Untitled - Doria

that turns into poetry and thus stichotvorenie, the meeting between land and
sea.
On a more personal level, the question of documented versus
unknown origins is raised through the concept nevedoma zverjuzhka and its
meaning. Here, the relationship between father and son is described, as well
as that between husband and wife, between disguise and true appearance
through states of passivity and activity which, in turn, are analogous to the
relation between life and death. Of the recurrent motifs identified by
Gasparov in Pushkin’s poetic myth, this tale includes versions of persons in
water: the Tsar’s son who is banished together with his mother. Another
motif used in the tale is the empty landscape in the form of a desert island,
the transformation of which in turn refers to the figure of the creator and,
through that, both to the poet and Peter I, but also to a father figure whose
formation alludes to the statue motif. In the figure of Lebed, finally, the
woman as the embodiment of inspiration appears.
The conflict in the tale emanates from the relation between truth and
lies, which here is a version of the relation between tale and truth, and
between fact and fiction. Ultimately, in accordance with the traditional tale,
the story expresses the classic struggle between good and evil. The conflict
raises the question of punishment and forgiveness, which in “The Tale of
Tsar Saltan” is given a double meaning. This is also an expression of the
combination of popular and literary conventions. Both the depiction of the
relation between truth and lies, and the question of origins and the creation
of the Petrine myth, for their part, connects the tale to Pushkin’s poems
“Andzhelo” and “Mednyj vsadnik”.
In the final stanza of the tale, Tsar Saltan forgives his antagonists
who, having confessed their guilt, are allowed to travel back home. Contrary
to the custom in traditional tales, they thus escape punishment. Forgiveness
is the real victory as it is described in the poem “Pir Petra Pervogo”. The
power of compassion (miloserdie) is, according to Pushkin, one of the most
important features of a just Tsar. Against this backdrop, Tsar Saltan acts
according to a convention the scope of which reaches far beyond the practice
of traditional tales. The atonement at the end thus signifies a passage from
fiction to reality. At the same time, this solution can be explained by the
literariness (literaturnost’) of the tale. If one, however, chooses an
allegorical reading, the opposite takes place. “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” then
appears as a story of a stagnated kingdom (Saltan’s) which is contrasted to a
new and progressive one (Gvidon’s), or an old Russia characterized by
passivity and intriguing against a new country marked by development and
harmony. Read in this way, the forgiveness of the antagonists appears as a
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