Golden pot summary for a reader's diary. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann The Golden Pot: A Tale from Modern Times

...But Hoffmann would not have been an artist with such a contradictory and largely tragic worldview if this kind of fairy-tale short story had determined the general direction of his work, and not demonstrated only one of its sides. At its core, the writer’s artistic perception of the world does not at all proclaim the complete victory of the poetic world over the real. Only madmen like Serapion or philistines believe in the existence of only one of these worlds. This principle of dual worlds is reflected in a number of works by Hoffmann, perhaps the most striking in their artistic quality and most fully embodying the contradictions of his worldview. This is, first of all, the fairy-tale short story “The Golden Pot” (1814), the title of which is accompanied by the eloquent subtitle “A Tale from New Times.” Its meaning is revealed in the fact that characters This tale is about Hoffmann's contemporaries, and the action takes place in real Dresden at the beginning of the 19th century. This is how Hoffmann reconsiders the Jena tradition of the fairy tale genre - in its ideological and artistic structure he includes the plan of real everyday life, with which the narrative in the short story begins. Its hero is student Anselm, an eccentric loser whose sandwich always falls on the greasy side, and a nasty greasy stain inevitably appears on his new frock coat. Passing through the city gates, he trips over a basket of apples and pies. The dreamer Anselm is endowed with a “naive poetic soul,” and this makes the world of the fabulous and wonderful accessible to him. Faced with him, the hero of the story begins to lead a dual existence, falling from his prosaic existence into the realm of a fairy tale, adjacent to ordinary real life. In accordance with this and compositionally, the short story is built on the interweaving and interpenetration of the fairy-tale-fantastic plan with the real. Romantic fairy-tale fiction in its subtle poetry and grace finds here in Hoffmann one of its best exponents. At the same time, the story clearly outlines the real plan. Not without reason, some Hoffmann researchers believed that using this novella it was possible to successfully reconstruct the topography of the streets of Dresden at the beginning of the last century. Realistic detail plays a significant role in characterizing the characters. For example, poor Anselm’s costume, mentioned more than once, was a pike-gray tailcoat, the cut of which was very far from modern fashion, and black satin trousers, which gave his whole figure a kind of magisterial style, which did not correspond to the gait and posture of a student. These details also reflect some social touches of the character and some aspects of his individual appearance.
The widely and vividly developed fairy-tale plan with many bizarre episodes, so unexpectedly and seemingly randomly intruding into the story of real everyday life, is subordinated to the clear logical ideological and artistic structure of the short story, in contrast to the deliberate fragmentation and inconsistency in the narrative manner of most early romantics. The two-dimensionality of Hoffman's creative method and the two-worldness in his worldview were reflected in the opposition of the real and fantastic worlds and in the corresponding division of characters into two groups. Conrector Paulman, his daughter Veronica, registrar Geerbrand are prosaically thinking Dresden inhabitants, who can be classified, according to the author’s own terminology, as good people, but to bad musicians or non-musicians at all, that is, to people devoid of any poetic flair. They are opposed by the archivist Lindhorst with his daughter Serpentina, who came to this philistine world from fantastic fairy tale, and dear eccentric Anselm, poetic soul which opened fairy world archivist. Anselm in his Everyday life it seems that he is in love with young Veronica, and she, in turn, sees in him a future court adviser and her husband, with whom she dreams of realizing her ideal of philistine happiness and prosperity. But now involved in a fabulous poetic world in which he fell in love with a wonderful golden snake - blue-eyed Serpentine, poor Anselm cannot decide to whom his heart is really given. Other forces enter into the struggle for Anselm against Lindhorst, who patronizes him, also magical, but evil, embodying the dark sides of life, supporting the prosaic philistine world - this is the sorceress-trader, whose basket Anselm overturned.
The two-dimensionality of the novella is realized both in Anselm’s duality and in the duality of the existence of other characters. The secret archivist Lindhorst, well-known in the city, old eccentric, who lives alone with his three daughters in a remote old house, is also the powerful wizard Salamander from the fabulous country of Atlantis, ruled by the prince of spirits Phosphorus. And his daughters are not only ordinary girls, but also wonderful golden-green snakes. An old merchant at the city gates, once Veronica's nanny, Lisa is an evil witch who transforms into various evil spirits. Through Anselm, Veronica comes into contact with the kingdom of spirits for some time, and even the rationalistic pedant Heerbrand is close to this.
A dual existence (and here Hoffman uses the traditional canons of a fairy tale) is led by nature and the material world of the short story. An ordinary elderberry bush, under which Anselm sat down to rest on a summer day, the evening breeze, the sun's rays speak to him, inspired by the fabulous powers of the magical kingdom. In Hoffmann's poetic system, nature, in the spirit of romantic Rousseauism, is generally an integral part of this kingdom. That’s why Anselm “was best when he could wander alone through the meadows and groves and, as if breaking away from everything that chained him to a miserable life, could find himself in the contemplation of those images that rose from his inner depths.”
The beautiful door knocker, which Anselm took up when preparing to enter Lindhorst's house, suddenly turns into the disgusting face of an evil witch, and the bell cord becomes a gigantic white snake that strangles the unfortunate student. A room in the archivist's house, filled with ordinary potted plants, becomes for Anselm a wonderful tropical garden when he thinks not about Veronica, but about the Serpentine. Many other things in the novel experience similar transformations.
In the happy ending of the story, which ends with two weddings, it receives a full interpretation ideological plan. Registrar Geerbrand becomes the court councilor, to whom Veronica gives her hand without hesitation, having abandoned her passion for Anselm. Her dream comes true - “she lives in a beautiful house on the New Market”, she has “a hat of the latest style, a new Turkish shawl”, and, having breakfast in an elegant negligee by the window, she gives the necessary orders to the cook. Anselm marries Serpentine and, becoming a poet, settles with her in the fabulous Atlantis. At the same time, he receives as a dowry a “nice estate” and a gold pot, which he saw in the archivist’s house. The golden pot - this peculiarly ironic transformation of Novalis's "blue flower" - still retains the original function of this romantic symbol, realizing the synthesis of the poetic and the real in the highest ideal of poetry. It can hardly be considered that the completion of the Anselm-Serpentine storyline is a parallel to the philistine ideal embodied in the union of Veronica and Heerbrand, and the golden pot is a symbol of bourgeois happiness. After all, Anselm does not at all give up his poetic dream, he only finds its fulfillment. And the fact that Hoffmann, dedicating one of his friends to original plan fairy tales, wrote that Anselm “receives as a dowry a golden chamber pot, decorated precious stones“, but this reducing motif was not included in the completed version, indicates the writer’s deliberate reluctance to destroy the philosophical idea of ​​the short story about the embodiment of the kingdom of poetic fantasy in the world of art, in the world of poetry. It is this idea that the last paragraph of the novella affirms. Its author, suffering from the thought that he has to leave the fabulous Atlantis and return to the pitiful squalor of his attic, hears the encouraging words of Lindhorst: “Weren’t you just in Atlantis and don’t you own the world there?” at least a decent manor as the poetic property of your mind? Is Anselm’s bliss nothing other than life in poetry, through which the sacred harmony of all things is revealed as the deepest of nature’s secrets!”
At the same time, both the philosophical idea and the subtle grace of the entire artistic manner of the short story are fully comprehended only in its ironic intonation, which is organically included in its entire ideological and artistic structure. The entire fantastic plan of the fairy tale is revealed through a certain ironic distance of the author in relation to him, so that the reader has no confidence at all in the author’s real conviction in the existence of the fantastic Atlantis. Moreover, Lindhorst’s words concluding the novel affirm that the only reality is our this-worldly earthly existence, and the fairy-tale kingdom is just life in poetry. The author's position is also ironic in relation to Anselm, ironic passages are also directed at the reader, and the author is ironic in relation to himself. Irony in the novella, which is largely character artistic technique and which does not yet have that sharply dramatic sound as in “The Everyday Views of Moore the Cat,” already receives philosophical richness when Hoffmann, through its medium, debunks his own illusion regarding fairy-tale fiction as a means of overcoming the philistine squalor of modern Germany. A moral and ethical emphasis is characteristic of irony where it is aimed at ridiculing German philistines.

"Pot of Gold"

The title of this fairy-tale short story is accompanied by the eloquent subtitle “A Tale from New Times.” The meaning of this subtitle is that the characters in this tale are contemporaries of Hoffmann, and the action takes place in real Dresden at the beginning of the 19th century. This is how Hoffmann reinterprets the Jena tradition of the fairy tale genre - the writer includes a plan of real everyday life into its ideological and artistic structure.

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 dual worlds are realized in the story through the characters’ direct explanation of the origin and structure of the world in which they live. There is this world, the earthly world, the everyday world, and another world, some magical Atlantis, from which man once originated. This is exactly what Serpentina tells Anselm about her father, the archivist Lindgorst, who, as it turns 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 his daughter Lily the snake.

The hero of the novel, student Anselm, is an eccentric loser, endowed with a “naive poetic soul,” and this makes the world of the fabulous and wonderful accessible to him. A man is on the verge of two worlds: partly an earthly being, partly a spiritual one. Faced with the magical world, Anselm begins to lead a dual existence, falling from his prosaic existence into the realm of fairy tales, adjacent to ordinary real life. In accordance with this, the short story is compositionally built on the interweaving and interpenetration of the fairy-tale-fantastic plan with the real. Romantic fairy-tale fiction in its subtle poetry and grace finds here in Hoffmann one of its best exponents. At the same time, the story clearly outlines the real plan. The widely and vividly developed fairy-tale plan with many bizarre episodes, so unexpectedly and seemingly randomly intruding into the story of real everyday life, is subject to a clear, logical ideological and artistic structure. The two-dimensionality of Hoffman's creative method and the two-worldness in his worldview were reflected in the contrast between the real and fantastic worlds.

Duality is realized in the character system, namely in the fact that the characters clearly differ in their affiliation 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 and the old witch, who turns out to be the daughter of a black dragon feather and a beetroot. The exception is the main character, who finds himself under the equal influence of one and the other force, and is subject to this changeable and eternal struggle between good and evil. Anselm's soul is a “battlefield” between these forces. 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 was only thinking about Veronica.

Duality is realized in the images of the mirror, which in large quantities found in the story: the smooth metal mirror of the old fortune teller, the crystal mirror made of rays of light from the ring on the hand of the archivist Lindhorst, the magic mirror of Veronica, which bewitched Anselm. Mirrors are a famous magical tool that has always been popular with all mystics. It is believed that a person endowed with spiritual vision is able to easily see the invisible world with the help of a mirror and act through it, as through a kind of portal.

Salamander's duality lies in the fact that he is forced to hide his true nature from people and pretend to be a secret archivist. But he allows his essence to manifest itself for those whose gaze is open to the invisible world, the world of higher poetry. And then those who could saw his transformation into a kite, his regal appearance, his paradise gardens at home, his duel. Anselm discovers the wisdom of Salamander, incomprehensible signs in manuscripts and the joy of communicating with the inhabitants of the invisible world, including Serpentina, become accessible. Another inhabitant of the invisible is the old woman with apples - the fruit of the union of a dragon's feather with a beet. But she is a representative of the dark forces and is trying in every possible way to prevent the implementation of Salamander’s plans. Her worldly counterpart is the old woman Lisa, a witch and sorceress who led Veronica astray.

Gofrat Geerbrand is a double of Gofrat Anselm. In the role of groom or husband, each of them duplicates the other. A marriage with one gofrat is a copy of a marriage with another, even in details, even in the earrings that they bring as a gift to their bride or wife. For Hoffmann, the word “double” is not entirely accurate: Veronica could have exchanged Anselm not only for Heerbrand, but for hundreds, for a great many of them.

In The Golden Pot, Anselm is not the only one who has a double in this sense. Veronica also has a double - Serpentina. True, Veronica herself does not suspect this. When Anselm slips on the way to his beloved Serpentine and loses faith in his dream, Veronica, as a social double, comes to him. And Anselm is consoled by a social, general detail - “blue eyes” and a sweet appearance. Replaces Serpentina on the same grounds on which Veronica replaced Anselm with Gofrat Heerbrand

Double -- greatest insult, which can be applied human personality. If a double is created, then the person as a person ceases. Double - individuality is lost in individuality, life and Soul are lost in the living.

In E. Hoffmann’s fairy tale “The Golden Pot” (1814), as in the short story “Cavalier Gluck,” the “kingdom of dreams” and the “kingdom of night” collide in the heavenly, higher, metaphysical space; earthly dual worlds are elevated to the superreal, becoming a variable reflection of the “archetypal” dual worlds.

The kingdom of the night is embodied in the old witch, apple trader Lisa Rauerin. The witch theme transforms philistine Dresden, the residence of the witch Lisa, into a hyper-real devilish place. Dresden is opposed by Atlantis - the “kingdom of dreams”, the residence of Lindhorst. The witch Lisa and Lindgorst are fighting for the souls of people, for Anselm.

Anselm's tossing between Veronica and Serpentina is determined by varying success in the struggle of higher powers. The finale depicts Lindhorst's victory, as a result of which Anselm is freed from the power of Dresden and moves to Atlantis. The struggle between Lindhorst and the witch Lisa is elevated to the struggle of higher cosmic forces - the Prince of Spirits Phosphorus and the Black Dragon.

The characters in The Golden Pot are symmetrical and opposed to each other. “Each hierarchical level of world space is represented by characters interconnected by similar functions, but pursuing opposite goals.” At the highest cosmic level, Phosphorus is opposed by the Black Dragon; their representatives, Lindgorst and the witch Lisa, acting on the earthly and heavenly levels, are also opposed to each other; on the earthly level, Lindgorst, Serpentina and Aselm are opposed to the philistine world represented by Paulmann, Veronica and Heerbrandt.

In The Golden Pot, E. Hoffmann creates his own mythologized heroes and “reconstructs” images associated with mythology different countries and the broadest cultural and historical tradition.

It is no coincidence that E. Hoffmann’s image of Lindhorst-Salamander is not accidental. A salamander is a cross between a water dragon and a water snake, an animal that can live in fire without being burned, the substance of fire. In medieval magic, Salamander was considered the spirit of fire, the embodiment of fire and a symbol of the philosopher's stone, the mystical mind; in iconography, Salamander symbolized the righteous man who kept peace of soul and faith amid the vicissitudes and horrors of the world. Translated from German language"Lindhorst" means refuge, a nest of relief, tranquility. Lindgorst's attributes are Water, Fire, and Spirit. The personification of this series is Mercury. Mercury’s task is not only to ensure trade profits, but also to indicate buried treasure, reveal the secrets of art, be the god of knowledge, patron of the arts, an expert in the secrets of magic and astronomy, “knowing,” “wise.” Lindhorst, who reveals to Anselm the inspired world of poetry, is associated with Mercury and symbolizes initiation into the mystery of spiritual existence.

Anselm falls in love with Lindhorst's daughter, Serpentina, and begins to comprehend the world of the “ought.” In the very semantics of the name “Serpentina” (snake) there is an identification with the savior, the deliverer. Lindhorst and Serpentina open to Anselm the inspired world of poetry, take him away from the banal vulgar reality into the beautiful kingdom of the spirit, help him find harmony and bliss.

The story of the lily told by Lindhorst is “predetermined” by Hindu philosophy, where the lily is associated with the female deity Lakshmi - the goddess of love, fertility, wealth, beauty, wisdom.

The “increase” of meaning inherent in the semantics of the mythological images of the “Golden Pot” places philosophical and mythological accents in the perception of the heroes and plot of the story; the struggle of the heroes of the story turns out to be a projection of the universal struggle between good and evil, which is permanently going on in space.

In “The Golden Pot,” Anselm’s obstacles are created by an old witch – “a woman with a bronze face.” V. Gilmanov makes the assumption that E. Hoffmann took into account the statement of the 16th century English poet Sidney, who wrote: “The natural world is bronze, only poets make it golden.”

I.V. Mirimsky believes that the golden pot received by Anselm as a wedding gift is an ironic symbol of the bourgeois happiness that Anselm found in reconciliation with life, at the cost of abandoning groundless dreams.

V. Gilmanov offers a different explanation of the meaning of this image. Philosophers-alchemists characterized people of true spirituality as “children of the golden head.” The head is a symbol of oracular revelation, the discovery of truth. In German, the words for “head” (kopf) and “pot” (topf) differ only in the first letter. E. Hoffman, creating his constantly changing world, “flowing” into each other artistic images, turned to the symbolic play of meanings, to lexical metamorphoses and consonances. In medieval literature, there is a common story about the search for the vessel of the Holy Grail by knights-errant. The Holy Grail was the cup that was at Christ's Last Supper, as well as the cup into which Joseph collected the blood that flowed from Christ. The Holy Grail symbolizes man's eternal search for an ideal, holy harmony, and the fullness of existence. This gives grounds for V. Gilmanov to interpret the golden pot in a fairy tale.

ke E. Hoffman as a mediator who removes the opposition “spirit - matter” through the integration of poetry into reality

“The Golden Pot” is built on the principles of musical composition. Speaking about the composition of “The Golden Pot”, I.V. Mirimsky limits himself to pointing out the chaotic nature, capriciousness, “an abundance of romantic scenes that sound more like music than a verbal narrative.” ON THE. Basket suggests viewing the composition of “The Golden Pot” as a unique illustration of the sonata allegro form.

Sonata form consists of exposition, development (the dramatic center of the sonata form) and reprise (the denouement of the action). The exposition begins the action, sets out the main and secondary parts and the final part (the transition to development). Usually main party- objective, dynamic, decisive character, and the lyrical side part has a more contemplative character. In development, the themes presented in the exhibition collide and are widely developed. The reprise partly modifies and repeats the exposition. The sonant form is characterized by repeating, connecting themes and cyclical development of the image.

Exposition, elaboration and reprise are present in The Golden Pot, where prose and poetic themes are given in clash and presented in a similar way to the development of themes in the form of a sonata allegro. The theme sounds prosaic - the everyday world of philistines is depicted, well-fed, self-satisfied, successful. Prudent ordinary people lead a solid, measured life, drink coffee, beer, play cards, serve, and have fun. At the same time, a poetic theme begins to sound - the romantic country of Lindgorst is contrasted with the everyday life of the director Paulman, the registrar Geerbrandt and Veronica.

The chapters are called “vigils,” that is, night guards (although not all episodes take place at night): this refers to the “night vigils” of the artist himself (Hoffmann worked at night), “the night side of nature,” and the magical nature of the creative process. The concepts of “sleep”, “dream”, “vision”, hallucination, play of imagination are inseparable from the events of the story.

The exposition (first vigil) begins with a prosaic theme. Anselm, filled with prosaic dreams of beer and coffee, is upset by the loss of money with which he was counting on spending the holiday. The clumsy and absurd Anselm ends up in the apple basket of the ugly Lisa, a witch personifying the evil forces of profit and philistinism. The old woman’s cry: “You’ll end up under glass, under glass!” - becomes fatal and pursues Anselm on the way to Atlantis. Obstacles to Anselm are created by real characters (Veronica, Paulman, etc.) and fantastic ones (the witch Lisa, a black cat, a parrot).

Under the elderberry bush, Anselm heard “some kind of whispering and babbling, and the flowers seemed to be ringing like crystal bells.” The second “musical” theme enters – the world of the poetic. To the sound of crystal bells, three golden-green snakes appeared, which in the fairy tale became a symbol of the wonderful world of poetry. Anselm hears the whisper of bushes, the rustle of grass, the breeze, and sees the radiance of the sun's rays. Anselm has a feeling of the mysterious movement of nature. An ideal, beautiful love arises in his soul, but the feeling is still unclear, it cannot be defined in one word. From this moment on, the world of poetry will constantly be accompanied by its “leitmotifs” - “three snakes shining with gold”, “two wonderful dark blue eyes” of Serpentina, and whenever Anselm finds himself in the magical kingdom of the archivist, he will hear “the ringing of clear crystal bells."

In development (vigilia two – eleven), the themes of prose and poetry develop and are in close interaction. The miraculous reminds Anselm of itself all the time. During the fireworks Antonovsky Garden“It seemed to him that he saw three green-fiery stripes in the reflection. But when he then peered longingly into the water to see if any lovely eyes would peek out from there, he became convinced that this radiance came solely from the illuminated windows of nearby houses.” The world around Anselm changes its color scheme depending on the poetic or prosaic mood of the hero’s soul. While playing music in the evening, Anselm again hears crystal bells, and he does not want to compare their sound with the singing of the prosaic Veronica: “Well, that’s not true! - the student Anselm suddenly burst out, he didn’t know how, and everyone looked at him in amazement and embarrassment. “The crystal bells ring in the elder trees, amazingly, amazingly!” . The kingdom of Lindhorst has its own color scheme (azure blue, golden bronze, emerald), which seems to Anselm the most delightful and attractive in the world.

When Anselm is almost completely imbued with the poetic spirit of this kingdom of dreams, Veronica, not wanting to part with the dream of court advisor Anselm, resorts to the charms of the sorceress Lisa. Poetic and prosaic themes begin to intricately intertwine, double, and strangely replace each other (this development is the main feature of the development of themes in sonata allegro). Anselm, experiencing the power of the evil spell of the sorceress Lisa Rauerin, gradually forgets the miracles of Lindhorst and replaces the green snake Serpentine with Veronica. The Serpentine theme is transformed into the Veronica theme, and a temporary victory of philistine forces over the forces of beauty occurs. For his betrayal, Anselm was punished by being imprisoned in glass. The ominous Lisa's prediction came true. In the tenth vigil there is a struggle between dark and poetic magical forces for Anselm.

In The Golden Pot, fantastic and real elements interpenetrate each other. The poetic, the highest materialized world of poetry is transformed before our eyes into the prosaic world of vulgar everyday life. Under the influence of the witch’s witchcraft, Anselm, who has just seen Atlantis as a “kingdom of dreams,” perceives it as Dresden, the kingdom of everyday life. Deprived of love and poetry, falling into the power of reality, Anselm temporarily immerses himself in the objective-sensory sphere and betrays the Serpentine and the kingdom of the spirit. When love and poetry take over, then in Dresden Anselm again sees the beyond, hears echoes of the heavenly harmony of the spheres. E. Hoffmann demonstrates the world simultaneously from the point of view of an artist and a philistine, assembles different visions of the world, and depicts the poetic and prosaic on the same plane.

The final vigil of the twelfth is the “reprise”, where the “restoration of balance, a return to a more stable balance of forces, the need for peace, unification” characteristic of a reprise of a sonata allegro occurs. The Twelfth Vigil consists of three parts. In the first part, the poetic and prosaic interchange into each other and sound in the same key. It turns out that Lindhorst was not entirely disinterested in the fight for Anselm’s soul: the archivist had to marry off his youngest daughter. Anselm leads a happy life in Atlantis, in a nice estate that he owns. E. Hoffmann does not remove the high halo from the world of beauty and sings a hymn to it in the twelfth vigil, and yet the second meaning is a comparison and a certain mutual continuation of the poetic and prosaic.

go - does not leave the work.

In the second part of the twelfth vigil, the world of the poetic is glorified in a complex dynamic form. The second part of the finale – the “reprise” – brings together all the images of Lindhorst. It is built not only as a repetition of the images of the first Vigil, but also in common with it musical principle: verse-chorus (or refrain). ON THE. Basket notes that the "song" in the first vigil and the "song" in the twelfth vigil create a compositional ring. The third part of the twelfth vigil - the “coda” - finally sums up the results, evaluates the previous part as “life in poetry, in which the sacred harmony of all things is revealed as the deepest of the secrets of nature.”

In the exhibition, all the forces of nature inspired by poetry strive to communicate and unite with Anselm. The reprise almost literally repeats the hymn of love to the creative forces of nature. But, as N.A. notes. Basket, in the vigil was the first to use syntactic constructions with the particle “not”, as if indicating the incompleteness, imperfection of Anselm’s poetic feeling; in the twelfth vigil such constructions are completely replaced by affirmative ones, for the understanding of the essence of nature and all living things was finally achieved by Anselm through love and poetry, which for Hoffmann is the same thing. The final hymn to the forces of nature that concludes the tale is itself a closed structure, where each “verse” is connected with the next repeated “motive-refrain”.

In The Golden Pot, music plays a large role in recreating the romantic ideal, which has its own arrangement: the sounds of bells, aeolian harps, harmonic chords of heavenly music. The liberation and complete victory of poetry in Anselm’s soul comes with the ringing of bells: “Lightning passed inside Anselm, the triad of crystal bells rang out stronger and more powerful than ever; his fibers and nerves shuddered, but the chord thundered more and more fully throughout the room - the glass in which Anselm was imprisoned cracked, and he fell into the arms of sweet, lovely Serpentine.

The world of the “ought” is recreated by E. Hoffmann using synthetic images: musical image is in close associative connections with smells, color and light: “Flowers were fragrant all around, and their aroma was like the wonderful singing of a thousand flutes, and the golden evening clouds, passing, carried with them the echoes of this singing to distant lands.” Hoffmann compares the musical sound with a sunbeam, thereby giving visibility, “tangibility” to the musical image: “But suddenly rays of light cut through the darkness of the night, and these rays were sounds that enveloped me in a captivating radiance.”

When creating images, E. Hoffman draws on unexpected, unusual comparisons and uses painting techniques (portrait of Lisa).

In “The Golden Pot,” the characters often behave like theater performers: Anselm runs onto the stage theatrically, exclaims, gesticulates, overturns baskets of apples, almost falls out of a boat into the water, etc. “Through the theatricality of the behavior of enthusiasts, the author shows their internal incompatibility with the real world and, as a consequence of this incompatibility, the emergence and development of their connection with the magical world, the duality of the heroes between the two worlds and the struggle for them between good and evil forces.”

One of the manifestations of romantic irony and theatricality

Ty is the embodiment in Lindgorst of two different and at the same time non-antagonistic hypostases of one personality (the fiery Salamander and the venerable archivist).

Features of theatricality in the behavior of the characters are combined with individual elements of opera buffa. A significant place in The Golden Pot is occupied by episodes of fights (a buffoon fight is a purely theatrical technique). The duel between the great elemental spirit Salamander and the old merchant woman is cruel, terrible and the most spectacular; it ironically combines the great with the small. Thunder rumbles, lightning flashes, fiery lilies fly from Lindgorst's embroidered dressing gown, fiery blood flows. The finale of the battle is presented in a deliberately reduced tone: the old woman turns into a beet under Lindgorst's dressing gown thrown over her, and she is carried away in the beak of a gray parrot, to whom the archivist promises to give six coconuts and new glasses as a gift.

Salamander's weapons are fire, lightning, fire lilies; the witch throws sheets of parchment from the tomes in the archivist's library at Lindgorst. “On the one hand, the educational culture and, as its symbol, books and manuscripts, fight against the evil spells of the magical world; on the other hand, living feelings, forces of nature, good spirits and magicians. The forces of good win in Hoffmann's tales. In this, Hoffmann follows exactly the pattern folk tales» .

The category of theatricality determines the stylistic features of The Golden Pot. Wonderful episodes are described in a restrained style, in deliberately simple, everyday language, and real-world events are often presented in a fantastic light, while the colors thicken and the tone of the narrative becomes tense.

Questions and suggestions

for self-test

1. Mythological thinking in E. Hoffmann’s fairy tale “The Golden Pot”. The element of universal life and the burgher world of the inhabitants of Dresden.

2. Anselm is Hoffmann’s romantic hero.

3. The originality of the composition of E. Hoffmann’s fairy tale “The Golden Pot”.

4. What is the synthesis of arts in the “Golden Pot”

Every nation has its own fairy tales. They freely intertwine fiction with real historical events, and they are a kind of encyclopedia of traditions and everyday characteristics of different countries. Folklore tales existed in oral form for centuries, while original tales began to appear only with the development of printing. The tales of Gesner, Wieland, Goethe, Hauff, and Brentano provided fertile ground for the development of romanticism in Germany. At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the name of the Brothers Grimm sounded loudly, who created an amazing, magical world in their works. But one of the most famous fairy tales became “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). A brief summary of this work will allow you to get acquainted with some of the features of German romanticism that 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 forms of art. Germany at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries did not resemble much of a magical, poetic country. But the burgher life, simple and rather primitive, turned out, oddly enough, to be the most fertile soil for the birth of the most spiritual direction in culture. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann opened the door to it. The character he created of the mad bandmaster Kreisler became the herald of a new hero, overwhelmed by feelings only to the most superlative degree, immersed in his inner world more than in real life. Hoffmann also owns amazing work"Golden Pot" This is one of the peaks German literature And a real encyclopedia romanticism.

History of creation

The fairy tale "The Golden Pot" was written by Hoffmann in 1814 in Dresden. Outside the window, shells were exploding and bullets were whistling from the Napoleonic army, and at the writer’s desk the birth of amazing world filled with miracles and magical characters. Hoffmann had just experienced a severe shock when his beloved Julia Mark was married off by his parents to a wealthy businessman. The writer once again encountered 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 inhabit it, at least in the imagination.

Geographical coordinates

An amazing feature of "The Golden Pot" is that the scenery for this fairy tale was copied from real city. The heroes walk along Castle Street, passing the Link Baths. Pass through the Black and Lake Gates. Miracles happen at real folk festivities on Ascension Day. The heroes go boating, the Osters ladies pay a visit to their friend Veronica. Registrar Geerbrand tells his fantastic story about the love of Lily and Phosphorus, drinking punch at the evening at Conrector Paulman's, and no one even raises an eyebrow. Hoffman interweaves the fictional world with the real one so closely that the line between them is almost completely erased.

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

On the day of the Ascension, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, student Anselm quickly walks along the pavement. Passing through the Black Gate, he accidentally knocks over the basket of an apple seller 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 that he threatens to end up under glass. Dejected, the young man begins to wander aimlessly around the city when he suddenly hears the slight rustling of an elderberry tree. Peering into the foliage, Anselm decided that he saw three wonderful golden snakes wriggling 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 puzzled glances from passers-by. The conversation is interrupted by Registrar Geerbrand and Director Paulman and his daughters. Seeing that Anselm is a little out of his mind, they decide that he has gone crazy from incredible poverty and bad luck. They invite the young man to come to the editor in the evening. At this reception, the unfortunate student receives an offer from the archivist Lindgorst to enter his service as a calligrapher. Realizing that he can’t count on anything better, Anselm accepts the offer.

This initial section contains main conflict between a miracle-seeking soul (Anselm) and a down-to-earth consciousness preoccupied with everyday life (“Dresden characters”), which forms the basis of the dramaturgy of the story “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). A summary of Anselm's further adventures follows below.

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

Magic ink

Lindhorst, in turn, also provided Anselm with a magical artifact - he gave him a bottle with a mysterious black mass, with which the young man had to copy letters from the book. Every day the symbols became clearer to Anselm, and soon it began to seem to him that he had known this text for a long time. One working day, Serpentina appeared to him, a snake with whom Anselm fell madly 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 could hear the singing of his three daughters and fall in love with them. They were promised a Golden Pot as a dowry. Upon betrothal, a lily will grow from it, and the one who can learn to understand its language will open the door to Atlantis for himself and for Salamander.

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

Happy ending

For some time, Veronica's magic mirror affected Anselm. He forgot Serpetina and began to dream about Paulman's daughter. Arriving at the archivist’s house, he discovered that he had ceased to perceive the world of miracles; the letters, which he had recently read with ease, again turned into incomprehensible squiggles. After dripping ink onto the parchment, the young man found himself imprisoned in a glass jar as punishment for his mistake. 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 a grumbling sound came from the coffee pot, and the young man recognized it as the voice of the notorious old woman. She promised to save him if he married Veronica. Anselm angrily refused, and the witch tried to escape, taking the golden pot. But then the formidable Salamander blocked her path. A battle took place between them: Lindgorst won, the spell of the mirror fell off Anselm, and the sorceress turned into a nasty beetroot.

All of Veronica’s attempts to tie Anselm to her ultimately ended in failure, but the girl did not despond for long. Conrector Paulman, appointed court councilor, proposed marriage to her, and she happily gave her consent. Anselm and Serpentine became happily engaged and found eternal bliss in Atlantis.

"The Golden Pot", Hoffmann. Heroes

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 the rough, unimaginative world of burghers, that is, ordinary people. His inconsistency with reality is clearly demonstrated at the very beginning of the story, when he knocks over the apple seller's basket. Sedate people, strong standing feet on earth, they make fun of him, and he acutely feels his exclusion from their world. But as soon as he gets a job with archivist Lindgorst, his life immediately begins to improve. 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 becomes the desire to win her love and trust. In the image of Serpentina, Hoffmann embodied the ideal lover - elusive, elusive and fabulously beautiful.

The magical world of Salamander is contrasted with “Dresden” characters: Conrector Paulman, Veronica, and Registrar Geerbrand. They are completely deprived of the ability to observe miracles, considering belief in them a manifestation mental illness. Only Veronica, in love with Anselm, sometimes lifts the curtain over fantasy world. But she loses this sensitivity as soon as a court councilor appears on the horizon with a marriage proposal.

Features of the genre

“A Tale from Modern Times” - this is the title Hoffmann himself suggested for 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 was written: chronicle story allows us to attribute it to a story, the abundance of magic - to a fairy tale, the small volume - to a short story. The real world, with its dominance of philistinism and pragmatism, and the fantastic country of Atlantis, where entry is accessible only to people with heightened sensitivity, exist in parallel. Thus, Goffman affirms the principle of dual worlds. Blurring of forms and duality were generally characteristic romantic works. Drawing inspiration from the past, the romantics turned their longing gaze to the future, hoping to find the best of worlds in such unity.

Hoffman in Russia

The first translation from German of Hoffmann’s fairy tale “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 from the life and work of Hoffmann. The library of A. S. Pushkin had a complete collection of Hoffmann’s works. The translation from German was made into French - according to the then tradition of giving preference to this language over Russian. Oddly enough, in Russia German writer was much more popular than in his homeland.

Atlantis is a mythical country where the harmony of all things, unattainable in reality, was realized. It is precisely this place that the student Anselm strives to get to in the fairy tale “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). A brief summary of his adventures, unfortunately, cannot allow one to enjoy either the smallest twists of the plot, or all the amazing miracles that Hoffmann’s imagination scattered along his path, or the exquisite style of storytelling characteristic only of 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 gifted and successful writer, but also talented artist and a composer, and had a legal education. That is why it so vividly conveys the chimes of crystal bells and the colors of the magical world. In addition, this work is valuable because all the main trends and themes of romanticism are reflected here: the role of the arts, dual worlds, love and happiness, routine and dreams, knowledge of the world, lies and truth. The “Golden Pot” is truly unique in its extraordinary versatility.

Romanticism is not only about dreams of magic or the search for adventure. It is important to keep in mind the historical events against the background of which this direction developed. “The Golden Pot” is part of the collection “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot.” It was created in 1813-15, and this is the period Napoleonic Wars. Dreams of freedom, equality and brotherhood have collapsed; the ordinary world can only be contrasted with a fictitious, 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 “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” was the subtitle “Leaves from the Diary of a Wandering Enthusiast”, which, due to its compositional unity, gives even greater mystery to the fairy tales.

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

Genre and direction

From the first pages of The Golden Pot, a mystery awaits the reader. It’s worth thinking about the author’s definition of the genre – “a fairy tale from modern times”, a more literary definition – a fairy tale. Such a symbiosis could only be born in the context of romanticism, when the study of folklore was gaining popularity among many writers. Thus, in one creation a story (a medium-sized prose literary work with one storyline) and fairy tale (a type of oral folk art).

In the work under consideration, Hoffmann expounds not only folklore motives, but also acute social problems: philistinism, envy, the desire not to be, but to appear. 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 oneself is the greatest punishment for the reader of that time. This technique was also used by writers of the period of classicism, such as La Bruyère and 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 Hoffman, everything illusory can be explained rationally. All wonderful visions are nothing more than a dream, a consequence of using tobacco and alcohol. Therefore, only the reader can decide what it is: a fairy tale or a story, reality or fiction?

About what?

On the Feast of the Ascension, student Anselm encountered an old woman selling apples. All the goods crumbled, for which the young man received many curses and threats addressed to him. Then he did not know that this was not just a merchant, but an evil witch, and the apples were not ordinary either: these were her children.

After the incident, 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 rustling of leaves or someone’s whisper. They were three shiny golden snakes, one of which took a special interest in the young man. He falls in love with her. Next, the character searches everywhere for dates with enchanting creatures, for which they begin to consider him crazy. At one of the evenings with the director Paulman, Anselm talks about his visions. They are of great interest to the registrar Geerbrand, and he refers the student to the archivist Lindgorst. The old archivist hires the young man as 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 rector Paulman, Veronica, is not indifferent to Anselm, but she is tormented by the question: is her feeling mutual? To find out this, the girl is ready to turn to a fortune teller. And she comes to Rauerin, who is that very witch-trader. This is how the confrontation between two blocs begins: Anselm with Lindhorst and Veronica with Rauerin.

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

The main characters and their characteristics

• From first to last page In 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 his last pennies due to his carelessness. Only fantasies and relaxation over punch or tobacco can dispel his pressing problems. But as the action develops, 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, Goffman does not impose such a point of view on the reader. We can assume that all ephemeral worlds are the influence of punch and a smoking pipe, and those around him are right to 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 to the higher world, where harmony reigns. Ordinary people, such as rector Paulman, his daughter Veronica and registrar Geerbrand, can only occasionally dream and drown in routine.
• The Paulman family also has its own desires, but they do not go beyond the limits of a rather narrow consciousness: the father wants to marry his daughter to a wealthy groom, and Veronica dreams of becoming “Madame Court Counselor.” The girl doesn’t even know what is more valuable to her: feelings or social status. In the young friend, the girl saw only a potential court adviser, but Anselm was ahead of Geerbrand, and Veronica gave her hand and heart to him.
• For several hundred years now, the archivist Lindgorst has been exiled 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 story about the young man Phosphorus tells the reader about the magical Atlantis and the origin of the archivist. But the exile’s audience 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. It is curious that the author himself admits to the public that he is communicating with a foreign guest, because he, too, is involved in higher ideas, which serves to add some credibility to the fairy tale.

Subjects

1. Theme of love. Anselm sees in feeling only a sublime poetic meaning that inspires a person to life and creativity. An ordinary and bourgeois marriage, based on mutually beneficial use, would not suit him. In his understanding, love inspires people, and does not pin them to the ground with conventions and everyday aspects. The author completely agrees with him.
2. Conflict between personality and society. Those around him only mock Anselm and do not accept his fantasies. People tend to be afraid of non-typical ideas and extraordinary aspirations; they rudely suppress them. The writer calls on you to fight for your beliefs, even if they are not shared by the crowd.
3. Loneliness. Main character, like the archivist, feels misunderstood and alienated from the world. At first this upsets him, makes him doubt himself, but over time he realizes that he is different from others and acquires the courage to defend it, and not follow the lead of 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 simply need to strive for the ideal; one desire already ennobles the soul and elevates it above routine existence.

the main idea

Hoffmann gives the reader complete freedom in his interpretation of “The Golden Pot”: for some it is a fairy tale, for others it is a story interspersed with dreams, and others 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 everyday chores and self-development, career and love? Student Anselm had the good fortune to decide in favor of the poetic world, so he is freed from illusions and routine.

In a special way, Hoffman depicts the dual world characteristic of romanticism. To be or to seem? - the main conflict of the work. The writer depicts a time of hardening and blindness, where even people captured in flasks do not notice their constraint. It is not the person himself that is important, but his function. It is no coincidence that all the heroes are often mentioned with their positions: archivist, registrar, editor. This is how the author emphasizes the difference between the poetic and everyday worlds.

But these two areas are not only opposed. The fairy tale has cross-cutting motifs that unite them. For example, blue eyes. They first attract Anselm in the Serpentine, but Veronica also has them, as the young man later notes. So, maybe the girl and the golden snake are one? Miracles and reality are connected by the earrings that Veronica saw in her dream. Her newly appointed court advisor, Geerbrand, gives her exactly these on her engagement day.

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

“Believe, love and hope!” - this is the most the main idea this fairy tale, this is the motto that Hoffmann wants to make the meaning of everyone’s life.

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