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.
Over almost 40 years of creative activity, Ostrovsky has 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 theater, considering it the most democratic and effective form of 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 lonely (“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, have 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 social stratum was being formed - the common intelligentsia, which showed increased interest in the theater. The new public, democratic and diverse in comparison with the public of the first half of the 19th 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 audiences, 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)- the 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 the creative experience of the “natural school” of the 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 “Moscow City Listok”). 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,” two characteristic features of Ostrovsky’s work emerged: 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 Gogol principle is palpable in the homogeneity of the comic world of the play: there is no 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 details 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. The oral speech of the 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 the 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. It was in the merchant environment, in the opinion of the “Muscovites,” that one should 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 defends moral values, attracts the viewer with his 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. He contrasted the immorality and cruelty of modern society with Russian “patriarchal” morality, therefore the world of plays of the “Muscovite” period, despite Ostrovsky’s usual precision of everyday “instrumentation,” 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 turned to one of the favorite themes of Russian comedians - the satirical depiction of bureaucracy, and in the comedy “The Pupil” (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 national 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 aesthetic views there were no such sharp fluctuations as before 1861. Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy amazes with the Shakespearean breadth of problems and the classical perfection of 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’s Theatre,” declared “outdated,” “conservative” by playwrights of the “new wave” in the 1890s and 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 of “business people” for whom “money has no smell” and wealth becomes the only goal in life. 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 a 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 who are ready to become kept servants of “millionaires,” lovers of free booze, idle talkers and voluptuaries. 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 the new type of “honest” bourgeois guessed by Ostrovsky.
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 the most capacious symbolic images Ostrovsky. The forest is not only the background against which events unfold in the estate, located five miles from the district 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. Psychological significance 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 fact 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 a variety of 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” with a 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 jokes. “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 a tragic theater of one actor, who begins his final monologue as a “noble” artist, mistaken for a jester, and ends as a “noble robber” from the drama of F. Schiller - 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. The leading place in it is occupied by the playwright’s favorite motifs (money, trade, merchant “courage”), traditional types found in almost every 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 position, and at the same time a contradictory nature, trying to chase “two birds with one stone”: she wants both high love and 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, the “last times” that Kabanikha feared so much have arrived: the old “order” has 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; If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, whatever I want” - this is the life principle of 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 the tragic heroine of "The Thunderstorm", 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... you are all good people... I love you all... everyone... ”(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.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky
Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1823, Moscow - 1886, Shchelykovo estate, Kostroma province) - playwright. Genus. in the family of a judicial official. Having received a serious education at home, he graduated from high school and in 1840 he entered the law faculty of Moscow. University, from where he left without completing the course in 1843. He entered the service in judicial institutions, which allowed O. to collect vivid material for his plays. Despite the endless difficulties with censorship, Ostrovsky wrote about 50 plays (the most famous are “Profitable Place”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Thunderstorm”, “Forest”, “Dowry”), creating a grandiose artistic canvas depicting the life of various classes of Russia in the second floor. XIX century He was one of the organizers of the Artistic Circle, the Society -Rus. dramatic writers and opera composers, did a lot to improve the state of theatrical affairs in Russia. In 1866, shortly before his death, Ostrovsky headed the repertoire part of the sinks. theaters The significance of Ostrovsky’s activities was recognized by his contemporaries. I.A. Goncharov wrote to him: “You alone completed the building, the foundation of which was laid by Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol. But only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater.” He, in fairness, , should be called "Ostrovsky Theater".
Book materials used: Shikman A.P. Figures of Russian history. Biographical reference book. Moscow, 1997.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823-1886) is an exceptional figure among the literature of the 19th century. In the West, before Ibsen appeared, there was not a single playwright who could be placed on a par with him. In the life of the merchants, dark and ignorant, entangled in prejudices, prone to tyranny, absurd and funny whims, he found original material for his stage works. Pictures of the life of the merchants gave Ostrovsky the opportunity to show an important side of Russian life as a whole, the “dark kingdom” of old Russia.
Ostrovsky is a folk playwright in the true and deep sense of the word. His nationality is manifested in the direct connection of his art with folklore - folk songs, proverbs and sayings, which even make up the titles of his plays, and in a truthful depiction of people's life, imbued with a democratic tendency, and in the extraordinary convexity and relief of the images he created, clothed in an accessible and democratic form and addressed to the public audience.
Quoted from: World History. Volume VI. M., 1959, p. 670.
OSTROVSKY Alexander Nikolaevich (1823 - 1886), playwright. Born on March 31 (April 12 n.s.) in Moscow in the family of an official who earned the nobility. His childhood years were spent in Zamoskvorechye, a merchant and bourgeois district of Moscow. He received a good education at home, studying foreign languages since childhood. Subsequently he knew Greek, French, German, and later English, Italian, Spanish.
At the age of 12 he was sent to the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1840 and entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University (1840 - 43). I listened to lectures by such advanced professors as T. Granovsky, M. Pogodin. The desire for literary creativity coincides with a passion for the theater, on the stages of which the great actors M. Shchepkin and P. Mochalov performed at that time.
Ostrovsky leaves the university - he is no longer interested in legal sciences, and he decides to seriously study literature. But, at the insistence of his father, he entered the service of the Moscow Conscientious Court. Work in court gave the future playwright rich material for his plays.
In 1849, the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered!" was written, which brought recognition to the author, although it appeared on stage only 11 years later (it was banned by Nicholas 1, and Ostrovsky was placed under police supervision). Inspired by success and recognition, Ostrovsky wrote one, and sometimes several plays every year, creating an entire “Ostrovsky Theater”, including 47 plays of various genres.
In 1850 he became an employee of the magazine "Moskvityanin" and entered the circle of writers, actors, musicians, and artists. These years gave the playwright a lot creatively. At this time, “The Morning of a Young Man” and “An Unexpected Incident” (1850) were written.
In 1851, Ostrovsky left the service in order to devote all his time and energy to literary creativity. Continuing Gogol's accusatory traditions, he wrote the comedies "The Poor Bride" (1851), "The Characters Didn't Match" (1857).
But in 1853, abandoning the “hard” view of Russian life, he wrote to Pogodin: “It is better for a Russian person to rejoice when he sees himself on stage than to be sad. Correctors will be found even without us.” Comedies followed: “Don’t get into your own sleigh” (1852), “Poverty is not a vice” (1853), “Don’t live the way you want” (1854). N. Chernyshevsky reproached the playwright for the ideological and artistic falsity of his new position.
On further creativity Ostrovsky took part in an expedition organized by the Maritime Ministry to study the life and trades of the population associated with rivers and shipping (1856). He made a trip along the Volga, from its sources to Nizhny Novgorod, during which he kept detailed notes and studied the life of the local population.
In 1855 - 60, in the pre-reform period, he became closer to the revolutionary democrats, came to a kind of “synthesis”, returning to denouncing the “rulers” and contrasting his “little people” with them. The following plays appeared: “There’s a Hangover at Someone Else’s Feast” (1855), “A Profitable Place” (1856), “The Kindergarten” (1858), “The Thunderstorm” (1859). Dobrolyubov enthusiastically appreciated the drama "The Thunderstorm", dedicating the article "A Ray of Light in dark kingdom" (1860).
In the 1860s, Ostrovsky turned to historical drama, considering such plays necessary in the theater’s repertoire: the chronicles “Tushino” (1867), “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky", psychological drama "Vasilisa Melentyeva" (1868).
In the 1870s, he depicts the life of the post-reform nobility: “Simplicity is enough for every wise man,” “Mad Money” (1870), “The Forest” (1871), “Wolves and Sheep” (1875). A special place is occupied by the play “The Snow Maiden” (1873), which expressed the lyrical beginning of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy.
In the last period of creativity, a whole series of plays was written dedicated to the fate of women in the conditions of entrepreneurial Russia 1870 - 80: “The Last Victim”, “Dowry”, “Heart is not a Stone”, “Talents and Admirers”, “Guilty Without Guilt”, etc.
Materials used from the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.
Vasily Perov. Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky. 1871
Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (31.03. 1823-2.06.1886), playwright, theater figure. Born in Moscow in Zamoskvorechye - a merchant and philistine-bureaucratic district of Moscow. The father is an official, the son of a priest, who graduated from the theological academy, entered the public service and later received the nobility. Mother - from the poor clergy, was distinguished, along with beauty, by high spiritual qualities, died early (1831); Ostrovsky's stepmother, from an old noble family of Russified Swedes, transformed the patriarchal life of the Zamoskvoretsky family into a noble way, took care of the good home education of her children and stepchildren, for which the family had the necessary income. My father, in addition to public service, was engaged in private practice, and in 1841, after retiring, he became a successful jury solicitor of the Moscow Commercial Court. In 1840, Ostrovsky graduated from the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, which at that time was an exemplary secondary educational institution with a humanitarian focus. In 1840-43 he studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, where at that time M. P. Pogodin, T. N. Granovsky, P. G. Redkin taught. While still at the gymnasium, Ostrovsky became interested in literary creativity During his student years he became a passionate theatergoer. The great actors P. S. Mochalov and M. S. Shchepkin, who had a great influence on young people, shone on the Moscow stage during these years. As soon as classes in special legal disciplines began to interfere with Ostrovsky’s creative aspirations, he left the university and, at the insistence of his father, in 1843 he became a clerk in the Moscow Conscientious Court, where property disputes, juvenile crimes, etc. were dealt with; in 1845 he was transferred to the Moscow Commercial Court, from where he left in 1851 to become a professional writer. Work in the courts significantly enriched Ostrovsky’s life experience, giving him knowledge of the language, life and psychology of the petty-bourgeois-merchant “third class” of Moscow and the bureaucracy. At this time, Ostrovsky tries himself in various fields of literature, continues to compose poetry, writes essays and plays. Ostrovsky considered the play “Family Picture” to be the beginning of his professional literary activity, which was published on February 14. 1847 was successfully read in the house of the university professor and writer S.P. Shevyrev. The “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” date back to this time (for them, back in 1843, it was written short story“The Tale of How the Quarterly Supervisor Started to Dance, or There’s Only One Step from the Great to the Ridiculous”). The next play is “Our own people - we will be numbered!” (original title “Bankrupt”) was written in 1849, published in the magazine “Moskvityanin” (No. 6) in 1850, but was not allowed on stage. For this play, which made Ostrovsky's name known throughout reading Russia, he was placed under secret police surveillance.
S n. In the 50s, Ostrovsky became an active contributor to “Moskvityanin”, published by M. P. Pogodin, and soon, together with A. A. Grigoriev, E. N. Edelson, B. N. Almazov and others, formed the so-called. the “young editors” who tried to revive the magazine by promoting realistic art and interest in folk life and folklore. The circle of young employees of “Moskvityanin” included not only writers, but also actors (P. M. Sadovsky, I. F. Gorbunov), musicians (A. I. Dyubuk), artists and sculptors (P. M. Boklevsky, N. A . Ramazanov); Muscovites had friends among the “common people” - performers and lovers of folk songs. Ostrovsky and his comrades in “Moskvityanin” were not only a group of like-minded people, but also a friendly circle. These years gave Ostrovsky a lot creatively, and above all a deep knowledge of “living”, non-academic folklore, speech and life of the urban common people.
All R. In the 40s, Ostrovsky entered into a civil marriage with the bourgeois girl A. Ivanova, who remained with him until her death in 1867. Being poorly educated, she had intelligence and tact, excellent knowledge of common people’s life and sang wonderfully, her role in creative life the playwright was undoubtedly significant. In 1869, Ostrovsky married the Maly Theater actress M.V. Vasilyeva (with whom he already had children by that time), who was prone to noble, “secular” forms of life, which complicated his life. For many years Ostrovsky lived on the brink of poverty. Being the recognized leader of Russian playwrights, he was constantly in need even in his declining years, earning a living through tireless literary work. Despite this, he was distinguished by his hospitality and constant readiness to help any person in need.
Ostrovsky's whole life is connected with Moscow, which he considered the heart of Russia. Of Ostrovsky’s relatively few travels (1860 - a trip with A.E. Martynov, who was on tour, to Voronezh, Kharkov, Odessa, Sevastopol, during which the great actor died; an overseas trip in 1862 to Germany, Austria, Italy with a visit to Paris and London; a trip with I . F. Gorbunov along the Volga in 1865 and with his brother, M. N. Ostrovsky, in Transcaucasia in 1883), the greatest influence on his work was had by the expedition organized by the maritime ministry, which sent writers to study the life and trades of the population associated with rivers and shipping. Ostrovsky made a trip along the Volga, from its sources to N. Novgorod (1856), during which he kept detailed notes and compiled a dictionary of shipping, shipbuilding and fishing terms of the Upper Volga region. Great importance had life for him in his beloved Kostroma estate Shchelykov, which the writer’s father bought in 1847. The very first trip there (1848, on the way Ostrovsky examined the ancient Russian cities of Pereslavl Zalessky, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma) made a huge impression on Ostrovsky (there was an enthusiastic note in the diary). After the death of his father, Ostrovsky and his brother M. N. Ostrovsky bought the estate from their stepmother (1867). The history of the creation of many plays is connected with Shchelykov.
In general, Ostrovsky’s passionate concentration on creativity and theatrical affairs, making his life poor in external events, inextricably intertwined it with the fate of the Russian theater. The writer died at his desk in Shchelykovo, working on a translation of Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra.
The following periods can be distinguished in Ostrovsky’s creative path: early, 1847-51 - a test of strength, the search for his own path, which ended with a triumphant entry into great literature with the comedy “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” This initial period passes under the influence of the “natural school”. The next, Moskvityanin period, 1852-54 - active participation in the circle of young employees of Moskvityanin, who sought to make the magazine an organ of the current of social thought, akin to Slavophilism (the plays “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh,” “Poverty is not a Vice,” “Don’t Live Like That”) , as you wish"). Ostrovsky's worldview in the pre-reform period, 1855-60, is finally determined; There is a rapprochement between him and the populists (“In someone else’s feast there is a hangover”, “Profitable place”, “The pupil”, “Thunderstorm”). And the last, post-reform period - 1861-86.
The play “Our people - we will be numbered!” has a rather complex compositional structure that combines a morally descriptive outline with intense intrigue, and at the same time the slowness of the unfolding of events characteristic of Ostrovsky. The extensive slow-motion exposition is explained by the fact that Ostrovsky’s dramatic action is not limited to intrigue. It also includes morally descriptive episodes with potential conflict (Lipochka’s arguments with her mother, visits from the matchmaker, scenes with Tishka). The conversations of the characters are also peculiarly dynamic, not leading to any immediate results, but having their own “microaction”, which can be called a speech movement. Speech, the very way of reasoning, is so important and interesting that the viewer follows all the turns of the seemingly empty chatter. In Ostrovsky, the speech of the characters itself is almost an independent object of artistic depiction.
Ostrovsky's comedy, depicting the seemingly exotic life of the closed merchant world, in fact in its own way reflected all-Russian processes and changes. Here, too, there is a conflict between “fathers” and “children.” Here they talk about enlightenment and emancipation, without, of course, knowing these words; but in a world whose very basis is deception and violence, all these lofty concepts and the liberating spirit of life are distorted, as if in a distorting mirror. The antagonism of rich and poor, dependent, “younger” and “senior” is deployed and demonstrated in the sphere of struggle not for equality or freedom of personal feelings, but in selfish interests, the desire to get rich and “live according to your own will.” High values have been replaced by their parodic counterparts. Education is nothing more than a desire to follow fashion, contempt for customs and a preference for “noble” gentlemen over “bearded” grooms.
In Ostrovsky’s comedy there is a war of all against all, and in the very antagonism the playwright reveals the deep unity of the characters: what was obtained by deception is retained only by violence, the coarseness of feelings is a natural product of the coarseness of morals and coercion. The severity of social criticism does not interfere with objectivity in the depiction of characters, especially noticeable in the image of Bolshov. His rough tyranny is combined with directness and simplicity, with sincere suffering in the final scenes. By introducing into the play, as it were, 3 stages of a merchant’s biography (mention of Bolshov’s past, the image of Tishka with his naive hoarding, the “devoted” Podkhalyuzin, robbing the owner), Ostrovsky achieves epic depth, showing the origins of character and the “crisis”. The history of the Zamoskvoretsky merchant house appears not as an “anecdote”, the result of personal vices, but as a manifestation of life’s patterns.
After Ostrovsky created the comedy “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” such a bleak picture of the inner life of a merchant’s house, he had a need to find positive principles that could resist the immoralism and cruelty of his contemporary society. The direction of the search was determined by the playwright’s participation in the “young editorial staff” of “Moskvityanin”. At the very end of the reign of the Emperor. Nicholas I Ostrovsky creates a kind of patriarchal utopia in the plays of the Muscovite period.
Muscovites were characterized by a focus on the idea of national identity, which they developed mainly in the field of art theory, especially manifested in their interest in folk songs, as well as in the pre-Petrine forms of Russian life, which were still preserved among the peasantry and patriarchal merchants. The patriarchal family was presented to Muscovites as a model of an ideal social structure, where relations between people would be harmonious, and the hierarchy would be based not on coercion and violence, but on recognition of the authority of seniority and everyday experience. The Muscovites did not have a consistently formulated theory or, especially, a program. However, in literary criticism they invariably defended patriarchal forms and contrasted them with the norms of a “Europeanized” noble society, not only as primordially national, but also as more democratic.
Even during this period, Ostrovsky sees the social conflict in the life he depicts and shows that the idyll of a patriarchal family is fraught with drama. True, in the first Muscovite play, “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh,” the drama of intra-family relationships is emphatically devoid of social overtones. Social motives here are connected only with the image of the noble playmaker Vikhorev. But the next one best play of this period, “Poverty is not a vice” brings social conflict in the Tortsov family to high tension. The power of the “elders” over the “younger” here is clearly of a monetary nature. In this play, for the first time, Ostrovsky very closely intertwines comedy and drama, which will later be a distinctive feature of his work. The connection with Muscovite ideas here is manifested not in smoothing out the contradictions of life, but in the understanding of this contradiction as a “temptation” of modern civilization, as a result of the invasion of outsiders, internally alien to the patriarchal world, personified in the figure of the manufacturer Korshunov. For Ostrovsky, the tyrant Gordey, confused by Korshunov, is by no means a true bearer of patriarchal morality, but a man who betrayed it, but is capable of returning to it under the influence of the shock experienced in the finale. The poetic image of the world of folk culture and morality created by Ostrovsky (Christmas scenes and especially folk songs, serving as a lyrical commentary on the fate of young heroes), with its charm and purity resists tyranny, but it needs, however, support, it is fragile and defenseless against the onslaught of the “modern”. It is no coincidence that in the plays of the Muscovite period, the only hero who actively influenced the course of events was Lyubim Tortsov, a man who “broke out” of patriarchal life, gained bitter life experience outside of it and therefore was able to look at the events in his family from the outside and soberly evaluate them and direct their course towards the general welfare. Ostrovsky’s greatest achievement lies precisely in creating the image of Lyubim Tortsov, which is both poetic and very lifelike.
Exploring the archaic forms of life in the family relationships of the merchants in the Muscovite period, Ostrovsky creates an artistic utopia, a world where, relying on folk (peasant in its origins) ideas about morality, it turns out to be possible to overcome discord and fierce individualism, which is increasingly spreading in modern society, to achieve lost, destroyed by history, the unity of people. But the change in the entire atmosphere of Russian life on the eve of the abolition of serfdom leads Ostrovsky to an understanding of the utopianism and unrealizability of this ideal. A new stage of his journey begins with the play “At Someone Else’s Feast, a Hangover” (1855-56), where he created the brightest image merchant-tyrant Tit Titych Bruskov, who became a household name. Ostrovsky covers the life of society more widely, turning to traditional themes for Russian literature and developing them in a completely original way. Touching upon the widely discussed topic of bureaucracy in “Profitable Place” (1856), Ostrovsky not only denounces extortion and arbitrariness, but reveals the historical and social roots of the “clerical philosophy” (the image of Yusov), the illusory nature of hopes for a new generation of educated officials: life itself pushes them to compromise (Zhadov). In “The Pupil” (1858), Ostrovsky depicts the “tyrant” life of a landowner’s estate without the slightest lyricism, so common among writers of the nobility when referring to local life.
But Ostrovsky’s highest artistic achievement in the pre-reform years was “The Thunderstorm” (1859), in which he discovered the folk heroic character. The play shows how a violation of the idyllic harmony of patriarchal family life can lead to tragedy. The main character of the play, Katerina, lives in an era when the very spirit is being destroyed - the harmony between an individual person and the moral ideas of the environment. In the soul of the heroine, an attitude towards the world is born, a new feeling, still unclear to her, - an awakening sense of personality, which, in accordance with her position and life experience, takes the form of individual, personal love. Passion is born and grows in Katerina, but this passion is highest degree spiritual, far from the thoughtless desire for hidden joys. The awakened feeling of love is perceived by Katerina as a terrible, indelible sin, because love for a stranger is for her, married woman, there is a violation of moral duty. For Katerina, the moral commandments of the patriarchal world are full of primordial meaning and significance. Having already realized her love for Boris, she strives with all her might to resist it, but does not find support in this struggle: everything around her is already collapsing, and everything that she tries to rely on turns out to be an empty shell, devoid of genuine moral content. For Katerina, form and ritual in themselves do not matter - the human essence of relationships is important to her. Katerina does not doubt the moral value of her moral ideas; she only sees that no one in the world cares about the true essence of these values and she is alone in her struggle. The world of patriarchal relations is dying, and the soul of this world passes away in pain and suffering. Under the pen of Ostrovsky, the conceived social and everyday drama from the life of the merchants grew into a tragedy. It showed the people's character at a sharp historical turning point - hence the scale " family history", the powerful symbolism of "Thunderstorm".
Although modern social drama is the main part of Ostrovsky’s legacy, in the 60s he turned to historical drama, sharing the general interest of Russian culture of this period in the past. In connection with the educational understanding of the tasks of the theater, Ostrovsky considered plays on themes of national history necessary in the repertoire, believing that historical dramas and chronicles “develop self-knowledge and cultivate conscious love for the fatherland.” For Ostrovsky, history is the sphere of the highest in national existence (this determined the appeal to the poetic form). Ostrovsky's historical plays are heterogeneous in genre. Among them there are chronicles (“Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, 1862; “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, 1867; “Tushino”, 1867), historical and everyday comedies (“Voevoda”, 1865; “Comedian of the 17th century”, 1873 ), psychological drama “Vasilisa Melentyeva” (co-authored with S. A. Gedeonov, 1868). The preference for the chronicle over the traditional genre of historical tragedy, as well as the appeal to the Time of Troubles, was determined by the folk character of Ostrovsky’s theater, his interest in the historical deeds of the Russian people.
In the post-reform period in Russia, the isolation of class and cultural and everyday groups of society is collapsing; The “Europeanized” way of life, which was previously the privilege of the nobility, becomes the norm. Social diversity also characterizes the picture of life created by Ostrovsky in the post-reform period. The thematic and temporal range of his dramaturgy becomes extremely wide: from historical events and private life of the 17th century. to the hottest issue of the day; from the inhabitants of the outback, the poor middle-class outskirts to the modern “civilized” business tycoons; from the noble living rooms disturbed by the reforms to the forest road on which the actors Schastlivtsev and Neschastlivtsev meet (“Forest”).
Early Ostrovsky does not have the hero-intellectual, the nobleman, characteristic of most Russian classical writers. extra person" In the late 60s he turned to the type of noble hero-intellectual. The comedy “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man” (1868) is the beginning of a kind of anti-noble cycle. Although there is social criticism in all of Ostrovsky’s plays, he has few actual satirical comedies: “Simplicity is Enough for Every Wise Man,” “Mad Money” (1870), “The Forest” (1871), “Wolves and Sheep” (1875). Here, the sphere of satirical depiction involves not individual characters or plot lines, but the entire life represented, not so much people, personalities, but the way of life as a whole, the course of things. The plays are not connected by plot, but this is precisely the cycle, which generally provides a broad canvas of the life of the post-reform nobility. According to the principles of poetics, these plays differ significantly from the main genre of pre-reform creativity - the type of folk comedy created by Ostrovsky.
Ostrovsky, in the comedy “Every Wise Man Has Enough Simplicity,” with satirical sharpness and the objectivity characteristic of his manner, captured a special type of evolution of the “superfluous man.” Glumov's path is a path of betrayal towards one's own personality, moral division, leading to cynicism and immorality. The lofty hero in Ostrovsky’s post-reform drama turns out to be not a noble nobleman, but a poor actor Neschastlivtsev. And this declassed nobleman goes through his “path to herohood” in front of the audience, first playing the role of a gentleman who has returned to rest in his native land, and in the finale he sharply and decisively breaks with the world of the estate, pronouncing judgment on its inhabitants from the position of a servant of high, humane art.
The broad picture of the complex social processes taking place in Russia after a decade of reforms makes The Forest similar to the great Russian novels of the 70s. Like L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (it was during this period that he created his “estate family novel” “The Golovlevs”), Ostrovsky sensitively grasped that in Russia “everything has turned upside down and It’s just getting ready” (as stated in “Anna Karenina”). And this new reality is reflected in the mirror of the family. Through the family conflict in Ostrovsky's comedy, the enormous changes taking place in Russian life shine through.
The noble estate, its owner, respectable guests and neighbors are depicted by Ostrovsky with all the force of satirical denunciation. Badaev and Milonov, with their conversations about “current times,” are similar to Shchedrin’s characters. Not being participants in the intrigue, they are, however, needed not only to characterize the environment, but also participate in the action as necessary spectators of the performance played by the main antagonists of the play - Gurmyzhskaya and Neschastlivtsev. Each of them puts on their own performance. Neschastlivtsev’s path in the play is a breakthrough from far-fetched melodrama to genuine heights of life, the hero’s defeat in “comedy” and a moral victory in real life. At the same time, and having emerged from the melodramatic role, Neschastlivtsev turns out to be an actor. His last monologue imperceptibly transitions into the monologue of Karl More from F. Schiller’s “The Robbers,” as if Schiller were judging the inhabitants of this “forest.” Melodrama is discarded, great, real art comes to the aid of the actor. Gurmyzhskaya refused the expensive role of the head of a patriarchal noble family, caring for her less fortunate relatives. The pupil Aksyusha, who received a dowry from a poor actor, leaves Penka’s estate for a merchant’s house. The last Gurmyzhsky, the traveling actor Neschastlivtsev, leaves on foot along the country roads, with a knapsack over his shoulders. The family disappears, falls apart; a “random family” arises (Dostoevsky’s expression) - a married couple consisting of a landowner well over fifty and a dropout high school student.
In work on satirical comedies from modern life A new stylistic manner of Ostrovsky was emerging, which, however, did not displace the old one, but interacted with it in a complex manner. His arrival in literature was marked by the creation of a nationally distinctive theatrical style, based in poetics on the folklore tradition (which was determined by the nature of the “prepersonal” environment depicted by the early Ostrovsky). The new style is associated with the general literary tradition of the 19th century, with the discoveries of narrative prose, with the study of the personal hero-contemporary. New task prepared the development of psychologism in Ostrovsky’s art.
The play “The Snow Maiden” (1873) occupies a very special place in Ostrovsky’s legacy and in Russian drama in general. Conceived as an extravaganza, a cheerful performance for festive performances, written on the plot of folk tales and widely using other forms of folklore, primarily calendar poetry, the play outgrew its concept during the process of creation. In terms of genre, it is comparable to European philosophical and symbolic drama, for example. with Ibsen's Peer Gynt. In “The Snow Maiden” the lyrical beginning of Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy was expressed with great force. Sometimes “The Snow Maiden” is called a utopia without sufficient reason. Meanwhile, utopia contains an idea of an ideally fair, from the point of view of its creators, structure of society; it must be absolutely optimistic; the genre itself is, as it were, designed to overcome the tragic contradictions of life, resolving them in fantastic harmony. However, the life depicted in The Snow Maiden, beautiful and poetic, is far from idyll. Berendeys are extremely close to nature, they do not know evil and deception, just as nature does not know it. But everything that, by its own will or force of circumstances, falls out of this cycle of natural life must inevitably perish here. And this tragic doom of everything that goes beyond the boundaries of “organic” life is embodied by the fate of the Snow Maiden; It is no coincidence that she dies precisely when she accepted the law of life of the Berendeys and is ready to translate her awakened love into everyday forms. This is inaccessible to either her or Mizgir, whose passion, unfamiliar to the Berendeys, pushes him out of the circle peaceful life. An unambiguously optimistic interpretation of the ending creates a contradiction with the audience's immediate sympathy for the fallen heroes, so it is incorrect. “The Snow Maiden” does not fit into the genre of a fairy tale; it approaches a mystery action. A mythological plot cannot have an unpredictable ending. The arrival of summer is inevitable, and the Snow Maiden cannot help but melt. All this does not devalue her choice and sacrifice, however. The characters are not at all passive and submissive - the action does not at all cancel the usual action. Mysterious action is each time a new embodiment of the essential foundations of life. The free expression of the Snow Maiden and Mizgir in Ostrovsky is included within this life cycle. The tragedy of the Snow Maiden and Mizgir not only does not shake the world, but even contributes to the normal flow of life, and even saves the Berendey kingdom from “coldness”. Ostrovsky's world may be tragic, but not catastrophic. Hence the unusual, unexpected combination of tragedy and optimism in the finale.
In “The Snow Maiden” the most generalized image of “Ostrovsky’s world” is created, reproducing in folklore and symbolic form the author’s deeply lyrical idea of the essence of national life, overcoming, but not canceling, the tragedy of individual personal existence.
In Ostrovsky’s artistic system, drama was formed in the depths of comedy. The writer develops a type of comedy in which, along with negative characters their victims are certainly present, evoking our sympathy and compassion. This predetermined the dramatic potential of his comedic world. The drama of individual situations, sometimes destinies, grows more and more over time and, as it were, shakes and destroys the comedic structure, without, however, depriving the play of the features of “major comedy.” “Jokers” (1864), “The Abyss” (1866), “There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was altyn” (1872) are clear evidence of this process. Here the qualities necessary for the emergence of drama in the narrow sense of the term gradually accumulate. This is, first of all, personal consciousness. Until the hero feels himself spiritually opposed to his environment and generally separates himself from it, he, even evoking complete sympathy, cannot yet become the hero of the drama. In “Jokers,” the old lawyer Obroshenov ardently defends his right to be a “jester,” since it gives him the opportunity to feed his family. The “strong drama” of his monologue arises as a result of the viewer’s spiritual work, but remains outside the sphere of consciousness of the hero himself. From the point of view of the development of the drama genre, “The Deep” is very important.
The formation of the personal moral dignity of poor workers, the urban masses, the awareness in this environment of the extra-class value of the individual person attracts the keen interest of Ostrovsky. The rise in the sense of individuality caused by the reform, which has captured fairly wide sections of the Russian population, provides material for creating drama. In Ostrovsky’s artistic world, this conflict, dramatic in nature, often, however, continues to be embodied in a comedic structure. One of the most expressive examples of the struggle between the dramatic and the comedic is “Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1876).
The formation of drama was associated with the search for a hero who, firstly, was able to enter into a dramatic struggle and, secondly, arouse the sympathy of the viewer, having a worthy goal. The interest of such a drama should be focused on the action itself, on the vicissitudes of this struggle. In the conditions of Russian post-reform reality, Ostrovsky, however, did not find a hero who could simultaneously turn out to be a man of action, capable of entering into a serious life struggle, and arouse the sympathy of the audience with his moral qualities. All the heroes in Ostrovsky's dramas are either callous, successful businessmen, vulgar, cynical wasters of life, or beautiful-hearted idealists, whose powerlessness in front of the “business man” is predetermined. They could not become the center of dramatic action - a woman becomes the center, which is explained by her very position in modern Ostrovsky society.
Ostrovsky's drama is family and everyday. He knows how to show the structure of modern life, its social face, while remaining within these plot frames, since he, as an artist, is interested in refracting all the problems of our time in the moral sphere. Putting a woman at the center naturally shifts the emphasis from action in the proper sense to the feelings of the characters, which creates conditions for the development of a psychological drama. The most perfect of them is rightfully considered “Dowry” (1879).
In this play there is no absolute confrontation between the heroine and the environment: unlike the heroine of “The Thunderstorm,” Larisa is devoid of integrity. A spontaneous desire for moral purity, truthfulness - everything that comes from her richly gifted nature raises the heroine high above those around her. But Larisa’s everyday drama itself is the result of the fact that bourgeois ideas about life have power over her. After all, Paratova fell in love not unconsciously, but, in her own words, because “Sergei Sergeich is... the ideal of a man.” Meanwhile, the motive of bargaining, running through the entire play and concentrating in the main plot action - bargaining over Larisa - covers all male heroes, among whom Larisa must make her life choice. And Paratov is not only not an exception here, but, as it turns out, he is the most cruel and dishonest participant in the bargaining. The complexity of the characters (the inconsistency of their inner world, like Larisa’s; the discrepancy between the inner essence and the external pattern of the hero’s behavior, like Paratov) requires the genre solution chosen by Ostrovsky - the form of psychological drama. Paratov's reputation is that of a great gentleman, a generous nature, and a reckless brave man. And Ostrovsky leaves all these colors and gestures to him. But, on the other hand, he subtly and casually accumulates touches and cues that reveal his true face. In the very first scene of Paratov’s appearance, the viewer hears his confession: “What “pity” is, I don’t know. I, Mokiy Parmenych, have nothing cherished; If I find a profit, I’ll sell everything, anything.” And immediately after this it turns out that Paratov is selling not only “Swallow” to Vozhevatov, but also himself to a bride with gold mines. Ultimately, the scene in Karandyshev’s house compromises Paratov, because the decoration of the apartment of Larisa’s ill-fated fiance and the attempt to arrange a luxurious dinner is a caricature of Paratov’s style and lifestyle. And the whole difference is measured in the amounts that each of the heroes can spend on it.
The means of psychological characteristics in Ostrovsky are not the self-recognition of the heroes, not reasoning about their feelings and properties, but mainly their actions and everyday, not analytical dialogue. As is typical for classical drama, the characters do not change during the dramatic action, but are only gradually revealed to the audience. Even the same can be said about Larisa: she begins to see the light, learns the truth about the people around her, and makes the terrible decision to become “a very expensive thing.” And only death frees her from everything that everyday experience has endowed her with. At this moment, she seems to return to the natural beauty of her nature. The powerful finale of the drama - the death of the heroine amid the festive noise, accompanied by the singing of gypsies - amazes with its artistic audacity. State of mind Larisa is shown by Ostrovsky in the style of “strong drama” characteristic of his theater and at the same time with impeccable psychological accuracy. She is softened and calmed down, forgives everyone, because she is happy that she has finally caused an outbreak of human feeling - Karandyshev’s reckless, suicidal act, which freed her from the terrible life of a kept woman. Ostrovsky builds the rare artistic effect of this scene on an acute collision of multidirectional emotions: the more gentle and forgiving the heroine, the stricter the viewer’s judgment.
In Ostrovsky’s work, psychological drama was an emerging genre, therefore, along with such significant plays as “The Last Victim” (1878), “Talents and Admirers” (1882), “Guilty Without Guilt” (1884), such a masterpiece as “Dowry” , in this genre the writer also knew relative failures. However, Ostrovsky's best works laid the foundation for the further development of psychological drama. Having created a whole repertoire for the Russian theater (about 50 original plays), Ostrovsky also sought to replenish it with both world classics and plays by modern Russian and European playwrights. He translated 22 plays, including Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Goldoni's The Coffee House, Cervantes' Interludes and many others. Dr. Ostrovsky read many manuscripts of aspiring playwrights, helped them with advice, and in the 70s and 80s he wrote several plays in collaboration with N. Ya. Solovyov (“Happy Day”, 1877; “The Marriage of Belugin”, 1878; “Savage Woman”) ", 1880; "It shines, but does not warm", 1881) and P. M. Nevezhin ("Whim", 1881; "Old in a new way", 1882).
Zhuravleva A.
Used materials from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian People - http://www.rusinst.ru
Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolaevich - famous dramatic writer. Born on March 31, 1823 in Moscow, where his father served in the civil chamber and then practiced private law. Ostrovsky lost his mother as a child and did not receive any systematic education. All of his childhood and part of his youth were spent in the very center of Zamoskvorechye, which at that time, according to the conditions of his life, was a completely special world. This world populated his imagination with those ideas and types that he later reproduced in his comedies. Thanks to his father's large library, Ostrovsky became acquainted with Russian literature early and felt an inclination towards writing; but his father certainly wanted to make him a lawyer. After graduating from the gymnasium course, Ostrovsky entered the law faculty of Moscow University. He failed to complete the course due to some kind of collision with one of the professors. At the request of his father, he entered the service as a scribe, first in the conscientious court, then in the commercial court. This determined the nature of his first literary experiments; in court, he continued his observations of the peculiar Zamoskvoretsky types familiar to him from childhood, who begged for literary treatment. By 1846, he had already written many scenes from the life of a merchant, and conceived a comedy: “The Insolvent Debtor” (later - “Our People - We Will Be Numbered”). A short excerpt from this comedy was published in No. 7 of the Moscow City Listok in 1847; Below the passage are the letters: "A. O." and “D.G.”, that is, A. Ostrovsky and Dmitry Gorev. The latter was a provincial actor (real name Tarasenkov), the author of two or three plays that had already been performed on stage, who accidentally met Ostrovsky and offered him his cooperation. It did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, since it gave his ill-wishers a reason to accuse him of appropriating someone else’s literary work. In No. 60 and 61 of the same newspaper, another, already completely independent work by Ostrovsky appeared, without a signature - “Pictures of Moscow life. A picture of family happiness.” These scenes were reprinted, in a corrected form and with the name of the author, under the title: “Family Picture”, in Sovremennik, 1856, No. 4. Ostrovsky himself considered the “Family Picture” to be his first printed work and it was from this that he began his literary activity. He recognized February 14, 1847 as the most memorable and dear day of his life. : on this day he visited S.P. Shevyrev and, in the presence of A.S. Khomyakov, professors, writers, employees of the Moscow City Listok, read this play, which appeared in print a month later. Shevyrev and Khomyakov, hugging the young writer, welcomed his dramatic talent. “From that day,” says Ostrovsky, “I began to consider myself a Russian writer and, without doubt or hesitation, believed in my calling.” He also tried his hand at the narrative genre, in feuilleton stories from life in Zamoskvoretsk. In the same “Moscow City List” (No. 119 - 121) one of these stories was published: “Ivan Erofeich”, with the general title: “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident”; two other stories in the same series: “The Tale of How the Quarterly Warden Started to Dance, or From the Great to the Ridiculous” and “Two Biographies” remained unpublished, and the latter was not even finished. By the end of 1849, a comedy entitled “Bankrupt” had already been written. Ostrovsky read it to his university friend A.F. Pisemsky; at the same time he met the famous artist P.M. Sadovsky, who saw a literary revelation in his comedy and began to read it in various Moscow circles, among other things, with Countess E.P. Rostopchina, where they usually gathered young writers , who had just begun their literary career (B.N. Almazov, N.V. Berg, L.A. Mei, T.I. Filippov, N.I. Shapovalov, E.N. Edelson). All of them had been in close, friendly relations with Ostrovsky since his student days, and all accepted Pogodin’s offer to work in the updated Moskvityanin, forming the so-called “young editorial staff” of this magazine. Soon, Apollo Grigoriev occupied a prominent position in this circle, acting as a herald of originality in literature and becoming an ardent defender and praiser of Ostrovsky, as a representative of this originality. Ostrovsky's comedy, under the changed title: "Our people - we will be numbered", after much trouble with censorship, which reached the point of appealing to the highest authorities, was published in the 2nd March book of "Moskvityanin" in 1850, but was not allowed to be presented; censorship did not even allow talking about this play in print. It appeared on stage only in 1861, with the ending altered from the printed one. Following this first comedy by Ostrovsky, his other plays began to appear annually in "Moskvityanin" and other magazines: in 1850 - "The Morning of a Young Man", in 1851 - "An Unexpected Case", in 1852 - "The Poor Bride ", in 1853 - "Don't sit in your own sleigh" (the first of Ostrovsky's plays to appear on the stage of the Moscow Maly Theater, January 14, 1853), in 1854 - "Poverty is not a vice", in 1855 - “Don’t live the way you want,” in 1856 - “There’s a hangover at someone else’s feast.” In all these plays, Ostrovsky depicted aspects of Russian life that before him were almost not touched upon in literature and were not reproduced at all on stage. Deep knowledge of the everyday life of the depicted environment, the bright vitality and truth of the image, a unique, lively and colorful language that clearly reflects that real Russian speech of the “Moscow breadwinners”, which Pushkin advised Russian writers to learn - all this artistic realism with all the simplicity and sincerity, to which even Gogol did not raise, was met in our criticism by some with stormy delight, by others with bewilderment, denial and ridicule. While A. Grigoriev, proclaiming himself the “prophet of Ostrovsky,” tirelessly insisted that in the works of the young playwright the “new word” of our literature, namely “nationality,” found expression, critics of the progressive trend reproached Ostrovsky for his attraction to pre-Petrine antiquity, to "Slavophilism" of the Pogostin sense, they even saw in his comedies the idealization of tyranny, they called him "Gostinodvorsky Kotzebue." Chernyshevsky had a sharply negative attitude towards the play “Poverty is not a vice”, seeing in it some kind of sentimental sweetness in the depiction of a hopeless, supposedly “patriarchal” life; other critics were indignant at Ostrovsky for elevating some sensitivities and boots with bottles to the level of “heroes”. The theater audience, free from aesthetic and political bias, irrevocably decided the matter in favor of Ostrovsky. The most talented Moscow actors and actresses - Sadovsky, S. Vasiliev, Stepanov, Nikulina-Kositskaya, Borozdina and others - were forced until then to perform, with isolated exceptions, either in vulgar vaudevilles, or in stilted melodramas converted from French, written in addition in barbaric language, they immediately felt in Ostrovsky’s plays the spirit of a living, close and native Russian life to them and devoted all their strength to its truthful depiction on stage. And the theater audience saw in the performance of these artists a truly “new word” of stage art - simplicity and naturalness, they saw people living on stage without any pretense. With his works, Ostrovsky created a school of true Russian dramatic art, simple and real, as alien to pretentiousness and affectation as all the great works of our literature are alien to it. This merit of his was primarily understood and appreciated in the theatrical environment, which was most free from preconceived theories. When in 1856, according to the thoughts of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in industrial and domestic relations, Ostrovsky took upon himself the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to the Lower. A short report about this trip appeared in the “Sea Collection” in 1859, the full one remained in the author’s papers and was subsequently (1890) processed by S.V. Maksimov, but still remains unpublished. Several months spent in close proximity to the local population gave Ostrovsky many vivid impressions, expanded and deepened his knowledge of Russian life in its artistic expression - in a well-aimed word, song, fairy tale, historical legend, in the mores and customs of antiquity that were still preserved in the backwoods. All this was reflected in Ostrovsky’s later works and further strengthened them. national importance . Not limiting himself to the life of the Zamoskvoretsky merchants, Ostrovsky introduces into the circle of characters the world of large and small officials, and then landowners. In 1857, “A Profitable Place” and “A Festive Sleep Before Lunch” were written (the first part of the “trilogy” about Balzaminov; two further parts - “Your dogs are biting, don’t pester someone else’s” and “What you go for is what you will find” - appeared in 1861), in 1858 - “They Didn’t Get Along” (originally written as a story), in 1859 - “The Pupil”. In the same year, two volumes of Ostrovsky’s works appeared, published by Count G.A. Kusheleva-Bezborodko. This publication served as the reason for the brilliant assessment that Dobrolyubov gave to Ostrovsky and which secured his fame as an artist of the “dark kingdom.” Reading now, after half a century, Dobrolyubov’s articles, we cannot help but see their journalistic character. Ostrovsky himself, by nature, was not at all a satirist, and almost not even a humorist; with truly epic objectivity, caring only about the truth and vitality of the image, he “calmly regarded the right and the guilty, knowing neither pity nor anger” and not in the least hiding his love for the simple “little mermaid”, in whom, even among the ugly manifestations of everyday life, he always knew how to find certain attractive features. Ostrovsky himself was such a “little Russian,” and everything Russian found a sympathetic echo in his heart. In his own words, he cared, first of all, about showing a Russian person on stage: “let him see himself and rejoice. Correctors will be found even without us. In order to have the right to correct the people, you need to show them that you know what is good about them.” Dobrolyubov, however, did not think of imposing certain tendencies on Ostrovsky, but simply used his plays as a truthful depiction of Russian life, for his own, completely independent conclusions. In 1860, “The Thunderstorm” appeared in print, causing Dobrolyubov’s second remarkable article (“A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”). This play reflects the impressions of a trip to the Volga and, in particular, the author’s visit to Torzhok. An even more vivid reflection of the Volga impressions was the dramatic chronicle published in No. 1 of Sovremennik in 1862: “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk.” In this play, Ostrovsky for the first time took up the treatment of a historical theme, suggested to him both by Nizhny Novgorod legends and by a careful study of our history of the 17th century. The sensitive artist managed to notice the living features of folk life in dead monuments and perfectly master the language of the era he was studying, in which he later, for fun, wrote entire letters. "Minin", which received the approval of the sovereign, was, however, banned by dramatic censorship and could appear on stage only 4 years later. On stage, the play was not successful due to its prolixity and not always successful lyricism, but critics could not help but notice the high dignity of individual scenes and figures. In 1863, Ostrovsky published a drama from folk life: “Sin and misfortune live on no one” and then returned to the pictures of Zamoskvorechye in comedies: “Hard Days” (1863) and “Jokers” (1864). At the same time, he was busy processing a large play in verse, begun during a trip to the Volga, from the life of the 17th century. It appeared in No. 1 of Sovremennik in 1865 under the title: “The Voevoda, or a Dream on the Volga.” This excellent poetic fantasy, something like a dramatized epic, contains a number of vivid everyday pictures of the long past, through the haze of which one feels in many places a closeness to everyday life, which to this day has not yet completely passed into the past. The comedy “On a Lively Place,” published in No. 9 of Sovremennik in 1865, was also inspired by Volga impressions. From the mid-60s, Ostrovsky diligently took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into a lively correspondence with Kostomarov, who was studying the same era at that time. The result of this work were two dramatic chronicles published in 1867: “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky” and “Tushino”. In No. 1 of "Bulletin of Europe" in 1868, another historical drama appeared, from the time of Ivan the Terrible, "Vasilisa Melentyev", written in collaboration with the theater director Gedeonov. From this time on, a series of plays by Ostrovsky began, written, as he put it, in a “new manner.” Their subject is the image no longer of merchants and bourgeois, but of noble life: “Simplicity is enough for every wise man,” 1868; "Mad Money", 1870; “Forest”, 1871. Interspersed with them are everyday comedies of the “old style”: “Warm Heart” (1869), “It’s not all Maslenitsa for the cat” (1871), “There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was Altyn” (1872). In 1873, two plays were written that occupy a special position among Ostrovsky’s works: “The Comedian of the 17th Century” (for the 200th anniversary of the Russian theater) and the dramatic fairy tale in verse “The Snow Maiden,” one of the most remarkable creations of Russian poetry. In his further works of the 70s and 80s, Ostrovsky turns to the life of various strata of society - the nobility, the bureaucrats, and the merchants, and in the latter he notes changes in views and conditions caused by the demands of the new Russian life. This period of Ostrovsky’s activity includes: “Late Love” and “Labor Bread” (1874), “Wolves and Sheep” (1875), “Rich Brides” (1876), “Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1877), “The Last Victim” (1878), “Dowry” and “Good Master” (1879), “Heart is not a Stone” (1880), “Slave Women” (1881), “Talents and Admirers” (1882), “Handsome Man” (1883), “Guilty Without Guilt” (1884) and, finally, the last play, weak in concept and execution: “Not of this world” (1885). In addition, several plays were written by Ostrovsky in collaboration with other persons: with N.Ya. Solovyov - “The Marriage of Belugin” (1878), “Savage” (1880) and “It shines but does not warm” (1881); with P.M. Nevezhin - "Whim" (1881). Ostrovsky also owns a number of translations of foreign plays: Shakespeare's "Pacification of the Wayward" (1865), "The Great Banker" by Italo Franchi (1871), "The Lost Sheep" by Teobaldo Ciconi (1872), "The Coffee House" by Goldoni (1872), "The Family of a Criminal" Giacometti (1872), an adaptation from French of “The Slavery of Husbands” and, finally, a translation of 10 interludes by Cervantes, published separately in 1886. He wrote only 49 original plays. All these plays provide a gallery of the most diverse Russian types, remarkable in its vitality and truthfulness, with all the peculiarities of their habits, language and character. In relation to the actual dramatic technique and composition, Ostrovsky's plays are often weak: the artist, deeply truthful by nature, was himself aware of his powerlessness in inventing a plot, in arranging the beginning and ending; he even said that “the playwright should not invent what happened; his job is to write how it happened or could have happened; that’s all his work; when he turns his attention in this direction, living people will appear and speak themselves.” Talking about his plays from this point of view, Ostrovsky admitted that his most difficult task is “fiction,” because any lie is disgusting to him; but it is impossible for a dramatic writer to do without this conventional lie. That “new word” of Ostrovsky, for which Apollo Grigoriev so ardently advocated, essentially lies not so much in “nationality” as in truthfulness, in the artist’s direct relationship to the life around him with the goal of its very real reproduction on stage. In this direction, Ostrovsky took a further step forward in comparison with Griboedov and Gogol and for a long time established on our stage that “natural school”, which at the beginning of his activity already dominated in other departments of our literature. A talented playwright, supported by equally talented artists, caused competition among his peers who followed the same path: playwrights of a homogeneous trend were Pisemsky, A. Potekhin and other, less noticeable, but in their time writers who enjoyed deserved success. Devoted with all his soul to the theater and its interests, Ostrovsky also devoted a lot of time and work to practical concerns about the development and improvement of dramatic art and improving the financial situation of dramatic authors. He dreamed of the opportunity to transform the artistic taste of artists and the public and create a theater school, equally useful both for the aesthetic education of society and for the training of worthy stage performers. Amidst all sorts of griefs and disappointments, he remained faithful to this cherished dream until the end of his life, the realization of which was partly the Artistic Circle he created in 1866 in Moscow, which subsequently gave many talented figures to the Moscow stage. At the same time, Ostrovsky was concerned about alleviating the financial situation of Russian playwrights: through his works, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed (1874), of which he remained the permanent chairman until his death. In general, by the beginning of the 80s, Ostrovsky firmly took the place of the leader and teacher of Russian drama and stage. Working hard in the commission established in 1881 under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters “to revise the regulations on all parts of theatrical management,” he achieved many changes that significantly improved the situation of artists and made it possible to more efficiently organize theatrical education. In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school. His health, already weakened by this time, did not correspond to the broad plans of activity that he had set for himself. The intense work quickly exhausted the body; On June 2, 1886, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo, without having time to implement his transformative assumptions.
Ostrovsky's works have been published many times; the latest and more complete publication - the Enlightenment partnership (St. Petersburg, 1896 - 97, in 10 volumes, edited by M.I. Pisarev and with a biographical sketch by I. Nosov). Separately published were “Dramatic Translations” (Moscow, 1872), “Interlude of Cervantes” (St. Petersburg, 1886) and “Dramatic Works of A. Ostrovsky and N. Solovyov” (St. Petersburg, 1881). For the biography of Ostrovsky, the most important work is the book of the French scientist J. Patouillet “O. et son theater de moeurs russes” (Paris, 1912), which contains all the literature about Ostrovsky. See memoirs of S.V. Maksimov in "Russian Thought" 1897 and Kropachev in "Russian Review" 1897; I. Ivanov “A.N. Ostrovsky, his life and literary activity” (St. Petersburg, 1900). The best critical articles about Ostrovsky were written by Apollon Grigoriev (in "Moskvityanin" and "Time"), Edelson ("Library for Reading", 1864), Dobrolyubov ("The Dark Kingdom" and "A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom") and Boborykin ("The Word", 1878 ). - Wed. also books by A.I. Nezelenova "Ostrovsky in his works" (St. Petersburg, 1888), and Or. F. Miller "Russian writers after Gogol" (St. Petersburg, 1887).
P. Morozov.
Reprinted from the address: http://www.rulex.ru/
OSTROVSKY Alexander Nikolaevich (03/31/1823-06/2/1886), an outstanding Russian writer and playwright. Son of a judicial officer.
After graduating from the 1st Moscow Gymnasium (1840), Ostrovsky entered the Faculty of Law Moscow University, but a year before graduation, due to a conflict with teachers, he was forced to leave his studies and become a “clerical servant” - first in the Moscow Conscientious Court (1843), and two years later - in the Moscow Commercial Court.
From his youth, Ostrovsky had a passion for theater and was closely acquainted with artists Maly Theater: P. S. Mochalov, M. S. Shchepkin, P. M. Sadovsky. In 1851 he left the service and devoted himself entirely to literary and theatrical activities. Work in the Moscow courts, the study of merchant claims, which Ostrovsky’s father often dealt with, provided the future playwright with rich vital material related to the life and customs of Russian merchants, and allowed him to subsequently create works in which the artistic brightness of the characters is closely intertwined with their realism.
On January 9, 1847, the newspaper “Moskovsky Listok” published a scene from Ostrovsky’s comedy “The Careless Debtor,” later called “Our People - We Will Be Numbered.” In the same year, the comedy “Picture of Family Happiness” was written. These works, created in the spirit of the “natural school” N. V. Gogol, brought the author his first fame. Ostrovsky’s next dramatic experiments, which consolidated his first successes, were the plays of 1851-54: “Poor Bride”, “Don’t Sit in Your Own Sleigh”, “Poverty is not a Vice”, “Don’t Live the Way You Want”, the heroes of which are people from poor environment - act as bearers of truth and humanity.
In 1856-59 he published sharply satirical plays: “There’s a Hangover at Someone Else’s Feast”, “A Profitable Place”, “The Kindergarten” and the drama “The Thunderstorm”, which caused a wide public response, for which in 1859 Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize.
In the 1860s, Ostrovsky created social and everyday comedies and dramas - “Sin and misfortune lives on no one,” “Jokers,” “On a Lively Place,” “The Deep,” as well as a number of plays on historical subjects: about the era Ivan the Terrible(“Vasilisa Melentyevna”) and about Time of Troubles(“Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, “Tushino”). In the 1870s-80s, well-known plays appeared: “Wolves and Sheep”, “Forest”, “Handsome Man”, “Simplicity is enough for every wise man” - from the life of a provincial nobility;“Talents and fans”, “Guilty without guilt” - about the everyday life of actors; “The Snow Maiden” is the embodiment of fairy-tale and folklore motifs; “The Dowry” is a kind of pinnacle of Ostrovsky’s creativity, standing out among other works for its deep socio-psychological disclosure of images.
In total, Ostrovsky penned 47 literary and dramatic works, as well as 7 more plays written in collaboration with other authors. Ostrovsky's plays occupied a leading place in the repertoire of the Moscow Theater Maly Theater, with whom the writer was closely associated: he repeatedly acted as a director of his own plays, and was a creative mentor to many wonderful actors of this theater. A number of operas were created based on Ostrovsky’s works, among which the most famous are “The Snow Maiden” N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov,“Voevoda” P.I. Tchaikovsky,"Enemy Power" A. N. Serova.
About the theater. Notes, speeches, letters. L.; M., 1947;
About literature and theater / Comp., intro. Art. and comment. M. P. Lobanova.
Literature:
Lotman L.M. A.N. Ostrovsky and Russian drama of his time. M-L. 1961.
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 portrayal 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”, filmed 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.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is a Russian playwright and writer, whose work played an important role in the development of the Russian national theater. He is the author of several famous works, some of which are included in the literature for the school curriculum.
Writer's family
Ostrovsky's father, Nikolai Fedorovich, the son of a priest, served as a lawyer in the capital and lived in Zamoskvorechye. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary, as well as the seminary in Kostroma. His mother was from a rather poor family and died when Ostrovsky was seven years old. In addition to Alexander, three more children were born in the family. When their mother died, a couple of years later their father remarried, and Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin became his chosen one. She further took care of the children, taking upon herself the troubles of raising them and receiving a proper education.
In 1835, Alexander Ostrovsky entered the Moscow gymnasium, and 5 years later he entered the university of the capital to study law. It was during this period of time that he began to experience an increased interest in theatrical productions. Young Ostrovsky often visits the Petrovsky and Maly theaters. His studies are suddenly interrupted by failure to pass an exam and a quarrel with one of the teachers, and he leaves the university of his own free will, after which he gets a job as a scribe in a Moscow court. In 1845 he finds work in a commercial court, in the chancery department. All this time, Ostrovsky is accumulating information for his future literary work.
During his life, the writer was married twice. He lived with his first wife, Agafya, whose last name has not survived to this day, for about 20 years. His children from this marriage, unfortunately, died while still very young. His second wife was Maria Bakhmetyeva, from her he had six children - two daughters and four sons.
Creative activity
The first literary publication, “Waiting for the Groom,” appeared in 1847 in the Moscow City List, describing scenes from the merchant life of those times. Next year, Ostrovsky finishes writing the comedy “Our People - We Will Be Numbered!” It was staged on the theater stage and received considerable success, which served as an incentive for Alexander to finally come to the decision to devote all his energies to drama. Society reacted warmly and with interest to this work, but it also became the reason for persecution by the authorities, due to its too frank satire and oppositional nature. After the first showing, the play was banned from production in theaters, and the writer was under police surveillance for about five years. As a result, in 1859 the play was significantly altered and republished with a completely different ending.
In 1850, the playwright visited a circle of writers, where he received the unspoken title of singer of a civilization untouched by falsehood. Since 1856, he became the author of the Sovremennik magazine. At the same time, Ostrovsky and his colleagues went on an ethnographic expedition, the task of which was to describe the peoples living on the banks of the rivers of Russia, in its European part. Basically, the writer studied the life of the peoples living on the Volga, in connection with which he wrote a large work, “Journey along the Volga from its origins to Nizhny Novgorod,” reflecting in it the main ethnic features of the people from those places, their life and customs.
In 1860, Ostrovsky’s most famous play, “The Thunderstorm,” was released, the action of which takes place precisely on the banks of the Volga. In 1863 he received a prize and honorary membership in the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Ostrovsky died in 1886 and was buried in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki.
- Ostrovsky's conceptual view of theater is the construction of scenes based on convention, using the riches of Russian speech and its competent use in revealing characters;
- Theater school, which was founded by Ostrovsky, was later developed under the leadership of Stanislavsky and Bulgakov;
- Not all actors responded well to the playwright's innovations. For example, the founder of realism in Russian theatrical art, actor M. S. Shchepkin, left the dress rehearsal of “The Thunderstorm,” which was held under the direction of Ostrovsky.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow. His father, a graduate of the Moscow Theological Seminary, served in the Moscow City Court. He was engaged in private litigation practice in property and commercial matters. The mother from a family of the clergy, the daughter of a sexton and a malt baker, died when the future playwright was eight years old. Ostrovsky spends his childhood and early youth in Zamoskvorechye - a special corner of Moscow with its established merchant and bourgeois life. Alexander became addicted to reading as a child, receives a good education at home, knows Greek, Latin, French, German, and later English, Italian, and Spanish. When Alexander was thirteen years old, his father married a second time to the daughter of a Russified Swedish baron, who was not very involved in raising the children from her husband’s first marriage. With her arrival, the household way of life changes noticeably, official life is reshaped in a noble manner, the environment changes, new speeches are heard in the house.
By this time, the future playwright had re-read almost his entire father’s library. From 1835-1840 - Ostrovsky studies at the First Moscow Gymnasium. In 1840, after graduating from high school, he was enrolled in the law faculty of Moscow University. At the university, law student Ostrovsky was lucky enough to listen to lectures by such experts in history, law and literature as T.N. Granovsky, N.I. Krylov, M.P. Pogodin. Here, for the first time, the future author of “Minin” and “Voevoda” discovers the riches of Russian chronicles, the language appears before him in a historical perspective. But in 1843 Ostrovsky left the university, not wanting to retake the exam. At the same time he entered the office of the Moscow Conscientious Court, and later served in the Commercial Court (1845-1851). This experience played a significant role in Ostrovsky's work. The second university is the Maly Theater. Having become addicted to the stage even in his high school years, Ostrovsky became a regular at the oldest Russian theater. 1847 - in the "Moscow City Leaflet" Ostrovsky publishes the first draft of the future comedy "Our People - We Will Be Numbered" under the title "The Insolvent Debtor", then the comedy "Picture of Family Happiness" (later "Family Picture") and the prose essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident" . “The most memorable day for me in my life,” Ostrovsky recalled, “February 14, 1847... From that day on, I began to consider myself a Russian writer and, without doubt or hesitation, believed in my calling.” Ostrovsky's comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" (original title - "Bankrut", completed at the end of 1849) brings recognition to Ostrovsky. Even before publication, it became popular (in the reading of the author and P.M. Sadovsky), caused approving responses from N.V. Gogol, I.A. Goncharova, T.H. Granovsky and others. “He began in an extraordinary way...” testifies I.S. Turgenev. His first big play, “We Will Be Numbered as Our Own People,” made a huge impression. She was called the Russian "Tartuffe", the "Brigadier" of the 19th century, the merchant's "Woe from Wit", compared to the "Inspector General"; Yesterday, the still unknown name of Ostrovsky was placed next to the names of the greatest comedy writers - Moliere, Fonvizin, Griboedov, Gogol.
Possessing an extraordinary social temperament, Ostrovsky spent his whole life actively fighting for the creation of a new type of realistic theater, for a truly artistic national repertoire, and for a new ethics of the actor. He created the Moscow artistic circle in 1865, founded and headed the society of Russian dramatic writers (1870), wrote numerous “Notes”, “Projects”, “Considerations” to various departments, proposing to take urgent measures to stop the decline theatrical arts. Ostrovsky's work had a decisive influence on the development of Russian drama and Russian theater. As a playwright and director, Ostrovsky contributed to the formation new school realistic acting, promotion of a galaxy of actors (especially in the Moscow Maly Theater: the Sadovsky family, S.V. Vasiliev, L.P. Kositskaya, later G.N. Fedotova, M.N. Ermolova, etc.). Ostrovsky's theatrical biography did not coincide with his literary biography. The audience became acquainted with his plays in a completely different order from the order in which they were written and published.
Only six years after Ostrovsky began publishing, on January 14, 1853, the curtain rose on the first performance of the comedy “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh” at the Maly Theater. The play shown to the audience first was Ostrovsky's sixth completed play. At the same time, the playwright entered into a civil marriage with the girl Agafya Ivanovna Ivanova (who had four children from him), which led to a break in relations with his father. According to eyewitnesses, she was a kind, warm-hearted woman, to whom Ostrovsky owed much of his knowledge of Moscow life. In 1869, after the death of Agafya Ivanovna from tuberculosis, Ostrovsky entered into a new marriage with the Maly Theater actress Maria Vasilyeva. From his second marriage the writer had five children. Corresponding Member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1863) Ostrovsky’s literary views were formed under the influence of the aesthetics of V.G. Belinsky. For Ostrovsky, as for other writers who began in the 40s, an artist is a kind of researcher-“physiologist” who subjects various parts of the social organism to special study, opening up yet unexplored areas of life for his contemporaries. IN open area These trends found expression in the genre of the so-called “physiological essay,” widespread in the literature of the 40s and 50s.
Ostrovsky was one of the most convinced exponents of this trend. Many of his early works were written in the manner of a “physiological sketch” (sketches of Zamoskvoretsky life; dramatic sketches and “paintings”: “Family Picture”, “Morning of a Young Man”, “An Unexpected Case”; later, in 1857, “The characters did not agree” ). In a more complex refraction, the features of this style were reflected in most of Ostrovsky’s other works: he studied the life of his era, observing it as if under a microscope, like an attentive researcher and experimenter. This is clearly shown by the diaries of his trips around Russia and especially the materials of a multi-month trip (1865) along the upper Volga for the purpose of a comprehensive examination of the region. Ostrovsky's published report on this trip and draft notes represent a kind of encyclopedia of information on the economy, population composition, customs, and morals of this region. At the same time, Ostrovsky does not cease to be an artist - after this trip, the Volga landscape as a poetic leitmotif is included in many of his plays, starting with “The Thunderstorm” and ending with “Dowry” and “Voevoda (Dream on the Volga).” In addition, the idea of a cycle of plays called “Nights on the Volga” arises (partially realized). “Guilty Without Guilt” is the last of Ostrovsky’s masterpieces. In August 1883, just at the time of working on this play, the playwright wrote to his brother: “The writer’s concern: there is a lot that has been started, there are good plots, but ... they are inconvenient, you need to choose something smaller. I’m already living out my life.” “When will I have time to speak out and go to my grave without doing everything I could do?” At the end of his life, Ostrovsky finally achieved material wealth (he received a lifetime pension of 3 thousand rubles), and in 1884 he took the position of head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters (the playwright dreamed of serving the theater all his life). But his health was undermined, his strength was exhausted. Ostrovsky not only taught, he also studied.
Ostrovsky’s numerous experiences in the field of translation of ancient, English, Spanish, Italian and French dramatic literature not only testified to his excellent acquaintance with dramatic literature of all times and peoples, but were also rightly considered by researchers of his work as a kind of school of dramatic skill, which Ostrovsky studied throughout his life (he began in 1850 with a translation of Shakespeare’s comedy “The Taming of the Shrew”). Death found him translating Shakespeare's tragedy "Antony and Cleopatra") on June 2 (14), 1886 in the Shchelykovo estate, Kostroma region, from a hereditary disease - angina pectoris. He went to his grave without having done everything he could have done, but he did an extraordinary amount. After the death of the writer, the Moscow Duma established a reading room named after A.N. in Moscow. Ostrovsky. May 27, 1929, in Moscow, on Theater Square In front of the Maly Theater, where his plays were staged, a monument to Ostrovsky was unveiled (sculptor N.A. Andreev, architect I.P. Mashkov). A.N. Ostrovsky is listed in the Russian Divo Book of Records as “the most prolific playwright” (1993). Ostrovsky's work can be divided into three periods: 1st - (1847-1860), 2nd - (1850-1875), 3rd - (1875-1886). FIRST PERIOD (1847-1860) This includes plays reflecting the life of pre-reform Russia. At the beginning of this period, Ostrovsky actively collaborated as an editor and as a critic with the Moskvityanin magazine, publishing his plays in it. Starting as a continuer of Gogol’s accusatory tradition (“We’ll be our own people,” “Poor Bride,” “We didn’t get along”), then, partly under the influence of the main ideologist of the magazine “Moskvityanin” A.A. Grigoriev, in Ostrovsky’s plays the motifs of idealization of Russian patriarchy and the customs of antiquity begin to sound (“Don’t sit in your own sleigh” (1852), “Poverty is not a vice” (1853), “Don’t live the way you want” (1854). These sentiments muffle Ostrovsky's critical pathos. Since 1856, Ostrovsky, a regular contributor to the Sovremennik magazine, has become close to the figures of democratic Russian journalism. During the years of social upsurge before the peasant reform of 1861, social criticism in his work intensifies again, the drama of conflicts becomes more acute ("In Someone Else's Feast." hangover" (1855), "Profitable place" (1856), "Thunderstorm", (1859). SECOND PERIOD (1860-1875) This includes plays reflecting the life of Russia after the reform. Ostrovsky continues to write everyday comedies and dramas (" Hard days", 1863, "Jokers", 1864, "The Abyss", 1865), - still highly talented, but rather consolidating already found motifs rather than mastering new ones. At this time, Ostrovsky also turned to the problems of Russian history, to a patriotic theme. Based on the study of a wide range of sources, he creates a cycle of historical plays: “Kozma Zakharyich Minin - Sukhoruk” (1861; 2nd edition 1866), “Voevoda” (1864; 2nd edition 1885), “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky” (1866), “Tushino” (1866) In addition, a series of satirical comedies was created (“Simplicity is Enough for Every Wise Man” (1868), “Warm Heart” (1868) , “Mad Money” (1869), “Forest” (1870), “Wolves and Sheep” (1875), the dramatic poem in verse “The Snow Maiden” (1873) stands apart among the plays of the second period - “spring”. "fairy tale", according to the author's definition, created on the basis of folk tales, beliefs, customs. THIRD PERIOD (1875 - 1886) Almost all of Ostrovsky's dramatic works of the 70s and early 80s are published in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. During this period, Ostrovsky created significant socio-psychological dramas and comedies about tragic destinies richly gifted, sensitive women in the world of cynicism and self-interest ("Dowry", 1878, "The Last Victim", 1878, "Talents and Admirers", 1882, etc.). Here the writer develops new forms stage expressiveness, in some respects anticipating the plays of A.P. Chekhov: while maintaining the characteristic features of his dramaturgy, Ostrovsky strives to embody the “inner struggle” in “an intelligent, subtle comedy” (see “A.N. Ostrovsky in the memoirs of his contemporaries,” 1966, p. 294). The playwright remained in the history of Russian literature not just “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye,” as literary criticism called him, but the creator of the Russian democratic theater, who applied the achievements of Russian psychological prose of the 19th century to theatrical practice. Ostrovsky is a rare example of stage longevity; his plays do not leave the stage - this is the sign of a truly popular writer. Ostrovsky's drama included all of Russia - its way of life, its customs, its history, its fairy tales, its poetry. It is even difficult for us to imagine how much poorer our idea of Russia, of Russian people, of Russian nature, and even of ourselves would be, if the world of Ostrovsky’s creations did not exist for us. Not with cold curiosity, but with pity and anger, we look at the life embodied in Ostrovsky’s plays. Sympathy for the disadvantaged and indignation against the “dark kingdom” - these are the feelings that the playwright experienced and which he invariably evokes in us. But especially close to us is the hope and faith that have always lived in this wonderful artist. And we know that this hope is for us, this is faith in us.
Ostrovsky repertoire creativity playwright