Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" (see its summary and analysis) was appreciated by those critics who saw the "beam of light" illuminating the "dark kingdom" in "knowledge", in "education" ... Only it can defeat the "dark kingdom" , with gloomy remnants of antiquity. The representative of such knowledge, which is already beginning to fight against darkness, is Kuligin in the play, a self-taught mechanic. The most ridiculous embodiment of the old darkness is represented by wanderer Feklusha.
A. N. Ostrovsky. Thunderstorm. Performance
Kuligin is a supporter of knowledge, a supporter of culture; he has already grown out of that gloomy "naturalism" that makes even the tyrant Wild a "slave of nature", like a miserable, primitive savage. Wild is afraid of a thunderstorm: he sees in it a manifestation of the wrath of God and therefore he considers it a “sin” to fight a thunderstorm with the help of a lightning rod. An admirer of Lomonosov, Kuligin adopted his point of view, which reconciled "science" and "religion", and sought to prove the greatness of God through the study of the natural sciences. In his Message on the Benefits of Glass, Lomonosov expresses this, new for Russia, attitude of man to nature. He attacks the "weak mind" of his contemporaries, who considered it "sin" any attempt to interpret what hail and lightning are, who explained "harvest failure" as "God's wrath" and considered it "sin" to give it natural explanations:
When in Egypt contented bread was not born,
Is it a sin to say that the Nile did not spill there?
Kuligin, a passionate admirer of Lomonosov, like his teacher, poeticized his scientific and religious understanding of the life of nature. An artist at heart, a man devoted to religion and to those miserable sparks of knowledge that fate gave him, he soberly looks at reality and fights against it in the name of public interests. He is naive with the belief that he will be able to invent a "perpetual mobile" (perpetual motion machine) - but he is touching with this belief in his own strength. Peter the Great himself ordered craftsmen from abroad to invent this fantastic machine, in the possibility of which he believed as naively and firmly as later Kuligin, this, in the 19th century, a representative of Peter's Rus'.
Kuligin is an exception in the town of Kalinovo in his thirst for education, in his interest in the world of culture. This nature is soft, enthusiastic and sensitive. He loves nature, loves poetry, he senses the possibility of a different, more noble and meaningful life and cannot reconcile himself with the rudeness and cruelty of the mores of his city. Gifted with the talent of an inventor, intellectually inquisitive, Kuligin is an indicator of those wonderful vital forces that ripen in the Russian people and will be powerfully revealed when the power of the dark kingdom of despotism and violence ends.
Among the heroes of A. Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" Kuligin is one of the key figures, although not the main one.
A self-taught mechanic, he really looks at the processes taking place in the town. Kuligin understands that changes are needed in life, that the foundations of the town are outdated and need to be changed, that the old world is crumbling before our eyes. But, unlike Katerina, his protest is manifested only in words. Outraged by the cruelty of rich people, hostility, hatred reigning around, he nevertheless advises to reconcile and somehow exist.
Indecision contributes to his timidity, and to Boris's proposal to openly expose the injustice taking place in Kalinov, he replies: "I already get it, sir, for my chatter."
At the same time, he is an incorrigible romantic and a dreamer. His poetic nature is manifested in his love for nature, the beauty of which brings poetic lines to him. The subtlety of his soul is evidenced by the fact that he reads poetry, sings songs, admires the surrounding beauty. His words "Delight! Miracles, beauty! The soul rejoices!" can only belong to a spiritually beautiful person. We do not know about his appearance, but the inner beauty and understanding of what is happening around him makes this image positive.
At the beginning of the work, Kuligin sits on the bank and admires the beautiful Volga. He loves his town, its inhabitants and wants to do a lot for their prosperity. He worries that there are no lightning rods in the city, and frequent thunderstorms can harm him, dreams of making a sundial in the park, as well as inventing a perpetual motion machine and directing the money earned for the invention to improve the life of the city. But Kuligin's noble impulses cannot be realized for the simple reason that he is poor, he has no money for all this, and no one wants to help him in this. They simply ridicule his ideas, considering him a strange person.
Kuligin is unable to change the life of the city for the better, because he does not have like-minded people and is afraid to openly fight the old world. But the positivity of this image is that it does not belong to the dark part of the inhabitants of the town, realizing that a new time is coming.
Essay about Kuligin
The play "Thunderstorm" written by Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky tells about the inhabitants of the small town of Kalinovo, in which the permissiveness of the nobles goes beyond. No one is watching these landowners, and they are free to do whatever they want. Many peasants simply endure this, but others openly resent their behavior, and there are those who say this to the nobleman himself in person.
The first character in the play is Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic who is over 50 years old, enterprising, but at the same time dreamy. He sits and admires the boundless Russian nature, about which he tells Kudryash and Shapkin. They do not understand his joy, as they are immersed in ordinary everyday problems and local gossip. Comrades admire him, because he does not talk about trifles and can fight back, without force, but simply with words. Kuligin loves to create and create new things, he wants to improve the life of the city and give something great, but most often such dreams lead to loss and disappointment.
If the critic Dobrolyubov wrote in his critical article that Katerina is a ray of light in this dark kingdom, then Kuligin can be said to make this “Dark Kingdom” not so gloomy. But at the same time, despite its bright beam, mechanics, like everyone else, have to endure all the city landlords and their cruel antics. If you recall Kudryash, who only verbally opposed the Wild and did not want to obey him, then Kuligin does not want to follow his example, he simply remains silent, enduring all the attacks. He rarely argues with other people above him in class, does not even try to express his personal opinion. He understands that if he gets into a fight, everything will only get worse, and if he just insults the debater, they can take him and cripple him. But most often, when Kuligin tries to resolve the dispute amicably, just in words between adults and children, his attempts remain a failure.
It is important to note what exactly he betrays, the main thoughts of the author and his opinion about certain things. It is he who says: "Cruel, sir, morals in our city, cruel! ...". He completely condemns lies and hypocrisy, selfishness. He does not understand why the nobles are so cruel to them all and do not want to help their neighbors, even to help in small things. They do everything for themselves and their loved ones, but they won’t even give a coin to their subordinates. Kuligin is not the main character of the work, the hero - the reasoner of the drama, but he can be considered one of the main characters in the entire play and drama. Just like Katerina, the main character of the drama, he fights for honor and justice, for the right of ordinary peasants. Both of them fight for love and justice and are ready to lose a lot for this, and Kuligin himself betrays all the thoughts of the author.
3 option
In the play "Thunderstorm" by A. Ostrovsky there is one interesting hero Kuligin. He is not the main character. But, despite this, his image is interesting.
The man works as a mechanic. He learned his craft on his own. He is a realist and understands what is happening in their city. Kuligin wants to change his life and the life of the town as a whole. He believes that it is necessary to move on, and not stand still. In his opinion, the old foundations, according to which the inhabitants of the city lived, have long been outdated and it is necessary to come up with something new. He protests against the established system. He was outraged by the cruelty of people and the hatred that reigns around. But, all his protests ended with only words.
He is an indecisive man. His refusal to Boris testifies to his cowardice. The man invited Kuligin to expose the injustice that is happening in the city. But, Kuligin told him that he had already talked too much, and for this he had already got it more than once. All this confirms his cowardly nature.
The man was quite romantic. He loved to dream. At heart he was a poet. Kuligin was very fond of nature. She was his muse and inspiration. He wrote poems about the beauty of nature. He has a fine mental organization. He admires everything that surrounds him. He has a kind and beautiful soul. The author decided not to describe Kuligin's appearance. In the story, much attention is paid to revealing the inner world of the hero. In general, the image can be considered positive.
He likes to dream looking at the current Volga. He wants his city to develop and become better. Kuligin is worried about the fact that there is no lightning rod in the town. He is afraid that constant thunderstorms can greatly harm the city. He dreams of making some kind of discovery, and spending the money received as a reward on the needs of the town. But these are only his wishes, which are not destined to come true. He is poor. When he talks about his ideas to other people, they just laugh at him. A man's head is filled with only pure and kind thoughts.
Kuligin alone cannot change the established life in the city for the better. He doesn't have the energy or the money to do it. In fact, he is a poor man, but he has a very rich inner world. He has no people who would be with him at the same time. Kuligin wants to find like-minded people and fight them against the established system. This is a positive character. He does not do bad deeds and does not harm anyone. Kuligin dreams of a bright future and appreciates the beauty of nature.
Some interesting essays
- Composition based on the painting by Maksimov Everything in the past (description)
The well-known canvas depicts the mistress of the estate, who is calmly resting in her favorite armchair.
- Analysis of the story Bunin Mitin love
Bunin writes excellently about love and relationships, in his works quite often a couple appears in something similar to Katya and Mitya. The connection between two people is almost always quite tender and pure.
- Analysis of the story Krug Nabokov
The cycle of life is clearly felt in Vladimir Nabokov's story "Circle". Memories of the protagonist Innokenty float around him in a circle, returning to the past. Nabokov skillfully conveys the feelings of the hero, his passionate desire to get into high society.
- Escape Mtsyri (goal, why, reasons for escaping) composition
- Analysis of Bunin's story Cold Autumn Grade 11
The stories of Ivan Bunin have always been distinguished by their penetrating and peculiar subtlety of narration. This work is a story of a woman who describes her life. In particular, she describes one evening of her youth
The most peculiar character in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is Kuligin - a tradesman, watchmaker, self-taught inventor, looking for a perpetuum mobile (perpetual motion machine). This character partially performs the functions of the author's opinion on a particular issue, but in general, Kuligin is depicted as a self-sufficient, albeit slightly unusual, even outlandish person. The name of this hero is a transparent allusion to a real person - Kulibina I.P. (1755 - 1818). Kulibin's biography was published in the Moskvityanin magazine, with which Ostrovsky collaborated.
Kuligin is a poetic and dreamy nature, this is noticeable by, for example, how he admires the beautiful Volga landscape.
The first acquaintance of the reader with him is marked by a folk song of literary origin “Among the flat valley ...” Kuligin appears singing this song, which immediately emphasizes his bookishness and education. This Kuligin differs from other characters who are associated with folklore culture. He is a bookish man, although his bookishness can be confidently called archaic: he writes poetry "in the old way"; He calls Lomonosov not a "scientist", but a "wise man", "tester of nature"; considers himself a "self-taught mechanic". His speech is more reminiscent of old moralizing stories and apocrypha than the statements of modern man. Kuligin's technical ideas are clearly outdated. The need to install a lightning rod in the city, a sundial, and similar plans are related to bygone centuries, but not to the scientific and technological progress of the second half of the 19th century.
This archaism of all Kuligin's ideas emphasizes his deep connection with his native city. He is a man of a new era, but he was formed inside Kalinov, which, of course, left a mark on his attitude and life views. The dream of creating a perpetual motion machine and getting a million from the British for this discovery is the main business of Kuligin's life. Kuligin dreams of spending the money he received for the good of his native city: “work must be given to the bourgeoisie.” After listening to his story, the young man Boris, who received a modern commercial education, perfectly understands the utopian nature of such a plan, but he does not want to destroy the dream of a good man. In the meantime, until the dream came true, Kuligin is engaged in smaller inventions for his native city. To implement his ideas, he constantly has to beg for money from Kalinov's wealthy people. They, in turn, consider Kuligin's inventions useless, ridicule him, consider him an eccentric and crazy. For this reason, Kuligin's passion for creativity remains unfulfilled. He pities his countrymen, understands that their vices are the result of poverty and ignorance, but he cannot help in anything. So, for example, he gives humane advice to forgive Katerina and not to remember her sin anymore. But this advice is categorically not feasible in Kabanikh's house, completely different views and beliefs reign there. Thus, despite all the positive qualities of Kuligin, he was and will remain only a contemplative nature, whose beautiful thoughts will never become beautiful actions. Kuligin will forever remain a funny eccentric, a kind of Kalinov's landmark.
The rest of the faces in the drama are surprisingly full and vital. All of them are new, but some of them shine with special novelty in our literature. For example, Kuligin, a self-taught mechanic, or a lady with two lackeys. The latter, however, stops our attention not as a person, not as a character: it is only outlined by the author. It strikes you, rather, at the thought of bringing such a face to the stage and giving it a certain meaning. In fact, without him, the drama would be somehow incomplete. She would lose some colors, very necessary for the general tone of the picture.
Kuligin another thing. He is one of the main supporting characters in the play. Although he appears to us only from one side, from the side of a good-natured and dreamer, the author nevertheless puts a lot of life into him. He is remembered for his cuteness. On the stage you meet him with pleasure, you say goodbye to him with regret. This is a self-taught mechanic, a poet at heart, a dreamer. He looks for a perpetuum mobile and raves about it, admires the beauties of nature and recites Lomonosov's poems, starts philanthropic undertakings like sundials and lightning rods, and he is persecuted for this, and he is happy for it. Good people love him, but he escapes the evil ones in his perpetuum mobile, in his lightning rods - look for him there. His character is related to the character of Katerina. And he, in all likelihood, not without storms and not without heart wounds, lived to gray hair. And it is bitter for him to live among people who do not understand him and for whom he is "an antique, a chemist." But he has a perpetuum mobile, which Katerina did not have - if only he could "get some money on a model", and he will certainly find a perpetuum mobile. And when he finds it, he will receive a whole million rubles from the British and do something good. In the meantime, it’s better for you and don’t talk about this mobile: he will immediately slip away from you, either because he is already tired of talking with the profane about this, or he is simply afraid of disbelief and ridicule. Probably afraid.
Along with the old woman Kabanova, an elderly, callous and terrible formalist woman, stands another tyrant, an eminent face of the town, wealthy merchant of the Wild Uncle Boris. A face captured in an unusually artistic way. He is always fooling around and getting angry, but not because he was naturally angry. On the contrary, he is a wet chicken. Only family members tremble before him, and even then not all. Curly, one of his clerks, knows how to talk to him; that word, and this ten. Wild is afraid of him. When, in the first scene of his appearance, Boris answered him rather sharply, he only spat, and left. He is angry because a bad custom has started: all his workers need money and everyone climbs to him for them. Don’t even stutter about his salary: “With us, no one even dare to utter a word about salary,” says Kudryash, “he scolds what the world is worth. You, he says, how do you know what I keep in mind? maybe I will come to such an arrangement that five thousand ladies will be given to you. Only he had never come to such a position before. He also gets angry not because he could be angry all the time, because his bile spilled every now and then or his liver was spoiled. No, and so, for a warning, so that they don’t ask for money under an angry hand. It is not even easy for him to get angry; he will take into his head the suspicion that today they will ask him for money, so he finds fault with his family, boil his blood and go for the whole day: he will set such a joke that everyone is hiding from him in the corners and money, maybe not will be asked. He likes to drink, and if a Russian person drinks, then he is not an evil person.
Another thing is the old woman Kabanova. This exact woman with character. The same beliefs that evoke such bright images in Katerina's poetic soul completely dried up the already dry heart of the old woman by nature. Life has nothing living for her: for her it is a series of some strange and absurd formulas, before which she reveres and urgently wants others to revere them. Otherwise, in her opinion, the light will turn upside down. The most insignificant act in life is understandable for her and is permissible only in this case, if it takes the form of a certain ritual. Saying goodbye, for example, to a wife and husband, is not something as simple as everyone says goodbye. Save God; she has various ceremonies about this incident in which no place is given to feeling. A wife, after seeing off her husband, cannot simply cry and mourn in her room: in order to maintain decency, it is necessary to howl, so that everyone hears and praises. “I really love, dear girl, to listen, if someone howls well!”, - says the wanderer Feklusha (here is another main person in this drama).
Meanwhile, the old woman Kabanova also cannot be called an evil woman. She loves her son very much, but is jealous of his daughter-in-law. She sharpens everyone in the house: she has such a habit of sharpening, and most importantly, she is convinced that this is how the house is held together and that as soon as she stops keeping order, the whole house will fall apart. She looks at her son and daughter-in-law as children who cannot be released from custody. There will be no order then, they will get completely confused "to the obedience, but to the laughter of good people." In one of her monologues (appearance VI, act II) she draws herself very aptly and sharply:
“But stupid people also want to go free: but when they go free, they get confused in obedience and laughter to good people. Of course, who will regret it, but everyone laughs more. they know how, and even, look, they will forget one of their relatives. Laughter and nothing more!
So that's what she's busy with, that's why she eats her son and daughter-in-law. True, she feels more than hostility towards the latter, but this is because, in her opinion, the son loves his wife more than her mother. This jealousy is very common in mothers-in-law. Pure in her opinion, in her life, which she narrowed down to the indispensable observance of various conditions and ceremonies of her life, she is inexorable to the weaknesses of others, and even more so to the weaknesses of her daughter-in-law; She only despises and admonishes the wild. He hates Katerina, but, again, not from anger, but from jealousy. She does not express the slightest pity at the sight of the poor drowned woman, but at the same time she is afraid for her son and does not let him go a step away from her. Kuligin in one place calls her a hypocrite. He is obviously wrong. She is not even a hypocrite, because she is sincere; at least the play does not show her to be cunning or hypocritical about her beliefs and habits.
In contrast to these two women, a third female face is extremely boldly and boldly placed in the drama - Varvara, daughter of the old woman Kabanova. This is a daring Russian girl, sometimes frank, sometimes sly, always cheerful, always ready to take a walk and have fun. And she loves, perhaps, the most daring guy in the town, Curly, the clerk Diky. This daring couple only makes fun of oppression and oppressors. Varvara seduces Katerina, arranges nightly dates for her and leads all the intrigue, but she is not the culprit of the disaster. Sooner or later, Katerina would have done the same without her. The barbarian in the play is needed only for Katerina's fate to be completed in a dramatic way (taking this word not in the sense of tragedy, but in the sense of a stage and entertainment). And in this respect, this person is necessary in the play. In general, in Mr. Ostrovsky's drama, all the characters, even the most secondary ones, are needed, because they are all entertaining, original and characteristic in the highest degree. Their dramatic processing is the height of perfection. Throw out one of them, the most insignificant, for example, even Feklusha, and it will seem to you that you have cut out a piece from the most lively part of the drama, and that the drama without this face does not represent a more harmonious whole. So the author was able to legitimize all these images.
Not only that, all the faces of his new drama are not in the least similar, they do not even in the least resemble the faces he had previously drawn. These are completely new characters and types. This quality of not being repeated anywhere, of deducing more and more new images with each new play, belongs, if we are not mistaken, among our contemporary writers, only to one Mr. Ostrovsky. If we consider his writings only from the side of types and characters<…>, then criticism will have to admit that it is not dealing with the Gostinodvorsky Kotzebue, not with a writer who can not be denied talent or speak of him carelessly, but with our most remarkable modern poet, who has great creative power, which at the present time can boast of very few European writers.
<…>"Thunderstorm" is, without a doubt, one of his best [ Ostrovsky] works. In it, the poet took several new aspects from Russian life, which had not yet been opened before him. In this drama, in our opinion, he took a broader look at the life he portrayed and gave us full poetic images from it. If there are flaws in his play, they are completely redeemed by first-class beauties. In "Thunderstorm" new motives are heard, the charm of which is doubled precisely because they are new. Ostrovsky's gallery of Russian women has been adorned with new characters, and his Katerina, the old woman Kabanova, Varvara, even Feklusha will occupy a prominent place in it. In this play, we noticed another new feature in the talent of its author, although his creative methods remained the same as before. This is an attempt at analysis. It is difficult to judge by one work whether it is good or bad. We only doubt that analysis can get along with the dramatic form, which by its very nature is already alien to it. That is why we have not yet mentioned this new feature in Mr. Ostrovsky's drama. Perhaps we are mistaken in mistaking an accidental event for intention.
Dostoevsky M.M. ""Thunderstorm". Drama in five acts by A.N. Ostrovsky"
