What is the moral in the fable of the mirror and the monkey? Theme: “Mirror and Monkey”
The fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” by Krylov tells how the stupid Monkey expressed contempt for her own reflection in the mirror.
Read the text of the fable:
Monkey, seeing his image in the Mirror,Quietly push Bear with his foot:
“Look,” he says, “my dear godfather!”
What kind of face is that there?
What antics and jumps she has!
I would hang myself from boredom
If only she was even a little like her.
But, admit it, there is
Of my gossips, there are five or six such crooks:
I can even count them on my fingers." -
\"Why should gossips work?
Isn’t it better to turn on yourself, godfather?\" -
Mishka answered her.
But Mishenka’s advice was wasted.
There are many such examples in the world:
No one likes to recognize themselves in satire.
I even saw this yesterday:
Everyone knows that Klimych is dishonest;
They read about bribes to Klimych.
And he furtively nods at Peter.
Moral of the fable The Mirror and the Monkey:
Moral of the story: no one wants to see themselves in satire and denunciation. The fabulist shows that the one who hears the reproof first of all thinks that it is addressed to another. I. A. Krylov loved to make fun of human shortcomings using images of animals. It was not without reason that he made a monkey the main character of the fable. She makes fun of her own antics, like ignoramuses who notice “the beam in someone else’s eye.” Few people notice their shortcomings and correct them. Everyone is good at judging others.
Mirror and monkey drawing
Fable The Mirror and the Monkey read text online
Monkey, seeing his image in the Mirror,
Quietly push Bear with his foot:
“Look,” he says, “my dear godfather!
What kind of face is that there?
What antics and jumps she has!
I would hang myself from boredom
If only she was even a little like her.
But, admit it, there is
Of my gossips, there are five or six such crooks:
I can even count them on my fingers." -
"Why should gossips consider working,
Isn’t it better to turn on yourself, godfather?” -
Mishka answered her.
But Mishenka’s advice was wasted.
There are many such examples in the world:
I even saw this yesterday:
Everyone knows that Klimych is dishonest;
They read about bribes to Klimych.
And he furtively nods at Peter.
The Mirror and the Monkey - Moral of the fable by Ivan Krylov
There are many such examples in the world:
No one likes to recognize themselves in satire.
Moral in your own words, the main idea and meaning of the fable The Mirror and the Monkey
Often people do not notice shortcomings in themselves, but they readily criticize others.
Analysis of the fable The Mirror and the Monkey
In the fable “The Mirror and the Monkey,” fabulist I. A. Krylov showed a casual conversation between two animals, in which the bear poked his face at the monkey’s ignorance and pointed out the shortcomings of people. The monkey, looking at her reflection, for some reason saw the shortcomings of all her friends and acquaintances, but not her own.
The author ridicules such people through his works, translating their behavior into the image of a particular animal. But quite often there are individuals who have too high an opinion of themselves, in contrast to the stupid and unattractive surroundings. Many have encountered at least once such ignorant people who do not even notice their own shortcomings, but actively point out those of others and laugh at them. So in this fable, the monkey is unable to admit that the little creature he sees is himself, and does not pay attention to the bear’s advice at all, letting it fall on deaf ears.
People who are depicted in the fable as a bear are often silent and try not to interfere with the behavior of the “monkeys,” which further emphasizes the latter’s confidence in their rightness. But this is probably not the right decision and such ignorance and arrogance should be stopped.
Heroes of the fable
Monkey
Represents people with high self-esteem who only see the shortcomings of others
Bear
A wise man who can see more from the outside and who gives the right advice, but the monkey does not listen to him.
Winged expressions that came from the fable The Mirror and the Monkey
Listen to Ivan Krylov's fable The Mirror and the Monkey
Sound filmstrip. Read by Ilyinsky
Fables were written by many literary figures, but Ivan Andreevich Krylov became more famous than other fabulists: his surname, like the names of La Fontaine and Aesop, became practically synonymous with fables.
Fabulist I.A. Krylov
Ivan Andreevich came from a poor family of an employee of a dragoon regiment. His father “was not trained in science,” but he knew how to write, and he loved reading even more. The son inherited from his father a whole chest of books and literacy lessons.
As a teenager, he lost his father, but continued to study French in a wealthy neighbor's house, while at the same time enlisting in the civil service. Ivan tried to write even then and showed his works to knowledgeable literary scholars. However, the tragedies and dramas he wrote were far from perfect, although they gave an idea of Krylov’s potential.
The writer was restless in temperament, constantly looking for new opportunities and styles. His rebellious spirit pushed him toward change and risk: entire periods of his biography are lost on researchers. Where he was? What did you do?
The apparent chaotic movement actually became the stone on which the skills of the future fabulist were honed.
Krylov's sharp feather
His character was skeptical and sarcastic: Ivan Andreevich tended to see the negative sides of phenomena and the funny actions of people. Since childhood, I have been a fan of La Fontaine, the famous French fabulist, and have repeatedly tried to translate his fables into Russian.
From his youth, Krylov wrote works with a satirical tinge: he was inclined to expose not only social vices, but also famous fellow citizens, ridiculing them mercilessly.
Krylov published magazines with an accusatory slant, publishing literary cartoons and satire. However, the life of the publications was short-lived, they were not very popular, and the publisher closed them quite soon.
Ivan Andreevich never stopped looking for his niche. At the beginning of the 19th century, Krylov showed translations of La Fontaine to the fable expert I.I. Dmitriev, to which he replied: “This is your true family; you have finally found it.”
And indeed, Krylov’s entire character suited the work of the fabulist perfectly: his skeptical, sharp mind, observation, satirical perception of reality, and education. In search of his own style, Ivan Andreevich polished his abilities and gradually became a master of words.
Proverbs from Krylov's fables
So, Ivan Andreevich finally found his unique niche in literature. It is significant that from that moment his career and financial situation began to gradually go uphill.
Krylov went to work at the Imperial Public Library, from where many years later he retired as a quite wealthy man. His fables became popular and were published during his lifetime: 9 collections were published over 35 years!
Masterfully composed figures of speech, full of satire and sometimes ridicule, often turned into catchphrases from a fable! “Mirror and Monkey”, “Quartet”, “Swan, Cancer and Pike” - each work presents succinct and precise incriminating phrases that make the reader smile.
Who is not familiar with the expressions: “It’s your fault that I want to eat” or “It’s just a mess and it’s still there”? These lines of Krylov turned into speech allegories.
The author wrote 236 fables - one more beautiful than the other. The meaning of Krylov's fables is studied today in the school curriculum, because, despite a century and a half that has passed since his time, the satire of the fables remains relevant, and the heroes are ridiculously recognizable. Any schoolchild can easily remember popular expressions from the fable.
"Mirror and Monkey"
The fable tells about an unconscious monkey. She has no idea what she looks like from the outside, or she doesn’t want to know. It is easier and more interesting for her to find flaws in her “gossips” - she knows almost everything about them.
When the observant godfather Bear tries to delicately hint to the Monkey that this is her own reflection in the mirror, she simply ignores his words. “No one likes to recognize themselves in satire,” the author mockingly summarizes.
The fable consists of only a few lines, but how accurately it describes the criticism and hypocrisy that are so widespread in society! Krylov aptly ridicules the gross egoism and mental blindness of the monkey: The monkey and the mirror become symbols of exorbitant conceit, reaching the point of ridiculousness.
The author mercilessly ridicules human vices, according to all the rules of fabulous writing - in the images of animals. He skillfully selects not only the plot and characters, but also the words they speak. Catchphrases from fables become especially funny and caustic.
The Mirror and the Monkey are essentially two main characters: The monkey only needs the Bear to discuss the “gossip” and boast: they say, but I’m not like that! The Bear's advice, as the fabulist writes, "only went to waste." The lines of the fable evoke an involuntary smile from everyone: everyone remembered someone from the environment who looked like a Monkey. The author seems to encourage readers to look at themselves in the mirror, to discover and neutralize the “monkey in themselves.”
Winged expressions from the fable "The Mirror and the Monkey"
In such a short fable, many expressions have already become popular: people use them in conversation as established ones, denoting a well-known phenomenon.
For example, speaking about a poisonous gossip who sees only other people’s shortcomings around him: “Why should the godmother work, isn’t it better to turn on yourself, godfather?”
Talking about a man blaming others for his own sins: “They read about bribes to Klimych, but he furtively nods at Peter.”
Many apt, daring, full of satire lines, as if adopting the author’s surname, have become popular today! The meaning of Krylov's fables is obvious - they expose human vices that have become commonplace.
Many of us remember lines from rhyming stories about various animals from childhood. The author of these works, Ivan Andreevich Krylov, is a famous Russian fabulist, the fame of whose poems has long gone beyond the borders of his homeland. It's no secret that by ridiculing the actions of animals, this author revealed various things for which he was more than once condemned by critics, and the fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” is just such a work. Let's take a closer look at this fascinating story and try to understand its meaning.
The fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” has a fascinating plot, the action of which begins with the fact that the monkey accidentally notices himself in the mirror and fixes his gaze on it. The poem very accurately describes all the emotions that she experiences at the same time: contempt and disgust, because the monkey has no idea that she herself is looking at her. Along the way, pushing the bear sitting next to her, the main character of the plot begins to share with him her thoughts about the person who is looking at her from the reflection, calling her a pretentious one and comparing her with her gossip friends, to which the bear did not explain to the monkey that her own face is looking at her from the other side, but only hinted at this fact, which remained completely misunderstood by the monkey.
“The Mirror and the Monkey” - Krylov’s fable, ridiculing vile people
The comparison between man and monkey is given in this work for a reason. The example of such an animal shows the behavior of vile people who notice the shortcomings of others, but do not want to see their own flaws. The main moral of the fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” is concentrated in the last lines of the work, and it is there that the exact analogy of the monkey with the man is drawn. Krylov even indicated his name. This poem probably made those people who like to collect gossip worry, because they were literally compared to an ordinary monkey, and only a child could miss such an allegory.
The difficult meaning of poems, which is not studied by schoolchildren
The most interesting thing is that in revealing the morality, the author indicated a direct situation - bribery, which became widespread precisely from the time of Krylov’s life. The fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” was written by Ivan Andreevich, as they say, on the topic of the day, so it began to be actively discussed by the residents of Russia immediately after its publication.
Today, the rhymed stories of this author are studied by schoolchildren from grades 3-5, however, their hidden meaning is not accessible to every student. That is why teachers prefer to focus their attention on a simpler interpretation of the semantic load, rather than go deeper. Ivan Krylov amazingly combined in his fables an instructive meaning for children and deep morality, which for the most part was oriented towards the holders of power: unclean officials and illiterate managers, among whom the author constantly moved. The fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” became a kind of slap in the face to some of them.