Only ideas, not words, have lasting power over society.
(V. G. Belinsky)
The literature of the 19th century is qualitatively different from the literature of the previous “golden age”. In 1955–1956 freedom-loving and freedom-realizing tendencies in literature are beginning to manifest themselves more and more actively. A work of art is endowed with a special function: it must change the system of reference points and reshape consciousness. Sociality becomes an important initial stage, and one of the main problems becomes the question of how society distorts a person. Of course, many writers in their works tried to solve the problem posed. For example, Dostoevsky writes “Poor People,” in which he shows the poverty and hopelessness of the lower strata of the population. This aspect was also the focus of playwrights. N.A. Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm” showed the cruel morals of the city of Kalinov quite clearly. Viewers had to think about social problems that were characteristic of the entire patriarchal Russia.
The situation in the city of Kalinov is completely typical for all provincial cities of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. In Kalinov you can recognize Nizhny Novgorod, the cities of the Volga region, and even Moscow. The phrase “cruel morals, sir” is pronounced in the first act by one of the main characters of the play and becomes the main motif that is associated with the theme of the city. Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm” makes Kuligin’s monologue about cruel morals quite interesting in the context of Kuligin’s other phrases in previous phenomena.
So, the play begins with a dialogue between Kudryash and Kuligin. Men talk about the beauty of nature. Kudryash does not consider the landscape to be anything special; external scenery means little to him. Kuligin, on the contrary, admires the beauty of the Volga: “Miracles, truly it must be said that miracles! Curly! Here, my brother, for fifty years I have been looking across the Volga every day and I still can’t get enough of it”; “The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices." Then other characters appear on the stage, and the topic of conversation changes. Kuligin talks to Boris about life in Kalinov. It turns out that there is, in fact, no life here. Stagnation and stuffiness. This can be confirmed by the phrases of Boris and Katya that you can suffocate in Kalinov. People seem deaf to expressions of dissatisfaction, and there are many reasons for dissatisfaction. They are mainly related to social inequality. All the power of the city is concentrated only in the hands of those who have money. Kuligin talks about Dikiy. This is a rude and petty person. Wealth has given him a free hand, so the merchant believes that he has the right to decide who can live and who cannot. After all, many in the city ask for a loan from Dikoy at huge interest rates, while they know that Dikoy most likely will not give this money. People tried to complain about the merchant to the mayor, but this also led to nothing - the mayor actually has absolutely no power. Savl Prokofievich allows himself offensive comments and swearing. More precisely, his speech amounts to only this. He can be called an outcast to the highest degree: Dikoy often drinks and is devoid of culture. The author's irony is that the merchant is rich materially and completely poor spiritually. It’s as if he doesn’t have those qualities that make a person human. At the same time, there are those who laugh at him. For example, a certain hussar who refused to fulfill the request of the Wild. And Kudryash says that he is not afraid of this tyrant and can answer Diky’s insult.
Kuligin also talks about Marfa Kabanova. This rich widow does cruel things “under the guise of piety.” Her manipulations and treatment of her family can terrify anyone. Kuligin characterizes her as follows: “she gives money to the poor, but completely eats up her family.” The characterization turns out to be quite accurate. Kabanikha seems much more terrible than Dikoya. Her moral violence against loved ones never stops. And these are her children. With her upbringing, Kabanikha turned Tikhon into an adult, infantile drunkard, who would be glad to escape from his mother’s care, but is afraid of her anger. With her hysterics and humiliations, Kabanikha drives Katerina to suicide. Kabanikha has a strong character. The author's bitter irony is that the patriarchal world is led by a powerful and cruel woman.
It is in the first act that the cruel mores of the dark kingdom in “The Thunderstorm” are most clearly depicted. The frightening pictures of social life are contrasted with the picturesque landscapes on the Volga. Space and freedom are contrasted with a social swamp and fences. Fences and bolts, behind which residents fenced themselves off from the rest of the world, are sealed in a bank, and, carrying out lynching, are rotting without permission from lack of air.
In "The Thunderstorm" the cruel morals of the city of Kalinov are shown not only in the pair of characters Kabanikh - Dikaya. In addition, the author introduces several more significant characters. Glasha, the Kabanovs' maid, and Feklusha, identified by Ostrovsky as a wanderer, discuss the life of the city. It seems to women that only here the old house-building traditions are still preserved, and the Kabanovs’ house is the last paradise on earth. The wanderer talks about the customs of other countries, calling them incorrect, because there is no Christian faith there. People like Feklusha and Glasha deserve “bestial” treatment from merchants and townsfolk. After all, these people are hopelessly limited. They refuse to understand and accept anything if it diverges from the familiar world. They feel good in the “blah-a-adati” that they have built for themselves. The point is not that they refuse to see reality, but that reality is considered the norm.
Of course, the cruel morals of the city of Kalinov in The Thunderstorm, characteristic of society as a whole, are shown somewhat grotesquely. But thanks to such hyperbole and concentration of negativity, the author wanted to get a reaction from the public: people should realize that change and reform are inevitable. We need to participate in the changes ourselves, otherwise this quagmire will grow to incredible proportions, when outdated orders will subjugate everything, finally eliminating even the possibility of development.
The given description of the morals of the residents of the city of Kalinov can be useful for 10th graders when preparing materials for an essay on the topic “Cruel morals of the city of Kalinov.”
Work test
Life and customs of the city of Kalinov in the play “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky. “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! A. N. Ostrovsky The play “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky was created in 1859. In his work, the author clearly showed many customs and morals that existed at that time in Russia. Using the example of the fictional city of Kalinov, we see the oppression of the weak, self-interest, envy and many other vices that no one had described in such detail before Ostrovsky. At the very beginning of the play we see three residents of the city of Kalinov: Kuligin, Shapkin and Kudryash. From their conversation we learn that in the city lives the tyrant Dikoy, a rich merchant and a significant person in the city, who does not take into account anyone and does whatever he wants, not only in relation to himself, but also to others: “He belongs everywhere. He’s afraid of something or someone.” “We should look for another scolder like ours, Savel Prokofich. There’s no way he’ll cut someone off.” From the same conversation we learn about the rich merchant Kabanikha, who is no better than Dikiy, but differs only in that she is tyrannical at home and does not show it in public: “Kabanikha is good too.” “Well, at least she, at least, is all under the guise of piety...” Later we learn the story of Boris, Dikiy’s nephew. Dikoy robbed him, saying that he would pay part of the inheritance if Boris was respectful to him. And Boris understands that he will never see an inheritance: “He will first break with us, abuse us in every possible way, as his heart desires, but he will still end up not giving anything or just some little thing. And he will even say that he gave it out of mercy, and that this should not have happened.” In the third scene of the first act, Kuligin describes the morals of the city of Kalinov: “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! In the philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and naked poverty...” Kuligin understands that it is impossible to earn money through honest work. In the third scene of the third act, Kuligin talks about the customs of Kalinov: “This is the kind of town we have, sir!” From this dialogue we can understand the situation in the city and in the families of the townspeople: “The boulevards were made, but people don’t walk. They only go out on holidays and they only pretend to be out and about, and if they go there they show off their outfits.” Kuligin talks about how poor people have no time to go for walks, because they work day and night in order to somehow survive; and the rich tyrannize at home: “Rob relatives, nephews, beat up family members so that they don’t dare make a squeak about anything he does there.” “...you don’t care about my family; for this, he says, I have locks, and bolts, and angry dogs. The family, they say, is a secret, secret matter...” Another custom of Kalinov is described in the first scene of the third act. Rich merchants considered it their duty to receive strangers at home and ask them what was going on in the world. So knowledge of the world of merchants is just the stories of strangers. “The Thunderstorm” became one of Ostrovsky’s most famous works. Many famous writers admired this play. One of them was N.A. Dobrolyubov, who gave the exact name to the society of the city of Kalinov - “dark kingdom”. I liked the play "The Thunderstorm". The many vices that personified cruel morals and stupid customs at that time are striking.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was a master of precise descriptions. The playwright in his works managed to show all the dark sides of the human soul. Perhaps unsightly and negative, but without which it is impossible to create a complete picture. Criticizing Ostrovsky, Dobrolyubov pointed to his “folk” worldview, seeing the writer’s main merit in the fact that Ostrovsky was able to notice those qualities in Russian people and society that can hinder natural progress. The theme of the “dark kingdom” is raised in many of Ostrovsky’s dramas. In the play “The Thunderstorm,” the city of Kalinov and its inhabitants are shown as limited, “dark” people.
The city of Kalinov in “The Thunderstorm” is a fictional space. The author wanted to emphasize that the vices that exist in this city are characteristic of all Russian cities at the end of the 19th century. And all the problems that are raised in the work existed everywhere at that time. Dobrolyubov calls Kalinov a “dark kingdom.” The definition of a critic fully characterizes the atmosphere described in Kalinov. Residents of Kalinov should be considered inextricably linked with the city. All the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov deceive each other, steal, and terrorize other family members. Power in the city belongs to those who have money, and the mayor’s power is only nominal. This becomes clear from Kuligin’s conversation. The mayor comes to Dikiy with a complaint: the men complained about Savl Prokofievich, because he cheated them. Dikoy does not try to justify himself at all; on the contrary, he confirms the words of the mayor, saying that if merchants steal from each other, then there is nothing wrong with the merchant stealing from ordinary residents. Dikoy himself is greedy and rude. He constantly swears and grumbles. We can say that due to greed, Savl Prokofievich’s character deteriorated. There was nothing human left in him. The reader even sympathizes with Gobsek from the story of the same name by O. Balzac more than with Dikiy. There are no feelings towards this character other than disgust. But in the city of Kalinov, its inhabitants themselves indulge the Dikiy: they ask him for money, they are humiliated, they know that they will be insulted and, most likely, they will not give the required amount, but they ask anyway. Most of all, the merchant is annoyed by his nephew Boris, because he also needs money. Dikoy is openly rude to him, curses him and demands that he leave. Culture is alien to Savl Prokofievich. He doesn't know either Derzhavin or Lomonosov. He is only interested in the accumulation and increase of material wealth.
Kabanikha is different from Wild. “Under the guise of piety,” she tries to subordinate everything to her will. She raised an ungrateful and deceitful daughter and a spineless, weak son. Through the prism of blind maternal love, Kabanikha does not seem to notice Varvara’s hypocrisy, but Marfa Ignatievna perfectly understands what she has made her son. Kabanikha treats her daughter-in-law worse than the others. In her relationship with Katerina, Kabanikha’s desire to control everyone and instill fear in people is manifested. After all, the ruler is either loved or feared, but there is nothing to love Kabanikha for.
It is necessary to note the telling surname of Dikiy and the nickname Kabanikha, which refer readers and viewers to wild, animal life.
Glasha and Feklusha are the lowest link in the hierarchy. They are ordinary residents who are happy to serve such gentlemen. There is an opinion that every nation deserves its own ruler. In the city of Kalinov this is confirmed many times. Glasha and Feklusha are having dialogues about how there is “sodom” in Moscow now, because people there are starting to live differently. Culture and education are alien to the residents of Kalinov. They praise Kabanikha for advocating for the preservation of the patriarchal system. Glasha agrees with Feklusha that only the Kabanov family has preserved the old order. Kabanikha’s house is heaven on earth, because in other places everything is mired in depravity and bad manners.
The reaction to a thunderstorm in Kalinov is more similar to a reaction to a large-scale natural disaster. People are running to save themselves, trying to hide. This is because a thunderstorm becomes not just a natural phenomenon, but a symbol of God’s punishment. This is how Savl Prokofievich and Katerina perceive her. However, Kuligin is not at all afraid of thunderstorms. He urges people not to panic, tells Dikiy about the benefits of the lightning rod, but he is deaf to the requests of the inventor. Kuligin cannot actively resist the established order; he has adapted to life in such an environment. Boris understands that in Kalinov, Kuligin’s dreams will remain dreams. At the same time, Kuligin differs from other residents of the city. He is honest, modest, plans to earn money by his own labor, without asking the rich for help. The inventor studied in detail all the ways in which the city lives; knows what is happening behind closed doors, knows about the Wild One’s deceptions, but cannot do anything about it.
Ostrovsky in “The Thunderstorm” depicts the city of Kalinov and its inhabitants from a negative point of view. The playwright wanted to show how deplorable the situation is in the provincial cities of Russia, and emphasized that social problems require immediate solutions.
The given description of the city of Kalinov and its inhabitants will be useful to 10th grade students when preparing an essay on the topic “The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants in the play “The Thunderstorm”.”
Work test
Dramatic events of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm" takes place in the city of Kalinov. This town is located on the picturesque bank of the Volga, from the high cliff of which the vast Russian expanses and boundless distances open up to the eye. “The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” enthuses local self-taught mechanic Kuligin.
Pictures of endless distances, echoed in a lyrical song. Among the flat valleys,” which he sings, are of great importance for conveying the feeling of the immense possibilities of Russian life, on the one hand, and the limitations of life in a small merchant town, on the other.
Magnificent paintings of the Volga landscape are organically woven into the structure of the play. At first glance, they contradict its dramatic nature, but in fact they introduce new colors into the depiction of the scene of action, thereby performing an important artistic function: the play begins with a picture of a steep bank, and it ends with it. Only in the first case does it give rise to a feeling of something majestically beautiful and bright, and in the second - catharsis. The landscape also serves to more vividly depict the characters - Kuligin and Katerina, who subtly sense its beauty, on the one hand, and everyone who is indifferent to it, on the other. The brilliant playwright so carefully recreated the scene of action that we can visually imagine the city Kalinov, immersed in greenery, as he is depicted in the play. We see its high fences, and gates with strong locks, and wooden houses with patterned shutters and colored window curtains filled with geraniums and balsams. We also see taverns where people like Dikoy and Tikhon are carousing in a drunken stupor. We see the dusty streets of Kalinovsky, where ordinary people, merchants and wanderers talk on benches in front of the houses, and where sometimes a song can be heard from afar to the accompaniment of a guitar, and behind the gates of the houses the descent begins to the ravine, where young people have fun at night. A gallery with vaults of dilapidated buildings opens to our eyes; a public garden with gazebos, pink bell towers and ancient gilded churches, where “noble families” walk decorously and where the social life of this small merchant town unfolds. Finally, we see the Volga pool, in the abyss of which Katerina is destined to find her final refuge.
Residents of Kalinov lead a sleepy, measured existence: “They go to bed very early, so it’s difficult for an unaccustomed person to endure such a sleepy night.” On holidays, they walk decorously along the boulevard, but “they only pretend to be walking, but they themselves go there to show off their outfits.” The inhabitants are superstitious and submissive, they have no desire for culture, science, they are not interested in new ideas and thoughts. The sources of news and rumors are pilgrims, pilgrims, and “passing kaliki.” The basis of relationships between people in Kalinov is material dependence. Here money is everything. “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! - says Kuligin, addressing a new person in the city, Boris. “In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and stark poverty.” And we, sir, will never get out of this crust. Because honest work will never earn us more than our daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor in order to make even more money from his free labors. He testifies: “And among themselves, sir, how they live! They undermine each other's trade, and not so much out of self-interest as out of envy. They are at enmity with each other; they get drunken clerks into their high mansions... And they... write malicious clauses about their neighbors. And for them, sir, a trial and a case will begin, and there will be no end to the torment.”
A vivid figurative expression of the manifestation of rudeness and hostility that reigns in Kalinov is the ignorant tyrant Savel Prokofich Dikoy, a “scold man” and a “shrill man,” as its residents characterize it. Endowed with an unbridled temper, he intimidated his family (dispersed “to attics and closets”), terrorizes his nephew Boris, who “got to him as a sacrifice” and which, according to Kudryash, he constantly “rides.” He also mocks other townspeople, cheats, “shows off” over them, “as his heart desires,” rightly believing that there is no one to “calm him down” anyway. Swearing and swearing for any reason is not only the usual way of treating people, it is his nature, his character, the content of his entire life.
Another personification of the “cruel morals” of the city of Kalinov is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, a “hypocrite,” as the same Kuligin characterizes her. “He gives money to the poor, but completely eats up his family.” Kabanikha firmly stands guard over the established order established in her home, jealously guarding this life from the fresh wind of change. She cannot come to terms with the fact that the young people do not like her way of life, that they want to live differently. She doesn't swear like Dikoy. She has her own methods of intimidation, she corrosively, “like rusting iron,” “sharpenes” her loved ones.
Dikoy and Kabanova (one - rudely and openly, the other - “under the guise of piety”) poison the lives of those around them, suppressing them, subordinating them to their orders, destroying bright feelings in them. For them, the loss of power is the loss of everything in which they see the meaning of existence. That’s why they hate new customs, honesty, sincerity in the expression of feelings, and the attraction of young people to “freedom.”
A special role in the “dark kingdom” belongs to the ignorant, deceitful and arrogant wanderer-beggar Feklusha. She “wanders” through cities and villages, collecting absurd tales and fantastic stories - about the depreciation of time, about people with dog heads, about scattering chaff, about a fiery serpent. One gets the impression that she deliberately misinterprets what she hears, that she takes pleasure in spreading all these gossip and ridiculous rumors - thanks to this, she is willingly accepted in the houses of Kalinov and towns like it. Feklusha does not carry out her mission unselfishly: she will be fed here, given something to drink here, and given gifts there. The image of Feklusha, personifying evil, hypocrisy and gross ignorance, was very typical of the environment depicted. Such feklushi, carriers of nonsense news that clouded the consciousness of ordinary people, and pilgrims were necessary for the owners of the city, as they supported the authority of their government.
Finally, another colorful exponent of the cruel morals of the “dark kingdom” is the half-crazed lady in the play. She rudely and cruelly threatens the death of someone else's beauty. These terrible prophecies, sounding like the voice of tragic fate, receive their bitter confirmation in the finale. In the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote: “In The Thunderstorm the need for the so-called “unnecessary faces” is especially visible: without them we cannot understand the heroine’s face and can easily distort the meaning of the entire play...”
Dikoy, Kabanova, Feklusha and the half-crazy lady - representatives of the older generation - are exponents of the worst sides of the old world, its darkness, mysticism and cruelty. These characters have nothing to do with the past, rich in its own unique culture and traditions. But in the city of Kalinov, in conditions that suppress, break and paralyze the will, representatives of the younger generation also live. Someone, like Katerina, closely bound by the way of the city and dependent on it, lives and suffers, strives to escape from it, and someone, like Varvara, Kudryash, Boris and Tikhon, humbles himself, accepts its laws or finds ways to reconcile with them .
Tikhon, the son of Marfa Kabanova and Katerina’s husband, is naturally endowed with a gentle, quiet disposition. He has kindness, responsiveness, the ability to make sound judgment, and the desire to break free from the clutches in which he finds himself, but weak-willedness and timidity outweigh his positive qualities. He is used to unquestioningly obeying his mother, doing everything she demands, and is not able to show disobedience. He is unable to truly appreciate the extent of Katerina’s suffering, unable to penetrate her spiritual world. Only in the finale does this weak-willed but internally contradictory person rise to open condemnation of his mother’s tyranny.
Boris, “a young man of decent education,” is the only one who does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth. This is a mentally gentle and delicate, simple and modest person, and, moreover, his education, manners, and speech are noticeably different from most Kalinovites. He does not understand local customs, but is unable either to defend himself from the insults of the Wild One, or to “resist the dirty tricks that others do.” Katerina sympathizes with his dependent, humiliated position. But we can only sympathize with Katerina - she happened to meet on her way a weak-willed man, subordinate to the whims and whims of his uncle and doing nothing to change this situation. N.A. was right. Dobrolyubov, who claimed that “Boris is not a hero, he stands far from Katerina, and she fell in love with him in the desert.”
Cheerful and cheerful Varvara - the daughter of Kabanikha and the sister of Tikhon - is a vitally full-blooded image, but she emanates some kind of spiritual primitiveness, starting with her actions and everyday behavior and ending with her thoughts about life and rudely cheeky speech. She adapted, learned to be cunning so as not to obey her mother. She is too down to earth in everything. Such is her protest - escaping with Kudryash, who is well acquainted with the customs of the merchant environment, but lives easily” without hesitation. Varvara, who learned to live guided by the principle: “Do what you want, as long as it’s covered and covered,” expressed her protest at the everyday level, but on the whole she lives according to the laws of the “dark kingdom” and in her own way finds agreement with it.
Kuligin, a local self-taught mechanic who in the play acts as an “exposer of vices,” sympathizes with the poor, is concerned with improving people’s lives, having received a reward for the discovery of a perpetual motion machine. He is an opponent of superstitions, a champion of knowledge, science, creativity, enlightenment, but his own knowledge is not enough.
He doesn’t see an active way to resist tyrants, and therefore prefers to submit. It is clear that this is not the person who is able to bring novelty and fresh air into the life of the city of Kalinov.
Among the characters in the drama, there is no one, except Boris, who does not belong to the Kalinovsky world by birth or upbringing. All of them revolve in the sphere of concepts and ideas of a closed patriarchal environment. But life does not stand still, and tyrants feel that their power is being limited. “Besides them, without asking them,” says N.A. Dobrolyubov, - another life has grown, with different beginnings ... "
Of all the characters, only Katerina - a deeply poetic nature, filled with high lyricism - is focused on the future. Because, as noted by academician N.N. Skatov, “Katerina was brought up not only in the narrow world of a merchant family, she was born not only by the patriarchal world, but by the entire world of national, people’s life, already spilling over the boundaries of patriarchy.” Katerina embodies the spirit of this world, its dream, its impulse. She alone was able to express her protest, proving, albeit at the cost of her own life, that the end of the “dark kingdom” was approaching. By creating such an expressive image of A.N. Ostrovsky showed that even in the ossified world of a provincial town, a “folk character of amazing beauty and strength” can arise, whose pen is based on love, on a free dream of justice, beauty, some kind of higher truth.
Poetic and prosaic, sublime and mundane, human and animal - these principles are paradoxically united in the life of a provincial Russian town, but in this life, unfortunately, darkness and oppressive melancholy prevail, which N.A. could not better characterize. Dobrolyubov, calling this world a “dark kingdom.” This phraseological unit is of fairy-tale origin, but the merchant world of “The Thunderstorm,” we are convinced of this, is devoid of that poetic, mysterious and captivating that is usually characteristic of a fairy tale. “Cruel morals” reign in this city, cruel...
The theater season of 1859 was marked by a bright event - the premiere of the work “The Thunderstorm” by playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Against the background of the rise of the democratic movement for the abolition of serfdom, his play was more than relevant. As soon as it was written, it was literally torn from the author’s hands: the production of the play, completed in July, was on the St. Petersburg stage already in August!
A fresh look at Russian reality
A clear innovation was the image shown to the viewer in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”. The playwright, born in a merchant district of Moscow, thoroughly knew the world he presented to the audience, inhabited by philistines and merchants. The tyranny of the merchants and the poverty of the townspeople reached completely ugly forms, which, of course, was facilitated by the notorious serfdom.
Realistic, as if written off from life, the production (initially in St. Petersburg) made it possible for people buried in everyday affairs to suddenly see the world in which they live from the outside. It's no secret - mercilessly ugly. Hopeless. Indeed, it is a “dark kingdom”. What they saw was a shock to the people.
Average image of a provincial town
The image of the “lost” city in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” was not only associated with the capital. The author, while working on material for his play, purposefully visited a number of settlements in Russia, creating typical, collective images: Kostroma, Tver, Yaroslavl, Kineshma, Kalyazin. Thus, the city dweller saw from the stage a broad picture of life in central Russia. In Kalinov, the Russian city dweller learned about the world in which he lived. It was like a revelation that needed to be seen, realized...
It would be unfair not to note that Alexander Ostrovsky adorned his work with one of the most remarkable female characters in Russian classical literature. The author used the actress Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya as a prototype for creating the image of Katerina. Ostrovsky simply inserted her type, manner of speaking, and lines into the plot.
The radical protest against the “dark kingdom” chosen by the heroine - suicide - was also not original. After all, there was no shortage of stories when, among the merchants, a person was “eaten alive” behind “high fences” (expressions taken from Savel Prokofich’s story to the mayor). Reports of such suicides periodically appeared in Ostrovsky's contemporary press.
Kalinov as a kingdom of unhappy people
The image of the “lost” city in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” was indeed similar to the fairy-tale “dark kingdom”. Very few truly happy people lived there. If ordinary people worked hopelessly, leaving only three hours a day for sleep, then employers tried to enslave them to an even greater extent in order to further enrich themselves from the labor of the unfortunate.
Prosperous townspeople - merchants - fenced themselves off from their fellow citizens with tall fences and gates. However, according to the same merchant Dikiy, there is no happiness behind these constipations, because they fenced themselves off “not from thieves,” but so that it would not be seen how “the rich... eat their household.” And behind these fences they “rob relatives, nephews...”. They beat the family members so much that they “don’t dare make a murmur.”
Apologists of the “dark kingdom”
Obviously, the image of the “lost” city in Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” is not at all independent. The richest townsman is the merchant Dikoy Savel Prokofich. This is the type of person who is unscrupulous in his means, accustomed to humiliating ordinary people and underpaying them for their work. So, in particular, he himself talks about an episode when a peasant turns to him with a request to borrow money. Savel Prokofich himself cannot explain why he went into a rage then: he cursed and then almost killed the unfortunate man...
He is also a real tyrant for his relatives. His wife daily begs visitors not to anger the merchant. His domestic violence forces his family to hide from this tyrant in closets and attics.
The negative images in the drama “The Thunderstorm” are also complemented by the rich widow of the merchant Kabanov, Marfa Ignatievna. She, unlike Wild, “eats” her family. Moreover, Kabanikha (this is her street nickname) tries to completely subjugate her household to her will. Her son Tikhon is completely deprived of independence and is a pitiful semblance of a man. Daughter Varvara “didn’t break,” but she changed radically internally. Her principles of life were deception and secrecy. “So that everything is covered up,” as Varenka herself claims.
Kabanikha drives his daughter-in-law Katerina to suicide, extorting compliance with the far-fetched Old Testament order: bowing to her husband as he enters, “howling in public,” seeing off her husband. The critic Dobrolyubov in his article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom” writes about this mockery like this: “It gnaws for a long time and relentlessly.”
Ostrovsky - Columbus of merchant life
Characteristics of the drama “The Thunderstorm” were given in the press of the early 19th century. Ostrovsky was called “Columbus of the patriarchal merchants.” His childhood and youth were spent in a region of Moscow populated by merchants, and as a court official, he more than once encountered the “dark side” of the life of various “Wild” and “Boars”. What was previously hidden from society behind the high fences of mansions has become obvious. The play caused a significant resonance in society. Contemporaries recognized that the dramatic masterpiece raises a large layer of problems of Russian society.
Conclusion
The reader, getting acquainted with the work of Alexander Ostrovsky, certainly discovers a special, non-personified character - the city in the drama “The Thunderstorm”. This city created real monsters that oppress people: Wild and Kabanikha. They are an integral part of the “dark kingdom”.
It is noteworthy that it is these characters who with all their might support the dark patriarchal meaninglessness of house-building in the city of Kalinov, and personally instill misanthropic morals in it. The city as a character is static. It was as if he had frozen in his development. At the same time, it is noticeable that the “dark kingdom” in the drama “The Thunderstorm” is living out its days. Kabanikha’s family is collapsing... Dikaya expresses concerns about her mental health... The townspeople understand that the natural beauty of the Volga region is discordant with the heavy moral atmosphere of the city.