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." -
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 fable: 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.
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.
The fabulist Krylov was always able to clearly and clearly show the shortcomings of people using the example of animals, ridiculing their vices, and the author has many such works, among them Krylov’s fable The Mirror and the Monkey, and in order to understand the essence of the fable, we suggest you get acquainted with its text.
Krylov Mirror and Monkey
It all starts with the fact that the monkey accidentally saw his reflection in the mirror, but the whole point is that the monkey does not understand only one thing, he sees himself, so he so easily criticizes the “face” and even shares his observations with the bear that was near. The monkey tells him that if he had such a face, with some kind of “snuggles”, “antics”, he would “hang himself out of boredom.” At the same time, she tells the bear that she has such gossips. To which the clubfoot advised her not to count other monkeys, but to look at herself. But since the bear did not directly tell the monkey that it was his reflection in the mirror, the advice went unnoticed.
Krylov Mirror and the monkey main idea
The moral of Krylov’s fable is: “No one likes to recognize himself in satire.” Krylov in the fable The Mirror and the Monkey was able to show us the ignorance of people, people who tend to see the shortcomings of others, but they do not notice their own, they do not notice that they act in exactly the same way, or even worse. Probably, in Krylov’s fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” this is the main idea.
Listen to Krylov's fable
During his very long creative life, Ivan Andreevich Krylov wrote more than 200 fables. He not only revived the interest of Russian society in this rather rare genre, but also turned the fable itself into a subtle instrument for influencing the minds, hearts, and consciences of people. For centuries now, the fables of the great Russian fabulist have been included in school curriculum Russian literature, playing a very important teaching and educational role.
Not all fables have equal popularity, however, “The Mirror and the Monkey” is exactly the case when the text of the work is literally “pulled apart” into quotes, and almost every adult, even from school, can quote it.
Surprisingly, history has preserved the exact date of creation of the work - on January 2, 1816, Krylov finished the fable and soon published it in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland.”
One day Monkey got hold of a mirror somewhere and began to peer intently at her reflection. With indignation, the Monkey noticed, turning to the Bear, how ugly the “face” was in the mirror, how disgusting its jumps and antics were. And she concluded that if she herself looked like this “stranger” in the mirror, she would simply hang herself out of boredom. Although among her gossips there really are such crooks.
But the Bear answered with a grin to the stupid Monkey that before discussing her gossips, it would be better if she looked at herself. But the Monkey, as you might guess, did not understand the Bear’s advice.
A rare case: Krylov at the end of the fable, that is, in its moralizing part, introduces two more common characters - Klimych and Peter. The author remembers them as if they were his friends. Like, he recently saw Klimych and everyone knows about him that he takes bribes, but the arrogant Klimych, dishonest, furtively points at Peter.
Analysis of the morality of the work
The two heroes of the fable represent two different types people: Monkey - stupid, envious, boastful, loving gossip, and Bear, who can be described as wise, calm, intelligent.
In his work, Krylov addresses precisely personal shortcomings, and not social vices. The poet Chemnitser noted that, unfortunately, everyone is involved in this shortcoming to one degree or another - the reluctance to see bad traits in oneself, and to notice even minor mistakes in others. A wise Russian proverb immediately comes to mind: “I can see a speck in someone else’s eye, but I don’t see a log in my own.”
The author clearly shows the comedy of the situation that the Monkey himself created. Not realizing that in the reflection of the mirror it is she, the Monkey herself, the heroine begins to discuss her gossips, noticing that they are not beautiful and are pretentious.
As we know, Krylov, choosing animals as the main characters, always means a person with a characteristic set of qualities. And here he even emphasizes his allegory by introducing human characters at the end of the work. It is unknown whether this message was addressed to specific people (which happened more than once in the poet’s fables) or whether it is simply a collective image of vile people who do not see the “skeleton in the closet”, but like to point out the shortcomings of others.
The fable “The Mirror and the Monkey” is considered one of the original works. Although similar stories with similar morals were developed by other early fabulists. For example, Aesop said that every person from birth has two bags. In front hangs the one in which a person carries other people’s shortcomings, and in the back is a bag with his own weaknesses and sins. That’s why other people’s cons are more visible.
And another instructive message can be caught in the fable - this is the reluctance and inability to accept criticism, advice, a lesson. After listening to the wise word of the Bear, the Monkey still did not understand anything. So it is in life...
The Monkey, seeing himself in the mirror, told the Bear that there was some kind of face in the mirror. She really doesn’t like her, she knows about five or six of these monkeys, and she would hang herself with boredom if she looked like her! The bear replied that before considering a gossip, you need to look at yourself first. But Monkey did not listen to his advice. The author says that there are many such people around, for example, the bribe-taker Klimych, although he himself is not clean, but blames Peter for this.
Read the fable The Mirror and the Monkey 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 a gossip 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:
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.
(Illustration by Irina Petelina)
Moral of the story: The Mirror and the Monkey
People easily notice flaws in others, but have difficulty recognizing their own. negative traits.
The author encourages all those who are accustomed to judging the actions of others to look at themselves from the outside. Moreover, with the help of this fable, Krylov is trying to force a specific bribe-taker to do this, for which purpose he inserts his name into the text.
