanders and Finns are oases in the middle of the icy desert of the Snow Queen. In the middle of the lake stood the throne of the Snow Queen; she sat on it when she was at home, saying that she sat on the mirror of the mind; as she believed, it was the only and best mirror in the world. The connection is obvious - a frozen lake, the ice on which has cracked into “a thousand pieces, miraculously equal and correct” - a twin brother to the devilish mirror with its splinters. In this cold and dead world, a mirror that turns human hearts into a sheet of ice is the only correct one.

Feature of the composition. A fairy tale is the work of one hero, the reader meets the heroes of the fairy tale only when Gerda meets them, and gets to one or another world when the heroine gets there. Little has changed in Kai's life since his heart turned into ice: an icy heart cannot feel pain, happiness, inspiration, love. “Cold, deserted, dead.” - this can be said about Kai’s soul.

The reader saw the power of Gerda's tears already in the world of her grandmother, who knew the spell - Gerda picked up roses from the ground, and also revived the flowers to a certain extent. In Gerda’s tears there are not just sincere feelings, now, in the world of cold and death, Gerda’s strength reaches its apogee - in the heroine’s tears all the love for Kai, for the living world, for warm human relationships. In Gerda's tears there is a lack of perception of what the world of the Snow Queen brings. Gerda radically changed the life of the little robber, the world of robbers was “foreign” for the little robber, and now she is in search of “her” world, meeting Gerda and Kai only supports the girl in her search; “Then she went on her way, and Kai and Gerda went on theirs.”

Thus, the author singles out Kai and Gerda as the main characters. In the German folk tale "Pani Metelitsa", Ukrainian folk tale"Grandfather's Daughter and Woman's Daughter", the Russian folk tale "Morozko" and other characters also do not have names (stepmother, stepdaughter, sisters, grandfather, woman, etc.). The folklore tradition in their work is continued by C. Perrault (“Cinderella or the Crystal Slipper”), A. Pushkin (“The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights”), S. Marshak (“Twelve Months”) and others.

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"The Snow Queen". Who doesn’t know this wonderful fairy tale about the girl Gerda, who, despite the difficulties, knew how to find Kai and save him from the hands of the Snow Queen? This fairy tale is familiar to us from childhood, and it was written by H.K. Andersen, who created different heroes, with different images. Among them is the little robber from the fairy tale “The Snow Queen”

Characteristics of the little robber from the fairy tale The Snow Queen

It is impossible to answer the question of what the name of the little robber from “The Snow Queen” was, since her name is not mentioned, but her name is not the main thing here. It is important that when she met Gerda, the girl saw that around, besides cruelty, there were other feelings. There is love, friendship, tenderness, pity in the world. The robber, who lived among uncouth louts, among rudeness and cruelty, after Gerda’s story, showed mercy and kindness to the girl, and here, a completely different character of the little robber from the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” appeared. The robber not only lets Gerda go, but also gives her a reindeer and returns her warm clothes. True, she really liked the muff, so she kept it for herself, and in return gave the mittens to her mother. This is where the robber endears herself, and we, the readers, understand that the girl has a good heart, and her cruelty is just for show, because in the environment where the robber lives, it is impossible to do otherwise.

Illustration for “The Snow Queen” by Vilhelm Pedersen, one of the first illustrators of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales.

Plot

First story. Mirror and its fragments

Trolls carrying a mirror.

An evil troll makes a mirror in which everything good appears evil, and evil only catches the eye more clearly. One day, the troll’s disciples took this mirror and ran with it everywhere, pointing it at people for fun, and finally decided to reach the sky, “to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself.”

The higher they rose, the more the mirror twisted and writhed from grimaces; they could barely hold it in their hands. But then they got up again, and suddenly the mirror became so distorted that it tore out of their hands, flew to the ground and broke into pieces. Millions, billions of its fragments caused, however, even more trouble than the mirror itself. Some of them were no larger than a grain of sand, scattered throughout the world, sometimes fell into people’s eyes and remained there. A person with such a splinter in his eye began to see everything inside out or notice only the bad sides in every thing - after all, each splinter retained a property that distinguished the mirror itself. For some people, shrapnel went straight to the heart, and that was the worst thing: the heart turned into a piece of ice. Among these fragments there were also large ones, such that they could be inserted into window frames, but it was not worth looking through these windows at your good friends. Finally, there were also fragments that were used for glasses, only the trouble was if people put them on in order to look at things and judge them more accurately! And the evil troll laughed until he felt colic, the success of this invention tickled him so pleasantly.

Original text (Danish)

Jo høiere de fløi med Speilet, des stærkere grinede det, de kunde neppe holde fast paa det; høiere og høiere fløi de, nærmere Gud og Englene; da zittrede Speilet saa frygteligt i sit Griin, at det foer dem ud af Hænderne og styrtede ned mod Jorden, hvor det gik i hundrede Millionaire, Billioner og endnu flere Stykker, og da just gjorde det megen større Ulykke end før; thi nogle Stykker vare knap saa store som et Sandkorn, og disse fløi rundt om i den vide Verden, og hvor de kom Folk i Øinene, der bleve de siddende, og da saae de Mennesker Alting forkeert, eller havde kun Øine for hvad der var galt ved en Ting, thi hvert lille Speilgran havde beholdt samme Kræfter, som det hele Speil havde; nogle Mennesker fik endogsaa en lille Speilstump ind i Hjertet, og saa var det ganske grueligt, det Hjerte blev ligesom en Klump Iis. Nogle Speilstykker vare saa store, at de bleve brugte til Rudeglas, men gjennem den Rude var det ikke værd at see sine Venner; andre Stykker kom i Briller, og saa gik det daarligt, naar Folk toge de Briller paa for ret at see og være retfærdige; den Onde loe, saa hans Mave revnede, og det kildede ham saa deiligt.

Second story. Boy and girl

Kai and Gerda, a boy and a girl from poor families, are not relatives, but they love each other like brother and sister. Under the roof they have their own garden, “bigger than a flower pot,” where they grow roses. In winter, however, you can’t play in the kindergarten, so they go to visit each other.

In the summer they could find themselves visiting each other in one leap, but in the winter they had to first go down many, many steps, and then go up the same number. A snowball was fluttering in the yard.
- These are white bees swarming! - said the old grandmother.
- Do they also have a queen? - the boy asked; he knew that real bees had one.
- Eat! - answered the grandmother. - Snowflakes surround her in a thick swarm, but she is larger than all of them and never remains on the ground - she always floats on a black cloud. Often at night she flies through the city streets and looks into the windows; That’s why they are covered with ice patterns, like flowers.

Original text (Danish)

Om Sommeren kunde de i eet Spring komme til hinanden, om Vinteren maatte de først de mange Trapper ned og de mange Trapper op; ude fygede Sneen.
“Det er de hvide Bier, som sværme,” sagde den gamle Bedstemoder.
“Har de ogsaa en Bidronning?” spurgte den lille Dreng, for han vidste, at imellem de virkelige Bier er der saadan een.
“Det har de!” sagde Bedstemoderen. “Hun flyver der, hvor de sværme tættest! hun er størst af dem alle, og aldrig bliver hun stille paa Jorden, hun flyver op igjen i den sorte Sky. Mangen Vinternat flyver hun gjennem Byens Gader og kiger ind af Vinduerne, og da fryse de saa underligt, ligesom med Blomster.”

Some time passes. In the summer, Kai and Gerda are sitting in their garden among the roses - and then a piece of the devil’s mirror gets into Kai’s eye. His heart becomes callous and “icy”: he laughs at his grandmother and mocks Gerda. The beauty of flowers no longer moves him, but he admires snowflakes with their mathematically ideal shapes (“not a single wrong line”). One day he goes sledding and, out of pampering, ties his children’s sleighs to a luxuriously decorated “adult” sleigh. Suddenly they accelerate - faster than he could have imagined, soar into the air and rush away: the Snow Queen took him with her.

Third story. Flower garden of a woman who knew how to cast magic

Gerda goes in search of Kai. In her travels, she meets a sorceress who lets her in to spend the night and ultimately decides to keep her and make her her adopted daughter. She casts a spell on Gerda, because of which the latter forgets about her sworn brother, and magically hides all the roses in her garden underground so that they do not inadvertently remind the heroine of the garden on the roof that belongs to her and Kai. But she forgets to remove the roses from her hat.

One day this hat catches Gerda's eye. The latter remembers everything and begins to cry. Where her tears flow, the roses hidden by the sorceress bloom. Gerda asks them:

Having received a negative answer, she realizes that Kai can still be saved and sets off on her journey.

Story four. Prince and Princess

Having left the sorceress’s garden, where eternal summer reigns, Gerda sees that in fact autumn has already come a long time ago, and decides to hurry up. On the way, she meets a raven who lives with his bride at the court of the local king. From a conversation with him, she concludes that the princess’s fiancé, who came from unknown lands, is Kai, and persuades the raven to take her to the palace to look at him. It becomes clear that she was mistaken; but the princess and her groom, after listening to Gerda’s story about her misadventures, take pity on her and give her “shoes, and a muff, and a wonderful dress,” and a golden carriage so that she can quickly find Kai.

Fifth story. Little robber

On the way, the carriage is attacked by robbers. They kill the postilions, coachman and servants, and also take Gerda's carriage, horses and expensive clothes. Gerda herself becomes the companion of a little robber, the daughter of the leader of a local gang - ill-mannered, greedy and stubborn, but essentially lonely. She arranges for her in her menagerie; the girl tells her story to the owner, and the latter is inspired and introduces her to the reindeer - the pride of the menagerie. He tells Gerda about his distant homeland, where the Snow Queen rules:

There you jump in freedom across endless sparkling icy plains! The Snow Queen's summer tent will be pitched there, and her permanent palaces will be North Pole, on the island of Spitsbergen!

Original text (Danish)

Der springer man frit om i de store skinnende Dale! Der har Sneedronningen sit Sommertelt, men hendes faste Slot er oppe mod Nordpolen, paa den Ø, som kaldes Spitsberg!

Gerda realizes that it is the Snow Queen who is keeping Kai with her and, with the permission of the little robber, sets off on a journey on a reindeer.

Story six. Lapland and Finnish

On the way, Gerda and the deer spend the night with a hospitable Laplander, who, after listening to their story, advises travelers to visit the Finnish sorceress. The deer, following her words, goes with Gerda to the Finn and asks her for the girl “a drink that would give her the strength of twelve heroes.” In response, the Finnish woman says that Gerda will not need such a drink: “the strength is in her sweet, innocent childish heart.” Having said goodbye to the Finnish woman, Gerda and the deer reach the kingdom of the Snow Queen. There they part; the girl must go on on her own.

Story seven. What happened in the halls of the Snow Queen and what happened next

Despite all the obstacles, Gerda gets to the Snow Queen's palace and finds Kai alone: ​​he is trying to form the word "eternity" from ice shards - this task was offered to him by the queen before leaving (according to her, if he manages to do this, he will be "himself master,” and she will give him “the whole world and a pair of new skates”). At first he cannot understand who she is, but then Gerda sings him their favorite psalm:

Roses are blooming... Beauty, beauty!
Soon we will see the baby Christ.

Original text (Danish)

Roserne voxe i Dale,
Der faae vi Barn-Jesus i Tale!

Kai remembers her, and the pieces of ice form the right word with joy. Now Kai is his own boss. The named brother and sister return home, and it turns out that they are already adults.

Censorship

Parallels in folk tales

In Scandinavian folklore there are references to the Ice Maiden, the embodiment of winter and death (this image was later developed by many children's writers, in particular Tove Jansson in The Magic Winter). They say that the last words of Father Andersen were: “Here comes the Ice Maiden and she has come to me.” Similar characters are known to many nations - in Japan this is Yuki-onna, in Slavic tradition, possibly Mara-Marena. Interestingly, Andersen himself also has a fairy tale “The Ice Maiden”.

Film adaptations and the use of fairy tales as a literary basis

Film adaptations

• A Tale of Wanderings (a film using fairy tale motifs, 1982).
• The Snow Queen (cartoon, 1987) (Czechoslovakia).
• Revenge of the Snow Queen (cartoon, 1996).

Theater

“The Snow Queen” - performance by the Arkhangelsk Drama Theater named after M.V. Lomonosov, 2009.

“Gerda’s Room” is a performance by Yana Tumina’s Theater Laboratory on the stage of the Osobnyak Theater, St. Petersburg, 2018.

Sometimes it seems to me that Hans Christian Andersen, oddly enough, understands the female psyche better than all psychologists. After all, he created a completely unique gallery of the most believable female portraits... And they all live their own separate lives, independent of time and space: the seeker of warmth Gerda, the seeker of absolute perfection the Snow Queen, and the touching champion of masochism the Little Mermaid, and many, many more ... But, I admit, what intrigues me most in this company is the Little Robber.

Little robber

Seeing Life as an adventure and a fun game, the World as a challenge and a battlefield, one’s own domineering mother as an object of education, and Love as the right to dispose of others in a masterly manner - this is the choice of this little, but already quite independent girl. “A terrible, ill-mannered child with unwashed hands,” a respectable housewife, a supporter of comfort, hygiene and predictable actions, will think of her. “A cruel torturer of animals,” the Greenpeace people might say about her. “A girl who tries to behave like a man, who has not accepted traditional female roles, who carries a knife day or night, and who is prone to paranoia - of course, she needs the help of a psychoanalyst!” - this is approximately how a psychoanalyst himself would evaluate her. “A stupid, eccentric girl with bad instincts and a disordered mind” - this is how the Snow Queen might have seen her... As for Gerda, she was not inclined to think in the presence of our heroine - she simply “... did not close her eyes, not knowing whether they would kill her or leave her alive ". (However, Gerda is not inclined to think in other situations - this is not her strength. But today we are not talking about Gerda, but about her opposite...) What can I say about her? Dear to my heart The little Robber is like a knot in which a variety of things are tightly connected. Generosity in her is inseparable from selfishness, and generosity from cruelty. She helps Gerda find Kai - but she seems to be with. equal probability could have chained her forever in her menagerie... And only she, the Little Robber, was able at the end of the fairy tale to so accurately assess the main culprit of the “road-movie”: “"It seems to me that she contains something that can often be found in real, non-fairy-tale women (and in the most sincere of them), but this “something” is rarely conscious. Let’s take a closer look at what kind of person she is, what she needs from life and how she achieves it." Her eyes were black, but somehow sad"- this is how Andersen warns the reader in a nutshell: don’t believe all the nasty things that this girl will do next. After all, all her shocking and rudeness is just a way to escape from melancholy and loneliness. The Little Robber is really very lonely. Therefore, the appearance of Gerda (whom she saved her life, by the way - the robbers were going to eat Gerda) causes her to be inspired, she unambiguously declares her intentions: " She will play with me. She will give me her muff, her pretty dress and will sleep in the same bed with me". She mistakes Gerda for a princess. Of course, it would be great: to place a real princess in her menagerie, along with the other inhabitants. The robber, apparently, is inclined to collect things... She proudly shows Gerda her possessions: a reindeer that has fun for her sake, every evening she tickles her neck with a huge knife - because he is so hilariously scared half to death! it just means to scare half to death, so that no one gets bored... Everything that excites the blood attracts our heroine with extraordinary force. If the Snow Queen is a philosophical and mathematical treatise, Gerda is a sentimental love story, then the Robber, without a doubt, is. thriller. And Gerda for her is, first of all, a new adventure, new strong sensations... She hugs Gerda, looks at her seriously and says: “ They won't kill you even if I'm angry with you. I'd rather kill you myself!"Whatever you say, this is a declaration of love. Gerda must be given her due: she is a good viewer and listener, she acts wisely: she does not throw a tantrum, does not argue with anyone and does not interfere with the Robber enjoying her power, her treasures and making plans for the future. But then these plans are suddenly disrupted. Gerda tells her about her ultimate task: to find Kai and save him from the terrible cold clutches of the Mind (read: the Snow Queen) and what does the cruel, spoiled and stubborn, well-mannered inhabitant of the forests suddenly do? killers? She, it would seem, acts extremely illogically: she not only immediately releases the captive, not only helps her escape, deceiving the other robbers, but also returns almost all the loot to her, and even gives her her beloved deer as a companion. A simple question: For what? What prompted her to do this? Just don’t say that she felt sorry for Gerda. On the contrary, after Gerda’s story, the Robber, it seems, finally began to respect her and stopped looking at her as a “Princess” doll, saw in her an equally powerful player in this grandiose performance of life... And not sympathy for the sad fate of the confused Kai, I think , was the reason. Pity is not at all a feeling that could force our heroine to act, and she generally has big problems with sympathy. She doesn't feel, she acts. Gerda cried with joy. “I can’t stand it when they whine,” said the little robber. Now you should rejoice. Here are two more loaves for you so you don’t have to starve"... Isn't it good to have such friends?

THE LITTLE BIGGER IN H. K. ANDERSEN’S TALE “THE SNOW QUEEN”

Gerda met the robbers in the forest after she parted with the prince and princess. At first, the little robber does not inspire sympathy. She is very cheeky and capricious. She ordered Gerda to give her the boots she liked and a warm muff. She promised to give her to be eaten by robbers as soon as Gerda dared to anger her. She teased the poor deer by running a sharp knife along its neck.

But gradually you begin to understand that the little robber is not so bad after all. On the contrary, she is capable of sympathy, although she does not want to appear kind. And her cheeky behavior is just the influence of the environment in which the girl grew up.

Having heard Gerda's story about her adventures and love for Kai, who was in trouble, the little robber does not skimp on her kindness. She releases the reindeer, who must take Gerda to Lapland. She returns the girl’s warm boots and even gives huge, warm mittens to her mother. She supplies Gerda with bread and ham so that she does not go hungry on the road.

Is it possible after this to call the little robber evil and callous, as she seems at the beginning of the fairy tale? No and no again! Only a person with a kind heart can show such sympathy for someone else’s misfortune.