Explore ''Vasilisa the Beautiful.'' Meet the characters in this Russian fairy tale, explore the summary and analysis, and learn about Vasilisa's doll and Baba Yaga.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Vasilisa the Beautiful by A. N. Afanasyev | Summary & Analysis
Table of Contents
- ’’Vasilisa the Beautiful’’
- Characters in the Vasilisa Story
- Summary of the Russian Fairy Tale Vasilisa
- Analysis of Vasilisa the Beautiful
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the moral of "Vasilisa the Beautiful"?
Multiple moral lessons exist within this story. One is of the value of hard work. The title character works hard throughout the tale and eventually marries the tsar because of her hard work. Another theme is that of beauty and that outward beauty comes from within.
What work does Vasilisa do all by herself?
At Baba-Yaga's house, Vasilisa cooks the meal as the doll does the rest of the work. Later she spins yarn, weaves, and sews clothing for the tsar. At the beginning of the story, she does difficult outdoor work at the command of her step-mother.
Table of Contents
- ’’Vasilisa the Beautiful’’
- Characters in the Vasilisa Story
- Summary of the Russian Fairy Tale Vasilisa
- Analysis of Vasilisa the Beautiful
- Lesson Summary
Vasilisa the Beautiful is a Russian fairy tale, although it was also told in Poland, Yugoslavia, and Romania. It was first passed down orally but was eventually put into writing by Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev in the mid-nineteenth century in his book, Russian Fairy Tales.
As with many fairy tales, different versions exist that skew the details a bit, but they all center around a young girl named Vasilisa, a magical doll she is given, a wicked stepmother and stepsisters, and a witch usually named Baba-Yaga. Around the year 1900, Ivan Bilibin created illustrations for the book which became quite well known.
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The Vasilisa story contains numerous memorable characters. Included in these are the following:
- Vasilisa: Vasilisa is the main character of the story. In most versions, her beauty is made very apparent. She is forced to live with her evil stepmother, who attempts to thwart her beauty to no avail. She is hard working, and she knows when to ask for help. She is also brave.
- Vasilisa’s mother: As in many fairy tales, the mother dies very early on. Before her death, however, she gives Vasilisa a magic doll. She tells Vasilisa never to show it to anybody and to feed it and it will give her guidance.
- Vasilisa’s doll: As Vasilisa did as her mother told her to, the doll gives her guidance and helps her complete the unreasonable tasks Baba-Yaga makes her do in order to escape being eaten.
- Vasilisa’s father: The father does not appear in the story much. He remarries after his wife’s death to the evil stepmother, who he thought would be a good mother. He is not mentioned as the stepmother mistreats Vasilisa.
- Stepmother: The stepmother is reminiscent of Cinderella’s stepmother. She is jealous of the girl and her beauty, and she gives her tasks that she mistakenly believes will diminish her beauty. She then forces her to go to the witch to get light when they lose the light in their home.
- Baba-Yaga: Baba-Yaga is a witch who lives in the forest and eats people. She appeared in many Slavic myths, and her name likely derives from words referring to grandmothers and snakes. Snakes at the time symbolized rebirth rather than evil. She is not described as beautiful but rather as being quite ugly.
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There are multiple versions of Vasilisa with slightly different details. In general, however, the plot is as follows.
Vasilisa’s mother dies, but before she does so, she gives her daughter a doll and tells her to feed it and it will help her. Vasilisa’s father goes on to marry a new woman who he believes will make a good stepmother for his daughter. She has two daughters of her own.
The stepmother is jealous of Vasilisa’s beauty, so she makes her do awful outdoor work. She believes it will make her thin and ruin her complexion. Vasilisa continues to grow in beauty.
One night all the light goes out in the home. In some versions the stepmother extinguishes the lights, but in others it is less clear why they go out. Someone needs to go to Baba-Yaga, an old witch who eats people, to get more light. Everyone refuses, and Vasilisa is forced to go.
Eventually she gets to the old woman’s house, which is made of chicken bones and has a fence made of human bones. The witch drives around in a mortar and uses a pestle to guide the vehicle. Baba-Yaga agrees to help Vasilisa if she will perform some tasks for her. If she fails the tasks, however, Baba-Yaga says she will eat her. The problem is that these tasks are impossible. No person could ever complete them in the time given. Vasilisa has her magic doll, however, and she asks the doll for help.
In some versions the doll does the work, and in others, the doll enlists the help of mice and birds to get the tasks done. Vasilisa goes to Baba-Yaga and tells her the work is done, but the old woman gives her another day’s worth of impossible tasks. Again with the help of the doll, the work is done.
Baba-Yaga finds out that Vasilisa has a doll with a blessing and she sends her out of her home, as she says she can not have any blessed objects in her home. She sends her with a skull on a stick. Vasilisa is about to toss the skull when she nears her home, but the skull tells her not to. It tells her that her stepmother and stepsisters need the skull.
She returns to a home that is in complete darkness. They are unable to get any light in the house while Vasilisa is gone. The skull bores its eyes into the stepmother and stepsisters, and by morning, it has reduced them into piles of ashes.
Vasilisa goes to live with an old woman in the city, and she spins beautiful flax. She makes it into a cloth and then sews garments for the tsar. He is so impressed with her that he wants to meet her and he marries her, although in some versions, she marries his son. She keeps her doll forever.
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As with all fairy tales, Vasilisa the Beautiful has a message. It is also ripe with symbolism.
- Beauty: Vasilisa is known to be very beautiful. Most titles of the story have the word beauty in them. Her beauty is not dimmed by hard work. In fact, the more hard work outdoors that her stepmother gives her, the more beautiful she becomes. It becomes apparent to the reader that it is Vasilisa’s inner beauty that shines forth in her outward appearance.
- Hard work: Vasilisa is a hard worker. She works hard for her stepmother. Her doll does much of the work given to her by Baba-Yaga because it is impossible for one person to complete it. Vasilisa still does some of the work though. She does not expect the doll to do it all, and she makes the meal for the old witch. It is her hard work, in fact, that leads to her marriage, as the tsar is so impressed with her spinning, weaving, and sewing.
- Light and dark: The house remains in darkness when Vasilisa leaves. She is sent to go bring light. In a traditional sense in this story, light is associated with goodness, and when that leaves, all is dark. Vasilisa herself is symbolic of this light.
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Vasilisa the Beautiful is an old Russian folk tale first written down in the mid-sixteenth century. It tells the tale of a beautiful girl named Vasilisa. When her mother dies, she gives her a magic doll. Her father remarries, and she gains an evil stepmother and two stepsisters. Despite the stepmother’s attempts to diminish Vasilisa’s beauty, she continues to grow more beautiful. One day she must go to an old witch, Baba-Yaga, to get light for the family. Baba-Yaga drives around in a a mortar and pestle. With the help of her doll and sometimes some birds, Vasilisa completes the impossible tasks given to her, and the old witch gives her a skull on a stick. Overnight, this skull turns the stepmother and stepsisters into piles of ashes. Sometimes the story ends with Vasilisa marrying the tsar, and others end with her marrying his son.
Multiple themes persist in this story. One is that of light and dark. Light represents goodness and beauty. Without these, all is in the dark. Hard work is another important theme. In fact, it is hard work that leads Vasilisa to marry the tsar at the end of the story. A final theme is that of beauty. Beauty is shown to come from within.
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Additional Info
Background
Do you have something that someone special once gave you that seems to offer you strength and protection when you need it the most? In 'Vasilisa the Beautiful', the young girl, Vasilisa, was given a special doll on her mother's deathbed. Let's find out more about this story.
Vasilisa's Mother
As Vasilisa's mother lies in bed, she hands Vasilisa a doll and says, ''Do as I tell you, my child. Take good care of this little doll and never show it to anyone. If ever anything bad happens to you, give the doll something to eat and ask its advice. It will help you out in all your troubles.''
After a period of grief, Vasilisa's father remarries an evil woman who is more concerned with her own two daughters than with Vasilisa. Vasilisa's stepmother and stepsisters verbally abuse her and force her to work. Vasilisa remains obedient, completes her work, and becomes more beautiful.
Vasilisa feeds her doll milk every day and tells it her problems. The doll comforts Vasilisa and takes care of her. When her father goes away on a trip, Vasilisa is left alone with the others. Her stepmother gives each of them a job to do, puts out all the lights except for one, and goes to bed. When the light goes out, the stepsisters decide that Vasilisa must go to the nearby home of Baba Yaga, an evil witch who eats people, to ask for a light.
Baba Yaga
Vasilisa is frightened, but her doll reassures her. A white horseman, a red horseman, and a black horseman gallop by as she approaches Baba Yaga's hut surrounded by a fence of bones. As Vasilisa is frozen with fear, Baba Yaga flies up behind her in her mortar and pestle. Baba Yaga invites Vasilisa in, but explains she must work to earn the light.
On the way in, Vasilisa passes a tree, dog, and cat that Baba Yaga commands not to hurt her, but warns that if she tries to run away, they will. Baba Yaga feeds Vasilisa a piece of bread and then orders her to work under threat of being eaten. Vasilisa secretly shares her bread with her doll. The doll calls birds from all around to help. When Baba Yaga wakes, the work is complete. Baba Yaga gives Vasilisa another task. Once again Vasilisa feeds her doll a piece of bread. The doll calls the mice to help so by the time Baba Yaga returns, the work is complete.
Baba Yaga becomes angry and decides to roast Vasilisa and eat her. Vasilisa cries and feeds the doll once again. Vasilisa gives the maid a silken kerchief in exchange for taking her time lighting the fire and tickle's Baba Yaga's heels so that she will sleep more soundly and Vasilisa will run away. Vasilisa gives the cat a pie, the dog some bread, and a ribbon to the tree so that they allow her to pass.
Vasilisa's Escape
Vasilisa takes a skull with glowing eyes from the fence, puts it on a stick and takes it home. When Baba Yaga wakes and finds her gone, she is so angry with the cat, dog, and tree for letting Vasilisa go that Baba Yaga forgets about Vasilisa.
When Vasilisa brings the skull into her house, its eyes burn the stepmother and stepsisters to ashes. When Vasilisa buries the skull, a rosebush grows. Vasilisa goes to live with an elderly woman where she spins flax into a fine thread. The old woman sells it to the Tsarevich, the tsar's son. He asks for a shirt made of it, so Vasilisa makes him a shirt. He loves the shirt so much that he asks Vasilisa to marry him.
Analysis
While Baba Yaga is famous for kidnapping and eating children who come across her path, Vasilisa represents the type of character who is immune to the witch's powers. She is blessed by her mother, hardworking, and kind. Even those who are most loyal to Baba Yaga, the maid, the cat, the dog, and the tree, side with Vasilisa because she is kinder to them than Baba Yaga is. The purpose of the story is to teach children that if they are kind, respectful, and generous, they will be rewarded.
Lesson Summary
In 'Vasilisa the Beautiful', Vasilisa is a beautiful, hardworking girl who is mistreated by her stepmother and her stepsisters after her mother dies. Vasilisa is comforted by a doll that was given to her by her mother after her death. One night, when the lights go out, Vasilisa is sent to a neighbor's house to get a light. The neighbor is the evil Baba Yaga who is known for eating children. Baba Yaga's house is surrounded by a fence made of skeletons and protected by a tree, a dog, and a cat.
When Baba Yaga provides Vasilisa with work to do, the doll summons the help of birds and mice to help her complete it. Baba Yaga is angry when Vasilisa is able to complete her work and plans to eat her anyway. Vasilisa escapes by giving a scarf to the maid, a pie to the cat, some bread to the dog, and a ribbon to the tree. Vasilisa takes a skull with glowing eyes from Baba Yaga's fence to provide light. The light in the skull's eyes burns Vasilisa's stepmother and stepsisters to ashes. Vasilisa later spins fine threat from flax that is so impressive that the Tsarevich wants to marry her. The story teaches children that hard work and good behavior will be rewarded.
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Vasilisa the Beautiful by A. N. Afanasyev | Summary & Analysis
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