The device of antithesis plays a special role in the composition “Thunderstorms”. The storyline “Katerina - Boris” is contrasted storyline"Varvara - Vanka Kudryash." This is clearly seen in two dating scenes: Katerina and Boris have a romantic relationship, while Varvara and Vanka Kudryash have an ordinary relationship. The system of characters in the play is also built on the principle of contrast: Katerina - Kabanikha, Katerina - Varvara, Boris - Vanka Kudryash.
Conflict.
The conflict in “The Thunderstorm” is two-dimensional: external and internal. External conflict is revealed at the level of the characters’ relationships: between Katerina and Kabanikha, Boris and Dikiy, etc. An internal conflict occurs in Katerina’s soul: between her desire for freedom and independence and moral and religious duty.
Scenery.
Plays an important role in "The Thunderstorm" scenery, described in the stage directions and dialogues of the characters. He creates in the play special role emotional atmosphere: it is no coincidence that the tragic events in the city of Kalinov unfold on the picturesque bank of the Volga. In addition, the relationship to nature (understanding of its beauty) serves as a criterion for evaluating the heroes.
Scenery- description, image of nature in a literary or musical work.
Symbols.
Play a large role in the play symbols. The name itself is symbolic: a thunderstorm is 1) natural phenomenon; 2) for Katerina it is a symbol of God’s punishment; 3) for residents of Kalinov - a symbol of future changes.
The symbolic image in the play is Feklusha (symbol of the “dark kingdom”) and the crazy lady (symbol of retribution for sins).
Symbol- artistic image, having several meanings that are associated with each other and depend on the context.
Genre.
Most often, researchers define the “Thunderstorm” genre as a social drama (so believed A.N. Ostrovsky). At the same time, there is an opinion that in their own genre characteristics"Thunderstorm" is more reminiscent tragedy. This is indicated: exceptional in its moral qualities heroes (Katerina); the intractable nature of the conflict caused by the collision historical eras(patriarchal world and modern times); tragic end (suicide).
Drama- one of the three main types of literature (along with epic and lyric), which are works usually constructed in the form of dialogue and intended to be performed by actors on stage;
one of the main genres, types of literature, depicting the life of a person in his acutely conflicting, but not hopeless (unlike tragedy) relationship with society or with himself.
Tragedy- a dramatic work that depicts tragic phenomena of reality. The conflict in tragedy is insoluble, so the work usually ends with the death of the main character. An indispensable condition of tragedy is catharsis - the purification and enlightenment of the viewer as a result of the experience of fear and compassion.
Conclusion.
A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is an original and innovative work in form. Using everyday material as an example (and not a legend), taking a private person as a hero (and not historical figure), using artistic techniques, characteristic of other genres (landscape, symbol), the playwright was able to show tragedy human existence at the turn of historical eras.
Final test for the lesson “The artistic originality of the play “The Thunderstorm”.
1. What element of the composition is Katerina’s public recognition?
A) tie
B) climax
B) denouement
2. How can you characterize the conflict in the play “The Thunderstorm”?
A) external
B) internal C) biplane
3. Which character makes the following remarks about the thunderstorm?
4. How did A.N. define the genre of “Thunderstorms”? Ostrovsky?
A) comedy in five acts
B) tragedy in five acts
B) drama in five acts
5. What is a symbol of the coming changes in the city of Kalinov?
B) sundial
Ways to track the development of general competencies
Upon completion of studying the topic “A.N. Ostrovsky “The Thunderstorm”, students must develop a number of elements of general competencies. Student:
1. Satisfactorily passed all lesson tests - 1 point;
2. Able to highlight key information (lesson notes 2.6) – 1 point;
3. Has the skills to structure and analyze primary information ( quotation description“The Dark Kingdom” lesson 3.4) – 1 point;
4. Able to draw conclusions based on the information received (lessons 2-6) – 1 point.
As a result, after studying this topic, the student should receive 5 points.
Formation of elements of general competencies
| Student's name | Elements of general competencies | Total points | ||||
| Tests | Ability to highlight key information | Structuring and analysis of primary information | Communication competence | Ability to draw conclusions | ||
References
The method is realism. A) “The Thunderstorm” as a work of the 60s. XIX century. B) Typical characters in typical circumstances, social types. C) Original features of Ostrovsky’s realism:
Ostrovsky was one of the first in Russian drama to introduce landscape, which is not just a background, but embodies the natural element that opposes the “dark kingdom” (at the beginning of the work, scenes on the Volga, the death of Katerina).
Ostrovsky uses the traditions of folklore when creating the image of Katerina, Kuligin, Kudryash, and some fairy-tale features can be traced in the images of Dikiy and Kabanikha. The characters' speech is replete with colloquialisms. Use of symbols: thunderstorm is a symbol of discord in Katerina’s soul; the lightning rod proposed by Kuligin is a symbol of enlightenment, etc.
Genre - drama Drama is characterized by the fact that it is based on a conflict between an individual and the surrounding society. Tragedy is characterized by a feeling of tragic guilt that haunts the protagonist, leading him to death; the idea of fate, fate; catharsis (a feeling of spiritual cleansing that arises in the viewer contemplating the death of the main character). “The Thunderstorm,” despite the fact that the main character dies, is considered to be a drama, since the work is based on the conflict between Katerina and the “dark kingdom.” Ostrovsky's comedic traditions: satirical image morals of the patriarchal merchant environment.
The playwright's innovation is manifested in the fact that a real heroine from the people's environment appears in the play and the main attention is paid to the description of her character, while the little world of the city of Kalinov and the conflict itself are described in a more general way.
Means for creating the image of Katerina: folk type, natural principle, integrity of character, desire for freedom, for spiritual emancipation.
The play repeatedly repeats an image that helps to understand the main thing in Katerina’s character - the image of a bird. In folk poetry, the bird is a symbol of will. Katerina endures for the time being. Katerina’s speech is imbued with high poetry, she speaks an impeccably correct folk language, her speech is musical and melodious.
Katerina struggles not only with the environment, but also with herself. she is poisoned by religious prejudices. Katerina’s religiosity is not hypocrisy, but rather a childish faith in fairy tales. religion forces Katerina to perceive the bright human honor of love as evil, a mortal sin.
The drama ends with Katerina's moral victory over the dark kingdom that fettered her will and reason. Suicide is an expression of protest in this extreme case for Katerina, when other forms of struggle are impossible.
Ostrovsky created the genre of drama (play of life) in Russia. Drama is characterized by an interest in the conflicts of everyday reality, behind which the viewer perceives the deep contradictions of the era. Ostrovsky's artistic thought revealed a bizarre combination of the tragic and the comic in everyday life, and this also became one of the hallmarks of Russian drama. zat. was developed in Chekhov's TV.
24. The main motives of N.A.’s lyrics. Nekrasova, her artistic originality. Research on the poet's work. Periodization of creativity
Nekrasov can distinguish two major creative periods:
First: from 1845 to 1856, in which his poetry can be called “the muse of grief and sadness”; the main mood of the poems of this time is despondency; the main psychological trait of heroes from the people is eternal patience and passivity; the main characters are the peasant and urban poor, common workers, people of tragic social fate, the poor, the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised; the main attitude towards his heroes is compassionate love and pity; Nekrasov himself during this period acts as a “sorrower” of the people’s grief, formulating his poetic and civic task; “I was called to sing of your suffering, amazing the people with patience.”
The social essence of the lyrics of this period was democracy and compassionate humanism.
Among the poems of these 10-11 years, two groups stand out. In the poems of the first group there is grief and defense of the powerless and disadvantaged: “On the Road”, “Gardener”, “Troika”, “Am I Driving Down a Dark Street at Night”, “In the Village”, “Uncompressed Lane”, “Vlas”, “Forgotten” village”, etc. Their leitmotif is love-sorrow. The second group includes satirical poems of open contempt “for the jubilant, idly chattering, staining their hands with blood”: “Lullaby,” “Moral Man,” “Modern Ode,” etc.; all this poetic satire would later be included in the major satirical poem “Contemporaries,” written in the 70s in parallel with the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”
If in the first group of poems Nekrasov is psychologically close to Dostoevsky, then in the second group he is close to Gogol and Shchedrin.
Nekrasov's second period: from 1857 to 1877.
This second period begins with a social thaw in the country that occurred after the death of Nicholas I, after the defeat in the Crimean War and with the beginning of the preparation and implementation of peasant reform by Tsar Alexander II.
New heroic notes begin to sound in Nekrasov’s poetry. Revolutionary-democratic optimism develops and strengthens in it, an intensive search begins for a positive hero, a conscious exponent of progressive ideas, an educator-fighter who seeks to throw a “ray of consciousness” into the elements of the people, that is, a hero of civil resistance, awakening the people to civic activity.
If Griboedov raised the problem of “woe from the mind” in Russian literature, then Nekrasov puts forward the problem of happiness from the mind,” that is, happiness from knowing what needs to be done for the common good. The leading ideological and psychological line is the idea of unity between the heroes of civil resistance and the people. Poetry is imbued with the revolutionary music of labor and struggle. In this atmosphere of “great expectations”, which were felt by Turgenev in “Fathers and Sons”, and Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm”, and Chernyshevsky in “What to Do?”, Nekrasov’s mood also changed: from grief and compassion, he, along with Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov moves into the vanguard of the revolutionary upsurge, turning into the Petrel of the peasant revolution, or, in the words of Dobrolyubov, becoming “Garibaldi in his business.”
During this period, two groups of poems are also distinguished. The first group includes, firstly, poems about the poet-citizen: “Poet and Citizen”, “Elegy”; secondly, poems about the heroism of the people, their work and fate: “Reflections at the Main Entrance”, “Peddlers”, “Railway”, “Arina - the Soldier’s Mother” and the poem “Frost the Red Nose”.
Thirdly, poems glorifying the civil feat and moral purity of ascetics and fighters for the people who are the poet’s contemporaries: “In Memory of a Friend” (about Belinsky), “On the Death of Shevchenko”, “In Memory of Dobrolyubov”, “In Memory of Pisarev” and “Prophet” (about Chernyshevsky); interesting is the ascending triad of the image or idea of the hero in poems about fighters: friend (“In Memory of a Buddy” - Belinsky) - citizen (“Poet a Citizen”, “Blessed is the Gentle Poet”) - prophet (“Prophet” - Chernyshevsky).
The second group of poems includes confessional and love poems, the main theme of which is the theme of one’s own tragic guilt and personal responsibility to the people, to dead and arrested comrades in the struggle, to one’s conscience, and to unrealized poetic possibilities.
This mournful, suffering, tragic theme of his own sin and repentance (partly caused by the poet’s severe physical illness) was embodied by him in a collection of poems from the last two years of his life, called “Last Songs” by Nekrasov himself and representing the “Chronicle of an Unhappy Existence” of the poet himself. In these poems of the dying Nekrasov, suffering is expressed from the insufficient activity of his people, insufficient revolutionary spirit, and the poet perceives the poverty of consciousness of the people and their civic immaturity as the result of personal guilt and his own sinfulness, which evokes the pathos of self-reproach, self-reproach, lynching.
Thus, poetry becomes self-criticism, fearlessly exposing the author’s weaknesses, breakdowns, retreats, and hesitations. In these poems, Nekrasov suffered and grieved because he could not be constantly uncompromising, persistent and monolithic, like Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov.
By exposing himself, Nekrasov appeared before the reader as a highly moral person, and at the same time he debunked the artificial myth about the superhumanity of the hero of civil resistance, that is, the hero-citizen who is supposedly alien to human weaknesses (verses: “That’s why I deeply despise myself,” “Literature with crackling phrases”, “Knight for an hour”, “The enemy rejoices, is silent, in bewilderment”, “I will soon die. A pitiful inheritance ...”, “I will soon become a prey to decay”, etc.). The entire collection “Last Songs” is permeated with open sobbing. Note that Nekrasov is the poet who has the most poems about death in Russian poetry.
All these themes and aspects of Nekrasov’s poetry, collected together, make, firstly, his poetry an “encyclopedia of Russian life”, and secondly, they represent him not only as a poet-agitator, but above all as an all-Russian poet, characterized by ethical maximalism, a Russian poet of a wounded soul, publicly admitting himself to be a sinner, and in this fearless recognition turning into a righteous man.
In Nekrasov’s poetry, two difficult-to-combine extreme tendencies coexist and mate: on the one hand, the prosaic mercilessness of introspection, on the other, a song-like sobbing cry. This connection makes Nekrasov the poet unique to this day.
There has long been a traditional idea of N. A. Nekrasov as a “singer of the peasant lot”, “a woman’s destiny”. At the same time, the poet’s poetic heritage is distinguished by thematic and genre diversity.
Nekrasov’s poetry was not limited to solving social problems. His pen includes heartfelt words of love confessions, wonderful messages to friends, subtle landscape sketches, strikingly psychologized scenes of city and country life. The poet’s lyrics reflected not only all aspects of life at that time, but also the poet’s philosophical thoughts about the fate of the people, his country, the meaning of life and the purpose of man in it, his own innermost feelings and experiences were conveyed. The works of N. A. Nekrasov at the beginning of the 21st century sound no less relevant than at the time when they were created, because the main motives of the poet’s work were such moral concepts as conscience, sympathy, empathy, compassion.
25. Development of the poem genre in the works of N.A. Nekrasova. A wide panorama of the pre-reform and post-reform life of peasants in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The poet's skill in depicting the Russian national character
Nekrasov's poems: “Sasha”, “Peddlers”, “Frost, Red Nose”, “Grandfather”, “Russian Women”, satirical poem “Contemporaries”
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” occupies a central place in Nekrasov’s work. It became a kind of artistic result of more than thirty years of work by the author.
All the motives of Nekrasov’s lyrics are developed in the poem; all the problems that worried him were rethought; his highest artistic achievements were used.
Nekrasov not only created special genre social and philosophical poem. He subordinated it to his ultimate task: to show the developing picture of Russia in its past, present and future. Having begun to write “hot on the heels,” that is, immediately after the reform of 1862, a poem about a liberating, reborn people, Nekrasov endlessly expanded the original plan.
The search for “lucky people” in Rus' took him from modernity to the origins: the poet strives to understand not only the results of the abolition of serfdom, but also the very philosophical nature of the concepts of HAPPINESS, FREEDOM, HONOR, PEACE, because without this philosophical understanding it is impossible to understand the essence of the present moment and see the future people.
The fundamental novelty of the genre explains the fragmentation of the poem, built from internally open chapters. United by the image-symbol of the road, the poem breaks down into stories, the fates of dozens of people. Each episode in itself could become the plot of a song or a story, a legend or a novel. All together, in their unity, they constitute the fate of the Russian people, their historical path from slavery to freedom. That is why only in last chapter the image of the “people's defender” Grisha Dobrosklonov appears - the one who will lead people to freedom.
Only at this moment did the author himself fully see the compositional and artistic solution of his poem and, dying, regretted that he did not have time to implement it: “The only thing I regret,” he said, “is that I do not have time to finish writing “To whom in Rus' ... “Now I see that this is a thing that will only have its entire meaning.” The author’s task determined not only genre innovation, but also the entire originality of the poetics of the work.
Nekrasov repeatedly turned to folklore motifs and images in his lyrics. Poem about folk life he builds entirely on a folklore basis. In “Who Lives Well in Rus',” all the main genres of folklore are “involved” to one degree or another: fairy tale, song, epic, legend.
The place and meaning of folklore in the poem
Folklore has its own special ideas, style, techniques, figurative system, their laws and their artistic means. The most basic difference between folklore and fiction is the lack of authorship in it: the people compose, the people tell, the people listen.
Nekrasov repeatedly turned to folklore motifs and images in his lyrics. He builds a poem about folk life entirely on a folklore basis. In “Who Lives Well in Rus'?,” all the main genres of folklore are “involved” to one degree or another: fairy tale, song, epic, legend.
Author's literature turns to folklore when it is necessary to penetrate deeper into the essence of national morality; when the work itself is addressed not only to the intelligentsia (the bulk of readers of the 19th century), but also to the people. Nekrasov set both of these tasks for himself in the poem “Who can live well in Rus'?”
And one more most important aspect distinguishes original literature from folklore. Oral creativity does not know the concept of “canonical text”: each listener becomes a co-author of the work, retelling it in his own way. Nekrasov strove for such active co-creation between the author and the reader. That is why his poem is written “in a free language, as close as possible to simple folk speech.
“Researchers call the verse of the poem Nekrasov’s “brilliant find.” The free and flexible poetic meter and independence from rhyme opened up the possibility:
Generously convey the originality of the folk language, preserving all its precision, aphorism and special proverbial phrases; organically weave village songs, sayings, lamentations, and elements of folk tales into the fabric of the poem (a magic self-assembled tablecloth treats wanderers);
Skillfully reproduce the perky speeches of drunken men at the fair, and the expressive monologues of peasant speakers, and the absurdly self-righteous reasoning of a tyrant landowner, colorful folk scenes, full of life and movements, a lot characteristic persons and figures... - all this creates a unique polyphony of Nekrasov’s poem, in which the voice of the author himself seems to disappear, and instead the voices and speeches of his countless characters are heard.”
Ideological and artistic originality:
1. The problematic is based on the correlation of folklore images and specific historical realities. The problem of national happiness is the ideological center of the pr-ya. Images of 7 wandering men – symbolic image Russia, moving from its place
2. The poem reflected the contradictions of Russian reality in the post-reform period:
a) class contradictions (landowner Obolt-Obolduev does not understand why he needs to study and work, because he is “not a peasant lapotnik, but, by the grace of God, a Russian nobleman”)
b) contradictions in the peasant consciousness (on the one hand, the people are great workers, on the other, the drunken, ignorant masses)
c) contradictions between the high spirituality of the people and ignorance, illiteracy and downtroddenness (Nekrasov’s dream of the time when a man “will carry Belinsky and Gogol from the market”)
d) Contradictions between strength, the rebellious spirit of the people and humility, long-suffering, obedience (images of Savely - the hero of the Russian army and Yakov the faithful, exemplary slave)
3. The reflection of revolutionary democratic ideas is associated with the image of the people's defender Grisha Dobrosklonov (prototype of Dobrolyubov)
4. The reflection of the evolution of national consciousness is associated with the images of 7 men
5. This is a sign of critical realism, because
a) historicism (depicting the contradictions in the life of peasants in post-reform Russia)
b) depiction of typical characters in typical circumstances (collective image of 7 men, typical images of a priest, landowner, peasants)
c) the original features of Nekrasov’s realism - the use of folklore traditions, in cat. he was a follower of Lermontov and Ostrovsky
The poem is characterized by an abundant use of folklore genres:
A fairy tale - prologue
Bylina - Saveliy - the hero
Ritual song (wedding, harvesting, lamentation songs) and work song
Legend (About two great sinners)
Proverbs, sayings, riddles
Traditional literary plot (love triangle Tikhon - Katerina -Boris) became in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” the basis of the conflict between old and new, not only during the change of generations, but also during the change of old and new in social life Russia.
Composition of the drama "The Thunderstorm"
Ostrovsky the playwright turns the usual plot about his wife’s betrayal and her suicide into a study of the social conditions of life of the Russian nation.
The first action is the beginning of the conflict
- characteristics of the morals of the city of Kalinin
(“Cruel morals, sir, in our city”);
- characteristics of the owners of life:
(“We should look for another scolder like our Savel Prokofievich!”),
Kabanikha
(“Prude, sir! He gives money to the poor, but completely eats up his family”);
- Boris's weak-willed position and his love for Katerina
(“And apparently I’m going to waste my youth in this slum”, “... and then I foolishly decided to fall in love”);
- Tikhon's lack of will
(“I, it seems, mummy, don’t take a step out of your will”);
- confrontation between Katerina and Kabanikha
(“Who enjoys tolerating falsehoods!”);
- Information about childhood and love for Boris
(“I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild,” “After all, this is not good, because this terrible sin“Varenka, why do I love someone else?”);
- theme of a thunderstorm (the image of a wild lady) and Katerina’s religiosity
(“How, girl, not to be afraid! Everyone should be afraid”, “...death will suddenly find you as you are, with all your sins, with all your evil thoughts”).
Act Two: Character and Plot Development
A) Tikhon’s departure, Katerina’s last attempt to confront the internal conflict
(“Take me with you”, “I don’t know how to get away, but you still force yourself on me”, “How can I love you when you say such words?”),
Katerina's consent to a date with Boris
(“I would even die to see him”)
B) development of Kabanikha’s character, attitude towards young people
(“But they, too, the stupid ones, want to do their own thing…”)
C) information about Katerina’s character
(“That’s how I was born, hot!”, “I don’t know how to deceive...”, “And if I’m tired of being here, no force can hold me back”);
D) information about Varvara’s character
(“And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary”);
Act three - continuation of the traditional plot of cheating on her husband
Here a meeting between Katerina and Boris takes place, as well as the development of a social conflict.
A) development of the characters of Wild and Kabanikha in dialogues
(“You are deliberately bringing yourself into your heart”);
B) a generalization of the morals of the city of Kalinin in Kuligin’s monologue
“To rob orphans, relatives, nephews, to beat up his family so that they don’t dare say a word about anything he does there”;
C) development of Boris’s character: Boris is not Katerina’s defender (Kudryash’s warning:
“Just look - you’ll make trouble for yourself, and you’ll get her into trouble too”);
D) meeting and explanation between Katerina and Boris. Katerina as a stronger character
(“If you hadn’t come, it seems that I would have come to you myself.”)
The fourth act is the climax of the plot
It is accomplished in Katerina’s confession:
A) the development of the plot in Act IV prepares the climax at the end of the action: conversations of the Kalinovites on the boulevard, conversation between Dikiy and Kuligin, dialogue between Varvara and Boris about Katerina’s condition after Tikhon’s return
(“She’s shaking all over, as if she’s got a fever; she’s so pale, she’s rushing around the house, as if she’s looking for something,” “she’ll thump at her husband’s feet and tell everything”),
thunderstorm over the city, appeal of a wild lady
(“Where are you hiding, stupid! You can’t escape God!”);
B) the climax is the recognition of the heroine. Features: on the boulevard, in front of people, which aggravates the conflict.
Act five - denouement
A) Tikhon’s weak-willed behavior
“Mama eats her, and she, like some shadow, walks around unresponsive,” “I’ll take it and drink the last one I have; then let my mother babysit me like I’m a fool”);
B) the flight of Varvara and Kudryash as a way out of the “dark kingdom”:
B) development internal conflict in Katerina’s soul: the impossibility of life in the Kabanov family and the fear of suicide as a sin
(“... I’ve already ruined my soul”);
D) meeting with Boris - analogous to saying goodbye to Tikhon before leaving for Moscow
(“Take me with you from here! - I can’t, Katya. I’m not going of my own free will”),
a decision is brewing in Katerina
(“don’t let a single beggar pass by, give it to everyone and order them to pray for my sinful soul);
D) resolution of external and internal conflict - the decision to die. Death as deliverance
(“They won’t pray? Those who love will pray... But they’ll catch me and force me back home... Oh, hurry, hurry!”);
E) reaction to Katerina’s suicide as a protest against this world
“Her body is here, take it; but the soul is now not yours: it is now before the Judge, who is more merciful than you!”
“Mama, you ruined her! "
Conclusion
"Thunderstorm" is the most decisive work Ostrovsky",
According to her, the composition and plot of this work make Katerina one of the most decisive heroines of Russian literature.
Did you like it? Don't hide your joy from the world - share itMaterials are published with the personal permission of the author - Ph.D. O.A. Mazneva (see “Our Library”)
Method - realism
- "The Thunderstorm" as a work of the 60s. XIX century (see below).
- Typical characters in typical circumstances, social types (see paragraph “The City of Kalinov and its Inhabitants”).
- Original features of Ostrovsky's realism:
Ostrovsky was one of the first in Russian drama to introduce landscape, which is not just a background, but embodies the natural element that opposes the “dark kingdom” (at the beginning of the work, scenes on the Volga, the death of Katerina).
Ostrovsky uses the traditions of folklore when creating the image of Katerina, Kuligin, Kudryash, and some fairy-tale features can be traced in the images of Dikiy and Kabanikha.
The characters' speech is replete with colloquialisms.
Use of symbols: thunderstorm - a symbol of discord in Katerina’s soul; the lightning rod proposed by Kulagin is a symbol of enlightenment, etc.
Genre - drama
Drama is characterized by the fact that it is based on the conflict between an individual and the surrounding society. Tragedy is characterized by a feeling of tragic guilt that haunts the protagonist, leading him to death; the idea of fate, fate; catharsis (a feeling of spiritual cleansing that arises in the viewer contemplating the death of the main character).
“The Thunderstorm,” despite the fact that the main character dies, is considered to be a drama, since the work is based on the conflict between Katerina and the “dark kingdom.”
Ostrovsky's comedic traditions: a satirical depiction of the mores of the patriarchal merchant environment.
The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants
- "The Thunderstorm" as a work of the 60s. 19th century
“The Thunderstorm was published in 1859 (on the eve of the abolition of serfdom in Russia). The historicism of “The Thunderstorm” lies in the conflict itself, the irreconcilable contradictions reflected in the play. In "The Thunderstorm" there is no idealization of the merchants, there is only sharp satire, which indicates that Ostrovsky has largely overcome his Slavophile views.
“A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” by Dobrolyubov is an example of a revolutionary-democratic interpretation of “The Thunderstorm.” Dobrolyubov focuses on those aspects of the drama that correspond to the spirit of the times and the severity of social struggle.
Dobrolyubov: “...plays of life: the struggle required by theory from drama is carried out in Ostrovsky’s plays not in the monologues of the characters, but in the facts that dominate them... “The Thunderstorm” is an idyll of the “dark kingdom”.. "The Thunderstorm" is, without a doubt, Ostrovsky's most decisive work... The mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought to the most tragic consequences in it... There is even something refreshing and encouraging in "The Thunderstorm" - the background of the play... the character. Katerina... foreshadow instability and the near end of tyranny... Russian life and Russian strength are called upon by the artist in “The Thunderstorm” for decisive action.”
- « Dark Kingdom"and his victims
The playwright's innovation is manifested in the fact that a real heroine from the people's environment appears in the play and the main attention is paid to the description of her character, while the little world of the city of Kalinov and the conflict itself are described in a more general way.
Dobrolyubov: “Their life flows smoothly and peacefully, no interests of the world disturb them, because they do not reach them; kingdoms can collapse, new countries open up, the face of the earth... change... - the inhabitants of the town of Kalinov will exist as before in complete ignorance of the rest of the world... The concepts and way of life they accept are the best in the world, everything new is happening from evil spirits... they find it awkward and even impudent to persistently search for reasonable grounds... The information reported by the Feklushis is such that they are not capable of inspiring a great desire to exchange their life for another... A dark mass, terrible in its naivety and sincerity.”
Wanderers
“Because of their weakness they themselves did not walk far, but they heard a lot” (endless conversations about sins, six or twelve embarrassing enemies, about countries where the Saltans rule the earth, about people with dog heads, about the bustle in Moscow, where “the last times are coming ”, about the “fiery serpent” (machine), about the unclean, about thin and sad women, about the fact that time is shortened for human sins).
Tyrants
Dobrolyubov: “The absence of any law, any logic - this is the law and logic of this life... The tyrants of Russian life, however, begin to feel some kind of discontent and fear, not knowing what and why... Apart from them, having asked them, another life has grown... the old Kabanovs are breathing heavily, feeling that there is a power higher than them, which they cannot overcome, which they do not know how to approach... The wild and Kabanovs, encountering a contradiction with themselves and not being in able to defeat him, but wanting to stand on their own, they directly declare themselves against logic, that is, they make fools of themselves in front of the majority of people.”
Kabanova
Kabanova is a hypocrite, a despot, who covers up his tyranny with adherence to the old order. Her female tyranny is shallower and more intolerable than male. The consequence of her powerlessness is a small world of rituals, customs and stupidity. For Kabanikha, Tikhon is not a man - not an independent unit. By the way and inappropriately, she reminds her son of the need for self-respect, constantly nagging him, Tikhon’s attitude towards Katerina is due to the fear of his mother’s anger. Kabanikha hates Katerina with a dull, unconscious hatred. The boar cannot be pleased; her petty demands, persistence and endless complaints poison the atmosphere in the house. Kabanikha's family despotism is based on religious hypocrisy (Feklusha).
Wild
Dobrolyubov: “It seems to him that if he recognizes over himself the laws of common sense, common to all people, then his importance will greatly suffer from this... He realizes that he is absurd... The habit of fooling around in him is so strong that he obeys it even contrary to the voice of my own common sense.”
Varvara and Kudryash
Outwardly they oppose, but internally they are closely connected with “that kingdom” - they try to adapt, but, unable to cope with this task, they leave.
Kuligin
Opposes the ignorance and obscurantism of the “dark kingdom”. This is the bearer of the ideas of enlightenment, folk type, in which there is a strong healthy human element. However, Kuligin is not a fighter, but a passive observer. He cannot bring his inventions to life. Although Kuligin sincerely tries to be useful, in the conditions of the “dark kingdom” his abilities do not develop - for example, he is obsessed with the unrealizable idea of inventing a panacea for all ills - “ perpetual motion machine" He is not capable of great achievements, because he is dependent on " powerful of the world this."
Tikhon
Dobrolyubov: “Simple-hearted and vulgar, not at all evil, but extremely characterless... from the many pathetic types who are usually called harmless, although in a general sense they are as harmful as the tyrants themselves, because they serve them faithful assistants... no strong feeling, no decisive desire can develop in him.”
Boris
Dobrolyubov: “Not a hero... He has had enough education and cannot cope with the old way of life, nor with his heart, nor with common sense - he walks as if lost... one of those... people who do not know how to do what what they understand, and do not understand what they are doing.”
Despite the fact that Boris understands that he will not see an inheritance, he depends on Dikiy and will continue to be with him. The key phrase to understanding character: “Oh, if only there was strength!”
The image of Katerina and the means of creating it
- Folk type, natural origin.
Dobrolyubov: “Katerina did not kill human nature in herself...”
- A sense of natural truth, integrity of character.
Dobrolyubov: “Russian strong character... amazes us with its opposition to all tyranny principles... Character... creative, loving, ideal... She tries to smooth out any external dissonance... she covers every shortcoming from the fullness of her own internal forces... She is strange, extravagant from the point of view of those around her, but this is because she cannot in any way accept their views and inclinations.”
- The desire for freedom, spiritual emancipation.
Dobrolyubov: “She is striving for a new life, even if she had to die in this impulse... A mature demand for the right and spaciousness of life arises from the depths of the whole organism...”
- Inconsistency.
Dobrolyubov: “In the dry, monotonous life of his youth, in rude and superstitious concepts environment, she constantly knew how to take what agreed with her natural aspirations for beauty, harmony, contentment, happiness... All the ideas instilled in her from childhood, all the principles of the environment rebel against her natural aspirations and actions. Everything is against Katerina, even her own concepts of good and evil.”
- Relation to Boris.
Katerina fell in love with Boris in the desert: a) The need for love, b) The offended feelings of a wife and woman, c) The mortal melancholy of her monotonous life, d) The desire for freedom, space.
Katerina fights with herself, but ultimately justifies herself internally.
Means for creating the image of Katerina:
- Oral traditions folk art.
- Motives folk songs(“Why don’t people fly like birds?”).
- Appeal to a “dear friend”, without whom the world is not sweet (“My friend, my joy”).
- Appeal to the “violent winds” (“Violent winds, bear with him my sadness and melancholy”).
- The image of a “grave” (“Why go home, what to go to the grave...”, “It’s better in the grave... there’s a grave under the tree... how good!”).
- Church-life images in the popular understanding.
- Visiting church (“And to death I loved going to church! Surely, it happened that I would enter heaven...”).
- Stories of wanderers (“Our house was full of wanderers and praying mantises...”).
- Katerina's dreams (“Either golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and everyone is singing invisible voices...”).
- Speech characteristics.
Colloquial expressions (“So that I don’t see neither my father nor my mother...”, “Someone speaks kindly to me, like a dove coos..”).
Which were truly popular
Yourself at home; such works over time
Made understandable and valuable to
Other peoples and for the whole world.
A. N. Ostrovsky
The name of A. N. Ostrovsky in Russian literature is associated with the creation of a nationally original dramatic art, designed, as the playwright himself wrote, “for the whole people.” Some of his best and most significant achievements are the plays “The Thunderstorm” (1859) and “Dowry” (1878). These works, like many other works of the great playwright, are difficult to attribute to any specific genre. These are not dramas or comedies, but rather, as N.A. Dobrolyubov aptly defined, “plays of life” in which narrow family conflicts grow to a global scale and become public conflicts. A wide panorama of Russian life is revealed to readers. This is a real encyclopedia of life and customs of an entire era. Ostrovsky's mastery is manifested in the precision of social and psychological characteristics, in the art of dialogue, in the use of accurate, lively folk speech. Ostrovsky's work is distinguished by genre diversity, a skillful combination of tragic and comic, everyday and lyrical elements in one work.
I. S. Turgenev believed that “The Thunderstorm” is “the most amazing, most magnificent work Russian, powerful, completely self-mastered talent.” And indeed, here, as in no other work, Russian life of that time is widely shown in all its manifestations. “The Thunderstorm” stands out from a number of other works not only by the development of the main conflict, but also by a special artistic way of reflecting life, a special poetic structure of the narrative. The action of the play is brought out by the author for everyone to see - on the boulevard, square, embankment; everything around is involved in it, even nature itself. Thus, the premonition of an approaching thunderstorm in the air creates tense emotional coloring of the entire action, and the author compares Katerina herself with the free and indomitable Volga. An excellent connoisseur of oral folk art, Ostrovsky widely used in his work folklore traditions, A folk songs became one of the main means of expressing the experiences of heroes and revealing psychological situations. Russian folklore also defines the main character traits main character, her behavior, actions, way of thinking. The originality of the play also lies in the fact that not all characters it is directly related to each other. Dikoy, for example, has no visible relationship with Katerina. However, he and many minor characters allow you to most fully display the image of the heroine, to reveal the deep origins of the dramatic conflict.
In many respects, his play “Dowry” is close to this work by Ostrovsky. Although here, unlike “The Thunderstorm,” the composition is organized more strictly: all the events taking place during one day, and all the characters are directly related to the story of the main character. Larisa, a beautiful, smart, proud, at the same time sensitive and sympathetic girl, dies in an unequal struggle with an inhuman world in which money, profit, and calculation reign. The main conflict of the work in its construction differs in many ways from the previous play. Unlike Katerina, whose poverty was out of the question, Larisa’s fate is completely predetermined by her pitiful position in society. And a morally perverted society leaves its mark on the image of the heroine herself. She feels early fatigue from life, inner emptiness, and disappointment. In her soul there is a gradual collapse of hopes, a collapse of faith in love, friendship, family. Ultimately, she recognizes herself as a thing, and takes Karandyshev’s shot as a deliverance from the inevitable shame that awaits her.
As in “The Thunderstorm,” in “Dowry” the action takes place on the street, on the banks of the Volga. This enhances the meaning of the conflict, helps to perceive the tragic fate of the heroine against the backdrop of Russian nature, symbolizing the aspiration to a different, bright, free life. However, there are no longer folk songs that create the main background of “The Thunderstorm”. They are replaced by a romance, a gypsy choir, which sounds even at the moment of the tragic denouement, which in itself is very symbolic and enhances the overall emotional intensity of the action.
A. N. Ostrovsky significantly changed the nature of the Russian theater repertoire and opened up completely new paths and prospects for drama. His influence on performing arts was exceptionally large. Reflecting on the uniqueness of Russian drama, he wrote: “ Folk writers want to try their hand in front of a fresh audience, whose nerves are not very pliable, which requires strong drama, great comedy, causing frank, loud laughter, hot, sincere feelings, alive and strong characters" In fact, these words contain the basic principle of the playwright’s work.