"Forefathers" Krylov's fables: Fox and grapes in the writings of their predecessors

The plot of the fox, tempted by grapes, but never able to achieve what it wants, sounds in the works created much earlier by Ivan Krylov's fables "Fox and Grapes." What does the fabulist tell about in it? A hungry fox saw a ripe, appetizing grapes in a strange garden and tried to jump up to him, but without success. After many attempts, the queen is annoyed: "In my opinion, it is good, yes green," and "immediately nabbinu nabesh." The author here, unlike his other fables, does not give direct lines in which morality is contained. However, the moral message of the fable of Krylov is obvious: Fox and grapes are a man and his goal, which he sees as desirable and accessible. Having failed to achieve it, he is disappointed, but does not want to admit his weakness or defectiveness, and then begins hypocritically depreciating the desired, referring to him scornfully. Such is the general outline of Krylov's fable.

Fox and grapes in the works of ancient authors

In the Church Slavonic parable about the fox and bunches (Krylov read it in the ancient Alexandria collection Physiologist), an uncomplicated story is told about how a hungry fox saw ripe bunches of grapes, but could not get to them and started the berries "zelo hayati". Then comes the conclusion: there are people who, wanting something, can not get this, and that they begin to scold "their desire to tame ones". Perhaps this is not bad for complacency, but, of course, unworthy in a social sense. That's how this idea is reflected in the literary source, created long before the fable of Krylov.

Fox and grapes in the interpretation of the ancient fabulist Aesop appear in the same conflict - a hungry fox and inaccessible highly hanging berries. Unable to get the grapes, the fox introduced him as an immature sourdough. The fable of the Greek, too, ends with a moralizing hint: "Whoever defames the unbearable in words - his behavior here must see".

French interpretation

The fable of the French composer Lafontaine hides in the image of a fox "Gasconian, and maybe Norman", whose eyes are lit up on a ripe, ripe grapes. The author notes that "the amateurs would be happy to eat them," but did not reach. Then he snorted contemptuously: "He's green. Let them feed every rabble! "What is the moral in the Lafontaine fable" The Fox and the Grapes "? The poet ridicules the pride and arrogance inherent in, in his opinion, the Gasconians and Normans. This instructive composition differs from the previous parables and fables of Krylov, the Fox and grapes in which hint at universal flaws, rather than point to national shortcomings.

Features of Krylov's fables

No wonder contemporaries noted that Ivan Andreyevich had a bright director's talent. He so visibly and expressively wrote out his characters that in addition to the main purpose of the fable - the allegorical ridicule of human vices - we see living expressive characters and luscious colorful details. We can see with our own eyes how "the goblet's eyes and teeth flared up." The author bitingly and precisely defines a satirically colored situation: "at least he sees an eye, but a tooth is nemet". Here, the Fox and the grapes are very eloquent in a dynamic instructive scene. Krylov so generously "nourishes" his works with the spirit of oral folk art, that his fables themselves become a source of sayings and proverbs.

Something from the world of nature

It turns out that the foxes' predilection for grapes is not entirely the fiction of fabulists. Studies of a specialist in wildlife ecology Andrew Carter showed that, for example, fluffy predators from Australia do not mind to taste fragrant wine berries, and as soon as dusk comes, they rush into the vineyard and with pleasure eat there fruit.