An Intelligent Game by Puškin: Plot Structure and the Thematic Unity of The Tales of Belkin 1

The main body of my arguments demonstrates in which artistic principles and literary framework Pushkin's texts are interwoven with each other. This study explores why the cycle must be called a fine literary model, experimental norm, and projection of a completely new style at the time. Through this synthetic interpretation of the cycle, I finally suggest that Pushkin's The Tales of Belkin paves a completely new path to the development of the Russian short story with a special emphasis on thematic unity. In this internally planned plot formation, events from Pushkin's biography, especially his immature youthful pranks and wishful hope to have a happy marriage, are also considered. Speaking of the embedded text penetrating throughout the cycle, I maintain that traditional Russian wedding rituals are certainly the most recurrent folkloric motif. Structurally analyzing each tale, I have in mind this dominant motif as to how it contributes to encoding the writer's artistic design within the texts and how it creatively formulates a unifying thematic structure for the cycle.