The publication of “The Thunderstorm” occurred in 1860. Difficult times. The country smelled of revolution. Traveling along the Volga in 1856, the author made sketches of the future work, where he tried to depict as accurately as possible the merchant world of the second half of the 19th century. There is an insoluble conflict in the play. It was he who led to the death of the main character, who could not cope with her emotional state. The image and characterization of Katerina in the play “The Thunderstorm” is a portrait of a strong, extraordinary personality, forced to exist in the conditions of a small patriarchal city. The girl could not forgive herself for betraying herself, giving herself up to human lynching, without even hoping to earn forgiveness. For which she paid with her life.
Katerina Kabanova is the wife of Tikhon Kabanov. Kabanikha's daughter-in-law.
Image and characteristics
After marriage, Katerina’s world collapsed. Her parents spoiled her and cherished her like a flower. The girl grew up in love and with a feeling of boundless freedom.
“Mama doted on me, dressed me up like a doll, and didn’t force me to work; I do what I want".
As soon as she found herself in her mother-in-law's house, everything changed. The rules and laws are the same, but now from a beloved daughter, Katerina became a subordinate daughter-in-law, whom her mother-in-law hated with every fiber of her soul and did not even try to hide her attitude towards her.
When she was very young, she was given to someone else's family.
“They married you off when you were young, you didn’t have to go out with the girls; “Your heart hasn’t left yet.”
That’s how it should be, for Katerina it was normal. In those days, no one built a family out of love. If you endure it, you will fall in love. She is ready to submit, but with respect and love. In my husband's house they did not know about such concepts.
“Was I like that! I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild...”
Katerina is a freedom-loving person. Decisive.
“This is how I was born, hot! I was still 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!
She is not one of those who obey tyrants. She is not afraid of dirty intrigues on the part of Kabanova. For her, freedom is the most important thing. Do not follow idiotic orders, do not bend under the influence of others, but do what your heart desires.
Her soul languished in anticipation of happiness and mutual love. Tikhon, Katerina’s husband, loved her in his own way, as best he could, but his mother’s influence on him was too strong, turning him against his young wife. He preferred to drown out problems with alcohol, and escaped from conflicts in the family on long business trips.
Katerina was often left alone. They did not have children with Tikhon.
“Eco woe! I don’t have children: I would still sit with them and amuse them. I really like talking to children – they are angels.”
The girl was increasingly sad about her worthless life, praying in front of the altar.
Katerina is religious. Going to church is like a holiday. There she rested her soul. As a child, she heard angels singing. She believed that God would hear prayers everywhere. When it was not possible to go to the temple, the girl prayed in the garden.
A new round of life is associated with the arrival of Boris. She understands that passion for another man is a terrible sin, but she is unable to cope with it.
“It’s not good, it’s a terrible sin, Varenka, why do I love someone else?”
She tried to resist, but she did not have enough strength and support:
“It’s as if I’m standing over an abyss, but I have nothing to hold on to.”
The feeling turned out to be too strong.
Sinful love raised a wave of internal fear for its action. The more her love for Boris grew, the more she felt sinfulness. She grabbed at the last straw, crying out to her husband with a request to take her with him, but Tikhon is a narrow-minded person and could not understand his wife’s mental suffering.
Bad dreams and an irreversible premonition of impending disaster drove Katerina crazy. She felt the reckoning approaching. With each thunderclap, it seemed to her that God was throwing arrows at her.
Tired of the internal struggle, Katerina publicly confesses to her husband that she has cheated. Even in this situation, the spineless Tikhon was ready to forgive her. Boris, having learned about her repentance, under pressure from his uncle, leaves the city, leaving his beloved to the mercy of fate. Katerina did not receive support from him. Unable to withstand the mental anguish, the girl rushes into the Volga.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in the play "The Thunderstorm" revealed the theme of the confrontation between good and evil. The main character is the girl Katerina, who, by the will of fate, encounters the “Dark Kingdom” of the city of Kalinov and the Kabanov Family. Criticism refers to the “dark kingdom” as the long-established way of life and way of life of the residents of the city of Kalinov. In this world, everything is ruled by tyranny, tyranny, and cruelty. All goals are achieved by humiliating other people. Most heroes exalt themselves by exposing the failures of others. The brightest, and one might say, the main representative of this kingdom is Kabanikha, who is trying with all her might to subjugate all members of her family; she establishes laws that no one has the right to break. By humiliation, reproaches and other moral means of pressure, Marfa Kabanova builds her social status, forces her to obey, not allowing her to go beyond what is permitted.
Katerina strives for freedom, she knows exactly what she wants and will never obey tyranny and tyranny. We can say that the girl, by her opposition to all the laws of this kingdom, pronounces a verdict on the inhuman foundations of this society.
Katerina is a complete image of a national character. Everything about her, from her appearance to her inner world, expresses the desire for justice, freedom and happiness. Katerina is a truly tragic heroine. From childhood, she was brought up with the best, the girl, who grew up in love and tenderness, simply could not come to terms with such a cruel life that reigned in the Kabanovs’ house: “That’s what I was like! I lived, didn’t grieve for anything, like a bird in the wild. Mama doted on me, dressed me up like a doll, didn’t force me to work; whatever I wanted, I did.” The girl’s simplicity and sincerity, inherent in all Russian people, sharply distinguishes Katerina from all other heroes of the play. The girl tries to treat everyone with kindness and understanding, not wishing harm to anyone, she lives with the hope of happiness. The girl is trying to find a common language with her husband, establish relationships and live happily, trying her best to be a gentle, loving, understanding and faithful wife. But all attempts become futile. Tikhon simply cannot understand what Katerina wants from him, he belongs completely to his mother, his every step is controlled by Marfa Kabanova, and no force can change this.
Speaking about the image of a girl, we must not forget that Katerina is an extraordinary beauty, a very modest and charming heroine. Simplicity, kindness, piety, naivety, honesty complete the image of an “earthly angel”. Katerina’s speech is not the last place in her image. The girl speaks smoothly, beautifully, her speech can be compared to a song. But no matter what her daughter-in-law was, Marfa Kabanova disliked her with all her heart. Also an integral feature is Katerina’s determination and strength of character. Not every girl is capable of such decisive actions; it cannot be said that the heroine’s act is an example, but if you think about it, you can understand that a person like Katerina will never sacrifice her principles. But no matter what her daughter-in-law was, Marfa Kabanova disliked her with all her heart, and when the girl appeared in their house and disturbed the peace of their tyrant conditions, Kabanikha decided to do everything possible to rid her son of such a wife. Life in the house of an unloved husband, pressure from her mother-in-law - all this did not make Katerina happy, and she is trying with all her might to fight it.
The pure and bright image of the girl suggests that Katerina personifies the ideal Russian woman. There is no other conclusion to be drawn here. Katerina knows how to love like no one else; for her this is the most important of feelings. She is ready to do anything for her, and despairing of finding this feeling in her husband’s soul, she falls in love with Boris, he seems to her an ideal, perfect, dear person. But Katerina gets burned again. From all these failures, unjustified hopes, unfulfilled dreams, a solution emerges that will free the heroine from everything that caused pain, and no matter how much she feels sorry for herself, the heroine is ready to pay for her mistakes.
Katerina’s character cannot be called simple, she does not allow herself to be offended, does not tolerate attacks from her mother-in-law: “Who likes to endure lies!” Katerina can be hot and emotional, which she herself says when she told Varvara a story from her childhood: “They offended me with something at home...; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat... The next morning they found it, about ten miles away!” The girl loves the world, loves people, tries to treat everything with kindness. She is trusting and simple, dreamy and beautiful. Honesty and nobility are also very important for this girl. It’s hard for her to hide her betrayal from her husband, and when she confesses to Tikhon about her betrayal, she feels better, but she understands that nothing can be returned. “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I am doing. If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment?” - this is Katerina’s life position.
The girl went against the system of tyranny and tyranny, did not obey the absurd orders of her mother-in-law and never once doubted that she was right. The girl did not betray herself and remained true to her principles. Katerina, without any doubt, was right when she followed the path that her heart told her. She remained true to herself, gained eternal freedom, soared above the entire “dark kingdom”, exposing all its vices.
It is impossible not to say that Katerina’s suicide is her victory, this girl dreamed of a bright future, great love, a happy family, but fate decreed that only this step would free her from the shackles of the “dark kingdom.” Many character traits helped the girl determine your destiny. Even though the play ends on such a tragic note, everyone understands that suicide has become a necessity for Katerina, thereby a means of achieving absolute freedom from cruelty and tyranny.
"Storm". This is a young woman who does not yet have children and lives in her mother-in-law’s house, where, in addition to her and her husband Tikhon, Tikhon’s unmarried sister, Varvara, also lives. Katerina has been in love for some time with Boris, who lives in the house of Dikiy, his orphaned nephew.
While her husband is nearby, she secretly dreams of Boris, but after his departure, Katerina begins dating a young man and enters into a love affair with him, with the complicity of her daughter-in-law, who even benefits from Katerina’s connection.
The main conflict in the novel is the confrontation between Katerina and her mother-in-law, Tikhon’s mother, Kabanikha. Life in the city of Kalinov is a deep swamp that sucks deeper and deeper. “Old concepts” dominate everything. Whatever the “elders” do, they should get away with it, freethinking will not be tolerated here, the “wild lordship” here feels like a fish in water.
The mother-in-law is jealous of her young, attractive daughter-in-law, feeling that with her son’s marriage, her power over him rests only on constant reproaches and moral pressure. In her daughter-in-law, despite her dependent position, Kabanikha feels a strong opponent, an integral nature that does not succumb to her tyrant oppression.
Katerina does not feel due respect for her, does not tremble and does not look into Kabanikha’s mouth, catching her every word. She does not act sad when her husband leaves, she does not try to be useful to her mother-in-law in order to earn a favorable nod - she is different, her nature resists pressure.
Katerina is a believing woman, and for her sin is a crime that she cannot hide. In her parents’ house, she lived the way she wanted and did what she liked: she planted flowers, prayed earnestly in church, experiencing a feeling of enlightenment, and listened with curiosity to the stories of wanderers. She was always loved, and she developed a strong, willful character; she did not tolerate any injustice and could not lie or maneuver.
From her mother-in-law, however, constant unfair reproaches await her. She is to blame for the fact that Tikhon does not show due respect to his mother, as before, and does not demand it from his wife. Kabanikha reproaches her son for not appreciating his mother’s suffering in his name. The power of the tyrant is slipping out of his hands right before our eyes.
The betrayal of her daughter-in-law, which the impressionable Katerina publicly admitted, is a reason for Kabanikha to rejoice and repeat:
“I told you so! But no one listened to me!”
All sins and transgressions are due to the fact that, perceiving new trends, they do not listen to their elders. The world in which the eldest Kabanova lives suits her quite well: power over her family and in the city, wealth, strict moral pressure over her family. This is Kabanikha’s life, this is how her parents lived, and their parents lived - and this has not changed.
While a girl is young, she does what she wants, but when she gets married, she seems to die to the world, appearing with her family only at the market and in church, and occasionally in crowded places. So Katerina, coming to her husband’s house after a free and happy youth, was also supposed to symbolically die, but she couldn’t.
The same feeling of a miracle that was about to come, the expectation of the unknown, the desire to fly in and soar that had been with her since her free youth, had not disappeared anywhere, and the explosion would have happened anyway. Even if not by connection with Boris, Katerina would still have challenged the world she came into after marriage.
It would have been easier for Katerina if she had loved her husband. But watching every day how Tikhon was mercilessly suppressed by her mother-in-law, she lost both her feelings and even the remnants of respect for him. She felt sorry for him, encouraging him from time to time, and not even being very offended when Tikhon, humiliated by his mother, took out his resentment on her.
Boris seems different to her, although because of his sister he is in the same humiliated position as Tikhon. Since Katerina sees him only briefly, she cannot appreciate his spiritual qualities. And when two weeks of love dope dissipate with the arrival of her husband, she is too busy with mental anguish and her guilt to understand that his situation is no better than Tikhon’s. Boris, still clinging to the faint hope that he will get something from his grandmother’s fortune, is forced to leave. He does not invite Katerina with him, his mental strength is not enough for this, and he leaves with tears:
“Oh, if only there was strength!”
Katerina has no choice. The daughter-in-law has fled, the husband is broken, the lover is leaving. She remains in the power of Kabanikha, and understands that she will now not let her guilty daughter-in-law do anything... if she had scolded her for nothing before. What follows is a slow death, not a day without reproaches, a weak husband and no way to see Boris. And believing Katerina prefers to all this the terrible mortal sin - suicide - as liberation from earthly torment.
She realizes that her impulse is terrible, but for her, punishment for sin is even preferable than life in the same house with Kabanikha until her physical death - the spiritual one has already happened.
An integral and freedom-loving nature will never be able to withstand pressure and mockery.
Katerina could have run away, but there was no one with her. Therefore – suicide, a quick death instead of a slow one. She nevertheless accomplished her escape from the kingdom of the “tyrants of Russian life.”
Using the example of the life of a single family from the fictional city of Kalinov, Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” shows the whole essence of the outdated patriarchal structure of Russia in the 19th century. Katerina is the main character of the work. She is contrasted with all the other characters in the tragedy, even from Kuligin, who also stands out among the residents of Kalinov, Katya is distinguished by her strength of protest. The description of Katerina from “The Thunderstorm”, the characteristics of other characters, the description of the life of the city - all this adds up to a revealing tragic picture, conveyed photographically accurately. The characterization of Katerina from the play “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky is not limited to just the author’s commentary in the list of characters. The playwright does not evaluate the actions of the heroine, relieving himself of the responsibilities of an all-knowing author. Thanks to this position, each perceiving subject, be it a reader or a viewer, can himself evaluate the heroine based on his own moral convictions.
Katya was married to Tikhon Kabanov, the son of a merchant's wife. It was given out, because then, according to the domostroy, marriage was more likely the will of the parents than the decision of the young people. Katya's husband is a pitiful sight. The child's irresponsibility and immaturity, bordering on idiocy, led to the fact that Tikhon is incapable of anything other than drunkenness. In Marfa Kabanova, the ideas of tyranny and hypocrisy inherent in the entire “dark kingdom” were fully embodied.
Katya strives for freedom, comparing herself to a bird. It is difficult for her to survive in conditions of stagnation and slavish worship of false idols. Katerina is truly religious, every trip to church seems like a holiday for her, and as a child, Katya more than once fancied that she heard angels singing. It happened that Katya prayed in the garden, because she believed that the Lord would hear her prayers anywhere, not just in church. But in Kalinov, the Christian faith was deprived of any internal content.
Katerina's dreams allow her to briefly escape from the real world. There she is free, like a bird, free to fly wherever she wants, not subject to any laws. “And what dreams I had, Varenka,” continues Katerina, “what dreams! Either the temples are golden, or the gardens are extraordinary, and everyone is singing invisible voices, and there is a smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees seem not to be the same as usual, but as if depicted in images. And it’s like I’m flying, and I’m flying through the air.” However, recently Katerina has become characterized by a certain mysticism. Everywhere she begins to see imminent death, and in her dreams she sees the evil one who warmly embraces her and then destroys her. These dreams were prophetic.
Katya is dreamy and tender, but along with her fragility, Katerina’s monologues from “The Thunderstorm” reveal perseverance and strength. For example, a girl decides to go out to meet Boris. She was overcome by doubts, she wanted to throw the key to the gate into the Volga, thought about the consequences, but still took an important step for herself: “Throw the key! No, not for anything in the world! He’s mine now... Whatever happens, I’ll see Boris!” Katya is disgusted with Kabanikha’s house; the girl doesn’t like Tikhon. She thought about leaving her husband and, having received a divorce, living honestly with Boris. But there was nowhere to hide from the tyranny of the mother-in-law. With her hysterics, Kabanikha turned the house into hell, stopping any opportunity for escape.
Katerina is surprisingly insightful towards herself. The girl knows about her character traits, about her decisive disposition: “I was born this way, 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! Such a person will not submit to tyranny, will not be subject to dirty manipulations by Kabanikha. It’s not Katerina’s fault that she was born at a time when a wife had to unquestioningly obey her husband and was an almost powerless appendage whose function was childbearing. By the way, Katya herself says that children could be her joy. But Katya doesn’t have children.
The motif of freedom is repeated many times in the work. The parallel between Katerina and Varvara seems interesting. Sister Tikhon also strives to be free, but this freedom must be physical, freedom from despotism and mother’s prohibitions. At the end of the play, the girl runs away from home, finding what she dreamed of. Katerina understands freedom differently. For her, this is an opportunity to do as she wants, take responsibility for her life, and not obey stupid orders. This is freedom of the soul. Katerina, like Varvara, gains freedom. But such freedom is achievable only through suicide.
In Ostrovsky’s work “The Thunderstorm,” Katerina and the characteristics of her image were perceived differently by critics. If Dobrolyubov saw in the girl a symbol of the Russian soul, tormented by the patriarchal house-building, then Pisarev saw a weak girl who had driven herself into such a situation.
Work test
In the drama “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky created a very psychologically complex image - the image of Katerina Kabanova. This young woman charms the viewer with her huge, pure soul, childish sincerity and kindness. But she lives in the musty atmosphere of the “dark kingdom” of merchant morals. Ostrovsky managed to create a bright and poetic image of a Russian woman from the people. The main storyline of the play is a tragic conflict between the living, feeling soul of Katerina and the dead way of life of the “dark kingdom”. Honest and touching Katerina turned out to be a powerless victim of the cruel orders of the merchant environment. No wonder Dobrolyubov called Katerina “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” Katerina did not accept despotism and tyranny; Driven to despair, she challenges the “dark kingdom” and dies. This is the only way she can save her inner world from harsh pressure. According to critics, for Katerina “it is not death that is desirable, but life that is unbearable. Living for her means being yourself. Not being herself means not living for her.”
The image of Katerina is built on a folk-poetic basis. Her pure soul is fused with nature. She presents herself as a bird, the image of which in folklore is closely connected with the concept of will. “I lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild.” Katerina, who ended up in Kabanova’s house as if in a terrible prison, often remembers her parents’ home, where she was treated with love and understanding. Talking to Varvara, the heroine asks: “...Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I’m a bird.” Katerina breaks free from the cage, where she is forced to remain until the end of her days.
Religion evoked high feelings, a surge of joy and reverence in her. The beauty and fullness of the heroine’s soul were expressed in prayers to God. “On a sunny day, such a light column goes down from the dome, and smoke moves in this column, like clouds, and I see it as if angels are flying and singing in this column. And then, it happened... at night I would get up... and somewhere in the corner and pray until the morning. Or I’ll go into the garden early in the morning, when the sun is still rising, I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry.”
Katerina expresses her thoughts and feelings in poetic folk language. The heroine's melodious speech is colored by love for the world, the use of many diminutive forms characterizes her soul. She says “sunshine”, “voditsa”, “grave”, often resorts to repetitions, as in songs: “on a good three”, “and people are disgusting to me, and the house is disgusting to me, and the walls are disgusting.” Trying to throw out the feelings boiling inside her, Katerina exclaims: “Violent winds, bear with him my sadness and melancholy!”
Katerina's tragedy is that she does not know how and does not want to lie. And in the “dark kingdom” lies are the basis of life and relationships. Boris tells her: “No one will know about our love...”, to which Katerina replies: “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I do!” These words reveal the courageous, integral nature of this woman, who risks challenging ordinary morality and confronting society alone.
But, having fallen in love with Boris, Katerina enters into a struggle with herself, with her beliefs. She, a married woman, feels like a great sinner. Her faith in God is not the hypocrisy of Kabanikha, who covers up her anger and misanthropy with God. Awareness of her own sinfulness and pangs of conscience haunt Katerina. She complains to Varya: “Oh, Varya, sin is on my mind! How much I, poor thing, cried, what I didn’t do to myself! I can't escape this sin. Can't go anywhere. After all, this is not good, this is a terrible sin, Varenka, why do I love someone else?” Katerina does not think about the fact that she was violated by marrying someone she didn’t love. Her husband, Tikhon, is glad to leave home and does not want to protect his wife from her mother-in-law. Her heart tells her that her love is the greatest happiness, in which there is nothing bad, but the morality of society and the church does not forgive the free expression of feelings. Katerina struggles among unsolvable questions.
The tension in the play increases, Katerina is afraid of a thunderstorm, hears the terrible prophecies of a crazy lady, and sees a picture on the wall depicting the Last Judgment. In a darkened state of mind, she repents of her sin. Repentance from the heart according to religious laws necessarily requires forgiveness. But people have forgotten the kind, forgiving and loving God; they are left with a punishing and punishing God. Katerina does not receive forgiveness. She doesn’t want to live and suffer, she has nowhere to go, her loved one turned out to be as weak and dependent as her husband. Everyone betrayed her. The church considers suicide a terrible sin, but for Katerina it is an act of despair. It is better to end up in hell than to live in the “dark kingdom.” The heroine cannot harm anyone, so she decides to die herself. Throwing herself off a cliff into the Volga, at the last moment Katerina thinks not about her sin, but about love, which illuminated her life with great happiness. Katerina’s last words are addressed to Boris: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" One can only hope that God will be more merciful to Katerina than people.
- In “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky shows the life of a Russian merchant family and the position of women in it. Katerina’s character was formed in a simple merchant family, where love reigned and the daughter was given complete freedom. She acquired and retained all the wonderful traits of the Russian character. This is a pure, open soul that does not know how to lie. “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything,” she tells Varvara. In religion, Katerina found the highest truth and beauty. Her desire for the beautiful and the good was expressed in prayers. Coming out […]
- Whole, honest, sincere, she is incapable of lies and falsehood, which is why in a cruel world where wild and wild boars reign, her life turns out so tragically. Katerina's protest against Kabanikha's despotism is a struggle of the bright, pure, human against the darkness, lies and cruelty of the “dark kingdom”. It is not for nothing that Ostrovsky, who paid great attention to the selection of names and surnames of the characters, gave this name to the heroine of “The Thunderstorm”: translated from Greek “Ekaterina” means “eternally pure”. Katerina is a poetic person. IN […]
- Katerina Varvara Character Sincere, sociable, kind, honest, pious, but superstitious. Tender, soft, and at the same time, decisive. Rough, cheerful, but taciturn: “... I don’t like to talk a lot.” Decisive, can fight back. Temperament Passionate, freedom-loving, courageous, impetuous and unpredictable. She says about herself, “I was born so hot!” Freedom-loving, intelligent, prudent, courageous and rebellious, she is not afraid of either parental or heavenly punishment. Upbringing, […]
- “The Thunderstorm” was published in 1859 (on the eve of the revolutionary situation in Russia, in the “pre-storm” era). Its historicism lies in the conflict itself, the irreconcilable contradictions reflected in the play. It responds to the spirit of the times. "The Thunderstorm" represents the idyll of the "dark kingdom". Tyranny and silence are brought to the extreme in her. A real heroine from the people’s environment appears in the play, and it is the description of her character that receives the main attention, while the little world of the city of Kalinov and the conflict itself are described in a more general way. "Their life […]
- “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky made a strong and deep impression on his contemporaries. Many critics were inspired by this work. However, even in our time it has not ceased to be interesting and topical. Elevated to the category of classical drama, it still arouses interest. The tyranny of the “older” generation lasts for many years, but some event must occur that could break the patriarchal tyranny. Such an event turns out to be the protest and death of Katerina, which awakened other […]
- The play “The Thunderstorm” by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is historical for us, as it shows the life of the philistinism. "The Thunderstorm" was written in 1859. It is the only work of the “Nights on the Volga” series conceived but not realized by the writer. The main theme of the work is a description of the conflict that arose between two generations. The Kabanikha family is typical. The merchants cling to their old morals, not wanting to understand the younger generation. And since young people do not want to follow traditions, they are suppressed. I'm sure, […]
- In The Thunderstorm, Ostrovsky, using a small number of characters, managed to reveal several problems at once. Firstly, this is, of course, a social conflict, a clash between “fathers” and “children”, their points of view (and if we resort to generalization, then two historical eras). Kabanova and Dikoy belong to the older generation, who actively express their opinions, and Katerina, Tikhon, Varvara, Kudryash and Boris to the younger generation. Kabanova is sure that order in the house, control over everything that happens in it, is the key to a healthy life. Correct […]
- Let's start with Katerina. In the play "The Thunderstorm" this lady is the main character. What is the problem with this work? The problematic is the main question that the author asks in his work. So the question here is who will win? The dark kingdom, which is represented by the bureaucrats of a provincial town, or the bright beginning, which is represented by our heroine. Katerina is pure in soul, she has a tender, sensitive, loving heart. The heroine herself is deeply hostile to this dark swamp, but is not fully aware of it. Katerina was born […]
- The critical history of "The Thunderstorm" begins even before its appearance. To argue about “a ray of light in a dark kingdom,” it was necessary to open the “Dark Kingdom.” An article under this title appeared in the July and September issues of Sovremennik for 1859. It was signed with the usual pseudonym of N. A. Dobrolyubova - N. - bov. The reason for this work was extremely significant. In 1859, Ostrovsky summed up the interim result of his literary activity: his two-volume collected works appeared. "We consider it the most [...]
- Dramatic events of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" takes place in the city of Kalinov. This town is located on the picturesque bank of the Volga, from the high cliff of which the vast Russian expanses and boundless distances open up to the eye. “The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” enthuses local self-taught mechanic Kuligin. Pictures of endless distances, echoed in a lyrical song. Among the flat valleys,” which he sings, are of great importance for conveying the feeling of the immense possibilities of the Russian […]
- Katerina is the main character of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”, Tikhon’s wife, Kabanikha’s daughter-in-law. The main idea of the work is the conflict of this girl with the “dark kingdom”, the kingdom of tyrants, despots and ignoramuses. You can find out why this conflict arose and why the end of the drama is so tragic by understanding Katerina’s ideas about life. The author showed the origins of the heroine's character. From Katerina's words we learn about her childhood and adolescence. Here is an ideal version of patriarchal relations and the patriarchal world in general: “I lived, not about [...]
- A conflict is a clash between two or more parties that do not coincide in their views and worldviews. There are several conflicts in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” but how can you decide which one is the main one? In the era of sociology in literary criticism, it was believed that social conflict was the most important in the play. Of course, if we see in the image of Katerina a reflection of the spontaneous protest of the masses against the constraining conditions of the “dark kingdom” and perceive Katerina’s death as the result of her collision with her tyrant mother-in-law, one should […]
- In general, the history of the creation and concept of the play “The Thunderstorm” is very interesting. For some time there was an assumption that this work was based on real events that occurred in the Russian city of Kostroma in 1859. “In the early morning of November 10, 1859, Kostroma bourgeois Alexandra Pavlovna Klykova disappeared from her home and either rushed into the Volga herself, or was strangled and thrown there. The investigation revealed the silent drama that played out in an unsociable family living narrowly with commercial interests: […]
- Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was endowed with great talent as a playwright. He is deservedly considered the founder of the Russian national theater. His plays, varied in theme, glorified Russian literature. Ostrovsky's creativity had a democratic character. He created plays that showed hatred of the autocratic serfdom regime. The writer called for the protection of the oppressed and humiliated citizens of Russia and longed for social change. Ostrovsky’s enormous merit is that he opened the enlightened [...]
- Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was called the “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye,” a region of Moscow where people from the merchant class lived. He showed what intense, dramatic life goes on behind high fences, what Shakespearean passions sometimes boil in the souls of representatives of the so-called “simple class” - merchants, shopkeepers, small employees. The patriarchal laws of a world that is becoming a thing of the past seem unshakable, but a warm heart lives according to its own laws - the laws of love and goodness. The characters of the play “Poverty is not a vice” […]
- The love story of clerk Mitya and Lyuba Tortsova unfolds against the backdrop of life in a merchant's house. Ostrovsky once again delighted his fans with his remarkable knowledge of the world and amazingly vivid language. Unlike the earlier plays, this comedy contains not only the soulless manufacturer Korshunov and Gordey Tortsov, who boasts of his wealth and power. They are contrasted with simple and sincere people dear to the hearts of the Pochvenniks - the kind and loving Mitya and the squandered drunkard Lyubim Tortsov, who remained, despite his fall, […]
- The focus of the writers of the 19th century is on a person with a rich spiritual life and a changeable inner world. The new hero reflects the state of the individual in an era of social transformation. The authors do not ignore the complex conditioning of the development of the human psyche by the external material environment. The main feature of the depiction of the world of heroes of Russian literature is psychologism , that is, the ability to show a change in the hero’s soul. In the center of different works we see “extra […]
- The drama takes place in the Volga city of Bryakhimov. And in it, as everywhere else, cruel orders reign. The society here is the same as in other cities. The main character of the play, Larisa Ogudalova, is a homeless woman. The Ogudalov family is not rich, but, thanks to the persistence of Kharita Ignatievna, they make acquaintance with the powers that be. The mother inspires Larisa that, although she does not have a dowry, she should marry a rich groom. And Larisa for the time being accepts these rules of the game, naively hoping that love and wealth […]
- A special hero in Ostrovsky’s world, who belongs to the type of poor official with self-esteem, is Yuliy Kapitonovich Karandyshev. At the same time, his pride is hypertrophied to such an extent that it becomes a substitute for other feelings. Larisa for him is not just his beloved girl, she is also a “prize” that gives him the opportunity to triumph over Paratov, a chic and rich rival. At the same time, Karandyshev feels like a benefactor, taking as his wife a dowry-free woman, partly compromised by the relationship […]
- A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov are outstanding poets of the first half of the 19th century. The main type of creativity for both poets is lyricism. In their poems, each of them described many topics, for example, the theme of love of freedom, the theme of the Motherland, nature, love and friendship, the poet and poetry. All of Pushkin’s poems are filled with optimism, faith in the existence of beauty on earth, bright colors in the depiction of nature, and in Mikhail Yuryevich the theme of loneliness can be seen everywhere. Lermontov's hero is lonely, he is trying to find something in a foreign land. What […]