Why does Mitrofanushka not receive a normal education? For what purpose does Prostakova hire teachers for Mitrofan? and their characteristics

And the education of the eighteenth century is staged in the main work of Denis Fonvizin, and the development of the conflict is facilitated by the behavior of the heroes and their characteristics. "The Minor" is a brilliant comedy about pseudo-intellectuals who take lessons from the state's advanced teachers, but themselves learn absolutely nothing. That's how he was main character, Mitrofan.

Summary. "Minor" as the best educational comedy

The Prostakov family is going to marry their only son Mitrofan to the smart and beautiful Sophia. Skotinin also has his sights set on the bride, who after the celebration wants to take possession of the village's living creatures - pigs, of which he is a big hunter. However, Sophia does not have feelings for any of the suitors and is waiting for the third - the well-mannered and educated young man Milon. Shortly before the wedding, the girl’s uncle Starodum appears and announces a large inheritance. The Prostakovs, having heard about this, want to speed up the matchmaking, and before that they teach their son to read and write. From this moment events begin. How is the problem of upbringing and education solved in the comedy "Minor"?

Mitrofan is a minor youth who has not yet served in public service and is not distinguished by a sharp mind. During lessons, he is rude to teachers and makes fun of them, has absolutely no respect for his mother and declares: “I don’t want to study, but I want to get married!” Fortunately, Starodum and Milon appear in the village on time and are going to take Sophia away from the Prostakovs. The mother of the family never ceases to insist on her own and boasts about her son’s imaginary achievements. Starodum is convinced that Mitrofan must first of all be given a good education and upbringing: the undergrowth speaks illiterately and cannot answer simple questions. Sophia's marriage to him will never take place, since the girl gives consent to Milon. The Prostakovs remain in their village, and Starodum leaves with the newly-made bride and groom.

The problem of education in 18th century society using the example of the Prostakov family

In Russia and throughout the world it is marked by the development of scientific and philosophical thought. Salons and schools were opened, since having a good education was considered fashionable, especially among the nobles. Enlightenment did not end with knowledge foreign languages and the ability to behave in society: a person must be able to read, write and count. and education in the comedy “The Minor” is presented in a different way: people of the older generation, such as Mrs. Prostakova, believe that education is not necessary at all. Mitrofan will not need arithmetic in life: “We have money, we’ll figure it out well without Pafnutich.” Nevertheless, Prostakova forces her son to study so that he looks decent in the eyes of the public.

Images of positive and negative heroes

"The Minor" is a classic comedy in which all the unities are observed, including the presence of speaking names. It is easy for the reader to guess that Prostakova, Skotinin and Vralman are negative heroes: the first is as simple as three kopecks, the second is distinguished by its passion for cattle, the third lied so much that he forgot about his origin; Using the example of another negative character, Mitrofanushka, the author raises current problem upbringing and education.

In the comedy, Pravdin and Milon are the bearers of virtue. They want to rescue Sophia from the Prostakov village, and they succeed. These people were given the best education and they talk about “ignoramuses without a soul,” such as Mitrofan. Speech goodies sublime, which is why readers still quote them.

Image of Mitrofan

The comedy "Minor" becomes interesting thanks to the atypical character of the main character. Mrs. Prostakova in her only son. She boasts of his good education, although he never learned to read and write and other sciences. Fonvizin wrote the best classic comedy, depicting the conflict of enlightenment, into which the reader can go deeper by reading full content.

and their characteristics

Mrs. Prostakova hires three teachers for her son: Tsyfirkin, Kuteikin and Vralman. The first one is the most worthy and honest. Pafnutich Tsyfirkin takes a responsible approach to the issue of education and tries his best to teach Nedoroslya arithmetic, but experiences harassment from Prostakova and Vralman. At the end of the comedy, he refuses payment for his work, because, as he himself admits, he failed to teach Mitrofan his science.

A half-educated seminarian, Kuteikin, boasts that he comes from a scientific background, but he, too, cannot find the right approach to Nedoroslya. In four years of studying grammar, Mitrofan “will not understand a new line.” In the finale, Kuteikin demands payment not only for teaching hours, but also for worn-out shoes.

Vralman managed to gain favor with the Prostakovs with flattering speeches. The false teacher claims that it is enough for Mitrofan to know how to behave in society, and arithmetic and grammar will not benefit him. Soon Starodum exposes Vralman: he recognizes him as his retired coachman, who has begun to engage in a new craft. The problem of upbringing and education in the comedy "The Minor" is resolved in the finale: they decide to send Mitrofan to the army, since the young man is deaf to science and basic etiquette.

The meaning of the last scenes

The title of the comedy reveals the essence of Mitrofan, his negative characteristics. The minors are not only deaf to issues of education, but also show elementary disrespect for the older generation. He shocks his mother, who doted on him and did the best for him. They say about people like Mrs. Prostakova that they love their children too much. “Go away, mother,” Mitrofanushka tells her, after which the poor woman faints, and Starodum concludes: “That’s evil.” worthy fruits". The author laid a deep meaning in the ending: people who were initially deaf to the sciences very rarely gain the desire to learn after many years, and therefore continue to remain ignoramuses. Lack of education also gives rise to other negative human qualities: stinginess, rudeness, cruelty.

At the end of the play, the bearers of virtue - Sophia, Milon, Pravdin and Starodum - leave the Prostakov village. “Ignorants without a soul” are left to choose the path of their development themselves: their worldview must change, or they will remain the same soulless.

Mitrofan went even further. He flatters his mother, realizing that she is the real mistress of the house. Therefore, he feels sorry for her, because she is tired, beating the priest. Prostakova loves her son so blindly that she does not see who he is turning into. She believes that his happiness can only come from wealth and idleness, which is why she tries to marry Mitrofan to Sophia, having learned that she is a rich heiress.

Prostakova thinks that her son is very smart and he will be able to achieve a lot in his life, but she forgets the wise words of the people: “What goes around comes around.” But how could she know folk wisdom, because for her people were worse than cattle. Even Eremeevna, who served in her house faithfully and faithfully all her life, did not deserve anything other than teething.

When teachers come to Mitrofan, he grumbles with displeasure, he calls Tsyfirkin a “garrison rat,” and after the unsuccessful abduction of Sophia, Mitrofan is going to flog the servants.

Thus, Prostakova raised her son as best she could, in her own image. What came of it? Nothing good. At the most difficult moment of her life, when she needed the support of her son, Prostakova rushes to him in despair, but is met with a callous and rude answer: “Get off, mother, how you imposed yourself!” This reveals Mitrofan’s “evil character” as a consequence of upbringing based on the example of the bad qualities of his parents.

Mitrofanushka is a teenager, first of all, not because of his age, but because he is a complete ignorant who has absolutely no knowledge of either arithmetic or geography, he is even unable to distinguish an adjective from a noun. Mitrofan is also a moral underdog, since he was not taught to respect the dignity of the people around him. He is also a minor in the civil sense, because he does not understand his direct responsibilities to the state. The Skotinin-Prostakovs are generally alien to civic feelings; they do not even accept the idea that they can “be useful to their fellow citizens.”

Mitrofan does not strive either for teaching or for public service; he is satisfied with the position of a “minor.” His mother fully shares his sentiments. She is glad that her son is listed as underage, she can pamper him, he will still be patient when he goes into service “in about ten years.”

There are many such Mitrofans. Even Vralman said about this: “...there are millions of these in the world.” According to Starodum, these are “the unfortunate consequences of bad upbringing.”

We live in a different time, but even today, as in the time of Fonvizin, a person is raised in a family. Together with genes, children perceive habits, ideals, ways of thinking and living from their parents. Moreover, the saying turns out to be absolutely true: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

. “A slack young man,” the son of Messrs. Prostakov. In Fonvizin’s time, a “minor” was a name given to a young man of the noble class who did not have a written certificate of education issued by a teacher. Such a young man could neither marry nor enter the service.

Before starting to work on Minor, Fonvizin spent a year and a half in France, where he became closely acquainted with the life of this country, studied the advanced doctrines of the Enlightenment, jurisprudence and philosophy.

The idea for the play came to the writer after his return to Russia, which took place in 1778. Fonvizin finished work on the play in 1782, spending about three years on it.

Biography

Mitrofanushka is the son of an unpleasant couple named Prostakovs. The hero's mother, a provincial noblewoman by birth, is an evil woman. He does whatever he wants, allows himself all sorts of atrocities towards serfs and courtyard servants. At the same time, she loves her son and is trying to make him comfortable in life by marrying Sophia, a girl with a decent inheritance.

Sophia herself is in love with a young officer named Milon. This is a kind and well-behaved girl who was given an education, she has a guardian - an uncle who owns a large fortune. Prostakova has a brother named Taras Skotinin (this character is Mitrofanushka’s uncle). Skotinin, a pig lover, also wants to marry Sophia because of the inheritance.

Mitrofanushka's father is a weak and weak-willed man, uneducated, and cannot even read letters. He is under the thumb of his wife and thinks only about how to please her. An authoritarian wife can easily beat up Father Prostakov.

Mitrofanushka, just like his parents, did not want to study, but sought to get settled in life through marriage. The hero has teachers, including one former seminarian who teaches the hero to read and write in the Psalter, a retired sergeant who teaches arithmetic, and a former coachman, a German by birth and a noble smoker, posing as a scientist.

This rogue is hired to train the hero French and certain “sciences”, but does not fulfill his duties and only interferes with the work of other teachers. The mother is in fact not at all concerned with the upbringing and education of the hero, but only follows fashion trends in society of that time. Mitrofanushka also has a nurse, who is called “Eremeevna”.

Sophia is a distant relative of the Prostakov family. The girl grew up in Moscow and received a good upbringing, but after the death of her mother (her father died even earlier) she falls into the clutches of the Prostakovs. They “look after” the estate belonging to Sophia, while simultaneously robbing the heroine. The idea to marry the girl to Mitrofanushka is born in Prostakova’s head after a rich uncle appears on the horizon, who was thought to be dead, and at the same time a potential inheritance.

Due to her upcoming marriage, Mitrofanushka has a conflict with her uncle, Taras Skotinin, who is also thinking of marrying Sophia in order to get his hands on the pigs in the girl’s villages.

Sophia, meanwhile, meets with her longtime lover, the young officer Milon, and a rich uncle comes to pick up his niece from the Prostakovs. Prostakova is trying to flatter Sophia's uncle so that he agrees to Mitrofanushka's marriage to the girl. Uncle, however, is determined to take Sophia to Moscow the next morning.

The uncle gives the girl the opportunity to choose the groom herself, and she gives her hand to Milon, whom she knew back in her mother’s house. Having learned about this, Mitrofanushka's mother hatches a conspiracy. The Prostakovs’ people are trying to kidnap Sophia in order to force the girl to marry Mitrofanushka. Milon catches this scene and prevents the assassination attempt, after which the Prostakovs' estate and villages are confiscated from them by government decree. In the finale, the slacker Mitrofanushka is sent to serve.

Similar image life and lack of sensible education were common among the children of the provincial nobility in those years, therefore Mitrofanushka in the play is depicted not as a special case of unsuccessful upbringing, but as an image of the era. The hero's appearance is not directly described in the play, but it can be assumed that Mitrofanushka looked like a typical representative of the provincial noble youth of that time.

The hero is not inclined to constructive activities, study, work or any meaningful activities. Chasing pigeons, having fun, eating too much, in a word, somehow killing time in simple entertainment - these are Mitrofanushka’s life goals, and the mother in every possible way encourages such behavior of the hero.

The characterization of the hero looks unpleasant - Mitrofanushka is greedy and stingy, rude, prone to intrigue, deception and fraud, like his mother. Prostakova loves her son, despite her characteristic cruelty towards other people, Mitrofanushka betrayed his mother, pushed her away when the mother tried to find support from the hero.

Mitrofanushka is essentially an egoist, she thinks exclusively about her own comfort, without being interested in her family. The hero’s attitude towards learning is quite clear - Mitrofanushka calls one of the teachers a “garrison rat”; any attempts to give the young man at least some knowledge are met with his complete reluctance to learn.

• Fonvizin wrote the play “The Minor” in the village of Strelino near Moscow.
• After the play became popular, the word “minor” became widespread in colloquial speech, and the name Mitrofanushka became associated with the image of an ignorant person and an ignoramus.
• On the pages of the magazine “Friend of Honest People, or Starodum,” a kind of literary game associated with the play. The magazine published a letter allegedly written by Sophia, the heroine of the play, where she complained about her lover Milon, a young officer who in the play prevented the kidnapping of the heroine. He allegedly married her, and then cheated on her with a certain “disdainful woman.” In the response letter, Starodum, the heroine’s uncle, consoles her. In such a funny way, the play received a plot continuation.

• In the play, Sophia reads a book by a real-life author - the 18th-century French educator and theologian Francois Fenelon, who wrote the treatise “On the Education of Girls.” Starodum, Sophia's uncle, mentions the then famous novel by this author, “The Adventures of Telemachus.”
• Fonvizin had to spend several months to achieve production. They did not want to stage the play either in Moscow or in St. Petersburg; the censors were frightened by the boldness of the remarks that the author allowed himself through the mouths of the characters. Volny was the first to decide to stage the play. Russian Theater in St. Petersburg. The success of the first production was deafening - “the audience applauded the play by throwing wallets.” After this, the play was staged many times, including in Moscow. The popularity of the comedy “The Minor” is evidenced by the appearance of a large number of amateur and student productions.

• The role of Mrs. Prostakova was played by a writer, performing in student performances while studying at the Nezhin gymnasium.
• The image of Mitrofanushka is compared with the young officer and nobleman from Pushkin’s story “ Captain's daughter" Both heroes in their youth indulged in laziness and idleness, both got bad teachers who taught the heroes nothing, but Grinev, unlike Mitrofanushka, is shown as an honest and good-natured person.

Quotes

“And I, uncle, almost didn’t have dinner at all. Three slices of corned beef, and hearth slices, I don’t remember, five, I don’t remember, six.”

“The whole night I had such crap in my eyes.<...>either you, mother, or father.”

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

“I myself, mother, am not one for clever people. Your brother is always better.”

“Door, which door? This? Adjective. Because it is attached to its place. Over there at the closet of the pole for a week the door has not yet been hung: so for now that is a noun.”

“As soon as I start to fall asleep, I see that you, mother, deign to beat father.”

For all three reasons: negligence, lack of motivation, and bad teachers. Of course, “why know, what do the cabbies do,” says Prostakova, “where they need to go.” it's the same with other sciences.

Reply posted by: Guest

but, having coped with one test, the hero immediately faces another - in the garrison he falls into the hands of pirates. but even here Jim does not lose his composure and self-esteem. He remains contemptuously silent, not answering John Silver's questions, and is only trying to find out what was done to his friends. the hero does not believe for a second that they betrayed him, and does not want to betray them for anything:

Reply posted by: Guest

Subsequent chapters tell of Chichikov’s visit to the estates of Sobakevich, Korobochka, and Plyushkin. Nastasya Petrovna ends up with Chichikov's box by accident, having lost her way. She is a rather caring housewife, but Chichikov calls her club-headed, gets angry, loses patience, but dead souls buys, especially since for her it is just a product. on Sobakevich's estate he meets a rude, base owner who is only concerned about food. at the same time, Sobakevich is a practical owner, it even occurs to him to praise this unique product. The last landowner whom Chichikov visits turns out to be Plyushkin. “It’s either a woman or a man,” Pavel Ivanovich says about him. and the essence of his life is stinginess that goes beyond all boundaries. There are sealing wax, feathers, toothpicks, rusty buckets everywhere in the house - everything that the owner sees, the owner brings into the house. N.V. Gogol called this hero a hole in humanity. However, what is Chichikov himself like? He is the son of an impoverished landowner; he learned one thing from childhood: take care of your penny, it will never betray you. This is what Chichikov has been doing all his life. and for this purpose he visits the city n, having found out somewhere that the board of trustees is buying up peasant souls, without asking whether the peasants are alive - if only there were documents for their presence, Pavel Ivanovich is going to sell several hundred dead souls to this institution.

Reply posted by: Guest

A. P. Chekhov is a recognized master of short stories. Chekhov is a subtle psychologist who reveals with unique irony inner world person. despite the brevity, and perhaps because of it, he masterfully talks about the problems of happiness and love, hoarding and indifference. In every word of Chekhov’s stories, his disgust for vulgarity and everyday life, dreary bourgeois life is evident. He was called “a master of the small form”, This is what he was accused of, because not a single great work! but really little story Chekhov can reveal the whole world, the world of the soul, the cosmos inside a person. Only in some of his stories is complete merging of man with the world, harmony and love achieved.