The artistic method of fonvizin. Fonvizin's life and career The main ideas of Fonvizin's work

The month of April is rich in memorable, significant and historical dates, such as:

In our article we will talk about the wonderful writer D.I. Fonvizin, his work, including the comedy "Undergrowth", which is modern and relevant to this day.

DENIS IVANOVICH FONVIZIN

Fonvizin is widely known as the author of the comedy "Undergrowth", as a bold and brilliant satirist. But the creator of The Undergrowth was not only a major and talented playwright of the 18th century. He is one of the founders of Russian prose, a remarkable political writer, a truly great Russian educator, fearlessly, for a quarter of a century, fought with Catherine II.

This side of Fonvizin's creative activity has not been studied enough, and therefore, first of all, that all original and translated works of Fonvizin have not yet been collected and published. Thus, the militant-enlightenment nature of his works of art, their place in the public life of Russia on the eve of the appearance of Radishchev's book Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow (1790) has not been fully clarified.

Pushkin was the first to point out that Fonvizin was not only "a ripe ruler of satire", but also a "friend of freedom." This estimate refers to 1823. The poet at that time was in exile in the south. A hater of slavery, he was waiting for changes in the state, knowing full well that "our political freedom is inseparable from the emancipation of the peasants." For Pushkin, the concepts of enlightenment and freedom are equivalent. Only through enlightenment can real, and not paper, freedom be achieved. Pushkin wrote down these thoughts in 1822 in Notes on Russian History of the 18th Century.

At the same time, the noble activity of Russian writers-enlighteners of the 18th century was revealed to him.

Pushkin repeatedly urged the participants in the Decembrist movement to remember their predecessors, to remember, in order to feel support and draw strength from the living, long-begun struggle for the freedom of the fatherland, not by the methods of revolution, but by the methods of education, but they did not come to their senses.

Having resolutely taken the position of enlightenment already in the 60s, Fonvizin subordinated all his talent as an artist to the service of a great goal. The ideology of enlightenment raised him to the crest of the indomitably emerging Russian liberation movement. The advanced ideology determined his aesthetic searches, his artistic achievements, his decisive convergence of literature with reality.

Pushkin's assessment is surprisingly concise, historically specific and accurate. Gogol noted this feature of Pushkin's artistic talent, his

the extraordinary art of denoting the whole subject with a few features: Pushkin's epithet is so clear and bold, he wrote, that sometimes one replaces the whole description.

Fonvizin's definition of "a friend of freedom" "meant the whole subject. It should serve as the basis for the "whole description" of his life, his work, his activities.

WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was born on April 3, 1745. Fonvizin’s father, a middle-class landowner, was, according to the writer, “a virtuous man”, “loved the truth”, “did not tolerate lies”, “hated covetousness”, “no one saw him in the front nobles”. The mother “had a subtle mind and saw far with soulful eyes. Her heart was compassionate and contained no malice in itself; she was a virtuous wife, a loving mother, a prudent mistress, and a magnanimous mistress.”

Fonvizin spent the first ten years in the family. Here he learned to read and write. His mentor was his father, who "read all Russian books", "ancient and Roman history, opinions of Cicero and other good translations of moral books."

The opening of the first Russian university in 1755 changed the fate of Fonvizin. The writer's father, not being able to hire foreign language teachers, as required by the noble fashion, took advantage of the opportunity to give his son a real education.

did not hesitate, one might say, not a day to send me and my brother to the university, as soon as it became established,

The writer testifies. Fonvizin was enrolled in the Latin school of the noble gymnasium, which prepared for admission to the university. After graduating from the gymnasium in the spring of 1762, he was transferred to the students.

In his gymnasium years, Fonvizin began to engage in literary translations.

My inclination to writing was still in infancy, - the writer recalled, - and I, practicing translations into Russian, reached adolescence.

"Exercises in translations" took place under the guidance of Professor Reichel (he taught general history and German). "," Bargaining of the seven muses. By the same time, the beginning of work on the translation of Voltaire's tragedy "Alzira" also dates back.

YEARS IN PETERSBURG

In 1760, the director of the university took the best students to the capital to present them to the curator I. I. Shuvalov. Among the best was Fonvizin. During his stay in St. Petersburg, he got to see a play recently (in 1756) created by the Russian theater. “The action produced in me by the theater is almost impossible to describe,” the writer later recalled. First impressions determined the fate of Fonvizin. Upon his return to Moscow, he attended with great interest the performances of the Locatelli Theater, in which the university troupe played. After moving to St. Petersburg in 1762, Fonvizin forever associates himself with the Russian theater.

On June 28, 1762, the wife of Peter III, Ekaterina Alekseevna, relying on the guards regiments, made a coup. The political inspirer of the coup was the tutor of Paul's heir, Nikita Panin. The demands of the noble liberals, led by Panin, boiled down to the establishment of a constitution.

It was at this time that the fate of Fonvizin suddenly changed, and he unexpectedly found himself close to political affairs in the state, to the court, to the struggle that was in full swing around the new empress. Vice-Chancellor Golitsyn decided to take the student Fonvizin, who was fluent in foreign languages, to be a translator in a foreign collegium. In October 1762, Fonvizin filed a petition addressed to Catherine. With a petition, he attaches samples of translations from three languages - Latin, French and German. Noteworthy are translations from Latin - M. Tullius Cicero "Speech for Marcel" and from French - "Political Discourse on the Number of Inhabitants of Some Ancient Nations". Fonvizin passed the test not only as a translator. The “materials” he chose for translations testified to the political interests of the student.

Chancellor M. I. Vorontsov, who led the foreign collegium, noticed the talent of the young translator and brought him closer to himself. As Fonvizin later recalled, the chancellor "gave the most important papers to me for translation." Among the "most important" were various political writings. Having become acquainted with one of these French works, Fonvizin made a short essay, titled it "Abstract on the Liberty of the French Nobility and the Usefulness of the Third Rank."

Having outlined the content of the treatise, Fonvizin, deeply understanding the great importance of the "third rank" in the economic and social life of the country, writes that "this third rank is not difficult to establish in Russia." Further, he outlines his plan for the social revival of the fatherland. "The third rank is one with the people." It is necessary to encourage the activity of all those who "strive about manufactories, establish exchanges of things, evaluate goods", - all merchants, artists and artisans. They must all be given free will. Merchants and "glorious artists" "dismissal" to sell. The university accepts the children of peasants, and whoever learns the "higher sciences" must be freed from serfdom according to the certificate.

When, - says Fonvizin, - everyone is able to practice in what he has a talent for, they will all make up an insensitive body of the third rank with the rest of the liberated.

An important part of the plan for social transformation is the question of the peasantry. Fonvizin against slavery. But he believes that it is impossible to free the serfs immediately. Now it is necessary to limit serfdom, increase the rights of the peasants (to allow them to study at universities, to allow them to engage in any business with the right to leave the countryside, etc.) and thereby gradually prepare for their complete emancipation. Fonvizin believes that a free peasant will be richer and will find more ways to pay dues. At the end of the article, Fonvizin succinctly outlined the swap plan:

In a word, in Russia there should be: 1) a nobility, completely free, 2) a third rank, completely freed, and 3) a people practicing agriculture - although not completely free, but at least having the hope of being free when they are. farmers or such artists (artisans), so that in time they could bring to perfection the villages or manufactories of their masters.

The program of social transformations developed by Fonvizin was of a bourgeois liberation character. As an educator, he believes in the possibility of its peaceful implementation. The question of who and how can implement this program has not yet been resolved. Fonvizin will give an answer to it in a few years.

In early October 1763, by decree of Ekaterina Fonvizin, "being listed with a foreign collegium", "to be for some cases with our state adviser Elagin." I.P. Yelagin was in the Empress's office "to accept petitions." In addition, he was in charge of theaters. Elagin was not only a dignitary, but also an educated person, amateurishly engaged in poetry, dramaturgy, translations, history ....

But court life weighed on Fonvizin. His letters to his sister in Moscow are filled with complaints:

Today there is a masquerade at the court, and I will drag myself there in my domino; … boring; ... yesterday I was at the Kurtag, and, I don’t know what, I felt so sad that I left without waiting for the end; ... from the kurtag came home embarrassed; ... there were an awful lot of people, but I swear to you that I, with all that, was in the desert. There was hardly a single person with whom I would consider talking even for a small pleasure.

It is almost impossible to live in the world, and in Petersburg it is absolutely impossible.

In another letter, Fonvizin clarified his thought:

An honest person cannot live in circumstances that are not based on honor.

FEATURES OF FONVIZIN'S CREATIVITY

Despite the troublesome court service, Fonvizin worked hard and hard during these years. The main thing was translations.

The most important feature of the development of Russian social thought in the 18th century was the formation of an educational ideology. Not the bourgeoisie, but the nobility put forward the first enlighteners from their midst. This Enlightenment was not bourgeois, but noble.

In the 60s of the XVIII century, at the time of intensified peasant protest, on the eve of the Pugachev uprising, the enlightenment ideology finally took shape. Enlighteners such as philosopher Yakov Kozelsky, writer and publisher Nikolai Novikov, popularizer of educational ideology, Professor Nikolai Kurganov appeared on the public arena. In the same decade, Fonvizin also took the position of enlightenment.

Enlightenment, as an anti-feudal ideology, has its own characteristic and unique features. Hostility to serfdom and all its offspring in the economic, social and legal fields, the defense of education, freedom and, finally, upholding the interests of the people - these are the main features of enlightenment.

In The Brigadier, Fonvizin laughs merrily at the ugliness of life. Sometimes we smile when we see Frenchmania or the idiotically meaningless life of an idler. But in most cases, the behavior of Ivanushka, his speech causes indignation and indignation. When he, a "fool" according to his father, declares:

I owe... to the French coachman for my love for France and for my coldness towards the Russians,... or: my body was born in Russia, it is true, but my spirit belongs to the French crown,... or: I am a most unfortunate person. I have been living for twenty-five years and have a father and a mother.

Or when he is engaged in dirty loving courtship of someone else's wife - not a smile, but anger arises in the soul of the viewer and reader. And this is the merit of the playwright - the image of Ivan is built sharply satirically and accusatory. Ivans - the young generation of Russian noble serfs - are the enemies of Fonvizin.

The Brigadier is a comedy, and the first comedy is truly Russian, and the first comedy is truly merry. Pushkin highly valued gaiety and was extremely sorry that there were so few truly merry writings in Russian literature. That is why he lovingly noted this feature of Fonvizin's talent, pointing to the direct continuity of the dramaturgy of Fonvizin and Gogol. Speaking of Gogol's Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, Pushkin wrote:

How amazed we were at the Russian book that made us laugh, we who have not laughed since the time of Fonvizin.

Pushkin's comparison of Gogol and Fonvizin is not accidental. Gogol, the creator of Russian realistic comedy, is closely associated with Fonvizin. Fonvizin began what Gogol completed. In particular, Fonvizin was the first to take a decisive step towards realism and in the field of the comic. "The Brigadier" was written during the heyday of Russian noble classicism.

In 1777, Fonvizin publishes a translation of the political work of the French enlightener Tom, “Eulogy to Marcus Aurelius”, prepared by him.

In September 1777, Fonvizin went to France, upon his return from which Fonvizin began work on a new comedy, which he called "Undergrowth".

COMEDY "NEDOROSL"

"Undergrowth" - the central work of Fonvizin, the pinnacle of Russian dramaturgy of the 18th century - is organically connected with the ideological issues of "Reasoning".

For Pushkin, "Undergrowth" is a "folk comedy." Belinsky, who by the 1940s had developed a revolutionary-democratic understanding of nationality, declared that "Undergrowth", "Woe from Wit" and "Inspector General" "in a short time became popular dramatic plays."

The main conflict in the socio-political life of Russia - the arbitrariness of the landlords, supported by the highest authority, and the serfs without rights - becomes the theme of a comedy. In a dramatic work, the theme is revealed with special power of persuasiveness in the development of the plot, in action, in the struggle. The only dramatic conflict of the "Undergrowth" is the struggle between the progressive-minded advanced nobles Pravdin and Starodum and the feudal lords - the Prostakovs and Skotinin.

In the comedy, Fonvizin shows the pernicious consequences of slavery, which should confirm to the viewer the moral correctness of Pravdin, the need to fight the Skotinins and Prostakovs. The consequences of slavery are truly terrible.

The peasants of the Prostakovs are completely ruined. Even Prostakova herself does not know what to do next:

Since we took away everything that the peasants had, we can no longer tear anything off. Such trouble!

An old woman, Mitrofan's nanny, she lives the life of a dog: insults, kicks and beatings - that's what befell her. She has long lost even a human name, she is called only by abusive nicknames: "beast", "old grunt", "dog's daughter", "scum". Outrages, reproach and humiliation made Eremeevna a serf, a watchdog of his mistress, who humbly licks the hand of the owner who beat her.

In the person of Pravdin and Starodum, for the first time, positive heroes appeared on the scene, who act, putting their ideals into practice. Who are Pravdin and Starodum, who bravely fight against the feudal lords Prostakov and Skotinin? Why were they able to interfere not only in the course of the action of the comedy, but, in essence, in the political life of the state?

As a folk work, the comedy "Undergrowth" naturally reflected the most important and acute problems of Russian life. The lack of rights of the Russian serfs, reduced to the status of slaves, given into the full possession of the landowners, manifested itself with particular force precisely in the 80s. The complete, boundless, monstrous arbitrariness of the landlords could not but arouse feelings of protest among the progressive people of their era. Not sympathizing with the revolutionary methods of action, moreover, rejecting them, at the same time they could not but protest against the slave-owning and despotic regime of Catherine II in relation to the common people. That is why the response to the police regime established by Catherine and Potemkin was the intensification of social activity and the subordination of creativity to the tasks of political satire of such noble educators as Fonvizin, Novikov, Krylov, Krechetov. At the end of the decade, Radishchev will publish his books, directly expressing the aspirations and moods of the serfs.

The second theme of "Undergrowth" was the struggle of noble educators with slave owners and the despotic government of Catherine II after the defeat of the Pugachev uprising.

That is why Pravdin, knowing Starodum, demands from him that he go to serve at the court.

With your rules, people should not be let go from the court, but they must be called to the court.

The old man is perplexed:

Summon? What for?

And Pravdin, true to his convictions, declares:

Then, why do they call a doctor to the sick.

And then Starodum, a politician who has already realized that faith in Catherine is not only naive, but also destructive, explains to Pravdin:

My friend, you are wrong. It is in vain to call a doctor to the sick is incurable: here the doctor will not help, unless he himself becomes infected.

Fonvizin forces Starodum to explain not only to Pravdin, but also to the audience that faith in Catherine is meaningless, that the legend of her enlightened rule is false, that Catherine approved a despotic form of government, that it is thanks to her policy that slavery can flourish in Russia, the cruel Skotinins and Prostakovs can be in charge , which directly refer to the royal decrees on the freedom of the nobility.

Pravdin and Starodum, in their worldview, are pupils of the Russian Enlightenment. Two major political issues determined the program of the enlighteners at that time: a) the need to abolish serfdom by peaceful means (reform, education, etc.); b) Catherine is not an enlightened monarch, but a despot and inspirer of the policy of slavery, and therefore it is necessary to fight against her (although it must be said that supporting the second process, many worked for the revolutionaries).

CREATIVITY IN RECENT YEARS

On March 7, 1782, Fonvizin filed a petition addressed to Catherine to be "dismissed from service." Three days later, the Empress signed a decree of resignation. Fonvizin defiantly refused to serve Catherine, deciding to devote all his strength to literary activity. After writing "Undergrowth", his attention is increasingly drawn to prose. He wants to write small satirical prose works. It would be best to print them in a periodical. This is how the idea of own satirical magazine arises. Unexpected circumstances, which made it possible to take part in the newly opened magazine in the capital, forced us to postpone the plan of organizing our own magazine for a while.

Since May 1783, the magazine "Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word" began to appear. Its official editor was Princess E.R. Dashkov. Behind the scenes, Catherine herself was engaged in the magazine, publishing her historical and satirical writings in it. Fonvizin decided to take part in the magazine and publish anonymously several satirical works in it. The writer gave battle to the empress on her own foothold.

Of all the writings of Fonvizin, published in the "Interlocutor", the political satire, peculiar in form, had the greatest social significance: "Several questions that could arouse special attention in intelligent and honest people." "Nedorosl" has already put before smart and honest people several important questions concerning the life of the Russian state.

In 1783, Fonvizin won the battle with Catherine, which he fought on the pages of the Interlocutor. The empress, who suffered a defeat, decided to take cruel revenge on the impudent writer, and, having learned the name of the author of the “free-language” questions, she, as evidenced by the facts, instructed the police to no longer print Fonvizin’s new works.

In the summer of 1784, Fonvizin left for Italy. Visiting Florence, Livorno, Rome, Fonvizin studied Italian theatre, music and especially famous Italian painting. As during his trip to France, he keeps a journal, which he sends in the form of letters to his sister in Moscow, as before.

Return to Russia in August 1785 was overshadowed by a serious illness. Having reached Moscow, Fonvizin went to bed for a long time - he was paralyzed.

A year later, the doctors demanded that Fonvizin leave for treatment in Karlsbad. Only in September 1787 Fonvizin returned to St. Petersburg. It was not possible to fully restore his health, but nevertheless, after a long treatment, the writer felt better - he began to walk, speech returned. Having rested after a tiring trip, Fonvizin set to work. He decided to publish his own satirical magazine, calling it "Friend of honest people, or Starodum." The roll call with the "Undergrowth" was not accidental: the sick writer was preparing for a new duel with the almighty empress.

Such a journal, of course, could not be printed. Presented to the police, he was banned. The name of the publisher was known - this is "the writer of the Undergrowth." After "Undergrowth" and "A Few Questions" published in "Interlocutor", after "The Life of N.I. Panin" Ekaterina decided to put an end to the activities of Fonvizin as a writer, forbidding him to publish. But the writer hated by Catherine did not let up and in the new magazine he bravely took on the mission of being "the guardian of the common good." Undoubtedly, the police were instructed not to allow Fonvizin's new writings to be printed anymore. That is why the "Friend of honest people, or Starodum" was banned.

The last years of Fonvizin's life were spent in a cruel and tragic struggle with the empress. He selflessly and inventively searched for ways to the reader. That is why, immediately after the magazine was banned, Fonvizin decides to publish a complete collection of his works, which would include all the works intended for The Friend of Honest People. But the collected works were banned in the same 1788. Then Fonvizin decided to publish a new magazine, already in Moscow, and not alone, but in collaboration with other writers. The journal was to be called Moscow Works. Fonvizin had already worked out his program, but this magazine did not see the light either.

During 1791 he suffered four strokes of apoplexy.

At the same time, apparently, the last work was begun - the autobiographical story "Frank-hearted confessions in my deeds and thoughts." The example of the great Rousseau, who wrote his autobiography Confession, inspired him. The surviving fragments of The Sincere Confession testify that when a great writer began to describe in detail the affairs of his youth, a satirist woke up in him again, who maliciously and mercilessly ridiculed the mores of noble society.

Until his death, Fonvizin worked, lived actively, intensely, in close connection with contemporary writers. In the late 80s, he establishes a relationship with a young translator and publisher, Peter Bogdanovich. He agreed with him on the publication of a complete collection of his works. Despite his illness, the writer prepared 5 volumes of this collection, including again the forbidden articles from The Friend of Honest People. This is the best evidence that Fonvizin did not repent of anything at the end of his life and still wanted to fight Catherine and serve his fatherland with his satirical and political writings. When this edition, almost completed, was banned, Fonvizin, realizing that his days were numbered, handed over all the manuscripts to Pyotr Bogdanovich for publication in the future.

CONCLUSION

Bright, deeply original, "from the trans-Russian Russian", according to Pushkin, Fonvizin's talent manifested itself with the greatest force in the language. Fonvizin, a brilliant master of the language, with a great sense of the word, created figurative speech unparalleled before him in richness, freshness and courage, imbued with irony and gaiety. This skill was reflected in comedy, and in prose writings, and in many letters from France and Italy.

Speaking about the state of young Russian prose literature at the beginning of the 19th century, Pushkin wrote that it was still forced to "create turns of words to explain the most ordinary concepts." On this path, it was absolutely necessary to overcome the influence of Karamzin and his school, which left a legacy of "mannership, timidity and pallor." And the dramatic and prose works of Fonvizin, and especially letters from abroad, played a huge, hitherto unappreciated role in the struggle for the “naked simplicity” of Russian prose.

It was here that, with amazing ease and skill, Fonvizin created turns of words to explain concepts, both the most ordinary and the most complex. Simply and businesslike, concretely and vividly, in a truly Russian style, Fonvizin wrote about the life of foreign peoples, about "political matters", about art and economics, about Russian nobles abroad - their behavior, actions, characters, and about European philosophy, theatrical life of Paris , and about roads, taverns and festivities, about museums, religious holidays and theatrical papal service. Belinsky rightly called these letters "efficient", testifying that Fonvizina:

Fonvizin Denis Ivanovich (1745 1792) - one of the most educated people of his era. He was a writer and playwright, publicist and translator. He is rightfully considered the creator of the national Russian everyday comedy, the most famous of which are "Undergrowth" and "Brigadier". Born April 14, 1745 in Moscow, in a noble family of descendants of a knight of the Livonian Order. Even under Ivan the Terrible, one of the knights of the Order of Von Wiesen was captured and remained in the service of the Russian Tsar. The Fonvizin clan went from him (the prefix background was attached in the Russian manner to the name Wiesen). Thanks to his father, he received his primary education at home. He was brought up in the patriarchal way of life that reigned in the family. From 1755 he studied at the noble gymnasium at Moscow University, then at the Faculty of Philosophy of the same university.

Since 1762, he has been in the civil service, first working as a translator, then, since 1763, in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs as Secretary of the Cabinet Minister Yelagin. After working here for about six years, in 1769 he became the personal secretary of Count Panin. From 1777 to 1778 travels abroad, spending a lot of time in France. In 1779, he returned to Russia and entered the service as an adviser to the office of the Secret Expedition. In 1783, his patron Count Panin passed away and he immediately resigned with the rank of state councilor and 3,000 rubles. annual pension. He devoted his free time to traveling.

Since 1783, Denis Ivanovich visited Western Europe, Germany, Austria, and spent a lot of time in Italy. In 1785, the writer had his first stroke, due to which he had to return to Russia in 1787. Despite the paralysis that tormented him, he continued to engage in literary work.
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin passed away on December 1 (12), 1792. The writer was buried in St. Petersburg at the Lazarevsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

creative path

The creation of the first works dates back to the 1760s. Being by nature a lively and witty person who loved to laugh and joke, he creates his early works in the genre of satire. This was facilitated by his gift of irony, which did not leave him until the end of his life. During these years, intensive work in the literary field is going on. In 1760, in the Literary Heritage, he published his so-called "early" Undergrowth ". At the same time, in the period from 1761 to 1762, he was engaged in the translation of Holberg's fables, the works of Rousseau, Ovid, Gresse, Terrason and Voltaire.

In 1766, his first famous satirical comedy, The Brigadier, was completed. The play became an event in literary circles, the author himself skillfully read it and Fonvizin, then still little known, was invited to Peterhof to read his work to Empress Catherine II herself. The success was huge. The play was staged on the theater stage in 1770, but was published only after the death of the author. Comedy does not leave the stage to this day. A legend has come down to us that after the premiere, Prince Potemkin said to Fonvizin: “Die, Denis! But, you can’t write better!” In the same year, a translation of the treatise "The Merchant Nobility Opposed to the Military Nobility" was published, which provided evidence of the need for the nobility to engage in trade.

Mature creativity

Of the journalistic works, one of the best is considered to be "Discourse on the indispensable state laws", created in 1783. In the autumn of the same 1783, the premiere of the main play in the work of Fonvizin, the comedy "Undergrowth", took place. Despite the extensive literary heritage left by Fonvizin, for most of us, his name is associated with this particular comedy. The first production of the play was not easy. The censors were confused by the satirical orientation of the play, the boldness of the replicas of some comedy heroes. Finally, on September 24, 1782, the production was staged at the Free Russian Theatre. The success was enormous. As one of the authors of the Dramatic Dictionary testified: “The theater was incomparably filled and the audience applauded the play by throwing purses.” The next production took place already in Moscow on May 14, 1783 at the Medox Theater. Since that time, for more than 250 years, the play has been performed with constant success in all theaters of Russia. With the birth of cinema, the first film adaptation of comedy appeared. In 1926, Grigory Roshal made the film Lord Skotinina based on The Undergrowth.

It is difficult to overestimate the influence of Fonvizin's "Undergrowth" on subsequent generations of writers. His works were read and studied by all subsequent generations of writers from Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Belinsky to the present day. However, in the life of the writer himself, she played a fatal role. Catherine II perfectly understood the freedom-loving direction of comedy, as an attack on the existing social and state foundations. After 1783, when a number of the writer's satirical works were published, she personally forbade further publication of his works in print. And this continued until the writer's death.

However, despite the publication bans, Denis Ivanovich continues to write. During this period, the comedy "The Choice of a Governor", the feuilleton "A Conversation with Princess Khaldina" was written. Just before his departure, Fonvizin wanted to publish a five-volume edition of his works, but was refused by the empress. Of course, it was published, but much later after the departure of the master.

Although the modern reader is separated from the era of Fonvizin by two whole centuries, it is difficult to find a person who would not know that “undergrowth” is an overgrown dropout, or would not hear the remarks turned into sayings “I don’t want to study, but I want to get married”, “why geography when there are cabbies” and other Fonvizin expressions.

Images, winged words and jokes from Fonvizin's comedies "The Brigadier" and "Undergrowth" have become part of our vocabulary. In the same way, Fonvizin's ideas, which played an important role in the history of the liberation movement, were passed on from generation to generation.

Fonvizin belonged to a generation of young nobles who were educated at the Moscow University, created on the initiative of Lomonosov. In 1755, he was assigned to the university gymnasium, which prepared his pupils for transfer to students, and studied there until 1762.

The university was the center of literary life in Moscow. One of the first activities of the university was the publication of Lomonosov's works, his students taught here - the poet and translator N. N. Popovsky, the philologist A. A. Barsov, and M. M. Kheraskov was in charge of publishing.

There was a theater at the university, the repertoire of which included translations of pupils of the gymnasium. Their literary exercises were eagerly printed by the journals Useful Amusement and Collected Best Works published at the university. It is not surprising that, in addition to Fonvizin, many subsequently famous writers left the gymnasium - N. I. Novikov, F. A. Kozlovsky, the Karin brothers, A. A. Rzhevsky and others.

Fonvizin's first literary works were translations from German and French. He publishes translated articles in university journals and at the same time publishes a separate book, Moral Fables by the Danish educator and satirist L. Golberg (1761), and also begins translating J. Terrason’s multi-volume novel Heroic Virtue, or the Life of Seth, King of Egypt (1762— 1768), whose hero was an ideal enlightened sovereign.

The educational and political ideas of Terrason were positively evaluated by the French enlighteners. Fonvizin also tries his hand at dramatic poetry, starting to translate Voltaire's anti-clerical tragedy Alzira.

This list of works that interested the young writer testifies to his early interest in the ideas of the European Enlightenment. The liberal beginning of the reign of Catherine II aroused hopes among the advanced part of the nobility for the establishment of an "enlightened" monarchy in Russia.

At the end of 1762, Fonvizin left the university and was assigned as a translator to the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. He stayed directly at the College for only a year, and then was seconded to the office of the secretary of state of the Empress I.P. Elagin.

A serious political education of Fonvizin began in the capital. He was aware of various opinions about the proposed reforms, those disputes that preceded such important events in the history of Russian social thought as the competition of the Free Economic Society on the state of serfs (1766) and the convening of the Commission to draw up the New Code (1767). In these disputes, the ideology of the Russian Enlightenment was formed. Fonvizin added his voice to those who demanded political freedom and the elimination of serfdom.

His public views in these years are given an idea of the “Reduction on the Liberty of the French Nobility and the Benefits of the Third Rank” and the translation of “The Merchant Nobility” by G.-F. Kouye with a preface by the German jurist I.-G. Justi, published in 1766.

Coyet's goal was to point out how the degrading nobility could once again become a prosperous estate. But Fonvizin, apparently, was attracted by the book, first of all, by the sharp criticism of the nobles contained in it, who, in the name of class prejudices, neglect the interests of the state and the nation, as well as the idea that maintaining rigid class partitions is not in the interests of society.

It was this idea that he developed in his handwritten discussion of the establishment of the "third rank" in Russia, which meant the merchants, artisans and the intelligentsia. The new "petty-bourgeois" class was to be gradually composed of serfs who had redeemed themselves and received an education.

So, according to Fonvizin, gradually, peacefully, with the help of laws issued by an enlightened government, the elimination of serfdom, the enlightenment of society and the flourishing of civil life were achieved. Russia was becoming a country with a "completely free" nobility, a third rank, "completely liberated" and a people "practicing agriculture, although not completely free, but at least with the hope of being free."

Fonvizin was an educator, but both his belief in enlightened absolutism and in the primordial chosenness of his class were marked with the stamp of aristocratic narrow-mindedness. It should be noted, however, that Fonvizin's early interest in class, and in essence - in social issues, which is also characteristic of his subsequent work, will allow him to more soberly than many of his contemporaries assess the political situation that developed during the reign of Catherine II. .

Later, creating the image of the nobleman Starodum in The Undergrowth, the image to which the author's thoughts and sympathies are given in this play, he will note that his hero made his fortune and achieved independence as an honest industrialist, and not as a cringing courtier. Fonvizin was among the first Russian writers who began to consistently destroy the class partitions of feudal society.

Fonvizin knew the Russian nobility too well to expect support from him in the implementation of the educational program. But he believed in the effectiveness of the propaganda of educational ideas, under the influence of which a new generation of honest sons of the fatherland was to be formed. As he believed, they would become assistants and support of an enlightened sovereign, whose goal would be the welfare of the fatherland and the nation.

Therefore, Fonvizin, a satirist by the nature of his talent, starting from his early works, also promotes a positive ideal of social behavior. Already in the comedy "Korion" (1764), he attacked the nobles who evade service, and in the words of one of the heroes he declared:

Who has put all his efforts to the common good,

And served for the glory of his fatherland,

He tasted direct joy in his life.

"Korion", a free adaptation of the comedy by the French playwright J.-B. Gresse "Sydney", opens the St. Petersburg period of Fonvizin's work. The translation of Voltaire's tragedy "Alzira" (which was distributed in the lists) created a reputation for him as a talented novice author. At the same time, he was accepted into the circle of young playwrights, who were grouped around his immediate superior, I.P. Elagin, a well-known translator and philanthropist.

In this circle there was a theory of "inclination" of foreign works "to Russian customs". Elagin was the first to apply the principle of "inclination" in the play "Jean de Molay, or Russian Frenchman" borrowed from Golberg, and V. I. Lukin consistently formulated it in the prefaces to his comedies.

Until that time, translated plays depicted life that was obscure to the Russian audience, and foreign names were used. All this, as Lukin wrote, not only destroyed the theatrical illusion, but also reduced the educational impact of the theater. Therefore, the "remaking" of these plays in the Russian way began. "Korion" Fonvizin declared himself as a supporter of national themes in dramaturgy and joined the fight against translators of entertaining plays.

Elagin's circle showed a keen interest in the new genre of "serious comedy", which received theoretical justification in Diderot's articles and conquered European scenes. An attempt, half-hearted and not entirely successful, to introduce the principles of moralistic dramaturgy into the Russian literary tradition was already made in Lukin's plays.

But his comedies were devoid of a sense of the comic and, most importantly, resisted the growing penetration of satire into all areas of literature, which a few years later led to the emergence of satirical journalism. Such private themes as a touching depiction of suffering virtue or the correction of a vicious nobleman did not in any way correspond to the political goals of the Russian enlighteners, who raised the question of transforming society as a whole.

Close attention to human behavior in society allowed Fonvizin to understand the foundations of Diderot's enlightening aesthetics more deeply than his contemporaries. The idea of a satirical comedy about the Russian nobility took shape in the atmosphere of disputes around the Commission for the drafting of the New Code, where the majority of the nobles came out in defense of serfdom. In 1769, The Brigadier was completed, and, turning to public satire, Fonvizin finally breaks with the Elagin circle.

History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983

SEI HPE "Udmurt State University"

Abstract on the topic:

"The work of D. I. Fonvizin"

Is done by a student

2nd course

Faculty of Journalism

Mukminova Svetlana.

Checked:

Doctor of Philology,

Associate Professor of the Department

Theories of literature

Zvereva T.V.

Izhevsk, 2008

Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 3
Comedies by D. I. Fonvizin ………………………………………………….. 7

2.1 Comprehension of the forms of national life in the comedy "The Brigadier" ... 9

2.2 Understanding Russian culture and Russian history

In the comedy "Undergrowth" ……………………………………………. 15

3. The language element of D. I. Fonvizin’s creativity ……………………….. 25

4. Crisis of world relations and change of ideological position

D. I. Fonvizina ………………………………………………………… 30

5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………… 32

6. Bibliography …………………………………………………………… 33

Introduction

“In the history of Russian literary satire of the 18th century, Fonvizin has a special place. If it were required to name a writer in whose works the depth of comprehension of the mores of the era would be commensurate with courage and skill in exposing the vices of the ruling class and higher power, then Fonvizin should undoubtedly be called such a writer, ”says the well-known critic Yu. V. Stennik about Fonvizin, author of the book "Russian satire of the XVIII century" (9, 291).

In the 18th century, a satirical stream penetrated almost all types and forms of literature - dramaturgy, novel, story, poem and even ode. The development of satire was directly related to the development of all Russian social life and advanced social thought. Accordingly, the artistic and satirical coverage of reality by writers was expanding. The most acute problems of our time were brought to the fore - the struggle against serfdom, against autocracy.

In line with this satirical trend, the work of the young Fonvizin also unfolds. Being one of the most prominent figures of enlightenment humanism in Russia in the 18th century, Fonvizin embodied in his work the rise of national self-consciousness that marked this era. In the vast country awakened by Peter's reforms, the best representatives of the Russian nobility acted as spokesmen for this renewed self-consciousness. Fonvizin perceived the ideas of enlightenment humanism especially sharply, with pain of heart he observed the moral devastation of part of his class. Fonvizin himself lived in the power of ideas about the high moral duties of a nobleman. In the oblivion of the nobles of their duty to society, he saw the cause of all public evils: “I happened to travel around my land. I saw what most of the noblemen who bear the name believe their piety. I saw many of those who serve, or, moreover, occupy I saw many others who went into retirement as soon as they won the right to harness quadruplets. I saw contemptuous descendants from the most respected ancestors. broke my heart." So Fonvizin wrote in 1783 in a letter to the writer of "Tales and Fables", that is, to Empress Catherine II herself.

Fonvizin joined the literary life of Russia at the moment when Catherine II encouraged interest in the ideas of the European Enlightenment: at first she flirted with the French enlighteners - Voltaire, Diderot, D "Alembert. But very soon there was no trace of Catherine's liberalism. By the will of circumstances Fonvizin found himself in the thick of the internal political struggle that flared up at court.In this struggle, gifted with brilliant creative abilities and sharp observation, Fonvizin took the place of a satirical writer who denounced venality and lawlessness in the courts, the baseness of the moral character of the nobles close to the throne and favoritism encouraged by the highest authorities.

Fonvizin was born in Moscow on April 3 (14), 1745 (according to other sources - 1744) in a middle-class noble family. Already in his childhood, Denis Ivanovich received the first lessons of an uncompromising attitude towards cringing and bribery, evil and violence from his father, Ivan Andreevich Fonvizin. Later, some character traits of the writer's father will find their embodiment in the positive characters of his works. “Fonvizin’s life was not rich in external events. Studying at the noble academy of Moscow University, where he was determined as a ten-year-old boy and which he successfully completed in the spring of 1762. Service in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, first under the command of the State Councilor of the Palace Chancellery I.P. Elagin, then, from 1769, as one of the secretaries of the Chancellor Count N.I. Panin. And the resignation that followed in the spring of 1782. The beginning of Fonvizin's literary activity was marked by translations. While still a student at the university gymnasium, he, by order of the bookseller of the university bookstore, translated in 1761. Moral Fables by Ludovic Holbert. The fables had a prosaic form and were generally instructive in nature. Many of them were provided with didactic moralizing. However, there were fables that resembled a folk anecdote, a witty satirical miniature, which testified to the democratic sympathies of an enlightening author. In addition, the critical pathos of the fables gave them an acute social significance. It can be considered that the translation of the book by L. Golberg was the first school of educational humanism for the young Fonvizin, instilling in the soul of the future playwright an interest in social satire. The decisive factor for the further fate of Fonvizin as a writer was his sudden appointment to serve in a foreign collegium, which followed in 1763. moving together with the court to St. Petersburg. Yesterday's student is first used as a translator, and soon appointed secretary "for some cases" under the State Councilor I.P. Elagin. Fulfillment of small assignments, conducting official correspondence alternate with obligatory visits to official receptions at the court (kurtags), court masquerades. Fonvizin becomes close to the literary circles of St. Petersburg, very often attends the performances of various troupes at the court. (9.295) Court life, with all its outward splendor, weighs on Fonvizin. And in the mid-1760s. the writer becomes close to F. A. Kozlovsky, thanks to whom he enters the circle of St. Petersburg young freethinkers, admirers of Voltaire. In their society, Fonvizin receives the first lessons of religious freethinking. By the time of acquaintance with Kozlovsky, the composition of the famous satire "A Message to My Servants - Shumilov, Vanka and Petrushka" dates back. The anti-clerical pathos of the satire brought the accusation of atheism on the author. Indeed, in the literature of the 18th century, there are few works where the greed of spiritual shepherds, who corrupt the people, would be so sharply denounced.

The eighteenth century in the history of Russian literature has left many remarkable names. But if it were required to name a writer, in whose works the depth of comprehension of the mores of his era would be commensurate with courage and skill in exposing the vices of the ruling class, then, first of all, Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin should be mentioned.

Thus, the purpose of our work was to study and analyze critical literature about D. I. Fonvizin and his work, reflecting the educational credo of the writer.

Fonvizin entered the history of national literature as the author of the famous comedy "Undergrowth". But he was also a talented prose writer. The gift of a satirist was combined in him with the temperament of a born publicist. The scourging sarcasm of Fonvizin's satire was dreaded by Empress Catherine II. The unsurpassed artistic skill of Fonvizin was noted at the time by Pushkin. It afflicts us to this day.

Comedies by D. I. Fonvizin

“Comedy is a type of drama in which the moment of effective conflict or struggle of antagonistic characters is specifically resolved” - such a definition of comedy is given by the Big School Encyclopedia, M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2000. Qualitatively, the struggle in comedy is different in that it: 1) does not entail serious, disastrous consequences for the belligerents; 2) is aimed at "low", i.e. ordinary, goals; 3) is conducted by funny, amusing or ridiculous means. The task of comedy is to make a comic impression on the audience (readers), causing laughter with the help of a funny appearance (comic form), speeches (comic word) and actions (comic action of characters) that violate the socio-psychological norms and customs of a given social environment. All these types of comedy are intertwined in comedy, and outweigh one or the other. Fonvizin is dominated by the comedy of the word and the comedy of the actions of the characters, which are considered more developed forms.

"Russian comedy began long before Fonvizin, but started only from Fonvizin. His "Undergrowth" and "The Brigadier" made a terrible noise when they appeared and will forever remain in the history of Russian literature, if not art, as one of the most remarkable phenomena. In fact, these two comedies are the work of a strong, sharp mind, a gifted person ... ”- Fonvizin highly appreciates the comedic work.

“The comedy of the gifted Fonvizin will always be popular reading and will always hold an honorable place in the history of Russian literature. It is not a work of art, but a satire of manners, and a masterful satire. Its characters are fools and smart: the fools are all very nice, and the smart ones are all very vulgar; the first are caricatures written with great talent; second reasoners who bore you with their maxims. In a word, when Fonvizin's comedies, especially The Undergrowth, never cease to arouse laughter and, gradually losing readers in the higher circles of society, they will win them all the more in the lower ones and become popular reading ... "- says the same V. G. Belinsky.

Fonvizin's crushing, angry-destroying laughter, directed at the most disgusting aspects of the autocratic-feudal system, played a great creative role in the future fate of Russian literature.

In fact, direct threads run from Fonvizin's laughter to the sharp humor of Krylov's fables, to the subtle irony of Pushkin, to the "laughter through tears" of the author of "Dead Souls", and finally to the bitter and angry sarcasm of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the author of "Lord Golovlyov", mercilessly who completed the last act of the drama of the "spiritually ruined, degenerated and corrupted" by serfdom of the nobility.

"Undergrowth" conceives a glorious series of the greatest creations of Russian comedy, which in the next century will include Griboedov's "Woe from Wit", Gogol's "Inspector General", plays about Ostrovsky's "dark kingdom" (From the article by D. D. Blagoy "Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin ". In the book: "Classics of Russian Literature", Detgiz, M. - L., 1953).

Comprehension of forms of national life

In the comedy "The Brigadier"

All the characters in "The Brigadier" are Russian noblemen. In the modest everyday atmosphere of middle-class life, the personality of each character is revealed as if gradually in conversations. The viewer learns about the propensity for extravagance of the coquette of the Counselor, and about the difficult fate of the Brigadier who spent his life on campaigns. The sanctimonious nature of the Counselor, who has profited from bribes, and the downtroddenness of the uncomplaining Brigadier, are being clarified.

Already from the lifting of the curtain, the viewer was immersed in an environment that struck with life's reality. This can be judged by the introductory remark to the first act of the comedy: Theater represents a room decorated in a rustic way. Brigadier , in a frock coat walks and smokes tobacco. Son him, in dezabile, squirming, drinking tea. Advisor in Cossack, looks at the calendar. On the other side is a table with a tea set, next to which sits advisor in dezabille and cornet, and, smirking, pours tea. Brigadier an odal sits and knits a stocking. Sofia the odal also sits and sews in the tambour.”

In this peaceful picture of home comfort, everything is significant and at the same time everything is natural: the rustic decoration of the room, the clothes of the characters, their activities, and even individual touches in the manner of behavior. In the presupposed remark, the author already outlines both the nature of the future relationship between the characters and the satirical task of the play. It is no coincidence that the son and the adviser appear on the stage, both “in dezabile” at tea, one “coying”, and the other “coying”.

“Ivan, who recently visited Paris, is full of contempt for everything that surrounds him in his homeland. “Everyone who has been in Paris,” he frankly, “has the right, speaking of Russians, not to include himself among those, because the op has already become more French than Russian.” In his contempt for his parents, whom he directly calls “animals,” Ivan finds the full support of the Counselor: “Ah, my joy! I love your sincerity. You do not spare your father! This is the direct virtue of our age.”

The absurd behavior of the newly-minted "Parisian" Ivan and the Counselor, who is delighted with him, suggests that the basis of the ideological plan of the comedy is the struggle against the vices of fashionable education, which gives rise to blind worship of everything French. Ivan's mannerisms and Counselor's affectation at first glance seem to be opposed to the arguments of parents wise by life experience. This pair of french freaks is really moving to the forefront of laughable denunciation. But the satirical pathos of "The Brigadier" is not limited only to the program of combating phranzoomania. (9, 307)

The following episode of the same first act is indicative, where those present on the stage have to express their opinions about grammar. Its usefulness is unanimously denied. “How many serviceable secretaries we have, who compose extracts without grammar, it’s a pleasure to watch! exclaims the Advisor. “I have one in mind who, when he writes, another scientist cannot understand it with grammar forever.” The Brigadier echoes him: “What, matchmaker, grammar? Without her, I lived to be almost sixty years old, and raised children. The Brigadier does not lag behind her husband; “Of course, grammar is not needed. Before you begin to teach it, you still need to buy it. You pay eight hryvnias for it, and whether you learn it or not, God knows.” Nor do the Counselor and Son see any particular need for grammar. The first admits that only once she was useful to her "for papillots." As for Ivan, then, according to his confession, "my light, my soul, adieu, ma reine, one can say without looking at the grammar."

“This new chain of revelations, while laying bare the mental horizons of the main characters of the comedy, concretizes the previous sketches of their portrait self-characteristics, leading us to an understanding of the author's intention. In a society where mental apathy and lack of spirituality reign, familiarization with the European way of life is an evil caricature of enlightenment. The parents are to blame for the empty-headedness of children wandering abroad. The moral poverty of Ivan, who prides himself on his contempt for his compatriots, is a match for the ignorance and spiritual deformity of the rest. This idea is proved by the whole further course of events taking place on the stage. So Fonvizin puts the problem of true education at the center of the ideological content of his play. Of course, in comedy this idea is not affirmed declaratively, but by means of psychological self-disclosure of the characters. (9,308)

The play does not have a dedicated exposition - this traditional link in the compositional structure of the "comedy of intrigue", where the servants bring the audience up to date, acquainting them with the circumstances of the life of their masters. The identity of each is revealed during the exchange of remarks, and then implemented in actions.

“Fonvizin found an interesting and innovative way to enhance the satirical and accusatory pathos of comedy. In his "Brigadier", in essence, the content structure of the petty-bourgeois drama, from the traditions of which he objectively repelled, was travestyed in a peculiar way. Solid, burdened by families, fathers indulged in love affairs. The play was saturated with many comic, bordering on farce, scenes and dialogues. The everyday authenticity of the portrait characteristics grew into a comically pointed grotesque. (9.308-309)

The originality of the action in The Brigadier also consisted in the absence of servants in the comedy as engines of intrigue. There were no other traditional types with a comic role in it (pedants, scoundrels, etc.). And yet the comedy of the action grows from scene to scene. It arises due to the dynamic kaleidoscope of intertwining love episodes. The secular flirting of the coquette of the Counselor and the gallomantic Ivan is replaced by the confessions of the hypocritical saint of the Counselor, courting the Brigadier who does not understand anything, and then, like a soldier, is straightforwardly explained to the Counselor of the Brigadier.

“It is significant that already in this comedy Fonvizin finds one constructive method of satirical denunciation, which later, in the comedy “Undergrowth”, will be almost the fundamental principle of typing negative characters. This refers to the motive of likening a person to an animal, due to which the qualities inherent in cattle become a measure of the moral merits of such a person. (9.309-310)

So Ivan sees in his parents "animals", but for the Counselor. suffering from village life, all the neighbors also "ignorant" "cattle". “They, my soul, do not think of anything but table supplies; straight pigs.” At the beginning, likening animals to “a donkey, a horse, a bear”, helping to explain to the father and son, are relatively innocent. But angry Ivan, in response to the reminder of the Brigadier, so that his son does not forget who his father is, resorts to a logical argument: “Very good; And when a puppy is not obliged to respect the dog who was his father, do I owe you even the slightest respect?

“The depth of Fonvizin's sarcasm and the accusatory effect achieved at the same time lies in the fact that the recognition of the qualities of the animal follows from the characters themselves. This is still the same method of comic self-characterization, when the ironic subtext hidden in the character's speech becomes a sentence for the speaker himself. This technique, varied in every way in the speeches of the characters, is intended not only to enhance the comedy of the action, but also to serve as a kind of standard for the spiritual qualities of the characters. (9,310)

Fonvizin, having the gift of a skilled satirist, finds a new method of self-exposing the characters, which achieves a comic effect. This trick will be used frequently along the way. For example, when the Counselor and the Son are left alone, they talk about fashionable hats. “In my opinion,” says Ivan, lace and blond hair make up the best decoration for the head. Pedants think that this is nonsense and that it is necessary to decorate the head from the inside, and not from the outside. What a void! The devil sees what is hidden, but everyone sees the outside.

Counseling. So, my soul: I myself have the same sentiments with you; I see that you have powder on your head, but if there is anything in your head, I can’t, damn it, notice it.

Son. Pardieu! Of course, no one can notice this.” “The lethality of such an exchange of pleasantries for the self-characterization of the moral character of both is obvious. But it is important that the comic subtext arising from the above dialogue, obvious to the viewer, but unconscious by the speaking character, is caused by the words of the speakers themselves. Satire is dissolved in the action of the comedy, and the condemnation of the moral ugliness of the characters is passed by their own speeches, and not introduced from outside. This was the fundamental innovation of the Fonvizin-satirist method, ”notes Yu. V. Stennik. (9.349) Thus, a kind of anti-psychologism is a distinctive feature of Fonvizin's comedy.

“Often in The Brigadier, the statements of the characters are direct authorial statements, only conditionally attached to this person. So, Ivanushka talks about education in completely different words: “A young man is like wax. If, malheureusment, I had fallen for a Russian who loved his nation, perhaps I would not have been like that. (8,243)

The author's "presence" in "The Brigadier" is manifested not only in each specific statement, but also in the appearance of topics common to all characters, in the discussion of which the essence of each of them is revealed. Such a common theme of statements in The Brigadier is the theme of intelligence and stupidity. Each character in a comedy is convinced of his undoubted mental superiority over others, while these others tend to consider him a fool. (8, 244)

Thus, the characters' frequent judgments about each other, designed for an immediate, direct reaction of the audience, develop into sentence-replicas that allow them to look for applications outside the comedy's own plot. Thus, the author's voice sounds from the very essence of the disputes that arise between the characters of his comedy, from its general problems.

Laughter and the author in Fonvizin's comedy have not yet become identified, as happened with Griboyedov and especially with Gogol in The Inspector General, where the author does not speak for his characters at all, where they speak and act according to their comedic character, and laughter "i.e. e. the author's attitude to the characters" arises already from the collision of actions and thoughts with the ethical norm that inspired the author's laughter, the norm of humanism and deep regret for a person whose true essence is covered with the "rough crust of the earth."

In such a situation, the position of the reader and the viewer is also interesting. The text of the comedy is intended to interest the reader in "co-authorship", in the need to turn on the imagination and see reality and even themselves behind the artistic images. And besides, comedy should enlighten the reader, infecting him with the spirit of justice and humanism. That was the intention of the writer.

Understanding Russian culture and Russian history in the comedy "Undergrowth"

The pinnacle of the achievements of Fonvizin and all Russian literary satire in the comedy genre of the 18th century. became "Undergrowth". "Undergrowth" - the central work of Fonvizin, the pinnacle of Russian dramaturgy of the 18th century - is organically connected with the ideological issues of "Reasoning". For Pushkin, "Undergrowth" is a "folk comedy." Belinsky, who by the 1940s had developed a revolutionary-democratic understanding of nationality, declared that "Undergrowth", "Woe from Wit" and "Inspector General" "in a short time became popular dramatic plays."

To understand the ideological issues and, accordingly, the satirical pathos of the comedy, it is important to remember that more than ten years have passed between the creation of The Brigadier and the writing of The Undergrowth. During this time, Fonvizin's socio-political convictions strengthened and expanded, and his creative method as a satirist gained maturity.

Comedy is based on the principle of intersecting triads. The triad of negative characters: Mrs. Prostakova, Taras Skotinin, Mitrofanushka. The triad of positive characters: Starodum (the main ideologist of the play), Pravdin, Milon. A triad of heroes-adventurers who pretend not to be who they really are: Tsyfirkin, Kuteikin, Vralman. And, finally, service heroes: Eremeevna, Prostakov, Trishka. Only Sophia remains outside these triads. Both positive and negative characters are fighting for her hand, and since “Sophia” means “wisdom” in translation, the hero is actually fighting for wisdom, truth, the true idea.

Thus, the main conflict of the play unfolds between the positive characters, who represent a true aristocracy, and the triad of negative characters, ordinary people belonging to the "lower" society. Even more, A.S. Pushkin drew attention to the fact that the characters speak different languages. The speech of negative characters is dominated by rude common phraseology with the presence of vulgarisms, slang expressions and even abuse. At the same time, the speech of episodic characters - teachers Mitrofan and his mother Eremeevna - was marked with the greatest individualization. Elements of soldier jargon in Tsyfirkin's conversations, the flaunting of quotations from the Holy Scriptures by the former seminarian Kuteikin, and finally, the monstrous German accent of the illiterate coachman Vralman - all these are signs of a certain social environment. This is a style designed for comic effect, characteristic of magazine satire. But the style of speech of the Prostakova family is marked by special richness. Now bordering on abuse, now full of flattering ingratiation, the speech of the hostess of the house perfectly reflects her temper, in which despotic tyranny coexists with lackey servility. On the contrary, the language of the positive characters of the “undergrowth” appears to be cleansed of vernacular. Before us is a competent book speech, overflowing with the most complex syntactic constructions and abstract vocabulary. Positive characters in everyday life are almost not characterized. The psychology and spiritual world of these heroes are revealed not through everyday life, but in the course of conversations on political and moral topics. Their very form very often goes back to the manner of the dialogic philosophical treatises of the Enlightenment, who basically continued the traditions of moralistic dialogues of the era of humanism.

Thus, it can be seen that for all its "clumsiness" the speech of negative characters is lively, soiled, this colloquial speech, directly correlated with the plan of life and life. Whereas any phrase of positive characters turns into a moralizing sermon, which serves exclusively for spiritual education and is absolutely not adapted for everyday life. We see that the tragedy of the situation lies in the linguistic gap between the characters. The conflict lies, oddly enough, in the absence of conflict. It's just that the heroes initially belong to different planes and there are no and cannot be points of contact between them. And this is not even a literary problem, but a socio-political one. Since there is a huge unbridgeable gulf between the true aristocracy and the "lower" society, which will never understand each other, and the middle class, as a link, has not been formed.

Fonvizin, of course, wanted the positive heroes (and therefore the true aristocracy) to win this battle. But they lose, because their images are lifeless, their speech is boring. And besides this, both Starodum and Pravdin strive to change the world without accepting it as it is. And in this sense, they are also "undergrown", for an enlightened mature person is always ready to justify the world, and not to blame it. The ideology that the goodies preach is utopian because it doesn't fit with reality. Thus, the main conflict of comedy lies between ideology and everyday life.

The composition of "Undergrowth" consists of a combination of several relatively independent and at the same time inextricably linked structural levels. This was especially well reflected by the remarkable critic Yu. V. Stennik in his book “Russian Satire of the 18th Century”:

“Carefully peering into the plot of the play, we notice that it is woven from motifs typical of the structure of a “tearful” philistine drama: suffering virtue in the person of Sophia, who becomes the object of claims from ignorant and rude seekers of her hand; the sudden appearance of a rich uncle; attempted forced kidnapping and the final triumph of justice with the punishment of vice. And although such a scheme, in principle, was not contraindicated in the genre of comedy, there was practically no room for a comic beginning. Such is the first, plot, level of structure that organizes the compositional framework of dramatic action.

Delving further into the study of the artistic system of the "Undergrowth", we discover its saturation with a comic element. There are many comic scenes in the play, in which a whole group of characters participate, who seem to have no direct relation to the development of the plot outlined above. Such are Mitrofan's teachers: the retired soldier Tsyfirkin, the half-educated seminarian Kuteikin, and the former coachman Vralman, who became the educator of the undergrowth of the nobility. Such is the tailor Trishka, partly mother Eremeevna. The connecting links between these persons and the plot of the play are the figure of Mitrofan with his relatives, mother and uncle. And all the most comical episodes of the play include these characters in one way or another. It is important, however, to remember that the object of comedy in them is not so much the servants as their masters.

From this point of view, the scene with Trishka, the scene of Skotinin's explanation with Mitrofan, the scene of Mitrofan's teachings, and, finally, the scene of Mitrofan's examination can be considered the most important episodes from this point of view. In these moralizing scenes, the everyday prose of the life of the local nobility, concrete in all its ugliness, is deployed. Swearing, fights, gluttony, canine devotion of servants and rude rudeness of masters, deceit and bestiality as the norm of relations with each other - this is the plot of this meaningful aspect of the comedy. Scenes revealing the triumph of ignorance and malevolence create the everyday background of the plot, highlighting the characters of Prostakova's family members.

These scenes create the second, comedic-satirical, level of the artistic structure of The Undergrowth. Existing within the framework of the first, plot plan, this level, however, has its own logic of revealing life phenomena, the main principle of which will be grotesque-naturalistic satire.

Finally, in the course of the action of the comedy, a group of positive characters stands out. Their speeches and actions embody the author's ideas about an ideal person and a noble nobleman. This aspect of the artistic content of "Undergrowth" is most clearly revealed in the figures of Pravdin and Starodum. The key scenes, in which the ideological program of the ideal nobles is revealed, are also off-plot in their own way (it is not surprising that the practice of staging The Undergrowth knows the case of the removal of individual scenes considered “boring”).

This is how the third, ideally utopian level of the structure of the Undergrowth is established. It is characteristic that the circle of positive characters grouped around Pravdin is practically not implemented in everyday life. At this level of the compositional structure of comedy, the comic element is completely absent. Scenes where positive characters act are devoid of dynamics and, with their static nature, approach philosophical and educational dialogues. (9, 319-320)

Thus, the ideological concept of the play is revealed through the combination and interaction of the satirical grotesque, sparkling with comedy, presented in moralistic scenes, and abstract utopia in scenes where ideal characters perform. The unity of these polar opposite worlds is the unique originality of comedy.

At each of these structural levels, two central ideas are solved in parallel, feeding the pathos of comedy. This is, firstly, the idea of the true dignity of a nobleman, affirmed both by publicistic declarations in the speeches of Starodum and Pravdin, and by showing the moral decay of the nobility. Pictures of the degradation of the ruling class of the country were supposed to serve as a kind of illustration of the thesis about the need for a proper moral example on the part of the highest authorities and the court. The absence of such became the cause of arbitrariness.

The second problem is the idea of education in the broad sense of the word. In the minds of the thinkers of the XVIII century, education was considered as the primary factor that determines the moral character of a person. In the reposes of Fonvizin, the problem of education acquired state significance, because, in his opinion, the only possible source of salvation from the evil threatening society was rooted in proper education - the bribery of the Russian nobility.

“If the first idea was intended to awaken public thought, to draw the attention of compatriots to the impending danger, then the second, as it were, indicated the cause of this situation and suggested means of correcting it.” (9,321)

The significance of Fonvizin's comedy, therefore, consisted primarily in the fact that in it the edge of political satire was directed against the main social evil of the era - the complete lack of control of the highest power, which gave rise to the moral devastation of the ruling class and arbitrariness, as in the localities - in the relations of landowners with peasants, and at the highest levels of the social hierarchy. Considering that the play was created under the dominance of a monarchical system of government in Russia, one cannot but be amazed at the courage and foresight of the author of The Undergrowth.317, Stennik.

The peasants of the Prostakovs are completely ruined. Even Prostakova herself does not know what to do next: “Since we took away everything that the peasants had, we can’t tear anything off. Such a disaster!

Slavery turns the peasants into slaves, completely killing in them all human traits, all the dignity of the individual. With special force it comes through in the courtyards. Fonvizin created an image of enormous power - the slaves of Eremeevna. An old woman, Mitrofan's nanny, she lives the life of a dog: insults, kicks and beatings - that's what fell to her lot. She has long lost even a human name, she is called only by abusive nicknames: "beast", "old bastard", "dog's daughter", "scum". Outrages, reproach and humiliation have made Eremeevna a serf, a watchdog of his mistress, who humbly licks the hand of the owner who beat her.

As a folk work, the comedy "Undergrowth" naturally reflected the most important and acute problems of Russian life. The lack of rights of the Russian serfs, reduced to the status of slaves, given into the full possession of the landowners, manifested itself with particular force precisely in the 80s. The complete, boundless, monstrous arbitrariness of the landlords could not but arouse feelings of protest among the advanced nobility. Not sympathizing with the revolutionary methods of action, moreover, rejecting them, at the same time they could not but protest against the slave-owning and despotic policy of Catherine II. That is why the response to the police regime established by Catherine and Potemkin was the intensification of social activity and the subordination of creativity to the tasks of political satire of such noble educators as Fonvizin, Novikov, Krylov, Krechetov. At the end of the decade, the revolutionary Radishchev will come out with his books, directly expressing the aspirations and moods of the serfs.

The second theme of "Undergrowth" was the struggle of noble educators with slave owners and the despotic government of Catherine II after the defeat of the Pugachev uprising.

Pravdin, not wanting to be limited to indignation, takes real steps to limit the power of the landlords and, as we know from the play's finale, achieves this. Pravdin acts in this way because he believes that his struggle against the slave-owners, supported by the governor, is "thereby fulfilling the philanthropic types of the supreme power," that is, Pravdin is deeply convinced of the enlightened character of Catherine's autocracy. He declares himself to be the executor of his will - this is the case at the beginning of the comedy. That is why Pravdin, knowing Starodum, demands from him that he go to serve at the court. “With your rules, people should not be let go from the court, but they must be called to the court.” Starodum is perplexed: “Summon? What for?" And Pravdin, true to his convictions, declares: "Then, why do they call a doctor to the sick." And then Starodum, a politician who has already realized that faith in Catherine is not only naive, but also destructive, explains to Pravdin: “My friend, you are mistaken. It is in vain to call a doctor to the sick is incurable: here the doctor will not help, unless he himself becomes infected.

Pravdin and Starodum, in their worldview, are pupils of the Russian noble Enlightenment. Two major political issues determined the program of the noble educators at that time: a) the need to abolish serfdom by peaceful means (reform, education, etc.); b) Catherine is not an enlightened monarch, but a despot and inspirer of the policy of slavery, and therefore it is necessary to fight against her.

It was this political thought that laid the foundation for the "Undergrowth" - Catherine was to blame for the crimes of the Skotinins and Prostakovs. That is why the fight against the Prostakovs is carried out by private people, and not by the government (the fact that Pravdin is serving does not change things, since he acts according to his own convictions, and not on orders from his superiors). The Catherine's government blesses the feudal policy of the unbridled nobles.

"Undergrowth" was met with open hostility by the government and the ideologists of the nobility. The comedy was completed in 1781. It immediately became clear that it was almost impossible to place it. A stubborn, dull struggle between Fonvizin and the government for staging a comedy began. Nikita Panin was involved in the struggle, who, using all his influence on the heir to Paul, finally achieved the production of a comedy through him. The court demonstrated its dislike for The Undergrowth, which was expressed, among other things, in the desire to prevent its production at the court theater. The premiere was dragged out in every possible way, and instead of May, as it was originally planned, it finally took place with difficulty on September 24, 1782 in a wooden theater on Tsaritsyn Meadow with the help of invited actors from both the court and private theaters.

The language element of D. I. Fonvizin’s creativity.

A. I. Gorshkov, the author of books about Fonvizin, exploring the writer’s speech and critical literature on this topic, notes that critics underestimate the satirist’s artistic style, considering it as “intermediate” between “Lomonosov’s” and Karamzin’s style. Some authors of literary works about Fonvizin tend to qualify his entire works within the framework of the doctrine of three styles: high (“Word for Paul's recovery”), medium (letters to Panin) and low (comedies and letters to his sister). Such an approach, according to Gorshkov, ignores the specific variety of linguistic differences and similarities in letters to his sister and letters to Panin, does not take into account the general development of the Russian literary language in the second half of the 18th century. and the evolution of Fonvizin's language. In his book “The Language of Pre-Pushkin Prose”, the critic emphasizes the prose works of the 80s, finding in them the already formed style of the writer and a new strategy of artistic speech. “Fonvizin developed language techniques for reflecting reality in its most diverse manifestations; the principles of constructing linguistic structures that characterize the "image of the narrator" were outlined. Many important properties and trends were outlined and initially developed, which found their further development and were fully completed in the Pushkin reform of the Russian literary language, ”says Gorshkov. In the second half of the XVIII century. magnificent verbosity, rhetorical solemnity, metaphorical abstraction and obligatory embellishment gradually gave way to brevity, simplicity, and accuracy. In the language of his prose, folk colloquial vocabulary and phraseology are widely used; various non-free and semi-free colloquial phrases and stable turns act as the building material of sentences; there is a union of “simple Russian” and “Slavic” language resources, so important for the subsequent development of the Russian literary language.

Fonvizin's narrative language is not limited to the conversational sphere; in terms of its expressive resources and techniques, it is much wider and richer. Certainly focusing on the spoken language, on "living use" as the basis of the narrative, Fonvizin freely uses both "bookish" elements, and Western European borrowings, and philosophical and scientific vocabulary and phraseology. The richness of the linguistic means used and the variety of methods of their organization allow Fonvizin to create various versions of the narrative on a common colloquial basis. Fonvizin was the first of the Russian writers who understood that by describing the complex relationships and strong feelings of people simply, but definitely, you can achieve a greater effect than with the help of various verbal tricks. This is how his comedies are built. For example, in the comedy “Undergrowth” inversions are used: “a slave of his vile passions"; rhetorical questions and exclamations:how can she teach them good manners"; complicated syntax: an abundance of subordinate clauses, common definitions, participial and participle constructions and other characteristic means of book speech. There are also words of emotional and evaluative meaning: soulful, cordial, depraved tyrant. But Fonvizin avoids the naturalistic extremes of low style, which many of today's outstanding comedians could not overcome. He refuses rude, non-literary speech means. At the same time, it constantly retains both in vocabulary and in syntax the features of colloquialism. The use of realistic typification techniques is also evidenced by colorful speech characteristics created by using words and expressions used in military life; and archaic vocabulary, quotations from spiritual books; and broken Russian vocabulary. Meanwhile, the language of Fonvizin's comedies, despite its perfection, still did not go beyond the traditions of classicism and did not represent a fundamentally new stage in the development of the Russian literary language. In Fonvizin's comedies, a clear distinction was made between the language of negative and positive characters. And if in building the linguistic characteristics of negative characters on the traditional basis of using vernacular, the writer achieved great liveliness and expressiveness, then the linguistic characteristics of positive characters remained pale, coldly rhetorical, cut off from the living elements of the spoken language.

In contrast to the language of comedy, the language of Fonvizin's prose represents a significant step forward in the development of the Russian literary language, here the trends that have emerged in Novikov's prose are strengthened and further developed. The work that marked the decisive transition from the traditions of classicism to the new principles of constructing the language of prose in the work of Fonvizin was the famous Letters from France. In "Letters from France" folk-colloquial vocabulary and phraseology are quite richly represented, especially those groups and categories that are devoid of sharp expressiveness and are more or less close to the "neutral" lexical-phraseological layer: "Since my arrival here, I have not heard my feet ... "; « We're doing pretty well"; « Wherever you go, everywhere is full". There are also words and expressions different from those given above, they are endowed with that specific expressiveness that allows them to qualify as colloquial: “I won’t take both of these places for free.”; « At the entrance to the city, we were mistaken by a vile stench.. Observations on the colloquial vocabulary and phraseology in Letters from France make it possible to draw three main conclusions. Firstly, this vocabulary and phraseology, especially in that part of it that is closer to the “neutral” lexical-phraseological layer than to common speech, is freely and quite widely used in letters. Secondly, the use of folk colloquial vocabulary and phraseology is distinguished by an amazing selection for that time. Even more important and significant is the fact that the vast majority of colloquial words and expressions used by Fonvizin in "Letters from France" found a permanent place in the literary language, and with one or another special stylistic "task", and often simply along with "neutral" lexico-phraseological material, these expressions were widely used in the literature of a later time. Thirdly, the careful selection of folk-colloquial vocabulary and phraseology is closely connected with the change, transformation of the stylistic functions of this lexical-phraseological layer in the literary language. The lexico-phraseological layer, stylistically opposite to the folk colloquial one, is distinguished by the same main features of use. Firstly, they are also used in letters, secondly, they are subjected to a rather strict selection, and thirdly, their role in the language of Letters from France does not completely coincide with the role assigned to them by the theory of three styles. The selection manifested itself in the fact that in "Letters from France" we will not find archaic, "dilapidated" "Slavonicisms". Slavonicisms, contrary to the theory of three styles, are quite freely combined with “neutral” and colloquial elements, lose their “high” coloring to a large extent, are “neutralized” and no longer act as a specific sign of “high style”, but simply as elements of bookish, literary language. Here are some examples: "how I was to hear her exclamations"; « his wife is so greedy for money…”; « writhing, disturbing the human sense of smell in an unbearable way ". Folk colloquial words and expressions are freely combined not only with “Slavicisms”, but also with “Europeanisms” and “metaphysical” vocabulary and phraseology: “here everyone applauds for everything about everything "; « In a word, although the war has not been formally declared, this announcement is expected from hour to hour..

The features of the literary language worked out in "Letters from France" were further developed in the artistic, scientific, journalistic and memoir prose of Fonvizin. But two points still deserve attention. First, the syntactic perfection of Fonvizin's prose should be emphasized. In Fonvizin, we find not separate well-constructed phrases, but extensive contexts that are distinguished by diversity, flexibility, harmony, logical consistency and clarity of syntactic constructions. Secondly, in Fonvizin's fiction, the method of narration on behalf of the narrator, the method of creating linguistic structures that serve as a means of revealing the image, is further developed.

Thus, we note the main points of the above. 1. Fonvizin became the successor of Novikov's traditions. Engaged in the further development of the reception of first-person narration. 2. He made a decisive transition from the traditions of classicism to new principles for constructing the language of prose. 3. He did a great job of introducing colloquial vocabulary and phraseology into the literary language. Almost all the words he used found their permanent place in the literary language. 4. He makes extensive use of verbal puns. 5. Made an attempt to normalize the use of "Slavicisms" in the language. But, despite all the linguistic innovation of Fonvizin, some archaic elements still slip through his prose and separate unbroken threads remain that connect him with the previous era.

Crisis of attitude and change

ideological position

“He was, of course, one of the smartest and noblest representatives of the true, sound trend of thought in Russia, especially in the early days of his literary activity, before his illness; but his ardent, disinterested aspirations were too impractical, too little promising of significant benefit before the court of the empress, so that she could encourage them. And she considered it better not to pay attention to him, showing him first that the path he is on will not lead to anything good ... ”says N. A. Dobrolyubov.

Indeed, Fonvizin was a fierce educator, but his ideas were only a theory, they did not imply any practical solutions. Two major political issues determined the program of the noble educators at that time: a) the need to abolish serfdom by peaceful means (reform, education, etc.); b) Catherine is not an enlightened monarch, but a despot and inspirer of the policy of slavery, and therefore it is necessary to fight against her. And we have already said that the struggle and the desire to change the world is, from the point of view of the Enlightenment, a matter of “undergrowth”, that is, not adults who are not able to accept this world. Passion for Voltaire led the still immature Fonvizin to the denial of God and religion.

“Having lost his god, the ordinary Russian Voltairian not only left his temple as a person who had become superfluous in it, but, like a rebellious courtyard, strove to make a fuss before leaving, to kill everything, distort and soil it.”

"Courtyard" - such is the expressive name of this son of unfreedom. And his mode of action is its manifestation: even having rebelled, he behaves like a slave, ”says V. O. Klyuchevsky about the writer. And in this offensive expression there is some truth: in many ways, if not in everything, the outstanding, talented writer, Fonvizin, as a "Voltairian" is very ordinary.

But gradually, as he grows up and develops an ideological position, Fonvizin moves away from Voltairianism and later work has a pronounced journalistic character.

As for Denis Ivanovich's horror before the youthful sin of Voltairianism and doubts about faith, everything is clear here. His mind, the then Russian mind, brought up in religion and very far from newfangled skepticism, easily overcame what was premature and unnecessary for him, but sharply and painfully remembered all this when the time came for painful leisure brought by illness, when he had to dig in himself, in order to find the causes of divine wrath, in the existence of which he believed, and also because the blows of fate were already very constant.

It is very characteristic that one of the letters to Panin dated December 24, 1777 (January 4, 1778) says: “In a word, liberty is an empty name, and the right of the strong remains the right above all laws.” So, it is with the “Letters from France” that the collapse of the Enlightenment faith begins.

Interestingly, the "Universal Court Grammar" is a sharp allegorical satire on the court and its vices. And in “A sincere confession about my deeds and thoughts,” Fonvizin bitterly declares: “Young people! Do not think that your sharp words will be your true glory; stop the audacity of your mind and know that the praise attributed to you is a real poison for you; and especially if you feel a penchant for satire, tame it with all your strength: for you, too, will no doubt be subject to the same fate with me. I was soon feared, then hated; and I, instead of attracting people to me, drove them away from me both with words and with a pen. My writings were sharp curses: there was a lot of satirical salt in them, but not a drop of reason, so to speak.

Thus, there is a contradiction in Fonvizin's views. This is due to the fact that in connection with the disease, his last works, including “Frank-Hearted Confession”, are permeated with the motives of religious repentance and the horror of repression that fell upon his fellow enlighteners.

Conclusion

“A son of his time, Fonvizin, with all his appearance and direction of creative quest, belongs to that circle of advanced Russian people of the 18th century who made up the camp of enlighteners. All of them were writers, and their work was permeated with the pathos of affirming the ideals of justice and humanism. Satire and journalism were their weapons. A courageous protest against the injustices of autocracy and angry accusations of serf abuses sounded in their works. This was the historical merit of Russian satire of the 18th century, one of the most prominent representatives of which was D. I. Fonvizin ”(12, 22).

Thus, having studied the work of Fonvizin in this work, we are convinced of his undoubted talent as a satirist and innovator of the word. It was Fonvizin who laid the foundations of the Russian literary language. It was Fonvizin who showed us the reality of the Catherine era, displaying it in his comedies. Perhaps that is why M. Gorky calls Fonvizin the founder of critical realism: "The types of Skotinin, Prostakov, Kuteikin and Tsyfirkin are true drawings of the characters of that time, a true reflection of the ignorance and rudeness of the commanding class."

From all of the above, we can conclude that Fonvizin was truly a brilliant enlightener and, at the same time, he was the finalist of the Russian Enlightenment of the 18th century.

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Az: lib.ru

The famous writer of the Catherine era D.I. Fonvizin was born on April 3 (14), 1745 in Moscow, into a wealthy noble family. He came from a Livonian knightly family, completely Russified (until the middle of the 19th century, the surname was written Fon Wiesen). He received his primary education under the guidance of his father, Ivan Andreevich. In 1755-1760, Fonvizin studied at the newly opened gymnasium at Moscow University; in 1760 he was "produced to the students" of the Faculty of Philosophy, but stayed at the university for only 2 years.

A special place in the drama of this time is occupied by the work of Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (1745-1792), which was the pinnacle of theatrical culture of the 18th century. Inheriting the traditions of classic comedy, Fonvizin goes far ahead, essentially being the founder of critical realism in Russian dramaturgy. A. S. Pushkin called the great playwright "satire a bold ruler", "a friend of freedom." M. Gorky argued that Fonvizin initiated the most magnificent and, perhaps, the most socially fruitful line of Russian literature - the accusatory-realistic line. Creativity Fonvizin had a huge impact on contemporary and subsequent writers and playwrights. D. I. Fonvizin joined the theater early. Theatrical impressions are the strongest in his youth: “... nothing in St. Petersburg delighted me so much as the theater, which I saw for the first time in my life. The action produced in me by the theater is almost impossible to describe. While still a student, Fonvizin takes part in the life of the Moscow University Theater. In the future, Denis Ivanovich maintains contacts with the largest figures in the Russian theater - playwrights and actors: A. P. Sumarokov, I. A. Dmitrevsky and others, and writes theatrical articles in satirical magazines. These magazines had a great influence on the work of Fonvizin. In them, he sometimes drew motives for his comedies. Dramatic activity of Fonvizin begins in the 60s. At first, he translates foreign plays and "translates" them into Russian. But this was only a test of the pen. Fonvizin dreamed of creating a national comedy. "The Brigadier" is Fonvizin's first original play. It was written in the late 60s. The simplicity of the plot did not prevent Fonvizin from creating a sharply satirical work, showing the manners and character of his narrow-minded heroes. The play "The Brigadier" was called by contemporaries "a comedy about our morals". This comedy was written under the influence of leading satirical magazines and satirical comedies of Russian classicism and imbued with the author's concern for the education of young people. "The Brigadier" is the first dramaturgical work in Russia, endowed with all the features of national originality, nothing resembling comedies created according to foreign standards. In the language of comedy, there are many folk phrases, aphorisms, well-aimed comparisons. This dignity of the "Brigadier" was immediately noticed by contemporaries, and the best of Fonvizin's verbal turns passed into everyday life, entered into proverbs. The comedy The Brigadier was staged in 1780 at the St. Petersburg Theater on the Tsaritsyn Meadow. The second comedy "Undergrowth" was written by D. I. Fonvizin in 1782. She brought the author a long fame, put him in the front ranks of the fighters against serfdom. The play develops the most important problems for the era. It talks about the upbringing of underage sons of the nobility and the mores of the court society. But the problem of serfdom, malevolence and unpunished cruelty of the landowners was posed more acutely than others. "Undergrowth" was created by the hand of a mature master who managed to populate the play with living characters, build the action on the basis of not only external, but also internal dynamics. The comedy "Undergrowth" decisively did not meet the requirements of Catherine II, who ordered the writers "only occasionally touch on vices" and carry out criticism without fail "in a smiling spirit." On September 24, 1782, "Undergrowth" was staged by Fonvizin and Dmitrevsky at the theater on the Tsaritsyn meadow. The performance was a great success with the general public. On May 14, 1783, The Undergrowth premiered on the stage of the Petrovsky Theater in Moscow. The premiere and subsequent performances were a huge success. "The Choice of a Tutor" - a comedy written by Fonvizin in 1790, was devoted to the burning topic of educating young people in aristocratic noble houses. The pathos of comedy is directed against foreign adventurers-pseudo-teachers in favor of enlightened Russian nobles.