THE STRENGTH OF KATERINA'S CHARACTER AND THE TRAGIC ACUTE OF HER CONFLICT WITH THE "DARK KINGDOM" IN AN OSTROVSKY'S DRAMA "Thunderstorm". THE IMAGE OF KATERINA AS ASSESSED BY N. A. DOBROLUBOV
The drama "Thunderstorm" was conceived under the impression of Ostrovsky's trip along the Volga (1856-1857), but written in 1859. "Thunderstorm", - as Dobrolyubov wrote, - without a doubt, the most decisive work Ostrovsky". This assessment has not lost its strength to this day. Among all written by Ostrovsky, "Thunderstorm" is undoubtedly the best work, the pinnacle of his work. This is a real pearl of Russian dramaturgy, standing on a par with such works as "The Undergrowth", "Woe from Wit", "The Inspector General", "Boris Godunov", etc. With amazing force, he depicts the Ostrovsky corner of the "dark kingdom", where brazenly tramples on people human dignity. The masters of life here are tyrants. They oppress people, tyrannize in their families and suppress every manifestation of a living and healthy human thought. Among the heroes of the drama, the main place is occupied by Katerina, who is suffocating in this musty swamp. In terms of character and interests, Katerina stands out sharply from her environment. The fate of Katerina, unfortunately, is a vivid and typical example of the fate of thousands of Russian women of that time. Katerina is a young woman, the wife of the merchant's son Tikhon Kabanov. She recently left her native home and moved to her husband's house, where she lives with her mother-in-law Kabanova, who is the sovereign mistress. In the family, Katerina has no rights, she is not even free to dispose of herself. With warmth and love, she recalls her parental home, her girl's life. There she lived freely, surrounded by the caress and care of her mother. IN free time she went to the spring for water, looked after flowers, embroidered on velvet, went to church, listened to the stories and singing of wanderers. The religious upbringing that she received in the family developed in her impressionability, daydreaming, faith in afterlife and recompense for man's sins. Katerina found herself in completely different conditions in her husband's house. WITH outside as if everything was the same, but the freedom of the parental home was replaced by stuffy slavery. At every step she felt dependent on her mother-in-law, suffered humiliation and insults. On the part of Tikhon, she does not meet any support, much less understanding, since he himself is under the rule of the Kaba-nikha. By her kindness, Katerina is ready to treat Kabanikha like her own mother. She says to Kabanikha: "For me, mother, it's all the same that own mother that you are." But sincere feelings Katerina does not meet with the support of either Kabanikha or Tikhon. Life in such an environment changed Katerina’s character: “I was frisky, but you completely withered ... Was I like that? When love for Boris is born in Katerina, it seems to her a crime, and she struggles with the feeling that has flooded over her. Katerina's truthfulness and sincerity make her suffer so much that she finally has to repent to her husband. Katerina's sincerity, her truthfulness are incompatible with the life of the "dark kingdom". All this was the cause of the tragedy of Katerina. The intensity of Katerina’s feelings is especially clearly visible after Tikhon’s return: “Everything is trembling, as if her fever beats: she is so pale, rushing about the house, as if she is looking for something. the whole depth of her suffering, moral greatness, determination. But after repentance, her situation became unbearable. Her husband does not understand her, Boris is weak-willed and does not go to her aid. The situation has become hopeless - Katerina is dying. Not one particular person is to blame for the death of Katerina. Her death is the result of the incompatibility of morality and the way of life in which she was forced to exist. The image of Katerina had for Ostrovsky's contemporaries and for subsequent generations a huge educational value. He called for a fight against all forms of despotism and oppression human personality. It is an expression of the growing protest of the masses against all forms of slavery. With her death, Katerina protests against despotism and tyranny, her death testifies to the approaching end of the "dark kingdom." The image of Katerina belongs to the best images Russian fiction. Katerina - new type people of Russian reality in the 60s of the XIX century. Dobrolyubov wrote that Katerina's character "is full of faith in new ideals and is selfless in the sense that he is better off death than life on those principles that are disgusting to him. type, and this is not without its serious significance. Further, Dobrolyubov calls Katerina "a ray of light in a dark kingdom." He says that her suicide, as it were, illuminated for a moment the deep darkness of the "dark kingdom". In her tragic end, according to the critic, "a terrible challenge is given to self-foolish power." In Katerina we see a protest against Kabanov's conceptions of morality, a protest carried through to the end, proclaimed both under domestic torture and over the abyss into which the poor woman has thrown herself.
Tasks and tests on the topic "POWER OF KATERINA'S CHARACTER AND THE TRAGIC ACUTE OF HER CONFLICT WITH THE DARK KINGDOM IN THE DRAMA OF A. N. OSTROVSKOY GROZ. THE IMAGE OF KATERINA IN THE ASSESSMENT OF N. A. DOBROLYUBOV"
- Spelling - Important topics for repeating the exam in the Russian language
Lessons: 5 Assignments: 7
Katerina's character is unique. Dobrolyubov said about it this way: “There is nothing external, alien in him, but everything comes out somehow from within him, every impression is processed in him and then grows organically with him.” Katerina is never capricious, does not flirt, she does not want to stand out and show off. On the contrary, she lives very peacefully and is ready to obey everything, unless it is contrary to her nature. But while recognizing and respecting others, she demands the same respect for herself. The environment in which Katerina lives requires her to lie and deceive.
The play repeatedly repeats an image that helps to understand the main thing in Katerina's character - the image of a bird. The bird is a symbol of will. From here permanent epithet"free Bird". “I lived, I didn’t grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild,” Katerina recalls about how she lived before the wedding. “ Why do people do not fly like birds? she says to Barbara. “You know, sometimes I feel like I’m a bird.” But the free bird Katerina got into an iron cage. The mother-in-law does not like Katerina and all the time reproaches her for all sorts of little things. But we note that Katerina’s character is not like that, and this is confirmed by the words: “Oh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, don't let that happen! And if it gets too cold for me here, they won't hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”
The denouement of the whole play occurs when Katerina confesses her infidelity to her husband. She does this because she does not want to and does not know how to lie. She had no love for her husband, but only pity. And she cheated on him with the man she loved. She is stumped because she sees the hatred and suspicion of the "dark kingdom". And she found a way out of this impasse in the decision to die. But in these last moments she does not blame anyone, she does not complain about anyone; on the contrary, she thinks that she herself is to blame for everyone.
Dobrolyubov said this: “It is sad, such a release is bitter; But what to do when there is no other way out. It's good that the poor woman found determination at least for this terrible exit. That is the strength of her character!”
Indeed, a person who was not afraid to admit to treason, was not afraid to challenge the "dark kingdom" and was not even afraid of death, a strong character.
In Katerina we saw a protest against
Kaban's concepts of morality,
protest brought to an end.
N. A. Dobrolyubov
Ostrovsky's play was written in 1859, during the rise revolutionary movement masses, in an era when the individual rose to fight for his emancipation. “Thunderstorm”, according to N. A. Dobrolyubov, “the most decisive work of Ostrovsky”, since it shows the complex, tragic process of emancipation of the reviving soul.
In the play, darkness struggles with light, ups and downs give way to downs, it shows both the vitality of the morality of the “dark kingdom”, its precariousness, and the strength of character that could overcome it even at the cost of own life. And with all the cruelty, injustice of the “dark kingdom”, Katerina, the main character of the play by A. N. Ostrovsky, is fighting.
Her childhood was bright and quiet. Katerina went to church, listened to the stories of wanderers, embroidered with gold on velvet. But Katerina's religiosity is a belief in fairy tales that she listened to as a child. In religion, Katerina is attracted primarily by the beauty of legends, church music, icon painting, her imagination works tirelessly and takes her to new world, “quiet and bright”.
The courageous and decisive nature of Katerina is manifested in childhood. She tells Varvara: “I was still six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, but it was towards evening, it was already dark: I ran out to the Volga, got into a boat and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they already found it, ten miles away!
A bright childhood has passed, and Katerina is married to an unloved person. Katerina did not immediately like life in the mother-in-law's house. The absurd and cruel Kabanikha, who “eats her own relatives”, “grinds iron like rust”, seeks to suppress the freedom-loving nature of Katerina. But the heroine boldly enters into a fight with the Boar. Honest and truth-loving, Katerina cannot adapt to the life of the “dark kingdom”. “I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!” she says decisively to Varvara.
Tenderly and passionately Katerina loves Boris. Her love is also a protest against the moral foundations of the “dark kingdom”. The strength of her feelings is such that she is ready to disregard social customs and religious concepts: “Let everyone know, let everyone see what I am doing!”
But happiness only beckoned Katerina. For two weeks she met with Boris, but now Tikhon arrives. Frightened by a thunderstorm and the lamentations of a half-mad lady, Katerina confesses everything to her husband.
“What, son? Where does the will lead? I told you so you didn't want to listen. That's what I've been waiting for!" - Kabanikha says angrily to Tikhon. She gloats over her victory over Katerina.
But we see that Katerina, not Kabanikha, is morally victorious in this struggle. Katerina's protest grows. She is ready for anything, so she asks Boris to take her with him. But Boris “not of his own free will” leaves, he is completely dependent on his uncle, the merchant Diky.
The last hope went out in Katerina's soul. “To live again? No, no, don’t… not good!” she thinks. Katerina understands that living in the Kabanovs' house is immoral. It’s better not to live at all than to put up with a “miserable vegetative existence”.
ON THE. Dobrolyubov writes: "... she is eager for a new life, even if she had to die in this impulse." Here it is, Katerina's protest, a protest against evil and philistinism, cruelty and lies, a protest "carried through to the end!"
In response to the article by N.A. Dobrolyubov published an article by D.I. Pisarev "Motives of Russian Drama". In it, Pisarev criticizes Dobrolyubov's article "A ray of light in the "dark kingdom" and is surprised that the critics could not "make a single objection to Dobrolyubov." Pisarev says about Katerina: “What kind of love is this that arises from the exchange of several glances? .. Finally, what kind of suicide is this, caused by such petty troubles that are tolerated quite safely by all members of all Russian families?” The critic claims that Dobrolyubov, seeing something good in every act of Katerina, made perfect image, saw as a result of this “a ray of light in the“ dark
nominal kingdom." Pisarev cannot agree with this, since “upbringing and life could not give Katerina either a strong character or a developed mind. The mind is the most precious thing, or, rather, the mind is everything.”
Why are the views of Pisarev and Dobrolyubov so divergent? What makes one write about the strength of Katerina's character, and the other about the weakness of this character? Recall that Dobrolyubov's article was published in 1860, during a revolutionary upsurge, when bold and resolute heroes stood in the foreground, striving for a new life, ready to die for its sake. At that time there could be no other protest, but even such a protest affirmed the strength of the personality's character.
Pisarev's article was written in 1864, in the era of reaction, when thinking people were needed. Therefore, D.I. Pisarev writes about Katerina's act in the following way: "... Having done many stupid things, he throws himself into the water and thus does the last and greatest absurdity."
How do I feel about Katherine? Do I consider it “a ray of light in a dark realm”? Yes, I love Katerina, I love her kindness and tenderness, the sincerity of her feelings, her determination and truthfulness. I believe that Katerina can be called “a ray of light in a dark kingdom”, as she protests against Kaban’s concepts of morality, “does not want to put up, does not want to use the miserable vegetative life that they give her in exchange for her living soul.”
This, in my opinion, is the strength of Katerina's character.
Lesson
68
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF KATERINA'S CHARACTER. ARTICLE
N. DOBROLUBOV "RAY OF LIGHT IN THE DARK KINGDOM"
Goals : deepen students' ideas about the main character of Ostrovsky's play; reveal the strength and weakness of Katerina's character; develop the ability to analyze images-characters; improve writing skills dramatic work; determine the meaning of the title of the play.
During the classes
I. Conversation with students on the issue m:
1. How is Katerina different from other characters in the drama "Thunderstorm"?
2. Tell us about her interests and hobbies as a girl.
3. What is the difference between Katerina's life in parental home and in the Kabanikhi's house?
4. Could Katerina find her happiness in the family? Under what conditions?
5. What is the heroine struggling with: with a sense of duty or with " dark kingdom»?
6. What is the tragedy of her position?
7. Final drama. Prove that the development of action inevitably leads to it.
8. Could Katerina have found a way out other than suicide?
9. The death of the heroine - defeat or victory?
N. Dobrolyubov writes about Katerina: "Here is the true strength of character." The heroine of Ostrovsky, unlike the people around her, is a sincere, poetic nature. Katerina is looking for beauty everywhere: in work, in communication with people, with God. Everything that happens in the soul is for her more important than events outside world.
But it is impossible not to notice the decisiveness and love of freedom in the character of Katerina. It is useless to “remake” such a heroine or subjugate to anyone. And such a woman finds herself in an atmosphere of arbitrariness and hypocrisy. Katerina is trying to oppose the despotism and hypocrisy of Kabanikhi with a feeling dignity. This is the beginning of her death.
The tragedy of Katerina is due to the fact that she does not love her husband. She understands that Tikhon is not worthy not only of her love, but also of respect. During the send-off, Tikhon repeats the insulting instructions of his mother to Katerina.
But in Katerina's soul there was already a feeling for Boris. Awakened love is perceived by her as a terrible sin, a shame, because the feeling for a stranger for her, a married woman, is a violation of her moral duty. Soul Drama flares up.
Katerina cannot live deceiving. During this period, she is lonely, even a loved one is not able to support her ... Earthly torments seem to her worse than hell, and she perceives death as deliverance from them. On Katerina's part, suicide is a force, even a protest, obviously, in the case when other forms of struggle are impossible.
Who is responsible for her death? There are plenty of them. This is the imperious Kabanikha, and the weak-willed Tikhon, and the indecisive Boris. Katerina won a moral victory over all these people and circumstances.
“Katerina’s death had significant consequences in the Kalinovsky consciousness and actions of the townsfolk,” writes A. Anastasyev.
II. Discussion of the article by N. A. Dobrolyubov “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”.
An article devoted to the analysis of the play "Thunderstorm" was published after the drama was staged at the Moscow Maly Theater in 1860 (The critic gave a brilliant analysis of the ideological content, as well as artistic features play "Thunderstorm". Described all actors, but paid most attention to the main heroine - Katherine.)
Questions:
1. “A ray of light in a dark kingdom” - what did Dobrolyubov mean by giving this title to his article?
2. Read the most striking, in your opinion, the provisions of the article.
3. “This end seems to us gratifying,” says Dobrolyubov about the fate of Katerina. Is this thought correct?
4. What is the essence of the dispute between D. I. Pisarev and N. A. Dobrolyubov about the “Thunderstorm” and main character? Whose point of view do you find more profound?
(D. I. Pisarev. Articles "Motives of Russian drama" and "Let's see!".
“Upbringing and life could not give Katerina either a strong character or a developed mind ... Katerina, like all dreamers offended by God and upbringing, sees things in a rosy light ... She cuts the tightened knots in the most stupid way, suicide, which is completely unexpected for herself” .)
"A ray of light in the dark kingdom" called Katerina N. A. Dobrolyubov. According to the critic, in the tragic end "a terrible challenge is given to self-foolish power." The suicide of the heroine, as if for a moment, illuminated the "unbreakable darkness of the" dark kingdom ".
“In Katerina we see a protest against Kabanov’s notions of morality, a protest carried to the end, proclaimed both under domestic torture and over the abyss into which the poor woman threw herself.”
III. Discussing the meaning of the title of the drama "Thunderstorm".
Interview with students on:
1. What does the word "thunderstorm" mean in Ostrovsky's work?
2. What is the meaning of each of the characters in it?
Storm... The peculiarity of this image is that, symbolically expressing main idea plays, he at the same time directly participates in the actions of the drama as a very real phenomenon of nature, determines (in many respects) the actions of the heroine.
A thunderstorm broke out over Kalinov in act I. She caused confusion in the soul of Katerina.
In act IV, the thunderstorm motif no longer ceases. (“It’s raining, no matter how the storm gathers? ..”; “The storm is sent to us as a punishment so that we feel ...”; “The storm will kill! It’s not a thunderstorm, but grace ...”; “You remember my word, that this storm will not pass in vain ... ")
A thunderstorm is an elemental force of nature, terrible and not fully understood.
A thunderstorm is a "stormy state of society", a thunderstorm in the souls of the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov.
A thunderstorm is a threat to the outgoing, but still strong world of wild boars and wild ones.
The storm is the good news of new forces designed to free society from despotism.
3. How do the heroes of the play feel about a thunderstorm?
For Kuligin, a thunderstorm is God's grace. For Wild and Boar - heavenly punishment, for Feklusha - Ilya the Prophet rolls across the sky, for Katerina - retribution for sins. But the heroine herself, her last step, from which the Kalinovsky world staggered, is also a thunderstorm.
Thunderstorm in Ostrovsky's play, as in nature, combines destructive and creative forces. That is why the poetic image of a thunderstorm also expresses that “refreshing and encouraging feeling” about which the critic N. A. Dobrolyubov spoke.
Homework.
1. Reading the drama "Dowry".
2. Answer the question:
1) What is the main conflict of the drama?
2) What are the main character traits of Larisa Ogudalova? Katerina Kabanova and Larisa Ogudalova.
Why N.A. Dobrolyubov called Katerina's character a "Russian strong character"?
(According to the drama by A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm")
Uncompromisingness, loyalty to one's inner ideals, the development of personal self-awareness, the ability to protest, inner strength, poetry, sincerity - all these features of Katerina allowed N.A. Dobrolyubov to call her a Russian strong character.
Katerina is a very poetic, emotional person. A characteristic Russian feature is the religiosity of the heroine, merging with her poetic faith in fairy tales. There were always many wanderers and pilgrims in her house, she listened to their stories, in her youth she loved to go to church and pray. She feels the beauty of nature, loves the world. “I’ll get up, it used to be early; if it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring water with me and that’s it, water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers,” she says of her childhood. Her soul is constantly drawn to beauty, her dreams are filled with fabulous visions. She often dreams that she flies like a bird.
And this image of a bird allows us to understand the main thing in the character of the heroine. IN folk poetry the bird is a symbol of will. “I lived, I didn’t grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild,” Katerina recalls about her life in her parents' house. Why don't people fly like birds? she says to Barbara. “You know, sometimes I feel like I’m a bird.” But Katerina's life passes in captivity, where she is sad and lonely.
whole, strong nature, she tolerates the power of the "dark kingdom" only up to a certain point. “And if it gets too cold for me here,” she says. - so do not hold me by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!” Among the victims of the "dark kingdom" Katerina stands out open character, courage, directness. “I don’t know how to deceive; I can’t hide anything,” she says to Varvara.
Katerina cannot make a deal with her own conscience, unlike Varvara. Love for Boris seems to her sinful. AND external conflict in the play it turns into an internal conflict between the heroine and herself. This conflict is unresolvable for A.N. Ostrovsky. That is why the researchers spoke of the "Thunderstorm" as a tragedy. Katerina publicly confesses her deed to her husband and mother-in-law, and then dies. As in ancient tragedies, the conflict is resolved by A.N. Ostrovsky by the death of the heroine.
In the behavior of Katerina, it manifested itself, according to N.A. Dobrolyubov, “a decisive, integral Russian character”, which “will withstand everything, in spite of any obstacles, and when there is not enough strength, it will die, but will not betray itself.”
The speech of the heroine, figurative, musical, melodious, reminds folk songs: it contains repetitions (“on a triple on a good one”), an abundance of diminutive forms (“sun”, “voditsa”, grave”), comparisons (“didn’t grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild”), phraseological units ( "didn't have a soul"). In the moment highest voltage of her spiritual strength, Katerina turns to the language of folk poetry: “Wild winds, transfer my sadness and longing to him!”. Ostrovsky reveals in Katerina's speech not only her passionate, tenderly poetic nature, but also strong-willed power. Willpower, Katerina's decisiveness are set off by syntactic constructions of a sharply assertive or negative nature.
The inner world of the heroine is revealed in her monologues, in which we see her memories, feelings. The first monologue is her poetic recollection of her childhood. Katerina's second big monologue sounds after Tikhon's departure. It reveals the inner struggle of the heroine, the confrontation between the acute thirst for happiness and the fear of her own death. Katerina's last monologues reveal to us melancholy and despair. She sees a way out of this situation in one thing - in death. Only in this way can she find peace, the lost spiritual harmony. However, Katerina does not consider her suicide a sin. “Whoever loves will pray,” she says. The heroine passes away with faith in love and compassion.
