Moral values in russian and english fairy tales

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Moral values in russian and english fairy tales

Sytina Nadezhda

The article deals with moral values and ways of their representation in Russian and English fairy tales. The author gives the language interpretation of such moral values as good, diligence, wisdom and the system of seniority which are characterized by the binary principle. Despite the fact that these values seem to be universal, there is some difference in the range of importance determined by living conditions and historical development of the nation.

Key words and phrases: moral values; linguoculture; national character; values representation; binary principle; good; diligence; wisdom; system of seniority.

It is a well-known fact that the character of any nation is shaped by time and space. Thus, every culture has some moral and spiritual characteristics which determine the specific way of people's thinking and interacting in a social and daily life. The aim of the given article is to identify and discuss the range of moral values, as well as the similarities and differences in the representation of moral values in various linguocultures.

We have chosen Russian and English fairy tales as the material of the study, because fairy tales tell us a great deal about the national character and they are the first step for a person to form ideas about the world, good and evil.

It can be assumed that the moral values of the Russians and English people are the same regardless their national and cultural peculiarities. Among the main concepts of fairy-tale texts such as “magic and miracle, good, evil, beauty, horror, sorcerer and human” [3], we have identified four values, which, in our opinion, are dominant and common to all cultures: good, work, wisdom and the system of seniority. However, despite these universal concepts, each people has its own relations between concepts underlying world conceptualization [1]. So, having compared the content of Russian and English folk fairy tales, we have found out that the importance of these moral concepts is not the same. The text analysis of Russian and English fairy tales suggests that the moral values are mostly represented implicitly and realized either through fairy-tales characters' actions or as individual components of the experienced events. To examine the moral values in the texts of fairy tales we have used the principles proposed by O. S. Pustovalova: 1) identify fairy-tale characters and moral values;

2) determine acts performed by the characters and consider if these actions are either condemned or approved (explicitly or implicitly) [2]. For example:

Russian and English fairy tales text analysis reveals the binary principle which is distinctive of moral values and can be presented in the form of oppositions: 1) good/evil 2) being diligent (hardworking): active/passive 3) wisdom/foolishness 4) the system of seniority/independence. As the analysis shows, the values are represented on:

a) the morphological level, where the suffixes form positive and negative forms of proper names; b) the lexical level, it is an objective assessment of the characters and their actions which is realized by the means of the lexical level (synonyms, repetitions); c) the syntactic level (phraseological units and free word phrases).

Now let's consider these oppositions in detail. The first one is good/evil. Good and evil are personified in Russian and English fairy tales. Good creatures always try to help, be polite to elders and everybody, even the ugly creatures. Good, friendly attitude in Russian fairy tales is expressed by lexical units with diminutive suffixes: Rechka Matushka ("Little girl and the Swan-Geese"), Korovushka- Matushka ("Wee Little Havroshechka"); Morozushko, batyushka, golubchik ("Father Frost"), bratets, sestritsa ("Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka") [6]. There are also adjective phrases possessing integrity of nomination, which are characterized by reproducibility in the texts of fairy tales. The semantic structure of the adjectives conveys the notion “being beautiful and kind”: krasnaya devitsa, good fellow. The diminutive form of a proper name is also widely used in English fairy tales: “Ho, Jock, quoth the goodwife, here come (Jock is a diminutive form of John)” (Jacobs J. The Wee Bannock) [4], as well as such diminutive forms as “lassie” and “laddie” (Jacobs J. Molly Whuppie) [Ibidem]. The evil creatures are antagonistic towards the positive characters and the first ones are respectively represented by lexemes with pejorative assessment. Appellatives with adjectives expressing negative attitude most often occur in the speech of negative characters. The stepmother from the tale “Father Frost” calls her husband “old croaker” and her daughter being angry with Father Frost can not restrain her cursing and swearing: “I'm frozen! A plague on you, you old Frost! I hope the earth swallows you” (“Father Frost”) [6, p. 77]. In English fairy tales evil creatures are also antagonistic, cruel and they are nominated by pejorative adjectives (mischievous, impish, dreadful and brutish). As a rule, evil creatures fail:

“But the moment Childe Wynd had landed, the witch-queen's power over the Laidly Worm had gone…” (Jacobs J. The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh) [4] or they are severely punished: “…he gripped her with his might and froze the old woman's daughter to death” [6, p. 77].

Thus, both Russian and English fairy tales teach about being sensitive, kind and considerate towards poor, wretched, suffering people and animals, so in the end good will win over evil and justice will be done.

The second opposition is being diligent (hardworking): active/passive. Diligence (hard work) is traditionally considered an absolute fundamental precept of all peoples. As education and upbringing occupy a central position in Russian and English fairy tales, it will be important to analyze how the notion is developed. It is interesting that the central character in many Russian fairy tales is Ivan the Fool. He sometimes acts foolishly from the point of view of common sense: he gives the last chunk of bread to a hungry hare and his kindness, not hard work, is rewarded. At a critical moment this hare helps him. Ivan the Fool ends up winning the hand of Vasilisa the Beautiful or sometimes half the kingdom without any efforts [6]. To support this idea, we can take the tale about Emelya who is lying on the stove all day long without any care in the world and gets what he wants by the will of the pike. Thus, he finds a way out of various difficult situations, without making any effort, with the help of a wonderful spell: “By the will of the pike, do as I like” (“By the will of the pike”) [Ibidem, p. 125], and on the magical spell the axe begins to hack and split the dry wood and the pails go home all by themselves without spilling a drop of water. In another fairy tale “Chestnut-Grey” the central character Ivan calls the horse which is ready to meet any his wish: “Chestnut-Grey, hear and obey! I call thee nigh to do or die…The charger galloped up to Ivan, stood stock-still and said: “What is your wish, Ivan?” (“Chestnut-Grey”) [Ibidem, p. 67]. So, the Russian fairy tale provides a broad range of the helpers: from images of animals to magic creatures which appear to be essential in the characters' searchers and ordeals as the idea of mutual support was part of the Russian rural communities.

Unlike Russian fairy tales, English fairy tales stress that success cannot be achieved by chance, but only through hard work, professional skills and activity. This value is expressed by a group of verbs which possess the meaning of “continuing doing smth, achieving success, making an effort”. For example: to succeed, to go on, not to give up, to persevere: succeed - achieve the desired aim or result; go on - continue or persevere; (not) to give up - making an effort; to persevere - continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no indication of success [5]. For example: “Jack felt a little tired, and thought for a moment that would go back again; but he was a very persevering boy, and he knew that the way to succeed in anything is not to give up. So after resting for a moment he went on. So Jack climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and ISSN 1997-2911 Филологические науки. Вопросы теории и практики, № 5 (47) 2015, часть 1 191 he climbed till at last he reached the sky” (Jacobs J. Jack and the Beanstalk) [4]. Moreover, the repetition of the word “claim” in this paragraph serves to emphasize Jack' persistence and courage. So, the character's powers come from self-reliance, intelligence and resourcefulness. This attitude of the character to work is expressed by the description of the personality with the help of attributive phrases, which have become the national precedent comparisons: “Two in each hand and one in your mouth”, says Jack, as sharp as a needle.

“Good morning, mum”, says Jack, as bold as brass, “could you be so good as to give me something to eat?” (Jacobs J. Jack and the Beanstalk) [Ibidem].

Of course, the fantasy of any people has its bright and unique color. Nevertheless, the group of helpers in British tales is not so distinctive in its images and is small as compared to Russian one. As a rule, they are fairies, who play the passive role of characters' helpers. For example, in the tale “Kate Crackernuts” the fairy remains passive without interfering in the act of the tale; she only by chance gives the central character advice: “… sees a fairy baby playing with a wand and overhears one of the fairies say: “Three strokes of that wand would make Kate's sick sister as bonnie as ever she was” (Jacobs J. Kate Crackernuts) [Ibidem].

Wisdom also belongs to moral values of Russian and English fairy tales. It forms the opposition with foolishness. The main theme is that foolishness is dangerous and detrimental for the character. For example, the English fairy tale character, Molly, escapes death and rescues his sisters from death, because «she was very clever» (Jacobs J. Molly Whuppie) [Ibidem], while Mr. Vinegar has lost everything because of his stupidity and that is explicitly condemned in the fairy tale. We can identify the lexical-semantic group with the dominant «being silly», including three synonymous words: fool (a silly person), blockhead (a very stupid person) and simpleton (a gullible person) [5]. The synonymous repetition shows the logic emphasis on the key word “fool”: “you foolish man, you blockhead, you simpleton ... you fool” (Jacobs J. Mr. Vinegar) [4]. In Russian fairy tales Vasilisa the Wise and Clever, guided by her wisdom, accomplishes the tasks set to her: makes a shirt and bakes some bread. Moreover, nobody takes Ivan the Fool seriously, and this is one of his strengths, while his smart and pragmatic elder brothers look like fools [6].

The system of seniority is explicitly represented in Russian fairy tales. Characters demonstrate respect for the elders more often than in English fairy tales. This tradition is rooted in the Russian community-based lifestyle with many generations living together. Respect for the elderly is based on the fact that older people have great experience to share with the young to understand the difficult life situations. It is no by coincidence Tsarevich Ivan says: “For what I cursed the old woman? Let me turn back her - old people are cunning and shrewd. Perhaps, she will say good things” [Ibidem, p. 125]. As a rule, the fairy tale rewards its characters for the respectful attitude to the elderly: they get either magical things or what they are looking for.

In the analyzed texts of English fairy tales we have not identified any role of elders. The character usually acts alone, and if he finds himself in a predicament, he relies only on himself or a bonny young lady with magical helpers comes to save him out of trouble. In English fairy tale “Jack the Giant-Killer” the central character even puts his life at risk to help young ladies and there is no one to support him: “he risks his life to kill the giants and rescues young ladies” (Jacobs J. Jack the Giant-Killer) [4]. moral values linguoculture national

To sum up, the comparative study of Russian and English fairy tales has shown similarities and differences in the range of importance of moral values which are determined not only by the conditions of life, but also by the historical development of the nation.

Список литературы

1. Исина Г. И. О вербальных средствах концептуализации ценностных ориентиров // Филологические науки. Вопросы теории и практики. Тамбов: Грамота, 2012. № 1 (12). С. 73-75.

2. Пустовалова О. С. Культуроведческие материалы на занятиях по иностранному языку: технология ценностного анализа и типология учебных занятий // Вестник ВГУ. Серия «Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация». 2004. № 1. С. 109-113.

3. Тананыхина А. О. Основные концепты сказочно-фантазийных текстов (Часть II) // Филологические науки. Вопросы теории и практики. Тамбов: Грамота, 2014. № 9 (39). С. 165-168.

4. Jacobs J. English Fairy Tales [Электронный ресурс]. Project Gutenberg, 2005. URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7439/7439h/7439-h.htm (дата обращения: 11.01.2015).

5. Oxford Dictionary of English [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://oxforddictionaries.com (дата обращения: 11.01.2015).

6. Vasilisa the Beautiful. Russian Fairy Tales. M.: Progress Publisher. Third Printing, 1981. 214 p.

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