Female images of thunderstorm. Bright female characters in the play by A.N.

Compare the works of A. N. Ostrovsky “Dowry” and “The Thunderstorm”. What do they have in common?

1. Introduction.

After reading A. N. Ostrovsky’s plays “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry,” I decided to compare them with each other as the only dramatic works of this author that were written at different times, but have many similarities. The comparison of these plays is also prompted by the fact that in both of them the drama of an extraordinary female nature unfolds before us, leading to a tragic denouement. Finally, it is also important that in both plays the image of the Volga city in which the action takes place plays an important role.

2. Similarities and differences.

2.1. Both plays in question belong to the genre of drama, although the exact genre of "The Thunderstorm" remains a controversial issue in Russian literature. This play combines the features of both tragedy and drama (i.e., “everyday tragedy”). The tragic genre is characterized by an insoluble conflict between the personal aspirations of the hero and the laws of life, which is inherent in both plays.

2.2. In terms of the time it was written, “The Thunderstorm” is the main work of Ostrovsky’s pre-reform drama, while “Dowry” absorbs many motifs from the playwright’s post-reform work. The difference in the eras depicted in these plays led to a complete dissimilarity in the artistic world; "Dowry" is a drama of the bourgeois era - a new time, when ties with a thousand-year-old folk tradition are severed, a time that freed a person not only from the foundations of morality, but also from shame, honor, conscience - and this decisively influences its problematics. The culture of the people in “The Thunderstorm” is inspired by the moral values of Orthodoxy. Residents of the city of Kalinov still live according to “Domostroy”; life is still largely patriarchal.

2.3. Born in Zamoskvorechye, Ostrovsky knows well the life and customs of the merchants and explores the various characters of this circle in his work. His plays are densely populated by merchants and clerks, their children and wives. The playwright is interested in any little detail, from the description of the costume and furnishings of the house to the individuality of the speech of each character. Ostrovsky was completely original in his portrayal of heroes.

Two dramas by A.N. devoted to the same problem - the position of women in Russian society. Of course, these women are extraordinary individuals. I want to focus on female heroines.

2.4.1. First of all, this is Katerina from the play “The Thunderstorm”. She is religious and romantic at the same time. Her soul strives for happiness, longing for freedom. Katerina is a merchant's daughter, married without love to Tikhon, she finds herself in an atmosphere of cruelty. In this environment, family responsibilities are performed not from the heart, but “from under bondage,” and Katerina is associated for the rest of her life with her stupid and narrow-minded husband, with her angry and grumpy mother-in-law.

But her romantic impulses find a way out; Katerina falls passionately in love with a young man, Boris, who stands out for his decent manners and some education. Two principles struggle in the heroine: sincere feeling, love and consciousness of the duty of a married woman. This internal struggle evokes in Katerina a desire for personal freedom. Having cheated on her husband, Katerina herself repents to him, but, exhausted by the homely atmosphere, she prefers death to returning to her family. Honest, sincere and principled, she is not capable of deception and falsehood, of resourcefulness and opportunism.

She talks about her desire to fly several times. With this, Ostrovsky emphasizes the romantic sublimity of Katerina’s soul. She would like to become a bird, flying wherever she wants: “Why don’t people fly!.. Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run up, raise my arms and fly,” she says to Varvara, Tikhon’s sister, “how playful I was!” And yours has completely withered...” Harsh reality returns the heroine to the world of the Kabanovs and the Wild. Here you need to lie, quietly do what you want, outwardly observing the rules of decency. Varvara, who grew up in the house, perfectly mastered this science. Varvara is the complete opposite of Katerina. She is not superstitious, is not afraid of thunderstorms, and does not consider strict adherence to established customs obligatory. Katerina is disgusted by this behavior.

Therefore, in a merciless world where Wild and Boars reign, her life turns out to be unbearable, impossible and ends so tragically. Katerina’s protest against Kabanikha is a struggle of the bright, pure, human against the darkness of lies and cruelty of the “dark kingdom.” Katerina has a very unique character: she is God-fearing and rebellious at the same time. For her, this is not suicide, but liberation from the hardships of life and hopelessness.

2.4.2. The situation is different in the drama “Dowry”. The main character Larisa is not a simple girl from a bourgeois environment, she is an educated, cultured, thinking girl. She received a noble upbringing and, unlike Katerina, grew up in conditions where the weak are humiliated and where the strongest survive. Her character does not have the integrity that Katerina has. Therefore, Larisa does not strive, and cannot, realize her dreams and desires. She is oppressed by poverty and low status. Larisa does not accept the world in which she lives. She wants to get out of it at any cost.

For Larisa’s mother, a widow with three daughters, the ostentatious grace and nobility of family life is not a normal state, but a decoration for arranging profitable marriages for her daughters. For her, flattery and cunning are the main principles of communication with rich people visiting the house. Larisa is the youngest daughter, the last one left in the house, and her mother needs to get rid of her, without even claiming great luck. All this puts the extraordinary girl in a difficult situation. Around Larisa is a motley and dubious crowd of admirers and contenders for her hand, among whom there are quite a few “rabble of all sorts.” Life in her house is like a “bazaar” or a “gypsy camp.” The heroine is forced not only to endure the falsehood, cunning, and hypocrisy that surrounds her, but also to take part in them.

Larisa becomes a victim of the noble splendor and irresistibility of Sergei Sergeevich Paratov. She sees in him the “ideal man”, a man whom one cannot disobey, one cannot help but trust. Larisa does not see the insignificance and pettiness of his nature. Having lost hope of happiness with Sergei Sergeevich, Larisa is ready to marry anyone who will take her away from a house that looks like a fair. She doesn’t like Karandyshev, doesn’t even respect him, but she hopes for him. But there is no nobility in this world. Larisa soon realized this. “I am a thing,” she tells Karandyshev. Realizing this, Larisa wants to sell herself at a higher price. The heroine is overcome by internal contradictions. She is ashamed of her thoughts, wants a clean and honest life, but does not see the way there. She wants to die and doesn’t have the strength, so Larisa takes Karandyshev’s shot as a blessing, liberation from the oppression of unsolvable problems. The death of the heroine is a worthy departure from life.

2.5. A. Ostrovsky's plays are full of various symbolism. First of all, these are symbols associated with the natural world: forest, thunderstorm, river, bird, flight. The names of the characters also play a very important role in plays, most often names of ancient origin: ancient Greek and Roman.

2.5.1. Women's names in Ostrovsky's plays are very bizarre, but the name of the main character almost always extremely accurately characterizes her role in the plot and fate. Larisa means “seagull” in Greek, Katerina means “pure”. Larisa is a victim of Paratov’s trade pirate deals: he sells “birds” - “Swallow” (steamboat) and then Larisa - a seagull. Katerina is a victim of her purity, her religiosity, she could not bear the splitting of her soul, because she loved not her husband, and cruelly punished herself for it. It is interesting that Kharita and Martha (in “The Dowry” and in “The Thunderstorm”) are both Ignatievna, that is, “ignorant” or, in scientific terms, “ignoring”. They stand, as it were, on the sidelines of the tragedy of Larisa and Katerina, although both of them are certainly to blame (not directly, but indirectly) for the death of their daughter and daughter-in-law.

2.5.2. Paratov is both a parade and a pirate. Also, of course, the comparison of Paratov with a “paraty” beast, that is, powerful, predatory, strong and merciless, suggests itself. His predatory behavior in the play is best characterized by this surname.

There is no need to comment on the names of Dikoy and Kabanov. And Tikhon is Kabanov, no matter how “quiet” he is. So Katerina rushes about in this dark forest among animal-like creatures. She chose Boris almost unconsciously, the only difference between him and Tikhon was his name (Boris is “fighter” in Bulgarian).

Wild, headstrong characters, except for the Wild One, are represented in the play by Varvara (she is a pagan, a “barbarian,” not a Christian and behaves accordingly).

Kuligin, in addition to the well-known associations with Kulibinsh, also evokes the impression of something small, defenseless: in this terrible swamp he is a sandpiper - a bird and nothing more. He praises Kalinov like a sandpiper praises his swamp.

Larisa in “Dowry” is not surrounded by “animals”. Mokiy is “blasphemous”, Vasily is “king”, Julius is, of course, Julius Caesar, and also Kapitonich, that is, living with his head (kaput - head), and perhaps striving to be in charge.

And finally, Kharita - the mother of three daughters - is associated with the Kharites, the goddesses of youth and beauty, of which there were three, but she also destroys them (remember the terrible fate of the other two sisters - one married a sharper, the other was stabbed to death by her Caucasian husband).

3.1. “The Thunderstorm” and “Dowry” are Ostrovsky’s best plays, which showed the reader and viewer the hitherto unknown world of the merchants with its passions and pain, sorrows and joys. This world stepped onto the stage of the Russian theater, showing the depth and diversity of natures, unbridled and rich in passions, petty and cruel, kind and noble, but weak, unable to stand up for themselves.

The female characters created by the playwright took their rightful place in classical Russian literature.

3.2. Katerina and Larisa have different upbringings, different characters, different ages, but they are united by the desire to love and be loved, to find understanding, in a word, to become happy. And each one goes towards this goal, overcoming the obstacles created by the foundations of society. For Katerina, money still does not matter; she is ready to follow Boris on foot, if only he agrees to take her with him. Larisa is poisoned by the glitter of gold and does not want to vegetate with her pitiful and poor husband.

Katerina cannot connect with her loved one and finds a way out in death.

Larisa's situation is more complicated. She became disillusioned with her loved one and stopped believing in the existence of love and happiness. Realizing that she is surrounded by lies and deception, Larisa sees two ways out of this situation: either the search for material values, or death. And given the circumstances, she chooses the first. But the author does not want to see her as an ordinary dependent woman, and she leaves this life.

3.3. The characters of the main characters are very similar. These are natures who live by the mind of the heart, dream of happiness and love, and idealize the world. But the play “Dowry” was created in a different socio-political environment than “The Thunderstorm”. The playwright's hopes for the correction of society and the human race raise sincere doubts, which is why the endings of these plays differ significantly. If after the death of Katerina the world of the “dark kingdom” realizes its guilt, and Tikhon challenges his mother, blaming her for the death of his wife, then the murder of Larisa Ogudalova does not cause a similar resonance. The author deliberately emphasizes the indifference of others; the scene of the heroine's death is voiced by the singing of a gypsy choir.

3.4. Revealing the meaning of names and surnames in Ostrovsky's plays helps to comprehend both the plot and the main images. Although surnames and names cannot be called “speaking” in this case, since this is a feature of the plays of classicism, they are speaking in the broad - symbolic - sense of the word.

Female characters in the drama "The Thunderstorm"

Once Dobrolyubov called the main character of the drama “The Thunderstorm,” Katerina, “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” Even earlier, analyzing Ostrovsky’s plays created in the first half of the 60s, “We’ll be our own people,” “Don’t sit in your own sleigh,” “Don’t live the way you want,” “Poverty is not a vice,” he determined and the very concept of the “dark kingdom” - for the critic, it was synonymous with the patriarchal way of life, which was preserved to the greatest extent among the Russian merchants. Katerina, according to Dobrolyubov, does not belong to the atom world and is completely opposed to it, and therefore, of all the female characters in the drama, and not only female ones, she is the only one who is a positive character. Dobrolyubov created a black and white picture of the “dark kingdom”, in which there is and cannot be anything positive or bright, and contrasted female characters with each other on the basis of their belonging or non-belonging to this world. But was Ostrovsky satisfied with such an interpretation, did he agree with the definition of the concept of “dark kingdom” and the contrast between the characters from Dobrolyubov’s point of view? I think that this point of view was a simplification of the picture that the playwright created.

Of the half a dozen female characters in “The Thunderstorm,” the characters in the foreground are undoubtedly those of Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova and her daughter-in-law Katerina. These are two main, largely opposite images that largely shape the reader and viewer’s view of the whole world, designated by Dobrolyubov as a dark kingdom. As you can see, Ostrovsky, unlike Dobrolyubov, does not take Katerina beyond the boundaries of the patriarchal world; moreover, she is unthinkable without him. Is it possible to imagine Katerina without a sincere and deep religious feeling, without her memories of her parents’ house, in which, it seems, everything is the same as in the Kabanovs’ house, or even imagine her without her melodious song language? Katerina embodies the poetic side of the patriarchal way of Russian life, the best qualities of the Russian national character. But the people who surround her are terribly far from her in their spiritual properties, especially Kabanikha. It is worth comparing their words and actions. Kabanikha’s speech is leisurely and monotonous, her movements are slow; living feelings awaken in her only when the conversation concerns the customs and orders of antiquity, which she fiercely defends. Kabanikha in everything relies on the authority of antiquity, which seems unshakable to her, and expects the same from those around her. It is a mistake to believe that Kabanikha, like Dikiy, belongs to the type of tyrants. Such a “tyrant couple” in a drama would be redundant, but Ostrovsky does not repeat himself, each of his images is artistically unique. Dikoy is psychologically much more primitive than Marfa Ignatievna; he more closely corresponds to the type of tyrant discovered by Ostrovsky in his early plays; Kabanova is much more difficult. None of her demands are dictated by her whim or caprice; it requires only strict adherence to the orders established by custom and traditions. These customs and traditions replace legal laws and dictate unshakable moral rules. Katerina has a similar attitude towards traditions, for her these customs and traditions, these rules are sacred, but in her speech and behavior there is no trace of Kabanikha’s deadness, she is very emotional, and she also perceives tradition emotionally, as something living and active. Katerina’s experiences and feelings are reflected not only in her words - this image is accompanied by numerous author’s remarks; regarding Kabanikha, Ostrovsky is much less verbose.

The main difference between Katerina and Kabanikha, the difference that takes them to different poles, is that following the traditions of antiquity for Katerina is a spiritual need, but for Kabanikha it is an attempt to find the necessary and only support in anticipation of the collapse of the patriarchal world. She does not think about the essence of the order that she protects; she has emptied the meaning and content from it, leaving only the form, thereby turning it into dogma. She turned the beautiful essence of ancient traditions and customs into a meaningless ritual, which made them unnatural. We can say that Kabanikha in “The Thunderstorm” (just like Dikoy) personifies a phenomenon characteristic of the crisis state of the patriarchal way of life, and not inherent in it initially. The deadening effect of boars and wild animals on living life is especially evident precisely when life forms are deprived of their former content and are preserved as museum relics. Katerina represents the best qualities of patriarchal life in their pristine purity.

Thus, Katerina belongs to the patriarchal world - in its original meaning - to a much greater extent than Kabanikha, Dikoy and all the other characters in the drama. The artistic purpose of the latter is to outline the reasons for the doom of the patriarchal world as fully and comprehensively as possible. So, Varvara follows the line of least resistance - adapts to the situation, accepts the “rules of the game” in the “dark kingdom”, in which everything is built on deception and appearances. She learned to deceive and take advantage of opportunities; she, like Kabanikha, follows the principle: “do what you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.”

In Feklusha, this represents another aspect in the depiction of the dying patriarchal world: this is ignorance, the desire to explain the incomprehensible in one’s own way, and to explain in such a way that the superiority of one’s own is immediately revealed, that is, the superiority of the defended dogmas. Feklusha is a pitiful imitation of the ancient wanderers who once roamed Rus' and were disseminators of news, a source of wonderful tales and special spirituality. Feklush also needs the “dark kingdom” of the wild, but not for this: Glasha, the girl in Kabanova’s house, needs it in order to satisfy natural curiosity and brighten up the boredom of a monotonous life, Kabanikha - so that she has someone to complain about the disastrous changes and establish herself in its superiority over everything foreign. This image has become almost farcical, unable to evoke any positive emotions in the reader and viewer.

So, all female characters in the drama “The Thunderstorm” are given their place by the system of characters from the point of view of their correlation with the image of the “dark kingdom”; without any of them, this image would be incomplete or one-sided. Katerina represents his best side, the existence of which was not recognized or rejected by Dobrolyubov, Kabanikha, Varvara, Feklusha - types of characters that clearly manifest themselves at the stage of decomposition of any way of life as symptoms of its deep crisis. Not a single quality inherent in them is an organic feature of the patriarchal world. But this world has degenerated, patriarchal laws determine the relationships between people by inertia, this world is doomed, because it itself is killing all the best that it has created. He kills Katerina.

Essay on the topic “Ostrovsky’s female images”

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in his works revealed events taking place in the nineteenth century through female images. His heroines most often personify the prism through which a large number of conflicts, both social and public, pass. Women in the plays appear to readers as living personifications of the era and the vices and ideals reigning in it. At the same time, as a rule, heroines are not ready to accept the injustice or dirt of society that is imposed on them by everyone around them. On the contrary, women are ready to fiercely defend their individuality, their own ideals and purity.
If you remember the play “The Thunderstorm” by A.N. Ostrovsky, it contains a large number of colorful female images, each of which is unique and attractive to the reader in its own way. Katerina is a young girl, inspired by her ideals, who recently got married. In her mind, marriage was a great joy. She passionately wanted to become a wife and mother; for her this would be the greatest happiness. But when her dream came true and she married Tikhon, the harsh reality sobered her up. She does not feel those feelings of love for her husband that she was waiting for. But then Boris appears. In it, Katerina finds a response to her ardent feelings. Finally, what she had dreamed of happened. She met her love. However, the tragedy is that the heroine cannot be with him. Betrayal and remorse lead Katerina to despair. For the sake of love, she sacrificed her previously unshakable principles. But this did not give her happiness either. She sees no reason for further existence, and decides to commit suicide.
Varvara appears completely different in the play “The Thunderstorm”. Her image is more resourceful, cunning and far-sighted. For her, marriage is not a sublime and romantic union of two loving hearts, but an excellent deal to get out from under the yoke of a tyrant mother who controls absolutely everything in the house. Varvara is the complete opposite of Katerina. In my opinion, these two images are placed so close to each other in the play specifically to show readers what could have become of Catherine if she had acted differently, more cunningly, and indulged all the whims and desires of Kabanikha. Thus, with such behavior, Catherine would turn into Varvara. This very thoughtful move is used by Ostrovsky not only in the play “The Thunderstorm”.
A slightly different situation is played out in the play "Dowry". The main character in it is Larisa Ogudalova. For her, marriage is also a successful deal that would ensure her a comfortable existence. Her fate is also not very successful. The man she loved abandoned her and disappeared in an unknown direction. Therefore, she decides to marry the first person who wooes her. It turns out that he is not a particularly rich tradesman Karandyshev. He is happy that Larisa finally responded to his advances with consent, because the hero has been trying to get her attention for a long time, but to no avail. The wedding should take place very soon, but all plans are disrupted by the arrival of Paratov, Larisa’s unhappy love. He gives her a lot of promises and hopes for a better future, which he has no intention of fulfilling. But the heroine trusts him again and succumbs to temptation. Karandyshev finds out about this and is going to take terrible revenge. Shooting his beloved girl Larisa ends both her and his own shame. She accepts death with gratitude, because it would be very difficult to survive such a shame.
So, Ostrovsky’s female images are very diverse, but one certainly cannot help but empathize with them and cannot help but admire them.

Two dramas by A. N. Ostrovsky are devoted to the same problem - the position of women in Russian society. Before us are the fates of three young women: Katerina, Varvara, Larisa. Three images, three destinies.

Katerina differs in character from all the characters in the drama "The Thunderstorm". Honest, sincere and principled, she is not capable of deception and falsehood, of resourcefulness and opportunism. Therefore, in a cruel world where wild and wild boars reign, her life turns out to be unbearable, impossible and ends so tragically. Katerina's protest against Kabanikha is a struggle of the bright, pure, human against the darkness of lies and cruelty of the “dark kingdom”. It is not for nothing that Ostrovsky, who paid great attention to names and surnames, gave the heroine of “The Thunderstorm” the name Ekaterina, which translated from Greek means “eternally pure.” Katerina is a poetic person. Unlike the rude people around her, she feels the beauty of nature and loves it. It is the beauty of nature that is natural and sincere. “I used to get up early in the morning; in the summer, I’d go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me and that’s it, water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers,” she says about her childhood. Her soul is constantly drawn to beauty. The dreams were filled with miracles and fabulous visions. She often dreamed that she was flying like a bird. She talks about her desire to fly several times. With this, Ostrovsky emphasizes the romantic sublimity of Katerina’s soul. Married early, she tries to get along with her mother-in-law and love her husband, but in the Kabanovs’ house no one needs sincere feelings. The tenderness that fills her soul finds no application. Deep melancholy sounds in her words about children: “If only there were someone’s children! Oh woe! I don’t have children: I would still sit with them and amuse them. I really love talking to children - they are angels.” What a loving wife and mother she would have been under different conditions!

Katerina’s sincere faith differs from Kabanikha’s religiosity. For Kabanikha, religion is a dark force that suppresses the will of man, and for Katerina, faith is the poetic world of fairy-tale images and supreme justice. “... I loved going to church to death! Surely, it used to be that I would enter heaven, and I didn’t see anyone, and I didn’t remember the time, and I didn’t hear when the service was over,” she recalls.

Bondage is Katerina's main enemy. The external conditions of her life in Kalinov seem to be no different from the environment of her childhood. The same motives, the same rituals, that is, the same activities, but “everything here seems to be from under captivity,” says Katerina. Bondage is incompatible with the freedom-loving soul of the heroine. “And captivity is bitter, oh, so bitter,” she says in the scene with the key, and these words, these thoughts push her to the decision to see Boris. In Katerina’s behavior, as Dobrolyubov said, a “decisive, integral Russian character” was revealed, which “will withstand itself, despite any obstacles, and when there is not enough strength, it will die, but will not change itself.”

Varvara is the complete opposite of Katerina. She is not superstitious, is not afraid of thunderstorms, and does not consider strict adherence to established customs obligatory. Due to her position, she cannot openly oppose her mother and therefore is cunning and deceives her. She hopes that marriage will give her the opportunity to leave this house, to escape from the “dark kingdom.” To Katerina’s words that she | doesn’t know how to hide anything, Varvara replies: “Well, you can’t live without it! Remember where you live! Our whole | house rests on that. And I wasn’t a liar, but I learned when it became necessary." Varvara despises her brother’s spinelessness and is indignant at her mother’s heartlessness, but she cannot understand Katerina. She is only interested and concerned about the external side of life. She resigned herself and adapted to the laws of the old world around her.

Larisa, unlike Katerina, grew up and was raised in conditions where the weak are humiliated, where the strongest survive. Her character does not have the integrity that Katerina has. Therefore, Larisa does not strive, and cannot, realize her dreams and desires. Her name means "Seagull" in Greek. This bird is associated with something white, light, and piercingly screaming. And this image fully matches Larisa.

Katerina and Larisa have different upbringings, different characters, different ages, but they are united by the desire to love and be loved, to find understanding, in a word, to become happy. And each one goes towards this goal, overcoming the obstacles created by the foundations of society.

Katerina cannot connect with her loved one and finds a way out in death.

Collection of works: Female images in A. N. Ostrovsky's plays "The Thunderstorm" and "Dowry"

Katerina differs in character from all the characters in the drama “The Thunderstorm”. Honest, sincere and principled, she is not capable of deception and falsehood, resourcefulness and opportunism. Therefore, in a cruel world where wild and wild boars reign, her life turns out to be unbearable and impossible and it ends so tragically. Katerina’s protest against Kabanikha is a struggle of the bright, pure, human against the darkness of lies and cruelty of the “dark kingdom.” No wonder Ostrovsky, who paid great attention to names and surnames, gave the heroine of “The Thunderstorm” the name Ekaterina, which translated from Greek means “eternally pure.” Katerina is a poetic person. Unlike the rude people around her, she feels the beauty of nature and loves it. It is nature that is natural and sincere. “I used to get up early in the morning; in the summer, I’d go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me and that’s it, water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers,” she says about her childhood. Her soul is constantly reaching out to beauty. Her dreams were filled with miracles, fabulous visions. She often dreamed that she was flying like a bird. She talks about the desire to fly several times. With this, Ostrovsky emphasizes the romantic sublimity of Katerina’s soul. Married early, she tries to get along with her mother-in-law, to love her husband. but in the Kabanovs’ house no one needs sincere feelings. The tenderness that fills her soul finds no use. Eco woe! I don’t have any children: I would still sit with them and amuse them. I really like talking to children - they are angels.” What a loving wife and mother she would have been under different conditions!

Bondage is Katerina's main enemy. The external conditions of her life in Kalinov seem to be no different from the environment of her childhood. The same motives, the same rituals, that is, the same activities, but “everything here seems to be from under captivity,” says Katerina. Captivity is incompatible with the freedom-loving soul of the heroine. “And captivity is bitter, oh, so bitter,” says she is in the scene with the key, and these words, these thoughts push her to the decision to see Boris. Katerina’s behavior, as Dobrolyubov said, revealed a “decisive, integral Russian” who “will withstand himself, despite any obstacles, and when his strength is not enough, he will die, but will not betray himself.”

Varvara is the complete opposite of Katerina. She is not superstitious, is not afraid of thunderstorms, and does not consider strict adherence to established customs obligatory. Due to her position, she cannot openly oppose her mother and therefore is cunning and deceives her. She hopes that marriage will give her the opportunity to leave this house, to break out of the “dark kingdom.” To Katerina’s words that she doesn’t know how to hide anything, Varvara replies: “Well, you can’t live without it! Remember where you live! Our whole house rests on this. And I was not a liar, but I learned when it became necessary.” Varvara despises her brother’s spinelessness and is indignant at her mother’s heartlessness, but she cannot understand Katerina. She is only interested and concerned about the external side of life. She resigned herself and adapted to the laws of the old world around her.

Larisa, unlike Katerina, grew up and was raised in conditions where the weak are humiliated, where the strongest survive. Her character does not have the integrity that Katerina has. Therefore, Larisa does not strive, and cannot, realize her dreams and desires. Her name translated from Greek means “Seagull”. This bird is associated with something white, light, piercingly screaming. And this image fully corresponds to Larisa.

Katerina cannot connect with her loved one and finds a way out in death.