Mitrofanushka was a spoiled and pampered mistake. They explain to schoolchildren at Nedorosl: being a Mitrofanushka is old-fashioned

Hearing the name of the comedy “The Minor,” the image of a slacker and ignoramus emerges. The word undergrowth did not always have an ironic meaning. During the time of Peter I, noble children under 15 years of age were called minors. Fonvizin managed to give the word a different meaning. After the release of the comedy, it became a household name. The image and characterization of Mitrofanushka in the comedy “Minor” are negative. Through this character, Fonvizin wanted to show the degradation of the Russian nobility, when a person ceases to be human, turning into an ignorant and stupid beast.

The key role in the comedy “The Minor” is played by Mitrofan Prostakov, a noble son. The name Mitrofan means “similar”, similar to his mother. The parents looked into the water. Having named the child this way, they received a complete copy of themselves. A slacker and a parasite, accustomed to having all his wishes fulfilled the first time. Favorite activities: eat well and sleep. Mitrofan is only 16 years old and while his peers are full of aspirations and desires, he has none at all.

Mitrofan and mother

Mitrofan is a typical mama's boy.

“Well, Mitrofanushka, I see you are mother’s son, not father’s son!”

The father loves his son no less than the mother, but the father's opinion means nothing to him. Seeing how his mother treated her husband, humiliating him in front of the serfs, sometimes with a word, sometimes with a slap on the head, the guy drew certain conclusions. If a man voluntarily allowed himself to be turned into a rag, then what can he deserve? The only desire is to wipe your feet and move.

Thanks to his mother, Mitrofan is absolutely not adapted to life. Why bother with problems and worries when there are servants and a mother who is ready to do anything for him. Her guardianship and dog-like adoration were annoying. Mother's love did not find a response in his heart. He grew up cold and insensitive. IN final scene Mitrofan proved that his mother is indifferent to him. He refuses loved one, as soon as he heard that she had lost everything. Rushing to him in the hope of getting support, the woman hears something rude:

“Go away, mother, how you forced yourself on me”

Self-interest and the desire to get rich quickly and without effort became his credo. These traits were also passed on from the mother. Even the wedding with Sophia was at the suggestion of the mother, who wanted to profitably accommodate her unlucky son.

“I don’t want to study, I want to get married”

These are the words of Mitrofan addressed to her. The proposal was received with a bang. After all, a wedding with a rich heiress promised him a carefree and prosperous future.

Leisure

Favorite leisure activities: food and sleep. Food meant a lot to Mitrofan. The guy loved to eat. I filled my belly so much that I couldn’t sleep. He was constantly tormented by colic, but this did not reduce the amount of food he ate.

“Yes, it’s clear, brother, you had a hearty dinner...”

After having a hearty dinner, Mitrofan usually went to the dovecote or went to bed. If it weren't for the teachers with their classes, he would get out of bed only to look into the kitchen.

Attitude to study

Science was difficult for Mitrofan. Teachers fought for four years to teach the stupid guy something, but the result was zero. The mother herself, an uneducated woman, inspired her son that it was not necessary to study. The main thing is money and power, everything else is a waste of time.

“It’s only torment for you, but everything, I see, is emptiness. Don’t learn this stupid science!”

Peter's decree that noble children should know arithmetic, God's word and grammar played a role. She had to hire teachers not out of love for science, but because it was the right thing to do. It is not surprising that with such an attitude towards learning, Mitrofan did not understand and did not know basic things.

The importance of Mitrofan in comedy

Through the image of Mitrofan, Fonvizin wanted to show what can become of a person if he stops developing, getting stuck in one pore and forgetting about human values, such as love, kindness, honesty, respect for people.

The eighteenth century gave Russian (and world, of course) literature many outstanding names and talented figures. One of them is Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin, writer and playwright. Most people know him as the author of the comedy “The Minor.” How was the author's most famous work created, who did he base his characters on, and what is special about one of the characters in the play - Mitrofanushka?

Denis Fonvizin

Before talking about the comedy itself, it is necessary to at least briefly say about its author. Denis Fonvizin did not live too long (only forty-seven years), but bright life. Most people know him only as the person who wrote “The Minor,” while he wrote the play “The Brigadier,” many translations and adaptations, treatises and essays.

Despite the fact that he wrote only two plays (and after “The Brigadier” he did not turn to drama for more than ten years), it was Fonvizin who is the “progenitor” of the so-called Russian everyday comedy.

“Minor” by Fonvizin: history of creation

Despite the fact that “The Minor” was completed by the writer and politician in the early eighties, there is reason to believe that Fonvizin conceived his satirical “comedy of manners” back in the sixties: it was precisely this time that the play dates back to, which first saw the light only in the last century - during during the author's life it was never published. Its characters can be called early prototypes of the heroes of “The Minor”: in each of them familiar features are easily discernible.

While working on the comedy, Denis Ivanovich used a huge variety of sources - both articles and works of various authors (both modern and past centuries), and even texts written by Catherine the Great herself. Having finished work on “The Minor,” Fonvizin, of course, decided to stage the play, although he understood that it would be difficult to do so - the abundance of new ideas and bold statements blocked the work’s path to a wide audience. Nevertheless, he himself took up the preparation of the performance and, albeit slowly, although with all sorts of delays, “The Minor” was released in the theater on Tsaritsyn Meadow and received phenomenal success with the audience. This happened in 1782, and a year later the play was published for the first time.

Who is this little guy?

Many people are genuinely puzzled by the title of the work. In fact, why - an undergrowth? What kind of word is this anyway? It's simple. In the eighteenth century (and it was then that Denis Fonvizin lived and worked), a young man of noble (that is, noble) origin who did not receive an education was called a “minor.” A lazy, stupid person, incapable of anything - that's what he is. Such young men could not get a job, and they were not given a marriage license.

Denis Ivanovich called his work “Minor” because this is exactly what Mitrofanushka, one of the main characters, is like. He put a little more satire into this word than it actually had. The minor, with the light hand of Fonvizin, is not only an uneducated, but also a selfish and rude young man. The characteristics of the image of Mitrofanushka will be presented in more detail below.

The plot of “The Minor” revolves around a modest girl, Sophia, left without parents and therefore taken into care by the Prostakov family, greedy and narrow-minded people. Sophia is a rich heiress, a bride of marriageable age, and both the Prostakovs want to get a wife with such a dowry, trying to marry her off to their sixteen-year-old son Mitrofanushka, a minor, and Prostakova’s brother Skotinin, obsessed with the idea of ​​a large number of livestock on Sophia’s farm. Sophia has a loved one - Milon, to whom her only relative - Uncle Starodum - wants to marry her. He comes to the Prostakovs and is very surprised to see how the owners are currying favor with him and his niece. They are trying to show Mitrofanushka in the best light, but the uneducated and lazy lump spoils all his mother’s attempts.

Having learned that Starodum and Milon are taking Sophia away, at night, on the orders of the Prostakovs, they try to kidnap her, but Milon prevents the kidnapping. It all ends with the Prostakovs losing not only their profitable bride, but also their estates - it’s all to blame for their greed, anger and selfishness.

Main characters

The main characters of “The Minor” are the already mentioned Mitrofanushka, his parents (it should be noted that everything in this family is run by the mother, who does not consider the servants to be people, and strongly follows the fashion of the time; the father of the family is completely under the heel of his domineering wife, who even raises her hand against him), Sophia, her uncle Starodum, fiancé Milon, government official Pravdin, whose goal is to expose the atrocities of the Prostakovs (in which he ultimately succeeds). It is necessary to pay special attention to the fact that Fonvizin used “speaking” names for his characters - they are endowed with both positive (Starodum, Pravdin, Sophia) and negative (Skotinin, Prostakovs) characters. In the characterization of Mitrofanushka, his name is also of great importance - from Greek “Mitrofan” means “mama’s son,” which truly fully reflects the character of the hero. Only at the very end of the play does Mitrofanushka quarrel with his mother and tells her to leave him alone.

Fonvizin pits completely different social strata against each other in his work - officials, nobles, and servants are represented here... He openly ridicules the nobles and their upbringing, condemns people like the Prostakovs. From the very first words of the play it is easy to understand where are positive and where negative heroes and what is the author's attitude towards each of them. It is largely thanks to the beautifully written images of negative characters (especially the characterization of Mitrofanushka) that the “comedy of manners” brought such success to its creator. The name Mitrofanushka has generally become a household name. In addition, the play was dismantled into catchphrases with quotes.

The characteristics of Mitrofanushka should be given special attention. However, first it is necessary to say about three more characters in the play. These are Mitrofanushka’s teachers - Tsyfirkin, Kuteikin and Vralman. They cannot be directly classified as positive, nor do they belong to a type of people in whom both good and bad are equally combined. However, their surnames are also “telling”: and they speak about the main quality of a person - for example, for Vralman it is lying, and for Tsyfirkin it is love for mathematics.

“Minor”: characteristics of Mitrofanushka

The character in whose honor the work is named is almost sixteen years old. While many at his age are completely independent adults, Mitrofanushka cannot take a step without her mother’s prompting, without holding on to her skirt. He is one of those who is called a “mama’s boy” (and as mentioned above, a direct indication of this is contained even in the meaning of his name). Despite the fact that Mitrofanushka has a father, the boy does not receive a male education in the full sense of the word - his father himself is not famous for such qualities.

For parents, Mitrofanushka is still small child- even in his presence they talk about him in exactly this way, calling him a child, a child - and Mitrofanushka shamelessly uses this throughout the comedy. The boy doesn’t think anything of his father, thereby once again proving that he is a perfect “mama’s boy.” Very indicative in this regard is the scene where Mitrofan pities his mother, who is tired of beating her father - so she, poor thing, worked hard beating him. There is no question of sympathizing with the father.

It is not entirely possible to give a brief description of Mitrofanushka in “The Minor” - so much can be said about this character. For example, he really likes to eat a hearty meal, and then - to relax to his heart’s content without doing anything (however, he doesn’t have much to do except study, in which, it must be honestly noted, he is not at all diligent). Like his mother, Mitrofan is a rather heartless person. He loves to humiliate others, putting them below himself, once again “showing a place” to people working for him. Thus, he constantly offends his nanny, who has been assigned to him since birth, but who is always on his side. This is another revealing moment in the characterization of Mitrofanushka from the comedy “The Minor.”

Mitrofanushka is a sneak and an insolent person, but at the same time he is also a sycophant: already at that age he feels who should not be rude, in front of whom he should “show his best qualities.” The only trouble is that with such a mother’s upbringing best qualities Mitrofanushka simply cannot have it. Even to her, the one who loves him so blindly and allows him everything, he threatens and blackmails her in an attempt to achieve what he wants for himself. Such qualities do not do honor to the characterization of Mitrofanushka, speaking of him as a bad person, ready to go over his head for the sake of only himself and his demands, as a person who loves only as long as his will is fulfilled.

It is interesting that Mitrofan is characterized by self-criticism: he is aware that he is lazy and stupid. However, he is not at all upset about this, declaring that he is “not a hunter of smart girls.” It is unlikely that such a quality passed to him from his mother; rather, he adopted it from his father - at least he should have inherited something from him. This is brief description Mitrofanushka, a hero whose name has been used for several centuries to name people with similar character traits.

Was there a boy?

It is known that Fonvizin “peeped” the scenes for his work in real life. What about the heroes? Are they completely invented or copied from real people?

The characterization of the hero Mitrofanushka gives reason to believe that his prototype was Alexey Olenin. He subsequently became known as a statesman and historian, as well as an artist. But until the age of eighteen, his behavior was absolutely similar to the characteristics of Mitrofanushka: he did not want to study, was rude, lazy, as they say, “wasted his life.” It is believed that it was Fonvizin’s comedy that helped Alexei Olenin “take the right path”: supposedly, after reading it, he recognized himself in the main character, saw his portrait from the outside for the first time and was so shocked that he gained motivation for “rebirth.”

Whether this is true or not, it is now impossible to know for sure. But some facts from Olenin’s biography have been preserved. Thus, until he was ten years old, he was raised by his father and a specially hired tutor, and he was also educated at home. When he went to school (and not just any school, but the Page Court), he was soon sent to continue his studies abroad - he was chosen for this purpose, since little Alyosha demonstrated excellent progress in his studies. Abroad, he graduated from two higher institutions - thus, there is no need to say that Olenin was lazy and ignorant, like Mitrofanushka. It is quite possible that some of the qualities inherent in Olenin were reminiscent of the characteristics of Mitrofanushka, however, most likely, it is impossible to say that Olenin is a 100% prototype of the Fonvizin hero. It is more likely that Mitrofan is some kind of collective image.

The meaning of the comedy “Minor” in literature

“The Minor” has been studied for more than two centuries - from the very release of the play to this day. Its importance is difficult to overestimate: it satirically ridicules the social and even state structure of society. And he does this openly, without even fearing the authorities - and yet it was precisely because of this that Catherine the Great, after the publication of “The Minor,” forbade the publication of anything coming from the pen of Fonvizin.

His comedy highlights the pressing issues of the time, but they remain no less relevant today. The shortcomings of society that existed in the eighteenth century have not disappeared in the twenty-first. With the light hand of Pushkin, the play was called a “folk comedy” - it has every right to be called that in our days.

1. In the first version of the play, Mitrofanushka is called Ivanushka.
2. The initial version of the comedy is closer to the play “The Brigadier”.
3. Fonvizin worked on Minor for about three years.
4. He drew ideas for writing from life, but he talked about the creation of only one scene - the one where Eremeevna protects her pupil from Skotinin.
5. When Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol studied at the gymnasium, he played the role of Mrs. Prostakova in school productions.
6. Fonvizin sketched out the continuation of “The Minor” in letters from Sophia and Starodum to each other: according to the author’s idea, after the wedding, Milon cheated on Sophia, about which she complained to her uncle.
7. The idea of ​​creating such a work first came to Denis Ivanovich when he was in France.

More than two centuries have passed since the creation of the play, and it does not lose its relevance to this day. More and more research is being devoted to the study of comedy itself and its individual characters. This means that Denis Fonvizin managed to notice and highlight something in his work that will always attract the attention of readers and viewers.

MITROFANUSHKA

MITROFANUSHKA is the hero of D.I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor” (1781), a sixteen-year-old teenager (minor), the only son of Mrs. Prostakova, his mother’s darling and the favorite of the servants. M. as a literary type was not Fonvizin’s discovery. Russian literature of the late 18th century. knew and portrayed such undergrowth, living freely in rich parents' homes and at the age of sixteen they barely mastered reading and writing. This traditional figure noble life(especially provincial) Fonvizin endowed with the generic features of the Prostakov-Skotinin “nest”.

In his parents’ house, M. is the main “funny man” and “entertainer”, the inventor and witness of all the stories like the one he saw in his dream: how his mother beat his father. It is well known how M. took pity on his mother, who was busy with the difficult task of beating her father. M.'s day is marked by absolute idleness: the fun in the dovecote, where M. escapes from his lessons, is interrupted by Eremeevna, begging the “child” to learn. Having blabbed to his uncle about his desire to get married, M. immediately hides behind Eremeevna - “an old hrychovna,” in his words - ready to lay down his life, but “not to give it away to the “child.” M.'s boorish arrogance is akin to his mother's manner of treating household members and servants: "freak" and "weeper" - the husband, "dog's daughter" and "nasty mug" - Eremeevna, "beast" - the girl Palashka.

If the intrigue of the comedy revolves around the marriage of M. to Sophia, desired by the Prostakovs, then the plot is focused on the theme of the upbringing and teaching of a teenage underage. This is a traditional theme for educational literature. M.'s teachers were selected in accordance with the time standard and the parents' level of understanding of their task. Here Fonvizin emphasizes details that speak of the quality of choice characteristic of the simpleton family: M. is taught French by the German Vralman, exact sciences are taught by retired sergeant Tsyfirkin, who “speaks a little of arithmetic,” and grammar by the “educated” seminarian Kuteikin, who was fired from “all teaching” by permission of the consistory. Hence, in the famous exam scene, M. is an outstanding invention of Mitrofan’s ingenuity about the noun and adjective door, hence the intriguing fairy-tale ideas about the story recounted by the cowgirl Khavronya. In general, the result was summed up by Mrs. Prostakova, who is convinced that “people live and have lived without science.”

Fonvizin's hero is a teenager, almost a youth, whose character is affected by the disease of dishonesty, spreading to every thought and every feeling inherent in him. He is dishonest in his attitude towards his mother, through whose efforts he exists in comfort and idleness and whom he abandons at the moment when she needs his consolation. The comic clothes of the image are funny only at first glance. V.O. Klyuchevsky classified M. as a breed of creatures “related to insects and microbes,” characterizing this type with inexorable “reproduction.”

Thanks to the hero Fonvizin, the word “minor” (formerly neutral) became a common noun for a quitter, a loafer and a lazy person.

Lit.: Vyazemsky P. Von-Vizin. St. Petersburg, 1848; Klyuchevsky V. “Nedorosl” Fonvizin

//Klyuchevsky V. Historical portraits. M., 1990; Rassadin St. Fonvizin. M., 1980.

E.V.Yusim

Literary heroes. - Academician. 2009 .

See what "MITROFANUSHKA" is in other dictionaries:

Ignorant, ignoramus, ignorant, half-educated Dictionary of Russian synonyms. mitrofanushka noun, number of synonyms: 5 mitrofan (3) ... Dictionary of synonyms

MITROFANUSHKA, and husband. (colloquial). An over-aged ignoramus [named after the hero of Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor”]. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

The main character of the comedy “The Minor” (1783) by Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (1745-1792) is a spoiled son of a landowner, lazy and ignorant. A common noun for young people of this type. Encyclopedic dictionary of popular words and expressions. M.: “Lokid... ... Dictionary of popular words and expressions

M. 1. Literary character. 2. Used as a symbol of a stupid, half-educated young man from a wealthy family; undergrowth. Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern explanatory dictionary Russian language Efremova

Minor comedy by Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin. This play is his most famous work and the most repertoire play of the 18th century on the Russian stage in subsequent centuries. Fonvizin worked on the comedy for about three years. The premiere took place in 1782 ... Wikipedia

Mitrofanushka- Mitrof Anushka, and, b. p.m. h. shek (undergrowth) ... Russian spelling dictionary

Mitrofanushka- (1 m) (lit. character; also about the lazy and ignorant) ... Spelling dictionary of the Russian language

AND; m. and f. Iron. About a poorly educated, lazy teenager who does not want to study. ● After the name of the hero of the comedy Fonvizin Nedorosl (1782) ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

Mitrofanushka- And; m. and f.; iron. About a poorly educated, lazy teenager who does not want to study. After the hero of Fonvizin’s comedy Nedorosl (1782) ... Dictionary of many expressions

Mitrofanushka- a character in D. Fonvizin’s comedy Nedorosl (1783), his name became a household name to designate a stupid and ignorant young man who does not want to learn... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

Books

• Minor. Brigadier, Fonvizin Denis Ivanovich. The book includes the most famous works playwright, publicist, translator and creator of Russian everyday comedy D. I. Fonvizin. The heroes of the comedy "The Minor" are representatives of different social…

The hero of Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor” (1781), a sixteen-year-old teenager (minor), the only son of Mrs. Prostakova, his mother’s darling and the favorite of the servants. Mitrofanushka as a literary type was not Fonvizin’s discovery. Russian literature of the end of the 18th century knew and depicted such teenagers, living freely in rich parental homes and barely able to read and write at the age of sixteen. Fonvizin endowed this traditional figure of noble life (especially provincial) with the generic features of the Prostakov-Skotinin “nest”.

In his parents’ house, Mitrofanushka is the main “funny man” and “entertainer”, the inventor and witness of all the stories like the one he saw in his dream: how his mother beat his father. It is well known how Mitrofanushka took pity on his mother, who was busy with the difficult task of beating her father. Mitrofanushka's day is marked by absolute idleness: the fun in the dovecote, where Mitrofanushka is escaping from her lessons, is interrupted by Eremeevna, begging the “child” to learn. Having blabbed to his uncle about his desire to get married, Mitrofanushka immediately hides behind Eremeevna - “an old bastard,” in his words - ready to lay down his life, but “not to give it away to the “child.” Mitrofanushka’s boorish arrogance is akin to his mother’s manner of treating household members and servants: “freak” and “weeper” - the husband, “dog’s daughter” and “nasty mug” - Eremeevna, “beast” - the girl Palashka.

If the intrigue of the comedy revolves around the marriage of Mitrofanushka to Sophia, desired by the Prostakovs, then the plot is focused on the theme of the upbringing and teaching of an underage teenager. This is a traditional theme for educational literature. Mitrofanushka's teachers were selected in accordance with the time standard and the parents' level of understanding of their task. Here Fonvizin emphasizes details that speak of the quality of choice characteristic of the simpleton family: Mitrofanushka is taught French by the German Vralman, exact sciences are taught by retired sergeant Tsyfirkin, who “speaks a little of arithmetic”, grammar is taught by the “educated” seminarian Kuteikin, dismissed from “all teaching” by permission of the consistory. Hence, in the famous exam scene, Mitrofanushka is an outstanding invention of Mitrofan’s ingenuity about the noun and adjective door, hence the intriguingly fabulous ideas about the story recounted by the cowgirl Khavronya. In general, the result was summed up by Mrs. Prostakova, who is convinced that “people live and have lived without science.”

Fonvizin's hero is a teenager, almost a youth, whose character is affected by the disease of dishonesty, spreading to every thought and every feeling inherent in him. He is dishonest in his attitude towards his mother, through whose efforts he exists in comfort and idleness and whom he abandons at the moment when she needs his consolation. The comic clothes of the image are funny only at first glance. IN. Klyuchevsky attributed Mitrofanushka to a breed of creatures “related to insects and microbes,” characterizing this type with inexorable “reproduction.”

Thanks to the hero Fonvizin, the word “minor” (formerly neutral) became a common noun for a quitter, a loafer and a lazy person.