Mitica
Encyclopedia
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
who appears in several sketch stories
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
by Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n writer Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
, and whose name is a common hypocoristic
Hypocoristic
A hypocorism is a shorter form of a word or given name, for example, when used in more intimate situations as a nickname or term of endearment.- Derivation :Hypocorisms are often generated as:...
form of Dumitru or Dimitrie (Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
for Demetrius
Demetrius
Demetrius, also spelled as Demetrios, Dimitrios, Demitri, and Dimitri , is a male given name.Demetrius and its variations may refer to the following:...
). One of the best-known figures in Caragiale's 1901
1901 in literature
The year 1901 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* First Nobel Prize for Literature awarded, to French poet Sully Prudhomme; many are outraged when Leo Tolstoy does not win...
collection Momente şi schiţe, as well as in Romanian humor at large, he is a male resident of Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
whose background and status are not always clear, generally seen as an allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
of the average Bucharester or, through extension, inhabitants of Romania's southern regions—Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and Muntenia
Muntenia
Muntenia is a historical province of Romania, usually considered Wallachia-proper . It is situated between the Danube , the Carpathian Mountains and Moldavia , and the Olt River to the west...
. According to various accounts, he was actually based on a resident of Sinaia
Sinaia
Sinaia is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. The town was named after Sinaia Monastery, around which it was built; the monastery in turn is named after the Biblical Mount Sinai...
, whom Caragiale had befriended.
Caragiale used Mitică as a stock character
Stock character
A Stock character is a fictional character based on a common literary or social stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes,...
to feature in various satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
contexts, and the biographical insights he provided are short and often contradict each other. Among Mitică's constant traits are his tendency to generate sarcastic
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Though irony and understatement is usually the immediate context, most authorities distinguish sarcasm from irony; however, others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony or employs...
comebacks and sententious catchphrases, a Francized
Francization
Francization or Gallicization is a process of cultural assimilation that gives a French character to a word, an ethnicity or a person.-French Colonial Empire:-Francization in the World:...
speech, as well as inclinations to waste time and easily find his way out of problematic situations. His existence is connected to various events in the history of Bucharest
History of Bucharest
The history of Bucharest covers the time from the early settlements on the locality's territory until its modern existence as a city, capital of Wallachia, and present-day capital of Romania.-Ancient times:...
, which he occasionally references in his jokes. Like Lache and Mache, who are also present in Caragiale's fiction, the character is usually portrayed as a civil servant who has a hard time making ends meet, but who is well liked by his peers.
On account of his caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
-like nature, Mitică survived in common reference beyond Caragiale's age. The character was portrayed by several actors, and most notably by Ştefan Iordache
Stefan Iordache
Ştefan Iordache was a Romanian actor. In 2006, he was voted the best actor in Romania.-Films:Ticalosii .... Didi Sfiosu Faraonul...
in the film De ce trag clopotele, Mitică?. In contemporary Romanian, his name was turned into a common noun, and often pluralized under the form mitici. During and after the 1990s, the terms surfaced in polemics surrounding Romania's centralism
Centralization
Centralisation, or centralization , is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location and/or group....
and the alternative projects for Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
's regional autonomy
Regional autonomy
Regional autonomy is the term for the decentralization of governance to outlying regions. Recent examples of disputes over autonomy include:* The Basque region of Spain* The Catalonian region of Spain...
. In this context, it was used in reference to administrators from Bucharest or the Old Kingdom
Romanian Old Kingdom
The Romanian Old Kingdom is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Danubian Principalities—Wallachia and Moldavia...
. In parallel, the term was adapted into a stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
of modern Bucharesters and inhabitants of other regions over the Southern Carpathians
Southern Carpathians
The Southern Carpathians or the Transylvanian Alps are a group of mountain ranges which divide central and southern Romania, on one side, and Serbia, on the other side. They cover part of the Carpathian Mountains that is located between the Prahova River in the east and the Timiș and Cerna Rivers...
, who are often portrayed as belonging to the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, as opposed to the Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
an traditions of Transylvania. Under these definitions, Mitică and mitici were notably present in essays authored by the Transylvanian activist Sabin Gherman.
Eponymous sketch
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(at a time when the Romanian capital was colloquially known as "little Paris" or "Paris of the East"), and mentions Gambrinus, a pub owned and managed by the writer himself:
"Of course we all ought to know [Mitică]: we bump into him so very often—in shops, in the trolley, in the tram car, on a bicycle, in the train wagon, at the restaurant, at Gambrinus—in short, everywhere.
Mitică is the Bucharester par excellence. And given that Bucharest is a little Paris, Mitică himself is, obviously, a little Parisian.
He is neither young nor old, neither handsome nor ugly, he is so so; he is a lad whose features are all balanced; but that which sets him apart, that which makes him have a marked character is his original and inventive spirit."
With sarcasm, Caragiale proceeds to indicate that the character's main trait is his inventive use of Romanian and his tendency to coin terms and make jokes, with which "First and foremost, our little Parisian astounds the provincials". The remainder of the sketch lists Mitică's various remarks, part of which are platitudes or clichés. Some of them are isolated observations, which the author defines as "sentimental, lyrical, and melancholic": "The most beautiful girl can only offer what she has to offer", "Life is a dream, death is an awakening", and "Every rose has its thorn".
Most of Mitică's lines are comebacks in dialogue, and Caragiale notes that his character takes pride in "being unrivaled" when it comes to these. The writer implicates himself in the story, portraying himself as his character's good friend and a main target for such remarks—for instance, he recounts that, soon after New Years' Eve 1900, Mitică pretended not to have recognized him because "it's been a century since we last saw each other!" He also writes how, when he was ordering a ţuica
Tuica
Ţuică is a traditional Romanian spirit of somewhere in between 45%-60% alcohol by volume. It is usually made from plums.Ţuică is the official name for the drink when it is prepared only from plums...
in the presence of Mitică, the latter jokingly asked the bartender not to comply, "for [Caragiale] is likely to drink it".
The character's lines offer glimpses into his financial and social status. Thus, he claims that he does not carry change because the metal might attract lightning, refuses to listen to his friends' confessions because they did not pay the revenue stamp
Revenue stamp
A revenue stamp, tax stamp or fiscal stamp is a adhesive label used to collect taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things...
for complaints, and, when told that cabs are available, he sarcastically tells the drivers that they may go home. In one instance, he publicizes his goal to run in elections, but explains that he is going to contest a non-existing seat—at a time when the Romanian Kingdom
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
made use of the census suffrage and had established electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
s to stand for the three wealth-based categories, he claims his intention to enlist in the fourth college, for the sparsely-populated area of Bucureştii-Noi. The sketch shows him to be married and to resent his mother-in-law, but also to be courting a young female telegraph-operator.
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
-like expressions. When recounting this to his friends that a clerk has been fired from office, refers to this "a promotion", elaborating that the new office involves "chasing flies out of [the park in] Cişmigiu
Cismigiu Gardens
The Cişmigiu Gardens are a public park near the center of Bucharest, Romania, spanning areas on all sides of an artificial lake. The gardens' creation was an important moment in the history of Bucharest. They form the oldest and, at 17 hectares, the largest park in city's central area...
". Caragiale also provides some of his character's one-liner jokes, which include references to garlic as "Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n vanilla", and to Romanian leu
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
banknotes as "Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
's pictures" (alluding to their design, which, at the time, featured a portrait of the Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
). His absurd requests also include asking a shopkeeper to sell him "a few centimeters" of yogurt, and telling friends to drink their beer "before it cools itself" or to "climb on top of a sheet of paper" in order to reach for clothes placed higher on a stand. Several of his puns refer to the switch from horse-drawn trams to trolley pole
Trolley pole
A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" overhead wire to the control and propulsion equipment of a tram or trolley bus. The use of overhead wire in a system of current collection is reputed to be the 1880 invention of Frank J....
s, for instance showing him blaming unexpected stops on horses not having been properly fed.
Other texts
Mitică was again present in Caragiale's Tot Mitică ("Mitică Still"), a sketch which only comprises sections of dialog. It begins with an exchange of lines between an unnamed character and Mitică, which was to become one of the best known puns in this sequence. When asked the general interest question De ce trage clopotele, Mitică? ("What are they sounding the [church] bells for, Mitică?", which, in the Romanian original, may also be interpreted as "What are they pulling the bells by?"), the protagonist answers De frânghie, monşer ("By the string, my dear").Tot Mitică offers other glimpses into the character's financial problems, showing him complaining that he has been "pulling the devil's tail"—using a traditional proverb to indicate that he has had a hard time getting by. To this, he adds that the devil would be suing him for injuries. He claims that he is going to spend his vacation in the mountains, and elaborates that he is talking about the pawnbroking
Pawnbroker
A pawnbroker is an individual or business that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral...
institution known as muntele de pietate (from the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
for "Mountain of Piety"; see Mont de Piété
Mont de Piété
A mount of piety was an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from the later Middle Ages times to the 20th century, more often referred to in English by the relevant local term , such as monte di pietà , mont de piété , or monte de piedad...
). Mitică also enters a restaurant to order only things which he knows are free ("a toothpick, a match, a glass of water and a newspaper"). In other such sequences of events, he is shown eating in a pub as a means to "defend himself from death", and borrowing money which he promises not to return.
When, in order to converse with a friend in a different compartment, he is traveling second class on a first class train ticket, Mitică asks the conductor to pay him the difference. He is also shown anxiously walking about in the Bucharest Tribunal
Palace of Justice (Bucharest)
The Palace of Justice , located in Bucharest, Romania, was built between 1890 and 1895.Located on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River, it houses the Bucharest Court of Appeal and the Sector 5 Court. Its last major restoration was between 2003 and 2006....
hall, and, although asking to see a lawyer for his defense, jokingly claims that he wants to be defended "from flies". However, when invited for a walk in the Herăstrău Park
Herastrau Park
Herăstrău Park is a large park on the northern side of Bucharest, Romania, around Lake Herăstrău.The park has an area of about 1.1 km², of which 0.7 km² is the lake. Initially, the area was full of marshes, but these were drained between 1930 and 1935, and the park was opened in 1936...
, which was heavily forested at the time, he pretends to have understood this as an invitation to chop trees, and stresses that he buys his firewood.
Mitică still frequents the beer garden
Beer garden
Beer garden is an open-air area where beer, other drinks and local food are served. The concept originates from and is most common in Southern Germany...
, and one of the dialogs mentions that he spends entire nights there. He is also shown to be flirting with various women, including the telephone operator, and boasts that several ladies visit him in his home.
The sketch includes several references to well-known characters of the day, including the Conservative Party leader Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
, the archaeologist Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore George Tocilescu was a Romanian historian, archaeologist, epigrapher and folkorist, member of Romanian Academy....
, the Royal
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
administrator Ioan Kalinderu, the actor Ion Niculescu (as Iancu Niculescu), as well as the dentist Kibrik. The character also reveals his tendencies toward political satire, with a one-liner introduced by Caragiale's definition of "Mitică as a chauvinist"—Mitică is shown announcing that the only song he wants to have played at his funeral is the nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
tune Deşteaptă-te, române!
Desteapta-te, române!
"Deșteaptă-te, române" is Romania's national anthem....
(which translates as "Awaken Thee, Romanian!").
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day is celebrated in different countries around the world on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when many people play all kinds of jokes and foolishness...
gone wrong. Late in the evening, this Mitică decides to hide in Cişmigiu
Cismigiu Gardens
The Cişmigiu Gardens are a public park near the center of Bucharest, Romania, spanning areas on all sides of an artificial lake. The gardens' creation was an important moment in the history of Bucharest. They form the oldest and, at 17 hectares, the largest park in city's central area...
while his lover Cleopatra pretends to court their common friend Mişu Poltronul—with simulated indignation, he takes Mişu by surprise as Cleopatra embraces him. Mitică dies hours after Mişu, who reacts out of instinct to his threatening voice, hits him over the forehead with a cane. Another Mitică—"Mr. Mitică the haberdasher", whose family name is probably Georgescu—is present in the 1900 sketch La Moşi ("At the Fair in Obor
Obor
Obor is the name of a square and the surrounding district of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. There is also a Bucharest Metro station named Obor, which lies in this area....
"), where he is shown accompanied by his family and ridiculing his mother-in-law in public. In another such piece, titled Iniţiativa... ("The Initiative..."), Caragiale recounts another dialog with "my buddy Mitică", who is shown to be unnerved that the Romanian state "is indifferent" to the fact that infants, his daughter included, do not have wet nurse
Wet nurse
A wet nurse is a woman who is used to breast feed and care for another's child. Wet nurses are used when the mother is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cultures the families are linked by a special relationship of...
s assigned to them, and that breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
has to rely on the private sector
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
. Another or the same Mitică makes a brief appearance in Inspecţiune ("An Inspection"), where he is one of the clerks investigating the bizarre suicide of the civil servant Anghelache.
A Mitică is also present in the piece called Ţal!...—the title comes from a face ţal ("to make ţal"), an antiquated expression which, as Caragiale explains in the beginning of his story, means "to make a payment" (from the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
zahlen). The writer illustrates this concept by invoking a meeting between him, Mitică, and Mitică's wife Graziella. Caragiale recounts how his friend served him and others a copious dinner in his house, and then made them sit through Graziella's reading of her own lengthy essay on women as portrayed in Romanian folklore. To this goal, Caragiale explains, Mitică discreetly claimed that it was ţal and added, using a quasi-official parlance, that "all bills are to be paid". The piece ends with Caragiale exiting Mitică's house in haste and: as the latter shouts "to be seeing each other", he exclaims "to be left alone, Mitică".
Background themes and sources of inspiration
Despite Mitică's association with Bucharest and his usual most common career as a state employee, several commentators have recounted that he may have been based on Gheorghe Matheescu, an entrepreneur from the town of SinaiaSinaia
Sinaia is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. The town was named after Sinaia Monastery, around which it was built; the monastery in turn is named after the Biblical Mount Sinai...
(located on the Prahova Valley
Prahova Valley
Prahova Valley is the valley where the Prahova river makes its way between the Bucegi and the Baiu Mountains, in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania. It is a tourist region, situated about 100 km north of the capital city of Bucharest.Geographically, the Prahova river separates the Eastern...
, in northern Muntenia). Matheescu took pride in this supposed connection, and, around 1939, argued in its favor in front of literary historian Şerban Cioculescu
Şerban Cioculescu
Şerban Cioculescu was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, as well as membership of the Romanian Academy and chairmanship of its Library...
. Cioculescu recorded the rumor, and indicated that it was backed by information received from Caragiale's daughter, Ecaterina Logadi. Her father reportedly enjoyed Matheescu's company, and, in 1901, even authored short advertisements for his store.
Mitică and Lache and Mache have often been seen as three manifestations of a main type in Caragiale's work—the petty clerk who spends his time off in lively company. Literary historian Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...
, an adherent to the left-wing trend known as Poporanism
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
, was among the first to stress that Mitică's name, like those of Lache and Mache, was actually supposed to enhance his everyday nature, while arguing that the character stood for the first generation of commoners with access to education. Ibrăileanu, who criticized Caragiale for his satirical overview of the social process, believed that the clerks in his work are unnecessarily cynical, and stressed that Inspecţiune was the only one of his works were "one sees at least one glitter of kindness in the souls of the mitici".
Literary historian George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
saw Mitică as a main representative of Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
subjects in Ion Luca Caragiale's prose, and listed among the character's other traits his pessimism
Pessimism
Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...
in respect to various historical developments, as well as his interest in rallying people off the street and imposing his ideas on them. He defined the latter aspect as "southern", and noted that, like other heroes of Caragiale's sketches, Mitică is "at the antipode of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
", and inhabits a place where "Gothic meditation does not flourish". In his history of the Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
literary society, Z. Ornea argued that there was a link between Mitică's personality and Caragiale's strong rejection of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
:
"Caragiale's mitici are jovial, good-natured characters, easy-going in their thought and behavior. Solemnity does not suit them and fanatical monomaniaMonomaniaIn 19th century psychiatry, monomania is a single pathological preoccupation in an otherwise sound mind. Emotional monomania is that in which the patient is obsessed with only one emotion or several related to it; intellectual monomania is that which is related to only one kind of delirious idea...
s are unimaginable in this context. An ecstatically nationalist Mitică is a contradiction in terms, since his formula in life is accommodation, adaption to the situations."
The character and his counterparts have also been understood as purveyors and exponents of moft, a concept treasured by Caragiale. The word, meaning "trifle" or "nonsense", refers to pretentious and often ridiculous expectations of people caricatured in his work, but is also uttered by such characters in reference to each other (as their tendency to dismiss events they are confronted with, no matter how important they may be). Moft was notably present in Caragiale's own satirical magazine, Moftul Român (which he issued at various intervals in the 1890s and after 1900). Two mentions of, respectively, moft and the magazine itself are made in Tot Mitică (in reference to Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
and to a woman courted by Mitică's friend Costică).
Mitică's voluble nature has itself been considered to have negative implications. An assessment of this was offered by Călinescu, who also rejected the popular take on the character as boorish:
"Mitică is a gossiper, a scoundrel, an intriguer, in general on account of his garrulous nature, and a generous and confusing mystifier, agreeing to render services without having the strength to complete them, which in turn permits him to ask services from anyone else [...]. He is easy-going, with a horror for suffering and is most of all a well-mannered man. The impression that Caragiale's heroes are vulgar is false and mostly arises from the fact that, wishing to seem distinguished, they have not yet cultivated their speech and gestures."
Caragiale created Mitică at a time when the Romanian culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
as developed in the Old Kingdom was the recipient of French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
influence, and the Romanian language was open to Francization
Francization
Francization or Gallicization is a process of cultural assimilation that gives a French character to a word, an ethnicity or a person.-French Colonial Empire:-Francization in the World:...
. The character himself partakes in the process, and is shown to have adopted several of the manners and pastimes associated with the French Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
.
Cultural and political symbol
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
of ignorance. He thus used the character to define the most ignorant of journalists and newspaper readers, and, in his lengthy essay titled Din registrul ideilor gingaşe ("From the Register of Gentle Ideas"), argued that Mitică's traits survived in the manners and morals of state employees and journalists after Caragiale's death, throughout World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and after the creation of Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
.
Political interpretations of Mitică's status were also present at an earlier stage: in his influential essay Neoiobăgia ("Neo-Serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
"), the Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
thinker Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
, himself a friend of Caragiale, used Iniţiativa...s protagonist to illustrate the interventionist
Interventionism
Interventionism may refer to:*Interventionism is a political term for significant activity undertaken by a state to influence something not directly under its control....
policies of the National Liberal
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
cabinets. He contended that the two terms of his comparison shared "a mania for [state] intervention", and argued that the National Liberals had a tendency to overregulate the economy.
Commentators such as Constantin Amăriuţei have proposed that there is an intrinsic connection between Mitică and Gore Pirgu, one of the protagonists in the novel Craii de Curtea-Veche
Craii de Curtea-Veche
Craii de Curtea-Veche is a novel by the inter-war Romanian author Mateiu Caragiale...
, authored by Ion Luca Caragiale's son and rival, the Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Ion Caragiale was a Romanian poet and prose writer, best known for his novel Craii de Curtea-Veche, which portrays the milieu of boyar descendants before and after World War I. Caragiale's style, associated with Symbolism, the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle, and early modernism, was...
. Pirgu, who enjoys a successful career during the interwar
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
despite having a shady past and coarse manners, has been defined by Amăriuţei as "the eternal and real Mitică of the Romanian world".
Constantin Amăriuţei was also noted for defining Mitică's character (Miticism) through onthologic terms borrowed from the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
philosopher Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
. He thus argued that, for all their mundane motivations, the character and his peers illustrated a search present with all individuals, identifiable with Heidegger's concepts of Being-in-the-World and Being-toward-death (see Heideggerian terminology
Heideggerian terminology
Martin Heidegger, the 20th-century German philosopher, introduced to the world a large body of work which intended a profound change of direction for philosophy...
).
In 2000, several essays by literary historian Laurenţiu Ulici were published posthumously, under the title Mitică şi Hyperion ("Mitică and Hyperion
Hyperion (mythology)
Hyperion was one of the twelve Titans of Ancient Greece, the sons and daughters of Gaia and Ouranos , which were later supplanted by the Olympians. He was the brother of Cronus. He was also the lord of light, and the Titan of the east...
"). This name drew a direct comparison between the voluble Mitică and an equally famous character in Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, the aloof, rational, and god-like protagonist of Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
's poem Luceafărul ("The Morning Star"). Ulici attempted to synthesize the two conflicting natures in the Romanian identity, and viewed the two as terms in "an oxymoron
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms...
" standing at the center of Romanian culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
.
In his essay on the history of drunkenness in Romanian culture, Mircea Bălan defined Mitică as:
"The Bucharest wise guy, a haughty rascal, a swindler doubled by a thief and a boor giving himself airs, deplorable, awkward and discredited from the get-go, in reality an aborted «dastard», an aborted «wanton»."
Although she agreed that there was a link between Mitică and other characters in Caragiale's sketches, literary critic Ioana Pârvulescu argued that formed an integral part of the writer's caricature of Romania in its entirety, and that the measure to which they reflected reality is impossible to detect. In her 2007 volume of essays, titled În Ţara Miticilor. De şapte ori Caragiale ("In the Land of the Mitici. Seven Times Caragiale"), she stressed that the character was both more human and more artificial than his usual interpretations in 20th century commentary.
A particular definition of Mitică and mitici was adopted by many inhabitants of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, who used the terms in reference to either Bucharest-based politicians or inhabitants of the city at large, and contrasted them with their counterparts to the northwest. The character has thus evolved to include a stereotypical
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
view of contemporary Bucharesters or Wallachians, one which depicts them as sciolist, arrogant, aggressive and cunning. In other contexts, the mitici may be seen as not having an adequate familiarity with the culture of Transylvania, and are associated with the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
(whereas Transylvania is identified with Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
).
In September 1998, the Transylvanian journalist and essayist Sabin Gherman issued a pamphlet titled M-am săturat de România ("I've Grown Tired of Romania"), which was at the center of a scandal over its radical tone and demands for regional autonomy
Regional autonomy
Regional autonomy is the term for the decentralization of governance to outlying regions. Recent examples of disputes over autonomy include:* The Basque region of Spain* The Catalonian region of Spain...
in Transylvania. In its first lines, the message drew a parallel between Mitică and "various politicians in power", identifying centralism and the politics of Romania
Politics of Romania
Politics of Romania take place in a framework of a semi-presidential parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Romania is the head of government and the President of Romania exercises the functions of head of state. Romania has a multi-party system. Executive...
with, among other things, disorganization and statism
Statism
Statism is a term usually describing a political philosophy, whether of the right or the left, that emphasises the role of the state in politics or supports the use of the state to achieve economic, military or social goals...
. Gherman went on to contrast "the seriousness, the elegance, the discipline" which he attributed to Transylvania with the invasion of "miticisms, ordinary Balkanisms, the civilization of pumpkin seeds". The latter sentence comprised a reference to the habit of consuming seeds as snacks, in which he saw evidence of rudimentary behavior:
"Here [that is, outside Transylvania], one doesn't have rights, but complaisances. Here they eat pumpkin seeds, they use «there is many» in their speech, and, in general, people get born, multiply themselves and die."
Portrayals and tributes
One of the best-known references to the character is the 1981 film1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
De ce trag clopotele, Mitică? (translated as "Why Are the Bells Ringing, Mitică?"), directed by Lucian Pintilie
Lucian Pintilie
-Filmography:* Duminică la ora şase * Reconstituirea * Salonul numărul 6 * De ce trag clopotele, Mitică? - see also the "Portrayals and tributes" section at Mitică* Balanţa * O vară de neuitat * Prea târziu...
. Although titled after the opening dialog in Tot Mitică, the film was actually structured around Caragiale's play D-ale carnavalului, and included portions from several other writings—including 1 Aprilie. Mitică, who makes a brief appearance before dying at the hands of Mişu Poltronul, is portrayed by Ştefan Iordache
Stefan Iordache
Ştefan Iordache was a Romanian actor. In 2006, he was voted the best actor in Romania.-Films:Ticalosii .... Didi Sfiosu Faraonul...
. De ce trag clopotele, Mitică? was noted for its subtle undertones, through which it expressed criticism of the Romanian communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
(at a time when the country was led by Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
).
In 2003, the Luceafărul Theater in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
hosted a dramatized version of Momente şi schiţe. Titled În lumea lui Mitică ("In Mitică's World"), it was directed by Constantin Brehnescu and starred Dionisie Vitcu.
The national television
Romanian television
Romanian television may refer to:* Communications media in Romania* Televiziunea Română, TVR, the national television network* List of Romanian language television channels...
channel TVR 2
TVR 2
TVR2, Televiziunea Română 2 , is the second channel of the public broadcaster TVR.The channel was created in 1968, but it was suspended from 1985 until after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989...
produces a weekly show titled D'ale lu' Mitică (roughly: "Mitică's Stuff"), whose title is inspired by Caragiale's hero. Hosted by the actor Mitică Popescu, the show groups reportage pieces from the Romanian countryside, recording unusual events which, the editors believe, serve to illustrate the problems faced by small communities in the post-1989 transition period
History of Romania since 1989
- 1989 revolution :1989 marked the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. A mid-December protest in Timişoara against the eviction of a Hungarian minister grew into a country-wide protest against the Ceauşescu régime, sweeping the dictator from power....
.
External links
- De ce trag clopotele, Mitică?, at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...