A living soul in the dark kingdom. Essay: Living soul in the “dark kingdom”

Living soul V " dark kingdom"

The heroines of Russian literature amaze with their moral purity and a rare spiritual strength that allows them to boldly challenge the strict laws and conventions of society. Such is Pushkin’s Tatyana, Turgenev’s Liza Kalitina. Such is Katerina Kabanova from Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”. What makes it stand out among others? characters plays, this young merchant's wife, who has not received any education and does not participate in a socially significant matter? Her sphere is family, easy home activities: needlework, caring for flowers, going to church.

Katerina’s first words, when she calls Kabanikha her own mother, are clearly insincere and hypocritical. This means that at first the heroine is perceived as a forced, submissive woman, accustomed to a dependent position. But Katerina’s very next remark leads us out of this misconception, since here she is already openly protesting against her mother-in-law’s unfair accusations. In Katerina's subsequent conversation with Varvara, she says unusual words: "Why don't people fly like birds?" They seem strange and incomprehensible to Varvara, but they mean a lot for understanding the character of Katerina and her position in the Kabanovsky house. The comparison with a bird that can flap its wings and fly eloquently speaks of how difficult it is for Katerina to endure the oppressive captivity and despotism of her domineering and cruel mother-in-law. The heroine’s involuntarily escaped words speak of her secret dream of freeing herself from this prison, where every living feeling is suppressed and killed.

Katerina’s character cannot be fully understood without her stories about the happy times of childhood and girlhood in parental home. Carried away by a dream into this wonderful, full of harmony world, Katerina recalls the constant feeling of happiness, joy, merging with everything around her, which she was deprived of in her mother-in-law’s house. “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” says the heroine, pointing to the sharp contrast of her present life with a sweet and dear past. It is this inability of Katerina to fully come to terms with Kabanov’s oppression that exacerbates her conflict with the “dark kingdom.” The story that happened to the heroine in childhood reveals in her such defining character traits as love of freedom, courage, and determination. And, having become an adult, Katerina is still the same. Her words addressed to Varvara sound prophetic: “And if I get really tired of here, they won’t hold me back with any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”

Love for Boris became for Katerina the reason for the awakening and revival of her soul. She has been prepared by her entire forced life in Kabanov’s house, her longing for lost harmony, her dream of happiness. But throughout the entire play, the author strengthens the contrast between Katerina’s sublime, spiritual, boundless love and Boris’s down-to-earth, cautious passion. This ability of Katerina to love deeply and strongly, sacrificing everything for the sake of her beloved, speaks of her living soul, which was able to survive in the dead Kabanovsky world, where all sincere feelings wither and dry up. The motif of bondage is constantly intertwined with Katerina’s thoughts about love. This sounds especially clear in her famous monologue with the key. In a state of severe mental struggle between duty faithful wife and with love for Boris, Katerina constantly returns to thoughts of her hated mother-in-law and the hateful walls of Kabanov’s house. To suppress love, which promises so much happiness, for the sake of sad vegetation in captivity is an impossible task for a young woman. After all, giving up love means forever giving up all the best that life can give. This means that Katerina deliberately commits a sin in order to preserve her living soul, thereby challenging Kabanov’s concepts of morality. What are these concepts? They are quite clearly and specifically formulated by the peculiar ideologist of the “dark kingdom” - Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. She is absolutely convinced that a strong family should be based on the wife’s fear of her husband, that freedom leads a person to moral decline. That’s why she so persistently nags Tikhon, who is unable to shout at his wife, threaten her or beat her. Katerina’s public repentance further confirms Kabanikha in the correctness and unshakability of her views on the family.

What is the reason for Katerina’s public repentance? Maybe this is fear of God's terrible punishment? I think that the point here is not cowardice or fear of punishment, but Katerina’s exceptional conscientiousness, her inability to lie to her husband and mother-in-law, to pretend in front of people. After all, this is exactly how the first words of her repentance are understood: “My whole heart was torn! I can’t stand it anymore!” Neither the mother-in-law, who now locks her daughter-in-law, nor the husband, who beat her a little because mamma ordered, can condemn and punish Katerina more strongly than she herself. After all, she feels guilty not only before Tikhon and Kabanikha, but also before the whole world, before higher powers goodness and truth. Having committed a sin, Katerina loses the harmony with the world that lived in her. Having gone through difficult spiritual trials, through debilitating pangs of conscience, she is morally cleansed. Katerina atones for her sin through suffering. Farewell to Boris kills last hope heroines for a life in which joy is still possible. She is ready to follow her beloved man to distant Siberia as an unmarried wife, but he cannot and does not want to resist his formidable uncle, hoping for a mythical inheritance.

Katerina has only one option left - suicide. And not because she was disgusted with life. On the contrary, in the heroine’s last monologue, when she says goodbye to the sun, grass, flowers, birds, her great desire to live, to love the beauty of the earth is felt. But Katerina still chooses death, because only in this way can she preserve the best, bright, pure and sublime that lives in her soul. And years of living in a gloomy mother-in-law’s house are tantamount to a slow, drawn-out death. Katerina rejects this pitiful semblance of life and, rushing into the Volga, affirms the true life, full of joyful selfless love to flowers, trees, birds, to the beauty and harmony of the world. Maybe Tikhon feels this subconsciously when he envies his dead wife. He has boring, monotonous months and years ahead of him, which will completely kill his soul, for keeping it alive in Kabanov’s “dark kingdom” can only be done at the cost of his life. This means that in the image of Katerina A. N. Ostrovsky embodied the living soul of the people, their protest against the Domostroev religion, the oppressive conditions of reality, dependence and lack of freedom.

References

To prepare this work, materials were used from the site http://kostyor.ru/student/

Living soul in the "dark kingdom"

The heroines of Russian literature amaze with their moral purity and rare spiritual strength, which allows them to boldly challenge the strict laws and conventions of society. Such is Pushkin’s Tatyana, Turgenev’s Liza Kalitina. Such is Katerina Kabanova from Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”. How does this young merchant’s wife, who has not received any education and is not involved in a socially significant matter, stand out among the other characters in the play? Her sphere is family, easy home activities: needlework, caring for flowers, going to church.

Katerina’s first words, when she calls Kabanikha her own mother, are clearly insincere and hypocritical. This means that at first the heroine is perceived as a forced, submissive woman, accustomed to a dependent position. But Katerina’s very next remark leads us out of this misconception, since here she is already openly protesting against her mother-in-law’s unfair accusations. In Katerina’s subsequent conversation with Varvara, she utters unusual words: “Why don’t people fly like birds?” They seem strange and incomprehensible to Varvara, but they mean a lot for understanding the character of Katerina and her position in the Kabanovsky house. The comparison with a bird that can flap its wings and fly eloquently speaks of how difficult it is for Katerina to endure the oppressive captivity and despotism of her domineering and cruel mother-in-law. The heroine’s involuntarily escaped words speak of her secret dream of freeing herself from this prison, where every living feeling is suppressed and killed.

Katerina’s character cannot be fully understood without her stories about the happy times of childhood and girlhood in her parents’ home. Carried away by her dream into this wonderful world full of harmony, Katerina recalls the constant feeling of happiness, joy, and merging with everything around her, which she is deprived of in her mother-in-law’s house. “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” says the heroine, pointing out the sharp contrast of her present life with her sweet and dear past. It is this inability of Katerina to fully come to terms with Kabanov’s oppression that exacerbates her conflict with the “dark kingdom.” The story that happened to the heroine in childhood reveals in her such defining character traits as love of freedom, courage, and determination. And, having become an adult, Katerina is still the same. Her words addressed to Varvara sound prophetic: “And if I get really tired of here, they won’t hold me back with any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”

Love for Boris became for Katerina the reason for the awakening and revival of her soul. She has been prepared by her entire forced life in Kabanov’s house, her longing for lost harmony, her dream of happiness. But throughout the entire play, the author strengthens the contrast between Katerina’s sublime, spiritual, boundless love and Boris’s down-to-earth, cautious passion. This ability of Katerina to love deeply and strongly, sacrificing everything for the sake of her beloved, speaks of her living soul, which was able to survive in the dead Kabanovsky world, where all sincere feelings wither and dry up. The motif of bondage is constantly intertwined with Katerina’s thoughts about love. This sounds especially clear in her famous monologue with the key. In a state of severe mental struggle between the duty of a faithful wife and love for Boris, Katerina constantly returns to thoughts about her hated mother-in-law and the hateful walls of the Kabanovsky house. To suppress love, which promises so much happiness, for the sake of sad vegetation in captivity is an impossible task for a young woman. After all, giving up love means forever giving up all the best that life can give. This means that Katerina deliberately commits a sin in order to preserve her living soul, thereby challenging Kabanov’s concepts of morality. What are these concepts? They are quite clearly and specifically formulated by the peculiar ideologist of the “dark kingdom” - Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. She is absolutely convinced that a strong family should be based on the wife’s fear of her husband, that freedom leads a person to moral decline. That’s why she so persistently nags Tikhon, who is unable to shout at his wife, threaten her or beat her. Katerina’s public repentance further confirms Kabanikha in the correctness and unshakability of her views on the family.

What is the reason for Katerina’s public repentance? Maybe this is fear of God's terrible punishment? I think that the point here is not cowardice or fear of punishment, but Katerina’s exceptional conscientiousness, her inability to lie to her husband and mother-in-law, to pretend in front of people. After all, this is exactly how the first words of her repentance are understood: “My whole heart was torn! I can’t stand it anymore!” Neither the mother-in-law, who now locks her daughter-in-law, nor the husband, who beat her a little because mamma ordered, can condemn and punish Katerina more strongly than she herself. After all, she feels guilty not only before Tikhon and Kabanikha, but also before the whole world, before the highest forces of good and truth. Having committed a sin, Katerina loses the harmony with the world that lived in her. Having gone through difficult spiritual trials, through debilitating pangs of conscience, she is morally cleansed. Katerina atones for her sin through suffering. Farewell to Boris kills the heroine’s last hope for a life in which joy is still possible. She is ready to follow her beloved man to distant Siberia as an unmarried wife, but he cannot and does not want to resist his formidable uncle, hoping for a mythical inheritance.

Katerina has only one option left - suicide. And not because she was disgusted with life. On the contrary, in the heroine’s last monologue, when she says goodbye to the sun, grass, flowers, birds, her great desire to live, to love the beauty of the earth is felt. But Katerina still chooses death, because only in this way can she preserve the best, bright, pure and sublime that lives in her soul. And years of living in a gloomy mother-in-law’s house are tantamount to a slow, drawn-out death. Katerina rejects this pitiful semblance of life and, rushing into the Volga, claims true life, full of joyful selfless love for flowers, trees, birds, for the beauty and harmony of the world. Maybe Tikhon feels this subconsciously when he envies his dead wife. He has boring, monotonous months and years ahead of him, which will completely kill his soul, for keeping it alive in Kabanov’s “dark kingdom” can only be done at the cost of his life. This means that in the image of Katerina A. N. Ostrovsky embodied the living soul of the people, their protest against the Domostroev religion, the oppressive conditions of reality, dependence and lack of freedom.

References

To prepare this work, materials were used from the site http://kostyor.ru/student/

Living soul in the “dark kingdom”

Heroine Russian literature is striking in its moral purity and rare spiritual strength, which allows them to boldly challenge the strict laws and conventions of society. Such is Pushkin’s Tatyana, Turgenev’s Liza Kalitina. Such is Katerina Kabanova from Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”. How does this young merchant’s wife, who has not received any education and is not involved in a socially significant matter, stand out from the other characters in the play? Her sphere is family, easy home activities: needlework, caring for flowers, visiting church.

Katerina’s first words, when she calls Kabanikha her own mother, are clearly insincere and hypocritical. This means that at first the heroine is perceived as a forced, submissive woman, accustomed to a dependent position. But Katerina’s very next remark leads us out of this misconception, since here she is already openly protesting against her mother-in-law’s unfair accusations. In Katerina’s subsequent conversation with Varvara, she utters unusual words: “Why don’t people fly like birds?” They seem strange and incomprehensible to Varvara, but they mean a lot for understanding the character of Katerina and her position in the Kabanovsky house. The comparison with a bird that can flap its wings and fly eloquently speaks of how difficult it is for Katerina to endure oppressive captivity, the despotism of an imperious and cruel mother-in-law. The heroine’s involuntary words speak of her secret dream of freeing herself from this prison, where every living feeling is suppressed and killed.

Katerina’s character cannot be fully understood without her stories about the happy time of her childhood and girlhood in her parents’ home. Carried away by her dream into this wonderful world full of harmony, Katerina recalls the constant feeling of happiness, joy, and unity with those around her, which she is deprived of in her mother-in-law’s house. “Yes, everything here seems to be out of captivity,” says the heroine, pointing out the sharp contrast of her present life with her sweet and dear past. It is this inability of Katerina to fully come to terms with Kabanov’s oppression that exacerbates her conflict with the “dark kingdom.” The story that happened to the heroine in childhood reveals in her such defining character traits as love of freedom, courage, determination. And, having become an adult, Katerina is still the same. Her words addressed to Varvara sound prophetic: “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 and throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!”

Love for Boris became for Katerina the reason for the awakening and revival of her soul. She was prepared by her entire forced life in the Kabanovsky house, her longing for lost harmony, her dream of happiness. But throughout the entire play, the author strengthens the contrast between Katerina’s sublime, spiritual, boundless love and Boris’s down-to-earth, cautious passion. This ability of Katerina to love deeply and strongly, sacrificing everything for the sake of her beloved, speaks of her living soul, which was able to survive in the dead Kabanovsky world, where all sincere feelings wither and dry up. The motif of bondage is constantly intertwined with Katerina’s thoughts about love. This sounds especially clear in her famous monologue with a key. In a state of severe mental struggle between the duty of a faithful wife and love for Boris, Katerina constantly returns to thoughts about her hated mother-in-law and the hateful walls of the Kabanovsky house. To suppress love, which promises so much happiness, for the sake of sad vegetation in captivity is an impossible task for a young woman. After all, to give up love means to forever give up all the best that life can give. This means that Katerina consciously commits a sin in order to preserve her living soul, challenging these Kabanovsky concepts of morality. What are these concepts? They are quite clearly and specifically formulated by the unique ideologist of the “dark kingdom” - Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. She is absolutely convinced that a strong family should be based on the wife’s fear of her husband, that freedom leads a person to moral decline. That’s why she so persistently nags Tikhon, who is unable to shout at his wife, threaten her or beat her. Katerina’s public repentance further confirms Kabanikha in the correctness and inviolability of her views on the family.

What is the reason for Katerina’s public repentance? Maybe this is fear of God's terrible punishment? I think that the point here is not cowardice or fear of punishment, but Katerina’s exceptional conscientiousness, her inability to lie to her husband and mother-in-law, to pretend in front of people. After all, this is exactly how the first words of her repentance are understood: “My whole heart was torn! I can’t stand it anymore!” Neither the mother-in-law, who now locks her daughter-in-law, nor the husband, who beat her a little because mamma ordered, cannot condemn and punish Katerina more strongly than she herself. After all, she feels guilty not only before Tikhon and Kabanikha, but also before the whole world, before the highest forces of good and truth. Having committed a sin, Katerina loses the harmony with the world that lived in her. Having gone through difficult spiritual trials, through debilitating pangs of conscience, she is morally cleansed. Katerina atones for her sin through suffering. Farewell to Boris kills the heroine’s last hope for a life in which joy is still possible. She is ready to follow her beloved man to distant Siberia as an unmarried wife, but he cannot and does not want to resist his formidable uncle, hoping for a mythical inheritance.

Katerina has only one option left - suicide. And not because she was disgusted with life. On the contrary, in the heroine’s last monologue, when she says goodbye to the sun, grass, flowers, birds, one can feel her great desire to live, to love the beauty of the earth. But Katerina still chooses death, because only in this way can she preserve the best, bright, pure and sublime that lives in her soul. And years of living in the gloomy house of the mother-in-law are tantamount to a slow death stretched out over time. Katerina rejects this pitiful semblance of life and, rushing into the Volga, affirms true life, full of joyful selfless love for flowers, trees, birds, for the beauty and harmony of the world. Maybe Tikhon feels this subconsciously when he envies his dead wife. He has boring, monotonous months and years ahead of him, which will completely kill his soul, because keeping it alive in Kabanov’s “dark kingdom” can only be done at the cost of his life. This means that in the image of Katerina A. N. Ostrovsky embodied the living soul of the people, their protest against the pre-Moscow religion, the oppressive conditions of reality, dependence and lack of freedom.

References

To prepare this work, materials were used from the site kostyor.ru/student/

Living soul in the "dark kingdom"

The heroines of Russian literature amaze with their moral purity and rare spiritual strength, which allows them to boldly challenge the strict laws and conventions of society. Such is Pushkin’s Tatyana, Turgenev’s Liza Kalitina. Such is Katerina Kabanova from Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”. How does this young merchant’s wife, who has not received any education and is not involved in a socially significant matter, stand out among the other characters in the play? Her sphere is family, easy home activities: needlework, caring for flowers, going to church.

Katerina’s first words, when she calls Kabanikha her own mother, are clearly insincere and hypocritical. This means that at first the heroine is perceived as a forced, submissive woman, accustomed to a dependent position. But Katerina’s very next remark leads us out of this misconception, since here she is already openly protesting against her mother-in-law’s unfair accusations. In Katerina’s subsequent conversation with Varvara, she utters unusual words: “Why don’t people fly like birds?” They seem strange and incomprehensible to Varvara, but they mean a lot for understanding the character of Katerina and her position in the Kabanovsky house. The comparison with a bird that can flap its wings and fly eloquently speaks of how difficult it is for Katerina to endure the oppressive captivity and despotism of her domineering and cruel mother-in-law. The heroine’s involuntarily escaped words speak of her secret dream of freeing herself from this prison, where every living feeling is suppressed and killed.

Katerina’s character cannot be fully understood without her stories about the happy times of childhood and girlhood in her parents’ home. Carried away by her dream into this wonderful world full of harmony, Katerina recalls the constant feeling of happiness, joy, and merging with everything around her, which she is deprived of in her mother-in-law’s house. “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” says the heroine, pointing out the sharp contrast of her present life with her sweet and dear past. It is this inability of Katerina to fully come to terms with Kabanov’s oppression that exacerbates her conflict with the “dark kingdom.” The story that happened to the heroine in childhood reveals in her such defining character traits as love of freedom, courage, and determination. And, having become an adult, Katerina is still the same. Her words addressed to Varvara sound prophetic: “And if I get really tired of here, they won’t hold me back with any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”

Love for Boris became for Katerina the reason for the awakening and revival of her soul. She has been prepared by her entire forced life in Kabanov’s house, her longing for lost harmony, her dream of happiness. But throughout the entire play, the author strengthens the contrast between Katerina’s sublime, spiritual, boundless love and Boris’s down-to-earth, cautious passion. This ability of Katerina to love deeply and strongly, sacrificing everything for the sake of her beloved, speaks of her living soul, which was able to survive in the dead Kabanovsky world, where all sincere feelings wither and dry up. The motif of bondage is constantly intertwined with Katerina’s thoughts about love. This sounds especially clear in her famous monologue with the key. In a state of severe mental struggle between the duty of a faithful wife and love for Boris, Katerina constantly returns to thoughts about her hated mother-in-law and the hateful walls of the Kabanovsky house. To suppress love, which promises so much happiness, for the sake of sad vegetation in captivity is an impossible task for a young woman. After all, giving up love means forever giving up all the best that life can give. This means that Katerina deliberately commits a sin in order to preserve her living soul, thereby challenging Kabanov’s concepts of morality. What are these concepts? They are quite clearly and specifically formulated by the peculiar ideologist of the “dark kingdom” - Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. She is absolutely convinced that a strong family should be based on the wife’s fear of her husband, that freedom leads a person to moral decline. That’s why she so persistently nags Tikhon, who is unable to shout at his wife, threaten her or beat her. Katerina’s public repentance further confirms Kabanikha in the correctness and unshakability of her views on the family.

What is the reason for Katerina’s public repentance? Maybe this is fear of God's terrible punishment? I think that the point here is not cowardice or fear of punishment, but Katerina’s exceptional conscientiousness, her inability to lie to her husband and mother-in-law, to pretend in front of people. After all, this is exactly how the first words of her repentance are understood: “My whole heart was torn! I can’t stand it anymore!” Neither the mother-in-law, who now locks her daughter-in-law, nor the husband, who beat her a little because mamma ordered, can condemn and punish Katerina more strongly than she herself. After all, she feels guilty not only before Tikhon and Kabanikha, but also before the whole world, before the highest forces of good and truth. Having committed a sin, Katerina loses the harmony with the world that lived in her. Having gone through difficult spiritual trials, through debilitating pangs of conscience, she is morally cleansed. Katerina atones for her sin through suffering. Farewell to Boris kills the heroine’s last hope for a life in which joy is still possible. She is ready to follow her beloved man to distant Siberia as an unmarried wife, but he cannot and does not want to resist his formidable uncle, hoping for a mythical inheritance.

Katerina has only one option left - suicide. And not because she was disgusted with life. On the contrary, in the heroine’s last monologue, when she says goodbye to the sun, grass, flowers, birds, her great desire to live, to love the beauty of the earth is felt. But Katerina still chooses death, because only in this way can she preserve the best, bright, pure and sublime that lives in her soul. And years of living in a gloomy mother-in-law’s house are tantamount to a slow, drawn-out death. Katerina rejects this pitiful semblance of life and, rushing into the Volga, affirms true life, full of joyful selfless love for flowers, trees, birds, for the beauty and harmony of the world. Maybe Tikhon feels this subconsciously when he envies his dead wife. He has boring, monotonous months and years ahead of him, which will completely kill his soul, for keeping it alive in Kabanov’s “dark kingdom” can only be done at the cost of his life. This means that in the image of Katerina A. N. Ostrovsky embodied the living soul of the people, their protest against the Domostroev religion, the oppressive conditions of reality, dependence and lack of freedom.

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Protest of a worthless life, dark forces kingdoms of house-building.

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In Katerina we saw a protest against Kabanov’s concepts of morality, a protest carried to the end.

The task of exposing economic and spiritual tyranny in the “dark kingdom” of the merchants was set by A. N. Ostrovsky in the drama “The Thunderstorm”.

Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm" is the most significant work of the famous playwright. It was written in 1860 during a period of social upsurge, based on materials from Ostrovsky’s trip along the Volga in 1856. The playwright decided to write a cycle of plays about the provincial merchants, which would...

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The heroines of Russian literature amaze with their moral purity and rare spiritual strength, which allows them to boldly challenge the strict laws and conventions of society. Such is Pushkin’s Tatyana, Turgenev’s Liza Kalitina. Such is Katerina Kabanova from Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”. How does this young merchant's wife, who has not received any education and is not involved in a socially significant matter, stand out among the other characters in the play? Her sphere is family, easy home activities: needlework, caring for flowers, visiting church.

Katerina’s first words, when she calls Kabanikha her own mother, are clearly insincere and hypocritical. This means that at first the heroine is perceived as a forced, submissive woman, accustomed to a dependent position. But Katerina’s very next remark leads us out of this misconception, since here she is already openly protesting against her mother-in-law’s unfair accusations. In Katerina’s subsequent conversation with Varvara, she utters unusual words: “Why don’t people fly like birds?” They seem strange and incomprehensible to Varvara, but they mean a lot for understanding the character of Katerina and her position in the Kabanovsky house. The comparison with a bird that can flap its wings and fly eloquently speaks of how difficult it is for Katerina to endure the oppressive captivity and despotism of her domineering and cruel mother-in-law. The heroine’s involuntarily escaped words speak of her secret dream of freeing herself from this prison, where every living feeling is suppressed and killed.

Katerina’s character cannot be fully understood without her stories about the happy times of childhood and girlhood in her parents’ home. Carried away by her dream into this wonderful world full of harmony, Katerina recalls the constant feeling of happiness, joy, and merging with everything around her, which she is deprived of in her mother-in-law’s house. “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” says the heroine, pointing out the sharp contrast of her present life with her sweet and dear past. It is this inability of Katerina to fully come to terms with Kabanov’s oppression that exacerbates her conflict with the “dark kingdom.” The story that happened to the heroine in childhood reveals in her such defining character traits as love of freedom, courage, determination. And, having become an adult, Katerina is still the same. Her words addressed to Varvara sound prophetic: “And if I get really tired of here, they won’t hold me back with any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”

Love for Boris became for Katerina the reason for the awakening and revival of her soul. She has been prepared by her entire forced life in the Kabanovsky house, her longing for lost harmony, her dream of happiness. But throughout the entire play, the author strengthens the contrast between Katerina’s sublime, spiritual, boundless love and Boris’s down-to-earth, cautious passion. This ability of Katerina to love deeply and strongly, sacrificing everything for the sake of her beloved, speaks of her living soul, which was able to survive in the dead Kabanovsky world, where all sincere feelings wither and dry up. The motif of bondage is constantly intertwined with Katerina's thoughts about love. This sounds especially clear in her famous monologue with the key. In a state of severe mental struggle between the duty of a faithful wife and love for Boris, Katerina constantly returns to thoughts about her hated mother-in-law and the hateful walls of the Kabanovsky house. To suppress love, which promises so much happiness, for the sake of sad vegetation in captivity is an impossible task for a young woman. After all, giving up love means forever giving up all the best that life can give. This means that Katerina deliberately commits a sin in order to preserve her living soul, thereby challenging Kabanov’s concepts of morality. What are these concepts? They are quite clearly and specifically formulated by the peculiar ideologist of the “dark kingdom” - Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. She is absolutely convinced that a strong family should be based on the wife’s fear of her husband, that freedom leads a person to moral decline. That’s why she so persistently nags Tikhon, who is unable to shout at his wife, threaten her or beat her. Katerina’s public repentance further confirms Kabanikha in the correctness and unshakability of her views on the family.

What is the reason for Katerina’s public repentance? Maybe this is fear of God's terrible punishment? I think that the point here is not cowardice or fear of punishment, but Katerina’s exceptional conscientiousness, her inability to lie to her husband and mother-in-law, to pretend in front of people. After all, this is exactly how the first words of her repentance are understood: “My whole heart was torn! I can’t stand it anymore!” Neither the mother-in-law, who now locks her daughter-in-law, nor the husband, who beat her a little because mamma ordered, can condemn and punish Katerina more strongly than she herself. After all, she feels guilty not only before Tikhon and Kabanikha, but also before the whole world, before the highest forces of good and truth. Having committed a sin, Katerina loses the harmony with the world that lived in her. Having gone through difficult spiritual trials, through debilitating pangs of conscience, she is morally cleansed. Katerina atones for her sin through suffering. Farewell to Boris kills the heroine’s last hope for a life in which joy is still possible. She is ready to follow her beloved man to distant Siberia as an unmarried wife, but he cannot and does not want to resist his formidable uncle, hoping for a mythical inheritance.

Katerina has only one option left - suicide. And not because she was disgusted with life. On the contrary, in the heroine’s last monologue, when she says goodbye to the sun, grass, flowers, birds, her great desire to live, to love the beauty of the earth is felt. But Katerina still chooses death, because only in this way can she preserve the best, bright, pure and sublime that lives in her soul. And years of living in a gloomy mother-in-law’s house are tantamount to a slow, drawn-out death. Katerina rejects this pitiful semblance of life and, rushing into the Volga, affirms true life, full of joyful selfless love for flowers, trees, birds, for the beauty and harmony of the world. Maybe Tikhon feels this subconsciously when he envies his dead wife. He has boring, monotonous months and years ahead of him, which will completely kill his soul, for keeping it alive in Kabanov’s “dark kingdom” can only be done at the cost of his life. This means that in the image of Katerina A. N. Ostrovsky embodied the living soul of the people, their protest against the Domostroev religion, the oppressive conditions of reality, dependence and lack of freedom.