KidLit Forum

Vasilisa the Beautiful
Russian Fairy Tale

1.Summary: The story is about an old man and an old woman and their daughter, Vasilisa. They were poor people for they lived in a small hut near a forest. The old woman feel gravely ill and feeling that her end was near she called Vasilisa to her bedside and gave her a little doll. She advised her daughter to take care of the little doll, to feed it and never show it to anyone. She told her daughter that the doll will help her if ever anything bad would happen to her. Little has passed and the old man remarried. The woman who married had two daughters of her own. They started to chide Vasilisa and made her work beyond her strength. Her only rescue was the doll she received from her mother because it helped her carrying out her duties. One day the old man, Vasilisa’s father had to go away for a long time. The stepmother considered that it was the perfect moment to get rid of Vasilisa. So, she gave to each three sisters some work to do, then putting out all the lights in the house except for a single splinter of birch that burnt in the corner where the three sisters were working, she went to bed. The splinter burnt for a short time then went out. Now one of them had to go to Baba Yaga, a witch who lived in the forest near their house, to ask for light. As it’s to be expected Vasilisa was sent to ask Baba Yaga for light. She asked her doll what should she do and the doll advised her to go. So she has just started her travel when she saw a white horseman riding his horse around her. Then, when the sun rose she saw another horseman dressed in red and in the nightfall she saw a black horseman. When she arrived at Baba Yaga’s house she found that was a kinswoman of her stepmother and in order to receive the light she had to stay there for a while and to pass some tests. If she manages to pass the tests she’ll receive the light, contrary she will be eaten by the witch. Firstly, she had to take out all the black bites from a sack of millet. The doll helped her to accomplish her job asking the birds of the sky to help her. Secondly she had to pick out the peas from the seeds. Here was also helped by her doll who called all the mice to help her. Baba Yaga was shocked when she saw that Vasilisa managed to pass all the tests and promised that she’ll give her light in the morning. But Vasilca heard when the witch said that she will eat her in the morning. So Vasilica asked the witch’s maiden to help her escape from that house. Finally she managed to escape but she didn’t have the light she needed. The doll advised to take a skull from the witch’s fence and to mount it on a stick. So she obtained the light. When she arrived home she noticed that her family didn’t have light at all so they took the skull into the hut. The skull fixed its eyes on the stepmother and her daughters and burned them like fire. In the morning only Vasilica remained untouched by the fire. She buried the skull outside the hut and went into the town. She stayed in an old woman’s house and she started to spin yarn. She was so skilled at her work that the Tsar noticed her. He later married Vasilica.

2. ATU System: The story is a tale of magic, supernatural helpers, classified as number 510A- Cinderella.

3. Propp’s functions in the fairy tale.

I have identified the following functions:
0. The initial situation: An old man and an old wife lived happily in a small hut together with their daughter.
1. The absentations: In this fairy tale we may identify two situations that come under this function: the mother dies and the father has to leave home for a long period of time.
2. The interdiction: the present fairy tale doesn’t present any situation in which the hero has any interdiction. We can’t identify either the functions number 3: Violation, 4: Reconnaissance and 5: Delivery.
6. Trickery: The stepmother tricks Vasilica.
7. Complicity: Vasilica is forced to go to bring light from Baba Yaga’s house.
8. Complicity, 9. Meditation, 10. Beginning counteraction- these functions are not identifiable in this fairy tale.
11. Departure: the hero, Vasilisa leaves the house.
12. First function of donor, 13: Protagonist reaction and 14: Acquisition of Magical Agent- the hero doesn’t have to pass any test or to fight for the magical object because she has the magical object from the beginning of the story.
15. Transference: Vasilica arrives at Baba Yaga’s home. She was shocked when she saw that the fence round the hut was made of human bones and human skulls.
16. Struggle: Vasilica is a ‘lucky heroine’ for she doesn’t have to struggle to pass the tests imposed by Baba Yaga. She only has to feed the doll and this will accomplish the work instead of Vasilica.
17. Branding: it’s not the case in this fairy tale.
18. Victory: The heroine manages to run away from Baba Yaga’s house.
19. Liquidation: the doll which is the magical object in this story helps the heroine to get light, advising her to take “one of the skulls from the fence and mounting it on a stick, set across the forest. Its eyes glowed, and by their light the dark night was as bright as day”. So, they managed to get what they were after.
20. The return: Vasilica returns home.
21, Pursuit, 22: Rescue, 23: Unrecognised, 24: Unfounded Claims, 25: Difficult Task, 26: Solution, 27: Unrecognition, 28: Exposure, 29: Trasnsfiguration – are not identifiable in this fairy tale.
30. Punishment: The stepmother and stepsisters are punished. They are burnt by the lightened skull that Vasilica brought from Baba Yaga’s house.
31: Vasilica marries the Tsar who is amazed by her beauty and her spinning skills.
4. Propp’s types of characters:
The hero: Vasilica, the villain: Baba Yaga, the dispatcher: the stepmother, the helper: the doll.