<…> the idea of \u200b\u200bdomestic despotism and a dozen other no less humane ideas, perhaps, lie in the play by Mr. Ostrovsky. But he probably didn’t ask them when starting his drama. This is evident from the play itself<…> The author spent less paint on domestic despotism than on the depiction of other springs of his play. You can still get along with such despotism. Kudryash and Varvara are gloriously leading him by the nose, and young Kabanov himself is not too shy about them and is perfectly drunk. Old woman Kabanova is more quarrelsome than evil, more inveterate formalist than callous woman. Katerina alone is dying, but she would have died without despotism. This is a victim of their own purity and their beliefs. But we will return to this essential thought, which flows directly from Katerina's character. Now let's dwell on this person.
Before us are two female faces: the old woman Kabanova and Katerina. They were both born in the same stratum of society, and perhaps, and even more likely, in the same city. Both of them from an early age were surrounded by the same phenomena, strange phenomena, ugly to some kind of fairy tale poetry. From an early age they submitted to the same requirements, to the same forms. Their whole life, measured by hours, flows with mathematical correctness. They look at life in exactly the same way, they believe and worship the same thing. Their religion is the same. Wanderers and pilgrims do not translate in their house, they tell them the most absurd tales about their distant wanderings, tales in which they both believe as in something indispensable and unchanging. The devil with his leprosy plays the same role for them as the most common occurrence, the role of some kind of domestic person. And meanwhile, all this life, all these circumstances, all this belief made of one a dry and callous formalist, even more dry in her naturally dry and poor temperament, while the other (Katerina), without ceasing to obey the phenomena around her, was completely convinced in their legitimacy and truth, creates from all this a whole poetic world, full of some kind of enchanting charm. She is saved both by moral purity and childish innocence, and by that poetic power that is innate in this character. This face, without ceasing to be real, is all imbued with poetry, that Russian poetry that blows on you from Russian songs and legends. The poetic force in her is so great that she clothe everything in poetic images, sees poetry in everything, even in the grave. The sun warms her, she says, wets it with rain, in the spring the grass will grow on it, so soft - the birds will bring out the nest, the flowers will bloom.
We must cite here one poetic page of Mr. Ostrovsky's drama, so that we can further trace the character of Katerina!
Was I like that? - she says to Varvara, her husband's sister. - I lived, I did not grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild. Mamma doted on me, she dressed me up like a doll, did not force me to work; I do what I want. Do you know how I lived in girls? I'll tell you now. I used to get up early; if in the summer, I'll go to the spring, wash, bring some water with me, and that's all, all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers. Then we'll go with mamma to church, everyone, and the pilgrims. Our house was full of wanderers, and a praying mantis. And we will come from church, sit down for some kind of work, more on velvet in gold, and the wanderers will begin to tell where they have been, what they have seen, different lives, or they sing poems. So the time will pass before dinner, then the old women will fall asleep, and I am walking in the garden. Then to Vespers, and in the evening again stories and singing. It was so good.
And when Varvara notices to her that now she lives the same way, she continues:
Yes, everything here seems to be out of bondage. And until death I loved to go to church! Precisely, I used to go into paradise and I don't see anyone, I don't remember the time, and I don't hear when the service is over. Exactly how it was all in one second. Mamma said that everyone used to look at me, what was happening to me! And you know, on a sunny day, such a light pillar goes down from the dome and smoke goes down in this pillar, like clouds, and I see it as if the angels in this pillar fly and sing. And then, it happened, a girl, I get up at night, we, too, have lamps lit everywhere, but somewhere in the corner I pray until morning. Or I'll go to the garden early in the morning, as soon as the sun is rising, I'll fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don't know what I'm praying and what I'm crying about; so they will find me. And what I prayed for then, what I asked, I don't know; I didn’t need anything, I had enough of everything. And what dreams I dreamed, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and everyone is singing invisible voices, and the smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees, as if not the same as usual, but as if they were written on images.
From this page, amazing in its poetic charm, character is clearly created in your mind. This is the same environment in which Kabanova finally became stale and which Katerina's young, dreamy imagination turned into such high poetry. For this pure, unblemished nature, only the bright side of things is available; obeying everything around her, finding everything legal, she knew how to create her own little world out of the scanty life of a provincial town. She believes in all the ravings of wanderers, believes in evil spirits and is especially afraid of it. This power in her imagination was adorned with all the legends, all the folk stories. The ten thousand ceremonies so despotically ruling in the town where she lives do not bother her in the least. She grew up among them and sings them sacredly. Only where they rape her open and direct soul, there she rebel against them. She will not, for example, no matter how persuade her, howl at her husband who has left, so that people will see how much she loves him. "Not to what! Yes, I do not know how. What is it to make people laugh!" - she replies to the words of her mother-in-law that, they say, a good wife, having seen her husband off, howls for an hour and a half, lies on the porch. She considers the slightest deviation from the straight path to be a grave sin. Hell with all its horrors, with all its fiery poetry occupies her imagination as much as heaven with its joys. But do not attribute its purity and virtue to one religious line of mind. This purity is innate in her. Without her, she, like thousands of others, would enter into various deals and agreements with her conscience and through various donations, penances, * extra fasts and bows, she would perfectly get along with both hell and heaven, no matter how terrible one is, incorruptible other.
Meanwhile, the evil one or life confuses her and leads her into temptation. The bitter fate that she endures in the house from her mother-in-law, the insignificance of her husband, who, although he loves her, is unable to make her love himself, force her to look around her, to leave the poetic world, which has moved away from her and now stands before her as a memory. In the beautiful scene of the first act with Barbara, she tells her the state of her soul with charming innocence. It only seemed to her that Varvara had expressed sympathy for her, and she at once laid out before her all the treasures of her heart. This trait of the Russian character to be frank before the first comer, which is extremely convenient for a dramatic form, you will find in every work of Mr. Ostrovsky. If Katerina in this scene has not yet confessed her love for Boris, the nephew of one extravagant merchant, the Wild, it is only because she herself does not yet suspect this love in herself. And yet she already loves and, once convinced of this, surrenders to her love almost without struggle and with a complete consciousness of sin. Katerina is an ardent woman, a woman of first impressions and impulses, a woman of life. She knows very well that she will fall, as soon as her husband leaves for Moscow, that she cannot control her heart, and she is looking in advance for means and defense against temptation. When her husband refuses to take her with him, she asks him, on his knees asks him to take some terrible oath from her, “so that I don’t dare,” she says, “without you, under any guise, not speak to anyone strangers, not to see myself, so that I dared not think about anyone but you ... So that I do not see my father or mother! I will die without repentance if I ... "
<…>She would keep her Oath. All character is visible in these words. She is a weak woman, albeit ardent and passionate. Everything that she talks to Varvara about her agility is nothing more than sweet boasting on her part, the boasting of a nature that knows neither life nor her real strength. Religion alone can keep her from falling, which she understands, like all our commoners, very narrowly and substantively. In the atoning sacrifice of her oath, she will give the most precious blessings - her parents, her hope not to die without repentance. But her husband did not take this oath from her, probably taking her desire for a woman's whim, and she fell.
The crafty one who tormented her with temptation loves such natures. They are very susceptible to amorous temptations and struggle little with it, as if they know in advance that they cannot overcome the enemy. They know in advance that they will not bear their fall, that long years of tears and repentance will drag on after days of rapture, and that the best that their bitter life can end with will be high monastic walls, or long and sincere wanderings through various prayer houses, if not a pool some river or the bottom of the nearest pond. And yet they fall.
Dostoevsky M.M. ""Storm". Drama in five acts by A.N. Ostrovsky "
In the best plays by A.N. Ostrovsky's most interesting are female characters, in which, with all the individual differences, there is a similarity. Katerina Kabanova from the drama "The Thunderstorm" and Larisa Ogudalova from "Dowry" are united by their doom in the environment from which they emerged.
In the atmosphere of lies and violence prevailing in The Thunderstorm, only Katerina looks natural, but her sincerity is not needed by those around her. The real tragedy of the heroine is that she is desperately alone in this world. The sublime and poetic soul of Katerina, the bird-soul, has no place in the city of Kalinov.
Katerina - a hard-willed, decisive and at the same time soft, quivering nature - dies not only because of a collision with the "dark kingdom" of tyrants, but also because, having given free rein to feelings, she violated a moral duty - not so much to her husband as to yourself. Her exactingness towards herself is limitless and does not tolerate compromises. The tragedy of Katerina is a tragedy of conscience, a drama of a woman who fell in love, but could not live in a lie, bring suffering to people and herself.
Katerina does not know how to lie and deceive. She cannot "live in the world and suffer". Where to go? Nowhere. And you can't run away from yourself. No one condemned Katerina more ruthlessly than herself. The heroine's repentance led her to death. What else was there for her? Suicide became a deliverance from earthly torments, which seemed to her more terrible than hell ...
The Dowry was published nineteen years after The Storm, in 1879. Much has changed during this time in Russia. It would seem that the city of Bryakhimov is in no way comparable to the patriarchal Kalinov. The drowsy silence of the Volga province is now broken not by burlak songs, but by the shrill horns of steamers.
The ignorant shopkeepers were replaced by industrialists and merchants, managing firms and trading houses, traveling to Paris for the exhibition. But, alas, in a civilized world, at first glance, cruelty, lies, calculation, injustice reign. The highest value here is money, not a person's personality.
In the world of sale and purchase, a wonderful person with a “warm heart” lives, loves, suffers - Larisa Ogudalova. Uncommonness, the sublime structure of the soul make her intimate with Katerina. Larisa does not have a dowry, so Paratov, whom she trustingly and selflessly fell in love with, cannot marry her. But it's not just the dowry. Paratov in this play also appears as an object of bargaining: having squandered his fortune, he is sold to a rich bride. He is unable to bear responsibility for the fate of another person (and this is what true love implies). All my life I was looking for Paratov feelings that bring him pleasure. He deceives Larissa, obeying his own whim, without thinking about the further fate of this girl.
For Karandyshev, marriage with Larisa is necessary as a means of self-affirmation, revenge of wounded pride. Who is he? A petty official, bypassed by fortune. “I'm a funny person,” he says of himself. But why does he, who knows the pain of insulted dignity, offend and humiliate Larisa? To her, Karandyshev is attracted only by the desire to prove that he is no worse than Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov. And Larisa understands this well.
Vozhevatov's "friendship", Knurov's "devotion", Paratov's and Karandyshev's "love" - \u200b\u200beverything turns out to be fake. Before Larissa, deeply feeling, thinking, but reduced to the state of things, only one way out dawns - death. Therefore, the denouement of "Dowry" is natural.
So, both Ostrovsky's heroines are killed by the cruelty and vulgarity of the life around them, the apostasy of the heart's chosen ones. Both Katerina and Larissa are looking for love in life, but do not find it. Their departure is a protest against a society in which there is no place for sincere feelings.
- this nature is not pliable, not bending. She has a highly developed personality, she has a lot of strength, energy; her rich soul requires freedom, breadth, - she does not want to secretly "steal" the joy of life. She is able not to bend, but to break. (See also the article The image of Katherine in the play "The Thunderstorm" - briefly.)
A. N. Ostrovsky. Storm. Spectacle. Series 1
Katerina received a purely national upbringing, developed by the ancient Russian pedagogy of Domostroi. She lived all her childhood and adolescence locked up, but the atmosphere of parental love softened this life - moreover, the influence of religion prevented her soul from becoming stale in stifling solitude. On the contrary, she did not feel bondage: "she lived - she did not grieve for anything, like a bird in freedom!" Katerina often went to churches, listened to the stories of pilgrims and pilgrims, listened to the singing of spiritual verses, - she lived carefree, surrounded by love and affection ... And she grew up to be a beautiful, gentle girl, with a fine mental organization, a great dreamer ... Educated in a religious way she lived exclusively in a circle of religious beliefs; her rich imagination was nourished only by those impressions that she learned from the lives of the saints, from legends, apocrypha and those moods that she experienced during the divine service ...
“... until death I loved going to church! - she later recalled her youth in a conversation with her husband's sister Varvara. - Exactly, I used to go to heaven ... And I don't see anyone, I don't remember the time, and I don't hear when the service is over. Mamma said that everyone used to look at me, what was happening to me! And, you know, on a sunny day, such a light pillar goes down from the dome and smoke goes in this pillar, like clouds. And I see, it used to be a girl, I get up at night - we also have lamps lit everywhere - but somewhere, in a corner, I pray until morning. Or I'll go to the garden early in the morning, as soon as the sun is rising, I will fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don't know what I'm praying for and what I'm crying about! "
From this story it is clear that Katerina was not just a religious person - she knew the moments of religious "ecstasy" - that enthusiasm that the holy ascetics were rich with, and examples of which we will find in abundance in the lives of the saints ... Just like them, Katerina “visions” and wonderful dreams were ripening.
“And what dreams Varenka dreamed, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens ... And everyone is singing invisible voices, and they smell of cypress ... And the mountains and trees, as if not the same as usual, but as they are written on images! "
From all these stories of Katerina it is clear that she is not quite an ordinary person ... Her soul, squeezed by the old system of life, seeks space, does not find it around her and is carried away "grief", to God ... There are many such natures in the old days went into "asceticism" ...
But sometimes the energy of her soul broke through in relations with her relatives - she did not go "Against people"but indignant, protesting, she left then "from people"...
“I was born so hot! - she tells Varvara. - I was still six years old, no more, so I did! They offended me with something at home, but it was towards 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 versts! ..
Eh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, God forbid this to happen! And if it makes me very sick here, they won't hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, I don’t want to, even though you cut me! ”
From these words, it is clear that the calm, dreamy Katerina knows impulses that are difficult to cope with.
The literary legacy that he left to posterity today forms the basis of the classical theatrical repertoire. The Thunderstorm is a play that, like other works by the playwright, poses important moral questions to the public. The action develops around the main character, Katerina, whose loyalty and betrayal become a stumbling block in family life.
History of creation
A drama titled "The Thunderstorm" was written by Ostrovsky in 1859. He presented the work to the public after returning from a trip along the Volga. According to literary critics, Alexandra Klykova became the prototype of the main character. An unknown girl committed suicide, prompting the playwright to think about the possible plot of the play. Her biography and the conflict between generations of "fathers and children" are captured by Ostrovsky in all its acuteness. The latter became a connecting link in the story of a real heroine and a fictional character.
The catchphrase "a ray of light in the dark kingdom", which characterizes Katerina, belongs to Nikolai Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov. In a similar way, the poet described Russian reality - a merchant life, into which the main character of the play had to plunge into. Ostrovsky opposes the bright principle in the person of Katerina to the “dark kingdom”. The title of the work describes the range of feelings that the heroine faced, who was in confusion, under the yoke of fear, tragic love and accumulated feelings that change her attitude to life.
Illustration for the book "Thunderstorm" The heroine found herself in the musty atmosphere of a provincial town dominated by a generation of “fathers” with conservative morals and attitudes. The place in the house, where Katerina came after the wedding, presupposed humility, respect, silence and patience. Reason and common sense that Kulibin promoted, and Katerina's spiritual purity in this world were alien and rejected. The death of the heroine was her release.
The fate of the heroine is tragic. Loneliness, lack of human lively interest pushed her to Boris. The appearance of a man gives the impression that his personality has nothing to do with the inhabitants of the morally wretched Kalinov. The illusion that the character traits of the chosen one can coincide with her ideals pushes the heroine to actions for which life had not prepared her before marriage.
The obstinate girl, not ready to put up with the usual foundations of the Kabanov family, quickly gains a bad reputation. The description of the proud, impetuous and depressed heroine is similar to the description of the one who rushed into the pool of feelings and was rejected. The firmness of character, which the heroine did not change even in difficult life circumstances, led her to a fatal decision. The death of Katerina became for her deliverance from the hated world.
Plot
The play takes place in the town of Kalinov, located on the Volga coast. The 19th century is in the yard, and the center of events is a girl with a sensitive heart and positive character - Katerina Kabanova. Having married an unloved man, Tikhon, Katerina languishes in his house, which is run by an elderly woman of outdated concepts and customs. The close-minded and obedient Tikhon never intercedes for his wife, while the mother-in-law does not give her daughter-in-law a quiet life.
Fresh breath in the girl's life was brought by a young man who came to visit his uncle, the merchant Diky, from the capital. Katerina is imbued with a warm feeling for him and realizes how hopeless her situation is. Once Tikhon is absent from Kalinov for a couple of weeks, and this moment is seized by his sister, who sympathizes with Katerina. She organizes a meeting between the girl and Boris to sort things out. The lovers manage to spend 10 nights alone, until Tikhon returns ahead of schedule.
Katerina is tormented by longing for her beloved and remorse that flooded her in connection with the betrayal. She confesses to her husband and mother-in-law. Tikhon wants to make concessions, but Kabanikha rebels against it. Boris leaves for Siberia for three years, exiled by his uncle under the threat of loss of inheritance. He does not want to take Katerina with him, fearing uncle's anger. Katerina, in a fit of despair, rushes off the cliff into the river and drowns. Tikhon, who tried to save her, remains to watch the death of his wife because of the order of the severe Kabanikha, whom he will later blame for the tragedy.
Victim or winner Katerina in this story - everyone decides for himself. But her sincerity, willpower and dignity with which the girl endured life's trials should be respected. Her attitude to love, honor and decency allows you to not doubt the purity of her soul. The intolerance of existence, which pushed the heroine to treason and suicide, is her main justification. The girl, being an Orthodox Christian, deliberately committed suicide, taking sin on her soul before God and not fearing his punishment for it. She challenged society and accepted traditions.
Screen adaptations
Dramatic works are rarely used for visualization on large screens. They are relevant for the theatrical stage, since the laws of theatrical and cinematic interpretation differ. At the beginning of the 20th century, when the cinema did not have enough authentic material for film adaptation, directors preferred the works of great writers and playwrights.
For the first time "The Thunderstorm" was filmed in 1912 at the "Pate" film studio. Vera Pashennaya embodied Katerina Kabanova in the frame. At the age of 25, the performer starred in two films based on Ostrovsky's plays: "The Thunderstorm" and "Dowry".
In 1933, Soviet viewers saw a film by Vladimir Petrov. Alla Tarasova played the main female role in it. In 1934, the picture won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Due to many historical twists and turns, the tape was almost lost, but specialists managed to restore it in 1965.
In 1977, Felix Glyamshin and Boris Babochkin presented to the public the television play "The Thunderstorm", which became a classic of Soviet cinema, based on dramatic works. The role of Katerina Kabanova was played by Lyudmila Shcherbinina.
"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 husband Tikhon, Tikhon's unmarried sister, Varvara, also lives. Katerina has for some time already been in love with Boris, who lives in the house of the Dikiy, his orphaned nephew.
While her husband is nearby, she secretly dreams of Boris, but after his departure, Katerina begins to meet with a young man and enters into a love affair with him, with the complicity of her daughter-in-law, for whom Katerina's relationship is even beneficial.
The main conflict in the novel is the confrontation between Katerina and her mother-in-law, mother of Tikhon, Kabanikh. Life in the city of Kalinov is a deep swamp that sucks in deeper and deeper. "Old concepts" prevail over everything. Whatever the “elders” do, they should get away with it, they will not tolerate free-thinking here, “wild lordship” here feels like a fish in water.
The mother-in-law is jealous of the young attractive daughter-in-law, feeling that with the marriage of her son, 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 adversary, an integral nature that does not yield to her tyrannical oppression.
Katerina does not feel proper respect for her, does not tremble and does not look into Kabanikha's mouth, catching her every word. She does not play sadness when her husband leaves, she does not try to be a helpful mother-in-law 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 conceal. She lived in her parents' house as she wanted and did what she liked: planting flowers, earnestly praying in church, experiencing a feeling of enlightenment, listening with curiosity to the stories of the pilgrims. She was always loved, and her character developed strong, masterful, she did not tolerate any injustice and could not lie and maneuver.
The mother-in-law, however, is awaiting her constant unjust reproaches. She is guilty that Tikhon does not show, as before, due respect to his mother, and he does not demand it from his wife either. Kabanikha reproaches her son that he does not appreciate the suffering of his mother in his name. The power of the tyrant escapes from the hands right before our eyes.
The betrayal of the daughter-in-law, in which the impressionable Katerina admitted in public, is the reason Kabanihi rejoicing and repeating:
“But I said! And nobody listened to me! "
All sins and sins because perceiving new trends, do not listen to the elders. The world in which the eldest Kabanova lives is quite suitable for her: power over domestic and in the city, wealth, severe moral pressure over domestic. This is the life of Kabanikha, this is how her parents and their parents lived - and this did not change.
While the girl is young, she does what she wants, but after getting married, she is like dying to the world, appearing with her family only in the bazaar and in the church, and occasionally in crowded places. So Katerina, having come to her husband’s house after a free and happy youth, also had to symbolically die, but could not.
The same feeling of a miracle that is about to come, the expectation of the unknown, the desire to fly in and soar, which had been with her since her free youth, did not disappear anywhere, and the explosion would still have occurred. Let not by communication with Boris, but Katerina would still challenge the world into which she came after marriage.
It would be easier for Katerina if she loved her husband. But every day, watching Tikhon ruthlessly crushed by her mother-in-law, she lost both her feelings and even the remnants of respect for him. She pitied him, from time to time encouraging, and not even very offended when Tikhon, humiliated by his mother, takes out his resentment on her.
Boris seems different to her, although he is in the same humiliated position as Tikhon because of his sister. Since Katherine sees him briefly, she cannot appreciate his spiritual qualities. And when two weeks of love intoxication dissipate with the arrival of her husband, she is too busy with mental anguish and her guilt to understand that his position is no better than that of Tikhon. Boris, still clinging to the faint hope that he would get something from his grandmother’s state, was forced to leave. He does not call Katerina with him, his mental strength is not enough for this, and he leaves with tears:
"Eh, if only there were strength!"
Katerina has no way out. The daughter-in-law ran, the husband is broken, the lover leaves. She remains in the power of Kabanikha, and realizes that now she will not let the guilty daughter-in-law go down ... if she had previously scolded her for nothing. Further - this is a slow death, not a day without reproaches, a weak husband and there is no way to see Boris. And the believer Katerina prefers to all this the terrible mortal sin - suicide - as liberation from earthly torments.
She realizes that her impulse is terrible, but for her it is even preferable to punish her for sin than life in the same house with Kabanikha before her physical death - the spiritual one has already taken place.
A whole and freedom-loving nature will never be able to withstand pressure and mockery.
Katerina could have run, but there was no one with whom. Therefore - suicide, quick death instead of slow. She nevertheless made her escape from the kingdom of the "tyrants of Russian life".