Class: 10
Katerina Izmailova - “lightning generated by
darkness itself and only brighter emphasizing
impenetrable darkness of merchant life.
W. Goebel.“What is the “Thunderstorm” of Ostrovsky - there is no beam
light, here a fountain of blood beats from the bottom of the soul: here
"Anna Karenina" is foretold - vengeance
"demonic passion".
A. Anninsky.
During the classes
Lesson organization.
Introduction by the teacher.
“Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” was first published in the Epoch magazine in 1865 under the title “Lady Macbeth of Our District”. The story shows the inextricable link between capital and crime. This is a tragic story of the revolt of the female soul against the deadly atmosphere of merchant life. This is one of the artistic pinnacles of Leskov's work. So, the main content of the work of N. S. Leskov “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” is the theme of love, the theme of the tragic female fate.
Love is a great joy and a heavy cross, revelation and mystery, great suffering and the greatest happiness, and most importantly, the fact that only it, love, lives and preserves the female soul. The love of a Russian woman has always been warmed by a deep religious feeling that raises her relationship to her beloved, to her family, to a special spiritual height. She really saved both herself and her relatives, giving them all the warmth and tenderness of her beautiful soul. This tradition comes from folklore. Do you remember Maryushka from the Russian folk tale “The Feather of Finist Yasna Sokol”? In search of her beloved, she trampled three pairs of iron shoes, broke three iron staffs, and gnawed three stone loaves. But the power to break the spell was in herself, in her bright and clear soul. And Yaroslavna from “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, who “weeps at Putivl”, longing for her beloved! Or the love of Tatiana Larina from Eugene Onegin. Remember?
I love you -
Why lie? -
But I am given to another;
I will be faithful to him forever.
And here is Katerina's pure, bright, although incomprehensible to others love from Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm. For many women of Russian literature, love is not only a gift, but also a gift - disinterested, reckless, pure from bad thoughts. But there was another woman's love - love-passion, painful, invincible, transgressing everything - such as in Leskov's work "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District."
1. Understanding the name.
Question: What is the strangeness of the name of Leskovsky's work?
(The clash of concepts from different stylistic layers: "Lady Macbeth" - an association with Shakespeare's tragedy; Mtsensk district - the correlation of the tragedy with a remote Russian province - the author expands the scope of what is happening in the story.)
2. Problematic analysis of the story.
1) Let us turn to the image of Leskovskaya Katerina. How did love originate - passion? Word to Katerina Izmailova.
Artistic retelling-monologue (the story of Katerina's marriage) in the first person. (1 chapter.)
2) What caused the passion? (Boredom.)
3) Katerina in Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm is sublimely light, poetic. And what was Katerina Lvovna like? (Chapter 2.)
4) King Macbeth has words (also about decisiveness).
I dare everything that a man dares
And only a beast is capable of more.
“Unbearable” to her: for her awakened love-passion, easily overcoming any obstacles, everything is simple. (Father-in-law died - about the death of a person - in passing. It's scary.)
6) How does Katerina Lvovna live now without her husband? (Chapters 4, 6.)
7) “She was mad with her happiness.” But happiness is different. Leskov has these words: “There is righteous happiness, there is sinful happiness.” The righteous will not step over anyone, but the sinful will step over everything.
Question: How happy is Katerina Lvovna? Why?
(Happiness is “sinful.” She stepped over. The second murder with the same calmness.)
Talk about the murder of her husband (chapters 7-8).
8) According to the Bible, the law of marriage is: "Two are one flesh." And Katerina Lvovna crushed this flesh with her own hands - calmly, even with a sharp pride in her invincibility. Remember the epigraph to the essay. How was it understood?
(After all, this is only “to sing the first song blushing,” and then it will go by itself.)
And so Katerina Lvovna lives, “reigns” (carries a child under her heart) - everything seems to have happened according to the ideal (remember, she wanted to “give birth to a child for the sake of gaiety”). This ideal logically clashes with another - a high Christian ideal, which is not in the soul of Katerina Izmailova, but to which another Katerina is faithful to death - from Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm.
Question: What is the ideal? (The ten commandments of God, one of them is “do not commit adultery”; Katerina Kabanova, having violated it, could no longer live - her conscience did not allow.)
Question: What about Katerina Izmailova? (Leskov's heroine does not have this, only wonderful dreams are still disturbing.)
9) Tell about the dreams of Katerina Lvovna.
1st dream - chapter 6 (the cat is just a cat so far).
2nd dream - chapter 7 (a cat that looks like Boris Timofeevich, who was killed).
Conclusion: It is not so easy to “sing a song”.
10) Thus, dreams are symbolic. Isn't conscience waking up in a young merchant's wife? (Not yet.)
Symbolic words are also heard in the mouth of Grandmother Fedya (Chapter 10) - read it.
Question: How did Katerina work? (Killed Fedya.)
And before the next murder, “her own child turned under her heart for the first time, and there was a pull of cold in her chest” (chapter 10).
Question: Is Leskov's mention of this detail accidental?
(Nature itself, female nature warn her against the planned crime. But no: “Whoever started evil, he will become mired in it.” (Shakespeare.)
11) Unlike the first two murders, retribution came immediately. How did it happen?
Question: Why do you think - immediately?
(A pure, angelic, sinless soul was destroyed. A little sufferer, a boy pleasing to God; even the name is symbolic: “Fedor in Greek means“ God's gift. ”And Katerina Izmailova never mentioned God. What is this? Maybe in Mtsensk in the county all people are atheists?
Conclusion: violated the highest moral law, God's commandment - "Thou shalt not kill"; for the highest value on earth is human life. That is why the depth of the moral fall of Katerina and Sergey is so great.
12) Reading an excerpt from F. Tyutchev's poem "There are two forces."
13) So, the judgment of the earth, the judgment of man, has come to pass. Did he make a special impression on Katerina Lvovna? Confirm with text (ch. 13).
(She still loves.)
14) Did hard labor change Leskov's heroine?
(Yes, now this is not a cold-blooded killer, causing horror and amazement, but a rejected woman suffering from love.)
Question: Feel sorry for her? Why?
(She is a victim, a rejected one, but she still loves, even more strongly (ch. 14). The more reckless her love, the more frank and cynical Sergei's abuse of her and her feelings.)
Conclusion: the abyss of the moral fall of the former clerk is so terrible that even worldly-wise convicts are trying to persuade him.
15) Bernard Shaw warned: "Fear the man whose God is in heaven." How do you understand these words?
(God is conscience, an inner judge. There is no such God in the soul - a person is terrible. Such was Katerina Lvovna before hard labor. Sergei remained such.)
16) And the heroine has changed. What now interests Leskov more: the passionate nature or the soul of a rejected woman? (Soul.)
17) Shakespeare in his tragedy said of Lady Macbeth:
She is sick not in body, but in soul.
Question: Can you say the same about Katerina Izmailova? An appeal to the symbolism of landscape scenes will help answer this question.
18) Independent work on the analysis of the landscape (work on the text with a pencil, 3 minutes).
(The table is filled in during the work.)
Questions on the board:
- What color is more common in the description of nature?
- Find the image word that Leskov uses in this passage?
- What is the symbolism of the landscape scene?
Conclusions: Katerina Izmailova has a sick soul. But the limit of her own suffering and torment awakens glimpses of moral consciousness in Leskov's heroine, who had previously known neither a sense of guilt nor a feeling of repentance.
19) How Leskov shows the awakening of guilt in Katerina (ch. 15).
The Volga brings to mind another Katerina - from Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm.
Task: Determine the difference in the tragic outcome of the fates of the heroines of Leskov and Ostrovsky.
(Katerina Ostrovsky, according to Dobrolyubov, is “a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” And there are two reviews about Katerina Izmailova (writing on the board):
Katerina Izmailova - "lightning, generated by darkness itself, and only more clearly emphasizing the impenetrable darkness of merchant life."
W. Goebel“What kind of “Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky is there - this is not a ray of light, here a fountain of blood beats from the bottom of the soul: here “Anna Karenina” is foreshadowed - the revenge of “demonic passion”.
L. Anninsky.
Question: Which of the researchers “read” the image of Katerina Izmailova more deeply, understood and felt it?
(L. Anninsky. After all, he saw the “fountain of blood” not only in vain killed by Katerina, but also the blood of her ruined soul.)
Results, generalization.
1. Who is she, Katerina Izmailova? Passionate nature or ...?
Add.
To answer, decide what love turned out to be for Katerina Lvovna? (With great suffering and a heavy cross, her soul is not able to endure it, that is, to remain pure, unstained. Katerina Izmailova sacrifices everything up to her own life on the altar for the sake of love.)
(Students complete the question: “Passionate nature or sick soul?”)
2. I would like to quote L. Anninsky: “Terrible unpredictability is found in the souls of heroes. What kind of “Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky is there - this is not a ray of light, here a fountain of blood beats from the bottom of the soul: here “Anna Karenina” is foreshadowed - the revenge of “demonic passion”. Here Dostoevsky matches the problematic - it is not for nothing that Dostoevsky published "Lady Macbeth ..." in his journal. You can’t put Lesk’s heroine, a four-time murderer for the sake of love, into any typology.”
3. So what is the mystery of the female soul? Do not know? And I don't know. And it's great that we don't know this for sure: there are still questions to ponder over the Russian classics.
One thing seems true to me: the basis of the female soul - and the human soul in general - is love, which F. Tyutchev so surprisingly told about. (Reading the poem by F. Tyutchev “Union of the soul with the soul of the native”.)
Homework: write an essay
- “Fatal duel” (drama of love by Katerina Izmailova).
- "The mirror of the soul is its deeds." (W. Shakespeare.) (One topic to choose from.)
>Compositions based on the work of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district
Mystery of the female soul
What does a woman dream about? “A real mystery to this day. The female soul is so incomprehensible, and the soul of Ekaterina Lvovna, the main character of the essay, is no exception. What does she want, what drives her and why does she not immediately show her character, which is distinguished by assertiveness, passion and purposefulness. Apparently, it is love that changes people so much. It would seem that such an elevated and bright feeling should spiritualize a person, make him better, however, in the case of the merchant's wife, a terrible metamorphosis occurs, and she is driven by base and animal instincts.
So, plucking up courage, Katerina goes to her father-in-law with a request to let her lover go, and when he refuses, threatening her and shaming her, she poisons him without blinking an eye. Katerina's mind is so clouded, and her heart is engulfed in a fire of love, that she does not notice how the chosen one is manipulating her. Then, inspired by Sergei's ideas about their marriage, Katerina Lvovna decides to make her beloved master, and for this she kills her lawful spouse, the merchant Izmailov, in cold blood. Perhaps the most cruel act is the murder of a child - Fedor Lyamin, a small heir who claims to be part of the capital of the Izmailov merchant family. It is surprising that Catherine, bearing a new life under her heart, went to such atrocity. Even more surprising is the behavior and deed of the merchant in relation to her child. After all, she so dreamed of motherhood, and this child is the fruit of love with Seryozhka dear to her heart. Katerina, as if spellbound in passion for the clerk. She sees nothing, in front of her there is only one desire to be close to her beloved, even if it is a thorny path through the stage. Ekaterina Lvovna is blind in her love.
As you know, there is a time to scatter stones, and a time to collect stones. So Katerina paid for her atrocities in full, and if for Sergei, the punishment is hard labor, then for a woman it is a betrayal of her lover, exposing his vile mask. Even realizing the futility of sinful actions, and also that Sergey's love is just a dummy, an empty sound, the main character is glad to be deceived further. But everything has its limit - the beloved man begins to mock Katerina, paying attention to other women, mocking the merchant's wife. Overwhelmed by jealousy and consumed by the pain of betrayal, Katerina kills herself by drowning in the Volga, not forgetting to take her main rival Sonetka with her.
Katerina, like any woman, wants to love and be loved, but in her desire she violates all the laws of morality and God's laws. Seeing no barriers, she goes ahead, literally over the corpses to her goal - the love and attention of an unworthy man. Despite all the crimes and evil in her soul, she is only a performer, a tool in the capable hands of the executioner, who is her beloved Sergei.
The daughter of the common people, who also inherited the national scope of passions, a girl from a poor family becomes a prisoner of a merchant's house, where there is no living sound, no human voice, but only a short stitch from the samovar to the bedchamber. The transformation of a petty-bourgeois woman, languishing from boredom and excess of strength, takes place when the county heartthrob pays attention to her.
Love scatters over Katerina Lvovna the starry sky, which she had not seen before from her mezzanine: Look, Seryozha, what a paradise, what a paradise! The heroine exclaims in a childlike innocence on a golden night, looking through the dense branches of a flowering apple tree covering her at a clear blue sky, on which stood a full fine month.
But it is no coincidence that in the pictures of love harmony is broken by a sudden invading discord. The feeling of Katerina Lvovna cannot be free from the instincts of the possessive world and not fall under the influence of its laws. Love rushing towards freedom turns into a predatory and destructive beginning.
Katerina Lvovna was now ready for Sergei in the fire, in the water, in the dungeon and on the cross. He made her fall in love with him to the point that there was no measure of devotion to him. She was mad with her happiness; her blood boiled, and she could no longer listen to anything ...
And at the same time, Katerina Lvovna's blind passion is immeasurably greater, more significant than self-interest, which gives shape to her fatal deeds, class interests. No, her inner world is not shocked by the decision of the court, not excited by the birth of a child: for her there was no light, no darkness, no evil, no good, no boredom, no joys. All life without a trace was swallowed up by passion. When a party of prisoners sets out on the road and the heroine sees Sergei again, with him her hard labor blooms with happiness. What is the class height from which she collapsed into the hard labor world for her, if she loves and her beloved is nearby!
The class world gets Katerina Lvovna on blurry transit paths. For a long time he prepared for her an executioner in the guise of a lover who once beckoned her to happy Arabia in fabulous. Admitting that he never loved Katerina Lvovna, Sergei tries to take away the only thing that made up Izmailova's life, the past of her love. And then a completely inanimate woman in the last heroic surge of human dignity takes revenge on her detractors and, dying, makes everyone around petrify. Katerina Lvovna was trembling. Her wandering gaze focused and became wild. Hands once or twice, it is not known where, stretched out into space and fell again. Another minute, and she suddenly swayed all over, her eyes never leaving the dark wave, bent down, grabbed Sonetka by the legs, and in one fell swoop flung herself over the side of the ferry with her. Everyone was petrified with amazement.
Leskov portrayed a strong and passionate nature, awakened by the illusion of happiness, but moving towards its goal through crimes. The writer proved that this path has no way out, but only a dead end awaited the heroine, and there could be no other way.
This beautiful work served as the basis for D. D. Shostakovich's opera Katerina Izmailov, written in 1962. Which once again proves the originality of the work of N. S. Leskov, who managed to find and convey the typical character traits of Katerina Lvovna, which revealed themselves so tragically and led the heroine to inevitable death.
Each writer in his work creates a world (which is usually called artistic), which differs not only from other artistic worlds, but also from the real world. Moreover, it has long been noted that in different works of the same writer, the worlds can also be different, varying depending on the characters of the characters depicted, on the complexity of the social or spiritual situation depicted by the author.
The foregoing applies primarily to the work of such original and original writers as N. S..
The plots, characters, themes of his works are so diverse that it is sometimes quite difficult to get an idea of any artistic unity.
However, they have much in common, in particular: motives, tone, character traits of characters and main characters. Therefore, after reading several of Leskov’s works and opening the next one, you involuntarily already tune in to a certain way, imagine the situation, environment, atmosphere, immersed in which, you discover an amazing and beautiful world in its own way.
The world of Leskov to an unprepared reader may seem strange, gloomy, because it is inhabited mainly by truth-seeking heroes, surrounded by ignorant fools, for whom the only goal is prosperity and peace. However, thanks to the power of Lesk's unique talent, life-affirming motives prevail in the depiction of heroes. Hence the feeling of the inner beauty and harmony of the artistic world. Leskov's heroes are surprisingly pure and noble, their speech is simple and at the same time beautiful, as it conveys thoughts containing eternal truths about the power of goodness, about the need for mercy and self-sacrifice. The inhabitants of the vast Leskian world are so real that the reader does not leave the confidence that they are written off from nature. We have no doubt that the author actually met them during his many trips around Russia. But no matter how ordinary and simple these people may be, they are all righteous, as Leskov himself defines them. People who rise above the line of simple morality and therefore are holy to the Lord. The reader clearly understands the author's goal to draw attention to the Russian people, to their character and soul. Leskov manages to fully reveal the character of a Russian person with all its pluses and minuses.
What is especially striking when reading the works of Leskov is the faith of his heroes in God and boundless love for the motherland. These feelings are so sincere and strong that a person overwhelmed by them can overcome all the obstacles that stand in his way. In general, a Russian person is always ready to sacrifice everything and even his own life in order to achieve a lofty and beautiful goal. Someone sacrifices himself for the sake of faith, someone for the Fatherland, and Katerina Izmailova, the heroine of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district, sacrificed everything in order to save her love, and when all the ways and means were tried, and the way out of the situation was not found, she threw herself into the river. This is similar to the finale of Ostrovsky's play, where Katerina Kabanova dies because of her love, and Leskov is similar in this.
But no matter how beautiful and pure in soul a Russian person is, he also has negative qualities, one of which is a tendency to drunkenness. And Leskov denounces this vice in many of his works, the heroes of which understand that drinking is stupid and ridiculous, but they cannot help themselves. This, probably, is also a purely Russian feature of the behavior to take one's soul away, filling grief with wine.
Growing up in the bosom of nature, among beautiful landscapes, space and light, a simple Lesk hero from the people strives for something sublime, for beauty and love. For each specific hero, this desire manifests itself in its own way: Ivan Flyagin has a love for horses, and Mark Alexandrov has an enthusiastic attitude towards art, towards an icon.
Leskov's world is the world of Russian people, tremulously created and preserved by them for themselves. All the works are written by Leskov with such an understanding of even the most incomprehensible depths of the human psyche, with such love for the righteous and Russia, that the reader involuntarily imbues Leskov's manner of writing, begins to really think about those issues that once worried the writer and have not lost their relevance. and in our time.
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Homework on the topic: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district, the story of the tragic love and crimes of Katerina Izmailova.
Compositions based on the work "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (Leskov N.S.)
Does the end always justify the means? (based on the novel by N.S. Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District")
Does the end always justify the means?
Katerina Lvovna Izmailova is a strong nature, an extraordinary personality, a bourgeois trying to fight against the world of property that has enslaved her. Love turns her into a passionate, ardent nature.
Katerina did not see happiness in marriage. She spent her days in anguish and loneliness, "from which it is fun, they say, even to hang yourself"; She had no friends or close acquaintances. Having lived with her husband for five whole years, fate never gave them children, while Katerina saw in the baby a remedy for constant melancholy and boredom.
“On the sixth spring of Katerina Lvov’s marriage,” fate finally made the heroine happy, giving her the opportunity to experience the most tender and sublime feeling - love, which, unfortunately, turned out to be fatal for Katerina.
On earth, many have loved and still love, but for everyone, love is something of their own, personal, mysterious. Someone experiences romantic, and someone passionate love. Many more types of this wonderful feeling can be distinguished, but Katerina loved as passionately and strongly as her ardent and hot nature allowed her. For the sake of her beloved, she was ready for anything, for any sacrifice, she could commit a rash, even cruel act. The heroine managed to kill not only her husband and father-in-law, but also a small, defenseless child. The burning feeling not only destroyed fear, sympathy and pity in Katerina's soul, but also gave rise to cruelty, extraordinary courage and cunning, as well as a great desire to fight for her love, resorting to any methods and means.
It seems to me that Sergei was also capable of anything, but not because he loved, but because the purpose of communicating with the bourgeois was to obtain some capital. Katerina attracted him as a woman who can provide all the fun later life. His plan would have worked one hundred percent after the death of her husband and father-in-law of the heroine, but suddenly the nephew of the deceased husband appears - Fedya Lemin. If earlier Sergey participated in crimes as an accomplice, a person who only helped, now he himself hints at the murder of an innocent baby, forcing Katerina to believe that Fedya is a real threat to receive the money due. It was said that “if it weren’t for this Fedya, then she, Katerina Lvovna, would give birth to a child up to nine months after the loss of her husband, she would get all the capital of her husband, and then there would be no end to their happiness.” Katerina, calculating and cold, listened to these statements, which acted like a witch's spell on her brain and psyche, and began to understand that this interference must be eliminated. These remarks have settled deep in her mind and heart. She is ready to do everything (albeit without benefit and meaning) that Sergei says. Katya became a hostage of love, Serezha's slave.
During interrogation, she openly admitted that it was she who committed the murders because of Sergei, “for him!”, Because of love. This love did not extend to anyone other than the hero, and therefore Katerina rejected her child: “her love for her father, like the love of many passionate women, did not pass any of its part to the child.” She no longer needed anything and no one, only gentle words or a look could revive her to life.
Every day, on the way to hard labor, he became colder and more indifferent to Katerina. He began to pester the women who surrounded him on the trip. He had no hope for an early release and a happy future life. He also did not achieve his goal: he would not see money from Katya. All the efforts that he made to achieve positive results were in vain. He openly met with Sonetka and deliberately insulted Katya on the ferry. Katerina, seeing how her beloved man flirts with another, begins to be jealous, and the jealousy of a passionate woman is fatal not only for the heroine, but also for the people around her. She grew wild from Sergei's cruel indifference, she could not accomplish anything but suicide, since she could not survive or overcome such a strong and passionate love in her soul. Loving Sergei, she did not harm him, she only decided to leave his life.
It seems to me that when she was dying, Katerina felt disappointment and grief in her soul, because her love turned out to be useless, unhappy, she did not bring good to people, she only killed a few innocent people.
Two Katerinas in Russian literature (based on the works of A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" and N.S. Leskov "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district")
A.N. Ostrovsky and N.S. Leskov - writers who "introduced" heroes from the merchant environment into Russian literature. Before them, only nobles existed on the pages of works. Readers watched their life, problems, ideological throwing, sympathized with them and worried about them.
Ostrovsky, and after him Leskov, showed that people from other, "lower" strata of society are also worthy of attention, sympathy, and consideration. They immersed the reader in the merchant environment, the way of life and thought, the merchant tradition. Moreover, these writers brought to the stage not just people of the merchant class. They raised the issue of women's share, women's fate in the merchant environment.
It is important that no one paid attention to this before, few people were interested in the inner world of women, their fate. And there are entire works dedicated to this very issue! Ostrovsky and Leskov showed that merchant women are also capable of experiences, deep feelings, passions, that dramas and even tragedies occur in their destinies. And most importantly, they can be helped, you just need to pay attention to these women.
So, the heroines of the drama A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" and the story of N.S. Leskov "Lady Macbeth ..." are women, two Katerinas - Katerina Kabanova and Katerina Izmailova. These characters have a lot in common. Both of them are from merchant patriarchal families. Both are young, full of vitality, energy. Both were given in marriage to unloved husbands - according to merchant tradition.
Kabanova's husband is young, but completely under the heel of his mother, who runs all affairs not only at home, but throughout the city. Tikhon cannot defend Katerina, whom Kabanikha constantly harasses with reproaches and unfair accusations. And all because the daughter-in-law is radically different from the traditional ideas about the merchant's wife. Katerina wants to live for love and conscience, and not for show, deceitfully and hypocritically, performing rites that she does not understand (howling at the farewell of her husband, for example) .-
It is also very difficult for Katerina Izmailova to endure life in her husband's house, mainly because the life of a woman in a merchant's house is boring. What to do with the wife of a rich merchant? Katerina wanders from corner to corner in her big house, sleeping and toiling from idleness.
The heroine, like Katerina Kabanova, is tormented by unfair accusations. The silent reproach to the heroine is that she does not have children from her elderly husband, although the Izmailov family is really looking forward to the heirs. It is worth noting that Katerina Kabanova also has no children, and this also burdens the heroine.
The writers emphasize that married life behind locked doors "strangles" the heroines, destroys their potential, all the good that is in them. Both Izmailova and Kabanova regret to tell what they were like in girlhood - cheerful, full of joy of life, energy, happiness. And how unbearable it is for them to live in marriage.
Another roll call in the fate of the heroines was their "sin" - betrayal of her husband. But if Katerina Kabanova goes for it, tormented by remorse, knowing that she is committing a sin, then Katerina Izmailova does not even think about it. All of her is completely absorbed in feeling for the clerk Sergei and is ready for anything for him. This passionate nature completely surrendered to her feeling, which knows no boundaries: neither physical, nor moral, nor moral.
And this is the fundamental difference between Katerina Izmailova and Katerina Kabanova. That, too, is a passionate nature, thirsting for love, ready for a lot for the sake of a loved one. But inside the heroine of "Thunderstorm" there are strong moral foundations, a core that allows her to clearly distinguish where Good is and where Evil is. Therefore, having surrendered to a happy “sin”, Katerina already knows for sure what will follow - punishment. And, above all, the punishment is internal, her own. We remember that, unable to withstand the pangs of conscience and the pressure of the environment, the heroine commits suicide - she rushes into the Volga.
Katerina Izmailova dies in a different way - trying to drown her happier rival: “Katerina Lvovna was trembling. Her wandering gaze focused and became wild. Hands once or twice, it is not known where, stretched out into space and fell again. Another minute - and she suddenly swayed all over, not taking her eyes off the dark wave, bent down, grabbed Sonetka by the legs and in one fell swoop threw herself over the side of the ferry with her.
The heroine understands that she will die along with another girl, but this does not stop her: why should she live if Sergey no longer loves her?
In her animal, godless love, Izmailova reaches the limit: the blood of three innocent people, including a child, is on her conscience. This love and all crimes devastate the heroine: “... for her there was no light, no darkness, no evil, no good, no boredom, no joys; she didn't understand anything, she didn't love anyone, and she didn't love herself. She did not love Izmailov and her own child from an adored man - she gave him away, not at all worried about his fate, further fate.
The fate of the heroines of both works is similar in one more thing - both of them turned out to be betrayed by their loved ones. Boris Grigoryevich, frightened by Dikoy, leaves, leaving Katerina Kabanova to the mercy of fate. He turns out to be just a weak person. Sergei meanly mocks Katerina, realizing that he can get nothing more from her.
Two Katerinas... Two destinies... Two ruined lives... These heroines are similar in many ways, but their essence, in my opinion, is different. Katerina Izmailova lived with passions, obeying only the call of her flesh. Katerina Kabanova thought about her soul, she had a solid moral foundation. And although she also succumbed to temptation, the story of her love and death is much closer to me, it causes me more sympathy, a spiritual response.
Love and villainy - things incompatible? (based on the novel by N.S. Leskov “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”)
Love and villainy - things incompatible? (based on the novel by N.S. Leskov “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District”)
In the center of Leskov's story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" is the story of "fatal love", which ended tragically. This story is interesting and unusual in that it takes place in the Russian outback and its participants are very ordinary people - the merchant's family and their clerk. However, the passions played out here are not at all "simple" - akin to Shakespeare's. It is similar to Shakespeare's tragedies and the ending of the whole story is the death of the main character of the story.
It was she - the young merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna - for the sake of love, as it turned out, she was ready for anything. But she did not love her husband - the old merchant Izmailov, but his manager - the young handsome Sergei.
The author emphasizes that Katerina's life in marriage was not happy: the heroine lived in abundance, but her whole existence was saturated with boredom, because she lived with an unloved husband and could not even have children. That is why, it seems to me, Katerina Lvovna became so attached to the manager Sergei. She was young, she wanted to live a full life, to experience strong emotions. And Sergey, to some extent, gave her all this. Although we immediately understand that his feeling is only a fleeting hobby, a “cure for boredom”, from which he also suffered.
With the advent of Sergei, stormy passions took possession of the soul of Katerina Lvovna, and she completely submitted to them. So, the heroine, without hesitation, poisoned her father-in-law Boris Timofeevich when he guessed about her affair with Sergei: “Boris Timofeich ate fungi with gruel at night, and he started to have heartburn.” And after the funeral of Boris Timofeevich, in the absence of her husband, Katerina completely “divorced” - she did not hide her feelings for the clerk to anyone.
However, the husband was to return soon, and Sergei became increasingly sad and sad. Soon he opened up to Katerina - he dreams of being her lawful husband, and not her lover. And the woman promised him: “Well, I already know how I will make you a merchant and live with you quite properly.”
And on the day of her husband’s arrival, she carried out her plan: “With one movement, she threw Sergei away from her, quickly rushed at her husband and, before Zinovy Borisych had time to jump to the window, grabbed him from behind with her thin fingers by the throat and, like a damp hemp sheaf, threw him on floor".
For the sake of justice, it must be said that Katerina gave her husband a chance - at first she found out his reaction to her affair with Sergei. But when she saw that Zinovy Borisovich was not going to put up with his wife's lover, she immediately made a decision. The heroine kills her husband, making Sergey an accomplice.
It seems that Katerina commits her crimes in some kind of insanity, as if captured by evil forces - her indifference to everyone except her lover is so terrible. She refuses to her dying husband the most holy - communion before death: “Confess,” he said even more indistinctly, trembling and looking askance at the warm blood thickening under his hair.
“You’ll be good, and so you will,” whispered Katerina Lvovna.
But the list of crimes of the heroine does not end there either - in her villainies she goes to the end. At the suggestion of Sergei Filippych, who truly became her "evil angel", Katerina kills her husband's little nephew, who owned part of the family capital.
However, the inevitable punishment comes - the heroes are condemned to hard labor for their crimes. And it soon turns out that Sergei's love for Katerina was largely based on her wealth. Now, when the heroine had lost everything, she also lost Sergei's disposition - he abruptly changed his attitude towards her, began to look at other women: “... sometimes, in her non-crying eyes, tears of anger and annoyance were welling up in the darkness of night meetings; but she endured everything, kept silent and wanted to deceive herself.
And in an instant, Katerina's heart could not stand it - she realized that Sergei had exchanged her for the beautiful Sonetka. Now the heroine, who devoted herself entirely to her beloved, had nothing to lose: “Another minute - and she suddenly swayed all over, without taking her eyes off the dark wave, bent down, grabbed Sonetka by the legs and in one fell swoop threw herself overboard with her on the ferry.”
This was the last crime of the heroine, which ended tragically for herself - she drowned along with Sonetka, so hated by her: “at the same time, Katerina Lvovna rose almost to her waist from another wave above the water, rushed at Sonetka, like a strong pike at a soft-feathered raft, and both no longer appeared.
So, are love and villainy so incompatible? The feeling of passion so captured the soul of Katerina - a passionate and temperamental nature, that she forgot about everything except her beloved. The heroine was ready to do anything and did everything to keep Sergei around, to make him happy. Perhaps this is generally female nature - to devote yourself to your beloved man, to forget about everything in the world, except for his interests.
However, do not forget that Katerina Lvovna suffered a well-deserved punishment. This is not only a court of society, but also a court of higher justice (the heroine experienced all the torments that her deceived husband experienced). In addition, until the very end, the woman was haunted by pangs of conscience - the people killed by her constantly appeared.
Thus, Leskov shows us that the love of the heroine cannot serve as an excuse for her villainy, because true love, love from God, is incompatible with villainy.
Composition-reflection: “Crime. Who is guilty?" (According to the works "Thunderstorm" by A.N. Ostrovsky and "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" by N.S. Leskov)
Crime is crime. For every crime there is a punishment. What pushes people to commit crime, what drives them? What motives does he pursue? To commit a crime means to go against any moral foundations, moral principles of both society and the individual himself. Therefore, there is something much more powerful, something that gains the upper hand over a person.
Let's try to compare two heroines: Katerina Petrovna Kabanova A.N. Ostrovsky and Katerina Lvovna Izmailova N.S. Leskov.
In these works, we see two heroines with the same name Katerina, which means "eternally pure." One of them, to Katerina Kabanova, this name is very suitable: she is naive, pure and immaculate. Ostrovsky portrayed her as a person who does not accept the world in which she lives. The rejection of the world is beyond her control, it comes from her very heart. Dobrolyubov called this world a "dark kingdom", and Katerina a "beam of light" in it. Ostrovsky contrasted the terrible figures of the "dark kingdom" with the image of a woman with an ardent and pure heart. Katerina falls in love with a man who is by no means worthy of the great love that fills her heart. A sense of love and a sense of duty are struggling in it. But the consciousness of her own sinfulness is unbearable for her, "the whole heart is broken" from the constant internal struggle, and Katerina, seeing no other way out, rushes into the Volga.
The heroine of Leskov's essay is completely different. It is difficult to call her pure and immaculate. Of course, when we first meet Katerina Izmailova, we consider her not typical for Russia of that time, especially considering that Leskov points to a Shakespearean tragedy.
And only after carefully looking at Izmailova, you can see that she, like Katerina Ostrovsky, protests against the patriarchal way of life that is strangling her. Leskov tried to create not a Russian version of Shakespeare's villainess, but the image of a strong woman "lost" in the "dark kingdom".
In both works, the real world of the Russian province of the middle of the 19th century is guessed. The similarity of some details allows us to see the fundamental difference between the two heroines living in similar conditions.
Both Katerinas are merchants, their families have prosperity. Both were born in the patriarchal world, in the "dark kingdom", but their childhood and adolescence passed under the sign of "simplicity and freedom". "... I lived ... like a bird in the wild. Mom did not have a soul in me, ... she did not force me to work; what I want happened, I do it ... "- says Katerina Kabanova about her life in girls. Katerina Izmailova also "had a passionate character, and, living as a girl in poverty, she got used to simplicity and freedom ..." But, having complete freedom of action, how differently they disposed of her! "Sprinkle a passer-by with sunflower husks through the gate ..." - that's what Katerina Lvovna wanted. The soul of Katerina Kabanova demanded a completely different thing: “And to death I loved to go to church! It’s like, it happened, I’ll enter paradise ..., such a bright pillar comes down from the dome, and smoke goes down in this pillar, like clouds, and I see, it used to be , as if angels in this pillar are flying and singing ... "Comparing the two heroines, we notice that the spiritual world of Katerina Kabanova is incommensurably richer.
Both heroines married without love. “No, how not to love! I feel sorry for him very much!” Kabanova says about Tikhon. But pity is not love. The fate of Katerina Lvovna is similar: “They gave her in marriage to ... the merchant Izmailov ... not out of love or some kind of attraction, but because Izmailov wooed her ...” But if Ostrovsky’s heroine felt sorry for her husband and at least some feeling connected them, then Katerina Lvovna did not have any feelings for her husband, and she got married because of poverty.
Despite the atrocities committed by the heroine, her fate causes pity and sympathy. Yes, this woman was cruel and merciless. Yes, no one gave her the right to dispose of other people's lives. But we should not forget that all this was done by her in the name of love, for the sake of a man who, as it turned out, did not at all deserve such sacrifices. So a banal melodrama about a bored merchant's wife, under the pen of Leskov, grows into a tragic story of a woman longing for love, motherhood, kind words and fidelity.
Human life has an absolute value, so the villainy that takes it away is just as absolute. The guilt of the crimes committed by Katerina Izmailova is, first of all, in herself, in her "animal" passion for Sergei; the guilt of Kabanova's crime was initially laid down in the surrounding society, her environment.
Comparison of the heroine of the play "Thunderstorm" by Katerina Kabanova and the heroine of the essay "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" by Katerina Izmailova
"Thunderstorm" and "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" are two famous works of two great Russian writers. They were created at about the same time (1859 and 1865). Even the main characters are both Katerinas. Leskov's essay, however, can be considered a kind of polemic with Ostrovsky's play. Let's try to compare the heroines of these works.
So, both heroines are young wives, married not out of love. They are both merchants and therefore have no material problems. In their past, a carefree childhood and adolescence in the parental home remained. Also, according to the merchant tradition, house-building order reigns in their houses. Both have no children. In the character of both Katherines, ardor, passion can be traced, love leads them into self-forgetfulness, they both decided on sin. Their sad end is the same - both committed suicide by throwing themselves into the river.
But the characters also have a lot of differences. So from Greek, the name Catherine means "pure, immaculate." This definition fully characterizes Ekaterina Kabanova, she is "a ray of light in the dark kingdom" of the city of Kalinov, her image and character does not change in any way during the course of action and is static. In relation to Ekaterina Izmailova, this characterization is true only at the beginning of the essay, her image is dynamic, it develops, or even rather degrades in the course of the story. If we disassemble the patronymic and surname of Izmailova, then this is what comes out: Ekaterina - “immaculate”, Lvovna - “bestial, wild”, Izmailova - something foreign, non-native comes from this surname.
Both heroines decided to cheat on her husband, but if Katerina Kabanova blames herself and punishes herself for this, she believes that she has done something terrible, then Katerina Izmailova takes this calmly and is ready to follow her sin into the abyss.
And this is the fundamental difference between Katerina Izmailova and Katerina Kabanova. Kabanova is passionate, ready for a lot for the sake of a loved one. But inside the heroine of "Thunderstorm" there are strong moral foundations, a core that allows her to clearly distinguish where Good is and where Evil is. Therefore, having surrendered to a happy “sin”, Katerina already knows for sure that punishment will follow. And, above all, the punishment is internal, her own. We remember that, unable to endure the pangs of conscience and the pressure of the environment, the heroine commits suicide - she rushes into the Volga.
Ekaterina Kabanova, in order to save her love, not to obey Kabanikhe, takes a desperate step - suicide. At this moment she is clean, she washes away her sin in the water.
Ekaterina Izmailova, for the sake of her love, decides to kill three people, including her own husband and a small, innocent boy. It is as if the beast wakes up in her, she is ready for anything, in order to be with her lover. So, this is clearly seen in the final scene, where Izmailova throws herself with her rival into the river.
These heroines are similar in many ways, but their essence, in my opinion, is different. Katerina Izmailova lived with passions, obeying only the call of her flesh. Katerina Kabanova thought about her soul, she had a solid moral foundation. And although she also succumbed to temptation, the story of her love and death is much closer to me, it causes me more sympathy, a spiritual response.
The theme of love in N. Leskov's story "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"
The main theme that N.S. Leskov touches on in the story of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district is the theme of love; love that has no boundaries, love for which everyone commits, even murder.
The main character is the merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova; the main character is the clerk Sergei. The story consists of fifteen chapters.
In the first chapter, the reader learns that Katerina Lvovna is a young, twenty-four-year-old girl, rather sweet, although not beautiful. Before marriage, she was a cheerful laugher, and after the wedding, her life changed. The merchant Izmailov was a strict widower of about fifty, lived with his father Boris Timofeevich, and his whole life was in trade. From time to time he leaves, and his young wife does not find a place for herself. Boredom, the most unrestrained, pushes her one day to take a walk around the yard. Here she meets the clerk Sergei, an unusually handsome guy, about whom they say that what kind of woman you want, he will flatter and lead to sin.
One warm evening, Katerina Lvovna is sitting in her high room by the window, when she suddenly sees Sergei. Sergei bows to her and after a few moments is at her door. A meaningless conversation ends at the bedside in a dark corner. Since then, Sergei begins to visit Katerina Lvovna at night, coming and going along the pillars that support the young woman's gallery. However, one night his father-in-law Boris Timofeevich sees him - he punishes Sergei with whips, promising that with the arrival of his son, Katerina Lvovna will be pulled out at the stable, and Sergei will be sent to jail. But the next morning, the father-in-law, after eating mushrooms with gruel, gets heartburn, and after a few hours he dies, just like rats died in the barn, for which only Katerina Lvovna had poison. Now the love of the master's wife and the clerk flares up more than ever, they already know about it in the yard, but they consider it this way: they say, this is her business, she will have an answer.
In the chapter of N.S. Leskov's story, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district, it is told that very often Katerina Lvovna has the same nightmare. As if a huge cat walks on her bed, purrs, and then suddenly lies between her and Sergey. Sometimes the cat talks to her: I am not a cat, Katerina Lvovna, I am the famous merchant Boris Timofeevich. I’m only so bad now, I’ve become that all my bones inside are cracked from the bride’s treat. A young woman will look at the cat, and he has the head of Boris Timofeevich, and fiery mugs instead of eyes. On the same night, her husband, Zinovy Borisovich, returns home. Katerina Lvovna hides Sergei on a pole behind the gallery, throwing his shoes and clothes into the same place. The husband who entered asks to put a samovar for him, and then asks why, in his absence, the bed is laid out in two, and points to Sergei's woolen belt, which he finds on the sheet. Katerina Lvovna calls Sergey in response, her husband is dumbfounded by such impudence. Without thinking twice, the woman begins to choke her husband, then beats him with a cast candlestick. When Zinoviy Borisovich falls, Sergei sits on him. Soon the merchant dies. The young mistress and Sergey bury him in the cellar.
Now Sergei begins to walk like a real master, and Katerina Lvovna conceives a child from him. Their happiness still turns out to be short-lived: it turns out that the merchant had a nephew, Fedya, who has more rights to the inheritance. Sergei convinces Katerina that because of Fedya, who has now moved in with them; there will be no happiness and power for lovers. ... The murder of a nephew is contemplated.
In the eleventh chapter, Katerina Lvovna carries out her plans, and, of course, not without the help of Sergei. The nephew is strangled with a large pillow. But all this is seen by a curious person who at that moment looked into the gap between the shutters. Instantly a crowd gathers and breaks into the house...
Both Sergei, who confessed to all the murders, and Katerina, are sent to hard labor. A child who is born shortly before is given to a relative of the husband, since only this child remains the only heir.
In the final chapters, the author tells about the misadventures of Katerina Lvovna in exile. Here Sergey completely refuses her, begins to openly cheat on her, but she continues to love him. From time to time he comes to see her on a date, and in one of these meetings he asks Katerina Lvovna for stockings, since he supposedly has severe pain in his feet. Katerina Lvovna gives away beautiful woolen stockings. The next morning, she sees them on the feet of Sonetka, a young girl and Sergey's current girlfriend. The young woman understands that all her feelings for Sergei are meaningless and do not need him, and then decides on the last ...
On one of the rainy days, convicts are transported by ferry across the Volga. Sergei, as has become customary lately, again begins to laugh at Katerina Lvovna. She stares blankly, and then abruptly grabs Sonetka, who is standing next to her, and throws herself overboard. They cannot be saved.
This concludes the story of N.S. Leskov Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk district.
What I felt after reading “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” by N.S. Leskova
At the heart of the plot of the story N.S. Leskov's "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" is a simple, worldly, but, at the same time, full of tragedy story. She tells about the love of the merchant's wife Katerina Lvovna for her worker Sergei. This blind, destructive love-passion pushes a woman to the most terrible thing - murder.
First, the heroine decides to poison her father-in-law. Boris Timofeich found out about Katerina Lvovna's relationship with Sergei and threatened to tell her husband about it.
One crime led to another. Rumors about his wife's affair with Sergei reached Zinovy Borisovich. He came home with a lot of doubts in his heart and wanting to sort things out. But Katerina Lvovna had long ago decided what to do. Having barely met her husband, the heroine takes Sergei out of the room and, not ashamed, admits that they are lovers with him. When the enraged Zinovy Borisovich jumps up to "put in place" his wife and Sergei, the heroine begins to choke him. Together with their lover, they kill the merchant.
But the chain of bloody crimes does not end there. The heroes commit another, probably the most serious, murder - they strangle a little boy, the nephew of Zinovy Borisovich, who was the heir to part of their family's money.
At first glance, it seems that it was Katerina Lvovna who conceived and committed all these murders. Sergei was for the heroine a passion, an outlet, happiness. No wonder Leskov emphasizes that before meeting him, a woman died of boredom and longing - after all, the life of a merchant's wife was not very diverse. With Sergey, love and passion entered the life of Katerina Lvovna. And this for the heroine, with her character and temperament, was vital. And everything that she did, this woman did for the sake of Sergei, for the fact that he was with her.
Of course, in my opinion, the feeling of the heroine does not justify the crimes of Katerina Lvovna. She forgot all human laws, despised God for the sake of her passion. In this, the heroine became like animals, which are guided only by instincts. Katerina Lvovna committed an unforgivable sin, fell very low, for which she paid with a broken heart, a twisted fate, and death.
But, I think that her lover, Sergey, fell much more low. If a woman is to some extent justified by a sincere, albeit carnal, feeling, then the hero from the very beginning acted prudently and soullessly. It was he who, manipulating the feelings of Katerina Lvovna, pushed the woman to all the murders, except, perhaps, the very first one. It was after him that Sergei realized that the heroine would do anything for him. And he decided to make the most of their connection. When there was nothing left to take from Katerina Lvovna (after being convicted), the hero abandoned her, carried away by a younger and more beautiful girl.
But, more than that, Sergey demonstrated his relationship with her to Katerina Sergeevna, trying to inflict more pain on the woman. With other prisoners, he insulted and humiliated his former mistress, literally "trampling her in the dirt." This man behaved very unworthily, eventually provoking the murder of Sonetka and the death of Katerina Lvovna.
Thus, after reading Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, I experienced a whole range of feelings - from pity for Katerina Lvovna and contempt for Sergei to admiration for the talent of a writer who managed to convey a truly Shakespearean tragedy that played out in the Russian provinces.
