What is the tragedy of Katerina based on the drama by Ostrovsky Groz
The play “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky depicts the era of the 60s of the nineteenth century. At this time, revolutionary uprisings of the people are brewing in Russia. They are aimed at. improvement of life and everyday life ordinary people to overthrow tsarism. The works of great Russian writers and poets also participate in this struggle, among them Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” which shocked all of Russia. Using the example of the image of Katerina, the struggle of the entire people against the “dark kingdom” and its patriarchal order is depicted.
The main character in A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is Katerina. Her protest against the “Kabanovsky” order, the struggle for her happiness is depicted by the author in the drama.
Katerina grew up in the house of a poor merchant, where she matured spiritually and morally. Katerina was an extraordinary person, and there was some kind of extraordinary charm in her facial features. All of her “breathed” Russian, truly folk beauty; This is how Boris says about her: “There’s an angelic smile on her face, but her face seems to glow.”
Before her marriage, Katerina “lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild,” she did what she wanted and when she wanted, no one ever forced her or forced her to do what she, Katerina, didn’t want.
Her spiritual world was very rich and diverse. Katerina was a very poetic person with a rich imagination. In her conversations we hear folk wisdom and popular sayings. Her soul longed for flight; “Why don’t people fly like birds? Sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run up, raise my hands and fly.”
Katerina’s soul was “educated” both by the stories of the praying mantises, who were in the house every day, and by sewing on velvet (sewing educated her and brought her into the world of beauty and goodness, into the world of art).
After marriage, Katerina’s life changed dramatically. In the Kabanovs’ house, Katerina was alone, her world, her soul, no one could understand. This loneliness was the first step towards tragedy. The family's attitude towards the heroine has also changed dramatically. The Kabanovs’ house adhered to the same rules and customs as Katerina’s parental home, but here “everything seems to be from under captivity.” The cruel orders of Kabanikha dulled Katerina’s desire for the sublime, and from then on the heroine’s soul fell into the abyss.
Another pain of Katerina is misunderstanding by her husband. Tikhon was a kind, vulnerable person, very weak compared to Katerina, he never had his own opinion - he obeyed the opinion of another, more strong man. Tikhon could not understand his wife’s aspirations: “I can’t understand you, Katya.” This misunderstanding brought Katerina one step closer to disaster.
Love for Boris was also a tragedy for Katerina. According to Dobrolyubov, Boris was the same as Tikhon, only educated. Because of his education, he came to the attention of Katerina. From the entire crowd of the “dark kingdom” she chose him, who was slightly different from the rest. However, Boris turned out to be even worse than Tikhon, he cares only about himself: he only thinks about what others will say about him. He leaves Katerina to the mercy of fate, to the punishment of the “dark kingdom”: “Well, God bless you! 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! Goodbye!".
Katerina sincerely loves Boris and worries about him: “What is he doing now, poor thing?.. Why did I get him into trouble? I should die alone! Otherwise, she ruined herself, she ruined him, it’s a disgrace to herself—he’s an eternal shame!”
The morals of the city of Kalinov, its rudeness and “stark poverty” were not acceptable to Katerina: “If I want, I’ll leave wherever my eyes look. Nobody can stop me, that's the way it is
I have character."
Dobrolyubov gave the work a high rating. He called Katerina “a ray of light in the “dark kingdom.” At her tragic end, “a terrible challenge was given to tyrant power... In Katerina we see a protest against Kabanov’s concepts of morality, a protest brought to the end, proclaimed both under domestic torture and over the abyss into which the poor woman threw herself.” In the image of Katerina, Dobrolyubov sees the embodiment of “Russian living nature.” Katerina prefers to die than to live in captivity. Katerina's action is ambiguous.
The image of Katerina in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is an excellent image of a Russian woman in Russian literature.
The play “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky depicts the era of the 60s of the nineteenth century. At this time, revolutionary uprisings of the people are brewing in Russia. They are aimed at. improving the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people, to overthrow tsarism. The works of great Russian writers and poets also participate in this struggle, among them Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” which shocked all of Russia. Using the example of the image of Katerina, the struggle of the entire people against the “dark kingdom” and its patriarchal order is depicted.
The main character in A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is Katerina. Her protest against the “Kabanovsky” order, the struggle for her happiness is depicted by the author in the drama.
Katerina grew up in the house of a poor merchant, where she matured spiritually and morally. Katerina was an extraordinary person, and there was some kind of extraordinary charm in her facial features. All of her “breathed” Russian, truly folk beauty; This is how Boris says about her: “There’s an angelic smile on her face, but her face seems to glow.”
Before her marriage, Katerina “lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild,” she did what she wanted and when she wanted, no one ever forced her or forced her to do what she, Katerina, didn’t want.
Her spiritual world was very rich and diverse. Katerina was a very poetic person with a rich imagination. In her conversations we hear folk wisdom and popular sayings. Her soul longed for flight; “Why don’t people fly like birds? Sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run up, raise my hands and fly.”
Katerina’s soul was “educated” both by the stories of the praying mantises, who were in the house every day, and by sewing on velvet (sewing educated her and brought her into the world of beauty and goodness, into the world of art).
After marriage, Katerina’s life changed dramatically. In the Kabanovs’ house, Katerina was alone, her world, her soul, no one could understand. This loneliness was the first step towards tragedy. The family's attitude towards the heroine has also changed dramatically. The Kabanovs’ house adhered to the same rules and customs as Katerina’s parental home, but here “everything seems to be from under captivity.” The cruel orders of Kabanikha dulled Katerina’s desire for the sublime, and from then on the heroine’s soul fell into the abyss.
Another pain of Katerina is misunderstanding by her husband. Tikhon was a kind, vulnerable person, very weak compared to Katerina, he never had his own opinion - he obeyed the opinion of another, stronger person. Tikhon could not understand his wife’s aspirations: “I can’t understand you, Katya.” This misunderstanding brought Katerina one step closer to disaster.
Love for Boris was also a tragedy for Katerina. According to Dobrolyubov, Boris was the same as Tikhon, only educated. Because of his education, he came to the attention of Katerina. From the entire crowd of the “dark kingdom” she chose him, who was slightly different from the rest. However, Boris turned out to be even worse than Tikhon, he cares only about himself: he only thinks about what others will say about him. He leaves Katerina to the mercy of fate, to the punishment of the “dark kingdom”: “Well, God bless you! 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! Goodbye!".
Katerina sincerely loves Boris and worries about him: “What is he doing now, poor thing?.. Why did I get him into trouble? I should die alone! Otherwise, she ruined herself, she ruined him, it’s a disgrace to herself—he’s an eternal shame!”
The morals of the city of Kalinov, its rudeness and “stark poverty” were not acceptable to Katerina: “If I want, I’ll leave wherever my eyes look. Nobody can stop me, that's the way it is
I have character."
Dobrolyubov gave the work a high rating. He called Katerina “a ray of light in the “dark kingdom.” At her tragic end, “a terrible challenge was given to tyrant power... In Katerina we see a protest against Kabanov’s concepts of morality, a protest brought to the end, proclaimed both under domestic torture and over the abyss into which the poor woman threw herself.” In the image of Katerina, Dobrolyubov sees the embodiment of “Russian living nature.” Katerina prefers to die than to live in captivity. Katerina's action is ambiguous.
The image of Katerina in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is an excellent image of a Russian woman in Russian literature.
Drama A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" - the playwright's most significant work - appeared in 1860, at a time when the foundations of serfdom were breaking down and a thunderstorm was really brewing in the stuffy Russian atmosphere.
The work is based on the conflict of a young woman, Katerina, with the “dark kingdom,” the kingdom of tyrants, despots, and ignoramuses. You can understand why this conflict arose, why the end of the drama is so tragic, only by looking into Katerina’s soul.
From Katerina’s words, we learn about her life as a girl: “I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild.” Her mother “doted on her”, did not force her to do housework, “dressed her up like a doll.” Life in home was free: the girl got up early, went to the spring to wash, watered the flowers, of which there were many in the house, with spring water, went with her mother to church, and then did needlework and listened to the stories of the wanderers with whom the house was always full.
By nature, Katerina is an integral, passionate, dreamy person. She sincerely accepts faith with all her soul. “And to death I loved going to church! Surely, 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!” During service and in dreams, she often flew to heaven, soared above the clouds, and communicated with angels. She sometimes got up in the middle of the night and prayed and cried until the morning. What she prayed for, what she cried for - she herself did not know. She simply did not notice everything that contradicted her idea of \u200b\u200blife, carried away in her dreams to heaven.
For all her piety, Katerina is endowed by nature strong character and love of freedom. Once, at the age of six, offended by something, she ran away to the Volga at night, got into a boat and pushed off from the shore! Another important detail of her life was that she lived in her own world, fenced off from reality. Her life was pure and complete, her soul was at peace. A naive, kind, pious girl with the makings of a strong, integral, freedom-loving personality - that’s what Katerina was before her marriage.
Marriage changes everything. Although Katerina, in a sense, was lucky: although her husband is subordinate to his mother, he does not offend his wife and even protects him in his own way. Why do we understand from the very beginning of the play that Katerina’s soul is suffering and tossing about?
The first thing Katerina lost when she got married was freedom. In a house that has not become home to her, it is difficult for her from the very need to live in a confined space, to be locked within four walls, limited only by the circle of household chores. Katerina respects herself, and Kabanikha’s Domostroevsky habits constantly hurt her sensitive soul. She does not know how not to notice them and not react to them; she does not want and cannot remain silent, listening to undeserved reproaches. Defending her own dignity, Katerina speaks to her mother-in-law on a first-name basis, as if she were her equal.
After constant communication with nature, which filled her childhood, Katerina finds the reclusive existence full of deception, hypocrisy, cruelty, lawlessness, submission to someone else’s will unbearable; she is stuffy and bored in her mother-in-law’s house.
In addition, she was married off very early, without love, she, according to Varya, did not play around with girls, her heart “didn’t go away.” But according to Katerina herself, it never “goes away”: “she was born too hot.” Katerina is trying to find her happiness in her love for Tikhon: “I will love my husband. Silence, my dear, I won’t exchange you for anyone.” But to love sincerely and openly, as the soul asks, is not accepted in the “dark kingdom”: Kabanikha pulls her daughter-in-law back: “Why are you hanging around your neck, shameless one? It’s not your lover you’re saying goodbye to.” Katerina admits to Varvara: “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity.”
Her feeling for Boris, which flared up at first sight and became the cause of her endless mental suffering, becomes a breath of freedom for her. For a devout woman, the very thoughts of loving someone else’s man are sinful. Hence Katerina’s depression, fear, and premonition of imminent death. Outwardly, she has not yet done anything, but she has already transgressed her internal moral law and is tormented by a feeling of guilt. That is why she no longer experiences the delight of going to church, cannot continue to pray, and is unable to concentrate on her thoughts. Anxious thoughts that trouble the soul do not allow her to admire nature. Her dreams also changed. Instead of heaven, she sees someone who hugs her warmly and takes her somewhere, and she follows him. Internally, she has already sinned and recognizes her love as a “terrible sin,” and therefore is afraid to die suddenly, without repentance, to appear before God “as... is, with all... sins, with all evil thoughts.”
It’s hard for her at home, she wants to run away from her mother-in-law, who constantly humiliates her human dignity, out of sadness she is ready to do something with herself. Struggling with her feelings, like a drowning man clutching at straws, she asks her husband not to leave her alone. But he says that he himself is tired of life in his mother’s house and wants to take a walk in the wild. Katerina doesn’t even have children, but they could brighten up her loneliness and become her support: “I don’t have children: I would still sit with them and amuse them. I really like talking to children - they are angels.”
So Katerina is left alone. Varya does not understand her, considers her too sophisticated, acts as a temptress, handing over the key to the gate and promising to send Boris. According to it, do whatever you want, as long as everything is covered and covered. Once upon a time she, like Katerina, did not know how to lie, but life taught her both lies and hypocrisy.
Why, in the struggle of motives: to see Boris or throw away the key, does the first desire “come what may, but I will see Boris!” win? Katerina was not lying even to herself, she knew that she was committing a sin, but, apparently, her life had become so unbearable for her that she decided: “I should at least die and see him.” And on the first date, Katerina says to Boris: “You ruined me!”; “If I had my own will, I would not have gone to you. Your will is now over me, don’t you see!”
Katerina cannot live with such a grave sin in her soul. That's why she's so afraid of thunderstorms. For her, she is a manifestation of the wrath of God. To be killed by a thunderstorm (and she is sure that it will definitely kill her) and to appear before God without repenting seems impossible to her. Her own judgment of herself is unbearable for her. Her inner foundations are crushed. This is not just a “family deception” - a moral catastrophe has occurred, the moral norms that seemed eternal to Katerina have been violated. She considers repentance to be the only way to save her soul. But no one needs her public recognition, not even her husband: “No need, no need! don't talk! What you! Mother is here!
In the minds of ordinary people, her suffering is not a tragedy at all: there are many cases when a wife goes for a walk in the absence of her husband. In addition, Tikhon loves Katerina and forgives her everything. But she is not able to forgive herself, and therefore life turns into constant torment for her; death alone seems to her to be a deliverance.
Katerina would not have become Katerina, who received literary immortality, if she had everything “sewn up.” Just as human judgment is not scary for her, so no deal with conscience is possible for her. “No, it’s all the same to me whether I go home or go to the grave... It’s better in the grave.”
Katerina's emotional drama ends in tragedy. This decisive, integral, Russian nature appointed itself such a punishment for its sin. And if you forget for a moment that the play was written a century and a half ago, then you can see that such a drama could have happened not only in that distant era, it is possible at all times. Because this is the drama of a freedom-loving personality who cannot unfold in the unbearable surrounding world of violence, primarily against a person. This is drama moral personality in a world of surrounding immorality. In the very impossibility for a person to reconcile these contradictory principles, I see the reason for Katerina’s drama.
The basis of A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is the conflict of the “dark kingdom” and the bright beginning, presented by the author in the image of Katerina Kabanova. A thunderstorm is a symbol of the heroine’s mental turmoil, the struggle of feelings, moral elevation in tragic love, and at the same time, the embodiment of the burden of fear under the yoke of which people live.
The work depicts the musty atmosphere of a provincial town with its rudeness, hypocrisy, and the power of the rich and “elders.” “ Dark Kingdom” - this is an ominous environment of heartlessness and stupid, slavish worship of the old order. The kingdom of obedience and blind fear is opposed by the forces of reason, common sense, enlightenment, represented by Kuligin, as well as the pure soul of Katerina, which, albeit unconsciously, is hostile to this world with the sincerity and integrity of her nature.
Katerina's childhood and youth were spent in merchant environment, but at home she was surrounded by affection, her mother’s love, and mutual respect in the family. As she herself says, “... she lived, did not worry about anything, like a bird in the wild.”
Given in marriage to Tikhon, she found herself in an ominous environment of heartlessness and stupid, slavish admiration for the power of the old, long-rotten order, which the “tyrants of Russian life” so greedily clutch at. Kabanova tries in vain to instill in Katerina her despotic laws, which, in her opinion, constitute the basis of domestic well-being and the strength of family ties: unquestioning submission to the will of her husband, obedience, diligence and respect for elders. This is how her son was raised.
Kabanova intended to mold Katerina into something similar to what she turned her child into. But we see that for a young woman who finds herself in her mother-in-law’s house, such a fate is excluded. Dialogues with Kabanikha
show that “Katerina’s nature will not accept base feelings.” In her husband's house she is surrounded by an atmosphere of cruelty, humiliation, and suspicion. She tries to defend her right to respect, does not want to please anyone, wants to love and be loved. Katerina is lonely, she lacks human participation, sympathy, love. The need for this draws her to Boris. She sees that outwardly he does not look like other residents of the city of Kalinov, and, not being able to recognize inner essence, considers him a man from another world. In her imagination, Boris seems to be the only one who will dare to take her from the “dark kingdom” to a fairy-tale world.
Katerina is religious, but her sincerity in faith differs from the religiosity of her mother-in-law, for whom faith is only a tool that allows her to keep others in fear and obedience. Katerina perceived the church, icon painting, and Christian chants as an encounter with something mysterious, beautiful, taking her far from the gloomy world of the Kabanovs. Katerina, as a believer, tries not to convert special attention to Kabanova's teachings. But this is for the time being. The patience of even the most patient person always comes to an end. Katerina “endures until... until such a demand of her nature is insulted in her, without the satisfaction of which she cannot remain calm.” For the heroine, this “demand of her nature” was the desire for personal freedom. To live without listening to stupid advice from all sorts of wild boars and others, to think as one thinks, to understand everything on one’s own, without any extraneous and useless admonitions - this is what is of the greatest importance to Katerina. That's something she won't let anyone trample on. Her personal freedom is her most precious value. Katerina even values life much less.
At first, the heroine resigned herself, hoping to find at least some sympathy and understanding from those around her. But this turned out to be impossible. Even Katerina began to have some “sinful” dreams; as if she were racing against three frisky horses, intoxicated with happiness, next to her loved one... Katerina protests against seductive visions, but human nature defended its rights. A woman has awakened in the heroine. The desire to love and be loved grows with inexorable force. And this is a completely natural desire. After all, Katerina is only 16 years old - the prime of youth, sincere feelings. But she doubts, reflects, and all her thoughts are fraught with panic. The heroine is looking for an explanation for her feelings, in her soul she wants to justify herself to her husband, she is trying to tear away vague desires from herself. But reality, the real state of affairs returned Katerina to herself: “Before whom am I pretending...”
Katerina's most important character trait is honesty with herself, her husband and other people; unwillingness to live in a lie. She says to Varvara: “I don’t know how to deceive, I can’t hide anything.” She does not want and cannot be cunning, pretend, lie, hide. This is confirmed by the scene when Katerina confesses to her husband that she is cheating.
Her most great value- freedom of the soul. Katerina, accustomed to living, as she admitted in a conversation with Varvara, “like a bird in the wild,” is burdened by the fact that in Kabanova’s house everything comes “as if from under captivity!” But before it was different. The day began and ended with prayer, and the rest of the time was spent walking in the garden. Her youth is shrouded in mystery, bright dreams: angels, golden temples, paradise gardens - can an ordinary earthly sinner dream of all this? And Katerina had just such mysterious dreams. This testifies to the extraordinary nature of the heroine. The reluctance to accept the morality of the “dark kingdom”, the ability to preserve the purity of her soul is evidence of the strength and integrity of the heroine’s character. She says about herself: “And if I get really tired of it here, they won’t hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga.”
With such a character, Katerina, after betraying Tikhon, could not stay in his house, return to a monotonous and dreary life, endure constant reproaches and moralizing from Kabanikha, or lose freedom. It is difficult for her to be in a place where she is not understood and humiliated. Before her death, she says: “What goes home, what goes to the grave, it’s all the same... It’s better in the grave...” She acts according to the first call of her heart, according to the first spiritual impulse. And this, it turns out, is her problem. Such people are not adapted to the realities of life, and always feel that they are superfluous. Their spiritual and moral strength, which is able to resist and fight, will never dry up. Dobrolyubov rightly noted that “the strongest protest is the one that rises... from the chests of the weakest and most patient.”
And Katerina, without realizing it, challenged the tyrant force: however, it led her to tragic consequences. The heroine dies defending the independence of her world. She doesn't want to become a liar and a pretender. Love for Boris deprives Katerina’s character of integrity. She is cheating not on her husband, but on herself, which is why her judgment of herself is so cruel. But by dying, the heroine saves her soul and gains the desired freedom.
Katerina's death at the end of the play is natural - there is no other way out for her. She cannot join those who profess the principles of the “dark kingdom”, become one of its representatives, since this would mean destroying everything that is bright and pure in herself, in her own soul; cannot come to terms with the position of a dependent, join the “victims” of the “dark kingdom” - live by the principle “if only everything is sewn and covered.” Katerina decides to part with such a life. “Her body is here, but her soul is no longer yours, she is now before a judge who is more merciful than you!” - Kuligin says to Kabanova after tragic death heroine, emphasizing that Katerina has found the desired, hard-won freedom.
Thus, A. N. Ostrovsky showed his protest against the hypocrisy, lies, vulgarity and hypocrisy of the world around him. The protest turned out to be self-destructive, but it was and is evidence of the free choice of an individual who does not want to put up with the laws imposed on her by society.