A.N. Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow, in the family of a person from the clergy, an official, and later a solicitor of the Moscow Commercial Court. The Ostrovsky family lived in Zamoskvorechye, a merchant and bourgeois district of old Moscow. By nature, the playwright was a homebody: he lived almost his entire life in Moscow, in the Yauza part, regularly traveling, except for several trips around Russia and abroad, only to the Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma province. Here he died on June 2 (14), 1886, in the midst of work on the translation Shakespearean play"Antony and Cleopatra".
In the early 1840s. Ostrovsky studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, but did not complete the course, entering the service in the office of the Moscow Conscientious Court in 1843. Two years later he was transferred to the Moscow Commercial Court, where he served until 1851. Legal practice gave the future writer extensive and varied material. Almost all of his first plays about modernity developed or outlined crime plots. Ostrovsky wrote his first story at the age of 20, his first play at the age of 24. After 1851, his life was connected with literature and theater. Its main events were litigation with censorship, praise and scolding from critics, premieres, and disputes between actors over roles in plays.
For almost 40 years creative activity Ostrovsky created a rich repertoire: about 50 original plays, several plays written in collaboration. He was also involved in translations and adaptations of plays by other authors. All this constitutes the “Ostrovsky theater” - this is how the scale of what was created by playwright I.A. Goncharov was defined.
Ostrovsky passionately loved the theater, considering it the most democratic and effective form art. Among the classics of Russian literature, he was the first and remains the only writer who devoted himself entirely to drama. All the plays he created were not “plays for reading” - they were written for the theater. For Ostrovsky, stagecraft is an immutable law of dramaturgy, therefore his works belong equally to two worlds: the world of literature and the world of theater.
Ostrovsky's plays were published in magazines almost simultaneously with their theatrical productions and were perceived as bright phenomena of both literary and theatrical life. In the 1860s. they aroused the same lively public interest as the novels of Turgenev, Goncharov and Dostoevsky. Ostrovsky made dramaturgy “real” literature. Before him, in the repertoire of Russian theaters there were only a few plays that seemed to have descended onto the stage from the heights of literature and remained alone (“Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboyedov, “The Inspector General” and “Marriage” by N.V. Gogol). The theatrical repertoire was filled either with translations or works that did not have any noticeable literary merit.
In the 1850s -1860s. the dreams of Russian writers that theater should become a powerful educational force, a means of shaping public opinion, found real ground. Drama has a wider audience. The circle of literate people has expanded - both readers and those for whom serious reading was not yet accessible, but theater is accessible and understandable. A new one was being formed social layer- common intelligentsia who showed increased interest in the theater. The new public, democratic and motley in comparison with the first public half of the 19th century century, gave a “social order” for social and everyday drama from Russian life.
The uniqueness of Ostrovsky's position as a playwright is that, by creating plays based on new material, he not only satisfied the expectations of new viewers, but also fought for the democratization of the theater: after all, theater is the most popular of spectacles - in the 1860s. still remained elitist; there was no cheap public theater yet. The repertoire of the theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg depended on officials of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. Ostrovsky, reforming Russian drama, also reformed the theater. He wanted to see not only the intelligentsia and enlightened merchants as spectators for his plays, but also “owners of craft establishments” and “craftsmen.” Ostrovsky's brainchild was the Moscow Maly Theater, which embodied his dream of a new theater for a democratic audience.
There are four periods in Ostrovsky’s creative development:
1) First period (1847-1851)- time of the first literary experiments. Ostrovsky began quite in the spirit of the times - with narrative prose. In his essays on the life and customs of Zamoskvorechye, the debutant relied on Gogol’s traditions and creative experience “ natural school» 1840s During these years, the first dramatic works were created, including the comedy “Bankrut” (“We’ll count our own people!”), which became the main work of the early period.
2) Second period (1852-1855) are called “Moskvityanin”, since during these years Ostrovsky became close to the young employees of the Moskvityanin magazine: A.A. Grigoriev, T.I. Filippov, B.N. Almazov and E.N. Edelson. The playwright supported the ideological program of the “young editorial board,” which sought to make the magazine an organ of a new trend of social thought—“pochvennichestvo.” During this period, only three plays were written: “Don’t get into your own sleigh,” “Poverty is not a vice,” and “Don’t live the way you want.”
3) Third period (1856-1860) marked by Ostrovsky's refusal to search for positive principles in the life of the patriarchal merchants (this was typical for plays written in the first half of the 1850s). The playwright, who was sensitive to changes in the social and ideological life of Russia, became close to the leaders of the common democracy - the employees of the Sovremennik magazine. The creative outcome of this period were the plays “At Someone Else’s Feast a Hangover,” “Profitable Place” and “Thunderstorm,” “the most decisive,” according to N.A. Dobrolyubov, Ostrovsky’s work.
4) Fourth period (1861-1886)- the longest period of Ostrovsky’s creative activity. The genre range has expanded, the poetics of his works have become more diverse. Over twenty years, plays have been created that can be divided into several genre and thematic groups: 1) comedies from merchant life(“Not everything is Maslenitsa for the cat”, “The truth is good, but happiness is better”, “The heart is not a stone”), 2) satirical comedies (“Simplicity is enough for every wise man”, “Warm heart”, “Mad money”, “Wolves and sheep”, “Forest”), 3) plays that Ostrovsky himself called “pictures of Moscow life” and “scenes from the life of the outback”: they are united by the theme of “little people” (“An old friend is better than two new ones”, “ Hard days", "Jokers" and the trilogy about Balzaminov), 4) historical chronicle plays ("Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk", "Tushino", etc.), and, finally, 5) psychological dramas ("Dowry", " The last victim" and etc.). The fairy-tale play “The Snow Maiden” stands apart.
The origins of Ostrovsky’s creativity are in the “natural school” of the 1840s, although the Moscow writer was not organizationally connected with the creative community of young St. Petersburg realists. Starting with prose, Ostrovsky quickly realized that his true calling was drama. Already the early prose experiments are “scenic,” despite the most detailed descriptions of life and customs characteristic of the essays of the “natural school.” For example, the basis of the first essay, “The Tale of How the Quarterly Warden Started to Dance, or One Step from the Great to the Ridiculous” (1843), is an anecdotal scene with a completely complete plot.
The text of this essay was used in the first published work - “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” (published in 1847 in the newspaper “Moskovsky Gorodnogo Leaflet”). It was in “Notes...” that Ostrovsky, called by his contemporaries “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye,” discovered a “country” previously unknown in literature, inhabited by merchants, petty bourgeois and petty officials. “Until now, only the position and name of this country were known,” the writer noted, “as for its inhabitants, that is, their way of life, language, morals, customs, degree of education, all this was covered in the darkness of the unknown.” Excellent knowledge of life material helped Ostrovsky the prose writer to create a detailed study of merchant life and history, which preceded his first plays about the merchants. In “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” there are two characteristics Ostrovsky’s creativity: attention to the everyday environment that determines the life and psychology of characters “written from life”, and the special, dramatic nature of the depiction of everyday life. The writer was able to see in ordinary everyday stories potential, unused material for a playwright. The essays about the life of Zamoskvorechye were followed by the first plays.
Ostrovsky considered the most memorable day in his life to be February 14, 1847: on this day, at an evening with the famous Slavophile Professor S.P. Shevyrev, he read his first short play “ Family picture" But the real debut of the young playwright is the comedy “We Will Be Numbered Our Own People!” (the original title was “The Bankrupt”), on which he worked from 1846 to 1849. Theater censorship immediately banned the play, but, like “Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboedov, it immediately became a major literary event and was a success read in Moscow houses in the winter of 1849/50. by the author himself and major actors - P.M. Sadovsky and M.S. Shchepkin. In 1850, the comedy was published by the magazine “Moskvityanin”, but only in 1861 was it staged on stage.
The enthusiastic reception of the first comedy from merchant life was caused not only by the fact that Ostrovsky, “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye,” used completely new material, but also by the amazing maturity of his dramatic skill. Having inherited the traditions of Gogol the comedian, the playwright at the same time clearly defined his view on the principles of depicting characters and the plot and compositional embodiment of everyday material. The Gogolian tradition is felt in the very nature of the conflict: the fraud of the merchant Bolshov is a product of merchant life, proprietary morality and the psychology of rogue heroes. Bolynov declares himself bankrupt, but this is a false bankruptcy, the result of his conspiracy with the clerk Podkhalyuzin. The deal ended unexpectedly: the owner, who hoped to increase his capital, was deceived by the clerk, who turned out to be an even greater swindler. As a result, Podkhalyuzin received both the hand of the merchant’s daughter Lipochka and capital. The Gogolian beginning is palpable in homogeneity comic world plays: none goodies, as in Gogol’s comedies, the only such “hero” can be called laughter.
The main difference between Ostrovsky’s comedy and the plays of his great predecessor is in the role comedic intrigue and attitude towards her characters. In “Our People...” there are characters and entire scenes that are not only unnecessary for the development of the plot, but, on the contrary, slow it down. However, these scenes are no less important for understanding the work than the intrigue based on Bolshov’s alleged bankruptcy. They are necessary in order to more fully describe the life and customs of the merchants, the conditions in which the main action takes place. For the first time, Ostrovsky uses a technique that is repeated in almost all of his plays, including “The Thunderstorm”, “The Forest” and “The Dowry” - an extended slow-motion exposition. Some characters are not introduced at all to complicate the conflict. These “personalities of the situation” (in the play “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” - the matchmaker and Tishka) are interesting in themselves, as representatives of the everyday environment, morals and customs. Their artistic function is similar to the function of household items in narrative works: they complement the image of the merchant world with small but bright, colorful touches.
The everyday, familiar things interest Ostrovsky the playwright no less than something out of the ordinary, for example, the scam of Bolshov and Podkhalyuzin. He finds an effective way to dramaturgically depict everyday life, making maximum use of the possibilities of the word heard from the stage. The conversations between mother and daughter about outfits and grooms, the squabble between them, the grumbling of the old nanny perfectly convey the usual atmosphere of a merchant family, the range of interests and dreams of these people. Oral speech characters became an exact “mirror” of everyday life and morals.
It is the characters’ conversations on everyday topics, as if “excluded” from the plot action, that play an exceptional role in all Ostrovsky’s plays: interrupting the plot, retreating from it, they immerse the reader and viewer in the world of ordinary human relationships, where the need for verbal communication is no less important than the need for food, food and clothing. Both in the first comedy and in subsequent plays, Ostrovsky often deliberately slows down the development of events, considering it necessary to show what the characters are thinking about, in what verbal form their thoughts are expressed. For the first time in Russian drama, dialogues between characters became an important means of characterization.
Some critics considered the extensive use of everyday details to be a violation of stage laws. The only justification, in their opinion, could be that the aspiring playwright was the pioneer of merchant life. But this “violation” became the law of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy: already in the first comedy he combined the severity of intrigue with numerous everyday details and not only did not abandon this principle later, but also developed it, achieving maximum aesthetic impact of both components of the play - a dynamic plot and static “conversational » scenes.
“Our people - we will be numbered!” - an accusatory comedy, a satire on morals. However, in the early 1850s. the playwright came to the idea of the need to abandon criticism of the merchants, from the “accusatory direction.” In his opinion, the outlook on life expressed in the first comedy was “young and too tough.” Now he justifies a different approach: a Russian person should rejoice when he sees himself on stage, and not be sad. “There will be correctors even without us,” Ostrovsky emphasized in one of his letters. - In order to have the right to correct the people without offending them, you need to show them that you know the good in them; This is what I’m doing now, combining the sublime with the comic.” “High,” in his view, are folk ideals, truths acquired by the Russian people over many centuries of spiritual development.
The new concept of creativity brought Ostrovsky closer to the young employees of the Moskvityanin magazine (published by the famous historian M.P. Pogodin). In the works of the writer and critic A.A. Grigoriev, the concept of “soilism”, an influential ideological movement of the 1850s - 1860s, was formed. The basis of “pochvennichestvo” is attention to the spiritual traditions of the Russian people, to traditional forms of life and culture. The merchants were of particular interest to the “young editors” of “Moskvityanin”: after all, this class was always financially independent and did not experience the pernicious influence of serfdom, which the “soil people” considered the tragedy of the Russian people. Exactly at merchant environment, according to the “Muscovites,” it was necessary to look for genuine moral ideals developed by the Russian people, not distorted by slavery, like the serf peasantry, and separation from the people’s “soil,” like the nobility. In the first half of the 1850s. Ostrovsky was strongly influenced by these ideas. New friends, especially A.A. Grigoriev, pushed him to express the “indigenous Russian view” in his plays about the merchants.
In the plays of the “Moscowite” period of creativity - “Don’t Get in Your Sleigh,” “Poverty is not a Vice” and “Don’t Live the Way You Want” - Ostrovsky’s critical attitude towards the merchants did not disappear, but was greatly softened. A new ideological trend emerged: the playwright portrayed the morals of modern merchants as a historically changeable phenomenon, trying to find out what was preserved in this environment from the rich spiritual experience accumulated by the Russian people over the centuries, and what was deformed or disappeared.
One of the peaks of Ostrovsky’s creativity is the comedy “Poverty is not a vice,” the plot of which is based on a family conflict. Gordey Tortsov, an imperious tyrant merchant, the predecessor of Dikiy from Groza, dreams of marrying his daughter Lyuba to African Korshunov, a merchant of a new, “European” formation. But her heart belongs to someone else - the poor clerk Mitya. Gordey's brother, Lyubim Tortsov, helps break up the marriage with Korshunov, and the tyrant father, in a fit of anger, threatens to give his rebellious daughter in marriage to the first person he meets. By a lucky coincidence, it turned out to be Mitya. For Ostrovsky, a successful comedy plot is only an event “shell” that helps to understand the true meaning of what is happening: the clash of folk culture with the “semi-culture” that developed among the merchant class under the influence of fashion “for Europe.” The exponent of merchant false culture in the play is Korshunov, the defender of the patriarchal, “soil” principle - Lyubim Tortsov, the central character of the play.
We love Tortsov - a drunkard who protects moral values, - attracts the viewer with its buffoonery and foolishness. The entire course of events in the play depends on him; he helps everyone, including promoting the moral “recovery” of his tyrant brother. Ostrovsky showed him as the most “Russian” of all the characters. He has no pretensions to education, like Gordey, he simply thinks sensibly and acts according to his conscience. From the author’s point of view, this is quite enough to stand out from the merchant environment, to become “our man on the stage.”
The writer himself believed that a noble impulse is capable of revealing simple and clear moral qualities in every person: conscience and kindness. Immorality and cruelty modern society he contrasted Russian “patriarchal” morality, therefore the world of plays of the “Muscovite” period, despite the usual precision of everyday “instrumentation” for Ostrovsky, is largely conventional and even utopian. The playwright's main achievement was his version of a positive folk character. The image of the drunken herald of truth, Lyubim Tortsov, was by no means created according to tired stencils. This is not an illustration for Grigoriev’s articles, but a full-blooded artistic image; it is not for nothing that the role of Lyubim Tortsov attracted actors of many generations.
In the second half of the 1850s. Ostrovsky again and again turns to the theme of the merchants, but his attitude towards this class has changed. He took a step back from the “Muscovites” ideas, returning to sharp criticism of the rigidity of the merchant environment. The vivid image of the tyrant merchant Tit Titych (“Kita Kitych”) Bruskov, whose name has become a household name, was created in the satirical comedy “There’s a Hangover at Someone Else’s Feast” (1856). However, Ostrovsky did not limit himself to “satire on faces.” His generalizations became broader: the play depicts a way of life that fiercely resists everything new. This, according to the critic N.A. Dobrolyubov, is a “dark kingdom” that lives according to its own cruel laws. Hypocritically defending patriarchy, tyrants defend their right to unlimited arbitrariness.
The thematic range of Ostrovsky's plays expanded, and representatives of other classes and social groups came into his field of vision. In the comedy “Profitable Place” (1857), he first addressed one of the favorite themes of Russian comedians - satirical image officialdom, and in the comedy “The Kindergarten” (1858) he discovered the life of a landowner. In both works, parallels with “merchant” plays are easily visible. Thus, the hero of "A Profitable Place" Zhadov, an exposer of the corruption of officials, is typologically close to the truth-seeker Lyubim Tortsov, and the characters of "The Pupil" - the tyrant landowner Ulanbekova and her victim, the pupil Nadya - resemble the characters of Ostrovsky's early plays and the tragedy "The Thunderstorm" written a year later ": Kabanikha and Katerina.
Summing up the results of the first decade of Ostrovsky’s work, A.A. Grigoriev, who argued with Dobrolyubov’s interpretation of Ostrovsky as an exposer of tyrants and the “dark kingdom,” wrote: “The name for this writer, for such a great writer, despite his shortcomings, is not a satirist, but folk poet. The word for clues to his activities is not “tyranny,” but “nationality.” Only this word can be the key to understanding his works. Anything else - more or less narrow, more or less theoretical, arbitrary - restricts the circle of his creativity.”
“The Thunderstorm” (1859), which followed three accusatory comedies, became the pinnacle of Ostrovsky’s pre-reform drama. Turning again to the depiction of the merchants, the writer created the first and only social tragedy in his work.
Ostrovsky's works of the 1860s-1880s. exceptionally diverse, although in his worldview and aesthetic views there were no such sharp fluctuations as before 1861. Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy amazes with the Shakespearean breadth of problems and classical perfection artistic forms. One can note two main trends that clearly manifested themselves in his plays: the strengthening of the tragic sound of comedy plots traditional for the writer and the growth of the psychological content of conflicts and characters. "Ostrovsky Theater", declared "outdated", "conservative" playwrights " new wave"in the 1890s-1900s, in fact, developed precisely those trends that became leading in the theater of the early 20th century. It was not at all accidental that, starting with “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky’s everyday and morally descriptive plays were rich in philosophical and psychological symbols. The playwright acutely felt the insufficiency of stage “everyday” realism. Without violating the natural laws of the stage, maintaining the distance between actors and spectators - the basis of the foundations of classical theater, in his best plays he came closer to the philosophical and tragic sound of the novels created in the 1860s-1870s. his contemporaries Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, to the wisdom and organic strength of the artist, of which Shakespeare was a model for him.
Ostrovsky's innovative aspirations are especially noticeable in his satirical comedies and psychological dramas. Four comedies about the life of the post-reform nobility - "Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man", "Wolves and Sheep", "Mad Money" and "Forest" - are connected by a common theme. The subject of satirical ridicule in them is the uncontrollable thirst for profit, which gripped both the nobles, who had lost their point of support - the forced labor of serfs and “mad money”, and people of a new formation, businessmen, amassing their capital on the ruins of collapsed serfdom.
Comedies create vivid images " business people”, for whom “money has no smell”, and wealth becomes the only life goal. In the play “Every Wise Man Has Enough Simplicity” (1868), such a person appeared as the impoverished nobleman Glumov, who traditionally dreams of receiving an inheritance, a rich bride and a career. His cynicism and business acumen do not contradict the way of life of the old noble bureaucracy: he himself is an ugly product of this environment. Glumov is smart in comparison with those to whom he is forced to bend - Mamaev and Krutitsky, he is not averse to mocking their stupidity and swagger, he is able to see himself from the outside. “I’m smart, angry, envious,” Glumov confesses. He does not seek the truth, but simply benefits from the stupidity of others. Ostrovsky shows something new social phenomenon, characteristic of post-reform Russia: it is not the “moderation and accuracy” of the Molchalins that lead to “mad money,” but the caustic mind and talent of the Chatskys.
In the comedy “Mad Money” (1870), Ostrovsky continued his “Moscow chronicle”. Yegor Glumov reappeared in it with his epigrams “for all of Moscow,” as well as a kaleidoscope of satirical Moscow types: socialites who have lived through several fortunes, ladies ready to become kept servants of “millionaires,” lovers of free booze, idle talkers and voluptuous people. The playwright created a satirical portrait of a way of life in which honor and integrity are replaced by an unbridled desire for money. Money determines everything: the actions and behavior of the characters, their ideals and psychology. The central character of the play is Lydia Cheboksarova, who puts both her beauty and her love up for sale. She doesn’t care who to be - a wife or a kept woman. The main thing is to choose a thicker money bag: after all, in her opinion, “you can’t live without gold.” Lydia’s corrupt love in “Mad Money” is the same means for obtaining money as Glumov’s mind in the play “Simplicity is enough for every wise man.” But the cynical heroine, who chooses a richer victim, herself finds herself in a stupid position: she marries Vasilkov, seduced by gossip about his gold mines, is deceived by Telyatev, whose fortune is just a myth, does not disdain the caresses of “dad” Kuchumov, knocking him out of money. The only antipode to the “mad money” catchers in the play is the “noble” businessman Vasilkov, who talks about “smart” money, obtained by honest labor, saved and wisely spent. This hero is guessed by Ostrovsky new type"honest" bourgeois.
The comedy “The Forest” (1871) is dedicated to the popular in Russian literature of the 1870s. the theme of the extinction of the “noble nests” in which the “last Mohicans” of the old Russian nobility lived.
The image of the “forest” is one of Ostrovsky’s most capacious symbolic images. The forest is not only the background against which events unfold in the estate, located five miles from county town. This is the object of a deal between the elderly lady Gurmyzhskaya and the merchant Vosmibratov, who is buying up their ancestral lands from impoverished nobles. The forest is a symbol of the spiritual wilderness: the forest estate “Penki” almost does not reach the revival of the capitals, “age-old silence” still reigns here. The psychological meaning of the symbol becomes clear if we correlate the “forest” with the “wilds” of rude feelings and immoral actions of the inhabitants of the “noble forest”, through which nobility, chivalry, and humanity cannot break through. “... - And really, brother Arkady, how did we get into this forest, into this dense damp forest? - says the tragedian Neschastlivtsev at the end of the play, - Why, brother, did we frighten away the owls and eagle owls? Why bother them? Let them live as they want! Everything is fine here, brother, as it should be in the forest. Old women marry high school students, young girls drown themselves from bitter life with their relatives: forest, brother” (D. 5, Rev. IX).
"The Forest" is a satirical comedy. The comedy manifests itself in a variety of plot situations and turns of action. The playwright created, for example, a small but very topical social cartoon: almost Gogolian characters discuss the topic of the activities of zemstvos, popular in post-reform times - the gloomy misanthrope landowner Bodaev, reminiscent of Sobakevich, and Milonov, as beautiful-hearted as Manilov. However, the main object of Ostrovsky’s satire is the life and customs of the “noble forest.” The play uses a proven plot device - the story of the poor pupil Aksyusha, who is oppressed and humiliated by the hypocritical “benefactor” Gurmyzhskaya. She constantly talks about her widowhood and purity, although in reality she is vicious, voluptuous, and vain. The contradictions between Gurmyzhskaya’s claims and the true essence of her character are the source of unexpected comic situations.
In the first act, Gurmyzhskaya puts on a kind of show: to demonstrate her virtue, she invites her neighbors to sign a will. According to Milonov, “Raisa Pavlovna decorates our entire province with the severity of her life; our moral atmosphere, so to speak, is redolent of her virtues.” “We were all afraid of your virtue here,” Bodaev echoes, recalling how they were expecting her arrival at the estate several years ago. In the fifth act, the neighbors learn about the unexpected metamorphosis that occurred with Gurmyzhskaya. A fifty-year-old lady, who languidly spoke of forebodings and imminent death (“if I don’t die today, not tomorrow, at least soon”), announces her decision to marry a dropout high school student, Alexis Bulanov. She considers marriage a self-sacrifice, “in order to arrange the estate and so that it does not fall into the wrong hands.” However, the neighbors do not notice the comedy in the transition from the dying will to the marriage union of “unshakable virtue” with “the tender, young branch of the noble nursery.” “This is a heroic feat! You are a heroine! - Milonov exclaims pathetically, admiring the hypocritical and depraved matron.
Another knot in the comedy plot is the story of a thousand rubles. The money went around in a circle, which made it possible to add important touches to the portraits of the most different people. The merchant Vosmibratov tried to pocket a thousand while paying for the purchased timber. Neschastlivtsev, having reassured and “provoked” the merchant (“honor is endless. And you don’t have it”), prompted him to return the money. Gurmyzhskaya gave a “stray” thousand to Bulanov for a dress, then the tragedian, threatening the hapless youth with a fake pistol, took the money away, intending to spend it on a spree with Arkady Schastlivtsev. In the end, the thousand became Aksyusha’s dowry and... returned to Vosmibratov.
The completely traditional comedic situation of the “shifter” made it possible to contrast the sinister comedy of the inhabitants of the “forest” high tragedy. The pathetic “comedian” Neschastlivtsev, Gurmyzhskaya’s nephew, turned out to be a proud romantic who looks at his aunt and her neighbors through the eyes of a noble man, shocked by the cynicism and vulgarity of “owls and owls.” Those who treat him with contempt, considering him a loser and a renegade, behave like bad actors and common buffoons. “Comedians? No, we are artists, noble artists, and you are the comedians,” Neschastlivtsev angrily throws in their faces. - If we love, we love; if we don’t love, we quarrel or fight; If we help, it’s with our last penny. And you? All your life you talk about the good of society, about love for humanity. What did you do? Who did you feed? Who was consoled? You amuse only yourself, you amuse yourself. You are comedians, jesters, not us” (D. 5, Rev. IX).
Ostrovsky contrasts the crude farce played by Gurmyzhsky and Bulanov with the truly tragic perception of the world that Neschastlivtsev represents. In the fifth act, the satirical comedy is transformed: if earlier the tragedian demonstratively behaved with the “clowns” in a buffoonish manner, emphasizing his disdain for them, maliciously ironizing their actions and words, then in the finale of the play the stage, without ceasing to be a space for comedic action, turns into tragic theater of one actor, who begins his final monologue as a “noble” artist, mistaken for a jester, and ends as “ noble robber"from F. Schiller's drama - in the famous words of Karl Moor. The quotation from Schiller again speaks of the “forest,” or more precisely, of all the “bloodthirsty inhabitants of the forests.” Their hero would like to “rage against this hellish generation” that he encountered in the noble estate. The quote, not recognized by Neschastlivtsev’s listeners, emphasizes the tragicomic meaning of what is happening. After listening to the monologue, Milonov exclaims: “But excuse me, you can be held accountable for these words!” “Yes, just to the police officer. We are all witnesses,” Bulanov, “born to command,” responds like an echo.
Neschastlivtsev is a romantic hero, there is a lot in him from Don Quixote, the “knight of the sad image.” He expresses himself pompously, theatrically, as if he does not believe in the success of his battle with “windmills.” “Where can you talk to me,” Neschastlivtsev addresses Milonov. “I feel and speak like Schiller, and you like a clerk.” Comically playing on Karl Moor’s just spoken words about “bloodthirsty forest inhabitants,” he reassures Gurmyzhskaya, who refused to give him her hand for a farewell kiss: “I won’t bite, don’t be afraid.” All he can do is get away from people who, in his opinion, are worse than wolves: “Give me a hand, comrade! (Gives his hand to Schastlivtsev and leaves).” Last words and Neschastlivtsev’s gesture is symbolic: he offers his hand to his comrade, the “comedian,” and proudly turns away from the inhabitants of the “noble forest” with whom he is not on the same path.
The hero of “The Forest” is one of the first in Russian literature to “break out”, “prodigal children” of his class. Ostrovsky does not idealize Neschastlivtsev, pointing out his everyday shortcomings: he, like Lyubim Tortsov, is not averse to carousing, is prone to trickery, and behaves like an arrogant gentleman. But the main thing is that it is Neschastlivtsev, one of the most beloved heroes of Ostrovsky’s theater, who expresses high moral ideals, completely forgotten by the jesters and Pharisees from the forest estate. His ideas about the honor and dignity of a person are close to the author himself. As if breaking the “mirror” of comedy, Ostrovsky, through the mouth of a provincial tragedian with the sad surname Neschastlivtsev, wanted to remind people of the danger of lies and vulgarity, which easily replace real life.
One of Ostrovsky’s masterpieces, the psychological drama “Dowry” (1878), like many of his works, is a “merchant” play. Leading place it features the playwright’s favorite motifs (money, trade, merchant “courage”), traditional types found in almost every one of his plays (merchants, a minor official, a girl of marriageable age and her mother, trying to “sell” her daughter at a higher price, a provincial actor). The intrigue also resembles previously used plot devices: several rivals are fighting for Larisa Ogudalova, each of whom has their own “interest” in the girl.
However, unlike other works, for example the comedy “Forest”, in which the poor pupil Aksyusha was only a “character of the situation” and did not take an active part in the events, the heroine of “Dowry” - central character plays. Larisa Ogudalova is not only a beautiful “thing”, shamelessly put up for auction by her mother Kharita Ignatievna and “bought” by rich merchants of the city of Bryakhimov. She is a richly gifted person, thinking, deeply feeling, understanding the absurdity of her situation, and at the same time a contradictory nature, trying to chase “two birds with one stone”: she wants and high love, and a rich, beautiful life. It combines romantic idealism and dreams of bourgeois happiness.
The main difference between Larisa and Katerina Kabanova, with whom she is often compared, is freedom of choice. She herself must make her choice: to become the kept woman of the rich merchant Knurov, a participant in the daring entertainments of the “brilliant master” Paratov, or the wife of a proud nonentity - an official “with ambitions” Karandyshev. The city of Bryakhimov, like Kalinov in “The Thunderstorm,” is also a city “on the high bank of the Volga,” but this is no longer the “dark kingdom” of an evil, tyrant force. Times have changed - the enlightened “new Russians” in Bryakhimov do not marry dowry girls, but buy them. The heroine herself can decide whether or not to participate in the auction. A whole “parade” of suitors passes in front of her. Unlike the unrequited Katerina, Larisa’s opinion is not neglected. In a word, " last times”, which Kabanikha was so afraid of, came: the old “order” collapsed. Larisa does not need to beg her fiancé Karandyshev, as Katerina begged Boris (“Take me with you from here!”). Karandyshev himself is ready to take her away from the temptations of the city - to the remote Zabolotye, where he wants to become a justice of the peace. The swamp, which her mother imagines as a place where there is nothing but forest, wind and howling wolves, seems to Larisa to be a village idyll, a kind of swampy “paradise”, a “quiet corner”. In the dramatic fate of the heroine, the historical and everyday, the tragedy of unfulfilled love and bourgeois farce, subtle psychological drama and pathetic vaudeville are intertwined. The leading motive of the play is not the power of the environment and circumstances, as in “The Thunderstorm,” but the motive of man’s responsibility for his destiny.
“The Dowry” is, first of all, a drama about love: it was love that became the basis of the plot intrigue and the source of the heroine’s internal contradictions. Love in “Dowry” is a symbolic, polysemantic concept. “I was looking for love and didn’t find it” - this is the bitter conclusion Larisa makes at the end of the play. She means love-sympathy, love-understanding, love-pity. In Larisa's life true love replaced “love” put up for sale, love as a commodity. The bargaining in the play is precisely because of her. Only those who have more money can buy such “love”. For the “Europeanized” merchants Knurov and Vozhevatov, Larisa’s love is a luxury item that is bought in order to furnish their lives with “European” chic. The pettiness and prudence of these “children” of Dikiy is manifested not in selfless swearing over a penny, but in ugly love bargaining.
Sergei Sergeevich Paratov, the most extravagant and reckless among the merchants depicted in the play, is a parody figure. This is the “merchant Pechorin,” a heartthrob with a penchant for melodramatic effects. He considers his relationship with Larisa Ogudalova a love experiment. “I want to know how soon a woman forgets her passionately loved one: the day after separation from him, a week or a month later,” Paratov franks. Love, in his opinion, is only suitable “for household use.” Paratov’s own “trip to the island of love” with the dowry Larisa was short-lived. She was replaced by noisy carousing with gypsies and marriage to a rich bride, or rather, her dowry - gold mines. “I, Mokiy Parmenych, have nothing cherished; I’ll find a profit, so I’ll sell everything, anything” - this is life principle Paratov, the new “hero of our time” with the habits of a broken clerk from a fashion store.
Larisa’s fiancé, the “eccentric” Karandyshev, who became her killer, is a pitiful, comical and at the same time sinister person. It mixes the “colors” of various stage images in an absurd combination. This is a caricature of Othello, a parody of a “noble” robber (at a costume party “he dressed up as a robber, took an ax in his hands and cast brutal glances at everyone, especially Sergei Sergeich”) and at the same time a “philistine among the nobility.” His ideal is a “carriage with music”, a luxurious apartment and dinners. This is an ambitious official who found himself at a riotous merchant feast, where he received an undeserved prize - the beautiful Larisa. The love of Karandyshev, the “spare” groom, is love-vanity, love-protection. For him, Larisa is also a “thing” that he boasts of, presenting it to the whole city. The heroine of the play herself perceives his love as humiliation and an insult: “How disgusting you are to me, if only you knew!... For me, the most serious insult is your patronage; I didn’t receive any other insults from anyone.”
The main feature that appears in Karandyshev’s appearance and behavior is quite “Chekhovian”: it is vulgarity. It is this feature that gives the figure of the official a gloomy, ominous flavor, despite his mediocrity compared to other participants in the love market. Larisa is killed not by the provincial “Othello”, not by the pathetic comedian who easily changes masks, but by the vulgarity embodied in him, which - alas! - became for the heroine the only alternative to love paradise.
Not a single psychological trait in Larisa Ogudalova has reached completion. Her soul is filled with dark, vague impulses and passions that she herself does not fully understand. She is not able to make a choice, accept or curse the world in which she lives. Thinking about suicide, Larisa was never able to throw herself into the Volga, like Katerina. Unlike tragic heroine"Thunderstorms", she is just a participant in a vulgar drama. But the paradox of the play is that it was precisely the vulgarity that killed Larisa that, in the last moments of her life, also made her a tragic heroine, rising above all the characters. No one loved her the way she would like, but she dies with words of forgiveness and love, sending a kiss to the people who almost forced her to renounce the most important thing in her life - love: “You need to live, but I need to live.” ... die. I don't complain about anyone, I don't take offense at anyone... y'all good people... I love you all... all... (Sends a kiss). This last, tragic sigh of the heroine was answered only by a “loud chorus of gypsies,” a symbol of the entire “gypsy” way of life in which she lived.
Stages of the creative path
The more than forty-year journey of Ostrovsky as an artist is usually divided into several periods - depending on what social creative aspirations came to the fore and determined the problems and style of stage art.
1847-1851. Early period. The years when the “handwriting” of Ostrovsky the playwright was formed, when his commitment to the ideas and poetics of the “natural school” was most fully expressed. At this time, narrative prose works and the first experiments in the field of drama were created. Best Play- “Bankrupt”, later renamed “Our people - we will be numbered.” N.V. Gogol recognizes his “decisive talent.” Formation of literary and aesthetic views Ostrovsky during this period was influenced by reading articles by Belinsky and Herzen.
1852-1854.
So-called Muscovite period, the time of Ostrovsky’s active participation in the circle of young employees of the Moskvityanin magazine, who sought to make this magazine an organ of a new type of Slavophilism. At this time, only three plays were created: “Don’t sit in your own sleigh”, “Poverty is not a vice” and folk drama (genre definition author) “Don’t live the way you want.” The world of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy of this period is a world of pre-personal consciousness, when it does not even occur to a person to oppose himself to the general, since he has not yet separated himself from this community. Ostrovsky, even in the Muscovite period, sees the social conflict in the life he depicts and shows that the idyll of a patriarchal family is fraught with drama. 1855-1860s – pre-reform period, when Ostrovsky’s worldview is finally determined and his rapprochement with the revolutionary-democratic camp occurs. The period of greatest rapprochement with Sovremennik. During this period, the plays “At Someone Else’s Feast There’s a Hangover,” “A Profitable Place,” and “The Kindergarten” were created. In 1859, the drama “The Thunderstorm” was created - the highest artistic achievement Ostrovsky of this period.
Exacerbation social contradictions Russian life, the defeat of Nicholas Russia in Crimean War and the rise of the anti-serfdom movement, a change in the entire atmosphere of Russian public life on the eve of the collapse of serfdom, they lead the great realist to the understanding that the previously created idea of the world, based on popular ideas of morality, with the help of which one can overcome discord and fierce individualism, and achieve the lost unity of people destroyed by history, is utopian.
Ostrovsky did not accept the idea of the need for a revolutionary struggle, a revolutionary reorganization of life. The ideological basis of his alliance with revolutionary-democratic circles should be considered the fact that starting from 1855. At the center of his work, Ostrovsky places a consistent critique of modern public relations, and not only remnants of the feudal-serf system, but also dark sides new bourgeois society.
1861-1886 - post-reform period. The years when the experience accumulated by the playwright receives a mature implementation, expressed in the expansion of the genre range, the strengthening of social satire, the development of “psychological” theater (the satirical comedy “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man,” “The Spring Tale,” “The Snow Maiden,” the historical chronicles “Kuzma Zakharych Minin -Sukhoruk", "Vasilisa Melentyevna" and others, psychological dramas "Dowry", "Guilty Without Guilt"). His ideological positions throughout this period did not undergo significant changes. The stability of Ostrovsky’s ideological world has led to a widespread opinion about the “static nature” of his work, even to the assertion that the playwright “repeates himself.” However, how unfounded it was is evidenced by the fact that a group of historical plays and satirical comedies, the completely unique “Snow Maiden” and the psychological drama developed in the 70-80s - all these are new directions in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy that developed in the post-reform period.
It is the surname of A. N. Ostrovsky that stands at the origins of the development of Russian drama theater. His dramas are still very popular to this day thanks to the extraordinary flavor of his talent as a writer and playwright, who always felt what the secular public expected from him. Therefore, it is interesting to know what kind of person Alexander Ostrovsky was. His books contain a huge creative heritage. Among his most famous works: “Guilty Without Guilt”, “Dowry”, “Thunderstorm”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Snow Maiden”, “At someone else’s feast there is a hangover”, “What you go for is what you will find”, “Your own people” - let’s settle”, “Mad money”, etc.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. short biography
Alexander Nikolaevich was born in the spring of March 31 (April 12), 1823. He grew up on Malaya Ordynka in Moscow. His father was the son of a priest, and his name was Nikolai Fedorovich. Having received a seminary education in Kostroma, he went to study at the Moscow Theological Academy. But he never became a priest, but began to practice as a lawyer in judicial institutions. Over time, he rose to the rank of titular councilor and received the title of nobility.
Ostrovsky's biography (short) says that Ostrovsky's mother, Lyubov Ivanovna, died when he was 7 years old. There are six children left in the family. Subsequently, their stepmother, Emilia Andreevna von Tesin, who was the daughter of a Swedish nobleman, took care of the family. The Ostrovsky family did not need anything; much attention was paid to the education and upbringing of children.
Childhood
Ostrovsky spent almost his entire childhood in Zamoskvorechye. His father had a large library, the boy began studying Russian literature early and felt a craving for writing, but his father wanted his son to become a lawyer.
From 1835 to 1940, Alexander studied at the Moscow Gymnasium. Then he entered Moscow University and began studying to become a lawyer. But a quarrel with a teacher did not allow him to complete his last year of university. And then his father got him a job in court. He received his first salary in the amount of 4 rubles, but then it increased to 15 rubles.
Creation
Further, Ostrovsky’s biography (brief) indicates that Alexander Ostrovsky’s fame and popularity as a playwright was brought to him by the play “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!”, published in 1850. This play was approved by I. A. Goncharov and N. V. Gogol. But the Moscow merchants did not like it, and the merchants complained to the sovereign. Then, by personal order of Nicholas I, its author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision, which was lifted only under Alexander II. And in 1861 the play again saw the theatrical stage.
During Ostrovsky’s disgraced period, the first play staged in St. Petersburg was called “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh.” Ostrovsky's biography (brief) includes information that for 30 years his plays were staged at the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky and Moscow Maly Theaters. In 1856, Ostrovsky began working for the Sovremennik magazine.
Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich. Works
In 1859, Ostrovsky, with the support of G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, published the first collection of essays in two volumes. At this point, the Russian critic Dobrolyubov will note that Ostrovsky is an accurate depiction of the “dark kingdom.”
In 1860, after “The Thunderstorm,” Dobrolyubov called him “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.”
Indeed, Alexander Ostrovsky knew how to captivate with his remarkable talent. “The Thunderstorm” became one of the playwright’s most striking works, the writing of which was also associated with his personal drama. The prototype of the main character of the play was the actress Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya; he had a close relationship with her for a long time, although they were both not free people. She was the first to play this role. Ostrovsky made the image of Katerina tragic in its own way, so he reflected in it all the suffering and torment of the soul of a Russian woman.
Cradle of Talents
In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize and became an elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg. Later, in 1865, he organized the Artistic Circle, which became the cradle of many talents.
Ostrovsky hosted in his house such eminent guests as F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. S. Turgenev, etc.
In 1874, the writer-playwright founded the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers, of which Ostrovsky remained the chairman until his death. He also served on the commission associated with the revision of the theater management regulations, which led to new changes, thanks to which the position of artists was significantly improved.
In 1881, a benefit performance of the opera “The Snow Maiden” by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov took place at the Mariinsky Theater. Ostrovsky's biography (brief) indicates that at these moments Ostrovsky was incredibly pleased with the musical design of the great composer.
Last years
In 1885, the playwright became the head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters and headed the theater school. Ostrovsky almost always had financial problems, although he collected good fees from his plays and had a pension assigned by Emperor Alexander III. Ostrovsky had many plans, he was literally burning at work, this affected his health and depleted his vitality.
On June 2, 1886, he died on his Shchelykovo estate near Kostroma. He was 63 years old. His body was buried next to his father’s grave at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Kostroma province in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki.
The widow, actress Maria Andreevna Bakhmetyeva, three sons and a daughter were awarded a pension by Tsar Alexander III.
His estate in Shchelykovo is now a memorial and natural museum of Ostrovsky.
Conclusion
Ostrovsky created his own drama school with its holistic concept theatrical production. The main component of his theater was that it did not contain extreme situations, but depicted life situations, going into the everyday life and psychology of a person of that time, which Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky knew very well. short biography describes that Ostrovsky’s theater had many ideas, but to bring them to life, new stage aesthetics and new actors were needed. All this was later brought to mind by K. S. Stanislavsky and M. A. Bulgakov.
Ostrovsky's dramas served as the basis for film adaptations and television series. Among them are the film “The Marriage of Balzaminov”, shot in 1964 based on the play “What You Go For, That’s What You Will Find” by director K. Voinov, the film “ Cruel romance", filmed in 1984 based on "Dowry" by director Eldar Ryazanov. In 2005, Evgeny Ginzburg directed the film “Anna” based on the play “Guilty Without Guilt.”
Ostrovsky created an extensive repertoire for the Russian theater stage, which included 47 highly original plays. He worked in collaboration with talented young playwrights, including P. M. Nevezhin and N. Ya. Solovyov. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy became national due to its origins and traditions.
Born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow, he grew up in a merchant environment. His mother died when he was 8 years old. And the father married again. There were four children in the family.
Ostrovsky was educated at home. His father had a large library, where little Alexander first began to read Russian literature. However, the father wanted to give his son legal education. In 1835, Ostrovsky began his studies at the gymnasium, and then entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. Due to his interests in theater and literature, he never completed his studies at the university (1843), after which he worked as a scribe in court at the insistence of his father. Ostrovsky served in the courts until 1851.
Ostrovsky's creativity
In 1849, Ostrovsky’s work “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!” was written, which brought him literary fame; he was highly appreciated by Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Goncharov. Then, despite censorship, many of his plays and books were published. For Ostrovsky, writings are a way to truthfully depict the life of the people. The plays “The Thunderstorm”, “Dowry”, “Forest” are among his most important works. Ostrovsky's play "Dowry", like other psychological dramas, describes characters in a non-standard way, inner world, the torment of heroes.
Since 1856, the writer has been participating in the publication of the Sovremennik magazine.
Ostrovsky Theater
In the biography of Alexander Ostrovsky, theater takes pride of place.
Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle in 1866, thanks to which many talented people appeared in the theater circle.
Together with the Artistic Circle, he significantly reformed and developed the Russian theater.
Ostrovsky's house was often visited by famous people, including I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, Ivan Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, P. M. Sadovsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova and others.
In a brief biography of Ostrovsky, it is worth mentioning the emergence in 1874 of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers, where Ostrovsky was chairman. With his innovations, he achieved improvement in the lives of theater actors. Since 1885, Ostrovsky headed the theater school and was the head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters.
Writer's personal life
It cannot be said that Ostrovsky’s personal life was successful. The playwright lived with a woman from a simple family, Agafya, who had no education, but was the first to read his works. She supported him in everything. All their children died in early age. Ostrovsky lived with her for about twenty years. And in 1869 he married the artist Maria Vasilyevna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him six children.
last years of life
Until the end of his life, Ostrovsky experienced financial difficulties. Hard work greatly depleted the body, and the writer’s health increasingly failed. Ostrovsky dreamed of reviving a theater school in which it would be possible to teach professional acting, however, the death of the writer prevented the implementation of long-conceived plans.
Ostrovsky died on June 2(14), 1886 on his estate. The writer was buried next to his father, in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province.
Chronological table
Other biography options
- Ostrovsky knew Greek, German and French languages, and at a later age he also learned English, Spanish and Italian. All his life he translated plays into different languages Thus, he increased his skills and knowledge.
- The writer's creative path spans 40 years successful work over literary and dramatic works. His activities influenced an entire era of theater in Russia. For his works, the writer was awarded the Uvarov Prize in 1863.
- Ostrovsky is the founder of modern theatrical art, whose followers were such prominent figures like Konstantin Stanislavsky and
It is the name of A. N. Ostrovsky that stands at the origins of the development of Russian drama theater. His dramas are still very popular to this day thanks to the extraordinary flavor of his talent as a writer and playwright, who always felt what the secular public expected from him. Therefore, it is interesting to know what kind of person Alexander Ostrovsky was. His books contain a huge creative heritage. Among his most famous works: “Guilty Without Guilt”, “Dowry”, “Thunderstorm”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Snow Maiden”, “At someone else’s feast there is a hangover”, “What you go for is what you will find”, “Your own people” - let’s settle”, “Mad money”, etc.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. short biography
Alexander Nikolaevich was born in the spring of March 31 (April 12), 1823. He grew up on Malaya Ordynka in Moscow. His father was the son of a priest, and his name was Nikolai Fedorovich. Having received a seminary education in Kostroma, he went to study at the Moscow Theological Academy. But he never became a priest, but began to practice as a lawyer in judicial institutions. Over time, he rose to the rank of titular councilor and received the title of nobility.
Ostrovsky's biography (short) says that Ostrovsky's mother, Lyubov Ivanovna, died when he was 7 years old. There are six children left in the family. Subsequently, their stepmother, Emilia Andreevna von Tesin, who was the daughter of a Swedish nobleman, took care of the family. The Ostrovsky family did not need anything; much attention was paid to the education and upbringing of children.
Childhood
Ostrovsky spent almost his entire childhood in Zamoskvorechye. His father had a large library, the boy began studying Russian literature early and felt a craving for writing, but his father wanted his son to become a lawyer.
From 1835 to 1940, Alexander studied at the Moscow Gymnasium. Then he entered Moscow University and began studying to become a lawyer. But a quarrel with a teacher did not allow him to complete his last year of university. And then his father got him a job in court. He received his first salary in the amount of 4 rubles, but then it increased to 15 rubles.
Creation
Further, Ostrovsky’s biography (brief) indicates that Alexander Ostrovsky’s fame and popularity as a playwright was brought to him by the play “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!”, published in 1850. This play was approved by I. A. Goncharov and N. V. Gogol. But the Moscow merchants did not like it, and the merchants complained to the sovereign. Then, by personal order of Nicholas I, its author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision, which was lifted only under Alexander II. And in 1861 the play again saw the theatrical stage.
During Ostrovsky’s disgraced period, the first play staged in St. Petersburg was called “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh.” Ostrovsky's biography (brief) includes information that for 30 years his plays were staged at the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky and Moscow Maly Theaters. In 1856, Ostrovsky began working for the Sovremennik magazine.
Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich. Works
In 1859, Ostrovsky, with the support of G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, published the first collection of essays in two volumes. At this point, the Russian critic Dobrolyubov will note that Ostrovsky is an accurate depiction of the “dark kingdom.”
In 1860, after “The Thunderstorm,” Dobrolyubov called him “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.”
Indeed, Alexander Ostrovsky knew how to captivate with his remarkable talent. “The Thunderstorm” became one of the playwright’s most striking works, the writing of which was also associated with his personal drama. The prototype of the main character of the play was the actress Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya; he had a close relationship with her for a long time, although they were both not free people. She was the first to play this role. Ostrovsky made the image of Katerina tragic in its own way, so he reflected in it all the suffering and torment of the soul of a Russian woman.
Cradle of Talents
In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize and became an elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg. Later, in 1865, he organized the Artistic Circle, which became the cradle of many talents.
Ostrovsky hosted in his house such eminent guests as F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. S. Turgenev, etc.
In 1874, the writer-playwright founded the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers, of which Ostrovsky remained the chairman until his death. He also served on the commission associated with the revision of the theater management regulations, which led to new changes, thanks to which the position of artists was significantly improved.
In 1881, a benefit performance of the opera “The Snow Maiden” by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov took place at the Mariinsky Theater. Ostrovsky's biography (brief) indicates that at these moments Ostrovsky was incredibly pleased with the musical design of the great composer.
Last years
In 1885, the playwright became the head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters and headed the theater school. Ostrovsky almost always had financial problems, although he collected good fees from his plays and had a pension assigned by Emperor Alexander III. Ostrovsky had many plans, he was literally burning at work, this affected his health and depleted his vitality.
On June 2, 1886, he died on his Shchelykovo estate near Kostroma. He was 63 years old. His body was buried next to his father’s grave at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Kostroma province in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki.
The widow, actress Maria Andreevna Bakhmetyeva, three sons and a daughter were awarded a pension by Tsar Alexander III.
His estate in Shchelykovo is now a memorial and natural museum of Ostrovsky.
Conclusion
Ostrovsky created his own theater school with its holistic concept of theatrical production. The main component of his theater was that there were no extreme situations in it, but depicted life situations that went back to the everyday life and psychology of a person of that time, which Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky knew very well. A short biography describes that Ostrovsky’s theater had many ideas, but to bring them to life, new stage aesthetics and new actors were needed. All this was later brought to mind by K. S. Stanislavsky and M. A. Bulgakov.
Ostrovsky's dramas served as the basis for film adaptations and television series. Among them are the film “Balzaminov’s Marriage”, shot in 1964 based on the play “What You Go For, You’ll Find” by director K. Voinov, the film “Cruel Romance”, shot in 1984 based on “Dowry” by director Eldar Ryazanov. In 2005, Evgeny Ginzburg directed the film “Anna” based on the play “Guilty Without Guilt.”
Ostrovsky created an extensive repertoire for the Russian theater stage, which included 47 highly original plays. He worked in collaboration with talented young playwrights, including P. M. Nevezhin and N. Ya. Solovyov. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy became national due to its origins and traditions.