Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky: biography in brief. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, brief biography Where Ostrovsky was born and raised

Biography

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was the son of a priest; he himself graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, then from the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters; rose to the rank of titular councilor, and in 1839 received the nobility. His mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton, died early when Alexander was only eight years old. The family had four children. The family lived in abundance, was given great attention education of children receiving home education. Five years after the death of his mother, his father married Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Russified Swedish nobleman. The children were lucky with their stepmother - she surrounded them with care and continued to study for them.

Alexander became addicted to reading as a child, receives a good education at home, knows Greek, Latin, French, German, and later English, Italian, and Spanish. When Alexander was thirteen years old, his father married a second time to the daughter of a Russified Swedish baron, who was not very involved in raising the children from her husband’s first marriage. With her arrival, the household way of life changes noticeably, official life is reshaped in a noble manner, the environment changes, new speeches are heard in the house. By this time, the future playwright had re-read almost his entire father’s library.

Story personal life

Personal life story 2

First wife: Agafya Ivanovna. According to eyewitnesses, she was a kind, warm-hearted woman, to whom Ostrovsky owed much of his knowledge of Moscow life. According to the law of that time, unmarried marriages in Russia were not officially legally recognized (only since the twentieth century have actual marriages been recognized as legal, regardless of their registration), but they were fully recognized as such in society. The playwright lived in a civil marriage with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, with whom he had common children, but they all died as children. She had no education, but was an intelligent woman with a subtle, vulnerable soul, she understood the playwright and was the very first reader and critic of his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, until her death

Childhood

Childhood and early youth Ostrovsky spends time in Zamoskvorechye - a special corner of Moscow with its established merchant-philistine life. It was easier for him to follow Pushkin’s advice: “It’s not bad for us sometimes to listen to the Moscow malts. They speak in an amazingly pure and correct language.” Grandmother Natalya Ivanovna lived with the Ostrovsky family and served as a bread maker in the parish. Nanny Avdotya Ivanovna Kutuzova was famous as a great master of telling fairy tales. His Godfather- titular councilor, his godmother- court advisor. From them and from his father’s colleagues who were in the house, the future author of “A Profitable Place” could hear plenty of bureaucratic conversations. And since my father left the service and became a private attorney for trading companies, there have been no merchants in the house.

Alexander became addicted to reading as a child, receives a good education at home, knows Greek, Latin, French, German, and later English, Italian, and Spanish. When Alexander was thirteen years old, his father married a second time to the daughter of a Russified Swedish baron, who was not very involved in raising the children from her husband’s first marriage. With her arrival, the household way of life changes noticeably, official life is reshaped in a noble manner, the environment changes, new speeches are heard in the house. By this time, the future playwright had re-read almost his entire father’s library.

Studies

From 1835-1840 – Ostrovsky studies at the First Moscow Gymnasium. In 1840, after graduating from high school, he was enrolled in the law faculty of Moscow University. At the university, law student Ostrovsky was lucky enough to listen to lectures by such experts in history, law and literature as T.N. Granovsky, N.I. Krylov, M.P. Pogodin. Here, for the first time, the future author of “Minin” and “Voevoda” discovers the riches of Russian chronicles, the language appears before him in a historical perspective. But in 1843 Ostrovsky left the university, not wanting to retake the exam. At the same time he entered the office of the Moscow Conscientious Court, and later served in the Commercial Court (1845-1851). This experience played a significant role in Ostrovsky's work.

The second university is the Maly Theater. Having become addicted to the stage even in his high school years, Ostrovsky became a regular at the oldest Russian theater.
1847 – Ostrovsky publishes the first draft in the Moscow City List future comedy“We’ll count our own people” under the title “Insolvent Debtor”, then the comedy “Picture of Family Happiness” (later “ Family picture") and an essay in prose "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident."

Creation

"Columbus of Zamoskvorechye"

The play “Poverty is not a vice” (1853) was first staged on January 15, 1869 at the Maly Theater for a benefit performance by Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky.

Ostrovsky Theater

It is with Ostrovsky that Russian theater in its modern understanding begins: the writer created a theater school and a holistic concept of acting in the theater.

The essence of Ostrovsky's theater lies in the absence of extreme situations and opposition to the actor's gut. Alexander Nikolaevich's plays depict ordinary situations with ordinary people, whose dramas go into everyday life and human psychology.

The main ideas of theater reform:

the theater must be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall separating the audience from the actors);

constancy of attitude towards language: mastery speech characteristics, expressing almost everything about the heroes;

the bet is not on one actor;

“People go to watch the game, not the play itself - you can read it.”

Ostrovsky's theater required a new stage aesthetics, new actors. In accordance with this, Ostrovsky creates an acting ensemble, which includes such actors as Martynov, Sergei Vasiliev, Evgeny Samoilov, Prov Sadovsky.

Naturally, innovations met opponents. He was, for example, Shchepkin. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy required the actor to detach himself from his personality, which M. S. Shchepkin did not do. For example, he left the dress rehearsal of “The Thunderstorm” being very dissatisfied with the author of the play.

Ostrovsky's ideas were brought to their logical conclusion by Stanislavsky.

Folk myths and national history in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy

On stage in 1881 Mariinsky Theater The successful premiere of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snow Maiden” took place, which the composer called his best work. A. N. Ostrovsky himself appreciated the work of Rimsky-Korsakov: “The music for my “Snow Maiden” is amazing, I could never imagine anything more suitable for it and so vividly expressing all the poetry of the Russian pagan cult and this at first snow-cold, and then the uncontrollably passionate heroine of a fairy tale.”

“The most memorable day for me in my life,” Ostrovsky recalled, “February 14, 1847... From that day on, I began to consider myself a Russian writer and, without doubt or hesitation, believed in my calling.”
Ostrovsky's comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" (original title - "Bankrut", completed at the end of 1849) brings recognition to Ostrovsky. Even before publication, it became popular (in the reading of the author and P.M. Sadovsky), caused approving responses from N.V. Gogol, I.A. Goncharova, T.H. Granovsky.
“He started out in an extraordinary way...” testifies I.S. Turgenev. His first big play“We’ll be our own people” made a huge impression. She was called the Russian "Tartuffe", "Brigadier" XIX century, the merchant's "Woe from Wit", was compared with "The Inspector General"; Yesterday, the still unknown name of Ostrovsky was placed next to the names of the greatest comedy writers - Moliere, Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol.

In 1863 Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize and elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1866 (according to other sources - in 1865) he created an Artistic Circle in Moscow, which subsequently gave many talented figures to the Moscow stage. I.A. visited Ostrovsky’s house. Goncharov, D.V. Grigorovich, I.S. Turgenev, A.F. Pisemsky, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.E. Turchaninov, P.M. Sadovsky, L.P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, Dostoevsky, Grigorovich, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev, P.I. Tchaikovsky, Sadovsky, M.N. Ermolova, G.N. Fedotova. From January 1866 he was the head of the repertory department of the Moscow imperial theaters. In 1874 (according to other sources - in 1870) the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed, of which Ostrovsky remained the permanent chairman until his death. Working on the commission “to revise regulations on all parts of theatrical management,” established in 1881 under the directorate Imperial theaters, he achieved many changes that significantly improved the situation of artists. In 1885 Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school. Despite the fact that his plays did well at the box office and that in 1883 the emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, financial problems did not leave Ostrovsky until last days his life. His health did not meet the plans he had set for himself. The intense work quickly exhausted the body; June 14 (old style - June 2) 1886 Ostrovsky died at his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. The writer was buried there, the sovereign granted 3,000 rubles from the cabinet sums for the funeral, the widow, together with her 2 children, was given a pension of 3,000 rubles, and 2,400 rubles a year for raising three sons and a daughter.

Heritage

Nowadays in Shchelykovo (Kostroma region) there is a memorial and natural museum-reserve of the playwright. Once every five years, since 1973, the All-Russian stage lights up theater festival“Ostrovsky Days in Kostroma”, which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture Russian Federation and the All-Russian Theater Society.

Ostrovsky's plays never leave the stage. Many of his works were filmed or served as the basis for the creation of film and television scripts. Among the film adaptations most popular in Russia is Konstantin Voinov’s comedy “Balzaminov’s Marriage” (1964, in leading role- G. Vitsin). The movie " Cruel romance", filmed by Eldar Ryazanov based on "Dowry" (1984). In 2005, director Evgeny Ginzburg received the main prize ( The Grand Prix " Garnet bracelet» ) of the Eleventh Russian Festival “Literature and Cinema” (Gatchina) “for the amazingly incredible interpretation of the great play by A. N. Ostrovsky “Guilty Without Guilt” in the film “Anna” (2005, script by G. Danelia and Rustam Ibragimbekov; starring - Opera singer Lyubov Kazarnovskaya).

After the death of the writer, the Moscow Duma established a reading room named after A.N. in Moscow. Ostrovsky. On May 27, 1929, a monument to Ostrovsky was unveiled in front of the Maly Theater (sculptor N.A. Andreev, architect I.P. Mashkov).

Plays

"Family Picture" (1847)

“Our people - we will be numbered” (1849)

"An Unexpected Case" (1850)

"The Morning of a Young Man" (1850)

"Poor Bride" (1851)

“Don’t get into your own sleigh” (1852)

"Poverty is no vice" (1853)

“Don’t live as you want” (1854)

“In someone else’s feast there is a hangover” (1856) text. The play was first staged on the theater stage on January 9, 1856 at the Maly Theater for a benefit performance by Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky, and then, on January 18, in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Vladimirova.

“Profitable Place” (1856) text The play was first staged on the theater stage on September 27, 1863 at the Alexandrinsky Theater during a benefit performance by Levkeeva. First staged at the Maly Theater on October 14 of the same year at a benefit performance by E. N. Vasilyeva.

“A festive nap before lunch” (1857) text

“Characters did not agree” (1858) text

"The Pupil" (1859) text

"The Thunderstorm" (1859) text

“An old friend is better than two new ones” (1860) text

“Your own dogs are biting, don’t bother someone else’s” (1861) text

“The Marriage of Balzaminov” (1861) text

“Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk” (1861, 2nd edition 1866) text

"Hard Days" (1863) text

“Sin and misfortune do not live on anyone” (1863) text

“Voevoda” (1864; 2nd edition 1885) text

"Jokers" (1864) text

“In a lively place” (1865) text

"The Deep" (1866) text

“Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky” (1866) text

"Tushino" (1866) text

“Simplicity is enough for every wise man” (1868) text

"Warm Heart" (1869) text

"Mad Money" (1870) text

"Forest" (1870) text

“It’s not all Maslenitsa for the cat” (1871) text

“There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was Altyn” (1872) text

"Comedian XVII century"(1873) text

"The Snow Maiden" (1873) text

"Late Love" (1874) text

“Labor Bread” (1874) text

"Wolves and Sheep" (1875) text

"Rich Brides" (1876) text

“Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1877) text

“The Marriage of Belugin” (1877), text together with Nikolai Solovyov

"The Last Victim" (1878) text

"Dowry" (1878) text

"Good Master" (1879)

"The Heart Is Not a Stone" (1880) text

"Slave Women" (1881) text

“It shines, but does not warm” (1881), text together with Nikolai Solovyov. Premiere on November 14, 1881 in St. Petersburg, at the Alexandrinsky Theater, at a benefit performance in F. A. Burdina.

“Guilty without guilt” (1881-1883) text

“Talents and Admirers” (1882) text

"Handsome Man" (1883) text

“Not of this world” (1885) text

Possessing an extraordinary social temperament, Ostrovsky actively fought all his life for the creation of a new type of realistic theater, for a truly artistic national repertoire, for the new ethics of the actor. He created the Moscow artistic circle in 1865, founded and headed the society of Russian dramatic writers (1870), wrote numerous “Notes”, “Projects”, “Considerations” to various departments, proposing to accept Urgent measures to stop the decline of theatrical art. Ostrovsky's work had a decisive influence on the development of Russian drama and Russian theater. As a playwright and director, Ostrovsky contributed to the formation new school realistic acting, promotion of a galaxy of actors (especially in the Moscow Maly Theater: the Sadovsky family, S.V. Vasiliev, L.P. Kositskaya, later G.N. Fedotova, M.N. Ermolova, etc.).

Beginning in 1853 and for more than 30 years, new plays by Ostrovsky appeared at the Moscow Maly and St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky theaters almost every season. Since 1856, Ostrovsky became a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In 1856, when, according to the idea of ​​Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in industrial and domestic relations, Ostrovsky took upon himself the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to the Lower. In 1859, in the publication of Count G.A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, two volumes of Ostrovsky’s works were published. This publication served as the reason for the brilliant assessment that Dobrolyubov gave to Ostrovsky and which secured his fame as an artist of the “dark kingdom.” In 1860, “The Thunderstorm” appeared in print, prompting an article by Dobrolyubov (“A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”). From the second half of the 60s, Ostrovsky took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into correspondence with Kostomarov.

Theater as a serious and popular matter
It also started recently for us,
began in earnest with Ostrovsky.

A.A. Grigoriev

Childhood and youth

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823–1886) was born in the old merchant and bureaucratic district of Zamoskvorechye. In Moscow, on Malaya Ordynka it is still preserved two-storey house, in which the future was born on April 12 (March 31), 1823 great playwright. Here, in Zamoskvorechye - on Malaya Ordynka, Pyatnitskaya, Zhitnaya streets - he spent his childhood and youth.

The writer's father, Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, was the son of a priest, but after graduating from the theological academy he chose a secular profession - he became a judicial official. The mother of the future writer, Lyubov Ivanovna, also came from among the clergy. She died when the boy was 8 years old. After 5 years, the father married again, this time to a noblewoman. Successfully advancing in his career, Nikolai Fedorovich received the title of nobility in 1839, and in 1842 he retired and began to engage in private legal practice. With income from clients - mostly wealthy merchants - he acquired several estates and in 1848, having retired from business, he moved to the village of Shchelykovo in the Kostroma province and became a landowner.

In 1835, Alexander Nikolaevich entered the 1st Moscow Gymnasium and graduated in 1840. Even during his gymnasium years, Ostrovsky was attracted to literature and theater. By the will of his father, the young man entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, but the Maly Theater, in which the great Russian actors Shchepkin and Mochalov played, attracts him to itself like a magnet. This was not the empty desire of a rich scoundrel who saw pleasant entertainment in the theater: for Ostrovsky the stage became life. These interests forced him to leave the university in the spring of 1843. “From a young age, I gave up everything and devoted myself entirely to art,” he later recalled.

His father still hoped that his son would become an official, and appointed him as a scribe to the Moscow Conscientious Court, which dealt mainly with family property disputes. In 1845, Alexander Nikolaevich was transferred to the office of the Moscow Commercial Court as an official at the “verbal table”, i.e. upon receipt of oral requests from applicants.

His father's law practice, life in Zamoskvorechye and service in court, which lasted almost eight years, gave Ostrovsky many subjects for his works.

1847–1851 – early period

Ostrovsky began writing back in student years. His literary views were formed under the influence of Belinsky and Gogol: from the very beginning of his literary career, the young man declared himself an adherent of the realistic school. Ostrovsky's first essays and dramatic sketches were written in Gogol's style.

In 1847, the newspaper "Moscow City Listok" published two scenes from the comedy "The Insolvent Debtor" - the first version of the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered!" - the comedy "Picture of Family Happiness" and the essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident."

In 1849, Ostrovsky completed work on his first big comedy, “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!”

The comedy ridicules the rude and greedy tyrant merchant Samson Silych Bolshov. His tyranny knows no bounds as long as he feels solid ground beneath him - wealth. But greed destroys him. Wanting to get even richer, Bolshov, on the advice of the clever and cunning clerk Podkhalyuzin, transfers all his property into his name and declares himself an insolvent debtor. Podkhalyuzin, having married Bolshov’s daughter, appropriates his father-in-law’s property and, refusing to pay even a small part of his debts, leaves Bolshov in debtor’s prison. Lipochka, Bolshov’s daughter, who became Podkhalyuzin’s wife, does not feel any pity for her father.

In the play "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" the main features of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy have already appeared: the ability to show important all-Russian problems through family and everyday conflict, to create bright and recognizable characters not only of the main, but also of secondary characters. His plays contain rich, lively, folk speech. And each of them has a complicated, thought-provoking ending. Then nothing found in the first experiments will disappear, but only new features will “grow in.”

The position of an “unreliable” writer complicated Ostrovsky’s already difficult living conditions. In the summer of 1849, against the will of his father and without a church wedding, he married a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The angry father refused his son further material support. The young family was in dire need. Despite his precarious situation, Ostrovsky refused service in January 1851 and devoted himself entirely to literary activity.

1852–1855 – “Moscow period”

The first plays allowed to be staged were “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh” and “Poverty is Not a Vice.” Their appearance was the beginning of a revolution in everything theater arts. For the first time on stage, the viewer saw simple everyday life. This also required a new style of acting: the truth of life began to displace pompous declamation and “theatrical” gestures.

In 1850, Ostrovsky became a member of the so-called “young editorial staff” of the Slavophile magazine “Moskvityanin”. But relations with editor-in-chief Pogodin are not easy. Despite the enormous work he was doing, Ostrovsky remained indebted to the magazine all the time. Pogodin paid sparingly.

1855–1860 – pre-reform period

At this time, the playwright's rapprochement with the revolutionary-democratic camp took place. Ostrovsky's worldview is finally determined. In 1856, he became close to the Sovremennik magazine and became its permanent contributor. Friendly relations established between him and I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy, who collaborated in Sovremennik.

In 1856, together with other Russian writers, Ostrovsky took part in the famous literary and ethnographic expedition organized by the Maritime Ministry to “describe the life, everyday life and trades of the population living along the shores of the seas, lakes and rivers of European Russia.” Ostrovsky was entrusted with surveying the upper reaches of the Volga. He visited Tver, Gorodnya, Torzhok, Ostashkovo, Rzhev, etc. All observations were used by Ostrovsky in his works.

1860–1886 – post-reform period

In 1862, Ostrovsky visited Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, France and England.

In 1865 he founded an artistic circle in Moscow. Ostrovsky was one of its leaders. The artistic circle became a school for talented amateurs - future wonderful Russian artists: O.O. Sadovskoy, M.P. Sadovsky, P.A. Strepetova, M.I. Pisarev and many others. In 1870, on the initiative of the playwright, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created in Moscow; from 1874 until the end of his life, Ostrovsky was its permanent chairman.

Having worked for the Russian stage for almost forty years, Ostrovsky created a whole repertoire - fifty-four plays. “I covered all of Russian life” - from prehistoric, fairy-tale times (“The Snow Maiden”), and events of the past (the chronicle “Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk”) to topical reality. Ostrovsky's works remain on stage at the end of the 20th century. His dramas often sound so modern that they make those who recognize themselves on stage angry.

In addition, Ostrovsky penned numerous translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goldoni, etc. His work covers a huge period: from the 40s. - the times of serfdom and until the mid-80s, marked rapid development capitalism and the growth of the labor movement.

In the last decades of his life, Ostrovsky created a kind of artistic monument to the Russian theater. In 1872, he wrote a poetic comedy “The Comedian of the 17th Century” about the birth of the first Russian theater at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I. But Ostrovsky’s plays about his contemporary theater are much better known - “Talents and Admirers” (1881) and “ Guilty without guilt" (18983). Here he showed how tempting and difficult the life of an actress is.

In a sense, we can say that Ostrovsky loved the theater the same way he loved Russia: he did not turn a blind eye to the bad and did not lose sight of what was most precious and important.

On June 14, 1886, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky died in his beloved Trans-Volga estate Shchelykovo, in the Kostroma dense forests, on the hilly banks of small winding rivers.

In connection with the thirty-fifth anniversary dramaturgical activity A.N. Ostrovsky Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov wrote:

"You have donated a whole library to literature. works of art, they created their own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, the foundation of which was laid by Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol. But only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater.” It, in fairness, should be called: “Ostrovsky Theater.”

Literature

Based on materials from the Encyclopedia for Children. Literature Part I, Avanta+, M., 1999

Alexa ́ ndr Nikola ́ Evich Ostro ́ Vsky(March 31 ( 12th of April) 1823 - June 2 (14) 1886 ) - outstanding Russian playwright, corresponding member St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences .

Origin

The father of the future playwright, a graduate of the Moscow theological seminary, served in the Moscow City Court. His mother, from a family of the clergy, died in childbirth when Alexander was seven years old.

Younger brother - statesman M. N. Ostrovsky .

Childhood and youth

The writer's childhood and youth passed in Zamoskvorechye. The father married a second time to the daughter of a Russified Swedish baron, who was not very involved in raising the children from her husband’s first marriage. Ostrovsky was left to his own devices and became addicted to reading as a child.

Beginning of literary activity: choice in favor of dramaturgy

IN 1840 upon graduating from high school he was enrolled in legal faculty Moscow University, but in 1843 I left because I didn’t want to retake the exam. At the same time he entered the office of the Moscow Conscientious Court, and later served in the Commercial Court ( 1845 -1851 ). This experience played a significant role in Ostrovsky's work.

He entered the literary field in the second half of the 1840s. as a follower Gogolian tradition oriented towards creative principles natural school. At this time, Ostrovsky created a prose essay “ Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident", first comedy(play " Family picture"was read by the author on February 14 1847 in the professor's circle S. P. Shevyreva and was approved by him).

The satirical comedy “Bankrupt” brought wide fame to the playwright (“ Our people - let's be numbered », 1849 ). Based on the plot (false bankruptcy of a merchant Bolshova, the deceit and callousness of his family members - daughter Lipochka and the clerk, and then son-in-law Podkhalyuzin, who did not buy his old father out of the debt hole, Bolshov’s later insight) were based on Ostrovsky’s observations on the analysis of family litigation, obtained during his service in the conscientious court. Ostrovsky’s strengthened mastery, a new word sounded on the Russian stage, were reflected, in particular, in the combination of the spectacularly developing intrigue and vivid everyday descriptive inserts (matchmaker’s speech, bickering between mother and daughter), slowing down the action, but also giving a sense of the specifics of life and customs merchant environment. A special role here was played by the unique, at the same time class, and individual psychological coloring character speeches .

Ostrovsky - "undoubtedly the first dramatic writer"

"Columbus of Zamoskvorechye"

Already in " Bankrupt"the cross-cutting theme of Ostrovsky's dramatic work has emerged: patriarchal, traditional life, as it was preserved in the merchant and bourgeois environment, and its gradual degeneration and collapse, as well as the complex relationships into which a person enters with a gradually changing way of life. Having created fifty plays in forty years of literary work (some in co-authorship), which became the basis of the Russian public repertoire, democratic theater, Ostrovsky at different stages of his creative path imagined main topic of your creativity. So, having become in 1850 employee known for his pochvennicheskie direction of the magazine " Moskvitian"(editor M. P. Pogodin, employees A. A. Grigoriev , T. I. Filippov etc.), Ostrovsky, who was part of the so-called “young editorial staff,” tried to give the magazine a new direction - to focus on ideas national identity And identity, but not the peasantry (unlike the “old” Slavophiles), A patriarchal merchants .

In his subsequent plays " Don't get in your own sleigh », « Poverty is not a vice », « Don't live the way you want » ( 1852 -1855 ) the playwright tried to reflect poetry folk life: “In order to have the right to correct the people without offending them, you need to show them that you know what is good about them; This is what I’m doing now, combining the sublime with the comic,” he wrote during his “Muscovite” period. At the same time, the playwright became involved with the girl Agafya Ivanovna (who had four children from him), which led to a break in relations with his father. According to eyewitnesses, she was a kind, warm-hearted woman, to whom Ostrovsky owed much of his knowledge of Moscow life.

For "Moscowites" plays are characterized by famous utopianism in resolving conflicts between generations (in the comedy " Poverty is not a vice », 1854 , a happy accident upsets the marriage imposed by the tyrant father and hated by the daughter, arranges the marriage of a rich bride - Lyubov Gordeevna- with the poor clerk Mitya). But this feature of Ostrovsky’s “Muscovite” dramaturgy does not negate the realistic quality of the works of this circle. The image turns out to be complex, dialectically connecting seemingly opposite qualities. Lyubima Tortsova, the drunken brother of a tyrant merchant Gordeya Tortsova in the play written much later “ Warm heart » ( 1868 ). We love makes Gordey, who has lost his sober outlook on life because of his own vanity and passion, see the light false values. The play was staged for the first time January 15 1869 V Maly Theater to the benefit Provo Mikhailovich Sadovsky .

IN 1855 playwright, dissatisfied with his position in " Muscovite"(constant conflicts and meager fees), left the magazine and became close to the editors of the St. Petersburg " Contemporary » ( N. A. Nekrasov considered Ostrovsky “undoubtedly the first dramatic writer”). IN 1859 The first collected works of the playwright were published, which brought him both fame and human joy.

"Storm"

Subsequently, two lighting trends traditional way of life- critical, accusatory and poetic - fully manifested and combined in Ostrovsky’s tragedy “ Storm » ( 1859 ). The work, written within the genre framework of social drama, is simultaneously endowed with tragic depth and historical significance of the conflict. Collision of two female characters - Katerina Kabanova and her mother-in-law Marfa Ignatievna ( Kabanikha) - in scale far exceeds the conflict between generations traditional for Ostrovsky’s theater. Character main character(named N. A. Dobrolyubov“a ray of light in the dark kingdom”) consists of several dominants: the ability to love, the desire for freedom, a sensitive, vulnerable conscience. Showing the naturalness and inner freedom of Katerina, the playwright simultaneously emphasizes that she is nevertheless flesh and blood patriarchal way of life .

Living by traditional values, Katerina, having cheated on her husband, surrendering to her love for Boris, takes the path of breaking with these values ​​and is acutely aware of this. The drama of Katerina, who exposed herself to everyone and committed suicide, turns out to be endowed with the features of the tragedy of an entire historical structure, which is gradually being destroyed and becoming a thing of the past. Seal eschatologism, the feeling of the end also marks the attitude of Marfa Kabanova, Katerina’s main antagonist. At the same time, Ostrovsky’s play is deeply imbued with the experience of “poetry folk life» ( Apollon Grigoriev), song and folklore elements, a sense of natural beauty (features of the landscape are present in the stage directions and appear in the characters’ remarks).

Late stage of creativity

New heroes

The subsequent long period of the playwright’s work ( 1861 -1886 ) reveals the closeness of Ostrovsky’s search to the development paths of the contemporary Russian novel - from “ Messrs. Golovlevs » M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrina before psychological novels L. N. Tolstoy And F. M. Dostoevsky. The theme of “mad money”, greed, and shameless careerism of representatives of the impoverished nobility, combined with the wealth of psychological characteristics of the characters, and the ever-increasing art of plot-building by the playwright, sounds powerful in the comedies of the “post-reform” years. Thus, the “anti-hero” of the play “ Simplicity is enough for every wise man » ( 1868 ) Egor Glumov somewhat reminiscent Griboyedovsky Molchalina. But this is Molchalin of a new era: Glumov’s inventive mind and cynicism for the time being contribute to his dizzying career that had just begun. These same qualities, the playwright hints, in the finale of the comedy will not allow Glumov to disappear even after his exposure. The theme of the redistribution of life's goods, the emergence of a new social and psychological type- businessman (“ Mad money », 1869 , Vasilkov), or even a predatory businessman from the nobility (“ Wolves and sheep », 1875 , Berkutov) existed in Ostrovsky’s work until the end of his writing career. IN 1869 Ostrovsky entered into a new marriage after his death Agafya Ivanovna from tuberculosis. From his second marriage the writer had five children.

"Forest"

Genre and compositionally complex, full of literary allusions, hidden and direct quotes from Russian and foreign classical literature ( Gogol , Cervantes , Shakespeare , Moliere , Schiller) comedy " Forest » ( 1870 ) sums up the first post-reform decade. The play touches on themes developed by Russian psychological prose, - the gradual ruin of the “noble nests”, the spiritual decline of their owners, the stratification of the second estate and those moral conflicts in which people find themselves involved in new historical and social conditions. In this social, everyday and moral chaos, the bearer of humanity and nobility turns out to be a man of art - a declassed nobleman and provincial actor Neschastlivtsev.

In the drama genre

In addition to the “national tragedy” (“ Storm »), satirical comedy (« Forest"), Ostrovsky, at a later stage of his creativity, creates exemplary works in the genre of psychological drama (" Dowryless », 1878 , « Talents and fans », 1881 , « Guilty without guilt », 1884 ). In these plays, the playwright expands and psychologically enriches the stage characters. Correlating with traditional stage roles and commonly used dramatic moves, characters and situations are capable of changing in unexpected ways, thereby demonstrating ambiguity and inconsistency inner life human, the unpredictability of every everyday situation. Paratov- this is not only a “fatal man”, a fatal lover Larisa Ogudalova, but also a man of simple, rough everyday calculation; Karandyshev- Not only " small man”, tolerating the cynical “masters of life”, but also a person with immense, painful pride; Larisa is not only a lovelorn heroine, ideally different from her environment, but also under the influence of false ideals (“ Dowryless"). The playwright’s character is equally psychologically ambiguous. Negina (« Talents and fans"): the young actress not only chooses the path of serving art, preferring it to love and personal happiness, but also agrees to the fate of a kept woman, that is, she “practically reinforces” her choice. In the fate of a famous artist Kruchinina (« Guilty without guilt") and the ascent to theatrical Olympus and a terrible personal drama are intertwined. Thus, Ostrovsky follows a path comparable to the paths of his contemporary Russian realistic prose, - ways of increasingly deeper awareness of the complexity of the inner life of the individual, the paradoxical nature of the choices he makes.

Ostrovsky Theater

Monument to Ostrovsky at the Maly Theater in Moscow

It is with Ostrovsky that Russian theater in its modern understanding begins: the writer created a theater school and a holistic concept of acting in the theater.

The essence of Ostrovsky's theater lies in the absence of extreme situations and opposition to the actor's gut. Alexander Nikolaevich's plays depict ordinary situations with ordinary people, whose dramas go into everyday life and human psychology.

The main ideas of theater reform:

• the theater must be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall separating the audience from the actors);
• constancy of attitude towards language: mastery of speech characteristics that express almost everything about the characters;
• the bet is on the entire troupe, and not on one actor;
• “People go to watch the game, not the play itself - you can read it.”

Ostrovsky's theater required a new stage aesthetics, new actors. In accordance with this, Ostrovsky creates an acting ensemble, which includes such actors as Martynov , Sergey Vasiliev , Evgeny Samoilov , Prov Sadovsky .

Naturally, innovations met opponents. He was, for example, Shchepkin. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy required the actor to detach himself from his personality, which M. S. Shchepkin did not do. For example, he left the dress rehearsal of “The Thunderstorm” being very dissatisfied with the author of the play.

Ostrovsky's ideas were brought to their logical conclusion Stanislavsky .

Folk myths and national history in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy

A special place in Ostrovsky’s heritage is occupied by “ spring fairy tale» « Snow Maiden » ( 1873 ). At the beginning of 1873 Maly Theater was closed for renovation. Three troupes of the imperial Moscow theaters, drama, opera and ballet, were supposed to perform on stage Bolshoi Theater , and performances were needed in which all three troupes could be involved. The directorate approached Ostrovsky with a proposal to write a corresponding play. At the personal request of the playwright, the music was ordered for the 33-year-old P.I. Tchaikovsky, a young professor at the Moscow Conservatory, who was already the author of two outstanding symphonies and three operas. "Snow Maiden" stood on his creative path a bridge from the first composer's experiments and brilliant insights to " Swan Lake", "To Eugene Onegin". In "The Snow Maiden" Ostrovsky's poetic and utopian views on the possibility of harmonious relations between people are clothed in the form of a literary "fairy tale for the theater", in which images appear related to the images Slavic mythology . IN 1881 year on stage Mariinsky Theater the opera premiered successfully N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov "Snow Maiden", which the composer called his best work. A. N. Ostrovsky himself appreciated the creation Rimsky-Korsakov: "Music to my" Snow Maiden“amazing, I could never imagine anything more suitable for her and so vividly expressing all the poetry of the Russian pagan cult and this first snow-cold, and then uncontrollably passionate heroine of the fairy tale.”

The playwright also addresses historical genres - chronicles , tragedies , comedies written on topics Russian history : « Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk » ( 1861 , 2nd edition 1866 ), « Voivode » ( 1864 , 2nd edition 1885 ), « Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky » ( 1866 ) and etc.. National history provides Ostrovsky with material for creating large, energetic characters, for the widespread use of the heroic principle in drama.

Demise

At the end of his life, Ostrovsky finally achieved material wealth(he received a lifetime pension of 3 thousand rubles), and also in 1884 took the position of head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters (the playwright dreamed of serving the theater all his life). But his health was undermined, his strength was exhausted. He died on his estate Shchelykovo from a hereditary disease - angina pectoris .

Municipal educational institution "Lyceum "School of Managers"

"The Life and Work of A.N. Ostrovsky"

Students of class 9B

Poltorykhina Anastasia.

Novomoskovsk 2010

Born at the beginning of the 19th century famous writer and playwright A. N. Ostrovsky, whose biography is filled with participation in the bright events of theatrical and literary life Russia at that time.

Childhood and adolescence

The exact date of birth of the writer is April 12, 1823. His childhood and youth were spent in Zamoskvorechye. Nikolai Fedorovich, the father of the future writer, although he was the son of a priest, served as an official in court. Mother, Lyubov Ivanovna, died early. His father remarried a noblewoman when Alexander was 13 years old. The successful judicial career of Nikolai Fedorovich brought him the title of nobility and a decent fortune, with which he acquired several estates and, having moved to the village of Shchelykovo in 1848, became a real landowner.

After graduating from a gymnasium in Moscow in 1840, the young man entered, at the insistence of his father, the Faculty of Law at Moscow University. However, he studied legal issues for only three years. The theater became his real passion. He drops out of university. In the hope that he can correct his son’s theatrical inclinations, his father finds him a job as a scribe in Moscow. After working there for two years, Ostrovsky is transferred to the office of the commercial court. The years spent in legal practice did not pass without a trace for the future playwright. He borrowed many stories from real life.

A. N. Ostrovsky: biography of the early period

This period illuminates the writer’s life after graduation. From the moment he entered the university and met with the theater, the biography of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky begins to change towards literary activity and drama. He took up literature seriously. The essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident,” the simple comedy “Picture of Family Happiness,” and two scenes from the future comedy were published. The comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" was released in 1849. In the same year, against the will of his father, he marries a simple bourgeois woman. His father refuses him financial support.

A.N. Ostrovsky: biography of the “Muscovites” and “pre-reform” periods

Ostrovsky's dramaturgy is gaining strength. During the period 1852-1860 the following events occur:

• Production of the play “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh.”
• Publication of the play “Poverty is not a vice.”
• Ostrovsky is a member of the young editorial board of the Moskvityanin magazine.
• Since 1856 - cooperation with the Sovremennik magazine. Acquaintance with L. N. Tolstoy and I. S. Turgenev.
• 1856 - participation in a literary and ethnographic expedition along the Volga. A wealth of material has been collected for future works.

Ostrovsky: biography of the “post-reform” period A

• 1865 - he founded a school for talented theater lovers.
• 1870 - on his initiative, a school of playwrights was created.
• Successfully translating Cervantes and Shakespeare.
• The total number of theatrical works reached 54.
• In 1872 he wrote the poetic comedy "The Comedian of the 17th Century."

His biography testifies to how rich and fruitful the writer’s life was. Ostrovsky A.N. died on June 14, 1886 in the Trans-Volga estate Shchelykovo.

From an early age Ostrovsky was fond of fiction and was interested in theater. While still a high school student, he began visiting the Moscow Maly Theater, where he admired the performances of M. S. Shchepkin and P. S. Mochalov. Big influence The articles of V. G. Belinsky and A. I. Herzen influenced the formation of the young Ostrovsky’s worldview. As a young man, Ostrovsky eagerly listened to the inspired words of professors, among whom were brilliant, progressive scientists, friends of great writers, about the fight against untruth and evil, about sympathy for “everything human,” about freedom as the goal of social development. But the closer he became acquainted with the law, the less he liked the career of a lawyer, and, not having an inclination towards a legal career, Ostrovsky left Moscow University, which he entered at the insistence of his father in 1835, when entering the 3rd year. Ostrovsky was irresistibly attracted to art. Together with his comrades, he tried not to miss a single interesting performance, read a lot and argued about literature, and passionately fell in love with music. At the same time, he himself tried to write poetry and stories. From then on - and for the rest of his life - Belinsky became the highest authority in art for him. The service did not captivate Ostrovsky, but it was of invaluable benefit to the future playwright, providing rich material for his first units. Already in his first works, Ostrovsky showed himself to be a follower of the “Gogolian trend” in Russian literature, a supporter of the school critical realism. Ostrovsky expressed his commitment to ideological realistic art and his desire to follow the precepts of V. G. Belinsky in literary works. critical articles this period, in which he argued that the peculiarity of Russian literature is its “accusatory character.” The appearance of Ostrovsky's best plays was a social event that attracted the attention of progressive circles and caused indignation in the reactionary camp. Ostrovsky’s first literary experiments in prose were marked by the influence of the natural school (“Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident,” 1847). In the same year, his first was published in the Moscow City Leaflet. dramatic work– “Picture of Family Happiness” (in later publications – “Family Picture”). Ostrovsky's literary fame came from the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" published in 1850. Even before publication it became popular. The comedy was banned from being presented on stage (it was first staged in 1861), and the author, by personal order of Nicholas I, was placed under police supervision.

He was asked to leave the service. Even earlier, censorship banned “The Picture of Family Happiness” and Ostrovsky’s translation of W. Shakespeare’s comedy “The Pacification of the Wayward” (1850).

In the early 50s, during the years of intensifying government reaction, there was a short-term rapprochement between Ostrovsky and the “young editors” of the reactionary Slavophile magazine “Moskvityanin”, whose members sought to present the playwright as a singer of the “original Russian merchant class and its Domostroevsky foundations.” The works created at this time (“Don’t get into your own sleigh”, 1853, “Poverty is not a vice”, 1854, “Don’t live as you want”, 1855) reflected Ostrovsky’s temporary refusal to consistently and irreconcilably condemn reality. However, he quickly freed himself from the influence of reactionary Slavophile ideas. In the decisive and final return of the playwright to the path of critical realism big role revolutionary-democratic critics played an angry rebuke to the liberal-conservative “fans.”

A new stage in Ostrovsky’s work is associated with the era of social upsurge of the late 50s and early 60s, with the emergence of a revolutionary situation in Russia. Ostrovsky is moving closer to the revolutionary-democratic camp. Since 1857, he published almost all of his plays in Sovremennik, and after its closure he moved to Domestic notes", published by N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The development of Ostrovsky’s work was greatly influenced by the articles of N. G. Chernyshevsky, and later by N. A. Dobrolyubov, the work of N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Along with the merchant theme, Ostrovsky turns to the depiction of bureaucracy and the nobility (“Profitable Place”, 1857, “Pupilite”, 1859). Unlike liberal writers, who were keen on superficially ridiculing individual abuses, Ostrovsky, in the comedy “Profitable Place,” deeply criticized the entire system of the pre-reform tsarist bureaucracy. Chernyshevsky praised the play, emphasizing its “strong and noble direction.”

The strengthening of anti-serfdom and anti-bourgeois motives in Ostrovsky’s work testified to a certain convergence of his worldview with the ideals of revolutionary democracy.

“Ostrovsky is a democratic writer, educator, ally of N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. By painting us a vivid picture of false relationships with all their consequences, through this he serves as an echo of aspirations that require a better structure,” Dobrolyubov wrote in the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom.” It is no coincidence that Ostrovsky constantly encountered obstacles when publishing and staging his plays. Ostrovsky always looked at his writing and social activities, as fulfilling a patriotic duty, serving the interests of the people. His plays reflected the most pressing issues of contemporary reality: the deepening of irreconcilable social contradictions, the difficult situation of workers who are entirely dependent on the power of money, the lack of rights of women, the dominance of violence and arbitrariness in family and public relations, growth of self-awareness of the working class intelligentsia, etc.

The most complete and convincing assessment of Ostrovsky’s work was given by Dobrolyubov in his articles “The Dark Kingdom” (1859) and “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” (1860), which had a huge revolutionary influence on the younger generation of the 60s. In Ostrovsky's works the critic saw, first of all, a remarkably truthful and versatile depiction of reality. Possessing “a deep understanding of Russian life and a great ability to depict sharply and vividly its most significant aspects,” Ostrovsky was, according to Dobrolyubov’s definition, a real people’s writer. Ostrovsky’s work is distinguished not only by its deep national character, ideological spirit, and bold denunciation of social evil, but also by its high artistic skill, which was entirely subordinated to the task of realistic reproduction of reality. Ostrovsky repeatedly emphasized that life itself is a source of dramatic collisions and situations.

Ostrovsky's activities contributed to the victory of life's truth on the Russian stage. With a big artistic power he depicted conflicts and images typical of contemporary reality, and this placed his plays on a par with the best works classical literature of the 19th century. Ostrovsky acted as an active fighter for the development of the national theater not only as a playwright, but also as a remarkable theorist and an energetic public figure.

The great Russian playwright, who created a truly national theatrical repertoire, was in need all his life, endured insults from officials of the imperial theater directorate, and encountered stubborn resistance in the ruling spheres to his cherished ideas about the democratic transformation of theatrical affairs in Russia.

In Ostrovsky’s poetics, two elements merged with remarkable skill: the cruel realistic element of the “dark kingdom” and romantic, enlightened emotion. In his plays, Ostrovsky portrays fragile, gentle heroines, but at the same time strong personalities capable of protesting against the entire foundation of society.

In preparing this work, materials from the site http://www.studentu.ru were used