Tale-fairy tale "The Golden Pot", Hoffmann: summary, plot, heroes

Every nation has its own tales. They freely intertwine fiction with real historical events, and they are a kind of encyclopedia of traditions and everyday features of different countries. Folklore tales existed verbally for centuries, while author tales began to appear only with the development of book printing. The fairy tales of German writers Gesner, Wieland, Goethe, Hauf, Brentano were fertile ground for the development of Romanticism in Germany. At the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries, the name of the Brothers Grimm sounded loud, which created an amazing, magical world in their works. But one of the most famous fairy tales was the "Golden Pot" (Hoffmann). The brief content 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: the 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 forms of art. Germany of the late XVIII - early XIX century, little resembled a magical, poetic country. But the bourgeois life, simple and rather primitive, turned out, oddly enough, the most fertile soil for the birth of the most spiritualized trend in culture. The door to it was opened by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. Created by him the character of the crazy Kapellmeister Kreisler became the herald of the new hero, overwhelmed by feelings only in the most superlative degree, immersed in his inner world more than in the real. Gofman also owns the amazing work "The Golden Pot". This is one of the tops 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. Outside the window shells exploded and the bullets of the Napoleonic army whistled, and at the table of the writer a wonderful world was born, filled with miracles and magical characters. Hoffmann had just survived a severe shock when his beloved Julia Mark was given to a wealthy merchant. The writer once again faced the trivial rationalism of the philistines. An ideal world in which the harmony of everything exists reigns-that is what E. Hoffmann wanted. "Golden Pot" is an attempt to invent such a world and settle in it, even in the imagination.

Geographical coordinates

The amazing feature of the "Golden Pot" is that the scenery for this fairy tale is written off from a real city. Heroes walk along Zamkova Street, passing through the Linkovy Baths. Pass through the Black and Lake gate. Miracles happen on the most real folk festivals on the day of the Ascension. Heroes are riding a boat, the youngsters of the Osters pay a visit to their friend Veronica. Registrar Geerbrand tells his fantastic story about the love of Lily and Phosphorus, drinking a punch at the evening at the Paulman's office, and no one even bows. Hoffmann so closely interlinks the fictional world with the real, that the line between them is erased almost completely.

"The Golden Pot" (Hoffmann). Summary: the beginning of amazing adventures

On the day of the Ascension Day, about three o'clock in the afternoon the student Anselm swiftly steps along the pavement. Passing through the Black Gate, he accidentally overturns the basket of apples and, in order to atone for somehow his fault, gives her his last money. The old woman, however, not satisfied with compensation, pours out on Anselm a whole stream of curses and curses, from which he catches only what he is threatened to be under glass. Priuniv, a young man starts to wander aimlessly around the city, when suddenly hears the soft rustling of elder. Peering into the foliage, Anselm decided that he saw three wonderful golden snakes, wriggling in the branches and something whispering mysteriously. One of the snakes brings his elegant head closer to him and gazes intently into his eyes. Anselm comes to wild enthusiasm and begins to talk with them, what attracts the perplexed looks of passers-by. The conversation is interrupted by the registrar Heerbrand and the curator Paulman and his daughters. Seeing that Anselm is a little out of himself, they decide that he is crazy about incredible poverty and bad luck. They offer the young man to come to the rector in the evening. At this reception, the unfortunate student receives an offer from the archivist Lindgorst to enlist in his service as a calligrapher. Realizing that he can not count on anything better, Anselm accepts the offer.

In this initial section is the main conflict between the wonder-seeking soul (Anselm) and the mundane, preoccupied consciousness ("Dresden characters"), which forms the basis of the drama of the story "The Golden Pot" (Hoffmann). A brief summary of the future adventures of Anselm follows below.

The Magic House

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

Visit to the fortuneteller

The daughter of the registrar Heerbrand, imagining that Anselm could become an out-of-court adviser, convinced herself that she was in love, and set out to marry him. To be faithful, she went to a fortuneteller who told her that Anselm had contacted the evil forces in the person of the archivist, loved his daughter - a green snake - and never became an adviser to him. To somehow comfort the unfortunate girl, the presenter promised to help her by making a magic mirror through which Veronica can bewitch Anselm and save him from the evil old man. In fact, between the fortune-teller and the archivist was a long feud, and thus the witch wanted to settle accounts with her enemy.

Magic Ink

Lindgorg, in turn, also provided Anselm with a magical artifact - he gave him a bottle with a mysterious black mass, which the young man had to rewrite the letters from the book. Every day the symbols became more and more clear to Anselm, soon he began to feel that he had known this text for a long time. In one of the working days he appeared Serpentina - a snake, in which Anselm fell in love without memory. She told me that her father comes from the Salamander tribe. For his love of 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, the Golden Pot was promised to them. With the engagement, a lily will grow from him, and anyone who can learn to understand her tongue will open the door to Atlantis for himself and for Salamander.

When Serpentina disappeared, giving Anselm a fervent kiss, the young man glanced at the letters he was copying, and realized that everything the snake said was contained in them.

Happy Finals

For a while, the magic mirror Veronica had an effect on Anselm. He forgot Serpentina 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 that he had read recently with ease were again turned into incomprehensible scribbles. Dropping ink on the parchment, the young man was imprisoned in a glass jar in punishment for his mistake. Looking around, he saw a few more cans with young people. Only they did not understand that they were in captivity, mocking Anselm's sufferings.

Suddenly a grumbling came from the coffeepot, and the young man recognized the voice of the notorious old woman in it. She promised to save him if he married Veronica. Anselm angrily refused, and the witch tried to escape, taking a golden pot. But then the path was blocked by the formidable Salamander. Between them a battle took place: Lindhorst won, with Anselm the mirror's charms were asleep, and the sorceress turned into a nasty beetroot.

All attempts to bind Veronica Anselm eventually ended in failure, but the girl was not disappointed for long. The contractor Paulman, appointed by the counselor, offered her a hand and heart, and she gladly agreed. Anselm and Serpentina were happily married and found eternal bliss in Atlantis.

"The Golden Pot", Hoffmann. Heroes

An enthusiastic student Anselm has no luck 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 a rough, unimaginative world of burghers, that is, ordinary people. His discrepancy of reality is vividly demonstrated at the very beginning of the story, when he overturns the basket of apples with apples. Powerful people, firmly standing with their feet on the ground, mock at him, and he acutely feels his exclusion from their world. But as soon as he gets a job with the archivist Lindgorst, his life begins to rebuild instantly. In his house, he falls into 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 Salamander's magic world is opposed to the "Dresden" characters: the curator Paulman, Veronica, the registrar Geerbrand. They are completely deprived of the ability to observe miracles, believing 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 receptivity, as soon as on the horizon an outward counselor appears with a proposal of the hand and heart.

Features of the genre

"The Tale of New Times" - this is what name Hoffmann himself prefaced his story "The Golden Pot". 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 story allows you to refer it to the story, the abundance of magic - to the tale, a small amount - to the story. The real city of Dresden with its domination of philistinism and pragmatism and the fantastic country of Atlantis, where the entrance is accessible only to people with heightened sensitivity, exist in parallel. Thus Hoffmann approves the principle of duality. Blurring forms and duality in general were characteristic of romantic works. Drawing inspiration in the past, romantics sought a hungry look in the future, hoping to find in such a unity the best of the worlds.

Hoffmann in Russia

The first translation from the German fairy tale by Hoffmann "The Golden Pot" in Russia came out in the 20s of the XIX century and immediately attracted the attention of the thinking intelligentsia. Belinsky wrote that the prose of the German writer is opposed to vulgar everydayness and rational clarity. Herzen devoted his first article to an essay on the life and work of Hoffmann. In the library of AS Pushkin there was a complete collection of Hoffmann's works. Translation from German was done in French - in the then tradition to give this language a preference for the Russian. Ironically, in Russia the German writer was much more popular than at home.

Atlantis is a mythical country, where the harmony of everything that was unattainable in reality was realized. It is in such a place that the student Anselm strives to get into the story-tale "Golden Pot" (Hoffmann). The brief content of his adventures, unfortunately, can not give pleasure to the slightest twists of the plot, nor to all the amazing miracles that Hoffmann's fantasy scattered on his way, nor the refined style of narrative peculiar to German Romanticism. This article is intended only to awaken your interest in the work of a great musician, writer, artist and lawyer.