A talented writer, a widely educated person, a prominent political figure, Fonvizin in his works not only acted as an exponent of the advanced ideas of the socio-political life of Russia at that time, but also made an invaluable contribution to the treasury of Russian literature.
Fonvizin was the first Russian writer and playwright to denounce serfdom. In his immortal comedy“Undergrowth” he very expressively depicted the unlimited arbitrariness of landowner power, which took on ugly forms during the period of strengthening of the autocratic serfdom system under Catherine II.
According to the rules of classicism, the events in the comedy take place over the course of one day in one place - the estate of the landowner Prostakova. The names of the heroes are extremely eloquent; they can tell a lot about their bearers: Pravdin, Starodum, Vralman, Skotinin.
The unlimited arbitrariness of landowner power in the comedy "The Minor" is depicted vividly and expressively. K.V. Pigarev wrote that “Fonvizin guessed correctly and implemented negative images In his comedy, the essence of the social force of serfdom, showed the typical features of Russian serf-owners in general, regardless of their social position." Fonvizin most clearly revealed the power, cruelty, ignorance, and narrow-mindedness of the landowners in the negative images of the comedy:
“An inhuman mistress, whose evil in a well-established state cannot be tolerated,” Pravdin calls the serf woman Prostakova a “despicable fury.” What kind of person is this? All of Prostakova’s behavior is antisocial; she is a terrible egoist, accustomed to worrying only about her own benefit.
In her house, Prostakova is a powerful and cruel despot, and not only for serfs. Masterfully pushing around her weak-willed husband, Prostakova calls him either a “weeper” or a “freak.” She was accustomed to his resigned submission. Prostakova’s passionate love for her only son, the sixteen-year-old teenager Mitrofanushka, also takes ugly forms. She persistently and systematically conveys to him her main commandments of life: “When you find money, don’t share it with anyone. Take it all for yourself,” “Don’t learn this stupid science.” She herself is so ignorant and illiterate that she cannot read the letters, Prostakova understands that her son without education is barred from entering the public service. She hires teachers, asks Mitrofan to study a little, but he adopts her hostile attitude towards education and enlightenment. “People live and have lived without science,” the Prostakovs are sure.
Prostakova's brother Taras Skotinin is not only no less wild, limited and immoral than his sister, but is also just as cruel and despotic with the serfs, whom he not only mocks, but also “masterfully rips off.” The most valuable and expensive thing in Skotinin’s life is pigs. These animals live much better with the landowner than people.
The vices of the serf landowners, their ignorance, greed, selfishness, selfishness, and narcissism are clearly visible, since these people themselves do not consider it necessary to hide them. They believe that their power is limitless and unquestionable. However, Fonvizin in his comedy expressively showed that serfdom not only turns the peasants into uncomplaining slaves, but also dulls and stultifies the landowners themselves.
Positive images of representatives of the advanced nobility (Starodum, Pravdin, Sophia, Milon) are contrasted in the comedy with tyrant serf owners. They are educated, smart, charming, humane.
Starodum is a true patriot, for whom the main thing is service to the fatherland. He is honest and smart, does not tolerate hypocrisy, and is ready to fight injustice.
The attitude of the Old Duma to serfdom is expressed in the words: “It is unlawful to oppress one’s own kind through slavery.” He is also concerned about the problems of raising noble children: “What can come out of Mitrofanushka for the fatherland, for whom ignorant parents also pay money to ignorant teachers? Fifteen years later, instead of one slave, two come out: an old man and a young master.”
Pravdin in comedy is like-minded with Starodum; he supports his progressive views in everything. It is with the help of this image that Fonvizin suggests one of the possible ways restrictions on the arbitrariness of landowner power. Pravdin is a government official. Convinced of Prostakova’s inability to humanly manage the estate, he takes it under his guardianship.
Thus, we see that Fonvizin in his comedy, with the help of satire, exposed the arbitrariness and despotism of Russian serfdom. He managed to create expressive portraits of feudal landowners, contrasting them with both the advanced progressive nobility and representatives of the people.
- New!
“Nedorosl” is the first Russian socio-political comedy. Fonvizin depicts the vices of his contemporary society: masters who rule unjustly, nobles who are not worthy of being nobles, “accidental” statesmen, self-proclaimed teachers. Madam...
The comedy by D. N. Fonvizin “The Minor” is the pinnacle of Russian drama of the 18th century. The work was created according to the strict rules of classicism: the unity of time (day), place (the Prostakovs' house) and action (the rivalry of Sophia's suitors) is observed; heroes share...
Mitrofanushka’s teachers—dropout seminarian Kuteikin and retired soldier Tsyfirkin—know little, but they try to fulfill their duties honestly and conscientiously. However, the main educator of the undergrowth remains Prostakova herself with her “solid logic”...
Comedy is a very unique genre. Most comedies have a mythical or fairy-tale plot. And very few comic works are distinguished by an accurate and complete depiction of reality. And “Nedorosl” is no exception. The question of whether a writer should...
Fonvizin's play is multifaceted and includes several topics: a discussion of serfdom and serf owners; condemnation of autocracy; harmful upbringing.
The conflict of the work is based on the confrontation between dishonest serf owners and noble nobles. One of the main characters, Starodum, belongs to the second type. This is a nobleman who received education and upbringing during the reign of Peter, the reformer tsar who supported enlightenment. The policy of the authorities after Peter was more focused on the brutalization of serfdom. Ranks were received not for merit, but for the ability to please the crowned person. Starodum understood this, but still believed that it was better to be “dispensed with without guilt than to be rewarded without merit.”
Honest, noble and always follows the principle: do not say “yes” if the heart feels that “no”. He does not favor people with small souls, such as the Prostakovs and Skotinin. However, he treats noble people with great love - Sophia, Milon, Pravdin.
The hero believed that a real nobleman cannot sit idle when there is so much work to do: help people in need, serve the Motherland. Therefore, the selfishness and laziness of Prostakova, Mitrofan, Skotinin are disgusting to him. Some for him are not people, but animals who are only looking for where they can profit. Another thing is Milo, a brave officer defending the state. Starodum is highly valued for her educational views. The hero respects Pravdin, a man as principled as himself.
As we can see from the above, Starodum is an exponent of the author’s ideas. He puts thoughts into his mouth about the importance of enlightenment. It is this hero who directly condemns serfdom and the brutal serf owners. He is endowed with the features of the author himself - he is noble, fair, wise. If you think about the meaning of the surname, then Starodum is someone who thinks in the old way, but it was in that old time that there were more educational ideas and reforms. This means that he did not fall behind the times, but retained the best in himself. While many have lost the spirit of nobility and lived “in step” with new era insane autocracy and the policy of exaction from the poor peasants.
Starodum leaves his villages because he does not want to collect taxes from the unfortunate people. The hero leaves for Siberia. There, in his opinion, he can make a fortune, like honest man. Why does he need money? In order to provide a comfortable life for his niece Sophia, whom he loved very much. The hero was a supporter of traditional family values and wanted to successfully marry the girl to a noble man. When he learns about Sophia’s choice of Milone, he supports her because this man is noble and serves the fatherland.
The ideological content of comedy.
The main themes of the comedy “The Minor” are the following four: the theme of serfdom and its corrupting influence on landowners and servants, the theme of the fatherland and service to it, the theme of education and the theme of the morals of the court nobility.
All these topics were very topical in the 70s and 80s. Satire magazines and fiction paid a lot of attention to these issues, resolve them differently in accordance with the views of the authors.
Fonvizin poses and resolves them in a socio-political context, as a progressive figure.
The topic of serfdom acquired paramount importance after the Pugachev uprising.
Fonvizin reveals this topic not only with household side, showing how Prostakova and Skotinin manage their estates. He talks about the destructive impact of serfdom on the landowner and the serf. Fonvizin also points out that “it is unlawful to oppress one’s own kind through slavery.”
The theme of the fatherland and honest service to it is heard in the speeches of Starodum and Milon. From the moment he appears on stage until the end, Starodum tirelessly talks about the need to serve the fatherland, about the nobleman honestly fulfilling his duty to his homeland, about promoting its good. He is also supported by Milo, who declares that a “truly undaunted military leader” “prefers his glory to life, but most of all, for the benefit of the fatherland, he is not afraid to forget his own glory.”
How advanced such views were can be judged by the fact that not only in the first two thirds of the XVIII centuries, but even in the era of Fonvizin, noble writers believed that “the sovereign and the fatherland are one essence.”
Fonvizin speaks only about service to the fatherland, but not to the sovereign.
Expanding on the topic of education, Fonvizin says through the mouth of Starodum: “It (upbringing) should be the key to the well-being of the state. We see all the unfortunate consequences of bad education. What can come out of Mitrofanushka for the fatherland, for whom ignorant parents also pay money to ignorant teachers? How many noble fathers entrust the moral education of their son to their slave-serf? Fifteen years later, instead of one slave, two come out: an old man and a young master.” Fonvizin raises the topic of education as an important social and political issue: it is necessary to educate nobles as citizens, as progressive and enlightened figures of the country.
The fourth theme posed in the comedy concerns the morals of the court and metropolitan nobility. It is revealed in Starodum’s speeches, especially in his conversation with Pravdin. Starodum sharply and angrily denounces the corrupted court nobility. From his stories we learn about the morals of the court circle, where “almost no one drives on a straight road,” where “one knocks over the other,” where “there are very small souls.” It is impossible to correct the morals of Catherine’s court, according to Starodum. “It is in vain to call a doctor to the sick without healing: the doctor will not help unless he himself becomes infected.”
Comedy images.
The ideological concept determined the composition characters"Undergrown." The comedy depicts typical feudal landowners (Prostakovs, Skotinin), their serf servants (Eremeevna and Trishka), teachers (Tsy-firkin, Kuteikin and Vralman) and contrasts them with such advanced nobles as, according to Fonvizin, the entire Russian nobility should be: public service(Pravdin), in the region economic activity(Starodum), on military service(Milon). The image of Sophia, an intelligent and enlightened girl, contributes to a more complete disclosure of Prostakova’s self-will and ignorance; The entire struggle that takes place in the “comedy” is connected with Sophia.
Updated: 2011-03-02
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The theme of education in the comedy “The Minor” is the main one. The title of the work itself testifies to this. “Minors” were the name given to uneducated young nobles who, according to a decree of Peter I in 1714, had no right to enter the service or marry without a certificate of education (the comedy itself was written in 1781). Fonvizin himself, a man who supported the ideals of enlightenment, reacted sharply to the reluctance of noble youth to study and the outdated education system in Russia, in need of reform.
In “The Minor,” the theme of education affects almost every character in the play. Due to the fact that the work belongs to classicism, the characters are clearly divided by the author himself into positive and negative - “well-mannered” and “ill-mannered”. The first “camp” includes Starodum, Pravdin, Sophia and Milon. The second is the Prostakovs’ spouses, Mitrofan and Skotinin.
Analyzing the characters in more detail, one can notice that only representatives of the Skotinin family are “ill-mannered” - that is, Skotinin himself, his sister Mrs. Prostakova and Mitrofan. Even at the beginning of the play, their attitude towards education and upbringing becomes clear - according to Prostakova, when you need to read a letter from Starodum: “This is what we have lived to see. They write letters to the girls! The girls can read and write!” and “No, madam, thank God, I was not brought up like that,” and Skotinina: “Me? I haven't read anything in my life, sister! God saved me from this boredom.” Prostakov, on the other hand, acts as a neutral person, he is afraid of his wife, so he indulges her in everything. It is not surprising that in such an ignorant family, Mitrofan grew up as a stupid, weak-willed “mama’s boy” who was more interested in getting married than studying.
The “bad manners” and “uneducation” of the characters is reflected not only in their ignorance of any known things (for example, Mitrofan’s door is an adjective, “because it is attached to its place”), but in a different, outdated view of the world. Prostakova does not see anything wrong with beating her servants or solving her son’s problems, taking them literally, and therefore prevents Mitrofan from studying by immediately dissuading him from science. Moreover, the roots of such “evil morality” lie somewhat in bad character women (which cannot be said about Skotinin, who is proud of his vices and stupidity) as much as in the bad upbringing that she herself received.
If for a person of the 18th century, when this play was written, the characters have characteristics of only one plane - positive or negative, and the play reveals acute everyday problems, then for the reader of the 21st century the psychologism of the work is also revealed. Several generations of nobles were traditionally ignorant, while the main values were not righteousness, honor and education, but personal wealth and personal interests. The same can be seen in the Prostakov family. Both love their son very much, they are ready to give him everything, they even invite teachers, but due to a lack of education and good upbringing, they do not understand that they do not have the best teachers, and their son simply takes advantage of their kindness and grows up as a darling. The tragedy of their situation is shown in the finale of the play, when Mitrofan simply abandons his parents after he learns that they can no longer give him anything.
The opposite camp of “well-mannered” characters immediately arouses the reader’s sympathy. Pravdin with his justice, Sophia with meekness and reverence for her uncle’s will (compare with Mitrofan, who at the end of the play tells his mother that she “imposed herself”), honest and noble Milon, wise Starodum. All of them are educated, virtuous, enlightened and ideological people who fight for better life and a better society.
In Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor,” education is the basis of a righteous, correct way of life. This, as we learn from Starodum’s conversation with Sophia, is friendship between husband and wife, mutual respect, and necessity is shared with those in need, and achieving any heights only through one’s own labor.
Fonvizin sees the crisis of education in Russia precisely in the old, outdated tradition, which at that time was still continued to be supported by the “Prostakovs” and “Skotinins”, and then by the matured “Mitrofans”. Despite the fact that “the underage” is a comedy, the author raises quite tragic “eternal” topics - issues of unequal marriage in terms of upbringing of spouses (if Sophia had still married Mitrofan or Skotinin), the problem of fathers and children, when parents themselves raise monster, acute social themes of bullying of servants. The issue of education also occupies a special place. The author, describing the teachers, emphasizes that education cannot be good while children are taught by former grooms Vralmans and Kuteikins who did not graduate from the seminary with a psalter in their hands.
Thus, in Nedorosl, upbringing and education are central problems, around which it develops storyline. It was important for Fonvizin that at the time of the creation of the play, readers would pay attention to open questions. However, the work does not lose its relevance today, reminding readers of how funny and tragic human stupidity is.
Work test
Starodum.
Starodum is an enlightened and progressive person.
He was brought up in the spirit of Peter the Great's time; the thoughts, morals and activities of the people of that time are closer and more acceptable to him. By calling the hero Starodum, Fonvizin thereby emphasized his preference for the time of Peter the Great to his contemporary reality. ( This material will help you write competently on the topic The image and character of Starodum in Fonfizin's comedy Nedorosol.. Summary does not make it possible to understand the full meaning of the work, so this material will be useful for a deep understanding of the work of writers and poets, as well as their novels, stories, plays, poems.) Why is Starodum so dear to Fonvizin?
In the comedy, Starodum talks more than he acts. His character, views and activities are revealed in his speeches.
Starodum is, first of all, a deep patriot. Honest and useful service to the fatherland is for him the first and sacred duty of a nobleman. Only then can a nobleman leave service “when he is internally convinced that service to his fatherland does not bring direct benefit.” Starodum evaluates a person according to his service to the fatherland. “The degree of nobility (i.e. value), ~ says Starodum, - I calculate by the number of deeds that the great gentleman has done for the fatherland... without noble deeds, a noble state is nothing.” Service to the state, according to Starodum, is a matter of honor for a nobleman. During the war, it is the duty of a nobleman to be in the army, and not to settle in safe places in the rear, as the young count, a friend of Starodum’s, did.” IN peacetime a nobleman can serve the fatherland” not only by being in the public service, but also by developing the subsoil of the earth and working in the field of industrial development. Speaking about the industrial activities of Starodum, apparently in Siberia, Fonvizin points out to the nobles who considered industry and trade not a noble matter that the development of mineral resources does not detract from noble dignity,
Starodum is a representative of the nobility who have a negative attitude towards the order of Catherine’s reign. He sharply opposes the nobles, the queen’s favorites, and denounces the morals of the court nobility. He demands legality, restrictions on the arbitrariness of the tsar and the serf-owning landowners. An ardent defender of enlightenment and humanity, Starodum is indignant at the inertia, the savagery and evil nature of the landowner class, the inhuman oppression of the serfs. “It is unlawful to oppress one’s own kind through slavery,” he declares. Starodum talks especially a lot about education Moral education he attaches more value than education: “The mind, if it is only the mind, is the most trifle, Good behavior gives direct value to the mind. Without him smart person- a monster, Science in a depraved person is a fierce weapon to do evil.” Only by raising good ones spiritual qualities, you can raise a real person: “Have a heart, have a soul - and you will be a person at all times.”
Starodum’s speeches express whole program the views and activities of the progressive nobility of that era and, above all, Fonvizin himself. Contemporaries valued Starodum’s speech very highly; they saw in him not a simple reasoner, that is, a person expressing the views of the author, but a vitally, truthfully drawn representative of the enlightened nobility.
It cannot be denied, of course, that in life there were such honest and impeccable officials as Pravdin, but the role that Fonvizin assigned to him in the comedy was clearly created by the author and does not correspond to reality: there were no such auditors at that time. By introducing Pravdin into the comedy in the role of an official vested with the authority to take away estates from cruel landowners, Fonvizin thereby contrasted what, in his opinion, should have been with what actually happened in life. In Suvorov's army there were patriotic officers, faithful to their duty, like Milaya. In the memories of people of that time you can find images of girls similar to Sophia. But characteristic of the nobility at that time, especially the provincial ones, were those features that were so fully and vividly embodied in the images of the Prostakov-Skotinins. That is why the latter came out from Fonvizin’s pen as artistically more perfect and vitally convincing.
Speech goodies close to the book literary language of that time. The phrases are constructed rather ponderously, and gallicisms are often encountered (i.e., sentences constructed according to the syntax French): “I do my duty” (Milon); “Incidents with a person of your qualities cannot be indifferent to anyone” (Pravdin), etc.
Starodum’s speech reveals his love for aphorisms, that is, short, apt sayings: “When ranks begin, sincerity ceases”; “An ignoramus without a soul is a beast”; “The golden idiot is everyone’s idiot,” etc.
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- The ideological content of Fonfizin's comedy Nedorosol. The ideological content of comedy. The main themes of the comedy “The Minor” are the following four: the theme of serfdom and its corrupting influence. By role, he is a character-reasoner, significant not so much for his actions as for his speeches and instructions. This personifies the author’s line to the plot of “The Undertaker”: a personal confession, Starodum. Starodum is a man of enlightenment and progressive inspiration from Peter the Great's time, which is closer to his thoughts, given the activity of people. We cannot agree with the idea that positive characters comedies are presented by the author less vividly and convincingly than negative ones. Exactly on Te important issues, which Fonvizin directed and illuminated in the comedy “The Minor”, determined its great social significance, primarily in modern times.
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