What does dark realm mean? 'Dark Kingdom' in the drama A.N.

dark kingdom

The most important feature of the Ostrovsky theater to this day remains the topicality of the plays. Ostrovsky's works are still successfully staged on the stage of theaters, because the characters and images created by the artist have not lost their freshness. And to this day, viewers reflect on who is right in the dispute between the patriarchal ideas about marriage and the freedom to express feelings, plunge into an atmosphere of dark ignorance, rudeness, and are amazed at the purity and sincerity of Katerina's love.

The city of Kalinov, in which the action of the drama "Thunderstorm" unfolds, - art space, within which the writer sought to maximally generalize the vices characteristic of merchant environment mid-nineteenth century. Critic Dobrolyubov not in vain calls Kalinov "dark kingdom". This definition accurately characterizes the atmosphere described in the city.

Ostrovsky depicts Kalinov as a closed space: the gates are locked, what happens behind the fence does not bother anyone. In the exposition of the play, the audience is presented with the Volga landscape, which evokes poetic lines in Kuligin's memory.

But the description of the expanses of the Volga only reinforces the feeling of the closedness of the city, in which no one even walks along the boulevard. The city lives its boring and monotonous life. The poorly educated inhabitants of Kalinov learn news about the world not from newspapers, but from wanderers, for example, such as Feklusha. A favorite guest in the Kabanov family says that “there is still a land where all people have dog heads”, and in Moscow there are only “amusements and games, and there is a roar in the streets of the Indo, a groan stands”. The ignorant inhabitants of the city of Kalinov willingly believe in such stories, which is why Kalinov seems to the townspeople a paradise. So, separated from the whole world, as a distant state, in which the inhabitants see almost the only promised land, Kalinov himself begins to acquire fabulous features, becoming symbolically sleepy kingdom. The spiritual life of the inhabitants of Kalinovo is limited by the rules of Domostroy, the observance of which is required by each generation of parents from each generation of children, tyranny reigns all around and money rules.

The main guardians of the secular order in the city are Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova and Savel Prokofievich Dikoi, who have distorted moral standards. A prime example tyranny is an episode in which Ostrovsky ironically portrays Diky, speaking of his “kindness”: having scolded the peasant who asked him for a salary, Savel Prokofievich repents of his behavior and even asks for forgiveness from the worker. Thus, the writer depicts the absurdity of the fury of the Wild, which was replaced by self-flagellation. Being a wealthy merchant and having a lot of money, Wild considers people below him to be "worms" whom he can pardon or crush at will, the hero feels impunity for his actions. Even the mayor is unable to influence him. Wild, feeling herself not only the master of the city, but also the master of life, is not afraid of the official either. A wealthy merchant is also afraid of the household. Every morning his wife begs those around her with tears: “Fathers, don’t make me angry!” But Savel Prokofievich swears only with those who cannot fight back. As soon as he meets resistance, his mood and tone of communication change dramatically. He is afraid of his clerk Curly, who knows how to resist him. Dikoi does not swear even with the merchant's wife Marfa Ignatievna, the only one who understands him. Only Kabanikh is able to pacify violent temper Savel Prokofievich. She alone sees that Dikoy himself is not happy with his tyranny, but she cannot help herself, so Kabanikha considers herself stronger than him.

And indeed, Marfa Ignatievna is not inferior to Wild in despotism and tyranny. Being a hypocrite, she tyrannizes her family. Kabanikha is depicted by Ostrovsky as a heroine who considers herself the guardian of the foundations of Domostroy. The patriarchal system of values, from which only the external ostentatious side remains, is the most important thing for her. Marfa Ignatievna's desire to follow the old traditions in everything, Ostrovsky demonstrates in the scene of Tikhon's farewell to Katerina. A conflict arises between Katerina and Kabanikha, reflecting internal contradictions between heroines. The boar blames Katerina for not “howling” and not “lying on the porch” after her husband’s departure, to which Katerina remarks that it’s “to make people laugh” like this.

The boar, doing everything “under the guise of piety,” demands complete obedience from her household. In the Kabanov family, everyone should live as Marfa Ignatievna requires. Kuligin accurately characterizes Kabanikha in a dialogue with Boris: “The hypocrite, sir! The beggars are clothed, but the household is completely stuck! The main object of her tyranny is her own children. The power-hungry Kabanikha does not notice that under her oppression she has raised a miserable, cowardly person who does not have own opinion- the son of Tikhon and the cunning, giving the impression of a decent and obedient daughter Varvara. In the end, unjustified cruelty and a desire to control everything lead Kabanikha to tragedy: his own son blames his mother for the death of his wife Katerina (“Mother, you ruined her”), and her beloved daughter, who does not agree to live within the framework of tyranny, runs away from home.

Giving an assessment of the images of the “dark kingdom”, one cannot but agree with Ostrovsky that cruel tyranny and despotism are a real evil, under the yoke of which they fade, wither human feelings, the will weakens, the mind fades. "Thunderstorm" is an open protest against " dark kingdom”, a challenge to ignorance and rudeness, hypocrisy and cruelty.

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Updated: 2017-11-23

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The dark kingdom in the play "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky - this allegorical statement is familiar to everyone with light hand his contemporary literary critic Dobrolyubova. That is how Nikolai Ivanovich considered it necessary to characterize the difficult social and moral atmosphere in Russian cities early XIX century.

Ostrovsky - a fine connoisseur of Russian life

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky made a bright breakthrough in Russian drama, for which he received a worthy article-review. He continued the traditions of the Russian national theater laid down by Fonvizin, Gogol, Griboyedov. In particular, Nikolay Dobrolyubov highly appreciated deep knowledge and truthful reflection by the playwright of the specifics of Russian life. The Volga city of Kalinov, shown in the play, has become a kind of model for the whole of Russia.

The deep meaning of the allegory "dark kingdom"

The dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is a clear and capacious allegory created by the critic Dobrolyubov, which is based on both a broad socio-economic explanation and a narrower one - a literary one. The latter is formulated in relation to provincial town Kalinov, in which Ostrovsky depicted an average (as they say now - average) Russian town of the late 18th century.

The broad meaning of the concept of "dark kingdom"

Let us first define the broad meaning this concept: the dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is a figurative characteristic of the socio-political state of Russia at a certain stage of its development.

After all, a thoughtful reader who is interested in history clearly understands what kind of Russia ( late 18th century) in question. Huge country, a fragment of which the playwright showed in the play, lived in the old fashioned way, at a time when industrialization was dynamically taking place in European countries. The people were socially paralyzed (which was abolished in 1861). Strategic railways. The people in their mass were illiterate, uneducated, superstitious. In fact, the state social policy did little.

Everything in the provincial Kalinov, as it were, is "boiled in its own juice." That is, people are not involved in major projects- production, construction. Their judgments betray complete incompetence in the simplest concepts: for example, in the electrical origin of lightning.

The dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is a society devoid of a development vector. The class of the industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat has not yet taken shape ... The financial flows of society have not been formed insufficient for global socio-economic transformations.

The dark kingdom of the city of Kalinov

In a narrow sense, the dark kingdom in the play "Thunderstorm" is a way of life inherent in the bourgeoisie and merchants. According to the description given by Ostrovsky, this community is absolutely dominated by wealthy and arrogant merchants. They constantly carry out psychological pressure on others, not paying attention to their interests. There is no government for these ghouls who "eat with food." For these petty tyrants, money is equivalent to social status, and human and Christian morality is not a decree in their actions. They practically do whatever they please. In particular, realistic, artistically completed images - the merchant Savel Prokopevich Dikoy and the merchant's wife Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova - initiate the "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm". What are these characters? Let's consider them more closely.

The image of the merchant Saveliy Prokofich Wild

Merchant Dikoy is the richest man in Kalinov. However, the consistency in it does not border on the breadth of the soul and hospitality, but on the "cool disposition". And he understands his wolf nature, and wants to somehow change. “About fasting somehow, about a great one, I spoke ...” Yes, tyranny is his second nature. When a “man” comes to him with a request to borrow money, Dikoy rudely humiliates him, moreover, it almost comes to beating the unfortunate man.

Moreover, this psychotype of behavior is always characteristic of him. (“What can I do, my heart is like that!”) That is, he builds his relationships with others on the basis of fear and his dominance. This is his usual pattern of behavior towards people with inferior

This man was not always rich. However, he came to solvency through a primitive, aggressive, established social model of behavior. Relations with others and relatives (in particular, with his nephew), he builds on only one principle: to humiliate them, formally - to deprive them of social rights, and then use them himself. However, having felt a psychological rebuff from a person with equal status (for example, from the widow of a merchant Kabanikhi), he begins to treat him more respectfully, without humiliating him. This is a primitive, two-way scheme of behavior.

Behind rudeness and suspicion (“So you know that you are a worm!”) Greed and self-interest are hidden. For example, in the case of a nephew, he actually disinherits him. Savel Prokofich harbors hatred in his soul for everything around him. His credo is to reflexively crush everyone, crush everyone, clearing the living space for himself. If we lived at this time, such an idiot (excuse the frankness) could well, just in the middle of the street, beat us for nothing, just so that we crossed to the other side of the street, clearing the way for him! But such an image was familiar to serf Russia! Not for nothing, after all, Dobrolyubov called the dark kingdom in the play "Thunderstorm" a sensitive and truthful reflection of Russian reality!

The image of the merchant's wife Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova

The second type of Kalinov's wild morals is the rich merchant widow Kabanikh. Her social model of behavior is not as primitive as that of the merchant Wild. (For some reason, an analogy comes to mind regarding this model: “The poor eyesight of a rhinoceros is a problem of those around it, and not the rhino itself!) Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, unlike the merchant Diky, builds her own social status gradually. Humiliation is also a tool, but of a completely different kind. She mainly affects members of her family: son Tikhon, daughter Varvara, daughter-in-law Katerina. She puts both her material and moral superiority at the basis of her dominance over others.

Hypocrisy - that's her key to the merchant's wife - double morality. Formally and outwardly following the Christian cult, it is far from the real merciful Christian consciousness. On the contrary, she interprets her status of churching as a kind of deal with God, believing that she has been given the right not only to teach everyone around her about everything, but also to indicate how they should act.

She does this all the time, completely destroying her son Tikhon as a person, and pushing her daughter-in-law Katerina to commit suicide.

If the merchant Wild, having met on the street, can be bypassed, then the situation is quite different with regard to Kabanikha. So to speak, she continuously, constantly, and not episodically, like Dikoy, "generates" the dark kingdom in the play "Thunderstorm". Quotes from the work characterizing Kabanikha testify: she zombies her loved ones, demanding that Katerina bow to her husband when he enters the house, suggesting that “you can’t argue with mother”, that the husband gives strict orders to his wife, and on occasion beat her ...

Weak attempts to resist tyrants

What opposes the community of the city of Kalinov to the expansion of the two aforementioned tyrants? Yes, practically nothing. They live in a comfortable society for themselves. As Pushkin wrote in "Boris Godunov": "The people are silent ...". Someone who is educated tries to timidly express his opinion, like engineer Kuligin. Someone, like Barbara, crippled himself morally by living double life: assenting to tyrants and doing what she pleases herself. And someone is waiting for an internal and tragic protest (like Katerina).

Conclusion

Does it occur in our everyday life the word "selfishness"? We hope that for the majority of our readers - much less often than for the inhabitants of the fortress town of Kalinov. Accept sympathy if your boss or someone from the family circle is a tyrant. Nowadays, this phenomenon does not immediately spread to the entire city. However, it does exist in places. And you need to find a way out of it...

Let's return to Ostrovsky's play. Representatives create a "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm". Their common features- the presence of capital and the desire to dominate in society. However, it does not rely on spirituality, creativity, or enlightenment. Hence the conclusion: it is necessary to isolate the tyrant, depriving him of the opportunity to lead, as well as depriving him of communication (boycott). A tyrant is strong as long as he feels the indispensability of his beloved and the demand for his capital.

You should just deprive him of such "happiness". In Kalinov, it was not possible to do this. It's real these days.

"The Dark Kingdom" in A.N. Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm": Wild and Boar

A. N. Ostrovsky had a high understanding of Russian life and a great ability to depict sharply and vividly the most significant
her sides. Dobrolyubov called the world depicted by the playwright a "dark kingdom".
So what is this "dark kingdom"?
Getting acquainted with the situation and the way of life of the inhabitants of Kalinovo, already from the first scenes of the drama, we can judge the philistinism
cities.
« Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!
Tears flow behind high fences, behind heavy locks. “Whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor ... And
among themselves - then, sir, how they live! ... They are at enmity with each other. Who are they? Rude people, slanderers, envious people, oppressors.
Dobrolyubov calls this type of people "tyrants of Russian life." In the role of "tyrants" in the play, Dikoy and
Boar.
The meaning of Dikov's life is to acquire, increase his wealth. To do this, he does not disdain any
means. To the mayor, to whom the peasants complained that Dikoi was robbing them, he replies: “Is it worth it, your
Your high nobility, you and I are talking about such trifles! I have a lot in a year - then people stay: you - then understand:
I won’t pay them extra for a penny per person, but I make thousands of this, so it’s good for me!
The main features of the Wild are greed and rudeness. Having thousands, he feels his strength and brazenly demands universal respect and
obedience. He considers himself entitled to scold all people in a row.
His whole life is based on cursing. “Most of all, because of money, not a single calculation can do without scolding.” Nobody and
he does not dare to utter a word about his salary, he scolds him for what the world is worth. Everyone in the house is afraid of him, they try not to anger him in the morning,
Otherwise, all day long he will find fault with everyone. And the trouble is, if his man, whom he does not dare to scold; right here at home
hold on. “How he got off the chain,” Kudryash characterizes him.
Showing his power, Dikoi says to Kulizhin: “I say that you are a robber, and the end! What are you, sue, or something with me
you will! So you know that you are a worm. If I want - I will have mercy, if I want - I will crush.
But Dikoy doesn’t scold everyone, he doesn’t talk like that to everyone. It is necessary to stumble upon resistance, so the tone immediately changes.
He is afraid of his clerk Curly. “He is the word, and I am ten; spit and go. No, I won't be a slave to him
I will,” says Kudryash. He does not dare to scold Kabanikha either.
It turns out that it is not so difficult to humble the Wild, it is enough to show him at least some resistance. But the trouble is
that he encounters almost no resistance to this.
The speech of the wild one characterizes him as an extremely rude, ignorant, uneducated person. He doesn't want to know anything
about science, culture, inventions. When Kuligin asks him for money for sundial The wild one won't even understand, oh
what is being said.
To quotes from Derzhavin’s poems, Dikoy says to Kuligin: “Don’t you dare be rude to me!”
The limit of the power of petty tyrants depends on the degree of obedience of others. This was well understood by another mistress of the "dark kingdom"
Boar. She is outwardly calm, well in control of herself. “A hypocrite, she clothes the poor, but she completely ate at home,” - this is what she says about
her Kuligin. Measured, monotonous, without raising her voice, she exhausts her family with her endless moralizing,
reproaches, reproaches, complaints: “If a parent says something when and insulting, in your pride, so, I think you could
postpone".
She does not get tired of repeating that she does not take care of herself, but of the children: “After all, parents are strict out of love - then they come to you, from
love you and scold - then everyone thinks to teach good.
But from her love and care it comes to stupefaction Tikhon, he runs away from Varvara's house. Her constant tyranny tormented Katerina,
led her to her death. The boar constantly pretends to be offended, unhappy: “Mother is old, stupid; Well, what about you young people?
smart people should not exact from us fools. She sees her main concern in cutting off any possibility
rebelliousness. The boar eats domestic animals in order to kill their will, any ability to resist. She supports
superstitions and prejudices, strictly observes the old customs and practices: “Why are you standing there, don’t you know the order? order
wife - how to live without you!
A boar is a domineering, proud, wayward woman, accustomed only to unquestioning obedience and humiliation
others: “Well, well, order! So that I can hear what you order her!”
“In the night, in the night,” he orders Tikhon. This is not a woman, but a heartless, cruel executioner. Even at the sight of pulled out of
Volga of Katerina's body, she keeps an icy calmness. The boar understands that only fear can keep people in
subjugation, to prolong the domination of petty tyrants. To the words of Tikhon, why should his wife be afraid of him, Kabanikha exclaims in horror: “How
why be afraid! Yes, you're crazy, right? You will not be afraid, and even more so me.
She defends the law, according to which the weak must be afraid of the strong, according to which a person should not have his own will. After
Katerina’s confession, she loudly, triumphantly says to Tikhon: “What, son! Where will the will lead? I told you, so you
did not want to listen. That's what I've been waiting for!"
Indeed, according to Dobrolyubov, “There is nothing sacred, nothing pure, nothing right in this dark world". The critic exclaimed:
“The tyranny, wild, insane, banished from him any sense of honor and right ... brazenly trampled on human tyrants
dignity, individual freedom, faith in love and happiness.
The power of Kabanikh and Dikiy is still great “But - a wonderful thing! ... tyrants begin to feel some kind of discontent and fear,
without knowing what or why. In addition to them, without asking them, another life grew up, with other beginnings. She is far away, but
already gives itself a presentiment and sends not good visions to the dark arbitrariness of petty tyrants.

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky for the first time in Russian literature deeply and realistically portrayed the world of the “dark kingdom”, painted colorful images of petty tyrants, their way of life and customs. He dared to look behind the iron merchant gates, was not afraid to openly show the conservative strength of "inertness", "numbness". Analyzing Ostrovsky’s “plays of life”, Dobrolyubov wrote: “There is nothing holy, nothing pure, nothing right in this dark world: the tyranny that dominates him, wild, crazy, wrong, drove out of him any consciousness of honor and right ... And it cannot be them where human dignity, freedom of the individual, faith in love and happiness, and the sacredness of honest labor have been crushed to dust and brazenly trampled on by tyrants.” And yet, many of Ostrovsky's plays depict "shakiness and the near end of tyranny."
Dramaturgical conflict in "Thunderstorm" lies in the clash of the moribund morality of petty tyrants with new morality people in whose souls a feeling awakens human dignity. In the play, the very background of life, the setting itself, is important. The world of the "dark kingdom" is based on fear and monetary calculation. The self-taught watchmaker Kuligin says to Boris: “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! Whoever has money, he tries to enslave the poor, so that for his labors free more money make money." Immediate monetary dependence forces Boris to be respectful with the “cursor” Dikiy. Tikhon is resignedly obedient to his mother, although in the finale of the play even he rises to a kind of rebellion. The clerk Wild Curly and Tikhon's sister Varvara are cunning and dodging. The penetrating heart of Katerina feels the falsity and inhumanity of the surrounding life. “Yes, everything here seems to be from bondage,” she thinks.
The images of petty tyrants in The Thunderstorm are artistically authentic, complex, devoid of psychological unambiguity. Wild - a wealthy merchant, a significant person in the city of Kalinov. At first glance, nothing threatens his power. Savel Prokofievich, according to Kudryash’s apt definition, “as if he had broken loose”: he feels himself the master of life, the arbiter of the destinies of people subject to him. Doesn't Diky's attitude towards Boris speak of this? The people around are afraid to anger Savel Prokofievich with something, his wife trembles before him.
Wild feels on his side the power of money, support state power. In vain are the requests to restore justice, with which the “peasants” deceived by the merchant turn to the mayor. Savel Prokofievich patted the mayor on the shoulder and said: “Is it worth it, your honor, to talk about such trifles with you!”
At the same time, as already mentioned, the image of the Wild is rather complicated. The tough disposition of the “significant person in the city” comes up not against some external protest, not against the manifestation of discontent of others, but against internal self-condemnation. Savel Prokofievich himself is not happy with his "heart": He came for the money, he carried firewood ... He sinned: he scolded, so scolded that it was impossible to demand better, he almost nailed him. That's what my heart is! After forgiveness, he asked, bowed at his feet. This is what my heart brings me to: here in the yard, in the mud, I bowed; bowed to him in front of everyone.” This recognition of Dikoy contains a meaning that is terrible for the foundations of the “dark kingdom”: tyranny is so unnatural and inhuman that it outlives itself, loses any moral justification for its existence.
The rich merchant Kabanova can also be called a “tyrant in a skirt”. An exact description of Marfa Ignatievna was put into the mouth of Kuligin: “A hypocrite, sir! She feeds the poor, but eats the household completely.” In a conversation with his son and daughter-in-law, Kabanikha hypocritically sighs: “Oh, a grave sin! How long to sin!”
Behind this feigned exclamation lies an imperious, despotic character. Marfa Ignatievna actively defends the foundations of the "dark kingdom", trying to subdue Tikhon and Katerina. Relations between people in the family should, according to Kabanova, be regulated by the law of fear, the Domostroy principle “let the wife of her husband be afraid.” Marfa Ignatievna's desire to follow the old traditions in everything is manifested in the scene of Tikhon's farewell to Katerina.
The position of the hostess in the house cannot completely reassure the Kabanikha. Marfa Ignatievna is frightened by the fact that young people want to, that the traditions of hoary antiquity are not respected. “What will happen, how the old people will die, how the light will stand, I don’t know. Well, at least it’s good that I won’t see anything, ”Kabanikha sighs. In this case, her fear is quite sincere, not designed for any external effect (Marfa Ignatievna pronounces her words alone).

FROM ILYICH TO THE LIGHT BULB===Chapter 1===The Dark Kingdom. Rich and poor. Birth of the Leader