Who wrote the work foreman. "Original comedy by Fonvizin" Brigadier

1. Passion for theater.
2. Becoming a writer.
3. Satire in "The Brigadier".
4. Contribution to the development of drama.
5. Public service.

D.I. Fonvizin became interested in theater during his high school years. At the university, he already tried to write plays himself and even participated in student performances. Of course, at that time there were still few who could discern in young talent one of the founders new literature early XVIII century, the main goal of which will be enlightenment.

In 1762, the first literary translations appeared in print. young writer, which immediately attracted the attention of admirers of Russian literature. Denis Ivanovich approached the translation of the work “Moralizing Fables with Explanations by Mr. Golberg” quite creatively, so some details, Latin terminology and numerous feuds between various religious sects disappeared from the work. The result was an almost new work, very different from the original, with a witty and laconic presentation of the plot. It was translations that served Fonvizin as the basic step from which he confidently, with a certain literary experience, stepped into large independent literature.

In 1769, the writer’s first comedy, “The Brigadier,” was published. The creation of the work coincided with major events that took place in public life. Preparations were in full swing for the opening and work of the Commission for the drafting of a new state bill - a code affecting the entire nobility. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the nobles became the main characters in the comedy; moreover, most of them were negative characters. Through an almost vaudeville form, where all such heroes flirt with each other, except for the Brigadier, the rather unattractive qualities of the “masters of life” suddenly appear. In the comedy, the merits of the nobility to their homeland are greatly questioned, while in bright colors shows the arbitrariness of the “noble class” in relation to the serfs. The stigma of shame here falls not on notorious robbers or criminals, but on seemingly decent citizens: a nobleman with the rank of military man, an official and a nobleman who is keen on all sorts of French nonsense.

When staging the comedy on stage, Fonvizin first of all took the advice of D. Diderot - “move the theater into the living room...”. The action took place in one of the rooms village house Advisor. The audience was amazed at how natural and believable the characters looked in such a setting. It seemed that this was not a theater, but real home, and the audience is not sitting in the hall, but all in the same room along with the main characters. The conversation flowed, apparently already begun before the curtain opened. The Brigadier paced from corner to corner, reasoning: “... so if God bless, then the wedding will be on the twenty-sixth.” The hostess treated her to tea young man, who sat at the tea table in a smart morning dress. The adviser's daughter Sophia was embroidering on a hoop. The satire in the comedy was aimed at three characters - Ivanushka, the Advisor and the Brigadier, since they, in the author’s opinion, were the most dangerous in social and everyday terms, therefore, from the first act, the trio is ridiculed by Fonvizin.

From point of view literary genre the work was created according to the main traditions high comedy classicism. This is primarily evidenced by the following characteristics this direction, such as static action and sketchy characters. However, the author still allowed himself to deviate from the classical rules. That is why the Brigadier’s son Ivanushka, who, due to his underdeveloped nature, never pretends to have serious feelings, at the end of the play, when parting, showed something sincere. And what’s even more interesting is that he even saw the light for a moment: “The young man is like wax. If malheureusement and I had fallen into the hands of a Russian who loved his nation, I might not have been like that.” Denis Ivanovich used this digression solely to bring the scene closer to reality, more plausible than classicism allows us to reveal. Fonvizin is not limited to just listing and ridiculing the unpleasant aspects of life noble society, he tries to determine their prerequisites, to identify social predetermination.

The author was keenly interested in the question: why do such people appear? The Brigadier himself partially answered it, regretting that he allowed his wife to spoil their son Ivanushka, and did not send him to a regiment where he would be taught wisdom. The rude and ignorant Brigadier realized late the harmfulness of a fashionable upbringing and spoiling. It dawned on him only when he felt them on himself to the fullest. Ivanushka’s attitude towards his own parents was clear from one of his statements: “So, you know that I am a very unhappy person. I’ve been living for twenty-five years and still have a father and a mother.” Older generation in the person of the Advisor and the Brigadier was typical of the noble class of that time. In the 18th century, bribery of Russian government officials reached its apogee, so the empresses themselves had to fight it. Both Elizaveta Petrovna at the end of her reign, and Catherine II, who replaced her in power, resolutely opposed this negative phenomenon and government agencies. The adviser appeared in the comedy both as a bribe-taker-philosopher and as a bribe-taker-practitioner. He. not only extorted bribes from ordinary people for his services, but also provided an ideological basis for this.

In a conversation with his only daughter, he declares that solving the problem for just a salary is contrary to his nature, his “human nature.” Moreover, his desire to get rich is so strong that for the sake of the Brigadier’s favorite villages, he is ready to sacrifice Sophia, marrying her to the fool Ivanushka. Fonvizin showed innovation in his play, revealing the images of the characters using information from their past life. It played big role in identifying the causes and conditions that shaped these characters.

Revealing the images of the Brigadier, Brigadier and Advisor, Fonvizin no longer fit into the boundaries traditional classicism. Here he carried out a serious analysis of existing morals, creating a national typical character. Fonvizin's contemporaries clearly separated two concepts - character and disposition. If the first implied certain innate impulses for any action, then character personified the skills instilled by upbringing. In the writer's play, according to the famous critic P. N. Berkov, morals significantly dominate the characters. Fonvizin's innovation in the comedy "Brigadier" also consisted in the masterful use of colloquial and witty language. This made the characters more alive and believable. Moreover, each actor had its own well-recognized vocabulary that characterizes the hero. The adviser deliberately often used Church Slavonic expressions in his speech, which once again confirmed the hypocrisy of this man: “... and before advising in Moscow, I was blind in the collegium. The only consolation that remains is that God blessed me with wealth, which I acquired by virtue of decrees.” Due to their ignorance, the speech of the Brigadier and Brigadier was replete with vernacular.

Threats kept flying from the man’s lips: “you know, I’ll snatch two ribs from you at once,” “I’ll hit you in the back with two hundred Russian sticks,” “I’ll make him without a belly for this tomorrow.” Ivanushka and Sovetnitsa used in their vocabulary jargon close to colloquial speech dandies from the pages of satirical magazines: “So, my soul: I myself share the same sentiments with you; I see that you have powder on your head, but if there’s anything in your head, I can’t tell, damn it.” Even when talking about themselves, these people used their typical language. So, the Advisor talked about the Brigadier: “A treasure, not a woman! What honey-drinking lips she has! Just listen to her, and you will become a slave of sin: you cannot help but be seduced.” Thus, in Fonvizin’s play a new artistic technique- realistic typification.

Of course, the writer’s comedy could not but influence the further development of this genre as a whole. It provided too many new opportunities for authors to reveal the images and characters of their characters for them to ignore it.

“The Brigadier” laid down the basic principles of a new direction in dramaturgy. The achievements of Denis Ivanovich were picked up and further developed by other playwrights. This was most clearly manifested in the work of A.P. Sumarokov, in particular in the comedy “Cuckold by Imagination.” Here the author, like Fonvizin, brought provincial landowner life onto the stage.

The comedy "Brigadier" was such a great success among the audience that young author drew the attention of N. I. Panin, head foreign policy Russian state, a skilled diplomat and highly educated person. Soon Fonvizin received the position of secretary Foreign Collegium, however, did not abandon his literary studies, combining them with public service. During these years, Denis Ivanovich collaborated with N. I. Novikov’s magazine “Pustomelya”, where he published his “Message to the Servants”, as well as with the magazine “Painter”, in which “A Word for Recovery... by Pavel Petrovich” was published.

" And aoid ḗ “song”) is a type of drama in which characteristic situations are presented in funny, comic forms; here exposing human vices and revealing the negative sides of life.

Satire – (from lat. satura- “mixture, mishmash, all sorts of things”) type of comic: a way of manifesting the comic in art, which consists in destructive ridicule of phenomena that seem vicious to the author. Satire is the most acute form of exposing reality. If humor is ridicule of the “private”, then satire is ridicule of the “general”, denunciation of social and moral vices and shortcomings. Satirical beginning can be present in works of any genre: comedies, farces, short stories, novellas, etc.

Aesopian language (named after the ancient Greek fabulist Aesop) – speech, a manner of presentation based on allegory, hints and other similar techniques that deliberately disguise the author’s thought or idea.

General characteristics of the comedy of classicism

Comedy as opposed to tragedy depicts daily life . Her attention was drawn at all times on negative phenomena reality. Its heroes were people who were morally inferior. Their flawed nature, their contradiction with the norm, the ideal, was revealed in comedy with the help of laughter.

The purpose of comedies, according to classicism, is to educate, ridiculing shortcomings. Disadvantages are the psychological properties of a person in their everyday manifestation: eccentricity, extravagance, laziness, stupidity, etc. However, this does not lead to the conclusion that the comedy of classicism was devoid of social content, that it was directed against such shortcomings that were of a private nature. Comedy was intended to affirm a high moral ideal, but it did this by ridiculing the vices that reduced the social significance of the human personality (panache, extravagance, stupidity, etc.).

Thus, Fonvizin, although he shows his heroes in everyday life, in family relationships, forces them to speak out on pressing issues of public life. Central theme Fonvizin's theme is education. Education is considered as a means of forming civic consciousness in the noble class. It should give “the direct value of learning,” awaken humane, philanthropic feelings, and contribute to the general improvement of morals.

Fonvizin makes the heroes of his comedies - “The Brigadier” and “The Minor” - representatives of all groups of the ruling class . Among them are representatives of the military nobility, local nobility, government officials, etc. It affects areas of their private and public life, raises questions family relations, relations between spouses, children and parents, makes the subject of conversations between the heroes the appointment and duties of the monarch, the difficult situation of Russia under Catherine, the politics of her court, and bribery of officials. In action it shows the arbitrariness of the serf owners and the lack of rights of the serfs.

Thus, the Russian comedy of classicism is framed as a social comedy in its artistic meaning and ideological orientation. Since comedy ridicules not private shortcomings, but those phenomena that posed a social danger, playwrights used the means not of harmless, “light” laughter, but of satire, which denounced these phenomena mercilessly and evilly. This gave her a dangerous character in the eyes of the government. Comedy action and features of its composition, The purpose of comedy in classicism is to make people laugh, to “rule the temper with mockery,” i.e. to educate individual representatives of the noble class with laughter.

Comedy "Brigadier"

The first dramatic experience of D.I. Fonvizin's comedy "The Brigadier" (1769).

It was also the most significant comedy of this time. This comedy is also based on the optimism of young Fonvizin, who believed in the empress, in her reforms and in herself, therefore main idea Comedy is the idea that one cannot put up with the spiritual decline of those who have power, the state of affairs needs to be changed. The authorities can and must influence them for the good of the state.

Problems and character system comedies reflect this. There are parallels between a certain character and a problem - this is how an image of an entire class is created, which the author satirically denounces:

Hypocrisy and Lawlessness (Counselor);

Lawlessness and Cruelty (Brigadier);

Promiscuity (Counselor);

Gallomania (Ivan and the Advisor);

Cruelty, tyranny and ignorance (Foreman);

Virtuous enlightenment (Sofia and Dobrolyubov).

All characters can be divided into positive and negative. Traditionally punishment negative characters the plot ends: everything returns to its original position. The comedy uses traditional love story. Behind the comic effects of this funny love, in which all the heroes are drawn in, social problems are hidden.

The action of the play is based on matchmaking. The beginning of the comedy is the phrase: “There will be a wedding on the 26th”.

The brigadier with his wife and son, passing from St. Petersburg, stops at the estate of the Advisor, whose daughter, Sophia, he would like to marry his Ivanushka. But the bride loves someone else, and Ivanushka is infatuated with Sophia’s young stepmother. The rest of the characters also turn out to be in love.

What’s new in Fonvizin’s comedy is the inclusion in the composition everyday scenes. The comedy begins with a scene where guests and hosts, having freely settled down in a “room decorated in a rustic way,” finish drinking tea. The Advisor still pours tea at the request of individual guests, but the majority are already busy with other things: the Advisor “looks at the calendar,” the Brigadier “walks and smokes,” the Brigadier “sits at a distance and knits a stocking,” Sophia embroiders.

In the same relaxed, free manner there is a conversation between them, during which the wedding day is planned. The characters exchange opinions on a number of issues: upbringing and education, legal proceedings, national culture, native language. The heroes' judgments did not go beyond the usual range of their ideas.

The main question for Fonvizin throughout his work, the question remained about what a true nobleman should be and whether the Russian nobles correspond to their high position in the state. This question was not new to Russian literature. By forcing comic characters to speak out on individual and seemingly random issues, Fonvizin set the topic privacy“noble” class as a satirical topic. Ignorance characterizes both the old and the “new mannered” nobility. They are surprisingly unanimous on the issue of enlightenment.

“What, matchmaker, grammar? – The Brigadier addresses the Advisor. – I lived without her until I was almost sixty years old, and I also had children. Ivanushka is already well into his twenties, and he can speak at good times, keep quiet at worst - and has never heard of grammar.” "Certainly, - The Brigadier echoes him, – no grammar needed. Before you begin to teach it, you still need to buy it. You’ll pay eight hryvnia for it, but whether you learn it or not, God knows.”

The Advisor is also sure that grammar is unnecessary: “Damn me if grammar is needed for anything, especially in the village. In the city, at least, I tore one into papillotes.”.

Ivan doesn’t disagree with everyone either: “I agree with you, what about grammar! I myself wrote a thousand bills(love notes) and it seems to me that “my light, my soul, adieu ma reine (farewell my queen) , one can say without looking at the grammar.”

So, the Brigadier advises “articles and military regulations”, the Advisor - “Code and decrees”; Brigadier - “go through the notebooks.” And the Advisor sees the benefit of reading only “kind novels.”

And yet, Ivanushki and the Advisors in Fonvizin’s depiction are much more dangerous and terrible than the Advisors and Brigadiers. The latter served the state all their lives, to the best of their abilities: one in the military, the other in civil service.

Their service would be more useful to the fatherland if they were educated people.

In the comedy, Fonvizin ridicules the martinet, rudeness and cruelty of one and the hypocrisy and bribery of the other. The internal appearance of these characters, according to Fonvizin, does not correspond to the ideal of a nobleman.

But children raised in different conditions did not become more educated than their fathers. Unlike their parents, they considered themselves free from fulfilling their duty and indulged in

enjoying life. Such behavior, from Fonvizin’s point of view, is generally unworthy of the title of nobleman, therefore the theme of Ivan with his consumerist attitude to life is revealed in the comedy in a sharply satirical way. All his concepts and ideas, which guide him in his life, are condemned: here is his attitude towards the Fatherland, education, national culture, language, national morals, family. His conversations with the Brigadier, Advisor, Brigadier, Dobrolyubov are imbued with the author’s deep irony, aimed at condemning a nobleman who has forgotten about his duties, bringing “dishonor” to his class . “It’s all about education”, says Dobrolyubov, and the Brigadier agrees. Fashionable French education combined with reading romance novels led to the formation of a young rake, for whom “lace and blondes” are the main thing in life.

True nobles in comedy are Dobrolyubov and Sophia. They are distinguished by intelligence, education, humanity, love for the Fatherland, respect for native culture, language, high morality, consciousness of one's duty. In this regard they were close noble heroes high tragedy. They appeared before the audience not just as lovers and suffering from the evil of others, but as people concerned about the fate of their class. They understood the need for his recovery and recognized the abnormality of the current situation in the state. “The greed of our covetous people has passed all limits. It seems that there are no prohibitions that could calm them down."“, says Dobrolyubov, characterizing the situation in the courts.

Fonvizin's "Brigadier" had a decisive influence on the subsequent development of the comedy genre.

Ivan's image

The image of Ivanushka is the image of an ordinary gallomaniac who despises both his family and his homeland. Fonvizin writes about the danger of this process, since what began with lack of education, promiscuity, bad upbringing in the family ends with the nobleman forgetting his duty to the Fatherland, this is not a family problem, but a state problem. Father and son are close: Ivan is a continuation of his father, only more dangerous, unprincipled, he has no respect for anyone. Enlightenment ideology sees in Ivan a new animal, but not a person, he is unreasonable, unenlightened, there is no spiritual qualities, however, he continues the philosophy of the generation of fathers who, with their behavior and service, disgraced the rank of nobleman. Both the Brigadier and the Advisor are immoral and unprincipled people, but both are successful, both consider themselves role models. Already contemporaries (Count Panin) noticed the innovation of comedy, calling it a “comedy of manners.”

Artistic Features

Fonvizin uses the techniques of self-exposure of characters and Aesopian language, socially oriented characterization of characters: “...life invades his (Fonvizin’s) stage” (G. Gukovsky).

Realistic tendencies were most clearly manifested in the image of the Brigadier. IN female image Akulina Timofeevna is not only a negative character, typical traits appear in him ( we're talking about O mass phenomenon in folk life).

They were accused of borrowing heavily from Western writers. Such borrowings were found not only in letters and articles, but even in “Nedorosl” and “Brigadier”. In “The Brigadier,” even the basis of the plot and the character of one of the main characters (Ivanushka) are taken from Golberg’s comedy “Jean de France.” Nevertheless, the most cursory analysis shows that “The Brigadier” (see its full text and characteristics of the characters) remains an original comedy that grew organically in the process of development of Russian drama.

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin

With regard to dramatic composition Fonvizin follows in the five-act “Brigadier” the principles that Sumarokov had previously used for his small (no more than three acts) comedies. In The Brigadier there is no single plot movement that covers all the positions of the play and through them all its characters. It breaks up into a number of episodes more or less independent from each other. Love affair virtuous heroes, which should seem to connect these episodes, fades into the background and only occasionally emerges in comedy. In this regard, in “Brigadier”, in fact, there are no main central characters(Dobrolyubov and Sophia play too small role in the play). Groups of characters pass before the viewer, each with its own limited plot core; each of them carries its own "dramatic interest".

And so the plan for this comedy was created, where one pair of lovers is followed by another, and all the threads of these novels are pulled together only in final scenes, which bring out the love affairs of all the characters. This technique of comedy, in which almost all scenes are a deviation from the almost fictitious main intrigue, elevating comic situations to an end in themselves, goes back to the technique of sideshow-farce of the early 18th century (and maybe earlier). This technique of the repertoire, which had already become almost popular, was developed by Sumarokov, creating techniques for combining a whole series of interlude passages into a comedy of a larger volume, and finally, Fonvizin used it in a 5-act comedy.

Fonvizin. Brigadier. Audiobook (1 act)

An analysis of the principles of constructing the roles of “The Brigadier” also reveals Sumarokov’s techniques in them. Based on one or two comic touches, very specific and related to the everyday material of our time, a caricature is created, a bright, but simplified in its hyperbolic character (for example, the Brigadier is a stingy fool, or Ivanushka is a person in love with everything French). The characters are placed in sharply comic situations that emphasize their exaggerated ludicrousness. Fonvizin's comedy is filled with distinct everyday details; on stage they drink tea, play cards, talk about the little things of the household, etc. Its realism is emphasized by language that is very simple, even rude. However, the individual speech of the characters (Russian-French in Ivanushka, soldier’s in the Brigadier), serving as one of the brightest ways of characterizing these caricature characters, is itself constructed in a caricature, since it is entirely composed of elements that are hyperbolic in their characteristic comic style. Fonvizin’s desire, first of all, to make the viewer laugh was reflected in the fact that all his roles are filled with witticisms, comic tricks, etc.

The artistic originality of D. I. Fonvizin’s play “The Brigadier”
1. Fonvizin’s first comedy. 2. The author’s innovation in “The Brigadier”. 3. The significance of the play for the development of Russian comedy.

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin, who acquired a “taste for verbal science” while still at the university, was one of the founders of the new literature of the early 18th century, characterized primarily by educational aesthetics. In 1762, the writer presented his first translations to readers, which immediately won the hearts of lovers of Russian literature. “Moral fables with explanations by Mr. Goldberg” by Fonvizin differed significantly from the original, since the writer discarded unnecessary details, Latin terms and information revealing unfavorable relations between religious sects, and wittily and succinctly stated the essence of the work. Denis Ivanovich’s literary experience accumulated while working on translations and short plays.

In 1769, Fonvizin’s first comedy, “The Brigadier,” was completed. This work was to some extent dedicated to well-known events unfolding in the public life of that period. Active preparations were underway for the opening and work of the Commission for drawing up a new code, which worried all the nobility. The main characters of the comedy are nobles; moreover, almost all of them belong to the category of negative characters. In his work, Fonvizin seems to refute those invaluable services to the fatherland of the “noble class” with which the landowners covered up their uncontrolled ownership of serfs. Thus, at pillory in the comedy, a military man, an official and a nobleman, stuffed with all sorts of French nonsense, turned out to be in an unsightly form.

The play fully implements Diderot's advice - “to transfer the living room to the theater.” All the characters are so natural that it seems as if they were just ripped out of everyday life. Before this, not a single Russian play could boast of such a beginning. After the curtain rose, the viewer seemed to be present at the continuation of the conversation that had begun even before the curtain opened. The action took place in the room of the Councilor's village house. The foreman walked casually from corner to corner, the hostess treated the young guest to tea, who, breaking down, sat at the tea table. The advisor's daughter was embroidering on a hoop. The play is subject to the basic rules of high comedy classicism.

Here, such features of classicism as static action and schematic characters are clearly visible, but there are also obvious deviations from traditional canons. For example, the Brigadier’s son Ivanushka, who by nature of his character is incapable of serious feelings, at the end of the work suddenly shows something sincere when parting. So Fonvizin is trying to bring the scene closer to real life and show reality more plausibly and widely than classicism allows. At the same time, the author tried not only to ridicule the vulgar, disgusting and absurd aspects of the life of the nobility of his time, but also to reveal their reasons, to make public their social predetermination.

Why do people like this appear? The Brigadier himself answers this question, complaining that he allowed his wife to spoil their son Ivanushka, and did not enroll him in the regiment, where he would be taught wisdom. Despite his rudeness and ignorance, the Brigadier realizes the harmful results of fashionable “upbringing” and spoiling, since he fully experienced them himself. Ivanushka’s attitude towards his own parents is fully manifested in his words: “So, you know that I am a very unhappy person. I’ve been living for twenty-five years and still have a father and a mother.” The Advisor and the Brigadier are typical representatives of the “noble class” of that time. In the middle of the century, according to Sumarokov, extortion was so ingrained in the Russian bureaucratic and judicial apparatus that the empresses themselves had to speak out against it. Both Elizaveta Petrovna at the end of her reign, and Catherine II, who then came to power, drew attention to the widespread bribery in government structures.

In his play, the author reveals the character of the Advisor both as a bribe-taker-philosopher and as a bribe-taker-practitioner. In a conversation with Sophia, he says that solving a case for just a salary is contrary to his nature, his “human nature...” For the sake of the Brigadier’s favorite villages, the Advisor is ready to marry his only daughter Sophia to the “fool” Ivanushka. For the first time in classic comedy the images of the characters are revealed with the help of information from the past lives of the heroes. This helps to understand the essence even deeper artistic image, as well as identify the causes and conditions that shape character.

In revealing the images of the Brigadier, the Brigadier and the Advisor, the author goes far beyond traditional classicism, since he carries out a thorough analysis of existing morals and creates a national typical character. According to Fonvizin’s contemporaries, character and disposition are two different concepts. If character presupposes some innate impulses for a certain action, then character is skills instilled by upbringing. Famous critic P. N. Berkov believed that in “The Brigadier” morals significantly dominate over characters. Fonvizin's innovation in the play "The Brigadier" was also manifested in the masterful use of natural and witty language. Each character has a clearly recognizable vocabulary, which perfectly characterizes from one side or another. So, for example, the Advisor deliberately uses Church Slavonic phrases in his speech, which only emphasizes the hypocrisy of this person. The Brigadier and the Brigadier, due to their ignorance, are distinguished by their vernacular. Ivanushka and Sovetnitsa use macaroni, close to the colloquial speech of dandies from the pages of satirical magazines. What is also surprising is that even “to themselves” these people speak in their own language. In Fonvizin's play the new method literature - realistic typification.

Fonvizin's play played a huge role in further development Russian comedy, since it was in it that the basic principles of a new direction in drama and literature were first laid down. Subsequently, other authors successfully used the writer’s discoveries when creating their works. For example, Sumarokov in his comedy “Cuckold by Imagination” also brings provincial landowner life to the stage. The play was such a success with the audience that N.I. Panin, the head of the foreign policy of the Russian state, a skilled diplomat and a highly educated person, invited the author to the position of secretary at the Foreign Collegium.

"Brigadier." A comedy in five acts, written by the innovator of dramatic art Denis Fonvizin in 1769. Satirical comedy differs in realism.

Fonvizin very accurately depicted the conflict between virtue and immorality, intelligence and stupidity. The playwright wanted to show an environment where apathy, lack of spirituality and mental limitation reign, which means there can be no talk of any enlightenment.

The desire for European trends will not take root where it becomes just an unsuccessful parody. To start talking about lofty things, you must first overcome your own ignorance. D. created a whole study of the morals of society, which he embodied in “The Brigadier”.

So what is the plot of the famous play?

The play tells about a fairly ordinary everyday situation - a wedding. Brigadier Ignatiy Andreevich and his wife Akulina Timofeevna want a marriage between their son Ivan and the adviser’s daughter Sofia. The girl is incredibly beautiful and smart, unlike her dull fiancé.

Ivan was recently in Paris, where he picked up newfangled ideas, and now he inserts everywhere French words, considering himself “Russian in body and French in soul.” Sophia is not at all happy about such a marriage, unlike her mother, who has read too many romance novels.

In contrast to the wife’s stupidity is the Advisor, as well as Ivan’s parents, who are ordinary Russian nobles who do not see the need for grammar. True, the further the events develop, the more strongly it is felt that the other characters are not much different from Ivan in their judgments.

People who decide to become a family have no common interests: the brigadier is a military man, Akulina thinks only about the household, and the Advisor is busy only with his legal career. Ivan does not want marriage and calls his parents animals, and Sophia loves Dobrolyubov. But the adviser insists on marriage, hiding another more piquant reason for his decision. He fell in love with the foreman, and the foreman with the adviser.

Behind all these fake feelings and Ivan’s ignorance, only Dobrolyubov and Sophia look real. Only lovers do not have a chance to be together for a reason quite familiar to that society: the man has no money. It seems to Sophia that everyone around her is in love, only the love of these people is dishonest and shameful, while hers is based on good intentions and bright feelings.

It soon turns out that Ivan falls in love with the adviser and even confesses his feelings to her. They suit each other, for both are delighted with everything French. This scene, of course, is noticed by the rest of the relatives. An attempt to blame each other ends with the realization of the guilt of everyone in this house.

The foreman asked for the love of the adviser, and she was delighted with Ivan, and the adviser confessed to the foreman. As a result, everyone goes home and the wedding does not take place. Sophia is happy about this, who is now allowed to be happy with Dobrolyubov. Her love won, as did spirituality over ignorance. “They say that living with a conscience is bad: now I have learned that living without a conscience is worse than anything in the world!” These are the words the Advisor says, admitting his unworthy behavior.

Perhaps this phrase can be used to summarize what the author wanted to say, who wanted to show the immorality of society, the numerousness of their vices and the need to raise their spiritual level.