The meaning of the image of a bird in the drama of a thunderstorm. Drama "The Thunderstorm": Ostrovsky and his controversial female characters

Essay based on Tikhoy's painting "Storks"

For a long time in Rus', the stork was considered a special bird - a bird of peace, happiness, family comfort and prosperity. These graceful, large black and white birds were welcomed as the most dear guests. The stork could not be offended, killed or scared away; they were cherished and respected. Many villages could boast of their own stork, accustomed to this particular place, which was considered a near and dear creature. After all, if he settled next to this village, it means that war, hunger and disease will avoid it, which means that every person will live comfortably and peacefully next to dear guest.
Storks are faithful birds. When flying away for the winter, like cranes, storks scream loudly, as if they are groaning, saying goodbye to their native nest. Light black and white shadows cross the sky, and then the bird cries die down, the high blue empties until spring. But in the spring, the storks return back - to the nest that was abandoned the day before, in which the chicks were hatched last summer.
The stork is a faithful bird. Stork - beautiful bird. Despite the fact that its body is large and its legs are thin, the figure of this bird is very harmonious. He is as beautiful in the sky when he soars, spreading his wings to their full width with feathers shaking in the wind, he is beautiful on the ground when he strides sedately on slender and long legs. And the silhouette of a stork standing on one leg has long been recognized as bringing good luck and peace.
Therefore, poems and songs were written about storks, and therefore they were depicted in paintings and engravings. And the canvas with the same name by I. Tikhoi - bright that example.
The painting “Storks” depicts storks flying from the field - eight birds, spreading wide wings and rushing into the autumn sky. The artist managed to capture a short, unique moment, a touching moment. Another minute - and the birds will disappear from sight, leaving only sad cries to the sky, another minute - and there will be nothing left, not even a cry, only a lonely white feather will spin, quietly gliding down onto the empty field.
Compositionally, the picture is directed upward into the sky: a flock of birds, some of which are already high in the sky, and some are just lifting their bodies from the ground, stretched out, “located” in a rectangle of the canvas from the lower left to the upper right corner. Left-hand side background and Right side the anterior ones form a deep bowl with upward-curved edges. This detail resembles cupped palms, from which graceful birds fly. The minimum of details does not allow the viewer to be distracted from the main plot of the picture. Only the edge of the field is visible, golden in autumn, on the left is a lush bush, the foliage of which has already begun to turn yellow, on the right are golden, full-bodied ears. The field is separated by a narrow strip of distant forest stretching beyond the horizon. In the center of the picture are storks and the endless sky, across which clouds float lazily.
The range of colors that the painter used in his work is amazing. The bowl of the field is a warm, rich golden-red color. The ears look silky, heavy, plump - it seems that you can hear them rustling in the wind. The trees of the distant forest and the nearby bushes are dark green, in which the red sparks of the coming autumn are already breaking through. The sky is high, blue, with cotton caps of fluffy and voluminous clouds. And storks - black and white, which should seem too boring and strict, which unite heaven and earth, above and below. The wide white wings below are illuminated by the gold of the field; they absorb this color and reflect it with soft yellowness. The wings and backs facing the sky are painted blue. And only the black feathers framing the wide wings stand out in contrast against the overall soft and dim background, attracting attention to themselves. Despite the warmth and liveliness of the picture, despite the grace of the flying birds, my heart is inevitably filled with melancholy. The echo of bird wings will sound in the darkening sky, noble birds will disappear - and first autumn will come to the fields with gray rains, and then winter.
The fleeting nature of the moment captured in the picture makes you think about a lot. Including the fate of the beautiful white birds that return from distant countries home, to Russia.

An essay based on I. Tikhy’s painting “Storks”.
In I. Tikhy’s painting “Storks” we see a wonderful landscape and birds taking flight. The luxurious greenery of the forest suggests that the picture depicts summer. In the foreground lies an unmown meadow stretching into the distance. In the meadow you can see graceful stalks of reeds growing high towards the clouds, and behind them a narrow strip of water can be seen. The bluish distance of the forest, behind which the wonderful sky disappears, looks very unusual. Thick whitish-gray clouds run in the direction of the wind. There are also storks there. A flock of birds gracefully spread their wings with dark markings. Storks take off, stretching out their long necks and closing slender legs. An elastic wind helps to gain the desired height.
The painting depicts eight storks. Every bird in the world has wings with snow-white plumage. different positions. So you can feel this flight. To depict the birds so closely and so gracefully, the artist clearly took a lot of time, effort and patience. I. Tikhay is definitely a great artist.
Looking at the painting "Storks" I immediately felt the ease of flight and freedom summer landscape, which the artist obviously wanted to convey to us.

Description of the painting by I. Tikhoy.
We see a beautiful landscape in I. Tikhy’s painting “Storks”. In this canvas we see storks flying over the field. All the storks have already flown, but one stork is still running and taking off. The author conveyed the beauty of the birds well. Their wings are beautiful, large, strong. Storks fly gracefully. Their flight is like a dance.
In the distance you can see a forest, behind which the sky with white clouds disappears. It seems to me that all this happens in the fall, as can be seen from the yellow-green foliage of the trees.
On the left are lonely bushes, the leaves of which are also dim, autumn.
On the right are reeds, behind which there is probably a small lake. Birds love such places.
The painting by I. Tikhoy is painted with warm colors. It seems to me that what the artist depicts is more than just a landscape. Just like storks, young people are breaking away from their native land in search of unknown countries and shelter.
It is impossible to look at this picture without sadness.

Painting by I. Tikhoy "Storks".
Being interested in the artistic work of Russian animal painters, I became acquainted with the painting “Storks” by Ivan Anatolyevich Tikhy. This piece really impressed me. Quiet is not only an animal painter, but also a portrait painter, landscape painter, and genre painter. Ivan Anatolyevich has a large number of others, popular works art: "Motherhood", "Happy Father", "Admission to the Pioneers", " Motherland", "Eternal flame"Basically they all touch on the theme of "Motherland". But it was the painting "Storks" that caught my attention.
There are eight storks in the foreground. Judging by the time of year, they are rushing south. These birds are very graceful. They look very beautiful in flight, despite their disproportion. In front is a bright yellow field stretching into the distance. Small hills can be seen in the background. As on the storks, so on the clouds the reflection of grain crops is noticeable. To the right, behind the sedge, you can see a swamp. And if you look really closely, you can see a car in the background. Ivan Anatolyevich wanted to convey all the beauty of our nature, using quite bright and dark colors. Many different thoughts arise when you see the painting “Storks”. Birds remind me of the patriotic nature of people. We, under certain circumstances, are forced to leave our homeland. But no matter what, we return back. Looking at the picture, one cannot say that joy and fun arise. Quite the opposite. But you can easily understand what was going on in the artist’s head and soul.
My personal assessment of the work "Storks" will be the highest. She made a huge impression on me. Not like some kind of “Square” by Malevich. I advise everyone to get acquainted with the work of Ivan Anatolyevich Tikhy.

The play "The Thunderstorm" by the famous Russian writer XIX century by Alexander Ostrovsky, was written in 1859 on the wave of social upsurge on the eve of social reforms. She became one of best works author, opening the eyes of the whole world to the morals and moral values of the merchant class of that time. It was first published in the journal “Library for Reading” in 1860 and, due to the novelty of its subject matter (descriptions of the struggle of new progressive ideas and aspirations with old, conservative foundations), immediately after publication it caused a wide public response. It became a topic for writing large quantity critical articles of that time (“A ray of light in dark kingdom"Dobrolyubova, "Motives of Russian Drama" by Pisarev, critic Apollon Grigoriev).

History of writing

Inspired by the beauty of the Volga region and its endless expanses during a trip with his family to Kostroma in 1848, Ostrovsky began writing the play in July 1859, three months later he finished it and sent it to the St. Petersburg censor.

Having worked for several years in the office of the Moscow Conscientious Court, he knew well what the merchants were like in Zamoskvorechye (historical district of the capital, on the right bank of the Moscow River), having more than once encountered in his service what was going on behind the scenes. high fences merchant chorus, namely with cruelty, tyranny, ignorance and various superstitions, illegal transactions and scams, tears and suffering of others. The basis for the plot of the play was tragic fate daughters-in-law in the wealthy merchant family of the Klykovs, which happened in reality: a young woman rushed into the Volga and drowned, unable to withstand oppression from her domineering mother-in-law, tired of her husband’s spinelessness and secret passion for a postal employee. Many believed that it was the stories from the life of the Kostroma merchants that became the prototype for the plot of the play written by Ostrovsky.

In November 1859, the play was performed on the stage of Maly academic theater in Moscow, in December of the same year in Alexandrinsky drama theater In Petersburg.

Analysis of the work

Story line

At the center of the events described in the play is the wealthy merchant family of the Kabanovs, living in the fictional Volga city of Kalinov, a kind of peculiar and closed little world, symbolizing the general structure of the entire patriarchal Russian state. The Kabanov family consists of a powerful and cruel tyrant woman, and essentially the head of the family, a wealthy merchant and widow Marfa Ignatievna, her son, Tikhon Ivanovich, weak-willed and spineless against the backdrop of the difficult disposition of his mother, daughter Varvara, who learned by deception and cunning to resist her mother’s despotism , as well as Katerina’s daughter-in-law. A young woman, who grew up in a family where she was loved and pitied, suffers in the house of her unloved husband from his lack of will and the claims of her mother-in-law, having essentially lost her will and becoming a victim of the cruelty and tyranny of Kabanikha, left to the mercy of fate by her rag husband.

Out of hopelessness and despair, Katerina seeks consolation in her love for Boris Dikiy, who also loves her, but is afraid to disobey his uncle, the rich merchant Savel Prokofich Dikiy, because he depends on him financial situation him and his sisters. He secretly meets with Katerina, but at the last moment he betrays her and runs away, then, at the direction of his uncle, he leaves for Siberia.

Katerina, having been brought up in obedience and submission to her husband, tormented by her own sin, confesses everything to her husband in the presence of his mother. She makes her daughter-in-law’s life completely unbearable, and Katerina, suffering from unhappy love, reproaches of conscience and cruel persecution of the tyrant and despot Kabanikha, decides to end her torment, the only way, in which she sees salvation, is suicide. She throws herself off a cliff into the Volga and dies tragically.

Main characters

All the characters in the play are divided into two opposing camps, some (Kabanikha, her son and daughter, the merchant Dikoy and his nephew Boris, the maids Feklusha and Glasha) are representatives of the old, patriarchal way of life, others (Katerina, self-taught mechanic Kuligin) - the new, progressive.

A young woman, Katerina, the wife of Tikhon Kabanov, is the central character of the play. She was brought up in strict patriarchal rules, in accordance with the laws of the ancient Russian Domostroy: a wife must submit to her husband in everything, respect him, and fulfill all his demands. At first, Katerina tried with all her might to love her husband, to become a submissive and good wife for him, but due to his complete spinelessness and weakness of character, she can only feel pity for him.

Outwardly, she looks weak and silent, but in the depths of her soul there is enough willpower and perseverance to resist the tyranny of her mother-in-law, who is afraid that her daughter-in-law might change her son Tikhon and he will stop submitting to his mother’s will. Katerina is cramped and stuffy in the dark kingdom of life in Kalinov, she literally suffocates there and in her dreams she flies like a bird away from this terrible place for her.

Boris

Having fallen in love with a newcomer young man Boris, the nephew of a rich merchant and businessman, she creates in her head the image of an ideal lover and a real man, which is not at all true, breaks her heart and leads to a tragic ending.

In the play, the character of Katerina opposes not a specific person, her mother-in-law, but the entire patriarchal structure that existed at that time.

Kabanikha

Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova (Kabanikha), like the tyrant merchant Dikoy, who tortures and insults his relatives, does not pay wages and deceives his workers, are prominent representatives old, bourgeois way of life. They are distinguished by stupidity and ignorance, unjustified cruelty, rudeness and rudeness, complete rejection of any progressive changes in the ossified patriarchal way of life.

Tikhon

(Tikhon, in the illustration near Kabanikha - Marfa Ignatievna)

Tikhon Kabanov is characterized throughout the play as a quiet and weak-willed person, under the complete influence of his oppressive mother. Distinguished by his gentle character, he makes no attempts to protect his wife from her mother’s attacks.

At the end of the play, he finally breaks down and the author shows his rebellion against tyranny and despotism; it is his phrase at the end of the play that leads readers to a certain conclusion about the depth and tragedy of the current situation.

Features of compositional construction

(Fragment from a dramatic production)

The work begins with a description of the city on the Volga Kalinov, the image of which is collectively all Russian cities of that time. The landscape of the Volga expanses depicted in the play contrasts with the musty, dull and gloomy atmosphere of life in this city, which is emphasized by the dead isolation of the life of its inhabitants, their underdevelopment, dullness and wild lack of education. The author described the general state of city life as if before a thunderstorm, when the old, dilapidated way of life will be shaken, and new and progressive trends, like a gust of furious thunderstorm wind, will sweep away the outdated rules and prejudices that prevent people from living normally. The period of life of the residents of the city of Kalinov described in the play is precisely in a state when outwardly everything looks calm, but this is only the calm before the coming storm.

The genre of the play can be interpreted as a social drama, as well as a tragedy. The first is characterized by the use of a thorough description of living conditions, the maximum transfer of its “density,” as well as the alignment of characters. Readers' attention should be distributed among all participants in the production. The interpretation of the play as a tragedy presupposes its deeper meaning and thoroughness. If you see Katerina’s death as a consequence of her conflict with her mother-in-law, then she looks like a victim of a family conflict, and the entire unfolding action in the play seems petty and insignificant for a real tragedy. But if we consider the death of the main character as a conflict between a new, progressive time and a fading, old era, then her act is best interpreted in a heroic manner, characteristic of a tragic narrative.

Talented playwright Alexander Ostrovsky from social drama about the life of the merchant class gradually creates a real tragedy, in which, with the help of a love-domestic conflict, he showed the onset of an epochal turning point taking place in the consciousness of the people. Simple people They become aware of their awakening sense of self-worth, begin to have a new attitude towards the world around them, want to decide their own destinies and fearlessly express their will. This nascent desire comes into irreconcilable contradiction with the real patriarchal way of life. Katerina's fate acquires a social historical meaning, expressing the state of the people's consciousness at the turning point between two eras.

Alexander Ostrovsky, who noticed in time the doom of the decaying patriarchal foundations, wrote the play “The Thunderstorm” and opened the eyes of the entire Russian public to what was happening. He depicted the destruction of a familiar, outdated way of life, using the ambiguous and figurative concept of a thunderstorm, which, gradually growing, will sweep away everything from its path and open the way to a new, better life.

To create a tragedy means to elevate the conflict depicted in the play to the struggle of large social forces. The character of the tragedy should be big personality, free in your actions and deeds

The character in the tragedy embodies a great social principle, the principle of the whole world. That is why tragedy shuns concrete forms of everyday life; it elevates its heroes to the personification of great historical forces.

The heroes of "The Thunderstorm", unlike the heroes of old tragedies, are merchants and townspeople. From this arise many features and originality of Ostrovsky’s play.

In addition to the participants family drama, which happened in the Kabanovs’ house, the play also contains characters who are in no way connected with it, acting outside the family sphere. These are ordinary people walking in a public garden, and Shapkin, and Feklusha, and in a certain sense, even Kuligin and Dikoy.

One can imagine that the system of images of the drama "The Thunderstorm" is built on the opposition of the masters of life, tyrants, Kabanikha and Dikiy, and Katerina Kabanova as a figure of protest against the world of violence, as a prototype of the trends of a new life.

. Images of the masters of life - Dikogo and Kabanikha: bearers of the ideas of the old way of life (Domostroy), cruelty, tyranny and hypocrisy towards other characters, a feeling of the death of the old way of life.

. Images of tyrants humbled under the rule- Tikhon and Boris (double images): lack of will, weakness of character, love for Katerina, which does not give the heroes strength, the heroine is stronger than those who love her and whom she loves, the difference between Boris and Tikhon in external education, the difference in expression of protest: Katerina's death leads to Tikhon's protest; Boris weakly submits to circumstances and practically abandons his beloved woman in a tragic situation for her.

. Images of heroes expressing protest against the “dark kingdom” of tyrants:

Varvara and Kudryash: external humility, lies, confronting force with force - Kudryash, escape from the power of tyrants when mutual existence becomes impossible)

Kuligin - opposes the power of enlightenment to tyranny, understands with reason the essence of the “dark kingdom”, tries to influence it with the power of persuasion, practically expresses the author’s point of view, but as a character he is inactive

The image of Katerina is like the most decisive protest against the power of tyrants, “a protest carried through to the end”: the difference between Katerina’s character, upbringing, and behavior from the character, upbringing, and behavior of other characters

. Secondary images emphasizing the essence of the “dark kingdom”: Feklusha, the lady, the townspeople who witnessed Katerina’s confession. Image of a Thunderstorm

1. Images of the masters of life

Dikoy Savel Prokofich is a wealthy merchant, one of the most respected people in the city of Kalinov.

Dikoy is a typical tyrant. He feels his power over people and complete impunity, and therefore does what he wants. “There are no elders over you, so you are showing off,” Kabanikha explains the behavior of the Wild.

Every morning his wife begs those around her with tears: “Fathers, don’t make me angry! Darlings, don’t make me angry!” But it’s hard not to make the Wild One angry. He himself does not know what mood he may be in in the next minute.

This “cruel scolder” and “shrill man” does not mince words. His speech is filled with words like “parasite”, “Jesuit”, “asp”

The play, as you know, begins with a conversation about Diky, who “has broken free” and cannot live without swearing. But right away from Kudryash’s words it becomes clear that Dikoy is not so scary: there are few guys “on my side, otherwise we would have taught him not to be naughty... The four of us, the five of us in an alley somewhere, would have talked to him face to face , so he would become silk. And he wouldn’t say a word about our science to anyone, just walk around and look around.” Kudryash confidently says: “I’m not afraid of him, but let him be afraid of me”; “No, I won’t slave to him.”

Dikoy wants to cut off any attempt to demand an account from him the first time. It seems to him that if he recognizes over himself the laws of common sense, common to all people, then his importance will greatly suffer from this. This is where eternal dissatisfaction and irritability develop in him. He himself explains his situation when he talks about how difficult it is for him to give out money. “What do you tell me to do when my heart is like this! After all, I already know that I have to give, but I can’t give everything good. You are my friend, and I must give to you, but if you come to ask me, I will scold you. I will give, I’ll give it to you, but I’ll scold you. Therefore, if you even mention money to me, it will ignite my entire inner being, and that’s all; Even in the consciousness of the Wild One, some reflection awakens: he realizes how absurd he is, and blames it on the fact that “his heart is like that!”

Dikoy only wants more, as many rights as possible for himself; when it is necessary to recognize them for others, he considers this an attack on his personal dignity, and gets angry, and tries in every possible way to delay the matter and prevent it. Even when he knows that he absolutely must give in, and will give in later, he will still try to cause mischief first. “I’ll give it, I’ll give it, but I’ll scold you!” And one must assume that the more significant the issuance of money and the more urgent the need for it, the more Dikoy scolds... It is clear that no reasonable convictions will stop him until an external force that is tangible to him is united with them: he scolds Kuligin; and when a hussar scolded him once during a transport, he did not dare contact the hussar, but again took out his insult at home: for two weeks they hid from him in attics and closets...

Such relationships show that the position of Dikiy and all tyrants like him is far from being as calm and firm as it once was, during the times of patriarchal morals.

Kabanikha (Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna) - “rich merchant’s wife, widow,” mother-in-law of Katerina, mother of Tikhon and Varvara.

The Kabanov family follows a traditional way of life. The head of the family is a representative of the older generation. Kabanikha lives “as is customary,” as fathers and sons lived in the old days. Patriarchal life is typical in its immobility. Through the mouth of Kabanikha, the entire centuries-old house-building way of life speaks.

Kabanova has a firm conviction that she is obliged, this is her duty - to mentor young people for their own good. This is Domostroev’s way, it has been like this for centuries, this is how our fathers and grandfathers lived. She says to her son and daughter-in-law: “After all, parents are strict with you out of love, and they scold you out of love, and everyone thinks to teach you good things. Well, I don’t like that these days.” “I know, I know that you don’t like my words, but what can you do? I’m not a stranger to you, my heart aches for you. I’ve seen for a long time that you want freedom. Well, wait, live and in freedom, when I’m gone. Then do what you want, there will be no elders over you. And maybe you’ll remember me.”

Kabanova will be very seriously upset about the future of the old order, with which she has outlived the century. She foresees their end, tries to maintain their significance, but already feels that there is no former respect for them, that they are being preserved reluctantly, only unwillingly, and that at the first opportunity they will be abandoned. She herself had somehow lost some of her knightly fervor; She no longer cares with the same energy about observing old customs; in many cases she has given up, bowed down before the impossibility of stopping the flow and only watches with despair as it little by little floods the colorful flower beds of her whimsical superstitions. Kabanova’s only consolation is that somehow, with her help, the old order will survive until her death; and then - whatever happens - she won’t see it anymore.

Seeing her son off on the road, she notices that everything is not being done as she should: her son does not bow at her feet - this is exactly what should be demanded of him, but he himself did not think of it; and he does not “order” his wife how to live without him, and he does not know how to give orders, and when parting, he does not require her to bow to the ground; and the daughter-in-law, having seen her husband off, does not howl or lie on the porch to show her love. If possible, Kabanova tries to restore order, but she already feels that it is impossible to conduct business completely in the old way. But seeing off her son inspires her with the following sad thoughts: “Youth is what it means! It’s funny to look at them even! If they weren’t our own, I’d laugh to my heart’s content: they don’t know anything, there’s no order. They don’t know how to say goodbye. Good.” Also, those who have elders in the house, they hold the house together as long as they are alive. But they, too, are stupid, they want to do it their own way; good people. Of course, no one will regret it, but everyone laughs the most. But it’s impossible not to laugh: they’ll invite guests, they don’t know how to seat them, and, look, they’ll forget one of their relatives. Laughter, and that's all! This is how the old days come out. I don’t even want to go to another house. And if you get up, you’ll just spit, but get out quickly. What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will remain, I don’t know. Well, at least it’s good that I won’t see anything.”

Kabanikha needs to always inviolably preserve exactly those orders that she recognizes as good.

2. Those who resigned themselves to the rule of tyrants

Boris stands apart from the other characters in the tragedy. Ostrovsky separates him from them even in the remarks characterizing the characters: “A young man, decently educated” - and another remark: “All the faces, except Boris, are dressed in Russian.”

Boris Grigorievich is Dikiy's nephew. He is one of the weakest characters in the play. Boris himself says about himself: “I’m walking around completely dead... Driven, beaten...”

Boris - kind, good educated person. He stands out sharply against the background merchant environment. But he is by nature weak person. Boris is forced to humiliate himself in front of his uncle for the sake of hope for the inheritance that he will leave him. Although the hero himself knows that this will never happen, he nevertheless curries favor with the tyrant, tolerating his antics. Boris is unable to protect either himself or his beloved Katerina. In misfortune, he only rushes about and cries: “Oh, if only these people knew what it’s like for me to say goodbye to you! My God! May God grant that they may someday feel as sweet as I do now... You villains! Monsters! Oh, if only force!" But Boris does not have this power, so he is unable to alleviate Katerina’s suffering and support her choice by taking her with him.

In Tikhon there are also, as it were, two people. This is especially clear during last conversation him with Kuligin when he talks about what is happening in their family.

“What my wife did against me! It can’t be worse...” - Tikhon says this. But this is mommy's voice. And then he continues with the same mama’s words: “It’s not enough to kill her for this. So mama says, she needs to be buried alive in the ground so that she can be executed!” In the next words, Tikhon himself, a narrow-minded man, weak and helpless, but loving, kind and sincere: “But I love her, I’m sorry to lay a finger on her. I beat her a little, and even then mummy ordered it. I feel sorry for looking at her, you understand that, Kuligin. Mama eats her up, but she walks around like a shadow unrequited. She just cries and melts like wax. So I’m killed, looking at her.” A man with a heart, Tikhon understands Boris’s suffering and sympathizes with him. But at the last moment he comes to his senses and obeys what his inexorable mother tells him.

Tikhon is a Russian character. He attracts kindness and sincerity. But he is weak and suppressed by family despotism, crippled and broken by it. This instability of his character manifests itself all the time, right up to the death of Katerina. Under the influence of her death, a flash of humanity breaks out in Tikhon. He discards the vulgar and cruel maxims imposed by his mother, and even raises his voice against her.

3. Heroes protesting against the dark kingdom

Varvara is the direct opposite of Tikhon. She has both will and courage. But Varvara is Kabanikha’s daughter, Tikhon’s sister. We can say that life in Kabanikha’s house morally crippled the girl. She also does not want to live according to the patriarchal laws that her mother preaches. But despite a strong character, Varvara does not dare to openly protest against them. Its principle is “Do what you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.”

In Varvara she has a craving for will. Her escape from the power of family despotism indicates that she does not want to live under oppression. She has a sense of justice, she sees the cruelty of her mother and the insignificance of her brother.

This heroine easily adapts to the laws of the “dark kingdom” and easily deceives everyone around her. This became habitual for her. Varvara claims that it is impossible to live any other way: their whole house rests on deception. “And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.”

Much higher and more morally insightful than Varvara is Vanya Kudryash. In him, more than in any of the heroes of "The Thunderstorm", excluding, of course, Katerina, triumphs folk origin. This is a song nature, gifted and talented, daring and reckless on the outside, but kind and sensitive in depth. But Kudryash also gets used to Kalinov’s morals, his nature is free, but sometimes self-willed. Kudryash opposes the world of his “fathers” with his daring and mischief, but not with his moral strength.

"The Thunderstorm" is not only imbued with the spirit of criticism. One of its main themes is the talent of the Russian person, the wealth of talents and opportunities contained in his personality.

A vivid embodiment of this is Kuligin (the surname, as is known, hints at the closeness of this character to the famous self-taught mechanic Kulibin).

Kuligin is a talented genius who dreams of inventing a perpetuum mobile to give work to the poor and ease their lot. “Otherwise you have hands, but nothing to work with.”

“A mechanic, a self-taught mechanic,” as Kuligin calls himself, wants to make a sundial in the city park, for this he needs ten rubles and he asks Dikiy for them. Here Kuligin encounters the stubborn stupidity of Diky, who simply does not want to part with his money. Dobrolyubov wrote in his article “The Dark Kingdom” that “tyrants are easy to ‘stop’ with the power of a judicious, enlightened mind.” “An enlightened person does not retreat, trying to instill in the Wild the correct concepts about the benefits of sundials and the saving power of lightning rods.” But everything is useless. One can only be surprised at the patience, respect and tenacity with which Kuligin tries to reach out to Dikiy.

People are drawn to Kuligin. Tikhon Kabanov tells him with complete confidence about his experiences, about how hard it is for him to live in his mother’s house. Kuligin clearly understands all of Tikhon’s problems, gives him advice to forgive his wife and live by his own mind. "She would be for you, sir, good wife; look - better than any"

In the “dark kingdom” Kuligin appears as a good person, he reads poetry, sings, his judgments are always accurate and thorough. He is a kind dreamer who strives to make people's lives better and expand their knowledge about the world around them. It often seems that the wise and judicious thoughts that Kuligin expresses are an assessment of the events of the play by the author himself.

It is Kuligin who reproaches the people who killed Katerina. “Here is your Katerina. Do with her what you want! Her body is here, take it; but her soul is now not yours: she is now before a judge who is more merciful than you!”

4. Image of Katerina

First of all, we are struck by the extraordinary originality of Katerina’s character. Katerina does not at all belong to the violent character, never satisfied, loving to destroy at any cost. On the contrary, this character is predominantly loving, ideal. She tries to reconcile every external dissonance with the harmony of her soul; she covers every shortcoming from the fullness of her own. internal forces.

For Katerina, her own judgment on herself is unbearable. Her inner, moral foundations are shaken. This is not just a “family deception”. A moral catastrophe has occurred, the eternal moral principles in Katerina’s eyes have been violated, and from this, as from original sin, the universe can tremble and everything will be distorted and perverted in it. It is on this universal scale that Katerina perceives the thunderstorm. In the common view, her suffering is not a tragedy at all: you never know when a wife meets another in the absence of her husband, he returns and does not even know about his rival, etc. But Katerina would not have been Katerina, who received literary immortality, if everything had ended just like that for her, and, as in a farce or anecdote, everything would have been “all right.” Just as Katerina is not afraid of human judgment, so no deal with her conscience is possible for her.

Katerina’s tragedy is not so much in “broken love”, in a “disgusted” life with an unloved husband, with an overbearing mother-in-law, but in that internal hopelessness when it is revealed that it is impossible to find oneself in the “new morality” and the future turns out to be closed.

In Katerina’s personality we see an already mature demand for the right and spaciousness of life emerging from the depths of the whole organism. Here it is no longer imagination, not hearsay, not an artificially excited impulse that appears to us, but the vital necessity of nature.

Katerina tells Varya one trait about her character from her childhood memories: “I was so hot at birth! I was only six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, and it was late in the evening, it was already dark, - I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it, about ten miles away...” This childish fervor remained in Katerina. An adult, forced to endure insults, finds the strength to endure them for a long time, without vain complaints, half-resistance and any noisy antics. She endures until some interest speaks up in her, without satisfying which she cannot remain calm.

Katerina, with amazing ease, resolves all the difficulties of her situation. Here is her conversation with Varvara: “Varvara: You’re kind of tricky, God be with you! But in my opinion: do what you want, as long as it’s sewn and covered. Katerina. I don’t want so. And what’s good! I’d better endure it as long as I can endure it... Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! I’ll throw myself out of the window and throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!” This is true strength of character, which you can rely on in any case! This is the height to which our national life reaches in its development. Ostrovsky felt that it was not abstract beliefs, but life facts control a person that it is not a way of thinking, not principles, but nature that is needed for education and the manifestation of a strong character, and he knew how to create such a person who serves as a representative of the great national idea. Her actions are in harmony with her nature, they are natural for her, necessary, she cannot refuse them, even if it has the most disastrous consequences.

Katerina, at Varvara’s first proposal about her meeting with Boris, screams: “No, no, don’t! What, God forbid: if I see him even once, I’ll run away from home, I won’t go home for anything in the world! " it is passion that speaks in her; and it’s clear that no matter how she restrained herself, her passion was higher than all her prejudices and fears. Her whole life lies in this passion; all the strength of her nature. What attracts her to Boris is not just that she likes him, that he, both in appearance and in speech, is not like the others around her; He is attracted to him by the need for love, which has not found a response in her husband, and the offended feeling of a wife and woman, and the mortal melancholy of her monotonous life, and the desire for freedom, space, hot, unfettered freedom.

Katerina is not afraid of anything except being deprived of the opportunity to see her chosen one, talk to him, enjoy these summer nights, these new feelings for her. My husband arrived, and life became miserable. It was necessary to hide, to be cunning; she didn’t want it and couldn’t do it; she had to return again to her callous, dreary life - this seemed to her more bitter than before. This situation was unbearable for Katerina: days and nights she kept thinking, suffering, and the end was one that she could not endure - in front of all the people crowded in the gallery of the strange church, she repented of everything to her husband.

She decided to die, but she is afraid of the thought that this is a sin, and she seems to be trying to prove to us and herself that she can be forgiven, since it is very difficult for her. She would like to enjoy life and love; but she knows that this is a crime, and therefore she says in her justification: “Well, it doesn’t matter, I’ve already ruined my soul!” There is no anger, no contempt in her, nothing that is usually so flaunted by disappointed heroes who voluntarily leave the world. But she can’t live anymore, she can’t, and that’s all; she says from the fullness of her heart: “I’m already exhausted... How long do I have to suffer? Why should I live now - well, for what?... To live again?.. No, no, don’t... it’s not good. And people disgust me , and the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting! I won’t go there!..."

It is usually customary to say that Katerina is one of the most perfect embodiments of the character of a Russian woman. Katerina’s appearance is depicted with everyday colors, covered in the everyday flavor of old Russian life. She is an extraordinary woman in the depth and strength of her spiritual life. “What an angelic smile she has on her face, and her face seems to glow,” Boris says about her.

By nature, Katerina is far from religious humility. She was raised by the Volga expanse. She has a strong character, a passionate temperament, no internal independence and a craving for will, a spontaneous sense of justice.

5. Secondary images. Image of a thunderstorm

Minor characters of wanderers and praying mantises also help create the necessary background for the play. With their fantastic fables they emphasize the ignorance and denseness of the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom”.

Feklushi's stories about the lands where people with dog heads live are perceived by them as immutable facts about the universe. The wanderer Feklusha can be called an “ideologist” of the “dark kingdom.” With her stories about lands where people with dog heads live, about thunderstorms, which are perceived as irrefutable information about the world, she helps “tyrants” keep people in constant fear. Kalinov for her is a land blessed by God.

And one more character - a half-crazy lady who, at the very beginning of the play, predicts the death of Katerina. She becomes the personification of those ideas about sin that live in the soul of the religious Katerina, raised in a patriarchal family. True, in the finale of the play, Katerina manages to overcome her fear, for she understands that lying and humbling herself all her life is a greater sin than suicide.

The title of the play does not denote the name of the heroine of the tragedy, but the violent manifestation of nature, its phenomenon. And this cannot be considered an accident. Nature is important actor plays.

These are the words with which it opens: “A public garden on the high bank of the Volga, a rural view beyond the Volga.” This is a stage direction indicating the location of the action. But she immediately introduces the motif of nature, which is necessary for the development of the concept of tragedy. The remark depicts the beauty of the Volga landscape, the vastness of the Volga.

Not all the characters in the play notice the beauty of nature. It is inaccessible to the vulgar and self-interested inhabitants of the city of Kalinov - merchants and townspeople.

It's not just about the contrast between beautiful nature and the unfair and cruel life of people. Nature also enters their lives. She illuminates it, becomes its participant.

The real thunderstorm becomes a symbolic embodiment of the thunderstorm thundering in Katerina’s soul, a harbinger of the punishment that threatens her for her crime. A thunderstorm is a terrible turmoil of her soul.

Kuligin perceives the thunderstorm differently. For him, a thunderstorm is a powerful expression of the beauty and power of nature, a thunderstorm is a grace that overshadows people.

But the meaning of the play's title can be interpreted even more broadly and somewhat differently.

The thunderstorm is the element of Katerina’s love for Boris, it is the strength and truth of her stormy repentance. It’s like a cleansing thunderstorm that swept over a city mired and ossified in vices. The city needs a storm like this.

The thunderstorm that thundered over the city of Kalinov is a refreshing thunderstorm and foreshadows punishment, indicating that there are forces in Russian life that can revive and renew it.

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

State educational institution

higher professional education

"Ryazan State University them. S.A. Yesenin"

Faculty of Russian Philology and National Culture

Department of Literature

The system of images in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"

Abstract on the course

History of Russian literature, first half of the 19th century

Davydova Daria Olegovna

Scientific adviser:

Ph.D., Associate Professor Department of Literature

A. V. Safronov

Introduction

1. The history of the creation and plot of the drama “The Thunderstorm”

2. Image system

2.1 Images of the masters of life

2.2 Those resigned to the rule of tyrants

2.3 Heroes protesting against the dark kingdom

2.4 Katerina's image

2.5 Secondary images. Image of a thunderstorm

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

A. N. Ostrovsky is very modern as truly talented artist. He never shied away from complex and painful issues of society. Ostrovsky is a very sensitive writer who loves his land, his people, its history. His plays attract people with their amazing moral purity and genuine humanity.

The play “The Thunderstorm” is rightfully considered one of the masterpieces of Ostrovsky and all Russian drama. After all, the author himself evaluates it as creative luck. In “The Thunderstorm,” according to Goncharov, “the picture has calmed down national life and morals with unparalleled artistic completeness and fidelity,” in this capacity, the play was a passionate challenge to the despotism and ignorance that reigned in pre-reform Russia.

Very clearly and expressively he depicts the Ostrovsky corner of the “dark kingdom”, where before our eyes the confrontation between darkness and ignorance on the one hand, and beauty and harmony on the other, is gaining strength. The masters of life here are tyrants. They crowd people, tyrannize their families and suppress every manifestation of living and healthy human thought. Already at the first acquaintance with the characters in the drama, the inevitability of a conflict between two opposing sides becomes obvious. Because both among adherents of the old order and among representatives of the new generation, both truly strong and weak characters are striking.

Based on this, the purpose of my work will be a detailed study of the characters of the main characters of A.N. Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”.

1. History of creation and plot of the drama “The Thunderstorm”

Drama A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" first saw the light not in print, but on the stage: on November 16, 1859, the premiere took place at the Maly Theater, and on December 2 at the Alexandrinsky Theater. The drama was published in the first issue of the magazine “Library for Reading” the following year, 1860, and in March of the same year it was published as a separate publication.

“The Thunderstorm” was written quickly: started in July and finished on October 9, 1859. And it took shape and matured in the mind and imagination of the artist, apparently, for many years...

What a mystery is creation artistic image? When you think about “The Thunderstorm,” you remember a lot of what could have been the impetus for writing the drama. Firstly, the writer’s trip along the Volga itself, which opened up to him a new, unprecedented world of Russian life. The play says that the action takes place in the city of Kalinov on the banks of the Volga. The fictitious town of Kalinov has incorporated real signs provincial life and the customs of those cities that were well known to Ostrovsky from his Volga travel - Tver, Torzhok, Kostroma, and Kineshma.

But a writer may be struck by some detail, a meeting, even a story he heard, just a word or an objection, and it sinks into his imagination, secretly ripening and germinating there. He could see on the banks of the Volga and talk with some local tradesman, who is considered an eccentric in the town, because he likes to “disperse the conversation”, speculate about local morals, etc., and in creative imagination Little by little, the future faces and characters of the heroes of “The Thunderstorm” could already emerge, which we would have to study.

In the most general formulation, the thematic core of “The Thunderstorm” can be defined as a clash between new trends and old traditions, between the aspirations of oppressed people to freely express their spiritual needs. Inclinations, interests and the social, family and everyday order that prevailed in pre-reform Russia.

Characterizing representatives of old traditions and new trends, Ostrovsky deeply and completely reveals the essence life relationships and the entire structure of pre-reform reality. In the words of Goncharov, in “The Thunderstorm” “a broad picture of national life and morals has settled down.”

2.Image system

To create a tragedy means to elevate the conflict depicted in the play to the struggle of large social forces. The character of the tragedy should be a large personality, free in his actions and deeds

The heroes of "The Thunderstorm", unlike the heroes of old tragedies, are merchants and townspeople. From this arise many features and originality of Ostrovsky’s play.

In addition to the participants in the family drama that happened in the Kabanovs’ house, the play also contains characters who are in no way connected with it, acting outside the family sphere. These are ordinary people walking in a public garden, and Shapkin, and Feklusha, and in a certain sense, even Kuligin and Dikoy.

One can imagine that the system of images of the drama “The Thunderstorm” is built on the opposition of the masters of life, tyrants, Kabanikha and Dikiy, and Katerina Kabanova as a figure of protest against the world of violence, as a prototype of the trends of a new life.

Images of the masters of life - Wild and Kabanikha: bearers of the ideas of the old way of life (Domostroy), cruelty, tyranny and hypocrisy towards other characters, a feeling of the death of the old way of life.

Images of tyrants humbled under the rule - Tikhon and Boris (double images): lack of will, weakness of character, love for Katerina, which does not give the heroes strength, the heroine is stronger than those who love her and whom she loves, the difference between Boris and Tikhon is in external education, the difference is in the expression of protest: Katerina’s death leads to Tikhon’s protest; Boris weakly submits to circumstances and practically abandons his beloved woman in a tragic situation for her.

Images of heroes expressing protest against the “dark kingdom” of tyrants:

Varvara and Kudryash: external humility, lies, confronting force with force - Kudryash, escape from the power of tyrants when mutual existence becomes impossible)

Secondary images emphasizing the essence of the “dark kingdom”: Feklusha, the lady, the townspeople who witnessed Katerina’s confession. Image of a Thunderstorm

1 Images of the masters of life

Dikoy Savel Prokofich is a wealthy merchant, one of the most respected people in the city of Kalinov.

This “cruel scolder” and “shrill man” does not mince words. His speech is filled with words like “parasite”, “Jesuit”, “asp”

The play, as you know, begins with a conversation about Diky, who “has broken free” and cannot live without swearing. But right away from Kudryash’s words it becomes clear that Dikoy is not so scary: there are few guys “on my side, otherwise we would have taught him not to be naughty... The four of us, the five of us in an alley somewhere, would have talked to him face to face , so it would become silk. But I wouldn’t even say a word to anyone about our science, I’d just walk around and look around.” Kudryash confidently says: “I’m not afraid of him, but let him be afraid of me”; “No, I won’t slave to him.”

Dikoy wants to cut off any attempt to demand an account from him the first time. It seems to him that if he recognizes over himself the laws of common sense, common to all people, then his importance will greatly suffer from this. This is where eternal dissatisfaction and irritability develop in him. He himself explains his situation when he talks about how difficult it is for him to give out money. “What do you tell me to do when my heart is like this! After all, I already know that I have to give, but I can’t give everything with good. You are my friend, and I must give it to you, but if you come and ask me, I will scold you. I will give, give, and curse. Therefore, as soon as you mention money to me, everything inside me will be ignited; It kindles everything inside, and that’s all; Well, even in those days I would never curse a person.” Even in the consciousness of the Wild One, some reflection awakens: he realizes how absurd he is, and blames it on the fact that “his heart is like that!”

Such relationships show that the position of Dikiy and all tyrants like him is far from being as calm and firm as it once was, during the times of patriarchal morals.

Kabanikha (Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna) - “rich merchant’s wife, widow,” mother-in-law of Katerina, mother of Tikhon and Varvara.

Kabanova has a firm conviction that she is obliged, this is her duty - to mentor young people for their own good. This is Domostroev’s way, it has been like this for centuries, this is how our fathers and grandfathers lived. She says to her son and daughter-in-law: “After all, parents are strict with you out of love, and they scold you out of love, and everyone thinks to teach you good. Well, I don’t like it now.” “I know, I know that you don’t like my words, but what can I do? I’m not a stranger to you, my heart aches for you. I have long seen that you want freedom. Well, wait, you can live in freedom when I’m gone. Then do what you want, there will be no elders over you. Or maybe you’ll remember me too.”

Seeing her son off on the road, she notices that everything is not being done as she should: her son does not bow at her feet - this is exactly what should be demanded of him, but he himself did not think of it; and he does not “order” his wife how to live without him, and he does not know how to give orders, and when parting, he does not require her to bow to the ground; and the daughter-in-law, having seen her husband off, does not howl or lie on the porch to show her love. If possible, Kabanova tries to restore order, but she already feels that it is impossible to conduct business completely in the old way. But seeing off her son inspires her with such sad thoughts: “Youth is what it means! It’s funny to look even at them! If they weren’t their own, I’d laugh to my heart’s content: they don’t know anything, there’s no order. They don’t know how to say goodbye. It’s good that those who have elders in the house, they hold the house together as long as they are alive. But also, stupid people, they want to do their own thing; and when they are released, they are confused to the obedience and laughter of good people. Of course, no one will regret it, but everyone laughs the most. But it’s impossible not to laugh: they’ll invite guests, they don’t know how to seat them, and, look, they’ll forget one of their relatives. Laughter, and that's all! This is how the old days come out. I don’t even want to go to another house. And if you get up, you’ll just spit, but get out quickly. What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will remain, I don’t know. Well, at least it’s good that I won’t see anything.”

Kabanikha needs to always inviolably preserve exactly those orders that she recognizes as good.

2 Those resigned to the rule of tyrants

Boris Grigorievich is Dikiy's nephew. He is one of the weakest characters in the play. Boris himself says about himself: “I’m walking around completely dead... Driven, beaten...”

Boris is a kind, well-educated person. He stands out sharply against the background of the merchant environment. But he is a weak person by nature. Boris is forced to humiliate himself in front of his uncle for the sake of hope for the inheritance that he will leave him. Although the hero himself knows that this will never happen, he nevertheless curries favor with the tyrant, tolerating his antics. Boris is unable to protect either himself or his beloved Katerina. In misfortune, he only rushes about and cries: “Oh, if only these people knew how it feels for me to say goodbye to you! My God! God grant that someday they may feel as sweet as I do now... You villains! Monsters! Oh, if only there was strength! But Boris does not have this power, so he is unable to alleviate Katerina’s suffering and support her choice by taking her with him.

In Tikhon there are also, as it were, two people. This becomes especially clear during his last conversation with Kuligin, when he talks about what is happening in their family.

“What has my wife done against me? It can’t get any worse…” - this is Tikhon speaking. But this is mommy's voice. And then he continues with the same mother’s words: “killing her for this is not enough. So my mother says, she needs to be buried alive in the ground so that she can be executed!” In the next words, Tikhon himself, a narrow-minded man, weak and helpless, but loving, kind and sincere: “And I love her, I’m sorry to lay a finger on her. I beat him a little, and even then my mother ordered me to. I feel sorry for looking at her, understand that, Kuligin. Mama eats her, and she, like some kind of shadow, walks around unresponsive. It just cries and melts like wax. So I’m dying looking at her.” A man with a heart, Tikhon understands Boris’s suffering and sympathizes with him. But at the last moment he comes to his senses and obeys what his inexorable mother tells him.

3 Heroes protesting against the dark kingdom

Varvara is the direct opposite of Tikhon. She has both will and courage. But Varvara is Kabanikha’s daughter, Tikhon’s sister. We can say that life in Kabanikha’s house morally crippled the girl. She also does not want to live according to the patriarchal laws that her mother preaches. But, despite her strong character, Varvara does not dare to openly protest against them. Her principle is “Do what you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.”

Much higher and more morally insightful than Varvara is Vanya Kudryash. In him, more than in any of the heroes of “The Thunderstorm”, excluding, of course, Katerina, the people’s principle triumphs. This is a song nature, gifted and talented, daring and reckless on the outside, but kind and sensitive in depth. But Kudryash also gets used to Kalinov’s morals, his nature is free, but sometimes self-willed. Kudryash opposes the world of “fathers” with his daring and mischief, but not with moral strength.

“The Thunderstorm” is not only imbued with the spirit of criticism. One of its main themes is the talent of the Russian person, the wealth of talents and opportunities contained in his personality.

A vivid embodiment of this is Kuligin (the surname, as is known, hints at the closeness of this character to the famous self-taught mechanic Kulibin).

Kuligin is a talented genius who dreams of inventing a perpetuum mobile to give work to the poor and ease their lot. “Otherwise you have hands, but nothing to work with.”

“A mechanic, a self-taught mechanic,” as Kuligin calls himself, wants to make a sundial in the city park, for this he needs ten rubles and he asks Dikiy for them. Here Kuligin encounters the stubborn stupidity of Diky, who simply does not want to part with his money. Dobrolyubov wrote in his article “The Dark Kingdom” that “tyrants are easy to “stop” with the power of a judicious, enlightened mind.” “An enlightened person does not retreat, trying to instill in the Wild the correct concepts about the benefits of sundials and the saving power of lightning rods.” But everything is useless. One can only be surprised at the patience, respect and tenacity with which Kuligin tries to reach out to Dikiy.

People are drawn to Kuligin. Tikhon Kabanov tells him with complete confidence about his experiences, about how hard it is for him to live in his mother’s house. Kuligin clearly understands all of Tikhon’s problems, gives him advice to forgive his wife and live by his own mind. “She would be a good wife for you, sir; look - better than any"

It is Kuligin who reproaches the people who killed Katerina. “Here is your Katerina. Do what you want with her! Her body is here, take it; but the soul is now not yours: it is now before a judge who is more merciful than you!”

4 Image of Katerina

First of all, we are struck by the extraordinary originality of Katerina’s character. Katerina does not at all belong to the violent character, never satisfied, loving to destroy at any cost. On the contrary, this character is predominantly loving, ideal. She tries to reconcile any external dissonance with the harmony of her soul, covering any shortcoming from the fullness of her inner strength.

For Katerina, her own judgment on herself is unbearable. Her inner, moral foundations are shaken. This is not just a “family deception” here. A moral catastrophe has occurred, the eternal moral principles in Katerina’s eyes have been violated, and from this, as from original sin, the universe can tremble and everything will be distorted and perverted in it. It is on this universal scale that Katerina perceives the thunderstorm. In the common view, her suffering is not a tragedy at all: you never know when a wife meets another in the absence of her husband, he returns and does not even know about his rival, etc. But Katerina would not have been Katerina, who received literary immortality, if everything had ended just like that for her, and, as in a farce or an anecdote, everything would have been “all right.” Just as Katerina is not afraid of human judgment, so no deal with her conscience is possible for her.

Katerina tells Varya one trait about her character from her childhood memories: “I was born so hot! I was only six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, and it was late in the evening, it was already dark - I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they found it, about ten miles away...” This childish fervor remained in Katerina. An adult, forced to endure insults, finds the strength to endure them for a long time, without vain complaints, half-resistance and any noisy antics. She endures until some interest speaks up in her, without satisfying which she cannot remain calm.

Katerina resolves all the difficulties of her situation with amazing ease. Here is her conversation with Varvara: “Varvara: You’re kind of tricky, God bless you! And in my opinion: do what you want, as long as it’s sewn and covered. Katerina. I don't want it that way. And what good! I’d rather endure it as long as I can endure it... Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! 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, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I won’t do this, even if you cut me!” This is true strength of character, which you can rely on in any case! This is the height to which our national life reaches in its development. Ostrovsky felt that it is not abstract beliefs, but the facts of life that control a person, that it is not the way of thinking, not principles, but nature that is needed for education and the manifestation of a strong character, and he knew how to create a person who serves as a representative of a great national idea. Her actions are in harmony with her nature, they are natural for her, necessary, she cannot refuse them, even if it has the most disastrous consequences.

At Varvara’s first proposal about a date with Boris, Katerina screams: “No, no, don’t! What, God forbid: if I see him even once, I’ll run away from home, I won’t go home for anything in the world!” it is passion that speaks in her; and it’s clear that no matter how she restrained herself, her passion was higher than all her prejudices and fears. Her whole life lies in this passion; all the strength of her nature. What attracts her to Boris is not just that she likes him, that he, both in appearance and in speech, is not like the others around her; He is attracted to him by the need for love, which has not found a response in her husband, and the offended feeling of a wife and woman, and the mortal melancholy of her monotonous life, and the desire for freedom, space, hot, unfettered freedom.

Katerina is not afraid of anything except being deprived of the opportunity to see her chosen one, talk to him, enjoy these summer nights with him, these new feelings for her. My husband arrived, and life became miserable. It was necessary to hide, to be cunning; she didn’t want it and couldn’t do it; she had to return again to her callous, dreary life - this seemed to her more bitter than before. This situation was unbearable for Katerina: days and nights she kept thinking, suffering, and the end was one that she could not endure - in front of all the people crowded in the gallery of the strange church, she repented of everything to her husband.

She decided to die, but she is afraid of the thought that this is a sin, and she seems to be trying to prove to us and herself that she can be forgiven, since it is very difficult for her. She would like to enjoy life and love; but she knows that this is a crime, and therefore she says in her justification: “Well, it doesn’t matter, I’ve already ruined my soul!” There is no anger, no contempt in her, nothing that is usually so flaunted by disappointed heroes who voluntarily leave the world. But she can’t live anymore, she can’t, and that’s all; from the fullness of her heart she says: “I’m already exhausted... How long should I suffer? Why should I live now - well, what for?...Live again?..No, no, don’t...it’s not good. And people are disgusting to me, and the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting! I won’t go there!...”

5 Secondary images. Image of a thunderstorm

Not all the characters in the play notice the beauty of nature. It is inaccessible to the vulgar and self-interested inhabitants of the city of Kalinov - merchants and townspeople.

It's not just about the contrast between beautiful nature and the unfair and cruel life of people. Nature also enters their lives. She illuminates it, becomes its participant.

Kuligin perceives the thunderstorm differently. For him, a thunderstorm is a powerful expression of the beauty and power of nature, a thunderstorm is a grace that overshadows people.

But the meaning of the play's title can be interpreted even more broadly and somewhat differently.

The thunderstorm that thundered over the city of Kalinov is a refreshing thunderstorm and foreshadows punishment, indicating that there are forces in Russian life that can revive and renew it.

Conclusion

"Thunderstorm" is, without a doubt, the most decisive work Ostrovsky; the mutual relations of tyranny and voicelessness are brought in it to the very tragic consequences.

But the power of talent led the author further. In the same dramatic frame, a broad picture of national life and morals was laid out with unparalleled artistic completeness and fidelity. Every face in drama is typical character, snatched straight from the environment folk life, doused bright colors poetry and artistic decoration, starting with the rich widow Kabanova, who embodies blind despotism, bequeathed by legends, an ugly understanding of duty and the absence of any humanity, - to the bigot Feklushi. The author gave a whole, diverse world of living personalities existing on every corner. [I.A. Goncharov]

Bibliography

image of Ostrovsky thunderstorm

Dobrolyubov, N.A. A ray of light in the dark kingdom [Text] / N.A. Dobrolyubov // Russian tragedy: A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” in Russian criticism and literary criticism. - St. Petersburg: ABC-classics, 2002. - P. 208-278

Lobanov, M.P. Alexander Ostrovsky [Text] / M.P. Lobanov. - M.: Young Guard, 1989. - 400 p.

Ostrovsky, A.N. Thunderstorm: drama in five acts [Text] / A.N. Ostrovsky. - M.: Children's literature, 1981. - 64 p.

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The title of the play alone contains all the main motives for its understanding. The thunderstorm is the ideological symbol of Ostrovsky's work. In the first act, when Catherine made a hint to her mother-in-law about her secret love, a thunderstorm began to approach almost immediately. The approaching thunderstorm - this commemorates the tragedy in the play. But it breaks out only when main character tells her husband and mother-in-law about her sin.

The image of a thunderstorm-threat is closely related to the feeling of fear. “Well, what are you afraid of, pray tell! Now every grass, every flower is rejoicing, but we are hiding, afraid, as if some kind of misfortune is coming! The thunderstorm will kill! This is not a thunderstorm, but grace! Yes, grace! It's a storm for everyone!" - Kuligin shames his fellow citizens who tremble at the sounds of thunder. Indeed, a thunderstorm as a natural phenomenon is as necessary as sunny weather. Rain washes away dirt, cleanses the earth, promotes better growth plants. A person who sees a thunderstorm as a natural phenomenon in the cycle of life, and not as a sign of divine wrath, does not experience fear. The attitude towards the thunderstorm in a certain way characterizes the heroes of the play. The fatalistic superstition associated with thunderstorms and widespread among the people is voiced by the tyrant Dikoy and the woman hiding from the thunderstorm: “The thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we feel...”; “No matter how you hide! If it’s destined for someone, you won’t go anywhere.” But in the perception of Dikiy, Kabanikha and many others, fear of a thunderstorm is something familiar and not a very vivid experience. “That’s it, you need to live in such a way that you are always ready for anything; “For fear this wouldn’t happen,” Kabanikha coolly notes. She has no doubt that the thunderstorm is a sign of God's wrath. But the heroine is so convinced that she is leading the right lifestyle that she does not experience any anxiety.

In the play, only Katerina experiences the most lively trepidation before a thunderstorm. We can say that this fear clearly demonstrates her mental discord. On the one hand, Katerina longs to challenge her hateful existence and meet her love halfway. On the other hand, she is not able to renounce the ideas instilled in the environment in which she grew up and continues to live. Fear, according to Katerina, is an integral element of life, and it is not so much the fear of death as such, but the fear of future punishment, of one’s spiritual failure: “Everyone should be afraid. It’s not so scary that it will kill you, but that death will suddenly find you as you are, with all your sins, with all your evil thoughts.”

In the play we also find a different attitude towards the thunderstorm, towards the fear that it supposedly must certainly evoke. “I’m not afraid,” say Varvara and the inventor Kuligin. The attitude towards a thunderstorm also characterizes the interaction of one or another character in the play with time. Dikoy, Kabanikha and those who share their view of the thunderstorm as a manifestation of heavenly displeasure are, of course, inextricably linked with the past. Internal conflict Katerina comes from the fact that she is unable either to break with ideas that are a thing of the past, or to keep the precepts of “Domostroi” in inviolable purity. Thus, she is at the point of the present, in a contradictory, turning point time, when a person must choose what to do. Varvara and Kuligin are looking to the future. In the fate of Varvara, this is emphasized due to the fact that she leaves her home to an unknown destination, almost like heroes of folklore going in search of happiness, and Kuligin is constantly in scientific search.

M.Yu. Lermontov (Hero of our time)