Mitrofan Terentyevich Prostakov (Mitrofanushka) - undergrowth, son of landowners Prostakov, 15 years old. The name "Mitrofan" means in Greek "manifested by his mother", "similar to his mother." It has become a household word for a stupid and arrogant ignorant sissy. Yaroslavl old-timers considered the prototype of the image of M. a certain barchuk who lived in the vicinity of Yaroslavl, as reported by L. N. Trefolev.
Fonvizin's comedy is a play about an undergrowth, about his monstrous upbringing, which turns a teenager into a cruel and lazy creature. The word "undergrowth" before Fonvizin's comedy did not carry negative semantics. Undergrowths were called teenagers under the age of fifteen, that is, the age determined by Peter I for entry into the service. In 1736, the period of stay in the "undergrowth" was extended to twenty years. The decree on the freedom of the nobility abolished the mandatory term of service and granted the nobles the right to serve or not to serve, but confirmed the compulsory education introduced under Peter I. Prostakova follows the law, although she does not approve of it. She also knows that many, including those in her family, circumvent the law. M. has been studying for four years, but Prostakova wants to keep him with her for ten years.
The plot of the comedy is based on the fact that Prostakova wants to marry the poor pupil Sophia for her brother Skotinin, but then, having learned about 10,000 rubles, the heiress of which Starodum made Sophia, decides not to miss the rich heiress. Skoti-nin doesn't want to give in. On this basis, between M. and Skotinin, between Prostakova and Skotinin, enmity arises, turning into ugly quarrels. M., set up by his mother, demands collusion, declaring: “The hour of my will has come. I don't want to study, I want to get married." But Prostakova understands that first you need to get the consent of Starodum. And for this it is necessary that M. appear in a favorable light: “While he is resting, my friend, at least for the sake of appearance, learn, so that it comes to his ears how you work, Mitrofanushka.” For her part, Prostakova in every possible way praises M.'s diligence, successes and her parental care for him, and although she knows for sure that M. has not learned anything, she nevertheless arranges an “exam” and encourages Starodum to evaluate the successes of her son (case 4, yavl. VIII). The lack of motivation for this scene (it is hardly appropriate to tempt fate and present the son in a bad light; it is also unclear how the illiterate Prostakova could appreciate M.'s knowledge and the pedagogical efforts of his teachers) is obvious; but it is important for Fonvizin to show that the ignorant landowner herself becomes a victim of her own deception and sets a trap for her son. After this farcical comedy scene, Prostakova, confident that she will push her brother back by force, and realizing that M. could not stand the test and comparison with Milon, decides to forcibly marry M. to Sophia; instructs him to get up at six o'clock, put "three servants in Sophia's bedroom, and two in the hallway to help" (d. 4, yavl. IX). To this M. replies: "Everything will be done." When Prostakova’s “conspiracy” fails, M., at first ready, after her mother, “to be taken for people” (d. 5, fig. III), then humbly asks for forgiveness, and then rudely pushes her mother away: “Get off, mother, how imposed itself” (case 5, yavl. last). Completely bewildered and having lost power over people, he now has to go through a new school of education (“Go serve,” Pravdin tells him), which he accepts with slavish obedience: “According to me, where they are told.” These last words of M. become a kind of illustration to the words of Starodum: “Well, what can come out of Mitrofanushka for the fatherland, for which ignorant parents also pay money to ignorant teachers? How many noble fathers who entrust the moral upbringing of their son to their serf slave! Fifteen years later, instead of one slave, two come out, an old uncle and a young master ”(d. 5, yavl. I).
The struggle for the hand of Sophia, making up the plot of the comedy, puts M. in the center of action. As one of the "imaginary" suitors, M. with his figure connects two worlds - the ignorant nobles, tyrants, the world of "malice" and the enlightened nobles, the world of good morals. These "camps" are extremely alienated from each other. Prostakova, Skotinin cannot understand Starodum, Pravdin and Milon (Prostakova says to Starodum in complete bewilderment: “God knows how you judge you now” - d. 4, phenom. VIII; M. cannot understand , which the same characters demand of him), and Sofya, Pravdin, Milon and Starodum perceive M. and his relatives with open contempt. The reason for this is a different upbringing. The natural nature of M. is distorted by upbringing, and therefore he is in sharp contradiction with the norms of behavior of a nobleman and with ethical ideas about a good-natured and enlightened person.
The author's attitude to M., as well as to other negative characters, is expressed in the form of a "monologue" self-exposure of the hero and in the replicas of positive characters. The rudeness of vocabulary betrays in him hardness of heart and evil will; ignorance of the soul leads to laziness, empty pursuits (chasing pigeons), gluttony. M. is the same tyrant at home as Prostakova. Like Prostakova, she does not consider her father, seeing him as an empty place, and treats teachers in every possible way. At the same time, he holds Prostakov in his hands and threatens to commit suicide if she does not protect him from Skotinin (“To wind here and the river is close. Dive, so remember your name” - d. 2, yavl. VI). M. knows neither love, nor pity, nor simple gratitude; in this respect he surpassed his mother. Prostakova lives for her son, M. for herself. Ignorance can progress from generation to generation; coarseness of feelings is reduced to purely animal instincts. Prostakov remarks with surprise: “It’s strange, brother, how relatives can resemble relatives. Our Mitrofanushka looks like an uncle. And he is a pig hunter from childhood, just like you. As he was for another three years, it used to happen, when he saw a pig, he would tremble with joy ”(d. 1, yavl. V). In the fight scene, Skotinin calls M. "damned ingot." With all his behavior and speeches, M. justifies the words of Starodum: “An ignoramus without a soul is a beast” (d. 3, yavl. I).
According to Starodum, there are three types of people: an enlightened smart girl; unenlightened, but possessing a soul; unenlightened and soulless. M., Prostakova and Skotinin belong to the latter variety. They seem to grow claws (see the scene of Skotinin’s quarrel with M. and the words of Eremeevna, as well as the fight between Prostakova and Skotinin, in which M.’s mother “pierced” Skotinin’s scruff), bearish strength appears (Skotinin says to Prostakova: “It will come to breaking , I will bend, so you will crack" - d. 3, yavl. III). Comparisons are taken from the animal world: “Have you heard that a bitch gave out her puppies?” Worse, M. stopped in its development and is then only capable of regression. Sophia says to Milon: “Although he is sixteen years old, he has already reached the last degree of his perfection and will not go far” (d. 2, yavl. II). The absence of family and cultural traditions turned into a triumph of "malice", and M. breaks even those "animal" ties that united him with his kindred circle.
In the face of M. Fonvizin brought out a peculiar type of tyrant slave: he is a slave of low passions, which turned him into a tyrant. The “slave” upbringing of M. in the narrow sense is connected with the “mother” Eremeevna, in the broad sense - with the world of the Prostakovs and Skotinins. In both cases, dishonorable concepts were instilled in M.: in the first, because Eremeevna was a serf, in the second, because the concepts of honor were perverted.
The image of M. (and the very concept of "undergrowth") became a household word. However, the educational idea of the mechanistic dependence of human behavior on his upbringing was subsequently overcome. In The Captain's Daughter by Pushkin, Petrusha Grinev receives an education similar to M., but develops independently and behaves like an honest nobleman. Pushkin sees in M. something radical, Russian, charming, and with the help of the epigraph (“Mitrofan for me”) raises the narrator - and partly the characters - of “Belkin's Tales” to the hero of “Undergrowth”. The name "Mitrofan" is found in Lermontov ("Tambov Treasurer"). The satirical development of the image is given in the novel by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Lords of Tashkent”.
Prostakova is the wife of Terenty Prostakov, mother of Mitrofan and sister of Taras Skotinin. The surname indicates both the simplicity, ignorance, lack of education of the heroine, and the fact that she falls into a mess.
Mitrofan Prostakov is one of the main characters in D.I. Fonvizin's comedy "Undergrowth". From the list of characters, we learn that it is to him that the title of the play refers. So the nobles were officially called, mostly young, who did not receive a document on education and did not enter the service. At the same time, the word "undergrowth" meant any minor nobleman.
Mitrofan is the almost sixteen-year-old son of provincial nobles. One of the heroes of the comedy - the official Pravdin - characterizes his parents in this way: "I found the landowner an innumerable fool, and his wife a wicked fury, to whom the hellish temper makes misfortune of their whole house." Fonvizin used speaking names and surnames in the play: the name Mitrofan has the Greek meaning "like a mother." Indeed, as the plot develops, the reader is convinced that the son inherited all the disgusting traits of character 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. In addition, he cannot be called a cheerful student, he believes that with his “occupations” he does everyone a great favor, and Prostakova herself, who sees only harm in enlightenment, asks him: “You at least learn for the sake of it.” She constantly teaches her son her life principles, among which greed and stinginess occupy not the last place. Therefore, the landowner calls arithmetic "stupid science", since according to the condition of the problem, it is necessary to divide the money found by three or calculate an increase in the teacher's salary.
Mitrofanushka is rude and cruel towards the teachers and the soul of Yeremeevna, who does not have a soul in him, calling them “garrison rat”, “old bastard”, threatening to complain to the ambulance about the massacre of his mother. But as soon as his uncle Skotinin pounced on him, he cowardly asks for protection from the old nurse offended by him.
The undergrowth is lazy and spoiled, uses every opportunity to get rid of the teachers and go chasing pigeons. All his base aspirations are only to eat tasty and a lot, not to study, but to get 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 in, so remember what your name was”), and with clumsy flattery. His fiction about the dream is comical: “The whole night such rubbish climbed into my eyes ... Yes, then you, mother, then father ... As soon as I start to fall asleep, I see that you, mother, deign to beat the father ... So I felt sorry ... You, mother : you are so tired, beating the father.
To achieve their goals, the Prostakovs do not shun any means. Together with his parents, Mitrofan first grovels 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, is going to take out his anger on the serfs.
Brought up in an atmosphere of malevolence and cruelty, Mitrofan grows up selfish, not loving anyone but himself, even his mother indulging him in everything. Having lost power and therefore becoming unnecessary to Prostakov, who turned to her son for consolation, he repels with the words: “Yes, get rid of it, mother, as it was imposed ...”.
His stupidity and ignorance cause irony among the positive heroes of the comedy, and they perceive his cruelty as a logical consequence of bad education. The author himself is of the same opinion. In the comedy “Undergrowth”, Fonvizin expressed his educational ideals in the words of Pravdin and Starodum: “Direct dignity in a person is a soul ... Without it, the most enlightened clever girl is a miserable creature ... An ignoramus without a soul is a beast.” The image of Mitrofan has become an instructive example of what evil ignorance leads to, and his name has become a household name. More than one lazy person was frightened by the prospect of becoming like him.
The comedy "Undergrowth" absorbed all the experience accumulated by Fonvizin, and in terms of the depth of ideological issues, the courage and originality of the artistic solutions found, remains an unsurpassed masterpiece of Russian drama of the 18th century. Incriminating pathos...
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“I don’t want to study, but I want to get married” - Mitrofanushka’s life-affirming statement has not lost its relevance for the third century. Denis Fonvizin's first realistic or everyday comedy in the history of Russian dramaturgy presented both a lot of vivid images and useful aphorisms. We learn 10 facts from the life of Mitrofanushka together with Natalia Letnikova.
The ideas of "Undergrowth" at Fonvizin took shape in Europe. For a year and a half, the writer, while in France, got acquainted with the philosophy, jurisprudence and life of the country. When writing The Undergrowth, the playwright relied on articles from satirical magazines, the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, Duclos, and even comedies written by Catherine II herself.
Speaking surnames - the best author's characteristics. In the sketches of the protagonist, the name was Ivanushka, but by the time the comedy was published, it was already Mitrofanushka, colloquially, "sissy" - Mrs. Prostakova. The pseudo-scientist Vralman and the official Pravdin, Starodum and Skotinin, Sophia and Milon, Tsyfirkin and Kuteikin are the heroes of the most famous work of Fonvizin and completed portraits of their era.
"Undergrowth". The landowner Prostakov is repairing the court and reprisal. From the engraving by N.I. Kalita. 1958
Comedy illustration by D.I. Fonvizin "Undergrowth"
History of undergrowths in Russia. So in the 18th century they called noble children who had not reached the age appointed by Peter I for entering the service. Fonvizin filled the image with ironic meaning. The undergrowth is an uneducated, uncouth, rude, selfish young man, and the name Mitrofanushka has become a household name with the light hand of the playwright.
The most repertoire play of the 18th century on the Russian stage. A year before the premiere, the author tested the work at home readings. They intended to stage the play both in St. Petersburg and in Moscow. Moscow censorship did not take risks. The premiere took place in 1782 at the Free Russian Theater in St. Petersburg. "Undergrowth" has gone through many amateur productions. In the performance of the Nizhyn Gymnasium, the role of Prostakova was played by Gogol.
Author, director. He worked on the production, distributed the roles and Fonvizin himself, and "the first court actor of the Russian theater" - Ivan Dmitrievsky. The most famous actor of the 18th century played the role of Starodum and became the main magnet for the public. The role of Pravdin was played by the bright actor and playwright Pyotr Plavilshchikov, and the leading comedian of that time, Yakov Shumsky, brilliantly embodied the image of Yeremeevna.
« Die, Denis, you won't write better"- the phrase attributed to Grigory Potemkin has become a real historical anecdote. According to the theatrical legend, after the premiere of the performance in St. Petersburg, Prince Potemkin allegedly approached Fonvizin with this phrase. According to another version, the flattering review belongs to Derzhavin. The Dramatic Dictionary of the time reported: "The audience applauded the play by throwing purses."
"Undergrowth" Fonvizin. Artist T.N. Kasterina
Mrs. Prostakova, Mitrofanushka, Kuteikin and Tsyfirkin. "Undergrowth" Fonvizin. Artist T.N. Kasterina
Laughter to execute vices. Comedy fulfilled its main task of its time in full. “Too faithful lists from nature,” Belinsky said about the characters in The Undergrowth; “Everything is taken alive from nature,” Gogol echoed his colleague; The Decembrists called "Undergrowth" the first folk comedy. “The only monument to folk satire,” Pushkin called the work of the “Russian Moliere”.
From everyday comedy to a satirical magazine. In 1783, the first printed edition of "Undergrowth" was published, and five years later, Denis Fonvizin tried to publish his own satirical magazine with the telling name "Starodum" - after the most reasonable comedy hero. The magazine was banned by Empress Catherine II.
« Undergrowth "in the favorites of modern directors. The story of Mitrofanushka is in the repertoire of the northernmost theater in the world - the Norilsk Polar Theater, as well as the Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod Youth Theaters. With the music of Dmitri Shostakovich and Russian folk melodies, the comedy is presented by the Children's Philharmonic of St. Petersburg. And in 2015, "Undergrowth" also became a musical - with the light hand of composer Alexander Zhurbin.
30th anniversary of Mitrofanushka at the Maly Theater. The modern version of "Undergrowth" on this stage starts from 1986. Played over 700 performances. “I was terribly tired,” recalled Afanasy Kochetkov, who played Starodum, “but suddenly schoolchildren came to a matinee at some performance, and from their reaction I realized ... that they were interested in the position of this character, his philosophy, his thoughts ... "
Comedy D. I. Fonvizin "Undergrowth" is named after an ignoramus and a loafer. Mitrofanushka is one of the central characters in the play. Laziness, inaction, selfishness and indifference are its main internal qualities. Description of Mitrofan allows us to say about the generalized image of the nobility.
Relationships with parents
Mitrofan is very fond of his parents. Mother - Mrs. Prostakova - idolizes her son. She is really ready for everything for him. Prostakova raised Mitrofanushka in such a way that he did not know how to live for real. In life, he was not interested in anything, he was not familiar with problems and life difficulties, since his parents did everything so that Mitrofanushka would not encounter them. This fact strongly influenced Mitrofanushka's attitude to his own life: he felt his permissiveness. At the heart of the hero's life was laziness and apathy, the desire to achieve only his own goals related to peace.
The protagonist saw how his mother treats his father. Prostakov did not play a big role in their family. This was the reason that Mitrofan did not take his father seriously either. 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 to support Mrs. Prostakova with the words “Yes, get rid of you, mother, how you imposed yourself.”
Such a quotation characteristic 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 "Undergrowth" is largely determined by his attitude to life. Mitrofanushka has no 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 either to nature, or to beauty, or to the love of his parents. Instead of studying, Mitrofanushka dreams of her marriage, while never thinking about love. Mitrofanushka never experienced this feeling, therefore marriage for him is what is accepted in society, which is why he so wants to get married. Mitrofanushka wastes her life without thinking about any large-scale goals.
Attitude towards learning
The image of Mitrofanushka, in short, personifies a negative attitude towards education. In "Undergrowth" the story about Mitrofan's studies is very comical. The hero was engaged in education only because it was supposed to be so in society. Ms. Prostakova herself, who decided to hire teachers for Mitrofan, considered science to be empty. This greatly influenced the worldview of the child, who, like the mother, began to consider education a waste of time. If it were possible to leave education, Mitrofan would gladly do it. However, the decree of Peter I, which is tacitly mentioned in The Undergrowth, obliged all nobles to take a training course. Education and knowledge for Mitrofanushka becomes a duty. The mother of the hero could not instill desire in her son, so he began to believe that he could do without knowledge. For four years of study, he did not achieve any results. Mitrofanushka's teachers also contribute to ignorance, for whom only material values were important. Mitrofanushka treats her teachers with disrespect, calling them various names. He saw his superiority over them, so he allowed them to behave like that.
