Children of nobles from the age of six were assigned to some regiment as lower ranks: corporals, sergeants and even privates. By the time they reached adulthood, they received an officer rank for their service and had to "go to service". Teenagers under the age of sixteen were called “minors,” which meant: they had not matured to responsibility and adulthood.

The family of the future officer was obliged to provide the minor with a certain level of education, which was tested in an exam. Often such verification was formal, and the young man was allowed to continue home education until the age of 25. All this time he received promotions without leaving home. A spoiled and undereducated officer, often already married and with children, immediately occupied a high position. It is not difficult to guess how this affected the combat effectiveness of the army. The situation with the civil service was no better.

Denis Fonvizin ridiculed such a vicious practice of home schooling for nobles in the comedy “The Minor.” It is no coincidence that the main character of the work is named Mitrofan, which means - "like a mother". Mrs. Prostakova embodies the most unsightly traits of a landowner from the times of serfdom: tyranny, cruelty, greed, arrogance, ignorance. Her weak-willed and narrow-minded husband is afraid to say a word without his wife’s approval.

Prostakova is trying to make her copy of her son. Mitrofanushka grows up as a selfish, rude and arrogant slacker, all of whose interests are centered around delicious food and entertainment. The excessive appetite of an over-aged “child” is encouraged in every possible way by the mother, even to the detriment of her son’s health. Despite a difficult night after a hearty dinner, Mitrofanushka eats five buns for breakfast, and Prostakova demands to be served the sixth. It is not surprising that the undergrowth, according to the mother, "delicate build".

Mitrofan's entertainment is the most primitive. He loves to chase pigeons, play pranks and listen to the stories of the cowgirl Khavronya. Her mother encourages such idleness, because Prostakova herself is illiterate, like her parents, husband and brother. She is even proud of her ignorance: “Don’t be the Skotinin who wants to learn something”. But the landowner is forced to invite teachers to her son. Because of her pathological greed, she hires the cheapest "specialists". Retired sergeant Tsyfirkin teaches arithmetic, half-educated seminarian Kuteikin teaches grammar, and former coachman Vralman teaches "everything else".

However, stupidity and laziness do not allow Mitrofan to receive even the primitive knowledge that would-be teachers are trying to convey to him. Tsyfirkin admits that in three years he did not teach his ward "Count three", and Kuteikin complains that he is undersized for four years "butts mumble". Vralman's science is to constantly advise "to kid" stress less and not communicate with smart people. Mrs. Prostakova’s fears that her beloved child will not find company are easily refuted by Vralman: “Kakof is your most tragic son, there are millions of them in the world”.

Support from the German only strengthens the landowner's contempt for education in her mind. And this makes Mitrofanushka very happy. He had not even heard of geography, but the word "door" considers it an adjective because “she is attached to her place”.

It should be noted that Mitrofan, although stupid, is cunning and perfectly understands his own benefit. He cleverly manipulates his mother's feelings. Not wanting to start the lesson, the teenager complains that his uncle beat him and promises to drown himself from such insult.

Mitrofan does not value those who are lower than him in rank or position in society, but curries favor with wealth and power. Typical appeals from minors to servants and teachers: "old bastard", "garrison rat". He names the dreamed parents "such rubbish", but fawns over the rich man Starodum and is ready to kiss his hands.

Mitrofan is very cowardly. He threatens the wrath of his mother, whom those around him are afraid of, but in a clash with Skotinin he hides behind the old nanny. Prostakova dotes on her only child, protects him and tries to arrange a happy future. For the sake of her son, she gets into a fight with her own brother, by hook or by crook she tries to marry him to the rich heiress Sophia.

The ungrateful Mitrofanushka pays Prostakova for her love and care with her indifference. When in the final scene, a woman who has lost power rushes to her son for consolation, the ignoramus pushes Prostakova away with contempt: “Go away, mother, how you forced yourself on me”.

The image of Mitrofanushka has not lost its relevance even after two and a half centuries. Problems of upbringing, blind maternal love, ignorance and rudeness, unfortunately, remain also important for modern society. And lazy, untalented students can easily be found today.

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 a 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 to this time that the play, which first saw the light only in the last century, dates back to 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 the positive and negative characters are and what the author’s attitude is 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. The play, in addition, was disassembled into popular expressions 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 his parents, Mitrofanushka is still a small child - even in his presence they talk about him in this way, calling him a child, a child - and Mitrofanushka shamelessly takes advantage of 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, poor thing, she 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 said honestly, 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, Mitrofanushka simply cannot have the best qualities. 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 a brief description of Mitrofanushka, a hero whose name has been given to people with similar character traits for several centuries.

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 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 was studying 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.

Mitrofan Prostakov is one of the main characters in D.I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.” From the list of characters we learn that the title of the play refers to him. This was the official name given to nobles, mostly young people who had not received an education document and had not entered the service. At the same time, the word “minor” meant any minor nobleman.
Mitrofan is the son of provincial nobles, almost sixteen years old. One of the heroes of the comedy, the official Pravdin, characterizes his parents in this way: “I found the landowner a countless fool, and his wife a despicable fury, whose hellish disposition makes their whole house miserable.” Fonvizin used telling first and last names in the play: the name Mitrofan has the Greek meaning “resembling a mother.” And indeed, as the plot develops, the reader becomes convinced that the son has inherited all the disgusting character traits from Prostakova, and it is she who is his main educator and example.
Mitrofan is stupid and ignorant: for the fourth year he sits over the book of hours, for the third year he cannot learn to count. Moreover, he cannot be called an enthusiastic student; he believes that with his “studies” he is doing everyone a great favor, and Prostakova herself, who sees only harm in education, asks him: “At least for the sake of appearance, learn.” She constantly explains to her son her principles of life, not least of which are greed and stinginess. Therefore, the landowner calls arithmetic a “stupid science”, since according to the conditions of the problem it is necessary to divide the found money into three or calculate the increase in the teacher’s salary.
In relation to the teachers and Eremeevna, who dotes on him, Mitrofanushka shows rudeness and cruelty, calling them “garrison rat”, “old bastard”, threatening to complain to the ambulance about the mother’s reprisal. But as soon as his uncle Skotinin attacked him, he cowardly asks for protection from the old nurse who had been offended by him.
The little guy is lazy and spoiled, he uses every opportunity to get rid of his teachers and go chasing pigeons. All his base aspirations consist only of eating deliciously and a lot, not studying, but getting married. His father notices in him the Skotinins' family love for pigs.
Mitrofan is used to getting his way both with threats (“After all, the river is close here. I’ll dive, remember what my name was”) and clumsy flattery. His invention about the dream is comical: “All night such rubbish was creeping into my eyes... Yes, it was you, mother, then father... As soon as I started to fall asleep, I saw that you, mother, deigned to beat father... So I felt sorry for you... You, mother : You’re so tired beating your father.”
To achieve their goals, the Prostakovs do not hesitate to use any means. Together with his parents, Mitrofan first subserviently before Starodum in the hope of receiving an inheritance, and then is ready to marry his niece Sophia by force. When the kidnapping fails, he, like his mother, plans to take his anger out on the serfs.
Brought up in an atmosphere of malice and cruelty, Mitrofan grows up selfish, loving no one but himself, not even his mother, who indulges him in everything. Having lost power and therefore become unnecessary to Prostakova, who turned to his son for consolation, he pushes away with the words: “Let it go, mother, how you imposed yourself...”.
His stupidity and lack of education evoke irony among the good heroes of the comedy, and they perceive his hard-heartedness as a logical consequence of bad upbringing. The author himself shares the same opinion. In the comedy “The Minor,” Fonvizin expressed his educational ideals in the words of Pravdin and Starodum: “The direct dignity in a person is the soul... Without it, the most enlightened, clever woman is a pitiful creature... An ignoramus without a soul is a beast.” The image of Mitrofan became an instructive example of what evil ignorance leads to, and his name became a household name. More than one lazy person was frightened by the prospect of becoming like him.

Denis Fonvizin wrote the comedy “The Minor” in the 18th century. At that time, a decree of Peter I was in force in Russia, prescribing that young men under 21 without education were prohibited from entering military and government service, as well as from getting married. In this document, young people under this age were called “minors” - this definition formed the basis of the title of the play. In the work, the main character is Mitrofanushka the undergrowth. Fonvizin portrayed him as a stupid, cruel, greedy and lazy young man of 16 who behaves like a small child, does not want to study and is capricious. Mitrofan is a negative character and the funniest hero of the comedy - his absurd statements, stupidity and ignorance cause laughter not only among readers and spectators, but also among other heroes of the play. The character plays an important role in the ideological concept of the play, so the image of Mitrofan the Minor requires detailed analysis.

Mitrofan and Prostakova

In Fonvizin’s work “The Minor,” the image of Mitrofanushka is closely connected with the theme of education, since in fact it was the wrong upbringing that became the cause of the young man’s evil character and all his negative traits. His mother, Mrs. Prostakova, is an uneducated, cruel, despotic woman, for whom the main values ​​are material wealth and power. She adopted her views on the world from her parents - representatives of the old nobility, uneducated and ignorant landowners like herself. The values ​​and views received through upbringing were passed on to Prostakova and Mitrofan - the young man in the play is depicted as a “mama's boy” - he cannot do anything on his own, the servants or his mother do everything for him. Having received from Prostakova cruelty towards servants, rudeness and the opinion that education occupies one of the last places in life, Mitrofan also adopted disrespect for loved ones, a willingness to deceive them or betray them for the sake of a more lucrative offer. Let us remember how Prostakova persuaded Skotinin to take Sophia as his wife in order to essentially get rid of the “extra mouth.” Whereas the news about the girl’s large inheritance made her a “caring teacher”, supposedly loving Sophia and wishing her happiness. Prostakova is looking for her own self-interest in everything, which is why she refused Skotinin, because if the girl married Mitrofan, who listened to his mother in everything, Sophia’s money would go to her.

The young man is as selfish as Prostakova. He becomes a worthy son of his mother, adopting her “best” traits, which explains the final scene of the comedy, when Mitrofan abandons Prostakova, who has lost everything, leaving to serve the new owner of the village, Pravdin. For him, his mother’s efforts and love turned out to be insignificant before the authority of money and power.

The influence of his father and uncle on Mitrofan

Analyzing the upbringing of Mitrofan in the comedy “The Minor,” one cannot fail to mention the figure of the father and his influence on the personality of the young man. Prostakov appears before the reader as a weak-willed shadow of his wife. It was passivity and the desire to transfer the initiative to someone stronger that Mitrofan took over from his father. It is paradoxical that Pravdin speaks of Prostakov as a stupid person, but in the action of the play his role is so insignificant that the reader cannot fully understand whether he really is that stupid. Even the fact that Prostakov reproaches his son when Mitrofan abandons his mother at the end of the work does not point to him as a character with positive traits. The man, like the others, does not try to help Prostakova, remaining on the sidelines, thus again showing an example of weak-will and lack of initiative to his son - he doesn’t care, just as he didn’t care while Prostakova beat his peasants and disposed of his property in her own way.

The second man who influenced Mitrofan’s upbringing is his uncle. Skotinin, in essence, represents the person that the young man could become in the future. They are even brought together by a common love for pigs, whose company is much more pleasant for them than the company of people.

Mitrofan's training

According to the plot, the description of Mitrofan's training is in no way connected with the main events - the fight for Sophia's heart. However, it is these episodes that reveal many important problems that Fonvizin covers in the comedy. The author shows that the reason for the young man’s stupidity is not only bad upbringing, but also poor education. Prostakova, when hiring teachers for Mitrofan, chose not educated, smart teachers, but those who would take less. Retired sergeant Tsyfirkin, dropout Kuteikin, former groom Vralman - none of them could give Mitrofan a decent education. They all depended on Prostakova, and therefore could not ask her to leave and not interfere with the lesson. Let us remember how the woman did not allow her son to even think about solving an arithmetic problem, offering “her own solution.” The exposure of Mitrofan's useless teaching is the scene of the conversation with Starodum, when the young man begins to come up with his own rules of grammar and does not know what geography is studying. At the same time, the illiterate Prostakova also does not know the answer, but if the teachers could not laugh at her stupidity, then the educated Starodum openly ridicules the ignorance of the mother and son.

Thus, Fonvizin, introducing into the play scenes of Mitrofan’s training and the exposure of his ignorance, raises acute social problems of education in Russia in that era. Noble children were taught not by authoritative educated individuals, but by literate slaves who needed pennies. Mitrofan is one of the victims of such an old-time landowner, outdated and, as the author emphasizes, meaningless education.

Why is Mitrofan the central character?

As the title of the work makes clear, the young man is the central image of the comedy “The Minor.” In the character system, he is contrasted with the positive heroine Sophia, who appears to the reader as an intelligent, educated girl who respects her parents and older people. It would seem, why did the author make the key figure of the play a weak-willed, stupid undergrowth with a completely negative characteristic? Fonvizin in the image of Mitrofan showed a whole generation of young Russian nobles. The author was concerned about the mental and moral degradation of society, in particular, young people who adopted outdated values ​​from their parents.

In addition, in “Nedorosl” Mitrofan’s characterization is a composite image of the negative traits of Fonvizin’s contemporary landowners. The author sees cruelty, stupidity, lack of education, sycophancy, disrespect for others, greed, civic passivity and infantilism not only in extraordinary landowners, but also in officials at the court, who also forgot about humanism and high morality. For the modern reader, the image of Mitrofan is, first of all, a reminder of what a person becomes when he stops developing, learning new things and forgets about eternal human values ​​- respect, kindness, love, mercy.

A detailed description of Mitrofan, his character and way of life will help students in grades 8-9 when preparing a report or essay on the topic “Characteristics of Mitrofan in the comedy “The Minor””

Work test

The comedy by D. I. Fonvizin "The Minor" was written based on the result of the 18th century. Today is the 21st century, and many of its problems are relevant, the images are still alive. One of the main problems raised by the play is the writer’s reflection on the legacy that is preparing Russia for the simpleton and Skotinin. For Fonvizin, the word “minor” had no criminal meaning. Noble children under the age of 15 were called half-educated, i.e. age prescribed by Peter I for entering the service. In Fonvizin it received a mocking, ironic meaning. Raising children is a state problem. But it is solved not only by the education system, but also by each family separately. Until the age of sixteen or seventeen, noble children are just “dropouts.” They eat pies in abundance, chase pigeons, and are frequent visitors to "girls' rooms." Without burdening themselves with anything, they don’t care about anything. But childhood passes quickly, children must grow up, go into public service or continue the work of their parents. This means that they need to be prepared for adult life, and parents prepare their children for life in accordance with their ideals (if they have them), each in their own way. Mitrofan is the only son of provincial parents. Nobleman, future serf owner or civil servant. “Resembling his mother” ... This already says a lot. The mother of simpletons is a cruel and domineering woman, insidious, cunning and greedy. An uneducated mother teaches her son science, but she hired teachers at a “cheaper price”, and that’s why it gets in the way. What is her advice to her son worth: “... my friend, at least for show, learn so that it reaches his ears how you work!” “I found the money, don’t share it with anyone. Take it all for yourself, Metrofanushka. Don’t learn this stupid science!” Mother raises Mitrofan in her own image and likeness: he is stupid, greedy, lazy. In a fit of rage, she shouts at the servant girl Pelageya that she is seriously ill. She does not take into account the dignity of those who live next to her: she has long crushed her husband, depriving him of his freedom and his opinion, and humiliates Sophia, considering her hangers-on. In Prostakova we see only a landowner, illiterate, cruel and unbridled. We don’t see a woman in her, she has no intelligence, no mercy. In some respects, Mitrofan went further than his mother. Let us remember how he feels sorry for his mother because she was tired beating the priest. He understands very well who is the real boss in the house, and clumsily flatters his mother.Blindly and recklessly loving his son, the simpleton sees his happiness in wealth and idleness. Having learned that Sophia is a rich bride, the mother flatters the girl and wants to marry her son by any means. The simpleton thinks that with his intelligence Mitrofan will “fly far”, following the folk wisdom: “What goes around comes around.” Apparently, she did not know folk wisdom, because for her people are worse than cattle. Veremiivna, who devoted her entire life to serving the Prostakov family, did not deserve anything other than teething. Teachers came to Mitrofan, and he growled: “Sibenik take them!” Mitrofan calls Tsifirkin, who wants to teach him something, a “garrison rat,” and after failing to kidnap Sophia, he and his mother intend to “take on people,” that is, flog the servants. So, the simpleton raised her son the way she knew how and the way she wanted. What happened? At the most critical moment of her life, when she found herself “at breaking point,” the simpleton rushes to his son with the exclamation: “You are the only one left for me, my dear friend, Metrofanushka!” - And he comes across his son’s callous, rude answer: “Yes, lead,” pretend, mummy, as you imposed! The son's "disasters and fortunes" are a direct consequence of the bad qualities of his parents.Mitrofan is an undergrowth, first of all, because he is a complete ignoramus, knows neither arithmetic nor geography, and is unable to distinguish an adjective from a noun. But he is also immature morally, because he does not know how to respect the dignity of other people. He is also immature in the civic sense, since he has not matured enough to understand his responsibilities to the state. It is quite natural that civic feeling is alien to Skotinin-Prostakov; the idea of ​​“being useful to one’s fellow citizens” cannot come to these chapters. Mitrofan is not eager to study or serve and prefers the position of “dropout”. Mitrofan’s sentiments are completely shared by his mother. “While Metrofanushka is still little,” she reasons, “it’s time to pamper him, and then in a dozen years he’ll be released, God forbid, into the service, to suffer everything.Are there many such Mitrofans? Vralman said about this: “Don’t worry, my mother, don’t worry: what kind of son is yours - there are millions of them in the world.” “We see,” says Starodum, “all the unfortunate consequences of bad upbringing.” Now is a different time, different people. But Fonvizin says to us: the family first brings up. Children inherit from their parents not only genes, but also ideals, habits, image of life and life. As a rule, the apple does not fall far from the tree. Similar essay: These are the fruits of evil!

Eva Usoltseva has fully covered the topic: “attitude towards the mother before the tragic ending and after it” and suggests that you familiarize yourself with it and also use the recommendations in your relationships.

Prostakova blindly loves her Mitrofanushka and indulges him in everything. Such an upbringing developed in Mitrofan the makings of absolute ignorance. He has neither love nor affection for others. His mother is just a constant intercessor for him. And when Prostakova loses her power and finds herself in a humiliating position, she simply loses value for Mitrofan. He already senses Starodum's dominant position. Now it doesn’t cost him anything to say: “Get off, mother, you got stuck...” When pronouncing his famous phrase: “Here are the worthy fruits of evil,” Starodum is precisely referring to the fruits of Mitrofanushka’s upbringing

5. In which chapter does the traveler talk to the peasant, what does the peasant tell him about? (+may ask about whom this serf considers even more terrible than the master)

In the chapter “Lublin,” the traveler meets a farmer. At first the author thought that the farmer (no one else but) a schismatic, since he even works on Sundays. However, the peasant is forced by need. In order to feed his six young children, he has to work on Sundays. The remaining six days he works for the master to pay the corvee. But, according to the farmer, this is not the worst thing. He says that entire villages with peasants began to be rented out to the so-called naked mercenaries (landlords-tenants). They pay three skins from the peasants. They are torturing them: in winter they are not allowed to drive or go to work in the city, and there is no one to complain about them.

Option 6

When did the civil font appear?

During the time of Peter the Great, in 1708, the civil alphabet appeared. In Amsterdam, the merchant Gessing casts the first letters of the civil alphabet, which differ from the Cyrillic alphabet in the lettering and stress. Later, the letters of the civil alphabet were brought to Russia. The first book printed in the new font was Geometry. Later, under the leadership of Peter himself, all St. Petersburg printing houses switched to printing books in new civil letters.

Russian classicists and their manifesto

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Mitrofan is the central character of D. I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.” This material, which helps in writing the essay “Mitrofanushka (The Minor),” will reveal the character’s worldview, which helps to understand the main idea of ​​the entire work.

Attitude towards education

Mitrofanushka is 15 years old. He has been studying for 4 years with teachers hired by Mrs. and Mr. Prostakov for their son. However, during this time Mitrofan learned nothing. As one of his teachers notes, Mitrofanushka “does not like to step forward.”

With his teachers, Mitrofan teaches literacy, arithmetic, French and other sciences. During the time that the hero spent on training, he was able to achieve only minimal success: Mitrofan can read syllables and count to three. The little guy doesn't know French at all.

In many ways, such failures are due to the fact that Mitrofan’s teachers themselves understood little about the subjects they taught, but the main reason for Mitrofanushka’s lack of education is his reluctance to learn. He dreams of getting married, not of becoming smarter.

Mitrofan's parents do not see that their son is stupid, they support him and praise him, so Mitrofanushka has no motivation to learn and become smarter. Everything suits him just as everything suits his parents. Mrs. Prostakova does not see the point in education, and Mitrofan adopts the same vision.

Attitude towards parents

Mrs. Prostakova and her husband love their son and do everything possible for him. Mitrofan's mother literally idolizes him, considering her son to be right in everything. The hero's parents take care of him, although they are too protective. But Mitrofan does not value parental care; he believes that they owe him. This instills in the character a sense of permissiveness from childhood. His parents pamper him, fulfilling his every whim. This leads to Mitrofanushka being extremely spoiled and to his indifferent attitude towards his own parents. The hero often lashes out at them, and in the finale of Fonvizin’s comedy, Mitrofanushka asks Mrs. Prostakova to “get rid of” him because he is tired of her.

Moral values

Mitrofan is a real egoist. He thinks only about himself and his desires. There is not a drop of compassion or mercy in the hero. Mitrofanushka is cruel to everyone around him. He is rude to his nanny, who has raised him since birth. Mitrofan does not listen to teachers, despises them and calls them names. The hero rebels against his parents. An indicative detail is that Mitrofan feels sorry for his mother when she dreamed that she was beating Mr. Prostakov. The son is not sorry that his mother beats his father; he feels sorry for Mrs. Prostakova, who, apparently, is already tired of beating her husband. This suggests that family values ​​are completely absent from Mitrofan. He is confident that he is the main thing in the family, that all relatives and friends must serve him.

Mitrofan Prostakov is one of the main characters in D.I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.” From the list of characters we learn that the title of the play refers to him. This was the official name given to nobles, mostly young people who had not received an education document and had not entered the service. At the same time, the word “minor” meant any minor nobleman.
Mitrofan is the son of provincial nobles, almost sixteen years old. One of the heroes of the comedy, the official Pravdin, characterizes his parents in this way: “I found the landowner a countless fool, and his wife a despicable fury, whose hellish disposition makes their whole house miserable.” Fonvizin used telling first and last names in the play: the name Mitrofan has the Greek meaning “resembling a mother.” And indeed, as the plot develops, the reader becomes convinced that the son has inherited all the disgusting character traits from Prostakova, and it is she who is his main educator and example.
Mitrofan is stupid and ignorant: for the fourth year he sits over the book of hours, for the third year he cannot learn to count. Moreover, he cannot be called an enthusiastic student; he believes that with his “studies” he is doing everyone a great favor, and Prostakova herself, who sees only harm in education, asks him: “At least for the sake of appearance, learn.” She constantly explains to her son her principles of life, not least of which are greed and stinginess. Therefore, the landowner calls arithmetic a “stupid science”, since according to the conditions of the problem it is necessary to divide the found money into three or calculate the increase in the teacher’s salary.
In relation to the teachers and Eremeevna, who dotes on him, Mitrofanushka shows rudeness and cruelty, calling them “garrison rat”, “old bastard”, threatening to complain to the ambulance about the mother’s reprisal. But as soon as his uncle Skotinin attacked him, he cowardly asks for protection from the old nurse who had been offended by him.
The little guy is lazy and spoiled, he uses every opportunity to get rid of his teachers and go chasing pigeons. All his base aspirations consist only of eating deliciously and a lot, not studying, but getting married. His father notices in him the Skotinins' family love for pigs.
Mitrofan is used to getting his way both with threats (“After all, the river is close here. I’ll dive, remember what my name was”) and clumsy flattery. His invention about the dream is comical: “All night such rubbish was creeping into my eyes... Yes, it was you, mother, then father... As soon as I started to fall asleep, I saw that you, mother, deigned to beat father... So I felt sorry for you... You, mother : You’re so tired beating your father.”
To achieve their goals, the Prostakovs do not hesitate to use any means. Together with his parents, Mitrofan first subserviently before Starodum in the hope of receiving an inheritance, and then is ready to marry his niece Sophia by force. When the kidnapping fails, he, like his mother, plans to take his anger out on the serfs.
Brought up in an atmosphere of malice and cruelty, Mitrofan grows up selfish, loving no one but himself, not even his mother, who indulges him in everything. Having lost power and therefore become unnecessary to Prostakova, who turned to his son for consolation, he pushes away with the words: “Let it go, mother, how you imposed yourself...”.
His stupidity and lack of education evoke irony among the good heroes of the comedy, and they perceive his hard-heartedness as a logical consequence of bad upbringing. The author himself shares the same opinion. In the comedy “The Minor,” Fonvizin expressed his educational ideals in the words of Pravdin and Starodum: “The direct dignity in a person is the soul... Without it, the most enlightened, clever woman is a pitiful creature... An ignoramus without a soul is a beast.” The image of Mitrofan became an instructive example of what evil ignorance leads to, and his name became a household name. More than one lazy person was frightened by the prospect of becoming like him.

The comedy by D. I. Fonvizin “The Minor” is named after the ignoramus and slacker. Mitrofanushka is one of the central characters of the play. Laziness, inaction, selfishness and indifference are his main internal qualities. Mitrofan's description allows us to speak about a generalized image of the nobility.

Relationships with parents

Mitrofan is very loved by his parents. Mother - Mrs. Prostakova - idolizes her son. She is truly ready to do anything for him. Prostakova raised Mitrofanushka in such a way that he did not know how to truly live. He was not interested in anything in life, the problems and difficulties of life were unfamiliar to him, since his parents did everything to prevent Mitrofanushka from encountering them. This fact greatly influenced Mitrofanushka’s attitude towards his own life: he felt his permissiveness. The hero’s life was based on laziness and apathy, the desire to achieve only his own goals associated with peace.

The main character saw how his mother treated his father. Prostakov did not play a big role in their family. This was the reason that Mitrofan did not take his father seriously. He grew up insensitive and selfish, not even showing love to his mother, who in turn loved him very much. The character demonstrated such an indifferent attitude towards his mother in the finale of the work: Mitrofanushka refuses Mrs. Prostakova’s support with the words “Go away, mother, how you imposed yourself.”

This quotation characterization fully indicates the results of permissiveness and blind parental love. D.I. Fonvizin demonstrated how such love has a detrimental effect on a person.

Life goals

The characterization of Mitrofan from the comedy “The Minor” is largely determined by his attitude to life. Mitrofanushka does not have lofty goals. He is not adapted to real life, so his main actions are sleeping and eating peculiar foods. The hero does not pay attention to nature, beauty, or the love of his parents. Instead of studying, Mitrofanushka dreams of her marriage, without ever thinking about love. Mitrofanushka has never experienced this feeling, so marriage for him is something that is accepted in society, which is why he wants to get married so much. Mitrofanushka is wasting her life without thinking about any large-scale goals.

Attitude to study

The image of Mitrofanushka, to put it briefly, personifies a negative attitude towards education. In "The Minor" the story about Mitrofan's studies is very comical. The hero was engaged in education only because that was the way it was supposed to be in society. Mrs. Prostakova herself, who decided to hire teachers for Mitrofan, considered science to be empty. This also greatly influenced the worldview of the child, who, like his mother, began to consider education a waste of time. If it were possible to leave education, Mitrofan would gladly do so. However, the decree of Peter I, which is tacitly mentioned in “The Minor,” obligated all nobles to take a training course. Education and gaining knowledge becomes a responsibility for Mitrofanushka. The hero's mother was unable to instill desire in her son, so he began to believe that he could manage without knowledge. During four years of study, he did not achieve any results. Mitrofanushka’s teachers, for whom only material values ​​were important, also contribute to lack of education. Mitrofanushka treats her teachers with disrespect, calling them various names. He saw his superiority over them, so he allowed himself to behave this way.