Essay text:
The drama Thunderstorm is the pinnacle of Ostrovsky's creativity. In his work, the writer shows the imperfection of the patriarchal world, the influence of the system on the morals of people, he reveals to us society with all its vices and shortcomings, and at the same time he introduces into the drama a hero who is different from this community, alien to it, reveals the influence of society on this person, how the character enters the circle of these people. In the Thunderstorm, Katerina becomes this new hero, different from others, a ray of light. She belongs to the old patriarchal world, but at the same time she comes into irreconcilable conflict with it. Using her example, the writer shows how terrible it is to be in the kingdom of despots and tyrants for a person with such a pure soul as Katerina. A woman comes into conflict with this society, and, along with external problems, internal contradictions are brewing in Katerina’s soul, which, together with fatal circumstances, lead Katerina to suicide. Katerina woman with strong character, but meanwhile even she cannot resist the kingdom of tyrants and despots. The mother-in-law (Kabanikha) is a rude, domineering, despotic, ignorant nature, she is closed to everything beautiful. Of all characters Marfa Ignatievna puts the strongest pressure on Katerina. The heroine herself admits: If only it weren’t for my mother-in-law!.. She crushed me... she made me sick of the house: the walls are even disgusting. Kabanikha constantly accuses Katerina of almost all mortal sins, reproaches and finds fault with her with or without reason. But Kabanikha has no moral right to mock and condemn Katerina, because internal qualities Her son's wife, in its depth and purity, cannot be compared with the coarsened, callous, low soul of Marfa Ignatievna, and yet Kabanikha is one of those through whose fault Katerina comes to the idea of suicide. After the death of the main character, Kuligin says: ...the soul is now not yours: all the essays on it are before a judge who is more merciful than you. Katerina cannot come to terms with the oppressive, oppressive atmosphere that prevails in Kalinov. Her soul strives for freedom at any cost, she says that I want it, I’ll do it, I’ll leave, and that’s how it was. With marriage, Katerina’s life turned into a living hell, an existence in which there are no joyful moments, and even love for Boris does not relieve her of melancholy. In this dark kingdom everything is alien to her, everything oppresses her. She, according to the customs of that time, married not of her own free will and to an unlovable man whom she would never love. Katerina soon realized how weak and pathetic her husband was; he himself could not resist his mother, Kabanikha, and, naturally, was not able to protect Katerina from constant attacks from her mother-in-law. Main character tries to convince himself and Varvara that he loves her husband, but still later admits to her husband’s sister: I feel very sorry for him. Pity the only feeling which she feels for her husband. Katerina herself understands perfectly well that she will never love her husband, and the words she uttered when her husband left (how I would love you) are words of despair. Katerina has already been possessed by another feeling, love for Boris, and her attempt to grab hold of her husband in order to prevent trouble, a thunderstorm, the approach of which she feels, is futile and useless. Tisha does not listen to her, he stands next to his wife, but in his dreams his thoughts about drinking and partying outside Kalinov are already far from her, but he himself says to his wife: I won’t understand you, Katya! How can he take it apart! Inner world Katerina is too complex and incomprehensible for people like Kabanov. Not only Tikhon, but also his sister said to Katerina: I don’t understand what you’re saying. There is not a single person in the dark kingdom spiritual qualities whom Katerina would be equal to, and even Boris the hero, singled out by a woman from the entire crowd, is unworthy of Katerina. Her love is wild river, his own small stream, which is about to threaten to dry up. Boris is just going to take a walk with Katerina during Tikhon’s departure, and then... then we’ll see. He doesn’t care too much about how the hobby will turn out for Katerina; Boris is not stopped even by Kudryash’s warning: You want to ruin her completely. On the last date, he says to Katerina: Who knew that we should suffer so much for our love with you, because at the first meeting the woman told him: Ruined, ruined, ruined. The reasons that prompted Katerina to commit suicide are hidden not only (and even not so much) in the society surrounding her, but in herself. Her soul is gem, and the invasion of foreign particles into it is impossible. She cannot, like Varvara, act on the principle that everything should be sewn and covered, she cannot live, keeping such a terrible secret within herself, and even confessing to everyone does not bring her relief, she understands that she will never atone for herself, and cannot come to terms with it. She has taken the path of sin, but will not aggravate it by lying to herself and everyone, and understands that the only deliverance from her mental torment is death. Katerina asks Boris to take her to Siberia, but even if she runs away from this society, she is not destined to hide from herself, from remorse. To some extent, Boris perhaps understands this and says that there is only one thing to ask God for, that she die as soon as possible, so that she does not suffer for a long time! One of Katerina’s problems is that she doesn’t know how to deceive, she can’t hide anything. She cannot deceive or hide NK from herself, much less from others. Katerina is constantly tormented by the consciousness of her sinfulness. Translated from greek name Catherine means always pure, and our heroine, of course, always strives for spiritual purity. All kinds of lies and untruths are alien to her, even if she finds herself in such a degraded society, she does not betray her inner ideal, she does not want to become the same as many people in that circle. Katerina does not absorb dirt, she can be compared to a lotus flower that grows in a swamp, but, in spite of everything, blooms with unique snow-white flowers. Katerina does not live to see the full bloom, her half-bloomed flower withered, but no toxic substances penetrated into it, it died innocent.
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The drama “The Thunderstorm” is the pinnacle of Ostrovsky’s creativity. In his work, the writer shows the imperfection of the patriarchal world, the influence of the system on the morals of people, he reveals to us society with all its vices and shortcomings, and at the same time he introduces into the drama a hero who is different from this community, alien to it, reveals the influence of society on this person, how the character enters the circle of these people. In “The Thunderstorm,” Katerina becomes this new hero, different from others, “a ray of light.” She belongs to the old patriarchal world,
But at the same time it comes into irreconcilable conflict with him. Using her example, the writer shows how terrible it is to be in the “kingdom of despots and tyrants” for a person with such a pure soul as Katerina. The woman comes into conflict with this society, and, along with external problems, internal contradictions are brewing in Katerina’s soul, which, together with fatal circumstances, lead Katerina to suicide.
Katerina is a woman with a strong character, but meanwhile even she cannot resist the “kingdom of tyrants and despots.”
Mother-in-law (Kabanikha) is a rude, domineering, despotic, ignorant nature, she is closed to everything beautiful. Of all the characters, Marfa Ignatievna puts the strongest pressure on Katerina. The heroine herself admits: “If it weren’t for my mother-in-law!.. She crushed me... she made me sick of the house: the walls are even disgusting.” Kabanikha constantly accuses Katerina of almost all mortal sins, reproaches and finds fault with her with or without reason. But Kabanikha does not have the moral right to mock and condemn Katerina, because the inner qualities of her son’s wife in their depth and purity cannot be compared with the coarsened, callous, low soul of Marfa Ignatievna, and meanwhile Kabanikha is one of those through whose fault Katerina comes to thoughts of suicide. After the death of the main character, Kuligin says: “... the soul is now not yours: it is before a judge who is more merciful than you.” Katerina cannot come to terms with the oppressive, oppressive atmosphere that prevails in Kalinov. Her soul strives for freedom at any cost, she says, “I’ll do whatever I want,” “I’ll leave, and that’s how I was.” With marriage, Katerina’s life turned into a living hell, an existence in which there are no joyful moments, and even love for Boris does not relieve her of melancholy.
In this “dark kingdom” everything is alien to her, everything oppresses her. She, according to the customs of that time, married against her will and to an unlovable man whom she would never love. Katerina soon realized how weak and pathetic her husband was; he himself could not resist his mother, Kabanikha, and, naturally, was not able to protect Katerina from constant attacks from her mother-in-law. The main character tries to convince herself and Varvara that she loves her husband, but nevertheless later admits to her husband’s sister: “I feel very sorry for him.” Pity is the only feeling she feels for her husband. Katerina herself understands perfectly well that she will never love her husband, and the words she uttered when her husband left (“how I would love you”) are words of despair. Katerina is already possessed by another feeling - love for Boris, and her attempt to grab hold of her husband in order to prevent trouble, a thunderstorm, the approach of which she feels, is futile and useless. Tisha does not listen to her, he stands next to his wife, but in his dreams he is already far from her - his thoughts are about drinking and partying outside Kalinov, but he himself says to his wife: “I won’t understand you, Katya!” Yes, how can he “disassemble” it! Katerina’s inner world is too complex and incomprehensible for people like Kabanov. Not only Tikhon, but also his sister says to Katerina: “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
In the “dark kingdom” there is not a single person whose spiritual qualities would be equal to Katerina’s, and even Boris, the hero singled out by a woman from the entire crowd, is unworthy of Katerina. Her love is a stormy river, his is a small stream that is about to dry up. Boris is just going to take a walk with Katerina during Tikhon’s departure, and then... then we’ll see. He is not too concerned about how the hobby will turn out for Katerina; Boris is not stopped even by Kudryash’s warning: “You want to completely ruin her.” On the last date, he says to Katerina: “Who knew that we should suffer so much for our love with you,” after all, at the first meeting, the woman told him: “I ruined it, I ruined it, I ruined it.”
The reasons that prompted Katerina to commit suicide are hidden not only (and even not so much) in the society surrounding her, but in herself. Her soul is a precious stone, and the invasion of foreign particles into it is impossible. She cannot, like Varvara, act according to the principle “if only everything is sewn and covered,” she cannot live keeping such a terrible secret inside herself, and even confessing to everyone does not bring her relief; she understands that she will never atone for her guilt before himself, and cannot come to terms with it. She has taken the path of sin, but will not aggravate it by lying to herself and everyone, and understands that the only deliverance from her mental torment is death. Katerina asks Boris to take her to Siberia, but even if she runs away from this society, she is not destined to hide from herself, from remorse. To some extent, Boris perhaps understands this and says that “there is only one thing we need to ask God for, that she die as soon as possible, so that she does not suffer for a long time!” One of Katerina’s problems is that “she doesn’t know how to deceive, she can’t hide anything.” She can neither deceive nor hide from herself, much less from others. Katerina is constantly tormented by the consciousness of her sinfulness.
Translated from Greek, the name Catherine means “always pure,” and our heroine, of course, always strives for spiritual purity. All kinds of lies and untruths are alien to her, even if she finds herself in such a degraded society, she does not betray her inner ideal, she does not want to become the same as many people in that circle. Katerina does not absorb dirt, she can be compared to a lotus flower that grows in a swamp, but, in spite of everything, blooms with unique snow-white flowers. Katerina does not live to see the full bloom, her half-blown flower withered, but no toxic substances penetrated into it, it died innocent.
The main character of Ostrovsky's work "The Thunderstorm" is Katerina. This is a very kind and merciful girl. She is very freedom-loving. Katerina loves going to church, it gives her great pleasure.
One day Katerina had to marry Tikhon. She didn't love this man. But at that time, love and marriage were different things. But despite this, Katerina always tried to please her husband in everything.
Later Katerina meets Boris.
She fell in love with this man. And it hurt her that she couldn’t see him. Later she confessed to her husband her feelings for Boris.
Another possible circumstance that led to Katerina’s death can be considered Kabanikha’s behavior. She attacked Katerina all the time. She was very irritated by everything that was connected with her, so Kabanikha found fault with her all the time. And Tikhon only told Katerina not to pay attention. But Katerina couldn’t just listen to this.
In my opinion, it was all of the above that contributed to the sad end that Katerina chose for herself.
Updated: 2017-06-21
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Katerina is one of the main characters of the play, the wife of Tikhon Kabanov. Katerina was a religious, kind, natural girl. Katerina’s religiosity is confirmed by lines from the play: “And to death I loved going to church. Surely, it happened that I would enter heaven...” The girl is not even capable of lying or deception.
N.A. Dobrolyubov in his article called Katerina “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” He analyzed in detail the motives of Katerina’s actions, and believed that she “does not at all belong to the violent character, dissatisfied, who loves to destroy. On the contrary, this is a predominantly creative, loving, ideal character. That’s why she tries to ennoble everything in her imagination.”
Things are different with her relationships in life. Katerina married Tikhon Kabanov not out of love, but out of ideas. The concepts in the nineteenth century were different - there was a certain difference between the concepts of “marriage” and “love”. It was believed that marriage is a worthy life, and love is something sinful and not forbidden. Katenka did not love Tikhon, did not feel any warm feelings for him, and changed very much after marriage: she does not feel such delight from going to church, she cannot do her usual activities. But she continues to try to be faithful to her husband even when she falls in love with Boris, Dikiy’s nephew, an intelligent and educated man, but weak-willed. Subsequently, she, of course, confesses her love for Boris to her husband.
But Katya’s life is also complicated by the fact that Kabanikha appears in her. She can safely be called the antipode of Katerina, the complete opposite. She is a strong and powerful person, she does not believe in forgiveness and mercy. Kabanikha respects the old principles of life, protests against the movement of life forward, and is a prominent representative of the patriarchal way of life. Kabanikha is very annoyed by Katya, and she constantly finds fault with her, and Tikhon does not try to interfere, saying: “Why listen to her! She needs to say something! Well, let him talk, and you turn a deaf ear!” But Katyusha is not the person who can ignore these attacks, “turn a deaf ear”, because she fought against this dark kingdom and did not want to become part of it.
But Dobrolyubov did not catch this in his article. I didn’t catch the main thing - the fundamental difference between Kabanikha’s religiosity and Katerina’s religiosity.
Thus, perhaps it was Kabanikha’s attacks that caused the girl’s death. Also, a failed romance with Boris could have played a certain role. As I have already mentioned more than once, Katerina is a freedom-loving girl who did not want to put up with reality, and Katerina’s suicide is a kind of protest, a rebellion, a call to action.
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The drama "The Thunderstorm" is the pinnacle of Ostrovsky's creativity. In his work, the writer shows the imperfection of the patriarchal world, the influence of the system on the morals of people, he reveals to us society with all its vices and shortcomings, and at the same time he introduces into the drama a hero who is different from this community, alien to it, reveals the influence of society on this person, how the character enters the circle of these people. In “The Thunderstorm,” Katerina becomes this new hero, different from others, “a ray of light.” She belongs to the old patriarchal world, but at the same time enters into an irreconcilable conflict with it. Using her example, the writer shows how terrible it is to be in the “kingdom of despots and tyrants” for a person with such a pure soul as Katerina. The woman comes into conflict with this society, and, along with external problems, internal contradictions are brewing in Katerina’s soul, which, together with fatal circumstances, lead Katerina to suicide.
Katerina is a lady with a strong character, but moreover, she cannot resist the “kingdom of tyrants and despots.”
Mother-in-law (Kabanikha) is a rude, domineering, despotic, ignorant nature, she is closed to everything beautiful. Of all the characters, Marfa Ignatievna puts the strongest pressure on Katerina. The heroine herself admits: “If it weren’t for my mother-in-law!.. She crushed me... she made me sick of the house: the walls are even more disgusting.” Kabanikha constantly accuses Katerina of almost all mortal sins, reproaches and finds fault with her with or without reason. But Kabanikha does not have the moral right to mock and condemn Katerina, because the inner qualities of her son’s wife in their depth and purity cannot be compared with the coarsened, callous, low soul of Marfa Ignatievna, and meanwhile Kabanikha is one of those through whose fault Katerina comes to thoughts of suicide. After the death of the main character, Kuligin says: “...the soul is now not yours: it is before a judge who is more merciful than you.” Katerina cannot come to terms with the oppressive, oppressive atmosphere that prevails in Kalinov. Her personality strives for freedom at any cost, she says, “I’ll do whatever I want,” “I’ll leave, and I was like that.” With marriage, Katerina’s life turned into a living hell, an existence in which there are no joyful moments, and moreover, love for Boris does not relieve her of melancholy.
In this “dark kingdom” everything is alien to her, everything oppresses her. She, according to the customs of that time, married against her will and to an unlovable man whom she would never love. Katerina soon realized how weak and pitiful her husband was; he himself could not resist his mother, Kabanikha, and, of course, was unable to avoid offending Katerina from constant attacks from her mother-in-law. The main character tries to convince herself and Varvara that she loves her husband, but still later admits to her husband’s sister: “I feel very sorry for him.” Pity is the only feeling she feels for her husband. Katerina herself understands perfectly well that she will never love her husband, and the words she uttered when her husband left (“how I would love you”) are words of despair. Katerina has already been taken over by another feeling - love for Boris, and her attempt to grab hold of her husband in order to prevent trouble, a thunderstorm, the approach of which she feels, is futile and useless. Tisha does not listen to her, he stands next to his wife, but in his dreams he is already far from her - his thoughts are about drinking and partying outside Kalinov, but he himself says to his wife: “I won’t understand you, Katya!” Yes, how can he “disassemble” it! Katerina’s inner world is too complex and incomprehensible for people like Kabanov. Not only Tikhon, but also his sister says to Katerina: “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
In the “dark kingdom” there is not a single person whose spiritual qualities would be equal to Katerina’s, and moreover, Boris, the hero singled out by a woman from the entire crowd, is unworthy of Katerina. Her love is a stormy river, his is a small stream that is about to dry up. Boris is just going to take a walk with Katerina at the hour of Tikhon’s departure, and then... then we’ll see. He is not too concerned about how the hobby will turn out for Katerina; Boris is not stopped by Kudryash’s warning: “You want to completely ruin her.” On the last date, he says to Katerina: “Who knew that we should suffer so much for our love with you,” after all, at the first meeting, the lady told him: “I ruined it, I ruined it, I ruined it.”
The reasons that prompted Katerina to commit suicide are hidden not only (and moreover, not so much) in the society surrounding her, but in herself. Her personality is an expensive cobblestone, and the invasion of foreign particles into her is impossible. She cannot, like Varvara, work according to the principle “as long as everything is sewn and covered,” she cannot exist, keeping such a terrible secret inside herself, and moreover, confessing to everyone does not bring her relief, she understands that she will never atone for her guilt. in front of himself, and cannot come to terms with it. She has taken the path of sin, but will not aggravate it by lying to herself and everyone, and understands that the only deliverance from her mental torment is death. Katerina asks Boris to take her to Siberia, but moreover, if she runs away from this society, she is not destined to hide from herself, from remorse. To some extent, perhaps, Boris also understands this and says that “there is only one thing we need to ask God for, that she die as soon as possible, so that she does not suffer for a long time!” One of Katerina’s problems is that “she doesn’t know how to deceive, she can’t hide anything.” She cannot deceive or hide NK from herself, much less from others. Katerina is constantly tormented by the consciousness of her sinfulness.
Translated from Greek, the name Catherine means “always pure,” and our heroine, of course, constantly strives for spiritual purity. All kinds of lies and untruths are alien to her, moreover, having found herself in such a degraded society, she does not betray her inner ideal, she does not want to become the same as many people in that circle. Katerina does not absorb dirt, she can be compared to a lotus flower that grows in a swamp, but, in spite of everything, blooms with unique snow-white flowers. Katerina does not live to see the full bloom, her half-bloomed flower withered, but no toxic substances penetrated into it, it died innocent.