Mitrofan Prostakov is one of the main characters of Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.” He is a spoiled, ill-mannered and uneducated young nobleman who treated everyone with great disrespect.

He was always surrounded by the care of his mother, who spoiled him. Mitrofanushka took over from his loved ones the most bad traits character: laziness, rudeness in dealing with all people, greed, selfishness.

At the end of this work, Starodum said: “These are the worthy fruits of evil,” and this very accurately describes the situation happening in the family.

Mitrofanushka does not show any desire or interest in studying, but only wants to frolic and chase pigeons. In any difficult situation, she hides behind her mother’s back, but even in her last scene he shocks you with his boorish behavior.

It seems to me that Fonvizin created Prostakov Mitrofan in order to focus attention on the problem of illiteracy of the young nobility and inter-class relations in the serf-dominated Russian Empire.

Updated: 2013-09-17

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

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

Mitrofan and mother

Mitrofan is a typical mama's boy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leisure

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

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

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

Attitude to study

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

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

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

The importance of Mitrofan in comedy

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

Mitrofanushka
MITROFANUSHKA is the hero of D.I.’s comedy. Fonvizin “Nedorosl” (1781), a sixteen-year-old teenager (minor), the only son of Mrs. Prostakova, his mother’s darling and the favorite of the servants. M. as a literary type was not Fonvizin’s discovery. Russian literature of the late 18th century. knew and portrayed such teenagers, living freely in rich parental homes and barely able to read and write at the age of sixteen. Fonvizin endowed this traditional figure of noble life (especially provincial) with the generic features of the Prostakov-Skotinin “nest”. In his parents’ house, M. is the main “funny man” and “entertainer”, the inventor and witness of all the stories like the one he saw in his dream: how his mother beat his father. It is well known how M. took pity on his mother, who was busy with the difficult task of beating her father. M.'s day is marked by absolute idleness: fun in the dovecote, where M. is saving himself from lessons, is interrupted by Eremeevna, begging the “child” to learn. Having blabbed to his uncle about his desire to get married, M. immediately hides behind Eremeevna - “an old bastard,” in his words, who is ready to lay down his life, but “can’t give it away to the “child.” M.’s boorish arrogance is akin to his mother’s manner of treating household members and servants: “freak” and “weeper” - the husband, “dog’s daughter” and “nasty mug” - Eremeevna, “beast” - the girl Palashka. If the intrigue of the comedy revolves around the marriage of M. to Sophia, desired by the Prostakovs, then the plot is focused on the theme of the upbringing and teaching of a teenage underage. This is a traditional theme for educational literature. M.'s teachers were selected in accordance with the time standard and the parents' level of understanding of their task. Here Fonvizin emphasizes details that speak of the quality of choice characteristic of the simpleton family: M. is taught French by the German Vralman, exact sciences are taught by retired sergeant Tsyfirkin, who “speaks a little of arithmetic,” and grammar by the “educated” seminarian Kuteikin, who was fired from “all teaching” by permission of the consistory. From here to famous scene M.'s exam is an outstanding invention of Mitrofan's ingenuity about the noun and adjective door, hence the intriguingly fabulous ideas about the story recounted by the cowgirl Khavronya. In general, the result was summed up by Mrs. Prostakova, who is convinced that “people live and have lived without science.” Fonvizin's hero is a teenager, almost a youth, whose character is affected by the disease of dishonesty, spreading to every thought and every feeling inherent in him. He is dishonest in his attitude towards his mother, through whose efforts he exists in comfort and idleness and whom he abandons at the moment when she needs his consolation. The comic clothes of the image are funny only at first glance. V.O. Klyuchevsky classified M. as a breed of creatures “related to insects and microbes,” characterizing this type with inexorable “reproduction.” Thanks to the hero Fonvizin, the word “minor” (formerly neutral) became a common noun for a quitter, a loafer and a lazy person.

Mitrofanushka (Prostakov Mitrofan) is the son of the landowners Prostakovs. It is considered an undergrowth because he is 16 years old and has not reached the age of majority. Following the tsar's decree, Mitrofanushka studies. But he does this with great reluctance. He is characterized by stupidity, ignorance and laziness (scenes with teachers).
Mitrofan is rude and cruel. He does not value his father at all and mocks teachers and serfs. He takes advantage of the fact that his mother dotes on him and spins her around as she wants.
Mitrofan stopped in his development. Sophia says about him: “Even though he is 16 years old, he has already reached the last degree of his perfection and will not go further.”
Mitrofan combines the traits of a tyrant and a slave. When Prostakova's plan to marry her son to a rich pupil, Sophia, fails, the undergrowth behaves like a slave. He humbly asks for forgiveness and humbly accepts “his sentence” from Starodum - to go serve (“For me, wherever they tell you”). Slave upbringing was instilled in the hero, on the one hand, by the serf nanny Eremeevna, and, on the other hand, by the whole world of the Prostakov-Skotinins, whose concepts of honor are distorted.
Through the image of Mitrofan, Fonvizin shows the degradation of the Russian nobility: from generation to generation, ignorance increases, and the coarseness of feelings reaches animal instincts. No wonder Skotinin calls Mitrofan “damned pig.” The reason for such degradation is an incorrect, disfiguring upbringing.
The image of Mitrofanushka and the very concept of “minor” have become a household word. Nowadays they say this about ignorant and stupid people.

Mitrofanushka is the son of the landowners Prostakovs and one of the main negative heroes Comedy "Minor". As a minor teenager, he is prominent representative noble youth and one of the many “minors” who inhabited Russia in the 18th century. By nature, he is rude and cruel, does not want to study or serve, does not value his father and, taking advantage of his mother’s boundless love, manipulates her as he wishes. He is characterized by dullness, ignorance and laziness, which indicates his similarity to his mother. He openly mocks serfs and teachers. On the one hand, he seems to be a tyrant, on the other hand, the author shows his slavish behavior, instilled in him by the entire Prostakov-Skotinin family and the serf nanny Eremeevna.

When all of Prostakova’s plans to marry him to her rich pupil Sophia collapse and he has to prepare for military service, he meekly asks for forgiveness and accepts his sentence. Using this character as an example, the author of the play tries to show the ignorance of the nobles of that time, as well as social degradation in the country. Thanks to the image of Mitrofanushka, the word “minor” became a common noun. Subsequently, this was the name given to stupid and ignorant people.

MITROFANUSHKA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

E.V.Yusim

Literary heroes. - Academician. 2009 .

See what "MITROFANUSHKA" is in other dictionaries:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitrofanushka- a character in D. Fonvizin’s comedy Nedorosl (1783), his name became a household name to denote the stupid and ignorant young man who doesn't want to study... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

Books

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