We study the spectral (linear) stability and orbital (nonlinear) stability of the elliptic solutions for the focusing modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation with respect to subharmonic perturbations and construct the corresponding breather solutions to exhibit the unstable or stable dynamic behavior. The elliptic function solutions of mKdV equation and the fundamental solutions of Lax pair are exactly represented by using the theta function. Based on the `modified squared wavefunction (MSW) method, we construct all linear independent solutions of the linearized KdV equation, and then provide a necessary and sufficient condition of the spectral stability for the elliptic function solutions with respect to subharmonic perturbations. In the case of spectrum stable, the orbital stability of the elliptic function solutions with respect to subharmonic perturbations is established under a suitable Hilbert space. Using Darboux-Backlund transformation, we construct the breather solutions to exhibit the unstable or stable dynamic behavior. Through analyzing the asymptotical behavior, we find the breather solution under the $mathrm{cn}$-background is equivalent to the elliptic function solution adding a small perturbation as $ttopminfty$.
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