So is this a fairy tale for children or a narrative with connotations for adults? The Golden Key is a work of the talented Russian writer A. N. Tolstoy. It was a significant update to the tale of the Italian writer Carlo Collodi “The Adventures of Pinocchio. The history of the wooden doll”. The result is a completely new fairy tale with its own complex character.
Everyone's favorite fairy tale about a wooden doll named Pinocchio and his magic golden key has become a real reference book for many. It is re-read more than once, and again, and again makes you experience amazing adventures with fairy-tale characters. Its relevance is not lost today. New generations of toddlers are happy to listen to the magical story about a tree boy with a long nose, with which he pierced the hearth, painted on a piece of old canvas in the closet of old Pope Carlo.
A short excursion into the creation of the "Golden Key"
At the beginning of the 20th century, this amazing tale was published. But until this momentous moment, her path was long and thorny. First, A. N. Tolstoy intended only to translate the famous Italian fairy tale, but, carried away, decided that it would be unforgivable not to supplement it with his own thoughts and fantasies. As a result of these additions, the writer got an absolutely new, original and multifaceted work.
In 1935, the author finally presents to his young and adult readers a new version of the adventure story of a wooden doll. If you compare the "Golden Key" with the original, you will notice that a little resemblance remains with the latter. The updated tale is full of adventures, but also not devoid of morality, which prevails in the original source, making it more boring and dry from an overabundance of moralizing. Nevertheless, the writer allowed a slight moral connotation, and it is intended, of course, for an adult reader, while kids can simply plunge headlong into the amazing adventures of a wooden boy and his friends.
Simple plot design
Everyone remembers how the lonely and old dad Carlo decided to carve a doll out of a dry log for fun. And he, it should be noted, was a noble carpenter. Therefore, the wooden doll turned out to be wonderful and very nice. Only her nose was a little long. And when dad Carlo decided to shorten it a little, the doll suddenly came to life and began to speak. So Buratino was born - one of the main characters of the fairy tale of the same name. From this moment, the amazing adventures of the wooden boy begin. An absolutely simple-looking story has grown and eventually became a literary “puff pie”.
A. N. Tolstoy did not change his corporate style here either. His ability to create layering in his works only made the fairy tale more interesting. The name "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio" is not taken for nothing. At first, it seems that the main character is Pinocchio, but, traveling through the work, one can understand that there are no main and secondary characters here. All fairy tale characters play the main roles. Do not be one of the least significant, and this story will be completely incomplete. The main evil is presented in this work in the form of the colorful Karabas Barabas, who is the director of the puppet theater, as well as his cunning friend Duremar.
Lies and greed in all their manifestations are personified by the cat Basilio and the fox Alice. The poodle Artemon is distinguished by courage and devotion. The whiny, indecisive and eternally sad Pierrot because of his unrequited love for the blue-eyed and demanding Malvina is also one of the key figures in this work. Kindness and wisdom are exuded by the three-hundred-year-old tortoise Tortilla, which helped Pinocchio to find the golden key. And the most hardworking is Carlo's dad. In the fairy tale, there is a difficult struggle of the heroes for the cherished golden key. Here it is interesting what he is for each individual hero.
What's behind the canvas in poor dad Carlo's closet? Everyone's imagination draws exactly what he himself desires. Karabas Barabas and his retinue decided that this key is the path to untold riches. For Pinocchio and his friends, this is the road to a better future, where there is no anger and injustice. Where everyone is equal, free and equally happy. Everything is simple and understandable even for a small reader. You cannot be happy without love and friends, but only one wealth.
Compositional staging of the work
Using the simplest methods, the author of the work achieves readers' sympathy for the "good forces". Showing how puppets live in the theater of Karabas Barabas, how he oppresses them, and their daily forced suffering, the writer sets up a negative attitude towards the director of theatrical puppets. Tolstoy tells about the difficult social life of these characters. It follows from this that a fairy tale may well be a story. Children forget that they are reading a fictional work and strongly empathize with the unfortunate characters. And the author himself calls the work a story-tale. There is a clear gradation of heroes, positive and negative. The only one who is still ambiguous is Pinocchio.
Tolstoy created this character in such a way as to attract the attention of an adult reader. The psychological portrait paints a hero with polar qualities in character. Buratino is at first a bully and a slob, an ignoramus and a boor, but he is trying to change. After going through difficulties, he learns to be different, and in the end he succeeds. Pinocchio becomes a positive hero already unambiguously. Although children perceive him as such at once. Their childish mind is not yet able to distinguish ordinary hooliganism from reckless courage, for children it is the same thing. Adults understand that with the help of the image of a wooden boy, the author seems to be saying that the world is imperfect, and ideal people do not exist even in fairy tales. That everything can change for the better. The main thing is that you really need to want it.
Evil is never absolute
In the work, the negative characters are quite comical. The cunning fox Alice and the cat Basilio end up with nothing. It turns out that they have outsmarted themselves. Karabas Barabas also did not make it to the cherished door. And this is good. The harsh rejection of the negative characters in the fairy tale carries an additional negative burden on children's souls. Makes babies afraid.
The writer understands this. After all, there should always be a chance for a bad character to become a little better. Therefore, in this work there are no scenes from which the kids can get upset. The tale-tale turned out to be light, ironic, kind. The writer clearly showed how bad it is to be greedy and cowardly, deceitful and stupid. But all this is told in a playful way. The tale "The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio" carries a lot of positive and peaceful attitude towards others. There is no death, no violence. Karabas Barabas only brandishes his whip, but does not really hit the unfortunate dolls. Basilio the cat and Alice the fox only comically hang Pinocchio from a tree. And when Karabas Barabas chases after him, he only gets tangled with his beard on a tree, and beats against it with his forehead, stuffing a bump.
Indeed, in the fairy tale, no one was significantly hurt, except perhaps the canvas, behind which there was a secret door and which had to be cut. After reading such a work, a pleasant aftertaste remains. The tale "The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio" gives hope that everything will be fine and good will surely triumph over evil. And everyone will live happily, and even the "bad guys" from the fairy tale of the same name. After all, good is very contagious.
Many generations have grown up on this wonderful tale. She has been talentedly filmed more than once. Its immortality lies in the fact that the tale "The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio" promotes real goodness, without fists. Well, the evil in her is more comical than harmful. It is a very light work that carries simple ideals to the human soul. It will be read by subsequent generations to babies and their parents.
