KidLit Forum

A) Context
Vasilisa the Beautiful is the name of a Russian fairy tale colected by Alexander Afanasyev, in Russian Fairy Tales, a collection of 600 fairy and folktales, published in 1855 and 1863.
B) Summary
Vasilisa was the daughter of a merchant. When she was eight years old her mother died but on her dead bed she had a present for her, a doll with magical power. After a period of time, her father remarried another woman. This woman had also two daughters. The stepmother and her daughters were treating Vasilisa very bad. The merchant had to leave for a while with some business. During this time the stepmother decided to move in the forest in a hut. One of the evenings she gave to the three girls some tasks and let them with one candle in the room. When the light goes out, the three girls have to decide which one of them has to go to Baba Yaga, an evil witch, to seek for a light. Of course that Vasilisa went but she was very frightened. During her road to the forest she met a white horseman, a red one and a black one. These three horseman were actually the day, the night and the sun.
When she arrives at Baba Yaga’s house, Vasilisa was froze by fear because the hut was surrounded by a fence made by bones. Beautiful Vasilisa was invited in but she must work in exchange of light. I forgot to mention that on the way in she passed near a tree, a dog and a cat, that Baba Yaga ordered them not to hurt Vasilisa when she first arrived there. As I said before, Vasilisa had to work otherwise was to be eaten, so helped by the doll she managed to finish all her work and to escape from there with a skull with light inside.
When Vasilisa brought the skull in the house the stepmother and her daughters eyes were burned. After all these she moved with an old woman and she started to spin flat into a fine threat. The old woman sold it to the tsar son, Tsarevich . He asked who made it and asked for a shirt. Vasilisa made him a shirt and came to the palace with it. Tsarevich falls in love with her and decide to marry her.
When her father arrived from the journey, he lived with her daughter and her husband but also with the old woman and the magic doll.
C) Position in the Aarne-Thomson- Uther Index
The Beautiful Vasilisa fits in the category of Tales of Magic. The most important enemy in Vasilisa life is her stepmother but also her daughters.
D) Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp
The Heroine: Our heroine is Vasilisa . She must perform different tasks, first from her stepmother and second from Baba Yaga.
The parents: MERCHANT and his WIFE. The mother gives her daughter a magic doll to help her after her death.
The Villains: the stepmother and her daughters.
The helper: Baba Yaga and the magic doll
The initial situation: Once upon a time was a merchant and his wife. They had a beautiful daughter, Vasilisa. After the mother died she let her daughter a magic doll.
The Absentation: The father has to go with bussines.
The Villainy: the two sisters. They were trying to get rid of Vasilisa by sending her in the woods to Baba Yaga.
The Lack: Vasilisa has to go to search for light.
The Tasks: Baba Yaga asks her to do different things and she succeded .
The Solution: The tasks were solved with the help of magic doll.
The Punishment: The three evil women were transformed in ashes.
The wedding: Vasilisa married with the tsar.
D) Similarities with another tales: I thing that Vasilisa looks like Snow White or Cinderella, because there we have also a step mother or step sisters.