System of images in a thunderstorm scheme. Drama "Thunderstorm". History of creation, system of images, techniques for revealing the characters' characters. Plan for analyzing a lyric poem
The history of the creation of the play The work has a general meaning; it is no coincidence that Ostrovsky named his fictitious, but surprisingly real city with the non-existent name Kalinov. In addition, the play is based on impressions from a trip along the Volga as part of an ethnographic expedition to study the life of the inhabitants of the Volga region. Katerina, remembering her childhood, talks about sewing on velvet with gold. The writer could see this craft in the city of Torzhok, Tver province. The work has a general meaning; it is no coincidence that Ostrovsky named his fictitious, but surprisingly real city with the non-existent name Kalinov. In addition, the play is based on impressions from a trip along the Volga as part of an ethnographic expedition to study the life of the inhabitants of the Volga region. Katerina, remembering her childhood, talks about sewing on velvet with gold. The writer could see this craft in the city of Torzhok, Tver province.
The meaning of the title of the play “The Thunderstorm” A thunderstorm in nature (act 4) is a physical phenomenon, external, independent of the characters. A thunderstorm in nature (act 4) is a physical phenomenon, external, independent of the heroes. The storm in Katerina’s soul is from the gradual confusion caused by her love for Boris, to the pangs of conscience from betraying her husband and to the feeling of sin before people, which pushed her to repentance. The storm in Katerina’s soul is from the gradual confusion caused by her love for Boris, to the pangs of conscience from betraying her husband and to the feeling of sin before people, which pushed her to repentance. A thunderstorm in society is a feeling among people who stand up for the immutability of the world as something incomprehensible. Awakening of free feelings in a world of unfreedom. This process is also shown gradually. At first there are only touches: there is no proper respect in the voice, there is no decorum, then disobedience. A thunderstorm in society is a feeling among people who stand up for the immutability of the world as something incomprehensible. Awakening of free feelings in a world of unfreedom. This process is also shown gradually. At first there are only touches: there is no proper respect in the voice, there is no decorum, then disobedience. A thunderstorm in nature is an external cause that provoked both a thunderstorm in Katerina’s soul (it was she who pushed the heroine to confession) and a thunderstorm in society, which was dumbfounded because someone went against it. A thunderstorm in nature is an external cause that provoked both a thunderstorm in Katerina’s soul (it was she who pushed the heroine to confession) and a thunderstorm in society, which was dumbfounded because someone went against it.
The status of women in Russia in the 1st half of the 19th century. The status of women in Russia in the 1st half of the 19th century. In the first half of the 19th century, the position of women in Russia was dependent in many respects. Before marriage, she lived under the unquestioned authority of her parents, and after the wedding, her husband became her master. The main sphere of activity of women, especially among the lower classes, was the family. According to the rules accepted in society and enshrined in Domostroi, she could only count on a domestic role - the role of a daughter, wife and mother. The spiritual needs of most women, as in pre-Petrine Rus', were satisfied by folk holidays and church services. In the first half of the 19th century, the position of women in Russia was dependent in many respects. Before marriage, she lived under the unquestioned authority of her parents, and after the wedding, her husband became her master. The main sphere of activity of women, especially among the lower classes, was the family. According to the rules accepted in society and enshrined in Domostroi, she could only count on a domestic role - the role of a daughter, wife and mother. The spiritual needs of most women, as in pre-Petrine Rus', were satisfied by folk holidays and church services. “Domostroy” is a monument of Russian writing of the 16th century, representing “Domostroy” - a monument of Russian writing of the 16th century, representing a set of rules for family life. is a set of rules for family life.
The era of change The play “The Thunderstorm” was created in the pre-reform years. It was an era of political, economic and cultural change. The transformations affected all layers of society, including the merchants and philistines. The old way of life was collapsing, patriarchal relations were becoming a thing of the past - people had to adapt to new conditions of existence. The play “The Thunderstorm” was created in the pre-reform years. It was an era of political, economic and cultural change. The transformations affected all layers of society, including the merchants and philistines. The old way of life was collapsing, patriarchal relations were becoming a thing of the past - people had to adapt to new conditions of existence. Changes also occurred in the literature of the mid-19th century. Works whose main characters were representatives of the lower classes gained particular popularity at this time. They interested writers primarily as social types. Changes also occurred in the literature of the mid-19th century. Works whose main characters were representatives of the lower classes gained particular popularity at this time. They interested writers primarily as social types.
System of characters in the play Speaking surnames Speaking surnames Age of heroes Age of heroes “Masters of Life” “Masters of Life” “Victims” “Victims” What place does Katerina occupy in this system of images? What place does Katerina occupy in this system of images?
The system of characters in the play “Victims” by Varvara: “And I was not a liar, but I learned.” “In my opinion, do whatever you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.” Tikhon: “Yes, Mama, I don’t want to live by my own will. Where can I live by my own will!” Kuligin: “It’s better to endure it.”
Peculiarities of revealing the characters of Katerina's characters: poetic speech, reminiscent of a spell, lament or song, filled with folk elements. Katerina’s poetic speech is reminiscent of a spell, lament or song, filled with folk elements. Kuligin is the speech of an educated person with “scientific” words and poetic phrases. Kuligin is the speech of an educated person with “scientific” words and poetic phrases. Wild speech is replete with rude words and curses. Wild speech is replete with rude words and curses.
The role of the first remark, which immediately reveals the character of the hero: Kuligin: “Miracles, truly it must be said: miracles!” Kuligin: “Miracles, truly it must be said: miracles!” Curly: “What?” Curly: “What?” Dikoy: “What the hell are you, you came to beat the ships! Parasite! Get lost!" Dikoy: “What the hell are you, you came to beat the ships! Parasite! Get lost!" Boris: “Holiday; what to do at home!” Boris: “Holiday; what to do at home!” Feklusha: “Bla-alepie, dear, blah-alepie! The beauty is wonderful." Feklusha: “Bla-alepie, dear, blah-alepie! The beauty is wonderful." Kabanova: “If you want to listen to your mother, then when you get there, do as I ordered you.” Kabanova: “If you want to listen to your mother, then when you get there, do as I ordered you.” Tikhon: “How can I, Mama, disobey you!” Tikhon: “How can I, Mama, disobey you!” Varvara: “I won’t respect you, of course!” Varvara: “I won’t respect you, of course!” Katerina: “For me, Mama, everything is the same as my own mother, as you are, and Tikhon loves you too.” Katerina: “For me, Mama, everything is the same as my own mother, as you are, and Tikhon loves you too.”
Using the technique of contrast and comparison: Feklushi's monologue, Kuligin's monologue, Feklushi's monologue, Kuligin's monologue, life in the city of Kalinov, Volga landscape, life in the city of Kalinov, Volga landscape, Katerina Varvara, Katerina Varvara, Tikhon Boris Tikhon Boris
Homework Kuligin's Monologues - Act 1, yavl. 3; action 3, yavl. 3 Monologues of Kuligin - act 1, yavl. 3; action 3, yavl. 3 Monologues of Feklushi - act 1, yavl. 2; action 3, yavl. 1 Monologues of Feklushi - act 1, yavl. 2; action 3, yavl. 1 Residents action 3, yavl. 1; action 2, yavl. 1; action 4, yavl. 4; action 4, yavl. 1. Residents action 3, yavl. 1; action 2, yavl. 1; action 4, yavl. 4; action 4, yavl. 1. How is it different from the residents of the city of Kuligin? How is it different from the residents of the city of Kuligin? Wild and Kabanikha. Wild and Kabanikha.
Also in 1859, “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky’s famous play, appeared. The work was intense and short in time: having started in June-July, the playwright finished it in October 1859.
“The Thunderstorm” is a work that is somewhat mysterious. Firstly, it turned out to be extremely viable, repertoire in different eras of the history of Russian theater. Secondly, it is unusual in terms of genre. This is a tragedy with elements of sharp comedy, almost a farce: Feklusha’s stories about overseas countries where “Saltans” rule and people with dog heads live, nonsense that ordinary people listen to with amazement and fear, or the truly wild antics of a wild, rich merchant, in in which the tyranny is presented in grotesque forms of unbridled arbitrariness.
In the time that has passed since the triumph of the comedies “Bankrupt” and “Poverty is not a Vice,” much has changed in the playwright’s creative style, although the same type images seem to have remained intact as before. However, all this is something, but not so, one might say. That the tyrants (Dikoy, Kabanikha) are like two peas in a pod like the previous ones is only an external impression. The conflict space has changed dramatically. There (“Bankrupt”, “Poverty is not a vice”) the action is limited to the narrow framework of the family, here the sphere of application of the forces of tyrant will has expanded immeasurably. The family remains, but not only her. The author's remark characterizing Savel Prokofievich Diky includes a definition of not just his social status (“merchant”), but also his social position: “a significant person in the city.” In conversations, the mayor is mentioned, Dikoy is on friendly terms with him and does not even consider it necessary to hide from him his tricks with the workers’ wages not paid or arbitrarily cut.
This is a new turn in the artistic study of the type of tyrant who finally leaves his Zamoskvoretsky chambers and “shows off” not only over his family, but over people who are strangers to him. Dikoy will not be forgotten: and 10 years later he will appear in “The Warm Heart” (1869), turning into the eternally drunk Kuroslepov, and the mayor will come out from behind the scenes in the same play and will no longer become an extra-plot character, as in “The Thunderstorm,” but The central character, the mayor Gradoboev, is a classic satirical-comedy character from Ostrovsky.
Another feature of the new play was that the colors in the coverage of tyranny in “The Thunderstorm” turned out to be even more condensed. Dikoy fully lives up to its name - an unbridled, wild force, purely Russian, is completely ugly in its manifestations. Another type of tyrant relationship - restrained, but also very cruel - Kabanova. The composition of the characters emphasizes: “rich merchant’s wife”; Dikoy himself is afraid of her. In this image, a remarkable feature of Ostrovsky’s dramatic style makes itself felt: he always leaves room for directorial and acting improvisation, for searching for original solutions in the development of this or that character. Thus, in productions of “The Thunderstorm” already in the 90s of the twentieth century, completely new directorial and acting approaches appeared in the interpretation of the image of Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova: instead of a ponderous, roughly sculpted, stern merchant’s wife, a relatively young one appeared on stage in a number of capital and provincial theaters , an elegant, “homely”, sweet woman, but a real hell for her daughter-in-law because of her reckless, blind love for her son. The psychological paradox inherent in the image manifested itself in the fact that maternal love is capable of destroying more than one family and turning the life of loved ones into continuous torture.
The conflict of the play has also undergone significant changes. Previously, bearers of a positive moral principle were opposed to negative heroes: the noble, loving Vanya Borodkin - Vikhorev (“Don’t sit in your own sleigh”), the clerk Mitya - Gordey Karpych Tortsov and Korshunov. But even in such cases, confrontation in the conflict was excluded: the first were too humiliated and downtrodden to protest, the second were infinitely confident in their unbridled will, in the right, without hesitation, to carry out justice and reprisals.
In The Thunderstorm, the grouping of characters and their conflictual interaction changed dramatically. Here, for the first time in Ostrovsky, there is a serious confrontation with brute force, moreover, at an almost unconscious, spontaneous level. Katerina is a weak, undeveloped creature - a merchant's daughter and a merchant's wife. Flesh of the flesh of this environment. Therefore, it would be a stretch to call it a “ray of light,” as Dobrolyubov did (article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom”). The critic used the image of Katerina to veiledly express the idea of a revolutionary transformation of society: the play, as he explained to readers, “serves” as an echo of aspirations requiring a better structure.”
Meanwhile, the conflict ending in disaster, the death of the heroine, was not social, but rather psychological. In Katerina’s soul there lives a painful feeling of guilt and a feeling of fear for what she has done (adultery). These motives are strengthened by another feature of the heroine: her sincerity, openness, kindness. She does not know how to lie and act according to the principle: do whatever you want, as long as everything is done well (the rule of life of Varvara, her husband’s sister). It is impossible for Katerina to walk the path of vice cheerfully: it is impossible for her to live without love, without participation, and she will not live like that. For her, the Kabanovs’ house, where even her husband cannot respond to her feelings, although he loves her in his own way, is a living grave, death is easier, and she goes to death in a state of half-delirium, half-reality: only nature can give her its silent response -sympathy, and she turns to her (phenomenon 2, 3, 4 of the fifth act), but people mercilessly torture and torment her at every step.
In the conflict of “The Thunderstorm” the social factor was no longer dominant, which Dobrolyubov insisted on and what was in previous plays: the clerk Mitya - and his owner, the rich merchant Tortsov, and the same Korshunov; Vanya Borodkin - and nobleman Vikhorev. Here, in "The Thunderstorm", the persons creating an acute conflict are equal to each other. The loud power of protest is concentrated primarily in the character of the heroine, as Ostrovsky created him.
True, Katerina still has a way out: she could live following the example of Varvara and Kudryash. But she is not on the same path with them, she cannot lie, dodge, and Boris is far from Kudryash, who admits that he will not sell his head cheaply, and his tough owner, Dika, is forced to reckon with a simple clerk. Boris exactly repeats those resigned reasoners whom the audience knew from Ostrovsky’s previous plays.
Another feature that distinguishes this unusual character of the heroine is the feeling of freedom that lives in him. Apparently, in the family where Katerina spent her childhood and youth, with a deeply religious upbringing, there was not a trace of despotism and tyrant way of life, which is what marked all Ostrovsky’s characters, who came from a merchant environment. A feeling of freedom, closeness to nature, good human relationships distinguish the heroine in everything, and she is perceived by others as alien to this life, unusual, “strange,” according to Varvara, a woman.
Thus, the tragic beginning in the play is determined primarily by the image of his heroine, happily found and subtly developed by the playwright. Ostrovsky would never be able to create anything comparable in the strength of its tragic sound, although he strove for this with all the strength of his soul and approached the success of “The Thunderstorm” in different periods of his work: in “The Dowry” (1869) and in “The Snow Maiden” (1873).
39. the hero in the image of Saltykov-Shchedrin (“Gentlemen Psychology Golovlevs”)
Golovlev’s chronicle was not initially conceived by Shchedrin as an independent work, but was part of the “Well-Intentioned Speeches” cycle. The separation of individual essays about “decrepit people” into an independent work was due to those changes in the social life of the country, which were most clearly manifested in the sphere of family relations. By the beginning of the 70s, Shchedrin was firmly convinced that “the novel has lost its former soil since nepotism and everything that belongs to it begins to change its character”, that “it has become common practice to develop landowner love affairs as before.” unthinkable." Having abandoned the traditional interpretation of the family theme and the romantic plot, the writer nevertheless had the right to consider “The Golovlevs” as a novel. Despite the fact that it is composed of individual stories, they represent a whole, determined by the writer’s plan and the central figure of Porfiry Golovlev. Shchedrin set himself a difficult task: to reveal the internal mechanism of family decomposition, caused by the moral failure of both serfdom and bourgeois ideals. From chapter to chapter, the tragic departure from the family, and then from the life of Styopka the dunce, Anna, Pavel, and Arina Petrovna herself is traced.
In each of the characters, the writer notes character traits generated by serfdom: carelessness and inability to meaningful work in Stepan Golovlev, extreme indifference to people and cynicism in Pavel, thirst for acquisition and sanctimonious splendor in Arina Petrovna, hypocrisy and idle talk in Judushka. The most complete and consistent process of destruction of the landowner clan is presented in the image of Porfiry Golovlev.
Shchedrin paints the portrait of Judas using the bright colors of psychological satire. One of the main ways to characterize the hero’s inner world is his speech. “The deceptive word,” in the figurative expression of N. Mikhailovsky, becomes the key to revealing the contradiction between created social myths and reality. Verbal formulas, generally accepted concepts that Judas uses in a given situation turn out to be lies, meaningless phrases., Idle talk. Judas (“ah, Volodya, Volodya! You are not a good son! You are bad! Apparently you don’t pray to God for your dad, that he even took away his memory!”) does not at all indicate his emotional experiences. He is much more concerned about the ritual side of the event, the need to maintain decorum even in front of his mother: “Oh, what a sin! It’s good that the icon lamps are lit.” Judas’s self-justification is constructed as a set of common moral formulas, which, combined in the image-experience of the hero, expose him as an unconscious liar who has absorbed the social. It justifies the father’s cruelty towards his suicidal son: “He lived well and quietly... what did he lack? Money, or what? If you have little money, learn to restrain yourself. Eat not everything sweet, not everything with sugar, chasko and kvass!” The word of Judas imitates noble ideas, high spiritual motivations, but it loses its real content. The hero does not go through the painful process of creating a word to express feelings; he takes someone else’s ready-made word.
After the first chapters of “The Golovlev Gentlemen” appeared, criticism began to call Judushka the “Russian Tartuffe.” The author of the novel twice in digressions gives a psychological description of Porfiry Golovlev’s type (chapter “Family Results”, “Reckoning”), since for the writer the difference between the two types of hypocrites : conscious (Tartuffe) and unconscious (Judas) was fundamental. Unconscious hypocrisy and idle talk in Shchedrin's satire acquire the character of a special form of social and spiritual impoverishment of the ruling class. That is why the “non-Tartuffe” ending of Judas turns out to be so important in the psychological characterization of the hero.
Judas’s path to insight in the finale is the path of improvement by the hero of the “binge of idle talk”, when from a form of life he becomes its goal. Its last outburst accompanied the removal of Evprakseyushka’s son from Golovlev. Judushka’s “agony,” writes Shchedrin, began with the fact that “the resource of idle talk, which he had so readily abused until now, began to apparently decrease.”
The chapters “Escape” and “Reckoning” gradually reveal the tragedy of Porfiry Golovlev, who finally acquires human language precisely because everything that he could destroy perished, even the objects of his fantasies disappeared. The last thing the hero says, addressing Anninka, is perceived as a farewell to life: “You must forgive me! - he continued, - for everyone... And for himself... and for those who no longer exist... What is this! what happened?!.. where... is everyone?” The consciousness that awakened for a minute made Judas feel like a man and understand that he had no possibilities for “resurrection.” The impetus for the hero’s “reckoning” with life is the gospel parable about the atonement of guilt through suffering; its moral effect coincided with the spiritual turmoil Judas was experiencing and the death of the hero became inevitable.
One should not see in the sentimental Christian ending of the novel Shchedrin’s desire to “forgive” his hero. Shchedrin's democracy was a characteristic phenomenon of the 60s, when the social environment was seen as the source of the formation of the human personality. Judushka's hypocrisy had roots in the social conditions of his life, and not only in the bad inclinations of his personality. In the “justification” of the hero, Shchedrin’s idea of the function of the moral court played a significant role. The hero’s conscience, awakened in the finale, characterizes not only Golovlev’s condition. It becomes a symbol of the awakening of public consciousness.
2.Image system
To create a tragedy means to elevate the conflict depicted in the play to the struggle of large social forces. The character of the tragedy should be a large personality, free in his actions and deeds
The character in the tragedy embodies a great social principle, the principle of the whole world. That is why tragedy shuns concrete forms of everyday life; it elevates its heroes to the personification of great historical forces.
The heroes of "The Thunderstorm", unlike the heroes of old tragedies, are merchants and townspeople. From this arise many features and originality of Ostrovsky’s play.
In addition to the participants in the family drama that happened in the Kabanovs’ house, the play also contains characters who are in no way connected with it, acting outside the family sphere. These are ordinary people walking in a public garden, and Shapkin, and Feklusha, and in a certain sense, even Kuligin and Dikoy.
One can imagine that the system of images of the drama “The Thunderstorm” is built on the opposition of the masters of life, tyrants, Kabanikha and Dikiy, and Katerina Kabanova as a figure of protest against the world of violence, as a prototype of the trends of a new life.
1. Images of the masters of life - Wild and Kabanikha: bearers of the ideas of the old way of life (Domostroy), cruelty, tyranny and hypocrisy towards other characters, a feeling of the death of the old way of life.
2. Images of tyrants resigned under the rule - Tikhon and Boris (double images): lack of will, weakness of character, love for Katerina, which does not give the heroes strength, the heroine is stronger than those who love her and whom she loves, the difference between Boris and Tikhon in external education, the difference in the expression of protest: Katerina’s death leads to Tikhon’s protest; Boris weakly submits to circumstances and practically abandons his beloved woman in a tragic situation for her.
3. Images of heroes expressing protest against the “dark kingdom” of tyrants:
Varvara and Kudryash: external humility, lies, opposition to force with force - Kudryash, escape from the power of tyrants, when mutual existence becomes impossible)
Kuligin - opposes the power of enlightenment to tyranny, understands with reason the essence of the “dark kingdom”, tries to influence it with the power of persuasion, practically expresses the author’s point of view, but as a character he is inactive
4. The image of Katerina - as the most decisive protest against the power of tyrants, “a protest brought to the end”: the difference between Katerina’s character, upbringing, and behavior from the character, upbringing, and behavior of other characters
5. Secondary images that emphasize the essence of the “dark kingdom”: Feklusha, the lady, the townspeople who witnessed Katerina’s confession. Image of a Thunderstorm
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The play was created on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. The action takes place in the small Volga merchant town of Kalinov. Life there is slow, sleepy, boring. The main character of the play, Katerina, differs sharply from other characters in this sleepy kingdom. Katerina’s “ideality” is not the ideality of a naive soul. She has already gained experience, forcing herself to live with her unloved husband, Tikhon, submitting to her evil mother-in-law, Kabanikha, getting used to the scolding of the Wild One, reproaches, high blank fences, locked gates. But she still had a craving for beauty, for that which still retained her childhood impressions.
An unexpected desire to fly like a bird, a memory of a pillar of light in a church, where clouds seem to be walking and angels are singing, and memories of youth - all this speaks of the romance and talent of Katerina, which does not find a response in the boring life with Tikhon, where everyone is afraid , where all people have a “thunderstorm”. Thunderstorm in the play is a multi-valued concept. This is an atmospheric phenomenon, and a spiritual upheaval, and fear, fear of punishment, sin, human judgment. Katerina’s sinful love for Boris, an honest, kind, decent, but weak-willed man, is the path to her death, because in the tyrant conditions of life, free feeling is doomed to death.
Gifted, whole, very impressionable Katerina could not, like Varvara and Kudryash, live in secret, thieving love, and therefore she repents of her “sin.” She was not afraid of human judgment, and this speaks of the strength of the heroine’s spirit, and not just its weakness. Katerina is not struck down by lightning.
She herself throws herself into the pool, decides her own fate, herself seeks liberation from such a life. It takes courage to make this decision. That is why Tikhon, who was left to “live and suffer,” envies his dead wife. Tikhon for the first time dared to go against the will of his mother; he blames her for the death of his wife. This is a very fragile victory over the fear of authority, but this is already the beginning of the power that will destroy the kingdom of humility and blind submission and lack of will.
Katerina’s spontaneous challenge, the internal independence and independence of the heroine were regarded by the Russian critic N. A. Dobrolyubov as a sign of deep protest brewing in the country, indicating the imminent end of the patriarchal way of Russia.
GROTESQUE - depiction of people and phenomena in a fantastically exaggerated, ugly-comic form. “Half the people are sitting” from V. Mayakovsky’s poem “The Sitting Ones.”
the main idea / of this work; the issues raised in it; the pathos with which the work is written; 2. Show the relationship between plot and composition; 3. Consider the subjective organization of the work / artistic image of a person, techniques for creating a character, ... The history of the creation of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” I. S. Turgenev described Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” as “the most amazing, most magnificent work of the mighty Russian talent.” Indeed, both the artistic merits of “The Thunderstorm” and its ideological content give the right to consider this drama Ostrovsky’s most remarkable work. “The Thunderstorm” was written...A ray of light in the dark kingdom in Ostrovsky’s plays, Dobrolyubov noted that they contained a protest against the very foundations of the existing system - despotism, lies, human oppression. This protest reached its greatest strength in the drama “The Thunderstorm”. “Thunderstorm,” wrote Dobrolyubov in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark...Number System The number system is a way of writing numbers using a given set of special digit signs. There are positional and non-positional number systems. In non-positional systems, the weight of a digit, i.e. the contribution it makes to the value of the number is not...
In accordance with the point of view based on Dobrolyubov’s article, there was a tradition of seeing in the system of images of “The Thunderstorm” a division of heroes into two camps opposing each other. The defenders of the old way of life, the “dark kingdom”, Dikoy and Kabanikha, were contrasted with heroes who carried dissatisfaction with the existing order. These included Varvara, Kabanova’s daughter, Kudryash, Boris, the local eccentric Kuligin, and even Tikhon, the obedient and downtrodden son of Marfa Ignatievna. With this approach, Katerina was perceived as a heroine, standing in the same ranks, but capable of a stronger, more active protest. She was thus recognized as the main fighter against the “dark kingdom.”
Modern researchers defend a different point of view, taking into account the uniqueness of the author’s position and general concept.
Indeed, a whole group of characters can be characterized as a “dark kingdom”. First of all, it includes such active defenders as Dikoy and Kabanikha. Unlike the primitive tyrant Dikiy, Kabanova is a consistent adherent of the old foundations, with their unshakable rules and traditions. She is unswervingly firm in upholding traditions. It seems to her that the world is collapsing because these rules are no longer observed, that young people have forgotten customs and strive to do everything their own way. In this zeal, Kabanova goes beyond all boundaries, becoming a symbol of extreme dogmatism.
This camp also includes a number of episodic and extra-fabular (i.e., not directly related to the action) characters who help create a “background” and convey the general mood of the city’s inhabitants and its atmosphere. These are the obedient inhabitants of the city, the inhabitants, the philistines, about whom Kuligin speaks at the beginning of the first act. Feklusha, Shapkin, Glasha, city dwellers appear on stage only once or twice, talking on the boulevard about Lithuania that fell from the sky, but without them it would be difficult to imagine how this “dark kingdom” lives and “breathes.”
Of course, in comparison with them, someone who in some way departs from the old norms looks like a person of new views, new principles. But the skill of Ostrovsky the playwright helps to reveal that this difference turns out to be imaginary, it does not affect the deep foundations of life in the “dark kingdom.” In fact, those who, at first glance, rebel against it, also belong to the “dark kingdom”. Kuligin, a “progressive” and educator, does not accept the cruelty of the city’s morals, but he only wants to soften the contradictions between predators and their victims. Varvara’s protest is only a desire to break out from under the despotic power of her mother, and not the laws of the “dark kingdom” - she generally accepts them. Her brother Tikhon is completely downtrodden, submissive, powerless, he meekly obeys his mother. Curly has a broad nature, gifted with a sensitive and kind soul, but even he can oppose the world of “fathers” only with his daring and mischief, and not with moral strength. Katerina’s chosen one, Boris, has spiritual gentleness, delicacy, even a certain urban culture and education, which is noticeable in his manners, in his speech, and in his entire appearance. But this is a weak-willed man, in slavish dependence on his uncle, subject to his whims and consciously tolerating tyranny. Thus, all these outwardly oppositional characters to the “dark kingdom” live and think within its boundaries, and their protest does not go beyond the desire to adapt and exist calmly within the same system, at best, having slightly restored her.
Only Katerina is sharply different from all the other characters in the play. This is a person alien to the morals and all the foundations of the city, as if a person from another world: it is not for nothing that Ostrovsky emphasizes that she comes here “from the outside.” There is initially a huge difference between “her world” and the “dark kingdom”. In “The Thunderstorm,” two opposing cultures—rural and urban—collide, generating a powerful discharge like a thunderstorm, and the confrontation between them goes back to the centuries-old depth of Russian history. K.S. Aksakov, a Slavophile close to Ostrovsky in his views on the merchant class, noted that the merchants, both materially, in education, and in privileges, had become separated from the common people from which they came. But at the same time, the aristocratic culture of the nobles remained alien to them. They carried folk culture within themselves, but if it lived among the common people, then among the merchants it was preserved in a dead, as if frozen form. Aksakov wrote that the life of a merchant is as similar to the life of the people as a frozen river to a flowing one (that is, retaining only its form).
Indeed, the laws by which the “dark kingdom” lives are routine; they are not saturated with internal content. It is not for nothing that life in Kalinov is so difficult for Katerina, who was brought up on truly folk, “living” traditions. After listening to Katerina’s story about her former life in her parents’ house, Varvara is perplexed: “So everything is the same here.” Katerina responds by saying that everything here is “as if from under captivity.” Kabanikha goes to church, but does not live like a god, she eats her family’s food. All her religiosity is sanctimonious, for formality, for appearances. The same goes for everything else. A wife may not love her husband, but she needs to behave as if she does: bow at his feet, listen to orders, howl when he leaves. For Katerina, sin lies in the very fact of love for another man; she cannot be satisfied, like Varvara, with the morality of the “dark kingdom”: “as long as everything is covered up.” Feeling the emergence of love, she sincerely asks her husband: “Tisha, my dear, don’t leave!” On the contrary, Kabanikha is little touched by the fact itself: to love or not to love is a personal matter, the main thing is that she howls, because that’s how it’s supposed to be according to the rules and norms, even if no one believes in them anymore. Material from the site
It turns out that Katerina, this, according to Dobrolyubov, fighter against the “dark kingdom,” is essentially fighting to breathe life into this very kingdom, to give content to a frozen, ossified life. She fights for the individual’s right to feel and experience where, according to the laws of the “dark kingdom,” it is enough to simply follow the rules. In other words, Katerina fights for individual rights, and Kabanikha fights for the rights of the collective. For Katerina, the main thing is to realize her personal destiny (even suicide), and for Kabanikha - to embody herself as part of the team. Thus, we can say that Katerina’s protest rises from the very depths, the historical past of the “dark kingdom,” when its dead laws were still living, personal beliefs of each member of the collective. It turns out that the “Thunderstorm” conflict absorbs the thousand-year history of Russia, and its tragic resolution reflects almost the prophetic premonitions of the national playwright.
At the same time, he does not at all want to present Katerina as an ideological fighter against the “dark kingdom.” She is the embodiment of that harmonious and beautiful ancient world of Rus', which disappears in Ostrovsky’s modern life, which drives the poetry of ancient beliefs into a wretched form. Katerina seems to be “out of this world” - from that fantastic and beautiful country where her desire to fly does not seem at all strange, where angels sing, extraordinary gardens with the scent of cypress bloom. Ostrovsky, a deeply religious person, portrays Katerina in such a way that she appears not only as a completely real person (a typical character), but also as what can be called a soul in its purest form, not burdened by earthly passions and vices. Love - earthly, real - love for Boris pulls her out of her previous life. She wants to love Boris, but for this she needs to be an earthly woman, like Varvara, and Katerina is not adapted to this. Earthly life turns out to be too hard for her: Katerina no longer flies, but throws herself off a cliff into the Volga and falls like a stone. That is why her fate is truly tragic, which allows us to talk about the genre features of tragedy, not drama.
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- system of images of the younger generation in the play thunderstorm
- system of images in the drama of Ostrovsky Groz
- two groups of characters in the play thunderstorm
- Ostrovsky thunderstorm separation of heroes
- literature Ostrovsky thunderstorm theme, images of heroes, etc.
