In the drama "The Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky created a very complex psychologically image - the image of Katerina Kabanova. This young woman charms the viewer with her huge, pure soul, childish sincerity and kindness. But she lives in the musty atmosphere of the “dark kingdom” merchant morals. Ostrovsky managed to create a bright and poetic image of a Russian woman from the people. Main story line plays are tragic conflict the living, feeling soul of Katerina and the dead way of life of the “dark kingdom”. Honest and touching Katerina turned out to be a powerless victim of cruel orders merchant environment. No wonder Dobrolyubov called Katerina “a ray of light in dark kingdom" Katerina did not accept despotism and tyranny; Driven to despair, she challenges the “dark kingdom” and dies. This is the only way she can save her inner world from harsh pressure. According to critics, for Katerina “it is not death that is desirable, but life that is unbearable. Living for her means being yourself. Not being herself means not living for her.”
The image of Katerina is built on a folk-poetic basis. Her pure soul is fused with nature. She presents herself as a bird, the image of which in folklore is closely connected with the concept of will. “I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild.” Katerina, who ended up in Kabanova’s house as if in a terrible prison, often remembers her parents’ home, where she was treated with love and understanding. Talking to Varvara, the heroine asks: “...Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I’m a bird.” Katerina breaks free from the cage, where she is forced to remain until the end of her days.
Religion evoked high feelings, a surge of joy and reverence in her. The beauty and fullness of the heroine’s soul were expressed in prayers to God. “On a sunny day, such a light column goes down from the dome, and smoke moves in this column, like clouds, and I see it as if angels are flying and singing in this column. And then, it happened... at night I would get up... and somewhere in the corner and pray until the morning. Or I’ll go into the garden early in the morning, when the sun is still rising, I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry.”
Katerina expresses her thoughts and feelings in poetic folk language. The heroine's melodious speech is colored by love for the world, the use of many diminutive forms characterizes her soul. She says “sunshine”, “voditsa”, “grave”, often resorts to repetitions, as in songs: “on a good three”, “and people are disgusting to me, and the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting.” Trying to throw out the feelings boiling inside her, Katerina exclaims: “Violent winds, bear with him my sadness and melancholy!”
Katerina's tragedy is that she does not know how and does not want to lie. And in the “dark kingdom” lies are the basis of life and relationships. Boris tells her: “No one will know about our love...”, to which Katerina replies: “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I do!” These words reveal the courageous, integral nature of this woman, who risks challenging ordinary morality and confronting society alone.
But, having fallen in love with Boris, Katerina enters into a struggle with herself, with her beliefs. She, married woman, feels like a great sinner. Her faith in God is not the hypocrisy of Kabanikha, who covers up her anger and misanthropy with God. Awareness of her own sinfulness and pangs of conscience haunt Katerina. She complains to Varya: “Oh, Varya, sin is on my mind! How much I, poor thing, cried, what I didn’t do to myself! I can't escape this sin. Can't go anywhere. After all, this is not good, this is a terrible sin, Varenka, why do I love someone else?” Katerina does not think about the fact that she was violated by marrying someone she didn’t love. Her husband, Tikhon, is glad to leave home and does not want to protect his wife from her mother-in-law. Her heart tells her that her love is the greatest happiness, in which there is nothing bad, but the morality of society and the church does not forgive the free expression of feelings. Katerina struggles among unsolvable questions.
The tension in the play increases, Katerina is afraid of a thunderstorm, hears terrible prophecies of a crazy lady, sees a picture on the wall depicting doomsday. In a darkened state of mind, she repents of her sin. Repentance from the heart according to religious laws necessarily requires forgiveness. But people have forgotten the kind, forgiving and loving God, they still have a God who punishes and punishes. Katerina does not receive forgiveness. She doesn’t want to live and suffer, she has nowhere to go, her loved one turned out to be as weak and dependent as her husband. Everyone betrayed her. The church considers suicide a terrible sin, but for Katerina it is an act of despair. It is better to end up in hell than to live in the “dark kingdom.” The heroine cannot harm anyone, so she decides to die herself. Throwing herself off a cliff into the Volga, at the last moment Katerina thinks not about her sin, but about love, which illuminated her life with great happiness. Last words Katerina addresses Boris: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" One can only hope that God will be more merciful to Katerina than people.
Enmity between loved ones can be especially irreconcilable P. Tacitus There is no more terrible retribution for follies and errors than to see how one’s own children suffer because of them W. Sumner Play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" tells about the life of a provincial...
The action of the drama “The Thunderstorm” takes place in the provincial town of Kalinov, located on the banks of the Volga. Residents of Kalinov live that closed life alien to public interests, which characterized the life of remote provincial towns in the old, pre-reform...
Katerina - main character Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm". The main idea of the work is the conflict of this girl with the “dark kingdom”, the kingdom of tyrants, despots and ignoramuses. Find out why this conflict arose and why the drama ended...
In the atmosphere of the “dark kingdom”, under the yoke of tyrant power, living human feelings fade and wither, the will weakens, and the mind fades. If a person is endowed with energy and a thirst for life, then, adapting to the circumstances, he begins to lie, cheat, and dodge. ...
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was the creator of the Russian repertoire national theater. His plays: “Our own people - we will be numbered”, “Simplicity is enough for every wise man”, “Forest”, “Profitable place”, “Thunderstorm”, “Dowry” - do not leave the theater stages to this day...
In the drama “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky created a very psychologically complex image - the image of Katerina Kabanova. This young woman charms the viewer with her huge, pure soul, childish sincerity and kindness. But she lives in the musty atmosphere of the “dark kingdom” of merchant morals. Ostrovsky managed to create a bright and poetic image of a Russian woman from the people. The main storyline of the play is the tragic conflict between the living, feeling soul of Katerina and the dead way of life of the “dark kingdom”. Honest and touching Katerina turned out to be a powerless victim of the cruel orders of the merchant environment. No wonder Dobrolyubov called Katerina “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” Katerina did not accept despotism and tyranny; Driven to despair, she challenges the “dark kingdom” and dies. This is the only way she can save her inner world from harsh pressure. According to critics, for Katerina “it is not death that is desirable, but life that is unbearable. Living for her means being yourself. Not being herself means not living for her.”
The image of Katerina is built on a folk-poetic basis. Her pure soul is fused with nature. She presents herself as a bird, the image of which in folklore is closely connected with the concept of will. “I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild.” Katerina, who ended up in Kabanova’s house as if in a terrible prison, often remembers her parents’ home, where she was treated with love and understanding. Talking to Varvara, the heroine asks: “...Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I’m a bird.” Katerina breaks free from the cage, where she is forced to remain until the end of her days.
Religion evoked high feelings, a surge of joy and reverence in her. The beauty and fullness of the heroine’s soul were expressed in prayers to God. “On a sunny day, such a light column goes down from the dome, and smoke moves in this column, like clouds, and I see it as if angels are flying and singing in this column. And then, it happened... at night I would get up... and somewhere in the corner and pray until the morning. Or I’ll go into the garden early in the morning, when the sun is still rising, I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry.”
Katerina expresses her thoughts and feelings in poetic folk language. The heroine's melodious speech is colored by love for the world, the use of many diminutive forms characterizes her soul. She says “sunshine”, “voditsa”, “grave”, often resorts to repetitions, as in songs: “on a good three”, “and people are disgusting to me, and the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting.” Trying to throw out the feelings boiling inside her, Katerina exclaims: “Violent winds, bear with him my sadness and melancholy!”
Katerina's tragedy is that she does not know how and does not want to lie. And in the “dark kingdom” lies are the basis of life and relationships. Boris tells her: “No one will know about our love...”, to which Katerina replies: “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I do!” These words reveal the courageous, integral nature of this woman, who risks challenging ordinary morality and confronting society alone.
But, having fallen in love with Boris, Katerina enters into a struggle with herself, with her beliefs. She, a married woman, feels like a great sinner. Her faith in God is not the hypocrisy of Kabanikha, who covers up her anger and misanthropy with God. Awareness of her own sinfulness and pangs of conscience haunt Katerina. She complains to Varya: “Oh, Varya, sin is on my mind! How much I, poor thing, cried, what I didn’t do to myself! I can't escape this sin. Can't go anywhere. After all, this is not good, this is a terrible sin, Varenka, why do I love someone else?” Katerina does not think about the fact that she was violated by marrying someone she didn’t love. Her husband, Tikhon, is glad to leave home and does not want to protect his wife from her mother-in-law. Her heart tells her that her love is the greatest happiness, in which there is nothing bad, but the morality of society and the church does not forgive the free expression of feelings. Katerina struggles among unsolvable questions. Material from the site
The tension in the play increases, Katerina is afraid of a thunderstorm, hears the terrible prophecies of a crazy lady, and sees a picture on the wall depicting the Last Judgment. In a darkened state of mind, she repents of her sin. Repentance from the heart according to religious laws necessarily requires forgiveness. But people have forgotten the kind, forgiving and loving God; they are left with a punishing and punishing God. Katerina does not receive forgiveness. She doesn’t want to live and suffer, she has nowhere to go, her loved one turned out to be as weak and dependent as her husband. Everyone betrayed her. The church considers suicide a terrible sin, but for Katerina it is an act of despair. It is better to end up in hell than to live in the “dark kingdom.” The heroine cannot harm anyone, so she decides to die herself. Throwing herself off a cliff into the Volga, at the last moment Katerina thinks not about her sin, but about love, which illuminated her life with great happiness. Katerina’s last words are addressed to Boris: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" One can only hope that God will be more merciful to Katerina than people.
In the play “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky creates something completely new for his work. female type, simple, deep character. This is no longer a “poor bride,” not an indifferently kind, meek young lady, not “immorality due to stupidity.” Katerina differs from Ostrovsky’s previously created heroines in the harmony of her personality, strength of spirit, and her attitude.
This is a bright, poetic, sublime, dreamy nature, with a highly developed imagination. Let us remember how she tells Varvara about her life as a girl. Visits to church, embroidery classes, prayers, pilgrims and pilgrims, wonderful dreams in which “golden temples” or “extraordinary gardens” appeared to her - these are the memories of Katerina. Dobrolyubov notes that she “tries to comprehend and ennoble everything in her imagination... Rough, superstitious stories turn into golden, poetic dreams for her...”. Thus, Ostrovsky emphasizes the spiritual principle in his heroine, her desire for beauty.
Katerina is religious, but her faith is largely due to her poetic worldview. Religion is closely intertwined in her soul with Slavic pagan beliefs and folklore concepts3. So, Katerina is sad because people don’t fly. “Why don’t people fly!.. I say: why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That's how she would run up, raise her hands and fly. Is there something I should try now?” - she says to Varvara. In her parents’ house, Katerina lived like a “bird in the wild.” She dreams about how she flies. Elsewhere in the play she dreams of becoming a butterfly.
The theme of birds introduces the motif of captivity and cages into the narrative. Here we can recall the symbolic ritual of the Slavs releasing birds from their cages. This ritual was carried out at the very beginning of spring and symbolized “the liberation of elemental geniuses and souls from the captivity in which they languished, imprisoned by the evil demons of winter.” This ritual is based on the Slavic belief in the ability of the human soul to reincarnate.
But the theme of birds also sets the motive for death here. Thus, in many cultures the Milky Way is called the “bird road” because “the souls ascending along this road to heaven were imagined as light-winged birds.” Thus, already at the beginning of the play there are motifs that serve as signs tragic fate heroines.
Let's analyze the character of Katerina. This is a strong nature with self-esteem. She can’t bear it in Kabanikha’s house, where “everything seems to be out of captivity,” and the endless reproaches of her mother-in-law and her husband’s stupidity and weak character are unbearable. In Marfa Ignatievna’s house, everything is built on lies, deceit, and submission. Hiding behind religious commandments, she demands complete submission from her household, their compliance with all house-building norms. Under the pretext of moral sermons, Kabanikha methodically and consistently humiliates his household. But if Marfa Ignatievna’s children “adapted” to the situation in the house in their own way, finding a way out in silence and lies, then Katerina is not like that.
“I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything,” she tells Varvara. Katerina does not want to tolerate unfounded insults from her mother-in-law. “Who enjoys tolerating falsehoods!” - she says to Marfa Ignatievna. When Tikhon leaves, Kabanikha remarks that “a good wife, having seen her husband off, howls for an hour and a half.” To which Katerina replies: “No need! Yes, and I can’t. Something to make people laugh."
It is possible that Kabanova’s constant attacks on her daughter-in-law are also connected with the fact that subconsciously she feels in Katerina a significant, a strong character, able to resist the mother-in-law. And Marfa Ignatievna is not mistaken in this: Katerina will endure only up to a certain point. “Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! And if I’m really disgusted with it, they won’t hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t do it, even if you kill me!” - she admits to Varvara.
She tells Varvara about a characteristic event from her childhood: “...I was born so hot! I was still six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, and it was late in the evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it about ten miles away! In this story, the motives of Slavic pagan culture are guessed. As Yu.V. notes Lebedev, “this act of Katerina is consistent with the people's dream of truth. IN folk tales the girl turns to the river with a request to save her, and the river hides the girl in its banks.” Compositionally, Katerina's story precedes the ending of the play. For the heroine, the Volga is a symbol of will, space, and free choice.
Longing for will merges in Katerina’s soul with thirst true love. At first she tries to remain faithful to her husband, but there is no love in her heart, and Tikhon does not understand her, does not feel his wife’s condition. She also cannot respect her husband: Tikhon is weak-willed, not particularly smart, his spiritual needs are limited to drinking and the desire to “take a walk” in freedom. Katerina’s love is a selective feeling. She loves Boris Grigorievich, Dikiy's nephew. This young man seems to her kind, intelligent and well-mannered, he is so different from those around him. His image is probably associated in the heroine’s soul with a different, “non-Kalinov” life, with other values to which she subconsciously strives.
And Katerina secretly meets with him while her husband is away. And then she begins to be tormented by the consciousness of the sin committed. Here in “The Thunderstorm” an internal conflict arises, allowing critics to talk about the tragedy of the play: Katerina’s actions not only seem sinful to her from the point of view Orthodox religion, but also diverge from her own ideas about morality, about good and evil.
The tragedy of the play is also given by the motive of the inevitability of the heroine’s suffering, which arises in the context of her character and attitude. On the other hand, Katerina’s suffering seems undeserved to readers: in her actions she realizes only natural needs human personality- desire for love, respect, the right to select feelings. Therefore, Ostrovsky’s heroine evokes a feeling of compassion in readers and viewers.
The concept of “the duality of a tragic act” (horror and pleasure) is also preserved here. On the one hand, Katerina’s love seems to her to be a sin, something terrible and terrible, on the other hand, it is for her the opportunity to feel happiness, joy, fullness of life.
Tormented by the consciousness of her own guilt, the heroine publicly confesses to her husband and mother-in-law. Katerina repents of everything in the city square during a thunderstorm. It seems to her that thunder is God's punishment. The thunderstorm in the play is a symbol of the heroine’s purification, catharsis, which is also a necessary element of tragedy.
However, the internal conflict here cannot be resolved by Katerina’s recognition. She does not receive the forgiveness of her family, the Kalinovites, and does not get rid of the feeling of guilt. On the contrary, the contempt and reproaches of others support this feeling of guilt in her - she finds them fair. However, if those around her had forgiven and pitied her, the feeling of burning shame possessing her soul would have been even stronger. This is the undecidability internal conflict Katerina. Unable to reconcile her actions with her feelings, she decides to commit suicide and throws herself into the Volga.
Suicide, from the point of view of the Orthodox religion, is a terrible sin, but the key concepts of Christianity are love and forgiveness. And this is exactly what Katerina thinks about before her death. “It’s all the same that death will come, that it will... but you can’t live! Sin! Won't they pray? He who loves will pray..."
Of course, external circumstances were also reflected in this action - Boris turned out to be a timid, ordinary person, he is not able to save Katerina, give her the desired happiness, in essence, he is not worthy of her love. The image of Boris Grigorievich, unlike the local inhabitants, in Katerina’s mind is nothing more than an illusion. And Katerina, I think, feels this during her last meeting with him. And the stronger becomes for her the awareness of her own wrongness, bitterness and disappointment in love itself.
It is these feelings that strengthen the tragic attitude of the heroine. Of course, Katerina’s impressionability and exaltation are reflected here, as well as her reluctance to continue to put up with the cruelty of the world around her, with the tyranny of her mother-in-law, and the impossibility of further following Kalinov’s morality - to live without love. “If she cannot enjoy her feeling, her will, quite lawfully and sacredly, in the light broad daylight, in front of all the people, if they snatch away from her what she found and what is so dear to her, then she doesn’t want anything in life, she doesn’t even want life. The fifth act of “The Thunderstorm” constitutes the apotheosis of this character, so simple, deep and so close to the position and heart of every decent person in our society,” wrote Dobrolyubov.
Character is the destiny of a person.
Ancient Indian saying
In the 19th century, Russian literature acquired worldwide significance. There were turbulent social processes going on in Russia. The old patriarchal order was “overturned,” and a new system, still unknown to the Russian people, was being “established”—capitalism. Literature was faced with the task of showing the Russian man of the transitional era.
Against this background, Ostrovsky occupies a special place. He was the only Russian writer of the first rank who devoted himself entirely to drama and wrote about fifty plays. The world that Ostrovsky brought to literature is also unique: absurd merchants, old-fashioned solicitors, lively matchmakers, meek clerks and obstinate merchant daughters, actors in provincial theaters.
The play “The Thunderstorm,” published in 1860, was a unique source of Ostrovsky’s creative achievements. In this play, the playwright depicted not only the deadening conditions of the “dark kingdom”, but also manifestations of deep hatred towards them. The satirical denunciation naturally merged in this work with the affirmation in life of new forces, positive, bright, rising to fight for their human rights. In the heroine of the play Katerina Kabanova, the writer drew new type an original, integral, selfless Russian woman, whose decisiveness of protest foreshadowed the onset of the end of the “dark kingdom.”
Indeed, the integrity of Katerina’s character primarily distinguishes this irony. Let us pay attention to the vital sources of this integrity, to the cultural soil that nourishes it. Without them, Katerina's character fades like cut grass.
Katerina’s worldview harmoniously combines Slavic pagan antiquity with trends Christian culture, spiritualizing and morally enlightening old pagan beliefs. Katerina’s religiosity is unthinkable without sunrises and sunsets, dewy grasses in flowering meadows, birds flying, butterflies fluttering from flower to flower.
Let us remember how the heroine prays, “what an angelic smile she has on her face, and her face seems to glow.” There is something iconographic in this face, from which a bright radiance emanates. But Ostrovsky’s earthly heroine, radiating spiritual light, is far from the asceticism of official Christian morality. Ec prayer - Holy holiday spirit, a feast of the imagination: these angelic choirs in the pillar sunlight pouring from the dome, echoing the singing of wanderers and the chirping of birds. “Sure, it happened that I would enter heaven, and I didn’t see anyone, and I didn’t remember the time, and I didn’t hear when the service was over.” But Domostroy taught to pray with fear and trembling, with tears. Katerina’s life-loving religiosity has gone far from the obsolete norms of the old patriarchal morality.
In the dreams of young Katerina there is an echo of the Christian legend about paradise, the divine Garden of Eden, which the first-created people were bequeathed to cultivate. They lived like birds of the air, and their work was the free labor of free people. “I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild. Mama doted on me, dressed me up like a doll, forced me to work; I used to do whatever I want... I used to get up early; If it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me, and that’s it, I’ll water all the flowers in the house.” It is obvious that the legend of paradise embraces Katerina and all the beauty of earthly life: prayers to the rising sun, morning visits to the keys - students, bright images of angels and birds.
In the vein of these dreams, Katerina also has another serious desire to fly: “Why don’t people fly!.. I say: why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly.”
Where do these fantastic dreams come from for Katerina? Are they the fruit of a morbid imagination? No. In Katerina’s consciousness those who entered into the flesh and blood of the Russian are resurrected folk character pagan myths. And for national consciousness All kinds of poetic personifications are characteristic. And Ostrovsky’s Katerina refers to the wild winds, herbs, and flowers in the folk way as spiritual beings.
Without realizing this pristine freshness of her inner world, you won't understand vitality and the power of her character, her figurative beauty vernacular. “How frisky I was! I’ve completely withered away from you.” And it’s true that the soul of irony, which blossoms along with nature, really “fades” in the world of the Wild and Kabanovs.
Tenderness and daring, dreaminess and earthly passion merge with each other in Katerina’s character, and the main thing in it is not the mystical impulse away from the earth, but the moral strength that spiritualizes earthly life.
The soul of Ostrovsky’s heroine is one of those selected Russian souls who are alien to compromise, who thirst for universal truth and will not settle for anything less.
In the Kabanovsky kingdom, where all living things wither and dry up, Katerina is overcome by longing for lost harmony. The heroine’s longing for earthly love is spiritually sublime, pure: I would now ride along the Volga, on a boat, singing, or in a good three-wheeler, hugging each other.” Her love is akin to the desire to raise her hands and fly; the heroine expects a lot from her. Love for Boris, of course, will not satisfy her longing. This is not why Ostrovsky enhances the contrast between Katerina’s high flight of love and Boris’s wingless passion.
Boris's spiritual culture is completely devoid of a national moral dowry. He is the only character in The Thunderstorm who is not dressed in Russian fashion. Kalinov is a slum for him, here he is a stranger. Fate brings together people who are incommensurable in depth and moral sensitivity. Boris lives in the present day and is hardly able to seriously think about the moral consequences of his actions. He’s having fun now and that’s enough: “How long has your husband been gone? Oh, so we'll take a walk! Time is enough... No one will know about our love... Let's compare his remarks with the words of Katerina: “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I do!.. If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human court?"
What a contrast! What a fullness of free and open love to the whole world, in contrast to the timid, voluptuous Boris!
When explaining the reasons for Katerina’s nationwide repentance, one should not focus on superstition and ignorance, on religious prejudices and fear. The true source of the heroine’s repentance lies elsewhere: in her sensitive conscience. Katerina's fear is the inner voice of her conscience. Katerina is equally heroic both in her passionate and reckless love affair and in her deeply conscientious public repentance. What a conscience! What a powerful Russian conscience! What a powerful moral force!
Katerina’s tragedy, in my opinion, is that the life around her has lost its integrity and completeness and has entered a period of deep moral crisis. Soul thunderstorm, experienced, is a direct consequence of this disharmony. Katerina feels guilty not only before Tikhon Kabanikha and not so much before them, but before the whole world. It seems to her that the entire universe is offended by her behavior. Only a full-blooded and spiritually rich person can feel so deeply his unity with the universe and have such high feeling responsibility to the highest truth and the harmony that is enshrined in it.
For general meaning In the play, it is very important that Katerina, a decisive, integral Russian character, did not appear from somewhere outside, but was formed in Kalinov’s conditions. It is in the soul of a woman from the city of Kalinov that a new attitude to the world is born, a new feeling that is not yet clear to the heroine herself. This is an awakening sense of personality. And this inspires hope that new, fresh forces are maturing among the people. This means that renewal of life and the joy of freedom are just around the corner.