A. N. Ostvosky "Thunderstorm"

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HISTORY OF CREATING THE PLAY.

The play was started by Alexander Ostrovsky in July 1859 and finished on October 9th. The manuscript of the play is kept in the Russian State Library.

In 1848, Alexander Ostrovsky went with his family to Kostroma, to the Shchelykovo estate. The natural beauty of the Volga region struck the playwright and then he thought about the play. For a long time it was believed that the plot of the drama Thunderstorm was taken by Ostrovsky from the life of the Kostroma merchants. Kostromichi at the beginning of the 20th century could accurately point to the place of Katerina's suicide.

In his play, Ostrovsky raises the problem of the turning point in public life that occurred in the 1850s, the problem of changing social foundations.

The names of the heroes of the play are endowed with symbolism: Kabanova - overweight, heavy character woman; Kuligin - this is a “kuliga”, a swamp, some of its features and name are similar to the name of the inventor Kulibin; the name Katerina means "pure"; Barbara opposed to her - « barbarian».

THE MEANING OF THE NAME OF THE DRAMA THUNDER.

The name of Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" plays a big role in understanding this play. The image of a thunderstorm in Ostrovsky's drama is unusually complex and ambiguous. On the one hand, thunder - a direct participant in the action of the play, on the other hand - symbol of the idea of ​​this work. In addition, the image of a thunderstorm has so many meanings that it illuminates almost all facets of the tragic collision in the play.

The storm plays an important role in the composition of the drama. In the first act - the plot of the work: Katerina tells Varvara about her dreams and hints at her secret love. Almost immediately after this, a thunderstorm approaches: “... there’s no way a thunderstorm sets in ...” At the beginning of the fourth act, a thunderstorm also gathers, foreshadowing a tragedy: “You mark my words that this thunderstorm will not pass in vain ...”

And a thunderstorm breaks out only in the scene of Katerina's confession - at the climax of the play, when the heroine speaks of her sin to her husband and mother-in-law without being ashamed

the presence of other citizens. Thunderstorm is directly involved in the action as a real natural phenomenon. It affects the behavior of the characters: after all, it is during a thunderstorm that Katerina confesses her sin. They even talk about a thunderstorm as if it were alive (“It’s raining, no matter how the thunderstorm gathers?”, “And it’s crawling on us, it’s crawling like it’s alive!”).

But the storm in the play also has a figurative meaning. For example, Tikhon calls the swearing, scolding and antics of his mother a thunderstorm: “Yes, as I know now that there will be no thunderstorm over me for two weeks, there are no shackles on my legs, so am I up to my wife?”

This fact is also noteworthy: Kuligin - a supporter of the peaceful eradication of vices (he wants to ridicule bad morals in the book: “I just wanted to depict all this in verse ...”). And it is he who offers Wild to make a lightning rod (“copper plate”), which serves here as an allegory, because soft and peaceful opposition to vices by exposing them in books - it is a kind of lightning rod.

In addition, a thunderstorm is perceived differently by all characters. So, Dikoy says: "The storm is sent to us as a punishment." Wild declares that people should be afraid of thunderstorms, and yet his power and tyranny are based precisely on people's fear of him. Evidence of this - Boris's fate He is afraid of not receiving an inheritance and therefore submits to the Wild. So, this fear is beneficial for the Wild. He wants everyone to be afraid of thunderstorms, just like him.

But Kuligin treats a thunderstorm differently: “Now every blade of grass, every flower rejoices, but we hide, we are afraid, just what kind of misfortune!” He sees a life-giving force in a thunderstorm. It is interesting that not only the attitude to a thunderstorm, but also the principles of Dikoy and Kuligin are different. Kuligin condemns the way of life of Dikoy, Kabanova and their morals: “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! ..”

So the image of a thunderstorm turns out to be connected with the disclosure of the characters of the characters in the drama. Katerina is also afraid of thunderstorms, but not in the same way as Dikoy. She sincerely believes that the storm is God's punishment. Katerina does not talk about the benefits of a thunderstorm, she is not afraid of punishment, but of sins. Her fear is associated with a deep, strong faith and high moral ideals. Therefore, in her words about the fear of a thunderstorm, it is not complacency, like that of Diky, but rather repentance: “It’s not scary that it will kill you, but that death will suddenly find you as you are, with all your sins, with all evil thoughts ..."

The heroine herself also resembles a thunderstorm. Firstly, the theme of a thunderstorm is connected with Katerina's feelings and state of mind. In the first act

a thunderstorm is gathering, as if a harbinger of tragedy and as an expression of the heroine's troubled soul. It was then that Katerina confesses to Varvara that she loves another - not a husband. The storm did not disturb Katerina during her meeting with Boris, when she suddenly felt happy. A thunderstorm appears whenever storms rage in the soul of the heroine herself: the words “With Boris Grigorievich!” (in Katerina's confession scene) - and again, according to the author’s note, a “thunderclap” is heard.

Secondly, the confession of Katerina and her suicide was a challenge to the forces of the "dark kingdom" and its principles ("closed-closed"). The very love that Katerina did not hide, her desire for freedom - this is also a protest, a challenge that thundered over the forces of the "dark kingdom" like a thunderstorm. Katerina's victory in that there will be rumors about Kabanikh, about her role in the suicide of her daughter-in-law, will not be able to hide the truth. Even Tikhon begins to weakly protest. "You ruined her! You! You!" - he shouts to his mother.

So, Ostrovsky's The Thunderstorm, despite its tragedy, produces a refreshing, encouraging impression, about which Dobrolyubov spoke: “... the end (of the play) ... seems to us encouraging, it is easy to understand why: it gives a terrible challenge to self-foolish power. .."

Katerina does not adapt to the principles of Kabanova, she did not want to lie and listen to someone else's lies: “You are talking about me, mother, in vain you say this ...”

The storm is also not subject to anything and no one. - it happens both in summer and in spring, not limited to the season, like precipitation. It is not for nothing that in many pagan religions the main god is the Thunderer, the lord of thunder and lightning (thunderstorms).

As in nature, the thunderstorm in Ostrovsky's play combines destructive and creative power: "Thunderstorm will kill!", "This is not a thunderstorm, but grace!"

So, the image of a thunderstorm in Ostrovsky's drama is multi-valued and not one-sided: while symbolically expressing the idea of ​​the work, at the same time it directly participates in the action. The image of a thunderstorm illuminates almost all facets of the play's tragic collision, which is why the meaning of the title becomes so important for understanding the play.

THEME AND IDEA OF THE PLAY.

The author takes us to the provincial merchant town of Kalinov, whose inhabitants stubbornly cling to the established way of life for centuries. But already at the beginning of the play it becomes clear that those universal human values ​​advocated by Domostroy have long lost their meaning for the ignorant inhabitants of Kalinov. For them, it is not the essence of human relations that is important, but only the form, the observance of decency. Not in vain in one of the first acts "Mother Marfa Ignatievna" - Kabanikha, Katerina's mother-in-law - received a deadly characterization: “The hypocrite, sir. He clothes the poor, and eats the household. And for Katerina, the main character of the drama, patriarchal values ​​are full of deep meaning. She, a married woman, fell in love. And he tries with all his might to fight his feelings, sincerely believing that this is a terrible sin. But Katerina sees that no one in the world cares about the true essence of those moral values ​​for which she tries to cling like a drowning man to a straw. Everything around is already collapsing, the world of the “dark kingdom” is dying in agony, and everything she tries to rely on turns out to be an empty shell. Under the pen of Ostrovsky, the planned drama from the life of the merchants develops into a tragedy.

The main idea of ​​the work - the conflict of a young woman with the "dark kingdom", the kingdom of tyrants, despots and ignoramuses. You can find out why this conflict arose and why the end of the drama is so tragic by looking into Katerina's soul, understanding her ideas about life. And this can be done thanks to the skill of A. N. Ostrovsky.

Behind the outward calmness of life lie gloomy thoughts, the dark life of tyrants who do not recognize human dignity. Representatives of the "dark kingdom" are Wild and Boar. First - a complete type of merchant-tyrant, the meaning of life of which is to make capital by any means. Domineering and harsh Boar - even more sinister and gloomy representative of Domostroy. She strictly observes all the customs and orders of patriarchal antiquity, eats at home, shows hypocrisy, bestowing gifts on the poor, does not tolerate anyone. The development of the action in The Thunderstorm gradually exposes the conflict of the drama. The power of the Boar and the Wild over others is still great. "But it's a wonderful thing - Dobrolyubov writes in the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”, - petty tyrants of Russian life, however, begin to feel some kind of discontent and fear, themselves not knowing what and why another life has grown up, with other principles, and although it is far away, it is not yet clearly visible, but it already gives itself a presentiment and sends bad visions of the dark arbitrariness of tyrants. This is the "dark realm" - the embodiment of the whole system of life of tsarist Russia: the lack of rights of the people, arbitrariness, oppression of human dignity, the manifestation of personal will. Katerina - nature is poetic, dreamy, freedom-loving. The world of her feelings and moods was formed in her parents' house, where she was surrounded by the care and affection of her mother. In an atmosphere of hypocrisy and importunity, petty tutelage, the conflict between the "dark kingdom" and Katerina's spiritual world is gradually maturing. Katerina suffers only for the time being. Finding no echo in the heart of a narrow-minded and downtrodden husband, her feelings turn to a person who is unlike everyone else. Love for Boris flared up with the force characteristic of such an impressionable nature as Katerina, it became the meaning of the heroine's life. Katerina comes into conflict not only with the environment, but also with herself. This is the tragedy of the position of the heroine.

For its time, when Russia experienced a period of tremendous social upsurge before the peasant reform, the drama The Thunderstorm was of great importance. The image of Katerina belongs to the best images of women not only in the work of Ostrovsky, but throughout Russian fiction.

ARTICLE N.A. DOBROLUBOV "RAY OF LIGHT IN THE DARK KINGDOM".

Thunderstorm Ostrov Dobrolyubov

At the beginning of the article, Dobrolyubov writes that "Ostrovsky has a deep understanding of Russian life." Further, he analyzes articles about Ostrovsky by other critics, writes that they "lack a direct look at things."

Then Dobrolyubov compares The Thunderstorm with dramatic canons: “The subject of the drama must certainly be an event where we see the struggle of passion and duty - with the unfortunate consequences of the victory of passion, or with the happy ones when duty triumphs. Also in the drama there must be a unity of action, and it must be written in high literary language. "Thunderstorm" at the same time "does not satisfy the most essential goal of the drama - to inspire respect for moral duty and show the harmful consequences of infatuation with passion. Katerina, this criminal, appears to us in the drama not only in a rather gloomy light, but even with the radiance of martyrdom. She speaks so well, she suffers so plaintively, everything around her is so bad that you arm yourself against her oppressors and thus justify vice in her face. Consequently, the drama does not fulfill its high purpose. The whole action is sluggish and slow, because it is cluttered with scenes and faces that are completely unnecessary. Finally, the language with which the characters speak surpasses all the patience of a well-bred person.

Dobrolyubov makes this comparison with the canon in order to show that an approach to a work with a ready idea of ​​​​what should be shown in it does not give a true understanding. “What to think of a man who, at the sight of a pretty woman, suddenly begins to resonate that her camp is not the same as that of the Venus de Milo? The truth is not in dialectical subtleties, but in the living truth of what you are talking about. It cannot be said that people are evil by nature, and therefore one cannot accept principles for literary works such as that, for example, vice always triumphs, and virtue is punished.

"The writer has so far been given a small role in this movement of mankind towards natural principles," - writes Dobrolyubov, after which he recalls Shakespeare, who "moved the general consciousness of people to several steps that no one had climbed before him." Further, the author turns to other critical articles about the "Thunderstorm", in particular, Apollon Grigoriev, who claims that the main merit of Ostrovsky - in his "nation". “But what the nationality consists of, Grigoriev does not explain, and therefore his remark seemed very amusing to us.”

Then Dobrolyubov comes to the definition of Ostrovsky’s plays as a whole as “plays of life”: “We want to say that for him the general atmosphere of life is always in the foreground. He does not punish either the villain or the victim. You see that their position dominates them, and you only blame them for not showing enough energy to get out of this position. And that is why we do not dare to consider as unnecessary and superfluous those characters in Ostrovsky's plays who do not directly participate in the intrigue. From our point of view, these faces are just as necessary for the play as the main ones: they show us the environment in which the action takes place, draw the position that determines the meaning of the activity of the main characters of the play.

In "Thunderstorm" the need for "unnecessary" persons (secondary and episodic characters) is especially visible. Dobrolyubov analyzes the remarks of Feklusha, Glasha, Dikoy, Kudryash, Kuligin, etc. The author analyzes the internal state of the heroes of the “dark kingdom”: “everything is somehow restless, not good for them. In addition to them, without asking them, another life has grown up, with other beginnings, and although it is not yet clearly visible, it already sends bad visions to the dark arbitrariness of tyrants. And Kabanova is very seriously upset by the future of the old order, with which she has outlived a century. She foresees their end, tries to maintain their significance, but she already feels that there is no former reverence for them and that they will be abandoned at the first opportunity.

Then the author writes that The Thunderstorm is “Ostrovsky's most decisive work; the mutual relations of tyranny are brought in it to the most tragic consequences; and for all that, most of those who have read and seen this play agree that there is even something refreshing and encouraging in The Thunderstorm. This “something” is, in our opinion, the background of the play, indicated by us and revealing the precariousness and the near end of tyranny. Then the very character of Katerina, drawn against this background, also blows on us with a new life, which opens up to us in her very death.

Further, Dobrolyubov analyzes the image of Katerina, perceiving it as "a step forward in all our literature": "Russian life has reached the point where there is a need for more active and energetic people." The image of Katerina is “steadily faithful to the instinct of natural truth and selfless in the sense that death is better for him than life under those principles that are repugnant to him. In this wholeness and harmony of character lies his strength. Free air and light, contrary to all the precautions of perishing tyranny, burst into Katerina's cell, she yearns for a new life, even if she had to die in this impulse. What is death to her? Doesn't matter - she does not consider life even the vegetative life that fell to her lot in the Kabanov family.

The author analyzes in detail the motives of Katerina's actions: “Katerina does not at all belong to violent characters, dissatisfied, loving to destroy. On the contrary, this character is predominantly creative, loving, ideal. That's why she tries to ennoble everything in her imagination. The feeling of love for a person, the need for tender pleasures naturally opened up in a young woman. But it will not be Tikhon Kabanov, who is “too busy to understand the nature of Katerina’s emotions:“ I won’t understand you, Katya, - he tells her - then you won’t get a word from you, let alone affection, otherwise you climb yourself like that. This is how spoiled natures usually judge a strong and fresh nature.

Dobrolyubov comes to the conclusion that in the image of Katerina Ostrovsky embodied a great folk idea: “in other works of our literature, strong characters are like fountains that depend on an extraneous mechanism. Katerina is like a big river: a flat bottom, good - it flows calmly, large stones met - she jumps over them, break - cascades, dam it up - it rages and erupts elsewhere. It boils not because the water suddenly wants to make noise or get angry at obstacles, but simply because it is necessary for it to fulfill its natural requirements. - for further progress.

"Thunderstorm" was not written by Ostrovsky ... "Thunderstorm" was written by Volga.

S. A. Yuriev

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was one of the greatest cultural figures of the 19th century. His work will forever remain in the history of literature, and it is difficult to overestimate his contribution to the development of the Russian theater. The writer made some changes to the staging of plays: attention should no longer be focused on only one hero; a fourth scene is introduced, separating the audience from the actors, to emphasize the conventionality of what is happening; ordinary people and standard everyday situations are depicted. The latter provision most accurately reflected the essence of the realistic method that Ostrovsky adhered to. His literary work began in the mid-1840s. Were written "Own people - let's settle", "Family pictures", "Poverty is not a vice" and other plays. In the drama "Thunderstorm", the history of creation is not limited to working on the text and prescribing conversations between the characters.

The history of the creation of the play "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky originates in the summer of 1859, and ends a few months later, already in early October.
It is known that this was preceded by a journey along the Volga. Under the patronage of the Naval Ministry, an ethnographic expedition was organized to study the customs and mores of the indigenous population of Russia. Ostrovsky also took part in it.

The prototypes of the city of Kalinov were many towns along the Volga, at the same time similar to each other, but having something unique: Tver, Torzhok, Ostashkovo and many others. Ostrovsky, as an experienced researcher, recorded all his observations about the life of the Russian provinces and the characters of the people in his diary. Based on these recordings, the characters of "Thunderstorm" were later created.

For a long time there was a hypothesis that the plot of The Thunderstorm was completely borrowed from real life. In 1859, and it was at this time that the play was written, a resident of Kostroma left home early in the morning, and later her body was found in the Volga. The victim was the girl Alexander Klykova. during the investigation, it turned out that the situation in the Klykov family was quite tense. The mother-in-law constantly mocked the girl, and the spineless husband could not influence the situation in any way. The catalyst for this outcome was the love relationship between Alexandra and the postal clerk.

This assumption is deeply rooted in the minds of people. Surely in the modern world, tourist routes would already have been laid in that place. In Kostroma, "Thunderstorm" was published as a separate book, when staging the actors tried to resemble the Klykovs, and the locals even showed the place where Alexandra-Katerina supposedly threw herself. Kostroma local historian Vinogradov, who is referred to by the well-known researcher of literature S. Yu. Lebedev, found many literal coincidences in the text of the play and in the “Kostroma case”. Both Alexandra and Katerina were married off early. Alexandra was barely 16 years old.
Katerina was 19. Both girls had to endure discontent and despotism from their mothers-in-law. Alexandra Klykova had to do all the menial work around the house. Neither the Klykov family nor the Kabanov family had children. The series of "coincidences" does not end there. The investigation knew that Alexandra had a relationship with another person, a postal worker. In the play "Thunderstorm" Katerina falls in love with Boris. That is why for a long time it was believed that The Thunderstorm was nothing more than a case from life reflected in the play.

However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the myth created around this incident was dispelled by comparing dates. So, the incident in Kostroma took place in November, and a month earlier, on October 14, Ostrovsky took the play for publication. Thus, the writer could not display on the pages what had not yet happened in reality. But the creative history of "Thunderstorm" does not become less interesting from this. It can be assumed that Ostrovsky, being a smart person, was able to predict how the fate of the girl would develop in the typical conditions of that time. It is quite possible that Alexandra, like Katerina, was tormented by the stuffiness that is mentioned in the play. The obsolete old order and the absolute inertia and hopelessness of the current situation. However, you should not completely correlate Alexandra with Katerina. It is quite possible that in the case of Klykova, the causes of the death of the girl were only domestic difficulties, and not a deep personal conflict, as with Katerina Kabanova.

The most real prototype of Katerina can be called the theater actress Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya, who later played this role. Ostrovsky, like Kositskaya, had his own family, it was this circumstance that prevented the further development of relations between the playwright and the actress. Kositskaya was originally from the Volga region, but at the age of 16 she ran away from home in search of a better life. Katerina's dream, according to Ostrovsky's biographers, was nothing more than a recorded dream of Lyubov Kositskaya. In addition, Lyubov Kositskaya was extremely sensitive to faith and churches. In one of the episodes, Katerina says the following words:

“... Until death, I loved to go to church! For sure, it happened that I would go into paradise, and I don’t see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service ends ... You know, on a sunny day, such a bright pillar comes from the dome, and smoke goes in this column, like clouds, and I see that it used to be that angels in this column fly and sing.

The history of the creation of the play "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky is entertaining in its own way: there are both legends and personal drama. The Thunderstorm premiered on November 16, 1859 at the Maly Theatre.

"Thunderstorm" the history of the creation of Ostrovsky's play - briefly about the time of writing the drama |

Creative history of "Thunderstorm"

Ostrovsky came to the artistic synthesis of the dark and light beginnings of the merchant's life in the Russian tragedy "Thunderstorm" - the pinnacle of his mature work. The creation of "Thunderstorm" was preceded by the playwright's expedition along the Upper Volga, undertaken on the instructions of the Naval Ministry in 1856-1857. She revived and resurrected his youthful impressions when in 1848 Ostrovsky first went with his family on an exciting journey to his father's homeland, to the Volga city of Kostroma and further, to the Shchelykovo estate acquired by his father. The result of this trip was Ostrovsky's diary, which reveals a lot in his perception of the life of provincial, Volga Russia. The Ostrovskys set off on April 22, on the eve of Egor's Day. “Spring time, frequent holidays,” says Kupava to Tsar Berendey in Ostrovsky’s “spring tale” “The Snow Maiden”. The journey coincided with the most poetic time of the year in the life of a Russian person. In the evenings, in the ritual spring songs that sounded outside the outskirts, in groves and valleys, peasants turned to birds, curly willows, white birches, to silk green grass. On Yegoriev's Day, they walked around the fields, "called Yegory", asked him to keep the cattle from predatory animals. Egoriev's day was followed by green Christmas holidays (Russian week), when they danced round dances in the villages, arranged a game of burners, burned bonfires and jumped over the fire. The path of the Ostrovskys lasted a whole week and went through the ancient Russian cities: Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma. The Upper Volga region opened up for Ostrovsky as an inexhaustible source of poetic creativity. “Merya begins from Pereyaslavl,” he writes in his diary, “a land abundant in mountains and waters, and people and tall, and beautiful, and smart, and frank, and obligatory, and a free mind, and a wide open soul. These are my beloved countrymen, with whom I seem to get along well. Here you will no longer see a small, bent man or a woman dressed as an owl, who bows every minute and says: “and father, and father ...” buildings and girls. Here are eight beauties we got on the road. “On the meadow side, the views are delightful: what kind of villages, what kind of buildings, just like you are not going through Russia, but through some promised land.” And here are the Ostrovskys in Kostroma. “We are standing on the steepest mountain, under our feet is the Volga, and ships go back and forth along it, either on sails or barge haulers, and one charming song haunts us irresistibly. Here comes the bark, and charming sounds are barely audible from afar; closer and closer, the song grows and poured, finally at the top of its voice, then little by little it began to subside, and meanwhile another bark approaches and the same song grows. And there is no end to this song ... And on the other side of the Volga, directly opposite the city, there are two villages; and one is especially picturesque, from which the curliest grove stretches all the way to the Volga, the sun at sunset somehow miraculously climbed into it, from the root, and did many miracles. I was exhausted looking at this ... Exhausted, I returned home and for a long, long time I could not sleep. A kind of despair took over me. Will the painful impressions of these five days be fruitless for me?” Such impressions could not turn out to be fruitless, but they were defended and matured in the soul of the playwright and poet for a long time before such masterpieces of his work as “Thunderstorm”, and then “Snow Maiden” appeared. The great influence of the "literary expedition" along the Volga on Ostrovsky's subsequent work was well said by his friend S.V. Maksimov: “The artist, strong with talent, was not able to miss a favorable opportunity ... He continued to observe the characters and worldview of the indigenous Russian people who came out to meet him in hundreds ... The Volga gave Ostrovsky abundant food, showed him new topics for dramas and comedies and inspired him to those of them, which are the honor and pride of Russian literature. From the veche, once free, suburbs of Novgorod there was a breath of that transitional time, when the heavy hand of Moscow fettered the old will and sent the voivode in an iron fist on long raked paws. I had a poetic “Dream on the Volga”, and the “voivode” Nechai Grigoryevich Shalygin rose from the grave alive and active with his opponent, a free man, a runaway daring townsman Roman Dubrovin, in all that truthful atmosphere of old Russia, which only the Volga can imagine, in at the same time both devout and robbery, well-fed and little bread ... Outwardly beautiful Torzhok, jealously guarding its Novgorod antiquity to the strange customs of girlish freedom and strict seclusion of married men, inspired Ostrovsky to deeply poetic "Thunderstorm" with playful Varvara and artistically elegant Katerina ". For quite a long time, it was believed that Ostrovsky took the plot of The Thunderstorm from the life of the Kostroma merchants, that it was based on the Klykov case, which made a sensation in Kostroma at the end of 1859. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Kostroma residents proudly pointed to the place of Katerina's suicide - a gazebo at the end of a small boulevard, which in those years literally hung over the Volga. They also showed the house where she lived - next to the Church of the Assumption. And when the "Thunderstorm" was for the first time on the stage of the Kostroma Theater, the artists made up "under the Klykovs."

Kostroma local historians then thoroughly examined the Klykovo case in the archive and, with documents in their hands, came to the conclusion that it was this story that Ostrovsky used in his work on Thunderstorm. The coincidences were almost literal. A.P. Klykova was given away at the age of sixteen to a gloomy and unsociable merchant family, consisting of old parents, a son and an unmarried daughter. The mistress of the house, severe and obstinate, depersonalized her husband and children with her despotism. She forced her young daughter-in-law to do any menial work, refused her requests to see her relatives.

At the time of the drama, Klykova was nineteen years old. In the past, she was brought up in love and in the hall of the soul in her by her doting grandmother, she was cheerful, lively, cheerful. Now she was unkind and a stranger in the family. Her young husband, Klykov, a carefree and apathetic man, could not protect his wife from the harassment of his mother-in-law and treated them indifferently. The Klykovs had no children. And then another man stood in the way of the young woman, Maryin, who works in the post office. Began suspicions, scenes of jealousy. It ended with the fact that on November 10, 1859, the body of A.P. Klykova was found in the Volga. A long legal process began, which received wide publicity even outside the Kostroma province, and none of the Kostroma residents doubted that Ostrovsky had used the materials of this case in Groz.

Many decades passed before Ostrovsky's researchers established for sure that The Thunderstorm was written before the Kostroma merchant Klykova rushed into the Volga. Ostrovsky began work on The Thunderstorm in June - July 1859 and finished on October 9 of the same year. The play was first published in the January 1860 issue of The Library for Reading. The first performance of The Thunderstorm on stage took place on November 16, 1859 at the Maly Theatre, in a benefit performance by S.V. Vasiliev with L.P. Nikulina-Kositskaya as Katerina. The version about the Kostroma source of the "Thunderstorm" turned out to be far-fetched. However, the very fact of an amazing coincidence speaks volumes: it testifies to the foresight of the national playwright, who caught the growing conflict between the old and the new in merchant life, a conflict in which Dobrolyubov saw “something refreshing and encouraging” for a reason, and the famous theater figure S.A. . Yuryev said: “Thunderstorm” was not written by Ostrovsky ... “Thunderstorm” was written by Volga.

“On the instructions of His Imperial Highness, General-Admiral, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, prominent Russian writers who already had travel experience and a taste for essay prose were sent around the country for new materials for the Marine Collection. They were supposed to study and describe folk crafts associated with the sea, lakes or rivers, the methods of local shipbuilding and navigation, the situation of domestic fisheries and the very state of Russia's waterways.

Ostrovsky got the Upper Volga from its source to Nizhny Novgorod. And he got down to business with passion.

“In the old dispute of the Volga cities about which of them, by the will of Ostrovsky, was turned into Kalinov (the scene of the play “Thunderstorm”), arguments are most often heard in favor of Kineshma, Tver, Kostroma. The debaters seem to have forgotten about Rzhev, but meanwhile it is Rzhev who is clearly involved in the birth of the mysterious idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Thunderstorm!

Where "Thunderstorm" was written - at a dacha near Moscow or in Zavolzhsky Shchelykovo - is not exactly known, but it was created with amazing speed, truly by inspiration, in a few months of 1859.

“The year 1859 is hidden from the biographer Ostrovsky by a dense veil. That year he did not keep a diary and, it seems, did not write letters at all ... But something can still be restored. "Thunderstorm" was begun and written, as can be seen from the notes in the first act of the draft manuscript, on July 19, July 24, July 28, July 29 - in the midst of the summer of 1859. Ostrovsky still does not regularly travel to Shchelykovo and, according to some reports, spends a hot summer near Moscow - in Davydovka or Ivankovo, where actors of the Maly Theater and their literary friends settle in a whole colony in the dachas.

Ostrovsky's friends often gathered at his house, and the talented, cheerful actress Kositskaya was always the soul of society. An excellent performer of Russian folk songs, the owner of a colorful speech, she attracted Ostrovsky not only as a charming woman, but also as a deep, perfect folk character. Kositskaya "drove" more than one Ostrovsky when she began to sing provocative or lyrical folk songs.

Listening to Kositskaya's stories about the early years of her life, the writer immediately drew attention to the poetic richness of her language, to the colorfulness and expressiveness of turns. In her "servile speech" (this is how Countess Rostopchina described Kositskaya's manner of speaking disdainfully), Ostrovsky felt a fresh source for his work.

The meeting with Ostrovsky inspired Kositskaya. The grandiose success of the first production of the play "Do not get into your sleigh", chosen by Kositskaya for a benefit performance, opened a wide road for Ostrovsky's dramaturgy to the stage.

Of Ostrovsky's twenty-six original plays staged in Moscow during the period from 1853 to the year of Kositskaya's death (1868), that is, in fifteen years, she participated in nine.

The life path, personality, stories of Kositskaya gave Ostrovsky rich material for creating the character of Katerina.

In October 1859, at the apartment of L.P. Kositsky Ostrovsky read the play to the actors of the Maly Theatre. The actors unanimously admired the composition, trying out roles for themselves. It was known that Katerina Ostrovsky had given Kositskaya in advance. They predicted Borozdin for Varvara, Sadovsky for Wild, Tikhon was supposed to play Sergey Vasiliev, Kabanikha - Rykalov.

But before rehearsing, the play must be censored. Ostrovsky himself went to Petersburg. Nordström read the drama as if he had before him not an artistic work, but a coded proclamation. And he suspected that the late sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich had been bred in Kabanikha. Ostrovsky dissuaded the frightened censor for a long time, saying that he could not give up the role of the Kabanikh in any way ...

The play was received from censorship a week before the premiere. However, in those days, playing a play from five rehearsals did not seem like a curiosity to anyone.

The main director was Ostrovsky. Under his guidance, the actors looked for the right intonations, coordinated the pace and character of each scene. The premiere took place on November 16, 1859.

“The scientific world of Russia quickly confirmed the high merits of the play: on September 25, 1860, the board of the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded the Big Uvarov Prize to the play “Thunderstorm” (this award was established by Count A.S. Uvarov, founder of the Moscow Archaeological Society, to reward the most outstanding historical and dramatic works)".

Genre of the play

The Thunderstorm was allowed by the dramatic censorship to be presented in 1859, and published in January 1860. At the request of Ostrovsky's friends, the censor I. Nordstrem, who favored the playwright, presented The Thunderstorm as a play not socially accusatory, satirical, but lovingly -household, not mentioning in his report either about Diky, or Kuligin, or Feklush.

In the most general formulation, the main topic Thunderstorms can be defined as a clash between new trends and old traditions, between oppressed and comforters, between people's desire for the free manifestation of their human rights, spiritual needs, and the social and family-household orders that prevailed in pre-reform Russia.

The theme of "Thunderstorm" is organically linked to its conflicts. Conflict, which forms the basis of the plot of the drama, is the conflict between the old social and everyday principles and the new, progressive aspirations for equality, for the freedom of the human person. The main conflict - Katerina with her environment - unites all the others. It is joined by the conflicts of Kuligin with Wild and Kabanikha, Kudryash with Wild, Boris with Wild, Varvara with Kabanikha, Tikhon with Kabanikha. The play is a true reflection of social relations, interests and struggles of its time.

The general theme "Thunderstorms" entails a number of private topics:

a) the stories of Kuligin, the remarks of Kudryash and Boris, the actions of Diky and Kabanikhi Ostrovsky gives a detailed description of the material and legal situation of all strata of society of that era;

c) depicting the life, interests, hobbies and experiences of the characters in The Thunderstorm, the author reproduces the social and family life of the merchants and bourgeoisie from different angles. This highlights the problem of social and family relations. The position of a woman in the philistine-merchant environment is clearly outlined;

d) the life background and problems of that time are displayed. The heroes talk about social phenomena that were important for their time: about the emergence of the first railways, about cholera epidemics, about the development of commercial and industrial activity in Moscow, etc.;

e) along with socio-economic and living conditions, the author skillfully painted pictures of nature, different attitudes of the characters towards it.

So, in the words of Goncharov, in The Thunderstorm "a broad picture of national life and customs subsided." Pre-reform Russia is represented in it by its socio-economic, cultural and moral, and family and everyday appearance.

3. K composition of the play

exposition- pictures of the Volga expanse and the stuffiness of Kalinov's customs (D. I, yavl.1-4).

tie- Katerina replies with dignity and peace-lovingly to the nit-picking of her mother-in-law: “You are talking about me, mother, in vain. That in front of people, that without people I’m all alone, I don’t prove anything of myself. The first collision (D. I, yavl. 5).

Next comes conflict development, in nature a thunderstorm gathers twice (D. I, yavl. 9). Katerina confesses to Varvara that she fell in love with Boris - and the prophecy of the old lady, a distant thunderclap; end D. IV. A thundercloud creeps like a living, half-mad old woman threatens Katerina with death in a pool and hell.

First climax- Katerina confesses her sin and falls senseless. But the storm did not hit the city, only pre-storm tension is felt.

Second climax- Katerina says the last monologue when she says goodbye not to life, which is already unbearable, but with love: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" (D. V, yavl. 4).

denouement- the suicide of Katerina, the shock of the inhabitants of the city, Tikhon, who is jealous of his dead wife: “Good for you, Katya! And why did I stay to live and suffer! .. ”(D.V, yavl.7).

Conclusion. By all the signs of the genre, the play "Thunderstorm" is a tragedy, since the conflict between the characters leads to tragic consequences. There are also elements of comedy in the play (the petty tyrant Dikaya with his ridiculous, degrading demands, the stories of Feklusha, the arguments of the Kalinovites), which help to see the abyss that is ready to swallow Katerina and which Kuligin unsuccessfully tries to illuminate with the light of reason, kindness and mercy. Ostrovsky himself called the play a drama, thereby emphasizing the widespread conflict of the play, the everyday life of the events depicted in it.

One of the masterpieces of Ostrovsky and all Russian dramaturgy is rightfully considered "Thunderstorm", which the author himself assessed as a creative success, rejoiced when the actors managed to realize his plan, deeply worried if he encountered misunderstanding, acting mediocrity or a careless attitude to the play.

Thunderstorm was conceived by Ostrovsky while traveling along the Volga from the source of the river to Nizhny Novgorod in a mail coach together with the actor Provo Sadovsky. The playwright was fascinated by the beauty of the great Russian river and the cities and villages along it. These were long-term ethnographic studies. In his correspondence from Tver, Ostrovsky wrote about the frescoes that struck him, which he saw when examining the ruins of the city of Vertyazin. These images on the topic of the Lithuanian ruin will resonate in The Thunderstorm. In the charming Torzhok, Ostrovsky met with the strange customs of girlish freedom and strict seclusion of married women, preserved from the times of Novgorod antiquity. These observations will be reflected in the characters of the unmarried Varvara and Katerina, doomed to family captivity.

Ostrovsky especially liked Kostroma for the rare beauty of its nature, a public garden with strolling merchant families, a gazebo at the end of the boulevard, from where a view of the Trans-Volga distances, delightful expanses and picturesque groves opened.

The impressions received fed Ostrovsky's work for many years. They were also reflected in "Thunderstorm", the action of which takes place in the fictional remote Volga town of Kalinov. Kostroma residents have long argued that it was Kostroma that was the prototype of the city of Kalinov.

When Ostrovsky submitted his play to censorship, the famous dialogue between the playwright and an official took place, who saw in Kabanikha a symbolized figure of Tsar Nicholas and therefore expressed doubts about the possibility of publishing the play. However, it was published in the Library for Reading magazine in 1860, for which censorship permission was obtained not without difficulty.

However, even before the magazine publication, The Thunderstorm appeared on the Russian stage, for which it was primarily intended. The premiere took place on November 16, 1859 at the Maly Theater on the occasion of the benefit performance of the largest actor S. Vasiliev, who played Tikhon. Other roles were also played by outstanding masters P. Sadovsky, N.V. Rykalova, L.P. Nikulina-Kositskaya and others. This production was directed by A.N. Ostrovsky. The premiere and subsequent performances were a huge success and turned into a continuous triumph. The same stage success awaited the actors of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Here the performance was also staged by the playwright himself.

A year after the brilliant premiere of The Thunderstorm, the play by A.N. Ostrovsky was awarded the highest academic award - the Great Uvarov Prize, which was awarded at the request of the writer I.A. Goncharov and professors P.A. Pletnev and A.D. Galakhov. This award was the first evidence of the significance of the contribution that Ostrovsky made both to Russian literature and to Russian stage art.

Literature

Rogover E.S. Russian literature of the second half of the nineteenth century M., 2006