Pokondirena tikva

The work was published in 1838, and tells the story of a widow, Femi, a woman who, after her husband's death, tried to rise in society by force. She has money that her husband left her after a lifetime of hard work, in which she also helped him, but she tries to deny this entire past life, acting as if she had always been of noble birth. She denies that she ever worked, that her husband was a shoemaker, that her current family is also hardworking and successful. Instead, she adorns herself with unnecessary trinkets and expensive dresses, demanding that her daughter be equally gentlemanly, that her servants behave like servants of gentlemen, and so on. All this causes laughter among the readers, because, for example, the previous apprentice Jovan cannot transform overnight into a refined servant Johan, Jean or Hans, who speaks fluent French and knows how to dress in the latest fashion. However, behind all these ridiculous situations and mad demands of Mrs. Fema, there is a very deep point of the work. Fema behaves as if she is a madwoman. She throws furniture out of the house because such decor is in fashion, she speaks French and German even though she is completely clumsy in foreign languages, she imagines that she is hanging out with counts and barons, although her only friend is a woman who also pretends to be noble, but is actually a cook – both of them impress each other with their company, not knowing that they are both fake. Fema wants to marry her daughter to a famous philosopher, and when he proposes marriage to her during the arrangement – ​​she gives herself the title of “Mrs. Philosopher” – proud that no one has one, although that title actually means nothing. Because of all this, Mrs. Fema is a “pokondirena tikva”, an expression coined by Sterija Popović himself, and later became established in the Serbian language as the correct expression for a person who is nobody and nothing, but considers himself important. She adorned herself with false splendor and is proud of it, and everyone around her sees that she is worthless, and they do not even understand her need for self-praise. The spoiled pumpkin is “a pig that wants to be ridden”, another description from this play, and it perfectly describes the character of this lady. This comedy actually has no real plot. There are no special events that could form a classic introduction, plot, climax and denouement. The entire essence of the work revolves around the actions of Mrs. Fema. Small fragments of the plot are actually depictions of Fema's antics. She does nothing, she just sits in the room and orders the people around her. And this ordering is reduced to complaining about their vulgarity and elevating herself as “noble” or noble. Apart from words, no other action shows that this woman is truly noble. As such, she attracts people like herself, and almost married a fake philosopher, thinking that she would elevate herself, while the same philosopher, a former shop assistant, tries to seduce (fake) gentlemen with false glamour and thus elevate himself on the social ladder.