Rare plants and animals of our region. Project "plants and animals of the forests of the Leningrad region"
The play "The Thunderstorm" was written by Ostrovsky in 1859, shortly before the reform of 1861. In this drama, the author clearly depicts the social, everyday and family structure of Russia at that time. Against such a background, the central conflict of the play matures and gradually reaches a tragic intensity, the conflict between the free soul of the main character and the “tyrant force” of the environment.
In the image of Katerina Kabanova, the main character of the play, the author captured all the beauty and broad nature of the freedom-loving Russian soul, its subtle sensitivity, deep
Conscientiousness and religiosity. From the first scenes of the play, we are imbued with attention and sympathy for Katerina. Living in a heavy atmosphere
Kabanovsky house, she recalls with quiet melancholy her free life in her parents' house. Katerina was surrounded by maternal love and affection; she spent time among her favorite flowers and embroidering. From childhood, she was accustomed to honoring God and following his great commandments in life. Religion for Katerina is both a love for the beauty of God's world and a deep inner conscience that does not allow her to pretend and deceive. With a pure and open soul, with a heart full of love, Katerina seeks understanding and reciprocal love in her husband’s house. She endures her mother-in-law’s grumpy remarks with meekness, does not hold grudges against Tikhon, who is weak and submissive in everything to his mother, she is sincere in her
Motives to live according to conscience and moral law. But in Kabanikha’s house, where long ago
Already the way of life is built on the principle: “do what you want, as long as everything is covered and covered,” the heroine, with her dreaminess and fragile romantic soul, becomes a stranger and lonely.
Tikhon Kabanov is a narrow-minded man, without character and will. He does not know how and is not able to understand his wife’s inner experiences, and he has no time to notice them: Tikhon is always busy
Looking for an opportunity to drink. Unfamiliar with spiritual impulses, languishing under the pressure of his mother, unable and unwilling to change anything, the younger Kabanov slides through life, slowly becoming an alcoholic. He has no time to listen and understand his wife: he is blinded by the happy opportunity to escape from under the omnipresent eye of his mother. Katerina can only “endure as long as she endures.”
Overwhelming the heart and unclaimed by her husband. The heroine is always natural and
She is frank, there is not a drop of falsehood in her: “I don’t know how to deceive, I can’t hide anything.” So in the first act she confesses to Varvara that she loves Boris. At the same time, Katerina is full of confusion and horror: “... sin is on my mind. How much I, poor thing, cried, what did I not do to myself! I can’t get away from this sin!” This is how Katerina’s internal conflict begins, affecting her moral principles and religious views. Being courageous and brave by nature (even as a child she was not afraid to sail away alone
At night along the Volga), Katerina cannot overcome her fear of God: “I cannot die
It’s scary, but how can I think that suddenly I will appear before God as I am here with
It’s you, after this conversation, that’s what’s scary,” she says to Varvara.
The main theme is the heroine's discord with the world and with herself. Mental conflict
Katerina, gradually growing, determines the tragic intensity of the entire play in
With the help of Varvara, Katerina takes the path of free love, which, according to Dobrolyubov, is above human prejudices. But this choice is not easy for her. After all, what is only “prejudice” for a person with Dobrolyubov’s beliefs, for a folk heroine is a moral law, the basis of patriarchal morality. Katerina manages to break this law and transgress her life principles at the cost of severe mental anguish and
Torment, at the cost of an insurmountable struggle with shame and fear. Thirst for life and love
She turns out to be stronger, and the choice is made - she confesses to Boris her forbidden
Feeling.
Katerina’s meek and pure soul cannot come to terms with her fall from grace; she is in painful discord with her conscience. Crying ceaselessly, she is afraid of everyone
The sound, the noise, every glance in her direction. Katerina, unable to bear suffering, thirsts
Peace, seeks to ease the conscience with recognition. Her subtle soul is in tune with nature,
And in the alarming approach of a thunderstorm, the heroine senses the threat and the impending punishment. How
A terrible prophecy sounds in words addressed directly to Katerina: “It’s better with beauty in the maelstrom... Where are you hiding, stupid? You can’t escape God!” Katerina cannot stand it and publicly confesses her sin to her husband on her knees.
The tragic outcome of the conflict is determined by the fact that Katerina’s natural feeling
Incompatible with life in the society of Kabanovs and Wilds, it cannot withstand pressure
External circumstances and cowardice. Boris is an ordinary citizen of the city of Kalinov with
A petty and mercantile soul, unworthy of Katerina’s sacrificial love. Cowardly
At the last moment, he leaves his beloved, leaving the city in order to retain his grandmother's inheritance.
Surrounded by Kabanikha’s anger, universal condemnation and contempt, tormented by her own mental anguish, Katerina finds the only way out in death. As if about something inexplicably desired, alluring and promising deliverance, she dreams of a “grave” under a tree. Having cleansed her soul with repentance, Katerina is no longer afraid of death, but ardently desires it.
In the tragic ending of the play, Dobrolyubov sees the manifestation of the highest form of protest, the victory of the heroine over the kingdom of arbitrariness and despotism, the triumph of light over darkness, and
We can agree with him on this.
Character consists of the ability to act on principles.
A. N. Ostrovsky wrote many plays from the life of the merchants. They are so truthful and bright that Dobrolyubov called them “plays of life.” In these works, the life of the merchants is described as a world of hidden, quietly sighing sorrow, a world of dull, aching pain, a world of prison-like deathly silence. And even if a senseless murmur appears, it dies away at its birth. The critic N.A. Dobrolyubov titled his article devoted to the analysis of Ostrovsky’s plays “The Dark Kingdom.” He expressed the idea that the tyranny of the merchants rests only on ignorance and humility. But a way out will be found, because the desire to live with dignity cannot be destroyed in a person.
“...Who will be able to throw a ray of light into the ugly darkness of the dark kingdom?” - asks Dobrolyubov. The answer to this question was the playwright’s new play “The Thunderstorm”. Written in 1860, the play, both in its spirit and in its title, seemed to symbolize the process of renewal of society, which was shaking off the torpor of tyranny. The thunderstorm has long been the personification of the struggle for freedom. And in the play this is not only a natural phenomenon, but a vivid image of the internal struggle that began in the dark life of a merchant.
There are many characters in the play. But the main one is Katerina. The image of this woman is not only the most complex, but it is sharply different from all others. No wonder the critic called it “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” How is Katerina so different from other “residents” of this “kingdom”?
There are no free people in this world! Neither tyrants nor their victims are such. Here you can deceive, like Varvara, but you cannot live according to truth and conscience without betraying your soul.
Katerina was brought up in a merchant family, she “lived at home, did not worry about anything, like a bird in the wild.” But after marriage, this free nature fell into the iron cage of tyranny.
In Katerina’s house there were always many pilgrims and praying mantises, whose stories (and the whole situation in the house) made her very religious, sincerely believing in the commandments of the church. It is not surprising that she perceives her love for Boris as a grave sin. But Katerina is a “poet” in religion. She is endowed with a vivid imagination and dreaminess. Listening to various stories, it is as if she sees them in reality. She often dreamed of paradise gardens and birds, and when she entered the church, she saw angels. Even her speech is musical and melodious, reminiscent of folk tales and songs.
However, religion, a secluded life, and the lack of outlet for her extraordinary sensitivity had a negative impact on her character. Therefore, when during a thunderstorm she heard the curses of the crazy lady, she began to pray. When she saw a drawing of “fiery hell” on the wall, her nerves could not stand it, and she confessed to Tikhon her love for Boris.
But religiosity even somehow sets off such traits of the heroine as the desire for independence and truth, courage and determination. Tyrant Wild and Kabanikha, who always reproaches and hates her relatives, are never able to understand other people. In comparison with them or with the spineless Tikhon, who only sometimes allows him to go on a spree for a few days, with her beloved Boris, who is unable to appreciate true love, Katerina’s character becomes especially attractive. She does not want and cannot deceive and directly declares: “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything.”
Love for Boris is everything for Katerina: longing for freedom, dreams of real life. And in the name of this love, she enters into an unequal duel with the “dark kingdom.” She does not perceive her protest as an indignation against the entire system, she does not even think about it. But the “dark kingdom” is structured in such a way that any manifestation of independence, independence, and personal dignity is perceived by him as a mortal sin, as a rebellion against the foundations of the rule of tyrants. That is why the play ends with the death of the heroine: after all, she is not only lonely, but also crushed by the inner consciousness of her “sin.”
The death of a brave woman is not a cry of despair. No, this is a moral victory over the “dark kingdom” that fetters her freedom, will, and reason. Suicide, according to the teachings of the church, is an unforgivable sin. But Katerina is no longer afraid of this. Having fallen in love, she declares to Boris: “If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?” And her last words were: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!"
You can justify or blame Katerina for her fatal decision, but you cannot help but admire the integrity of her nature, her thirst for freedom, and her determination. Her death shocked even such downtrodden people as Tikhon, who to his face blames his mother for the death of his wife.
This means that Katerina’s act was truly “a terrible challenge to tyrant power.” This means that in the “dark kingdom” bright natures are capable of being born, who can illuminate this “kingdom” with their life or death.
Katerina is a strong-willed image of a woman who, unable to withstand the oppression of the environment, enters into an active struggle with it and, feeling her loneliness, cannot withstand it and passes away.
She has two forms of protest: one protest is repentance, the other is death.
Raised from the cradle in a religious family, Katerina, however, at the same time carries within herself some other principles; she has a certain inner strength, obstinacy and spontaneity.
“...I was still six years old,” Katerina says to herself, “so I did something - they offended me at home, and it was evening, it was already dark, I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat, and pushed her away from the shore. The next morning they found it about ten miles away."
This little adventure shows that from childhood Katerina develops a strong character, full of self-love, pride and inflexibility. And as an adult, she already appears to us as a strong and decisive person. When Varvara asks her what she will do if her love for Boris reaches the point where she no longer has the strength to live with her husband, what does Katerina answer?
- What will I do?
- Yes, what will you do?
- Whatever I want, I’ll do. I’ll leave, and that’s how it was.
-Where are you going? You are a man's wife.
- Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character. Of course, God forbid this happens. And if I’m really tired of it, they won’t hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me...
How much hatred for this hateful, worthless, dark life is hidden in the last phrase - how much perseverance, unyielding will and desire to break out of these stuffy walls, what protest emanates from these words!
Katerina, in her entire being, bears the internal protest of the house-building, against her enslavement as a woman, as a person, and all her thoughts are connected with a passionate desire for freedom.
And it’s not for nothing that she wants to fly. While flying, she dreams of that free life that will free her from the shackles of house-building, from the persecution of Kabanikha, from all this terrible reclusive life, from which she can only run away or throw herself headlong into the pool. And only the desire to forget and drown her melancholy can evoke such deep and sincere confessions from Katerina:
“...It will become so stuffy for me, so stuffy at home, that I would run. And such a thought will come to me that, if it were up to me, I would now ride along the Volga, on a boat, singing, or on a troika, on a good one, hugging..."
And her love for Boris, which flared up so unexpectedly from just glances in church and on the street, is the result of the same impulse. Boris stands out sharply against the background of stupid provincial people. His metropolitan appearance and manners sharply distinguish him from other residents of the city. Katerina sees in him the only person she can trust with her life, hoping that he will save her from this prison.
Her love for Boris is hope, it is a dream of the best, of the beautiful, it is a bright contrast to the “dark reality”, this is something for which one can and should leave home, husband, and disrupt this entire life that has been established for centuries.
And it’s not for nothing that Katerina says: “Something in me is different, new, so extraordinary. It’s like I’m starting to live again.”
Katerina is a strong person. She is a representative of new, progressive forces rebelling against the house-building system and trying to deal the first blows to it.