The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants a brief description. Kalinov city

In his works, A. N. Ostrovsky explored various topics: merchants, bureaucrats, nobility, etc. In The Thunderstorm, the playwright turned to the consideration of the provincial town of Kalinov and its inhabitants, which was very unusual for the theater of that time, because the focus was usually on larger cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg.

"The Thunderstorm", written in 1859, is a work of the pre-reform era. The fates of the heroes reflected the “pre-storm” state of Russian society. Indeed, two years after the release of the drama, serfdom was abolished, radically changing the fate of people.

The structure of city life in some ways coincides with the structure of modern society. For example, some mothers often destroy their children with their care. These children grow up to be dependent and unprepared for life, just like Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov.

Returning to the city of Kalinov, it is necessary to say about unspoken laws full of injustice. Life is built according to Domostroy, “he who has money has power”...

These laws were established by the “dark kingdom,” namely Dikoy and Kabanikha. Enemies of everything new, they personify oppressive, unjust power.

Dikoy, Savel Prokofich - merchant, significant person in the city. Dikoy appears as an arrogant, domineering and vile person. He ruins people's lives not only with his speech, which is impossible to imagine without swearing, but also with his desire to find material gain in everything, without thinking about the lives of other people.

Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, Kabanikha - a rich merchant's wife, widow. He ruins his son’s life by telling him how to act and live in general. Prude for the daughter-in-law. Unlike the Wild One, Kabanikha does not express her thoughts and feelings in front of all people.

All other heroes are victims of the “dark kingdom”. People are oppressed, without the right to live freely.

Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov, son of Kabanikha. Slave, flexible. He obeys his mother in everything.

Boris Grigorievich, nephew of Dikiy. He ended up in the city because of an inheritance left by his grandmother, which Dikoy must pay. Boris, like Tikhon, is depressed by the life of the city.

Varvara, Tikhon’s sister, and Kudryash, Dikiy’s clerk, are people who have adapted to city life. “Do whatever you want, as long as it’s safe and covered,” says Varvara.

But not all the heroes finally “gave up” and succumbed to the flow of city life. One Kuligin, a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, is trying to fix and improve the life of the city. He sees injustice in the life of the city and is not afraid to speak out about it. “And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that he can make even more money from his free labors.”

And, perhaps, the most controversial and original hero of the drama is Katerina. "Beam of light" or "defeat of darkness"? It is worth noting that feelings arose between Boris and Katerina. But one thing hampered the development of their relationship - Katerina was married to Tikhon. They met only once, but the heroine’s morality haunted her. She found no other way out but to rush into the Volga. Katerina can in no way be called a “defeat of darkness,” because she destroyed outdated moral principles. Not a “ray of light”, but a “ray of freedom” - this is the best way to describe Katerina. Having lost her life, albeit in Ostrovsky’s drama, she gave people hope for the opportunity to be free. Let people at first not know what to do with this freedom, but later they will begin to realize that each of them is capable of much and they should not put up with the unjust laws of their hometown or obey their mother’s every word.

Dramatic events of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" takes place in the city of Kalinov. This town is located on the picturesque bank of the Volga, from the high cliff of which the vast Russian expanses and boundless distances open up to the eye. “The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” enthuses local self-taught mechanic Kuligin.
Pictures of endless distances, echoed in a lyrical song. Among the flat valleys,” which he sings, are of great importance for conveying the feeling of the immense possibilities of Russian life, on the one hand, and the limitations of life in a small merchant town, on the other.

Magnificent paintings of the Volga landscape are organically woven into the structure of the play. At first glance, they contradict its dramatic nature, but in fact they introduce new colors into the depiction of the scene of action, thereby performing an important artistic function: the play begins with a picture of a steep bank, and it ends with it. Only in the first case does it give rise to a feeling of something majestically beautiful and bright, and in the second - catharsis. The landscape also serves to more vividly depict the characters - Kuligin and Katerina, who subtly sense its beauty, on the one hand, and everyone who is indifferent to it, on the other. The brilliant playwright so carefully recreated the scene of action that we can visually imagine the city Kalinov, immersed in greenery, as he is depicted in the play. We see its high fences, and gates with strong locks, and wooden houses with patterned shutters and colored window curtains filled with geraniums and balsams. We also see taverns where people like Dikoy and Tikhon are carousing in a drunken stupor. We see the dusty streets of Kalinovsky, where ordinary people, merchants and wanderers talk on benches in front of the houses, and where sometimes a song can be heard from afar to the accompaniment of a guitar, and behind the gates of the houses the descent begins to the ravine, where young people have fun at night. A gallery with vaults of dilapidated buildings opens to our eyes; a public garden with gazebos, pink bell towers and ancient gilded churches, where “noble families” walk decorously and where the social life of this small merchant town unfolds. Finally, we see the Volga pool, in the abyss of which Katerina is destined to find her final refuge.

Residents of Kalinov lead a sleepy, measured existence: “They go to bed very early, so it’s difficult for an unaccustomed person to endure such a sleepy night.” On holidays, they walk decorously along the boulevard, but “they only pretend to be walking, but they themselves go there to show off their outfits.” The inhabitants are superstitious and submissive, they have no desire for culture, science, they are not interested in new ideas and thoughts. The sources of news and rumors are pilgrims, pilgrims, and “passing kaliki.” The basis of relationships between people in Kalinov is material dependence. Here money is everything. “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! - says Kuligin, addressing a new person in the city, Boris. “In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and stark poverty.” And we, sir, will never get out of this crust. Because honest work will never earn us more than our daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor in order to make even more money from his free labors. He testifies: “And among themselves, sir, how they live! They undermine each other's trade, and not so much out of self-interest as out of envy. They are at enmity with each other; they get drunken clerks into their high mansions... And they... write malicious clauses about their neighbors. And for them, sir, a trial and a case will begin, and there will be no end to the torment.”

A vivid figurative expression of the manifestation of rudeness and hostility that reigns in Kalinov is the ignorant tyrant Savel Prokofich Dikoy, a “scold man” and a “shrill man,” as its residents characterize it. Endowed with an unbridled temper, he intimidated his family (dispersed “to attics and closets”), terrorizes his nephew Boris, who “got to him as a sacrifice” and which, according to Kudryash, he constantly “rides.” He also mocks other townspeople, cheats, “shows off” over them, “as his heart desires,” rightly believing that there is no one to “calm him down” anyway. Swearing, swearing for any reason is not only the usual way of treating people, it is his nature, his character, the content of his entire life.

Another personification of the “cruel morals” of the city of Kalinov is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, a “hypocrite,” as the same Kuligin characterizes her. “He gives money to the poor, but completely eats up his family.” Kabanikha firmly stands guard over the established order established in her home, jealously guarding this life from the fresh wind of change. She cannot come to terms with the fact that the young people do not like her way of life, that they want to live differently. She doesn't swear like Dikoy. She has her own methods of intimidation, she corrosively, “like rusting iron,” “sharpenes” her loved ones.

Dikoy and Kabanova (one - rudely and openly, the other - “under the guise of piety”) poison the lives of those around them, suppressing them, subordinating them to their orders, destroying bright feelings in them. For them, the loss of power is the loss of everything in which they see the meaning of existence. That’s why they hate new customs, honesty, sincerity in the expression of feelings, and the attraction of young people to “freedom.”

A special role in the “dark kingdom” belongs to the ignorant, deceitful and arrogant wanderer-beggar Feklusha. She “wanders” through cities and villages, collecting absurd tales and fantastic stories - about the depreciation of time, about people with dog heads, about scattering chaff, about a fiery serpent. One gets the impression that she deliberately misinterprets what she hears, that she takes pleasure in spreading all these gossip and ridiculous rumors - thanks to this, she is willingly accepted in the houses of Kalinov and towns like it. Feklusha does not fulfill her mission unselfishly: she will be fed here, given something to drink here, and given gifts there. The image of Feklusha, personifying evil, hypocrisy and gross ignorance, was very typical of the environment depicted. Such feklushi, carriers of nonsense news that clouded the consciousness of ordinary people, and pilgrims were necessary for the owners of the city, as they supported the authority of their government.

Finally, another colorful exponent of the cruel morals of the “dark kingdom” is the half-crazed lady in the play. She rudely and cruelly threatens the death of someone else's beauty. These terrible prophecies, sounding like the voice of tragic fate, receive their bitter confirmation in the finale. In the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote: “In The Thunderstorm the need for the so-called “unnecessary faces” is especially visible: without them we cannot understand the heroine’s face and can easily distort the meaning of the entire play...”

Dikoy, Kabanova, Feklusha and the half-crazy lady - representatives of the older generation - are exponents of the worst sides of the old world, its darkness, mysticism and cruelty. These characters have nothing to do with the past, rich in its own unique culture and traditions. But in the city of Kalinov, in conditions that suppress, break and paralyze the will, representatives of the younger generation also live. Someone, like Katerina, closely bound by the way of the city and dependent on it, lives and suffers, strives to escape from it, and someone, like Varvara, Kudryash, Boris and Tikhon, humbles himself, accepts its laws or finds ways to reconcile with them .

Tikhon, the son of Marfa Kabanova and Katerina’s husband, is naturally endowed with a gentle, quiet disposition. He has kindness, responsiveness, the ability to make sound judgment, and the desire to break free from the clutches in which he finds himself, but weak-willedness and timidity outweigh his positive qualities. He is used to unquestioningly obeying his mother, doing everything she demands, and is not able to show disobedience. He is unable to truly appreciate the extent of Katerina’s suffering, unable to penetrate her spiritual world. Only in the finale does this weak-willed but internally contradictory person rise to open condemnation of his mother’s tyranny.

Boris, “a young man of decent education,” is the only one who does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth. This is a mentally soft and delicate, simple and modest person, and, moreover, his education, manners, and speech are noticeably different from most Kalinovites. He does not understand local customs, but is unable either to defend himself from the insults of the Wild One, or to “resist the dirty tricks that others do.” Katerina sympathizes with his dependent, humiliated position. But we can only sympathize with Katerina - she happened to meet on her way a weak-willed man, subordinate to the whims and whims of his uncle and doing nothing to change this situation. N.A. was right. Dobrolyubov, who claimed that “Boris is not a hero, he stands far from Katerina, and she fell in love with him in the desert.”

Cheerful and cheerful Varvara - the daughter of Kabanikha and the sister of Tikhon - is a vitally full-blooded image, but she emanates some kind of spiritual primitiveness, starting with her actions and everyday behavior and ending with her thoughts about life and rudely cheeky speech. She adapted, learned to be cunning so as not to obey her mother. She is too down to earth in everything. Such is her protest - escaping with Kudryash, who is well acquainted with the customs of the merchant environment, but lives easily” without hesitation. Varvara, who learned to live guided by the principle: “Do what you want, as long as it’s covered and covered,” expressed her protest at the everyday level, but on the whole she lives according to the laws of the “dark kingdom” and in her own way finds agreement with it.

Kuligin, a local self-taught mechanic who in the play acts as an “exposer of vices,” sympathizes with the poor, is concerned with improving people’s lives, having received a reward for the discovery of a perpetual motion machine. He is an opponent of superstitions, a champion of knowledge, science, creativity, enlightenment, but his own knowledge is not enough.
He doesn’t see an active way to resist tyrants, and therefore prefers to submit. It is clear that this is not the person who is able to bring novelty and fresh air into the life of the city of Kalinov.

Among the characters in the drama, there is no one, except Boris, who does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth or upbringing. All of them revolve in the sphere of concepts and ideas of a closed patriarchal environment. But life does not stand still, and tyrants feel that their power is being limited. “Besides them, without asking them,” says N.A. Dobrolyubov, - another life has grown, with different beginnings ... "

Of all the characters, only Katerina - a deeply poetic nature, filled with high lyricism - is focused on the future. Because, as noted by academician N.N. Skatov, “Katerina was brought up not only in the narrow world of a merchant family, she was born not only by the patriarchal world, but by the entire world of national, people’s life, already spilling out beyond the boundaries of patriarchy.” Katerina embodies the spirit of this world, its dream, its impulse. She alone was able to express her protest, proving, albeit at the cost of her own life, that the end of the “dark kingdom” was approaching. By creating such an expressive image of A.N. Ostrovsky showed that even in the ossified world of a provincial town, a “folk character of amazing beauty and strength” can arise, whose pen is based on love, on a free dream of justice, beauty, some kind of higher truth.

Poetic and prosaic, sublime and mundane, human and animal - these principles are paradoxically united in the life of a provincial Russian town, but in this life, unfortunately, darkness and oppressive melancholy prevail, which N.A. could not better characterize. Dobrolyubov, calling this world a “dark kingdom.” This phraseological unit is of fairy-tale origin, but the merchant world of “The Thunderstorm,” we are convinced of this, is devoid of that poetic, mysterious and captivating quality that is usually characteristic of a fairy tale. “Cruel morals” reign in this city, cruel...

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I bring to your attention two school essays on the theme of the city of Kalinov from Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”. The first is entitled “The City of Kalinov and its Inhabitants,” and the second is a description of this provincial town in an unusual form, in the format of a letter to a friend on behalf of Boris.

1st essay, “The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants”

Before creating the play, Ostrovsky traveled through the cities of the Volga region as part of an expedition that studied the life and customs of this province. Therefore, the image of the city of Kalinov turned out to be collective, based on the writer’s observations, and in many ways reminiscent of real cities on the Volga of those times. It is no coincidence that almost all the cities of the Volga region (Torzhok, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Kineshma and others) argued for the title of Kalinov’s prototype.

Kalinov became a generalized image of a Russian provincial town. What is important is the idea of ​​resemblance to a typical Russian town; the play could take place in any of these places. This is evidenced by the fact that the play does not contain a detailed description of the city; we can judge it only from a few remarks and indirect descriptions. Thus, the play itself opens with a description: “A public garden on the high bank of the Volga, beyond the Volga there is a rural view.”

Kalinov is a city with a fictitious name, and it is very useful for readers to understand why the city is called that way.

On the one hand, the very semantics of the word “viburnum” is interesting (since the suffix “ov” is typical for the names of Russian cities, for example, Pskov, Tambov, Rostov, etc.) - it is a bright, outwardly very beautiful berry (like the city itself, a boulevard on the high bank of the Volga), but inside it is bitter and tasteless. This is similar to the inner life of the city, the one that is hidden behind high fences - it is a difficult, and in some ways even terrible life. Kalinov is described by the self-taught mechanic Kuligin, who admires the beauty of the local nature: “The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” and at the same time admitting: “Cruel morals in our city, sir, are cruel.”

Despite all the outward amenities of the city, it is boring, dreary, and has a stuffy and unpleasant atmosphere. One of the most important details of the city is the boulevard, where no one walks.

Wealthy townspeople prefer a completely different kind of entertainment - suing and arguing with neighbors, plotting intrigues, and “devouring” their family. Another “entertainment” is visiting a temple, where people come not for sincere prayers and communication with God, but to exchange gossip and spectacles. It is not surprising that the city, in which hypocrisy and hypocrisy reign, is praised by the equally hypocritical Feklusha (“Beneficial City”).

During the day, Kalinov completely belongs to prim people, and at night, couples go for walks on the boulevard, “stealing” for an hour or two so that everything is “sewn and covered”, so that nothing disturbs the external well-being of the city, whose residents live in a patriarchal way of life and read “Domostroy” "

Kalinov, in fact, has no permanent connections with the world; he is closed and withdrawn into himself. They don’t read newspapers there, don’t learn news about the world, here Feklusha’s stories about her wanderings are easily taken at face value.

The city acts as a somewhat symbolic force that feeds the power of the tyrant Dikiy (by leaving the city, he seems to be deprived of his power). Tikhon strives to escape from the city; in Kalinov he is always downtrodden and depressed, but outside of it he tries to free himself from his shackles. Even a stranger, Boris, feels the pressure of provincial foundations.

Another association that the fictional city from Ostrovsky’s play evokes is Kalinov Bridge from the Russian fairy tale about Ivan the Peasant Son and Miracle Yuda. This bridge was the place where good and evil came together in the struggle. Kalinov is also the scene where the tragedy of Katerina’s personality unfolds, the irreconcilability of her pure and bright soul with the order of the city, as well as the story of her sinful love.

The city enters into plot interaction with the characters, highlighting their feelings and thoughts. So, on a holiday in the middle of the city, Katerina repents of her sins in front of the whole world, while the frescoes of the Last Judgment are visible in the background on the walls.

Another element of the city is the garden where Katerina meets Boris. It resembles the Garden of Eden; here, as in the famous biblical story, Katerina’s fall from grace takes place.

The Volga, which washes Kalinov, also plays an important symbolic role. In drama, the river represents strength, freedom, energy, and pure feelings. It is no coincidence that Katerina strives for water so much (it is not the water that kills her, but the anchor).

Ostrovsky obviously needed the city of Kalinov to show the way of Russian life in a small, provincial town, of which there are so many in Russia, and any of them, in part, resembles Kalinov. Kalinov is not just a background against which events unfold, he also conveys the mood of his inhabitants, helps to reveal their characters, and in some ways takes on a symbolic function that enriches the play.

Essay “Characteristics of the city of Kalinov in the form of a friendly letter”

My dear friend!

I haven’t written letters for a long time, but now my soul is asking. I am writing to you to tell you about my life in the city of Kalinov, where I have been recently. If you are suddenly wondering how I got here, I can assure you that it was not the most fortunate set of circumstances. There is no doubt about the beauty of this place, but the people here are rabble. I came here to visit my uncle, Savel Prokofievich. According to my father’s will, my uncle owes my sister and me a certain amount, which we will receive only if we are respectful to him. Dear friend, this seems almost impossible! He is such a tyrant that just give him the slightest reason for anger - the whole family and everyone he meets on his way will suffer. I’m glad my sister stayed at home and didn’t go with me, she would have had a really bad time here.

Kalinov is an ordinary provincial town, the only thing that perhaps makes the soul expand here is the view of the Volga, but nothing more. The rest is very gray and boring. Many merchant houses, a boulevard, and a church - you probably won’t find anything else here.

The whole city seems to see no one except two merchants: only my uncle, and another merchant’s wife, Kabanikha. They seem to be at the head of everything here, everything is subordinate to them, and they, in turn, do not put anyone in anything: everyone must listen to them and do what they are told.

Time here seems to be completely dead, people are narrow-minded, no one can imagine that outside their town there is still a world, a living world that does not stand still. They don't even realize the scale of their own catastrophe. It is worth giving them credit for the fact that for the most part they work tirelessly, but they are completely frozen in this, bogged down. They are ignorant, they believe in everything that is told to them, which is why their life is so boring and monotonous. The only one with whom I can even talk about anything is Kuligin, but he will disappear here, lose everything that is in his head, he is a stranger here.

So I live my days in this slum. The strength to endure all this is already running out, and I would have given up long ago if my sister weren’t with me, but I have to endure it like this, I can’t let her down.

How are you, dear friend? Are you still writing your novels, or have you given up writing completely during your service? Tell me about everything that’s on your soul, I want to know everything down to the smallest detail!

Until the next letter, hugs to you.

Best wishes,

Your devoted friend Boris Grigorievich.

October 14, 1859

The essay was provided by Julia Grekhova.

Ural State Pedagogical University

Test

on Russian literature of the 19th (2nd) century

IV year correspondence students

IFC and MK

Agapova Anastasia Anatolyevna

Yekaterinburg

2011

Subject: The image of the city of Kalinov in “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky.

Plan:

1. Brief biography of the writer
2. Image of the city of Kalinova
3. Conclusion
4. References

1. Brief biography of the writer

Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky was born on September 29 in the village of Viliya, Volyn province, into a working-class family. He worked as an assistant electrician, and from 1923 - in a leading Komsomol job. In 1927, progressive paralysis confined Ostrovsky to bed, and a year later the future writer became blind, but, “continuing to fight for the ideas of communism,” he decided to take up literature. At the beginning of the 30s, the autobiographical novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” (1935) was written - one of the textbook works of Soviet literature. In 1936, the novel “Born of the Storm” was published, which the author did not have time to finish. Nikolai Ostrovsky died on December 22, 1936.

1. The history of the creation of the story "The Thunderstorm"

The play was begun by Alexander Ostrovsky in July and completed on October 9, 1859. The manuscript is kept inRussian State Library.

The writing of the play “The Thunderstorm” is also associated with the writer’s personal drama. In the manuscript of the play, next to Katerina’s famous monologue: “And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and everyone is singing invisible voices...” (5), there is Ostrovsky’s entry: “I heard from L.P. about the same dream...”. L.P. is an actressLyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya, with whom the young playwright had a very difficult personal relationship: both had families. The actress's husband was an artist of the Maly TheaterI. M. Nikulin. And Alexander Nikolaevich also had a family: he lived in a civil marriage with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, with whom he had common children - they all died as children. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for almost twenty years.

It was Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya who served as the prototype for the image of the heroine of the play, Katerina, and she also became the first performer of the role.

In 1848, Alexander Ostrovsky went with his family to Kostroma, to the Shchelykovo estate. The natural beauty of the Volga region struck the playwright, and then he thought about the play. For a long time it was believed that the plot of the drama “The Thunderstorm” was taken by Ostrovsky from the life of the Kostroma merchants. At the beginning of the 20th century, Kostroma residents could accurately indicate the place of Katerina’s suicide.

In his play, Ostrovsky raises the problem of the turning point in social life that occurred in the 1850s, the problem of changing social foundations.

5 Ostrovsky A. N. Thunderstorm. State Publishing House of Fiction. Moscow, 1959.

3. Image of the city of Kalinov

“The Thunderstorm” is rightfully considered one of the masterpieces of Ostrovsky and all Russian drama. “The Thunderstorm” is, without a doubt, Ostrovsky’s most decisive work.

Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" shows the ordinary provincial life of the provincial merchant town of Kalinov. It is located on the high bank of the Russian Volga River. The Volga is the great Russian river, a natural parallel to Russian destiny, Russian soul, Russian character, which means that everything that happens on its banks is understandable and easily recognizable to every Russian person. The view from the shore is divine. The Volga appears here in all its glory. The town itself is no different from others: merchant houses in abundance, a church, a boulevard.

Residents lead their own special way of life. Life in the capital is changing quickly, but here everything is the same as before. Monotonous and slow passage of time. The elders teach the younger ones in everything, but the younger ones are afraid to stick their nose out. There are few visitors to the city, so everyone is mistaken for a stranger, like an overseas curiosity.

The heroes of "The Thunderstorm" live without even suspecting how ugly and dark their existence is. For some, their city is “paradise”, and if it is not ideal, then at least it represents the traditional structure of society of that time. Others do not accept either the situation or the city itself that gave birth to this situation. And yet they constitute an unenviable minority, while others maintain complete neutrality.

Residents of the city, without realizing it, fear that just a story about another city, about other people, can dispel the illusion of prosperity in their “promised land.” In the remark preceding the text, the author determines the place and time of the drama. This is no longer Zamoskvorechye, so characteristic of many of Ostrovsky’s plays, but the city of Kalinov on the banks of the Volga. The city is fictional, in it you can see the features of a variety of Russian cities. The landscape background of “Thunderstorms” also gives a certain emotional mood, allowing, by contrast, to more acutely feel the stuffy atmosphere of life in Kalinovsky.

The events take place in the summer, with 10 days passing between acts 3 and 4. The playwright does not say in what year the events take place; any year can be staged - so typical is what is described in the play for Russian life in the provinces. Ostrovsky especially stipulates that everyone is dressed in Russian, only Boris’s costume corresponds to European standards, which have already penetrated into the life of the Russian capital. This is how new touches appear in depicting the way of life in the city of Kalinov. Time seemed to have stopped here, and life turned out to be closed, impenetrable to new trends.

The main people of the city are tyrant merchants who try to “enslave the poor in order to make even more money from his free labor.” They keep in complete subordination not only the employees, but also the household, who are entirely dependent on them and therefore unresponsive. Considering themselves to be right in everything, they are sure that it is on them that the light rests, and therefore they force all households to strictly follow house-building orders and rituals. Their religiosity is distinguished by the same ritualism: they go to church, observe fasts, receive strangers, generously give them gifts and at the same time tyrannize their family “And what tears flow behind these constipations, invisible and inaudible!.” The internal, moral side of religion is completely alien to Wild and Kabanova, representatives of the “Dark Kingdom” of the City of Kalinov.

The playwright creates a closed patriarchal world: the Kalinovites do not know about the existence of other lands and simply believe the stories of the townspeople:

What is Lithuania? – So it is Lithuania. - And they say, my brother, it fell on us from the sky... I don’t know how to tell you, from the sky, from the sky...

Feklushi:

I...haven’t walked far, but I’ve heard – I’ve heard a lot...

And then there is also a land where all the people have dog heads...For infidelity.

That there are distant countries where “Saltan Maxnut the Turkish” and “Saltan Makhnut the Persian” rule.

Here you have...rarely does anyone come out of the gate to sit...but in Moscow there are carousals and games along the streets, sometimes there is a groan... Why, they began to harness a fiery serpent...

The world of the city is motionless and closed: its inhabitants have a vague idea of ​​their past and know nothing about what is happening outside Kalinov. The absurd stories of Feklushi and the townspeople create distorted ideas about the world among the Kalinovites and instill fear in their souls. She brings darkness and ignorance into society, mourns the end of the good old days, and condemns the new order. The new is powerfully entering life, undermining the foundations of the Domostroev order. Feklusha’s words about “the last times” sound symbolic. She strives to win over those around her, so the tone of her speech is insinuating and flattering.

The life of the city of Kalinov is reproduced in volume, with detailed details. The city appears on the stage, with its streets, houses, beautiful nature, and citizens. The reader seems to see with his own eyes the beauty of Russian nature. Here, on the banks of the free river, glorified by the people, the tragedy that shocked Kalinov will occur. And the first words in “The Thunderstorm” are the words of a familiar song of freedom, sung by Kuligin, a man who deeply feels beauty:

Among the flat valley, at a smooth height, a tall oak blossoms and grows. In mighty beauty.

Silence, excellent air, the smell of flowers from the meadows from across the Volga, the sky is clear... An abyss of stars has opened up and is full...
Miracles, truly it must be said, miracles!... For fifty years I have been looking across the Volga every day and I can’t get enough of it!
The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices! Delight! Either you look closely or you don’t understand what beauty is spilled out in nature. -he says (5). However, next to poetry there is a completely different, unsightly, repulsive side of Kalinov’s reality. It is revealed in Kuligin’s assessments, felt in the conversations of the characters, and sounds in the prophecies of the half-crazy lady.

The only enlightened person in the play, Kuligin, looks like an eccentric in the eyes of the townspeople. Naive, kind, honest, he does not oppose Kalinov’s world, humbly endures not only ridicule, but also rudeness and insult. However, it is he who the author instructs to characterize the “dark kingdom”.

It seems as if Kalinov is fenced off from the whole world and lives some kind of special, closed life. But can we really say that life is completely different in other places? No, this is a typical picture of the Russian province and the wild customs of patriarchal life. Stagnation.

There is no clear description of the city of Kalinov in the play.But as you read it, you can vividly imagine the outlines of the town and its inner life.

5 Ostrovsky A. N. Thunderstorm. State Publishing House of Fiction. Moscow, 1959.

The central position in the play is occupied by the image of the main character Katerina Kabanova. For her, the city is a cage from which she is not destined to escape. The main reason for Katerina’s attitude towards the city is that she has learned the contrast. Her happy childhood and serene youth passed, above all, under the sign of freedom. Having gotten married and finding herself in Kalinov, Katerina felt like she was in prison. The city and the prevailing situation in it (traditionality and patriarchy) only aggravate the situation of the heroine. Her suicide - a challenge given to the city - was committed on the basis of Katerina’s internal state and the surrounding reality.
Boris, a hero who also came “from outside,” develops a similar point of view. Probably, their love was due precisely to this. In addition, for him, like Katerina, the main role in the family is played by the “domestic tyrant” Dikoy, who is a direct product of the city and is a direct part of it.
The above can be fully applied to Kabanikha. But for her the city is not ideal; before her eyes, old traditions and foundations are crumbling. Kabanikha is one of those who is trying to preserve them, but only “Chinese ceremonies” remain.
It is on the basis of the differences between the heroes that the main conflict arises - the struggle between the old, the patriarchal and the new, reason and ignorance. The city gave birth to people like Dikoy and Kabanikha, they (and wealthy merchants like them) rule the roost. And all the city’s shortcomings are fueled by morals and environment, which in turn support Kabanikh and Dikoy with all their might.
The artistic space of the play is closed, it is confined exclusively to the city of Kalinov, the more difficult it is to find a way for those who are trying to escape from the city. In addition, the city is static, like its main inhabitants. That is why the stormy Volga contrasts so sharply with the stillness of the city. The river embodies movement. The city perceives any movement as extremely painful.
At the very beginning of the play, Kuligin, who is in some respects similar to Katerina, talks about the surrounding landscape. He sincerely admires the beauty of the natural world, although Kuligin has a very good idea of ​​the internal structure of the city of Kalinov. Not many characters are given the ability to see and admire the world around them, especially in the setting of the “dark kingdom.” For example, Kudryash does not notice anything, just as he tries not to notice the cruel morals reigning around him. The natural phenomenon shown in Ostrovsky's work - a thunderstorm - is also viewed differently by city residents (by the way, according to one of the heroes, thunderstorms are a frequent occurrence in Kalinov, this makes it possible to classify it as part of the city's landscape). For Wild, a thunderstorm is an event given to people as a test by God; for Katerina, it is a symbol of the near end of her drama, a symbol of fear. Only Kuligin perceives a thunderstorm as an ordinary natural phenomenon, which one can even rejoice at.

The town is small, so from a high point on the shore where the public garden is located, the fields of nearby villages are visible. The houses in the city are wooden, and there is a flower garden near each house. This was the case almost everywhere in Russia. This is the house Katerina used to live in. She recalls: “I used to get up early; If it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me, and that’s it, I’ll water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers. Then we’ll go to church with mommy...”
The church is the main place in any village in Russia. The people were very pious, and the church was given the most beautiful part of the city. It was built on a hill and should have been visible from everywhere in the city. Kalinov was no exception, and the church there was a meeting place for all residents, the source of all conversations and gossip. Walking near the church, Kuligin tells Boris about the order of life here: “Cruel morals in our city,” he says, “In the philistinism, sir, you will not see anything except rudeness and basic poverty” (4). Money makes everything happen - that’s the motto of that life. And yet, the writer’s love for cities like Kalinov is felt in the discreet but warm descriptions of local landscapes.

"It's quiet, the air is great, because...

The Volga servants smell of flowers, heavenly..."

I just want to find myself in that place, to walk along the boulevard with the residents. After all, the boulevard is also one of the main places in small and large cities. The whole class goes out to the boulevard for a walk in the evening.
Previously, when there were no museums, cinemas, or television, the boulevard was the main place of entertainment. Mothers took their daughters there as if to a bridesmaid, married couples proved the strength of their union, and young men looked for future wives. But nevertheless, the life of ordinary people is boring and monotonous. For people with a lively and sensitive nature, such as Katerina, this life is a burden. It sucks you in like a quagmire, and there is no way to get out of it or change anything. On this high note of tragedy, the life of the main character of the play, Katerina, ends. “It’s better in the grave,” she says. She was able to get out of monotony and boredom only in this way. Concluding her “protest, driven to despair,” Katerina draws attention to the same despair of other residents of the city of Kalinov. Such despair is expressed in different ways. It is, according to

Dobrolyubov’s designation fits into various types of social clashes: younger with older, unrequited with self-willed, poor with rich. After all, Ostrovsky, bringing the residents of Kalinov onto the stage, draws a panorama of the morals of not just one city, but the entire society, where a person depends only on wealth, which gives strength, whether he is a fool or a smart one, a nobleman or a commoner.

The title of the play itself has a symbolic meaning. A thunderstorm in nature is perceived differently by the characters in the play: for Kuligin it is “grace,” with which “every... grass, every flower rejoices,” while the Kalinovites hide from it as if from “some kind of misfortune.” The thunderstorm intensifies Katerina's spiritual drama, her tension, influencing the very outcome of this drama. The thunderstorm gives the play not only emotional tension, but also a pronounced tragic flavor. At the same time, N.A. Dobrolyubov saw something “refreshing and encouraging” in the finale of the drama. It is known that Ostrovsky himself, who attached great importance to the title of the play, wrote to the playwright N. Ya. Solovyov that if he cannot find a title for the work, it means that “the idea of ​​the play is not clear to him.”

In “The Thunderstorm,” the playwright often uses the techniques of parallelism and antithesis in the system of images and directly in the plot itself, in the depiction of pictures of nature. The technique of antithesis is especially clearly manifested: in the contrast between the two main characters - Katerina and Kabanikha; in the composition of the third act, the first scene (at the gates of Kabanova’s house) and the second (night meeting in the ravine) differ sharply from each other; in the depiction of pictures of nature and, in particular, the approach of a thunderstorm in the first and fourth acts.

1. Conclusion

Ostrovsky in his play showed a fictional city, but it looks extremely authentic. The author saw with pain how backward Russia was politically, economically, and culturally, how dark the population of the country was, especially in the provinces.

Ostrovsky not only recreates the panorama of city life in detail, specifically and in many ways, but also, using various dramatic means and techniques, introduces elements of the natural world and the world of distant cities and countries into the artistic world of the play. The peculiarity of vision of the environment inherent in the townspeople creates the effect of a fantastic, incredible “lostness” of Kalinovsky life.

A special role in the play is played by the landscape, described not only in the stage directions, but also in the dialogues of the characters. Some people can understand its beauty, others have taken a closer look at it and are completely indifferent. The Kalinovites not only “fenced off, isolated” themselves from other cities, countries, lands, they made their souls, their consciousness immune to the influence of the natural world, a world full of life, harmony, and higher meaning.

People who perceive their surroundings in this way are ready to believe in anything, even the most incredible, as long as it does not threaten to destroy their “quiet, heavenly life.” This position is based on fear, psychological unwillingness to change something in one’s life. Thus, the playwright creates not only an external, but also an internal, psychological background for the tragic story of Katerina.

“The Thunderstorm” is a drama with a tragic ending; the author uses satirical techniques, on the basis of which readers develop a negative attitude towards Kalinov and his typical representatives. He especially introduces satire to show the ignorance and lack of education of the Kalinovites.

Thus, Ostrovsky creates an image of a city traditional for the first half of the 19th century. The author shows through the eyes of his heroes. The image of Kalinov is collective; the author knew the merchants well and the environment in which they developed. Thus, with the help of different points of view of the characters in the play “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky creates a complete picture of the district merchant town of Kalinov.

1. References

1. Anastasyev A. “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky. “Fiction” Moscow, 1975.
2. Kachurin M. G., Motolskaya D. K. Russian literature. Moscow, Education, 1986.
3. Lobanov P. P. Ostrovsky. Moscow, 1989.
4. Ostrovsky A. N. Selected works. Moscow, Children's literature, 1965.

5. Ostrovsky A. N. Thunderstorm. State Publishing House of Fiction. Moscow, 1959.

6. http://referati.vladbazar.com

7. http://www.litra.ru/com

1. General characteristics of the scene.
2. Kalinovskaya “elite”.
3. People's dependence on tyrants.
4. “Free Birds” by Kalinov.

“Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!” - this is how A. N. Ostrovsky characterizes the setting of the play through the mouth of one of the characters, the observant and witty self-taught inventor Kuligin. It is noteworthy that the play begins with a scene in which the same hero admires the view of the Volga. The author, as if by chance, contrasts the beauty of nature, the vastness of its vastness, with the sanctimonious provincial life. People who have weight in Kalinovsky society, the overwhelming majority try to present themselves in the best light to outsiders, and “they eat their own family.”

One of the prominent representatives of the Kalinov “elite” is the wealthy merchant Savel Prokofich Dikoy. In the family circle, he is an unbearable tyrant, whom everyone is afraid of. His wife trembles every morning: “Fathers, don’t make me angry! Darlings, don’t make me angry!” However, Dikoy is capable of getting angry without any particular reason: then he is happy to attack his household and hired workers with abuse. Dikoy constantly underpays everyone who serves him, so many workers complain to the mayor. To the admonitions of the mayor, who suggested that the merchant pay his workers as expected, Dikoy calmly replied that from these underpayments he had accumulated significant sums, and should the mayor worry about such trifles?

The baseness of the Wild’s nature is also manifested in the fact that the displeasure that he does not have the right to express to the culprit is taken out by the rabid merchant on his unrequited family members. This man, without a twinge of conscience, is ready to take away the due share of the inheritance from his nephews, especially since their grandmother’s will left a loophole - the nephews have the right to receive the inheritance only if they are respectful to their uncle. “...Even if you were respectful to him, who would forbid him to say that you are disrespectful?” — Kuligin says judiciously to Boris. Knowing local customs, Kuligin is convinced that Dikiy’s nephews will be left with nothing - Boris is in vain to endure his uncle’s scolding.

Kabanikha is not like that - she also tyrannizes her household, but “under the guise of piety.” Kabanikha’s house is a paradise for wanderers and pilgrims, whom the merchant’s wife welcomes according to ancient Russian custom. Where did this custom come from? The Gospel tells us that Christ taught his followers to help those in need, saying that what was done for “one of these little ones” was ultimately done as if for Himself. Kabanikha sacredly preserves ancient customs, which for her are almost the foundations of the universe. But she does not consider it a sin that she “sharpens iron like rust” to her son and daughter-in-law. Kabanikha's daughter finally can't stand it and runs away with her lover, the son gradually becomes a drunkard, and the daughter-in-law throws herself into the river out of despair. Kabanikha’s piety and piety turn out to be only a form without content. According to Christ, such people are like coffins that are neatly painted on the outside, but inside are full of uncleanness.

Quite a few people depend on Dikoy, Kabanikha and the like. The existence of people living in constant tension and fear is bleak. One way or another, a protest rises in them against the constant suppression of the individual. Only this protest most often manifests itself in an ugly or tragic way. Kabanikha’s son, who dutifully endures the edifying teachings of his domineering mother in family life, escapes from home for a few days and forgets about everything in a continuous drunkenness: “Yes, of course, he’s tied up! As soon as he leaves, he’ll start drinking.” The love of Boris and Katerina is also a kind of protest against the oppressive environment in which they live. This love does not bring joy, although it is mutual: a protest against the hypocrisy and pretense common in Kalinov forces Katerina to confess her sin to her husband, and a protest against returning to a hateful lifestyle pushes the woman into the water. Varvara’s protest turns out to be the most thoughtful - she runs away with Kudryash, that is, she breaks out of the atmosphere of bigotry and tyranny.

Kudryash is a remarkable personality in his own way. This brawler is not afraid of anyone, not even the formidable “warrior” Dikiy, for whom he worked: “...I will not slave before him.” Kudryash does not have wealth, but he knows how to place himself in the company of people, including people like Dikoy: “I am considered a rude person, why is he holding me? Therefore, he needs me. Well, that means I’m not afraid of him, but let him be afraid of me.” Thus, we see that Kudryash has a developed sense of self-esteem, he is a determined and brave person. Of course, he is by no means some kind of ideal. Curly is also a product of the society in which he lives. “To live with wolves is to howl like a wolf” - in accordance with this old proverb, Kudryash would not mind breaking off the Wild’s sides if he could find several equally desperate guys for company, or “respect” the tyrant in another way, by seducing his daughter.

Another type of person, independent of Kalinov’s tyrants, is the self-taught inventor Kuligin. This man, like Kudryash, knows perfectly well what the ins and outs of the local bigwigs are. He has no illusions about his fellow citizens, and yet this man is happy. Human baseness does not obscure the beauty of the world for him, superstition does not poison his soul, and scientific research gives his life a high meaning: “And you are afraid to even look at the sky, it makes you tremble! Out of everything, you have created a scare for yourself. Eh, people! I’m not afraid.”