Themes and plots of Krylov’s fables

IA Krylov wrote more than two hundred fables. Almost a third are covers of La Fontaine and Aesop’s fables. The rest were created by him. But the entire fable array is divided into three blocks:

1. exposure of human vices and shortcomings;
2. playing on social shortcomings;
3. story in fable form.

The most famous are the fables of the first block. The qualities of character that their content reveals are much easier to recognize in a neighbor. But it is very difficult to recognize them in oneself.

So stupidity, ignorance are worked out in the fable "Monkey and Glasses", "Mirror and Monkey", "Little Casket"; pettiness, corrosiveness - in the fable "Curious"; the desire to boast, deceit, servility to all foreign - in the fable "Liar"; vanity, flattering, desire to please - in "The Crow and the Fox", "Two Dogs", "Liar"; boasting, vanity - in "Demyanova’s ear".

Selfishness, heartlessness, indifference - "The Frog and Jupiter", "The Siskin and the Dove." Avarice, greed - "Fortune and the beggar." Lightheadedness - "Cuckoo and Turtleneck". Peasant wisdom is shown in the fable "The Peasant and the Serpent".

The fables of the second block, revealing social ulcers, contain images of bribe-takers, bribe-takers, cunning, fools in office. This fable array is represented by such fables as "The Peasant and the Sheep", "The Fox and the Marmot", "Fish Dances", "Pike". The animal avatar cast for these roles is very accurate. Fox is a cheat, a bribe-taker; the sheep is holy simplicity; the lion is the supreme power and protector.

The fables of the third block are tied to historical events and mainly affect the war of 1812. These are "The Wolf in the Kennel", "Wagon Train" (the heroes Kutuzov and Napoleon), "Pike and the Cat" (Admiral Chigrakov), "Quartet" (State Council meeting).

The fable "The Cuckoo and the Rooster" is dedicated to the journalists Grech and Bulgarin. And "Raising a Lion" contains a transparent allusion to Alexander I and his courtiers.

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