Homework to the lesson

1. Write down the definition of the word in a notebook remark.
2. Look up the interpretation of words in the explanatory dictionary wanderer, wandering.

Question

Where does Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" take place?

Answer

The play takes place in the Volga town of Kalinov.

Answer

Through the remarks.

The first remark already contains a description of the landscape. "Public garden on the banks of the Volga; behind the Volga, a rural view; on the stage there are two benches and several bushes."

The viewer sees with his own eyes the beauty of Russian nature.

Question

Which of the characters introduces readers to the atmosphere of the city of Kalinov? How does he characterize the city of Kalinov?

Answer

Kuligin's words: "Miracles, I really must say that miracles! ... for fifty years I have been looking at the Volga every day and I can’t see everything. The view is extraordinary! Beauty. The soul rejoices."

Question

What are the laws underlying the life of Mr. Kalinov? Is everything as good in the city of Kalinov as it seems at first glance?

Answer

Kuligin says about the inhabitants of his city and their morals as follows: " Cruel manners, sir, in our city, cruel. In the philistine, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and naked poverty. And we, sir, will never get out of this hole! "

Despite the fact that Kalinov is located in a beautiful place, each of its residents spends almost all their time behind the high fences of the estates. "And what tears are pouring behind these constipations, invisible and inaudible!" - Kuligin describes the picture of the city.

Alongside poetry, there is a completely different, ugly, unsightly, repulsive side of Kalinov's reality. Here merchants undermine each other's trade, tyrants mock their households, here they receive all information about other lands from ignorant wanderers, here it is believed that Lithuania "fell from heaven on us."

Nothing interests the inhabitants of this city. Occasionally, some incredible rumor will fly here, for example, that the Antichrist was born.

News is brought by wanderers who have not wandered for a long time, but only convey what they have heard somewhere.

Wanderers - a kind of people who go on pilgrimages widespread in Russia. Among them there were a lot of purposeful, inquisitive, hardworking personalities, who knew and saw a lot. They were not afraid of difficulties, travel inconveniences, or poor food. Among them were the most interesting people, a kind of philosophers with their own special, original attitude to life, who came to Russia on foot, endowed with a keen eye and figurative speech. Many writers loved to talk to them; L.N. Tolstoy, N.S. Leskov, A.M. Bitter. A.N. also knew them. Ostrovsky.

In acts II and III, the playwright brings the wanderer Feklusha onto the stage.

The task

Let's turn to the text. Let's read the roles of the dialogue between Feklushi and Glasha. P.240. (II action).

Question

How does this dialogue characterize Feklusha?

Answer

This wanderer is intensively spreading superstitious tales and ridiculous fantastic rumors throughout the cities and towns. Such are her messages about belittling time, about people with hound heads, about scattering tares, about a fiery snake ... Ostrovsky portrayed not an original, highly moral person, but a selfish, ignorant, deceitful nature that cares not about her soul, but about her stomach.

The task

Let's read the monologue of Kabanova and Feklusha at the beginning of Act III. (P. 251).

Comment

Feklusha is readily accepted in Kalinov's houses: the owners of the city need her absurd stories, pilgrims and pilgrims support the authority of their power. But she, too, not disinterestedly spreads her “news” around the city: here they will feed, here they will give it to drink, there they will give them ...

The life of the city of Kalinov with its streets, lanes, high fences, gates with strong locks, wooden houses with patterned shutters, townspeople reproduced by A.N. Ostrovsky in great detail. Nature has rightfully "entered" into the work, with the high Volga coast, the open spaces beyond the river, with a beautiful boulevard.

Ostrovsky so carefully recreated the scene of the play that we can very tangibly imagine the city of Kalinov as it is depicted in the play. It is significant that it is located on the banks of the Volga, from the high steep of which wide open spaces and boundless distances open up. These pictures of endless expanses, echoed in the song "Among the flat valley", are of great importance for conveying the feeling of the immense possibilities of Russian life and, on the other hand, the constraint of life in a small merchant town. The Volga impressions were widely and generously included in the fabric of Ostrovsky's play.

Conclusion

Ostrovsky showed the city is fictional, but it looks extremely reliable. The author saw with pain how backward Russia was in political, economic and cultural terms, how dark the country's population was, especially in the provinces.

One gets the impression that Kalinov is fenced off from the whole world by the highest fence and lives some kind of special, closed life. But is it really possible to say that this is a unique Russian town, that in other places life is completely different? No, this is a typical picture of Russian provincial reality.

Homework

1. Write a letter about the city of Kalinov on behalf of one of the characters in the play.
2. Select the citation material for the characterization of Wild and Kabanova.
3. What impression did the central figures of "Storm" - Dikoy and Kabanov make on you? What brings them together? Why do they manage to "tyrannize"? What is their power on?

Literature

Based on materials from the Encyclopedia for Children. Literature Part I
Avanta +, M., 1999

Brief description of the city of Kalinov in the play "The Thunderstorm"

In the play "The Thunderstorm" Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky masterfully describes the life and customs of a typical provincial town of the 19th century.

Kalinov is a city stretched out on the banks of the Volga, in which, despite all the natural beauty, everything is frozen and, it seems, is unlikely to ever get under way.

The reason for this is outdated traditions and foundations, and at the same time, the prevailing in this for a long time " dark kingdom»Rich tyrants and tyrants who do not want to change themselves and change the city for the better. They oppress residents who want to somehow change the lives of people in Kalinovo for the better; half of the city is simply afraid of them. Lies, self-interest, hypocrisy, greed thrive here - everything with the help of which the powers that be and gained their authority and are still afloat.

Money here is the basis of everything, the goal and meaning of life for most of the city's residents, who, moreover, are not interested in anything new, they are superstitious, overly religious, ignorant and uneducated.

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The townspeople do not pay attention to the surrounding beauty, nature, for them it does not play any role. And those few smart, thoughtful people striving to improve life in Kalinov, because of the greed of the rich, can not receive either funding for their projects, or the approval of the majority of ordinary residents, and even more so rich tyrants.

Thus, the passivity of the majority of the townspeople, their unwillingness and inability to fight outdated orders and keep up with the times, develop and doom the city of Kalinov to death.

The city of Kalinov and its inhabitants (based on the play by A. Ostrovsky "The Thunderstorm")

The action of the play begins with a remark: “A public garden on the high bank of the Volga; rural view beyond the Volga ". Behind these lines lies the extraordinary beauty of the Volga expanses, which only Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic, notices: “... Miracles, it must truly be said that miracles! Curly! Here / my brother, for fifty years I have been looking beyond the Volga every day and I can’t see everything. ” All other residents of the city of Kalinov do not pay attention to the beauty of nature, this is spoken about carelessly by Kud-ryash's remark in response to Kuligin's enthusiastic words: "Nothing!" And right there, off to the side, Kuligin sees Dikiy, a "swearing man", waving his arms around, scolding Boris, his nephew.

The landscape background of "Thunderstorms" allows you to more tangibly feel the stuffy atmosphere of the life of the Kalinovites. In the play, the playwright truthfully reflected the social relations of the middle of the 19th century: he gave a characteristic of the material and legal situation of the merchant-philistine environment, the level of cultural needs, family and everyday life, outlined the position of women in the family. "Thunderstorm" ... presents us with the idyll of the "dark kingdom" ... Residents ... sometimes walk along the boulevard above the river,., In the evening they sit on the heaps at the gate and engage in pious conversations; but they spend more time at home, doing housekeeping, eating, sleeping, going to bed very early, so it's difficult for an unaccustomed person to endure such a sleepy night as they ask themselves ... Their life flows smoothly and peacefully, no interests the world does not disturb them, because they do not reach them; kingdoms can collapse, new countries open up, the face of the earth can change as he pleases, the world can begin new life on a new basis, - the inhabitants of the town of Kalinova will continue to exist as before in complete ignorance of the rest of the world ...

It is terrible and difficult for every newcomer to try to go against the demands and convictions of this dark mass, terrible in its naivety and sincerity. After all, she will curse us, will run around like the plague, - not out of malice, not out of calculations, but out of a deep conviction that we are akin to the Antichrist ... The wife, according to prevailing concepts, is connected with him (with her husband ) inseparably, spiritually, through the sacrament; no matter what her husband does, she must obey him and share his meaningless life with him ... And in general opinion, the main difference between a wife and a bast shoe is that she brings with her a whole burden of worries, from which her husband does not can get rid of, while la-pot gives only convenience, and if it is inconvenient, it can be easily dropped ... Being in a similar position, a woman, of course, must forget that she is the same person, with the same great-you, like a man ", - wrote in the article" A ray of light in the dark kingdom "N. A. Dobrolyubov. Continuing to reflect on the position of a woman, the critic says that she, having decided to “go to the end in her uprising against oppression and tyranny of the elders in the Russian family, must be filled with heroic self-denial, must make up her mind and be ready for everything. -va ", because" at the first attempt, she will be given a feeling that she is nothing, that they can crush her, " good old days and will still lead to obedience. "

Kuligin, one of the heroes of the drama, gives a characterization of the city of Kalinov: “Cruel manners, sir, in our city, are cruel! In philistinism, sir, you will not see anything but rudeness and naked poverty. And never, sir, will not get out of this crust! Because honest labor will never earn us more than our daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, is trying to enslave the poor man so that he can earn even more money from his free labors ... And among themselves, sir, how do they live! Trade is undermined by each other, and not so much out of self-interest as out of envy. They are at enmity with each other ... "Kuligin also notes that there is no work for the bourgeois in the city:" Work must be given to the bourgeoisie. And then there are hands, but there is nothing to work, "- and dreams of inventing a" perpeta mobile "in order to use the money for the benefit of society.

The tyranny of the Wild and the like is based on the material and moral dependence of other people. And even the mayor cannot call the Wild one to order, who "will not disappoint one of his men". That has its own philosophy: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with you! I have a lot of people a year; You must understand: I will not pay them extra for a drink per person, but I have thousands of this, so it is good for me! " And the fact that these men count every penny does not bother him.

The ignorance of the inhabitants of Kalinov is emphasized by the introduction into the work of the image of Feklusha, the wanderer. She considers the city to be “the promised land”: “Blah-alepie, dear, blah-alepie! Wonderful beauty! What can we say! You live in the promised land! And the merchants are all pious people, adorned with many virtues! By the generosity and alms of many! I'm so happy, so, mother, I'm so happy! For our not left to them, they will increase even more, and especially to the Kabanovs' house. But we know that in the Kabanovs' house Katerina is suffocating in captivity, Tikhon is drinking too much; Dikoy swaggers over his own nephew, forcing him to grovel because of the inheritance rightfully belonging to Boris and his sister. Kuligin reliably tells about the morals reigning in families: “Here, sir, what a city we have! The boulevard is done, not a walk. They walk only on holidays, and then they pretend to be walking, and they themselves go there to show their outfits. You will only meet a drunken clerk, trudge home from the inn. The poor have no time to walk, sir, they have day and night for a bot ... But what are the rich doing? Well, what would it seem that they shouldn't walk, breathe fresh air? So no. All have long gates, sir, locked and the dogs lowered. Do you think they are doing business or are they praying to God? No, sir! And they do not shut themselves up from thieves, but so that people do not see how they eat their household and tyrannize their families. And what tears pouring down behind these constipations, invisible and inaudible! .. And what, sir, behind these locks, the debauchery of dark and drunkenness! And everything is sewn and covered - no one sees or knows anything, only God sees! You, he says, look at me in people and on the street; and you don't care about my family; for this, he says, I have locks, and locks, and the dogs are angry. Se-mya, he says, it's a secret, secret! We know these secrets! From these secrets, sir, the mind is just fun, and the rest - howling like a wolf ... Rob the orphans, relatives, nephews, beat up the family so that they would not dare to utter a word about anything that he was doing there.

And what are Feklusha's stories about the overseas lands worth! (“They say there are such countries, dear girl, where there are no Orthodox kings, but the Saltans rule the earth ... And that is, there is also a land where all people are with dog-headed heads.” But what about distant countries! clearly manifests itself in the narration of the "vision" in Moscow, when Feklusha takes an ordinary chimney sweep for an unclean one who "pours tares on the roof, and the people in their vanity will invisibly pick it up" during the day.

The rest of the city's residents match Feklusha, you just have to listen to the conversation of local residents at the gallery:

1st: And this, my brother, what is it?

2nd: And this is the Lithuanian ruin. Battle! See? How ours fought with Lithuania.

1st: What is this Lithuania?

2nd: So it is Lithuania.

1st: And they say, my brother, she fell on us from the sky.

2nd: I can't tell you. From the sky so from the sky.

It is not surprising that the Kalinovites perceive the thunderstorm as God's punishment. Kuligin, understanding the physical nature of a thunderstorm, tries to secure the city by building a lightning rod, and asks Di-ko for money for this purpose. Of course, he did not give anything, and even cursed the inventor: “What elegance there is! Well, what are you not a robber! A thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we feel, and you want to defend yourself with poles and some kind of face, God forgive me. " But the reaction of Dikiy does not surprise anyone, it is like death to part with ten rubles just for the good of the city. Terrifying is the behavior of the townspeople, who did not even think to stand up for Kuligin, but only silently, from the side, watched as Dikoy was insulted by the mechanic. It is on this indifference, irresponsibility, ignorance that the power of tyrants is shaken.

IA Goncharov wrote that in the play “The Thunderstorm” “a broad picture of the national life and morals has settled down. Pre-reform Russia is reliably represented in it by its socio-economic, family and household and cultural and household appearance.

The dramatic events of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" is set in the city of Kalinov. This town is located on the picturesque bank of the Volga, from the high steep of which the immense Russian expanses and boundless distances open to the eyes. “The view is extraordinary! The beauty! The soul rejoices, ”the local self-taught mechanic Kuligin admires.
Pictures of endless distances that echoed in lyric song... Among the flat valley ”, which he sings, are of great importance for conveying the feeling of the immense possibilities of Russian life, on the one hand, and the limited life in a small merchant town, on the other.

The magnificent pictures of the Volga landscape are organically intertwined with the structure of the play. At first glance, they contradict its dramatic nature, but in fact, they bring new colors to the scene of the 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 light, and in the second - catharsis. The landscape also serves as a vivid depiction. actors - Kuligin and Katerina, who subtly feel its beauty, on the one hand, and everyone who is indifferent to him, on the other. The genius playwright has recreated the scene so carefully that we can visually imagine the city of Kalinov, immersed in greenery, as it is painted in the play. We see its high fences, and gates with strong locks, and wooden houses with patterned shutters and colored window curtains covered with geraniums and balsams. We also see taverns where people like Dikoy and Tikhon are having a drunken frenzy. We see the dusty Kalinovka streets, where ordinary people, merchants and wanderers talk on benches in front of houses, and where sometimes a song is heard from afar to the accompaniment of a guitar, and behind the gates of the houses begins the descent 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 bells and old gilded churches, where the "noble families" promenade decorously and where the social life of this small merchant town unfolds. Finally, we see the Volga pool, in the depths of which Katerina is destined to find her last shelter.

The inhabitants of Kalinov lead a sleepy, measured existence: "They go to bed very early, so it is difficult for an unaccustomed person to endure such a sleepy night." On holidays, they dignifiedly walk along the boulevard, but "even then they pretend to be walking, and they themselves go there to show their clothes." The townsfolk are superstitious and submissive, they have no striving for culture, sciences, they are not interested in new ideas and thoughts. The sources of news and rumors are wanderers, pilgrims, "pedestrian kaliki". The basis of human relationships in Kalinov is material dependence. Here money is everything. “Cruel manners, sir, are cruel in our city! - says Kuligin, addressing a new person in the city of Boris. - In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and naked 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, is trying to enslave the poor so that he can earn even more money on his free labors ... ”Speaking about the moneybags, Kuligin vigilantly notices their mutual enmity, spider struggle, litigation, addiction to slander, manifestation of greed and envy. He testifies: “And among themselves, sir, how they live! Trade is undermined by each other, and not so much out of self-interest as out of envy. They are at enmity with each other; they get drunk clerks in their tall mansions ... And those ... they scribble malicious clauses on their neighbors. And they will begin with them, sir, judgment and work, and there will be no end to torment. "

A vivid figurative expression of the manifestation of rudeness and hostility that reigns in Kalinov is the ignorant tyrant Savel Prokofich Dikoy, a "swearing man" and a "shrill man", as its inhabitants describe. Endowed with an unbridled disposition, he intimidated his household (dispersed "in the attics and closets"), terrorized his nephew Boris, who "got him as a sacrifice" and on which, according to Kudryash, he constantly "drives". He also scoffs at other townspeople, cheats, "swaggers" over them, "as his heart desires," rightly believing that there is no one to "calm him down" anyway. Abuse, abuse on any occasion is not only the habitual treatment of people, it is his nature, his character, - the content of his whole life.

Another personification of the "cruel morals" of the city of Kalinov is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, "prude", as the same Kuligin characterizes her. "She closes the beggars, but she ate the household completely." The boar stands firmly on guard of the established order in her house, zealously guarding this life from the fresh wind of change. She cannot come to terms with the fact that the young did not like her way of life, that they want to live differently. She doesn't swear like Wild. She has her own methods of intimidation, she corrosively, "like rusting iron", "sharpens" 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 own 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. Therefore, they so hate new customs, honesty, sincerity in the manifestation of feelings, the attraction of young people to "will."

A special role in the "dark kingdom" belongs to such as the ignorant, deceitful and arrogant wanderer-beggar Feklusha. She "wanders" through the cities and villages, collecting absurd tales and fantastic stories - about belittling time, about people with dogs' heads, about scattering chaff, about a fiery serpent. One gets the impression that she deliberately misinterprets what she has heard, that it gives her pleasure to spread all these gossip and ridiculous rumors - thanks to this, she is readily accepted in the houses of Kalinov and similar towns. Feklusha fulfills his mission not unselfishly: here they will feed, here they will drink, there they will give gifts. The image of Feklusha, personifying evil, hypocrisy and gross ignorance, was very typical of the depicted environment. Such feckles, carriers of nonsense news that clouded the minds of the inhabitants, and pilgrims were necessary for the owners of the city, as they supported the authority of their power.

Finally, another colorful expression of the cruel morals of the "dark kingdom" is the half-mad lady in the play. She rudely and cruelly threatens the death of someone else's beauty. These are her terrible prophecies, sounding like the voice of a tragic fate, receive their bitter confirmation in the finale. In the article "A ray of light in the dark kingdom" N.А. Dobrolyubov wrote: "The need for so-called" unnecessary faces "is especially visible in" The Thunderstorm ": 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 the spokesmen for 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 Kalinovo, in conditions that suppress, break and paralyze the will, representatives of the younger generation also live. Someone, like Katerina, closely tied to the way of the city and dependent on it, lives and suffers, seeks to escape from it, and someone, like Varvara, Kudryash, Boris and Tikhon, resigns himself, accepts its laws or finds ways to come to terms with them ...

Tikhon, the son of Martha Kabanova and the husband of Katerina, is naturally endowed with a gentle, quiet disposition. There is in him kindness, and responsiveness, and the ability to sound judgment, and the desire to break free from the clutches in which he found himself, but weakness and timidity outweigh his positive qualities. He is used to obeying his mother unquestioningly, doing whatever she requires, and is unable to show disobedience. He is not able 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 an open condemnation of the tyranny of the mother.

Boris, "a young man of decent education," is the only one who does not belong to the Kalinovka world by birth. This is a mentally gentle and delicate, simple and modest person, moreover, with his education, manners, speech, he noticeably differs from most of the Kalinovites. He does not understand local customs, but he is unable to protect himself from insults from the Wild, nor "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 a weak-willed person on her way, subject to the whims and whims of her uncle and doing nothing to change this situation. N.A. was right. Dobrolyubov, who argued that "Boris is not a hero, he is far from Katerina, and she fell in love with him in solitude."

The cheerful and cheerful Varvara - the daughter of Kabanikha and the sister of Tikhon - is a vital, full-blooded image, but she exudes some kind of spiritual primitiveness, starting with her actions and everyday behavior and ending with her reasoning about life and rude-cheeky speech. She adapted herself, learned to be cunning in order not to obey her mother. She is too earthly in everything. Such is her protest - escape from Curly, who is well acquainted with morals merchant environmentbut lives easily ”without hesitation. Barbara, who has learned to live guided by the principle: “Do what you want, as long as it is sewn and covered,” expressed her protest at the everyday level, but on the whole lives by the laws of the “dark kingdom” and in her own way acquires agreement with it.

Kuligin, a local self-taught mechanic who in the play acts as a "denouncer of vices", sympathizes with the poor, is concerned with improving people's lives, having received an award for the discovery of a perpetual motion machine. He is an opponent of superstition, a champion of knowledge, science, creativity, enlightenment, but he does not have enough of his own knowledge.
He does not 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 spirit to the life of the city of Kalinov.

Among the characters in the drama there is no one, except Boris, who would not belong to the Kalinov world by birth or upbringing. All of them revolve in the sphere of concepts and representations of a closed patriarchal environment. But life does not stand still, and tyrants feel that their power is limited. “Apart from 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, full of high lyricism - is directed into the future. Because, as 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 whole world of national, folk life, already spilling over the borders of patriarchy”. Katerina embodies the spirit of this world, its dream, its impulse. Only 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 in the ossified world of a provincial town, “ folk character amazing beauty and strength ”, whose pen is based on love, on the free dream of justice, beauty, some kind of higher truth.

Poetic and prosaic, sublime and mundane, human and bestial - these principles have paradoxically combined in the life of a provincial Russian town, but unfortunately, darkness and oppressive melancholy predominates in this life, which N.A. Dobrolyubov, calling this world a "dark kingdom". This phraseological unit is of fabulous origin, but the merchant world of "The Storm", we were convinced of this, is devoid of that poetic, enigmatic, mysterious and captivating that is usually characteristic of a fairy tale. "Cruel manners" reign in this city, cruel ...

Essay on literature.

Cruel manners in our city, cruel ...
A.N. Ostrovsky, "The Thunderstorm".

The city of Kalinov, in which the action of "The Storm" takes place, is outlined by the author rather vaguely. Such a place can be any town in any corner of immense Russia. This immediately increases and generalizes the scale of the events described.

Preparations for a reform to abolish serfdom are in full swing, which affects the life of all of Russia. Outdated orders give way to new ones, previously unknown phenomena and concepts arise. Therefore, even in remote towns like Kalinov, ordinary people are worried when they hear the steps of a new life.

What is this "city on the banks of the Volga"? What kind of people live in it? The stage nature of the work does not allow the writer to directly answer these questions with his thoughts, but a general idea of \u200b\u200bthem can still be made.

Outwardly, the city of Kalinov is a “blessed place”. It stands on the banks of the Volga, from the steepness of the river, an "extraordinary view" opens. But the majority of local residents "looked closely or do not understand" this beauty and speak disparagingly about it. Kalinov seems to be separated from the rest of the world by a wall. They do not know anything about what is “happening in the world”. The inhabitants of Kalinov are forced to draw all information about the world around them from the stories of "wanderers" who "themselves did not go far, but heard a lot." This satisfaction of curiosity leads to the ignorance of most townspeople. They quite seriously talk about the lands, "where people with dogs' heads", that "Lithuania fell from the sky." Among the residents of Kalinov there are people who “do not give an account to anyone” in their actions; people accustomed to such unaccountability lose the ability to see logic in anything.

Kabanova and Dikoy, living according to the old order, are forced to give up their positions. This embitters them and makes them rage even more. Dikoy pounces on everyone he meets and “doesn't want to know anyone”. Realizing internally that there is nothing to respect him for, he, however, reserves the right to deal with the "little people" like this:

If I want - I will have mercy, if I want - I will crush.

Kabanova relentlessly pesters the household with ridiculous demands that are contrary to common sense. She is frightening because she reads instructions “under the guise of piety,” but she herself cannot be called pious. This can be seen from the conversation between Kuligin and Kabanov:

Kuligin: We must forgive enemies, sir!
Kabanov: Go talk to mamma, what will she tell you about this.

Dikoy and Kabanova still seem strong, but they begin to realize that their strength is coming to an end. They "have nowhere to rush", but life moves forward without asking their permission. That is why Kabanova is gloomy, she does not imagine “how the light will stand” when her orders are forgotten. But those around, not yet feeling the powerlessness of these tyrants, is forced to adapt to them,

Tikhon, deep down kind person, resigned himself to his position. He lives and acts as "mamma ordered", having finally lost the ability to "live with his mind."

His sister Barbara is not like that. Arrogant oppression did not break her will, she is bolder and much more independent than Tikhon, but her conviction "if only everything was sewn and covered" suggests that Varvara could not fight her oppressors, but only adapted to them.

Vanya Kudryash, a daring and strong nature, got used to tyrants and is not afraid of them. The Wild one needs him and knows this; he will not “slave before him”. But the use of rudeness as a weapon of struggle means that Kudryash can only "take an example" from the Wild, defending himself against him by his own techniques. His reckless prowess reaches the point of willfulness, and this already borders on tyranny.

Katerina is, as the critic Dobrolyubov put it, "a ray of light in a dark kingdom." Original and lively, she does not look like any other hero in the play. Her national character gives her inner strength. But this strength is not enough to withstand the relentless attacks of Kabanova. Katerina seeks support - and does not find it. Exhausted, unable to further resist oppression, Katerina still did not give up, but left the struggle, committing suicide.

Kalinov can be accommodated in any corner of the country, and this allows us to consider the action of the play on the scale of all of Russia. Everywhere tyrants live out their days, weak people still suffer from their antics. But life is tirelessly moving forward, no one is given to stop its rapid flow. A fresh and strong stream will sweep away the dam of tyranny ... The characters freed from oppression will spill out in all their breadth - and the sun will flare up in the "dark kingdom"!