Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky is a famous Russian writer and playwright who had a significant impact on the development of the national theater. He formed a new school of realistic play and wrote many remarkable works. This article will outline the main stages of Ostrovsky's work. As well as the most significant moments of his biography.

Childhood

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, whose photo is presented in this article, was born in 1823, on March 31, in Moscow, in the Malaya Ordynka area. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, grew up in the family of a priest, graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy himself, but did not serve in the church. He became a court lawyer, engaged in commercial and legal cases. Nikolai Fedorovich managed to rise to the rank of titular adviser, and later (in 1839) to receive the nobility. The mother of the future playwright, Savvina Lyubov Ivanovna, was the daughter of a sexton. She died when Alexander was only seven years old. Six children grew up in the Ostrovsky family. Nikolai Fedorovich did everything to ensure that the children grew up in prosperity and received a decent education. A few years after the death of Lyubov Ivanovna, he married a second time. His wife was Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, baroness, daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were very lucky with their stepmother: she managed to find an approach to them and continued to educate them.

Youth

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky spent his childhood in the very center of Zamoskvorechye. His father had a very good library, thanks to which the boy got acquainted early with the literature of Russian writers and felt a penchant for writing. However, the father saw only a lawyer in the boy. Therefore, in 1835, Alexander was sent to the First Moscow Gymnasium, after studying in which he became a student at Moscow University. However, Ostrovsky did not succeed in obtaining a law degree. He quarreled with the teacher and left the university. On the advice of his father, Alexander Nikolaevich went to work in the court as a scribe and worked in this position for several years.

Attempt at writing

However, Alexander Nikolayevich did not leave attempts to prove himself in the literary field. In his first plays, he adhered to an accusatory, "moral-social" direction. The first were printed in a new edition, Moscow City Listk, in 1847. These were sketches for the comedy "Failed Debtor" and the essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident". Under the publication were the letters "A. ABOUT." and "D. G." The fact is that a certain Dmitry Gorev offered the young playwright cooperation. It did not progress beyond the writing of one of the scenes, but subsequently became a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky. Some ill-wishers later accused the playwright of plagiarism. In the future, many magnificent plays will come out from the pen of Alexander Nikolaevich, and no one will dare to doubt his talent. Further, the table below will be presented in detail, which will allow systematizing the information received.

First success

When did it happen? Ostrovsky's work gained great popularity after the publication in 1850 of the comedy "Our people - let's settle!". This work evoked favorable reviews in literary circles. I. A. Goncharov and N. V. Gogol gave the play a positive assessment. However, an impressive fly in the ointment also fell into this barrel of honey. Influential representatives of the Moscow merchants, offended by the estate, complained to the highest authorities about the impudent playwright. The play was immediately banned for staging, the author was expelled from service and placed under the strictest police supervision. Moreover, this happened on the personal orders of Emperor Nicholas I himself. Supervision was abolished only after Emperor Alexander II ascended the throne. And the theatrical public saw the comedy only in 1861, after the ban on its production was lifted.

Early plays

The early work of A. N. Ostrovsky did not go unnoticed, his works were published mainly in the Moskvityanin magazine. The playwright actively collaborated with this publication both as a critic and as an editor in 1850-1851. Under the influence of the “young editors” of the magazine and the main ideologist of this circle, Alexander Nikolayevich composed the plays “Poverty is not a vice”, “Don’t get into your sleigh”, “Don’t live as you want”. The themes of Ostrovsky's work during this period are the idealization of patriarchy, Russian ancient customs and traditions. These moods slightly muffled the accusatory pathos of the writer's work. However, in the works of this cycle, the dramatic skill of Alexander Nikolayevich grew. His plays have become famous and in demand.

Collaboration with Sovremennik

Beginning in 1853, for thirty years, the plays of Alexander Nikolayevich were shown every season on the stages of the Maly (in Moscow) and Alexandrinsky (in St. Petersburg) theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky's work has been regularly covered in the Sovremennik magazine (works are published). During the social upsurge in the country (before the abolition of serfdom in 1861), the writer's works again acquired accusatory sharpness. In the play “Hangover at a Strange Feast,” the writer created an impressive image of Bruskov Tit Titych, in which he embodied the brute and dark power of domestic autocracy. Here, for the first time, the word "tyrant" was heard, which later became fixed for a whole gallery of Ostrovsky's characters. In the comedy Plum” ridiculed the venalism of officials that has become the norm. The drama "The Pupil" was a living protest against violence against the person. Other stages of Ostrovsky's work will be described below. But the peak of the achievement of this period of his literary activity was the socio-psychological drama "Thunderstorm".

"Storm"

In this play, the "bytovik" Ostrovsky painted the dull atmosphere of a provincial town with its hypocrisy, rudeness, and the indisputable authority of the "senior" and rich. In opposition to the imperfect world of people, Alexander Nikolayevich depicts breathtaking pictures of the Volga nature. The image of Katerina is covered with tragic beauty and gloomy charm. The thunderstorm symbolizes the spiritual confusion of the heroine and at the same time personifies the burden of fear under which ordinary people constantly live. The kingdom of blind obedience is undermined, according to Ostrovsky, by two forces: common sense, who preaches in the play Kuligin, and the pure soul of Katerina. In his Ray of Light in dark kingdom» critic Dobrolyubov interpreted the image main character as a symbol of deep protest, gradually ripening in the country.

Thanks to this play, the work of Ostrovsky soared to an unattainable height. "Thunderstorm" made Alexander Nikolaevich the most famous and revered Russian playwright.

Historical motives

In the second half of the 1860s, Alexander Nikolayevich began to study the history of the Time of Troubles. He began to correspond with the famous historian and Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov. Based on the study of serious sources, the playwright created a whole cycle of historical works: "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky", "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk", "Tushino". The problems of national history were depicted by Ostrovsky talentedly and reliably.

Other plays

Alexander Nikolaevich still remained true to his favorite topic. In the 1860s, he wrote many "everyday" dramas and plays. Among them: " hard days”, “Abyss”, “Jokers”. These works consolidated the motives already found by the writer. Since the late 1860s, Ostrovsky's work has been undergoing a period of active development. In his dramaturgy, images and themes of the “new” Russia that survived the reform appear: businessmen, acquirers, degenerate patriarchal moneybags and “Europeanized” merchants. Alexander Nikolayevich created a brilliant cycle of satirical comedies debunking the post-reform illusions of citizens: “Mad Money”, “Hot Heart”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Forest”. The moral ideal of the playwright is pure soul, noble people: Parasha from the "Hot Heart", Aksyusha from the "Forest". Ostrovsky's ideas about the meaning of life, happiness and duty were embodied in the play "Labor Bread". Almost all of Alexander Nikolayevich's works written in the 1870s were published in Otechestvennye Zapiski.

"Snow Maiden"

The appearance of this poetic play was completely accidental. The Maly Theater was closed for repairs in 1873. Its artists moved to the building of the Bolshoi Theatre. In this regard, the commission for the management of the Moscow imperial theaters decided to create a performance in which three troupes will be involved: opera, ballet and drama. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky undertook to write a similar play. The Snow Maiden was written by the playwright in a very short time. The author took a plot from a Russian folk tale as a basis. While working on the play, he carefully selected the sizes of the verses, consulted with archaeologists, historians, and connoisseurs of antiquity. The music for the play was composed by the young P. I. Tchaikovsky. The premiere of the play took place in 1873, on May 11, on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. K. S. Stanislavsky spoke of The Snow Maiden as a fairy tale, a dream told in sonorous and magnificent verse. He said that the realist and bytovik Ostrovsky wrote this play as if he had not been interested in anything before, except for pure romance and poetry.

Work in recent years

During this period, Ostrovsky composed significant socio-psychological comedies and dramas. They tell about tragic destinies sensitive, gifted women in a cynical and greedy world: "Talents and Admirers", "Dowry". Here the playwright developed new techniques of stage expression, anticipating the work of Anton Chekhov. Preserving the peculiarities of his dramaturgy, Alexander Nikolaevich sought to embody the "internal struggle" of the characters in an "intelligent fine comedy".

Social activity

In 1866, Alexander Nikolaevich founded the famous Artistic Circle. He subsequently gave the Moscow stage many talented figures. Ostrovsky was visited by D. V. Grigorovich, I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, P. M. Sadovsky, A. F. Pisemsky, G. N. Fedotova, M. E. Ermolova, P. I. Tchaikovsky , L. N. Tolstoy, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. E. Turchaninov.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was established in Russia. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was chosen as the chairman of the association. Photos of the famous public figure were known to every lover of theatrics in Russia. The reformer made a lot of efforts to ensure that the legislation of the theater management was revised in favor of the artists, and thereby significantly improved their financial and social situation.

In 1885, Alexander Nikolayevich was appointed to the post of head of the repertoire and became the head of the theater school.

Ostrovsky Theater

The work of Alexander Ostrovsky is inextricably linked with the formation of a real Russian theater in its modern sense. The playwright and writer managed to create his own theater school and a special holistic concept for staging theater performances.

Features of Ostrovsky's work in the theater are the lack of opposition to the acting nature and extreme situations in the action of the play. In the works of Alexander Nikolaevich, ordinary events occur with ordinary people.

The main ideas of the reform:

• the theater should be built on conventions (there is an invisible “fourth wall” that separates the audience from the actors);
• when staging a performance, bet must be placed on more than one famous actor, but on a team of artists who understand each other well;
• the invariability of the attitude of actors to language: speech characteristics should express almost everything about the characters represented in the play;
• people come to the theater to watch the actors play, and not to get acquainted with the play - they can read it at home.

The ideas that the writer Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich came up with were subsequently finalized by M. A. Bulgakov and K. S. Stanislavsky.

Personal life

The personal life of the playwright was no less interesting than his literary creativity. Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich lived in a civil marriage with a simple bourgeois for almost twenty years. Interesting facts and details of the marital relationship between the writer and his first wife still excite researchers.

In 1847, in Nikolo-Vorobinovsky Lane, next to the house where Ostrovsky lived, a young girl, Agafya Ivanovna, settled with her thirteen-year-old sister. She had no relatives or friends. Nobody knows when she met Alexander Nikolayevich. However, in 1848 the young people had a son, Alexei. There were no conditions for raising a child, so the boy was temporarily placed in an orphanage. Ostrovsky's father was terribly angry that his son not only dropped out of a prestigious university, but also got in touch with a simple bourgeois woman living next door.

However, Alexander Nikolaevich showed firmness and, when his father, together with his stepmother, left for the recently purchased Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma province, he settled with Agafya Ivanovna in his wooden house.

The writer and ethnographer S.V. Maksimov jokingly called Ostrovsky's first wife "Marfa Posadnitsa", because she was next to the writer in times of severe need and severe hardship. Ostrovsky's friends characterize Agafya Ivanovna as a very intelligent and cordial person by nature. She remarkably knew the manners and customs of merchant life and had an unconditional influence on Ostrovsky's work. Alexander Nikolaevich often consulted with her about the creation of his works. In addition, Agafya Ivanovna was a wonderful and hospitable hostess. But Ostrovsky did not register an official marriage with her even after the death of his father. All the children born in this union died very young, only the eldest, Alexei, briefly survived his mother.

Over time, Ostrovsky had other hobbies. He was passionately in love with Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya-Nikulina, who played Katerina at the premiere of The Thunderstorm in 1859. However, a personal break soon occurred: the actress left the playwright for the sake of a rich merchant.

Then Alexander Nikolaevich had a connection with a young artist Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva. Agafya Ivanovna knew about this, but she steadfastly carried her cross and managed to maintain Ostrovsky's respect for herself. The woman died in 1867, March 6, after a serious illness. Alexander Nikolaevich did not leave her bed until the very end. The burial place of Ostrovsky's first wife is unknown.

Two years later, the playwright married Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva, who bore him two daughters and four sons. Alexander Nikolaevich lived with this woman until the end of his days.

Writer's death

Tense public and could not but affect the health of the writer. In addition, despite good fees from staging plays and an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, Money Alexander Nikolayevich missed all the time. Exhausted by constant worries, the writer's body eventually failed. In 1886, on June 2, the writer died at his Shchelykovo estate near Kostroma. The emperor granted 3,000 rubles for the playwright's burial. In addition, he assigned a pension of 3,000 rubles to the writer's widow, and another 2,400 rubles a year for the upbringing of Ostrovsky's children.

Chronological table

The life and work of Ostrovsky can be briefly displayed in a chronological table.

Ostrovsky's life and work were filled with such events. The table, which shows the main events in the life of the writer, will help to better study his biography. The dramatic heritage of Alexander Nikolaevich is difficult to overestimate. Even during the life of the great artist, the Maly Theater was called “Ostrovsky's house”, and this says a lot. Creativity Ostrovsky, short description which is presented in this article, it is worth studying it in more detail.

A.N. Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow, in the family of a clergyman, an official, and later a lawyer of the Moscow Commercial Court. The Ostrovsky family lived in Zamoskvorechye, a merchant and petty-bourgeois district of old Moscow. By nature, the playwright was a homebody: he lived almost all his life in Moscow, in the Yauza part, regularly leaving, except for several trips around Russia and abroad, only to the Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma province. Here he died on June 2 (14), 1886, in the midst of work on the translation of Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra.

In the early 1840s. Ostrovsky studied at the law faculty of Moscow University, but did not complete the course, having entered in 1843 to serve in the office of the Moscow Conscientious Court. Two years later he was transferred to the Moscow Commercial Court, where he served until 1851. Legal practice gave the future writer an extensive and varied material. In almost all of his first plays about modernity, criminal plots are developed or outlined. Ostrovsky wrote his first story at the age of 20, and his first play at the age of 24. After 1851 his life was connected with literature and theater. Its main events were litigation with censorship, praise and scolding of critics, premieres, disputes between actors over roles in plays.

For almost 40 years of creative activity, Ostrovsky created the richest repertoire: about 50 original plays, several pieces written in collaboration. He was also engaged in translations and adaptations of plays by other authors. All this makes up the "Ostrovsky Theater" - this is how I.A. Goncharov defined the scale of the theater created by the playwright.

Ostrovsky passionately loved the theater, considering it the most democratic and effective form of art. Among the classics of Russian literature, he was the first and remained the only writer who devoted himself entirely to dramaturgy. All the plays he created were not "plays for reading" - they were written for the theater. Stage performance for Ostrovsky is an immutable law of dramaturgy, therefore his works belong equally to two worlds: the world of literature and the world of theater.

Ostrovsky's plays were published in magazines almost simultaneously with their theatrical performances and were perceived as bright phenomena of both literary and theater life. In the 1860s they aroused the same lively public interest as the novels of Turgenev, Goncharov and Dostoevsky. Ostrovsky made dramaturgy "real" literature. Before him, in the repertoire of Russian theaters there were only a few plays that, as it were, descended onto the stage from the heights of literature and remained lonely (“Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboedov, “The Inspector General” and “Marriage” by N.V. Gogol). The theatrical repertoire was filled with either translations or works that did not differ in noticeable literary merit.

In the 1850s -1860s. dreams of Russian writers that the theater should become a powerful educational force, a means of forming public opinion found real ground. Drama has a wider audience. The circle of literate people has expanded - both readers and those to whom serious reading was still inaccessible, but theater is accessible and understandable. A new social stratum was being formed - the Raznochinskaya intelligentsia, which showed an increased interest in the theater. The new public, democratic and variegated in comparison with the public of the first half of the 19th century, gave a "social order" for social drama from Russian life.

The uniqueness of the position of Ostrovsky as a playwright is that, creating plays based on new material, he not only met the expectations of new audiences, but also fought for the democratization of the theater: after all, the theater - the most massive of spectacles - in the 1860s. still remained elitist, there was no cheap public theater yet. The repertoire of theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg depended on the officials of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. Ostrovsky, reforming Russian dramaturgy, reformed the theater as well. The audience of his plays, he wanted to see not only the intelligentsia and enlightened merchants, but also "owners of craft establishments" and "artisans". The brainchild of Ostrovsky was the Moscow Maly Theater, which embodied his dream of a new theater for a democratic audience.

There are four periods in the creative development of Ostrovsky:

1) First period (1847-1851)- the time of the first literary experiments. Ostrovsky began quite in the spirit of the time - with narrative prose. In essays on the life and customs of Zamoskvorechie, the debutant relied on Gogol's traditions and the creative experience of the "natural school" of the 1840s. During these years, the first dramatic works, including the comedy "Bankrut" ("Own people - let's settle!"), Which became the main work of the early period.

2) Second period (1852-1855) called "Moskvityaninsky", since during these years Ostrovsky became close to the young employees of the magazine "Moskvityanin": A.A. Grigoriev, T.I. Filippov, B.N. Almazov and E.N. Edelson. The playwright supported the ideological program of the "young editors", which sought to make the journal an organ of a new trend in social thought - "pochvennichestvo". During this period, only three plays were written: “Do not sit in your sleigh”, “Poverty is not a vice” and “Do not live as you want”.

3) Third period (1856-1860) marked by Ostrovsky's refusal to seek positive beginnings in the life of the patriarchal merchant class (this was typical of plays written in the first half of the 1850s). The playwright, who sensitively perceived the changes in the social and ideological life of Russia, became close to the leaders of the raznochinskaya democracy - the staff of the Sovremennik magazine. The creative result of this period was the plays “Hangover in someone else’s feast”, “Profitable place” and “Thunderstorm”, “the most decisive”, according to N.A. Dobrolyubov, the work of Ostrovsky.

4) Fourth period (1861-1886)- the longest period of Ostrovsky's creative activity. The genre range expanded, the poetics of his works became more diverse. For twenty years, plays have been created that can be divided into several genre-thematic groups: 1) comedies from merchant life(“Not everything is a carnival for a cat”, “Truth is good, but happiness is better”, “The heart is not a stone”), 2) satirical comedies (“There is enough simplicity for every wise man”, “Hot Heart”, “Mad Money”, “Wolves and sheep", "Forest"), 3) plays, which Ostrovsky himself called "pictures of Moscow life" and "scenes from the life of the outback": they are united by the theme of "little people" (" old friend better than the new two”, “Hard Days”, “Jokers” and a trilogy about Balzaminov), 4) historical chronicle plays (“Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Tushino”, etc.), and, finally, 5) psychological dramas ("Dowry", " Last victim" and etc.). stands apart fairy tale play"Snow Maiden".

The origins of Ostrovsky's work are in the "natural school" of the 1840s, although the Moscow writer was not organizationally connected with the creative community of young St. Petersburg realists. Starting with prose, Ostrovsky quickly realized that his true vocation was dramaturgy. Already early prose experiments are "staged", despite the most detailed descriptions of life and customs, characteristic of the essays of the "natural school". For example, the basis of the first essay, “The Tale of How the Quarter Warden Started to Dance, or One Step from the Great to the Ridiculous” (1843), is an anecdotal scene with a completely finished plot.

The text of this essay was used in the first published work - "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky resident" (published in 1847 in the newspaper "Moscow city sheet"). It was in the Notes... that Ostrovsky, called by his contemporaries "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye", discovered a "country" previously unknown in literature, inhabited by merchants, petty bourgeois and petty officials. “Until now, only the position and name of this country has been known,” the writer noted, “as for its inhabitants, that is, their way of life, language, customs, degree of education, all this was covered with the darkness of obscurity.” An excellent knowledge of life material helped Ostrovsky the prose writer to create a detailed study of merchant life and farming, which preceded his first plays about the merchant class. In the Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident, two characteristics Ostrovsky's creativity: attention to the everyday environment that determines the life and psychology of the characters, "written off from nature", and the special, dramatic, character of the depiction of everyday life. The writer was able to see in everyday life stories potential, unused material for the playwright. The first plays followed the essays on the life of Zamoskvorechie.

Ostrovsky considered February 14, 1847, the most memorable day in his life: on this day, at the evening at the famous Slavophile Professor S.P. Shevyrev, he read his first short play, The Family Picture. But the real debut of the young playwright is the comedy "We'll Settle Our Own People!" (original title - "Bankrut"), on which he worked from 1846 to 1849. Theatrical censorship immediately banned the play, but, like "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboedov, it immediately became a major literary event and with success was read in Moscow houses in the winter of 1849/50. by the author himself and major actors - P.M. Sadovsky and M.S. Shchepkin. In 1850, the comedy was published by the Moskvityanin magazine, but only in 1861 was it staged.

The enthusiastic reception of the first comedy from merchant life was caused not only by the fact that Ostrovsky, "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye", used completely new material, but also by the amazing maturity of his dramatic skill. Having inherited the traditions of Gogol the comedian, the playwright at the same time clearly defined his view on the principles of depicting characters and the plot and compositional embodiment of everyday material. The Gogol tradition is felt in the very nature of the conflict: the fraud of the merchant Bolshov is a product of merchant life, proprietary morality and the psychology of rogue heroes. Bolynov declares himself bankrupt, but this is a false bankruptcy, the result of his collusion with the clerk Podkhalyuzin. The transaction ended unexpectedly: the owner, who hoped to increase his capital, was deceived by the clerk, who turned out to be an even greater swindler. As a result, Podkhalyuzin received both the hand of the daughter of the merchant Lipochka and capital. The Gogolian beginning is palpable in the homogeneity of the comic world of the play: there are no positive characters in it, as in Gogol's comedies, the only such "hero" can be called laughter.

The main difference between Ostrovsky's comedy and the plays of his great predecessor is in the role of comedic intrigue and the attitude of the characters towards it. There are characters and entire scenes in "Inside Your Own People" that are not only not needed for the development of the plot, but, on the contrary, slow it down. However, these scenes are no less important for understanding the work than the intrigue based on the imaginary bankruptcy of Bolshov. They are necessary in order to more fully describe the life and customs of the merchants, the conditions in which the main action takes place. For the first time, Ostrovsky uses a technique that is repeated in almost all of his plays, including The Thunderstorm, The Forest, and The Dowry, an expanded slow-motion exposure. Some characters are not introduced at all to complicate the conflict. These "setting persons" (in the play "Our People - Let's Settle!" - the matchmaker and Tishka) are interesting in themselves, as representatives of the domestic environment, mores and customs. Their artistic function is similar to the function of household details in narrative works: they complement the image of the merchant's world with small, but bright, colorful touches.

The everyday, the familiar, interests Ostrovsky the playwright no less than something out of the ordinary, for example, the scam of Bolshov and Podkhalyuzin. He finds effective method dramatic depiction of everyday life, making the most of the possibilities of the word sounding from the stage. Mother and daughter talking about outfits and grooms, squabbling between them, grumbling old nanny perfectly convey the usual atmosphere of a merchant family, the range of interests and dreams of these people. The oral speech of the characters has become an accurate "mirror" of life and customs.

It is the conversations of the characters on everyday topics, as if “turned off” from the plot action, that play an exceptional role in all Ostrovsky’s plays: interrupting the plot, retreating from it, they immerse the reader and viewer into the world of ordinary human relations, where the need for verbal communication is no less important. than the need for food, food and clothing. Both in the first comedy and in subsequent plays, Ostrovsky often consciously slows down the development of events, considering it necessary to show what the characters are thinking about, in what verbal form their reflections are clothed. For the first time in Russian dramaturgy, the dialogues of characters became an important means of moral description.

Some critics considered the extensive use of everyday details to be a violation of the laws of the scene. The justification, in their opinion, could only be that the novice playwright was the discoverer of merchant life. But this "violation" became the law of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy: already in the first comedy, he combined the sharpness of intrigue with numerous everyday details and not only did not abandon this principle later, but also developed it, achieving the maximum aesthetic impact of both components of the play - a dynamic plot and static "colloquial » scenes.

"Own people - let's settle!" - accusatory comedy, satire on manners. However, in the early 1850s the playwright came to the idea of ​​the need to abandon the criticism of the merchants, from the "accusatory direction". In his opinion, the outlook on life expressed in the first comedy was "young and too tough." Now he substantiates a different approach: a Russian person should rejoice at seeing himself on stage, and not yearn. “Reformers will be found even without us,” Ostrovsky stressed in one of his letters. - In order to have the right to correct the people without offending them, it is necessary to show them that you know the good behind them; this is what I am doing now, combining the high with the comic. "High", in his view, is the people's ideals, truths, obtained by the Russian people during many centuries of spiritual development.

The new concept of creativity brought Ostrovsky closer to the young employees of the Moskvityanin magazine (published by the famous historian M.P. Pogodin). In the works of the writer and critic A.A. Grigoriev, the concept of “pochvennichestvo”, an influential ideological trend of the 1850s-1860s, was formed. The basis of “pochvennichestvo” is attention to the spiritual traditions of the Russian people, to traditional forms of life and culture. Special interest the "young editors" of "Moskvityanin" were evoked by the merchant class: after all, this class has always been financially independent, did not experience pernicious influence serfdom, which "pochvenniki" considered the tragedy of the Russian people. It was in the merchant environment, in the opinion of the “Muscovites”, that one should look for genuine moral ideals developed by the Russian people, not distorted by slavery, like the serfs, and separation from the people’s “soil”, like the nobility. In the first half of the 1850s. Ostrovsky was strongly influenced by these ideas. New friends, especially A.A. Grigoriev, pushed him to express in his plays about the merchant class "the fundamental Russian outlook."

In the plays of the “Muscovite” period of creativity - “Do not sit in your own sleigh”, “Poverty is not a vice” and “Do not live as you want” - Ostrovsky's critical attitude towards the merchants did not disappear, but was greatly softened. A new ideological trend emerged: the playwright portrayed the mores of modern merchants as a historically changeable phenomenon, trying to find out what was preserved in this environment from the richest spiritual experience accumulated by the Russian people over the centuries, and what was deformed or disappeared.

One of the peaks of Ostrovsky's work is the comedy "Poverty is not a vice", the plot of which is based on a family conflict. Gordey Tortsov, a domineering tyrant merchant, the predecessor of Diky from Groza, dreams of marrying his daughter Lyuba to Afrikan Korshunov, a merchant of a new, "European" formation. But her heart belongs to another - the poor clerk Mitya. Gordey's brother, Lyubim Tortsov, helps to upset the marriage with Korshunov, and the self-righteous father, in a fit of anger, threatens to give his rebellious daughter in marriage to the first person he meets. By a happy coincidence, it turned out to be Mitya. A prosperous comedy plot for Ostrovsky is only an event “shell” that helps to understand the true meaning of what is happening: a collision folk culture with the “semi-culture” that developed in the merchant class under the influence of the fashion “for Europe”. Korshunov, the defender of the patriarchal, "soil" principle, Lyubim Tortsov, the central character of the play, is the spokesman for the merchant's false culture in the play.

Lyubim Tortsov - a drunkard who defends moral values, - attracts the viewer with its buffoonery and foolishness. The whole course of events in the play depends on him, he helps everyone, including contributing to the moral "recovery" of his tyrant brother. Ostrovsky showed him the "most Russian" of all the actors. He has no claims to education, like Gordey, he just thinks sensibly and acts according to his conscience. From the author's point of view, this is quite enough to stand out from the merchant environment, to become "our person on the stage."

The writer himself believed that a noble impulse is able to reveal simple and clear moral qualities in every person: conscience and kindness. He contrasted Russian “patriarchal” morality with the immorality and cruelty of modern society, therefore the world of plays of the “Muscovite” period, despite the accuracy of everyday “instrumentation” usual for Ostrovsky, is largely conditional and even utopian. The main achievement of the playwright was his version of a positive folk character. The image of the drunken herald of truth, Lyubim Tortsov, was by no means created according to stencils that set the teeth on edge. This is not an illustration for Grigoriev's articles, but a full-blooded artistic image; it is not for nothing that the role of Lyubim Tortsov attracted actors of many generations.

In the second half of the 1850s. Ostrovsky again and again refers to the theme of the merchant class, but his attitude towards this class has changed. From the "Moskvitian" ideas, he took a step back, returning to sharp criticism inertia of the merchant environment. A vivid image of the merchant-tyrant Tit Titych ("Kita Kitych") Bruskov, whose name has become a household name, was created in the satirical comedy Hangover at a Strange Feast (1856). However, Ostrovsky did not limit himself to "satire on faces." His generalizations became broader: the play depicts a way of life that fiercely resists everything new. This, according to critic N.A. Dobrolyubov, is a “dark kingdom” that lives according to its cruel laws. Hypocritically defending patriarchy, petty tyrants defend their right to unlimited arbitrariness.

The thematic range of Ostrovsky's plays expanded; representatives of other estates and social groups appeared in his field of vision. In the comedy Profitable Place (1857), he first turned to one of the favorite themes of Russian comedians - the satirical depiction of bureaucracy, and in the comedy The Pupil (1858) he discovered landowner life. In both works, parallels with "merchant" plays are easily seen. Thus, the hero of “Profitable Place” Zhadov, an accuser of the venality of officials, is typologically close to the truth-seeker Lyubim Tortsov, and the characters of “The Pupil” — the petty landowner Ulanbekova and her victim, pupil Nadya — resemble the characters of Ostrovsky’s early plays and the tragedy Thunderstorm written a year later. »: Kabanikh and Katerina.

Summing up the results of the first decade of Ostrovsky's work, A.A. Grigoriev, who argued with the Dobrolyubov interpretation of Ostrovsky as an accuser of tyrants and the "dark kingdom", wrote: "The name for this writer, for such a great writer, despite his shortcomings, is not a satirist, but folk poet. The word for unraveling his activities is not "tyranny", but "nationality". Only this word can be the key to understanding his works. Anything else - more or less narrow, more or less theoretical, arbitrary - restricts the circle of his creativity.

The Thunderstorm (1859), which followed three accusatory comedies, became the pinnacle of the dramaturgy of Ostrovsky's pre-reform period. Turning again to the image of the merchant class, the writer created the first and only social tragedy in his work.

Ostrovsky's work in the 1860s-1880s extremely diverse, although in his worldview and aesthetic views there were no such sharp fluctuations as before 1861. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy is striking in the Shakespearean breadth of problems and the classical perfection of artistic forms. Two main trends can be noted that are clearly manifested in his plays: the strengthening of the tragic sound of comedy plots traditional for the writer and the growth of the psychological content of conflicts and characters. The "Ostrovsky Theatre", declared "obsolete", "conservative" playwrights of the "new wave" in the 1890s-1900s, actually developed exactly those trends that became leading in the theater of the early 20th century. It was by no means accidental that, beginning with The Thunderstorm, Ostrovsky's everyday and moralistic plays were rich in philosophical and psychological symbols. The playwright acutely felt the insufficiency of stage "everyday" realism. Without violating the natural laws of the stage, maintaining the distance between actors and spectators - the basis of the foundations of classical theater, in his best plays he approached the philosophical and tragic sound of novels created in the 1860s-1870s. by his contemporaries Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, to the wisdom and organic power of the artist, of which Shakespeare was a model for him.

Ostrovsky's innovative aspirations are especially noticeable in his satirical comedies and psychological dramas. Four comedies about the life of the post-reform nobility — Enough Stupidity for Every Wise Man, Wolves and Sheep, Mad Money, and The Forest — are linked by a common theme. The subject of satirical ridicule in them is an uncontrollable thirst for profit, which seized both the nobles, who lost their foothold - the forced labor of serfs and "mad money", and people of a new formation, businessmen who make their capital on the ruins of the collapsed serfdom.

In comedies, vivid images of “business people” are created, for whom “money does not smell”, and wealth becomes the only life goal. In the play Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man (1868), such a person was the impoverished nobleman Glumov, who traditionally dreams of receiving an inheritance, a rich bride and a career. His cynicism and business acumen do not contradict the way of life of the old noble bureaucracy: he himself is an ugly product of this environment. Glumov is smart in comparison with those before whom he is forced to bend - Mamaev and Krutitsky, he is not averse to mocking their stupidity and arrogance, he is able to see himself from the outside. “I am smart, angry, envious,” Glumov confesses. He does not seek the truth, but simply profits from someone else's stupidity. Ostrovsky shows a new social phenomenon characteristic of post-reform Russia: not the "moderation and accuracy" of the Molchalins lead to "mad money", but the caustic mind and talent of the Chatskys.

In the comedy "Mad Money" (1870), Ostrovsky continued his "Moscow Chronicle". Egor Glumov reappeared in it with his epigrams “for the whole of Moscow”, as well as a kaleidoscope of satirical Moscow types: secular dudes who lived through several fortunes, ladies ready to go to be kept by “millionaires”, lovers of free booze, idlers and voluptuaries. The playwright created a satirical portrait of a way of life in which honor and integrity are replaced by an unbridled desire for money. Money determines everything: the actions and behavior of the characters, their ideals and psychology. The central character of the play is Lydia Cheboksarova, who sells both her beauty and her love. She does not care who to be - a wife or a kept woman. The main thing is to choose a thicker money bag: after all, in her opinion, "you cannot live without gold." Lydia's venal love in Crazy Money is the same means for making money as Glumov's mind in the play Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man. But the cynical heroine, who chooses a richer victim, finds herself in the most stupid position: she marries Vasilkov, seduced by gossip about his gold mines, is deceived with Telyatev, whose fortune is just a myth, does not disdain the caresses of "daddy" Kuchumov, knocking him out of money. The only antipode of the catchers of "mad money" in the play is the "noble" businessman Vasilkov, who talks about "smart" money obtained by honest labor, saved and spent wisely. This hero is a new type of “honest” bourgeois guessed by Ostrovsky.

The comedy "Forest" (1871) is dedicated to the popular in Russian literature of the 1870s. the theme of the extinction of the “noble nests”, in which the “last Mohicans” of the old Russian nobility lived.

The image of the "forest" is one of Ostrovsky's most capacious symbolic images. The forest is not only the backdrop against which events unfold in the estate, located five miles from the county town. This is the object of a deal between the elderly lady Gurmyzhskaya and the merchant Vosmibratov, who buys their ancestral lands from the impoverished nobles. The forest is a symbol of spiritual backwaters: the revival of the capitals almost never reaches the Penki forest estate, “secular silence” still reigns here. The psychological meaning of the symbol is revealed if we correlate the “forest” with the “wilds” of coarse feelings and immoral acts of the inhabitants of the “noble forest”, through which nobility, chivalry, and humanity cannot break through. “... - And really, brother Arkady, how did we get into this forest, into this dense damp forest? - says the tragic Neschastlivtsev at the end of the play, - Why did we, brother, frighten away the owls and owls? What's to stop them! Let them live how they want! Everything is in order here, brother, as one should be in the forest. Old women marry high school students, young girls drown themselves from the bitter life of their relatives: forest, brother ”(D. 5, yavl. IX).

The Forest is a satirical comedy. The comedy manifests itself in a variety of plot situations and turns of action. The playwright created, for example, a small but very topical social caricature: almost Gogol's characters talk about the activities of zemstvos, popular in post-reform times - the gloomy misanthropic landowner Bodaev, reminiscent of Sobakevich, and Milonov, as good-hearted as Manilov. However main object satires of Ostrovsky - the life and customs of the "noble forest". The play uses a tried-and-tested plot move - the story of a poor pupil Aksyusha, who is oppressed and humiliated by the hypocritical "benefactor" Gurmyzhskaya. She constantly talks about her widowhood and purity, although in reality she is vicious, and voluptuous, and vain. The contradictions between Gurmyzhskaya's claims and the true essence of her character are the source of unexpected comic situations.

In the first act, Gurmyzhskaya puts on a kind of show: to demonstrate her virtue, she invites her neighbors to sign her will. According to Milonov, “Raisa Pavlovna adorns our entire province with the severity of her life; our moral atmosphere, so to speak, is fragrant with its virtues. “We were all afraid of your virtue here,” Bodaev echoes him, recalling how several years ago they expected her arrival at the estate. In the fifth act, the neighbors learn about an unexpected metamorphosis that has taken place with Gurmyzhskaya. The fifty-year-old lady, who spoke languidly about bad forebodings and imminent death (“if I don’t die today, not tomorrow, at least soon”), announces her decision to marry the half-educated high school student Alexis Bulanov. She considers marriage to be a self-sacrifice, "in order to arrange the estate and so that it does not fall into the wrong hands." However, the neighbors do not notice the comedy in the transition from the dying testament to the marriage union of "unshakable virtue" with "tender, young industry of a noble nursery." “This is a heroic feat! You are a heroine!" - Milonov exclaims pathetically, admiring the hypocritical and depraved matron.

Another knot in the comedy plot is the story of a thousand rubles. Money went around the circle, which allowed to add important touches to portraits of various people. The merchant Vosmibratov tried to pocket a thousand, paying for the purchased timber. Neschastlivtsev, having conscientiously and “enjoyed” the merchant (“the honor is endless. And you don’t have it”), prompted him to return the money. Gurmyzhskaya gave the “crazy” thousand to Bulanov for a dress, then the tragedian, threatening the unlucky youth with a fake pistol, took away this money, intending to squander it with Arkady Schastlivtsev. In the end, a thousand became Aksyusha's dowry and ... returned to Vosmibratov.

The quite traditional comedic situation of the “shifter” made it possible to oppose the sinister comedy of the inhabitants of the “forest” with a high tragedy. The miserable "comedian" Neschastlivtsev, Gurmyzhskaya's nephew, turned out to be a proud romantic who looks at his aunt and her neighbors with the eyes of a noble man, shocked by the cynicism and vulgarity of "owls and owls". Those who treat him with contempt, considering him a loser and a renegade, behave like bad actors and public jesters. "Comedians? No, we are artists, noble artists, and you are the comedians, - Neschastsev angrily throws them in the face. - If we love, we love so much; if we don’t love, we quarrel or fight; if we help, so the last penny of labor. And you? All your life you have been talking about the good of society, about love for humanity. What did you do? Who was fed? Who was comforted? You amuse only yourself, you amuse yourself. You are comedians, jesters, not us” (D. 5, yavl. IX).

Ostrovsky confronts the crude farce played out by Gurmyzhsky and Bulanov with the truly tragic perception of the world that Neschastlivtsev represents. In the fifth act, the satirical comedy is transformed: if earlier the tragedian defiantly behaved with the "jesters" in a buffoonish way, emphasizing his disdain for them, maliciously mocking their actions and words, then in the finale of the play the stage, without ceasing to be a space for a comedy action, turns into a tragic theater of one actor, who begins his final monologue as a "noble" artist mistaken for a jester, and ends as a "noble robber" from F. Schiller's drama - in the famous words of Karl Moor. The quotation from Schiller again speaks of the "forest", more precisely, of all the "bloodthirsty inhabitants of the forests." Their hero would like to "go wild against this infernal generation" he encountered in noble estate. The quote, not recognized by Neschastlivtsev's listeners, emphasizes the tragicomic meaning of what is happening. After listening to the monologue, Milonov exclaims: “But excuse me, for these words you can be held accountable!” “Yes, just to the camp. We are all witnesses,” Bulanov, “born to command,” responds like an echo.

Neschastlivtsev is a romantic hero, he has a lot of Don Quixote, "a knight of a sad image." He expresses himself pompously, theatrically, as if not believing in the success of his battle with the "windmills". “Where are you talking to me,” Neschastvetsev turns to Milonov. “I feel and speak like Schiller, and you like a clerk.” Playing comically on Karl Moor's just-uttered words about "bloodthirsty forest dwellers," he reassures Gurmyzhskaya, who refused to give him her hand for a farewell kiss: "I won't bite, don't be afraid." He can only get away from people who, in his opinion, are worse than wolves: “Hand, comrade! (Gives his hand to Schastlivtsev and leaves). Last words and Neschastvittsev’s gesture are symbolic: he gives his hand to his friend, the “comedian”, and proudly turns away from the inhabitants of the “noble forest”, with whom he is not on the way.

The hero of "The Forest" is one of the first "break out", "prodigal children" of his class in Russian literature. Ostrovsky does not idealize Neschastlivtsev, pointing out his worldly shortcomings: he, like Lyubim Tortsov, is not averse to carousing, is prone to cheating, and behaves like an arrogant gentleman. But the main thing is that it is Neschastlivtsev, one of the most beloved heroes of the "Ostrovsky theatre", who expresses high moral ideals, completely forgotten by the jesters and Pharisees from the forest estate. His ideas about the honor and dignity of a person are close to the author himself. As if breaking the "mirror" of comedy, Ostrovsky, through the mouth of a provincial tragedian with a sad surname Neschastlivtsev, wanted to remind people of the danger of lies and vulgarity, which easily replace real life.

One of Ostrovsky's masterpieces, the psychological drama The Dowry (1878), like many of his works, is a "merchant" play. Leading place it is occupied by the playwright's favorite motifs (money, trade, merchant's "courage"), traditional types that are found in almost every of his plays (merchants, a petty official, a marriageable girl and her mother, seeking to "sell" her daughter at a higher price, a provincial actor). The intrigue is also reminiscent of previously used plot moves: several rivals are fighting for Larisa Ogudalova, each of whom has his own “interest” in the girl.

However, unlike other works, such as the comedy "Forest", in which the poor pupil Aksyusha was only a "situational person" and did not take an active part in the events, the heroine of "Dowry" is the central character of the play. Larisa Ogudalova is not only a beautiful “thing” shamelessly put up for auction by her mother Harita Ignatievna and “bought” by wealthy merchants in the city of Bryakhimov. She is a person richly gifted, thinking, deeply feeling, understanding the absurdity of her position, and at the same time, a contradictory nature, trying to chase "two hares": she wants both high love and rich, beautiful life. Romantic idealism and dreams of philistine happiness coexist in it.

The main difference between Larisa and Katerina Kabanova, with whom she is often compared, is freedom of choice. She herself must make her choice: to become the kept woman of the wealthy merchant Knurov, a participant in remote entertainment " brilliant gentleman” Paratov or the wife of a selfish nonentity - an official “with ambitions” Karandyshev. The city of Briakhimov, like Kalinov in The Thunderstorm, is also a city "on the high bank of the Volga", but this is no longer the "dark kingdom" of an evil, tyrannical force. Times have changed - the enlightened "new Russians" in Bryakhimov do not marry homeless women, but buy them. The heroine herself can decide whether or not to participate in the bargain. A whole “parade” of suitors passes in front of her. Unlike the unrequited Katerina, Larisa's opinion is not neglected. In a word, " end times", which Kabanikha was so afraid of, came: the former "order" collapsed. Larisa does not need to beg her fiancé Karandyshev, as Katerina begged Boris (“Take me with you from here!”). Karandyshev himself is ready to take her away from the temptations of the city - to the remote Zabolotye, where he wants to become a justice of the peace. The swampland, which her mother imagines as a place where, apart from the forest, wind and howling wolves, there is nothing, seems to Larisa a village idyll, a sort of swampy "paradise", a "quiet corner". In the dramatic fate of the heroine, the historical and worldly, the tragedy of unfulfilled love and petty-bourgeois farce, subtle psychological drama and pathetic vaudeville intertwined. The leading motive of the play is not the power of the environment and circumstances, as in The Thunderstorm, but the motive of a person's responsibility for his own destiny.

“Dowry” is primarily a drama about love: it was love that became the basis of the plot intrigue and the source of the heroine’s internal contradictions. Love in "Dowry" is a symbolic, polysemantic concept. “I was looking for love and did not find it” - such a bitter conclusion does Larisa make at the end of the play. She means love-sympathy, love-understanding, love-pity. In the life of Larissa true love supplanted by "love" for sale, love is a commodity. Bargaining in the play goes precisely because of her. Only those who have more money can buy such “love”. For the “Europeanized” merchants Knurov and Vozhevatov, Larisa’s love is a luxury item that is bought in order to furnish their lives with “European” chic. The pettiness and prudence of these "children" of Diky is manifested not in selfless abuse because of a penny, but in an ugly love bargain.

Sergei Sergeevich Paratov, the most extravagant and reckless among the merchants depicted in the play, is a parodic figure. This is the "merchant Pechorin", a heartthrob with a penchant for melodramatic effects. He considers his relationship with Larisa Ogudalova a love experiment. “I want to know how soon a woman forgets a passionately loved person: the next day after parting with him, a week or a month later,” Paratov confesses. Love, in his opinion, is suitable only for "household use." Paratov's own "ride to the island of love" with the dowry Larisa was short-lived. She was replaced by noisy sprees with gypsies and marriage to a rich bride, or rather, to her dowry - gold mines. “I, Moky Parmenych, have nothing cherished; I’ll find a profit, so I’ll sell everything, anything” - such is the life principle of Paratov, the new “hero of our time” with the manners of a broken clerk from a fashionable shop.

Larisa's fiancé, the "eccentric" Karandyshev, who became her killer, is a pitiful, comical and at the same time sinister person. It mixes in an absurd combination of "colors" of various stage images. This is a caricature of Othello, a parody of the "noble" robber (at a costume party he "dressed himself as a robber, took an ax in his hands and cast brutal glances at everyone, especially Sergei Sergeyich") and at the same time "a tradesman in the nobility." His ideal is a "carriage with music", a luxurious apartment and dinners. This is an ambitious official who fell into a rampant merchant feast, where he got an undeserved prize - the beautiful Larisa. The love of Karandyshev, the "reserve" groom, is love-vanity, love-protection. For him, Larisa is also a “thing”, which he boasts of, presenting to the whole city. The heroine of the play herself perceives his love as a humiliation and an insult: “How disgusting you are to me, if only you knew!... For me, the most serious insult is your patronage; I didn’t get any other insults from anyone.”

The main feature that emerges in the appearance and behavior of Karandyshev is quite “Chekhovian”: it is vulgarity. It is this feature that gives the figure of the official a gloomy, sinister flavor, despite his mediocrity compared to other participants in the love bargain. Larisa is killed not by the provincial Othello, not by the pitiful comedian who easily changes masks, but by the vulgarity embodied in him, which - alas! - became for the heroine the only alternative to a love paradise.

None psychological trait in Larisa Ogudalova did not reach completion. Her soul is filled with dark, vague impulses and passions that she herself does not fully understand. She is not able to make a choice, accept or curse the world in which she lives. Thinking about suicide, Larisa was never able to rush into the Volga, like Katerina. Unlike tragic heroine"Thunderstorms", she's just a participant in a vulgar drama. But the paradox of the play is that it was the vulgarity that killed Larisa that made her, in the last moments of her life, also a tragic heroine, towering over all the characters. No one loved her the way she would like - she dies with words of forgiveness and love, sending a kiss to people who almost forced her to renounce the most important thing in her life - love: “You need to live, but I need to ... die. I don’t complain about anyone, I don’t take offense at anyone ... you are all good people ... I love you all ... everyone ... love ”(Sends a kiss). Only the “loud gypsy choir”, a symbol of the entire “gypsy” way of life in which she lived, responded to this last, tragic sigh of the heroine.

A.N. Ostrovsky is one of the most popular playwrights in Russia, and it is worth considering some interesting facts from the life of Ostrovsky. He was the founder of the Russian theater school, as well as the teacher of the widely known Stanislavsky and Bulgakov. Ostrovsky's life is as interesting as his work.

1. The playwright was born on April 12, 1823 in Moscow, in a family of clergymen and studied at home. His mother died when the future pioneer of the Russian theater was seven years old and his father married Baroness Emilia von Tessin. The stepmother took an active part in the upbringing and education of the future writer with his brothers.
2. Ostrovsky was a polyglot, and from an early age he knew many foreign languages, including: French, Greek and German. He later learned more Spanish, Italian and English. Throughout his life he made translations of his plays. foreign languages, honing the skill of owning them.

   

3. Ostrovsky entered the university, but was forced to drop out due to conflicts with one of the teachers.

   

4. After leaving school, Alexander got a job at the Moscow Court as a scribe, where litigation between relatives was dealt with.

   

5. In 1845, the future playwright went to work in the office of the commercial court.. This stage of his career gave Ostrovsky many vivid impressions that were useful to him in the future for his works.

   

6. The released comedy “Own people - let's settle!” gave the playwright recognition and popularity. But along with a huge success, this play almost became the last in the writer's work. She angered the bureaucrats she denounced. Alexander Nikolaevich was removed from service and taken under close police surveillance.

   

7. An unenviable fate could also expect the play "Thunderstorm". This work could not have been born at all, if not for the intervention of the Empress, who liked it. Dobrolyubov called this play "A ray of light in a dark kingdom."

   

8. Despite the fact that Ostrovsky was from the upper class, he knew the customs of the common people very well.. This is the merit of his wife, who was a commoner. This union was not approved by the parents of Alexander Nikolaevich, and opposed his marriage with a representative of the lower class. Therefore, he lived for 20 years in an unofficial marriage with his first wife. They had five children, but they all died early. The second marriage was with actress Maria Bakhmetyeva, with whom they had 2 daughters and 4 sons.

   

9. In 1856, he worked in the Sovremennik magazine, and went on an expedition along the upper reaches of the Volga, where he did research. The materials on language and customs collected during the expedition will be very useful to the playwright later on in order to make his works more realistic.

   

10. Many do not realize that the opera P.I. Tchaikovsky's "The Snow Maiden" joint work eminent composer and great playwright. The opera was based on folk tales and legends.

    

11. As the founder of the Russian theater, Ostrovsky played big role in the career of Stanislavsky. We can say that Alexander Nikolayevich was a pioneer of Russian acting. He created a school in which he taught actors expressive and emotional acting without losing authenticity. This approach has gained immense popularity. But there were also clear opponents of this technique. Shchepkin, a well-known actor at that time, openly criticized this method of acting and left the rehearsal of the play The Thunderstorm.

    

12. Even by modern standards, it should be recognized that Ostrovsky was a genius. Polyglot, outstanding playwright, founder of Russian theatrical art. An outstanding, educated and inquisitive person.

    

13. After many years of hard work, the writer's health deteriorated, and on June 14, 1886, Alexander Nikolaevich passed away and was buried in the Kostroma region.

    

14. For 40 years spent in art, he had a strong influence on a whole layer of Russian theater.. For his achievements in art he was awarded the Uvarov Prize. At that time, he was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, led the Artistic Circle, where he helped future talents grow.

    

15. Ostrovsky wrote that the audience comes to watch the acting, not the play..

    

Born March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow, grew up in a merchant environment. His mother died when he was 8 years old. And my father remarried. There were four children in the family.

Ostrovsky was educated at home. His father had a large library where little Alexander for the first time began to read Russian literature. However, the father wanted to give his son a legal education. In 1835, Ostrovsky began his studies at the gymnasium, and then entered the Faculty of Law at Moscow University. Due to his passion for theater and literature, he never completed his studies at the university (1843), after which he worked as a scribe in court at the insistence of his father. Ostrovsky served in the courts until 1851.

Creativity Ostrovsky

In 1849, Ostrovsky's work “Our people - we will settle!” Was written, which brought him literary fame, he was highly appreciated by Nikolai Gogol and Ivan Goncharov. Then, despite the censorship, many of his plays and books were released. For Ostrovsky, writings are a way to truly depict the life of the people. The plays "Thunderstorm", "Dowry", "Forest" are among his most important works. Ostrovsky's play "Dowry", like other psychological dramas, non-standard describes the characters, the inner world, the torment of the characters.

Since 1856, the writer has been participating in the issue of the Sovremennik magazine.

Ostrovsky Theater

In the biography of Alexander Ostrovsky, theatrical work occupies an honorable place.
Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle in 1866, thanks to which many talented people appeared in the theater circle.

Together with the Artistic Circle, he significantly reformed and developed the Russian theater.

Famous people often visited Ostrovsky's house, including I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, Ivan Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, P. M. Sadovsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova and others.

In a brief biography of Ostrovsky, it is worth mentioning the appearance in 1874 of the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers, where Ostrovsky was chairman. With his innovations, he achieved an improvement in the lives of theater actors. Since 1885, Ostrovsky headed the theater school and was the head of the repertoire of theaters in Moscow.

Writer's personal life

It cannot be said that Ostrovsky's personal life was successful. The playwright lived with a woman from a simple family - Agafya, who had no education, but was the first to read his works. She supported him in everything. All their children died at an early age. Ostrovsky lived with her for about twenty years. And in 1869 he married the actress Maria Vasilievna Bakhmeteva, who bore him six children.

last years of life

Until the end of his life, Ostrovsky experienced financial difficulties. Hard work greatly depleted the body, and health increasingly failed the writer. Ostrovsky dreamed of reviving the theater school, which could teach professional acting, but the death of the writer prevented the implementation of long-planned plans.

Ostrovsky died on June 2 (14), 1886 at his estate. The writer was buried next to his father, in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• Ostrovsky knew Greek, German and French from childhood, and in more late age I also learned English, Spanish and Italian. All his life he translated plays into different languages, thus improving his skills and knowledge.
• The creative path of the writer covers 40 years of successful work on literary and dramatic works. His work influenced the whole era of theater in Russia. For his work, the writer was awarded the Uvarov Prize in 1863.
• Ostrovsky is the founder of modern theatrical art, whose followers were such prominent personalities as Konstantin Stanislavsky and Mikhail Bulgakov.
• see all

Russian literature XIX century

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky

Biography

Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolaevich - famous dramatic writer.

Born March 31, 1823 in Moscow, where his father served in civil chamber and then worked as a private lawyer. Ostrovsky lost his mother in childhood and did not receive any systematic education. All his childhood and part of his youth were spent in the very center of Zamoskvorechye, which at that time, according to the conditions of his life, was a completely special world. This world populated his imagination with those ideas and types that he later reproduced in his comedies. Thanks to his father's large library, Ostrovsky got acquainted early with Russian literature and felt an inclination towards writing; but his father certainly wanted to make a lawyer out of him. After graduating from the gymnasium course, Ostrovsky entered the law faculty of Moscow University. He failed to complete the course due to some kind of collision with one of the professors. At the request of his father, he entered the service of a scribe, first in a conscientious, then in a commercial court. This determined the nature of his first literary experiments; in court, he continued to observe the peculiar Zamoskvoretsky types familiar to him from childhood, asking for literary processing. By 1846, he had already written many scenes from merchant life, and a comedy was conceived: “Insolvent debtor” (later - “Own people - let's settle”). A small excerpt from this comedy was published in Љ 7 of the Moscow City Listk, 1847; under the passage are the letters: "A. ABOUT." and "D. G.”, that is, A. Ostrovsky and Dmitry Gorev. The latter was a provincial actor ( real name- Tarasenkov), the author of two or three plays already played on the stage, who accidentally met Ostrovsky and offered him his cooperation. It did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, as it gave his ill-wishers a reason to accuse him of appropriating someone else's literary work. In Љ 60 and 61 of the same newspaper there appeared, without a signature, another, already completely independent work Ostrovsky - “Pictures of Moscow life. A picture of family happiness. These scenes were reprinted, in a corrected form and with the name of the author, under the title: "Family Picture", in Sovremennik, 1856, £4. family picture"Ostrovsky himself considered his first printed work and it was from her that he began his literary activity. He recognized February 14, 1847 as the most memorable and dearest day of his life: on this day he visited S. P. Shevyrev and, in the presence of A. S. Khomyakov, professors, writers, employees of the Moscow City List, read this play, published a month later. Shevyrev and Khomyakov, embracing the young writer, welcomed his dramatic talent. “From that day on,” says Ostrovsky, “I began to consider myself a Russian writer and already, without doubts and hesitations, believed in my vocation.” He also tried his hand in the narrative kind, in feuilleton stories from life outside Moscow. In the same "Moscow City List" (Љ 119 - 121) one of these stories is printed: "Ivan Erofeich", with the general title: "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident"; two other stories in the same series: "The Tale of How the Quarter Warden Started to Dance, or Only One Step from the Great to the Funny" and "Two Biographies" remained unpublished, and the last one was not even finished. By the end of 1849, a comedy was already written under the title: "Bankrupt". Ostrovsky read it to his university friend A. F. Pisemsky; At the same time, he met famous artist P. M. Sadovsky, who saw a literary revelation in his comedy and began to read it in various Moscow circles, among other things - with Countess E. P. Rostopchina, who usually gathered young writers who were just starting their literary career then (B. N. Almazov, N. V. Berg, L. A. Mei, T. I. Filippov, N. I. Shapovalov, E. N. Edelson). All of them were in close, friendly relations with Ostrovsky since his student days, and all accepted Pogodin's offer to work in the updated Moskvityanin, making up the so-called "young edition" of this magazine. Soon a prominent position in this circle was occupied by Apollon Grigoriev, who acted as a herald of originality in literature and became an ardent defender and praiser of Ostrovsky as a representative of this originality. Ostrovsky's comedy, under the changed title: "Our people - we will settle", after long troubles with censorship, reaching the highest authorities, was published in the 2nd March book of "Moskvityanin" 1850, but was not allowed to be presented; censorship did not even allow to talk about this play in the press. She appeared on the stage only in 1861, with the ending altered against the printed one. Following this first comedy by Ostrovsky, his other plays began to appear annually in the Moskvityanin and other magazines: in 1850 - "The Morning of a Young Man", in 1851 - "An Unexpected Case", in 1852 - "The Poor Bride ”, in 1853 - “Don’t get into your sleigh” (the first of Ostrovsky’s plays that hit the stage of the Moscow Maly Theater on January 14, 1853), in 1854 - “Poverty is not a vice”, in 1855 - "Do not live as you want", in 1856 - "A hangover in someone else's feast." In all these plays, Ostrovsky portrayed such aspects of Russian life that before him had hardly been touched upon by literature at all and were not at all reproduced on the stage. A deep knowledge of the life of the depicted environment, the vivid vitality and truth of the image, a peculiar, lively and colorful language that clearly reflects in itself that real Russian speech of the “Moscow prosvirens”, which Pushkin advised Russian writers to learn - all this artistic realism with all the simplicity and sincerity, to which even Gogol did not rise, was met in our criticism by some with stormy enthusiasm, by others with bewilderment, denial and ridicule. While A. Grigoriev, proclaiming himself the "prophet of Ostrovsky", tirelessly repeated that in the works of the young playwright, the "new word" of our literature, namely, "nationality", found expression in the works of the young playwright, critics of the progressive direction reproached Ostrovsky for gravitating towards pre-Petrine antiquity, to “Slavophilism” of the Pogostinian persuasion, they even saw in his comedies the idealization of tyranny, they called him “Gostinodvorsky Kotzebue”. Chernyshevsky reacted sharply negatively to the play "Poverty is not a vice", seeing in it some kind of sentimental sweetness in the depiction of hopeless, allegedly "patriarchal" life; other critics were indignant at Ostrovsky for elevating some kind of chuyki and boots with bottles to the level of "heroes". Free from aesthetic and political bias, the theatrical public irrevocably decided the case in favor of Ostrovsky. The most talented Moscow actors and actresses - Sadovsky, S. Vasiliev, Stepanov, Nikulina-Kositskaya, Borozdina and others - until then forced to perform, with a few exceptions, either in vulgar vaudeville, or in stilted melodramas converted from French, written, moreover however, in barbaric language, they immediately felt in Ostrovsky's plays the breath of a living, close and dear to them Russian life and gave all their strength to its truthful depiction on stage. And the theatrical audience saw in the performance of these artists a truly “new word” in stage art - simplicity and naturalness, they saw people living on the stage without any pretense. With his works, Ostrovsky created a school of real Russian dramatic art, simple and real, as alien to pretentiousness and affectation as all the great works of our literature are alien to it. This merit of his was first of all understood and appreciated in the theatrical environment, the most free from preconceived theories. When in 1856, according to the idea of ​​Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in industrial and domestic terms, Ostrovsky took upon himself the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to the Lower. A short report on this trip appeared in the "Naval Collection" in 1859, the full one remained in the author's papers and was subsequently (1890) processed by S. V. Maksimov, but still remains unpublished. Several months spent in close proximity to the local population gave Ostrovsky a lot of vivid impressions, expanded and deepened the knowledge of Russian life in its artistic expression - in a well-aimed word, song, fairy tale, historical legend, in the customs and customs of antiquity that were still preserved in the backwoods. All this is reflected in later works Ostrovsky and further strengthened them national importance. Not limited to the life of the Zamoskvoretsky merchants, Ostrovsky introduces the world of large and small officials, and then the landlords, into the circle of actors. In 1857, “Profitable Place” and “Festive Sleep Before Dinner” were written (the first part of the “trilogy” about Balzaminov; two further parts - “Your own dogs bite, don’t pester someone else” and “What you go for, you will find” - appeared in 1861), in 1858 - “They didn’t agree on the characters” (originally written in the form of a story), in 1859 - “The Pupil”. In the same year, two volumes of Ostrovsky's works appeared, in the edition of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko. This edition was the reason for the brilliant assessment that Dobrolyubov gave to Ostrovsky and which secured his fame as a depicter of the "dark kingdom". Reading now, after the expiration of half a century, Dobrolyubov's articles, we cannot fail to see their journalistic nature. Ostrovsky himself was by nature not a satirist at all, not even a humorist; with truly epic objectivity, caring only about the truth and vitality of the image, he "calmly matured at the right and the guilty, knowing neither pity nor anger" and not at all hiding his love for the simple "Russian girl", in whom, even among the ugly manifestations of everyday life, there is always was able to find some attractive features. Ostrovsky himself was such a "Russian", and everything Russian found a sympathetic echo in his heart. In his own words, he cared first of all about showing a Russian person on stage: “let him see himself and rejoice. Correctors will be found even without us. In order to have the right to correct the people, you must show them that you know the good behind them.” Dobrolyubov, however, did not think of imposing certain tendencies on Ostrovsky, but simply used his plays as a truthful depiction of Russian life, for his own, completely independent conclusions. In 1860, The Thunderstorm appeared in print, prompting Dobrolyubov's second remarkable article ("A Ray of Light in a Dark Realm"). This play reflected the impressions of a trip to the Volga and, in particular, a visit by the author to Torzhok. An even more vivid reflection of the Volga impressions was the dramatic chronicle printed in Љ 1 of Sovremennik in 1862: Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk. In this play, Ostrovsky first took up processing historical theme prompted to him both by Nizhny Novgorod legends and by a careful study of our history of the 17th century. A sensitive artist managed to notice in dead monuments living features folk life and to perfectly master the language of the era under study, in which he later, for fun, wrote entire letters. "Minin", which received the approval of the sovereign, was, however, banned by dramatic censorship and could appear on stage only 4 years later. On the stage, the play was not successful due to its length and not always successful lyricism, but criticism could not fail to notice the high dignity of individual scenes and figures. In 1863, Ostrovsky published a drama from folk life: “Sin and trouble does not live on anyone” and then returned to the pictures of Zamoskvorechye in comedies: “Hard Days” (1863) and “Jokers” (1864). At the same time, he was busy processing a large play in verse, from the life of the 17th century, begun during a trip to the Volga. She appeared in Љ 1 of Sovremennik, 1865, under the title: Voyevoda, or Dream on the Volga. This excellent poetic fantasy, something like a dramatized epic, contains a number of vivid household paintings long past, through the haze of which in many places one feels closeness to everyday life, and until now has not yet completely receded into the past. The Volga impressions were also inspired by the comedy “In a busy place”, published in Љ 9 of Sovremennik, 1865. From the middle of the 60s, Ostrovsky diligently took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into a lively correspondence with Kostomarov, who at that time was studying the same era. The result of this work were two dramatic chronicles published in 1867: "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" and "Tushino". In Љ 1 of Vestnik Evropy in 1868, another historical drama appeared, from the time of Ivan the Terrible, Vasilisa Melentiev, written in collaboration with the theater director Gedeonov. Since that time, a number of Ostrovsky's plays began, written, in his words, in a "new manner." Their subject is the image of no longer a merchant and petty-bourgeois, but a noble life: “Each wise man has enough simplicity”, 1868; "Mad Money", 1870; "Forest", 1871. Interspersed with them are household comedies"Old manner": "Hot heart" (1869), "Not all the cat Shrovetide" (1871), "There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn" (1872). In 1873, two plays were written that occupy a special position among the works of Ostrovsky: “Comedian XVII century "(To the 200th anniversary of the Russian theater) and a dramatic fairy tale in verse" The Snow Maiden ", one of the most remarkable creations of Russian poetry. In his further works of the 70s and 80s, Ostrovsky turns to the life of various strata of society - both noble, bureaucratic, and merchant, and in the latter he notes the changes in views and conditions caused by the requirements of the new Russian life. This period of Ostrovsky's activity includes: "Late Love" and "Labor Bread" (1874), "Wolves and Sheep" (1875), "Rich Brides" (1876), "Truth is good, but happiness is better" (1877), "The Last Victim" (1878), "Dowry" and "Kind Master" (1879), "The Heart is Not a Stone" (1880), "Slaves" (1881), "Talents and Admirers" (1882), "Handsome Man" (1883), "Guilty Without Guilt" (1884) and, finally, the last play, weak in design and execution: "Not of this world" (1885). In addition, several plays were written by Ostrovsky in collaboration with other people: with N. Ya. Solovyov - “The Marriage of Belugin” (1878), “The Savage Woman” (1880) and “It Shines But Does Not Warm” (1881); with P. M. Nevezhin - "Whim" (1881). Ostrovsky also owns a number of translations of foreign plays: Shakespeare's Pacification of the Wayward (1865), Italo Franchi's The Great Banker (1871), Teobaldo Ciconi's Lost Sheep (1872), Goldoni's Coffee House (1872), The Criminal's Family Giacometti (1872), a remake of The Slavery of Husbands from the French and, finally, a translation of 10 interludes by Cervantes, published separately in 1886. He wrote only 49 original plays. All these plays provide a gallery of the most diverse Russian types, remarkable in their vitality and truthfulness, with all the features of their habits, language and character. In regard to the dramatic technique proper and composition, Ostrovsky's plays are often weak: the artist, who is deeply truthful by nature, was himself aware of his impotence in inventing the plot, in arranging the plot and denouement; he even said that “the playwright should not invent what happened; his business is to write how it happened or could happen; here is all his work; when paying attention in this direction, living people will appear and speak themselves. Discussing his plays from this point of view, Ostrovsky confessed that his most difficult task was "fiction", because any lie was disgusting to him; but it is impossible for a dramatic writer to do without this conditional lie. That “new word” of Ostrovsky, for which Apollon Grigoriev so ardently advocated, in its essence lies not so much in “people”, but in truthfulness, in the artist’s direct attitude to the life around him with the aim of quite realistically reproducing it on stage. In this direction, Ostrovsky took a further step forward in comparison with Griboedov and Gogol and for a long time established on our stage that "natural school" that, at the beginning of his activity, already dominated other departments of our literature. Talented playwright, supported by no less talented artists, caused competition among their peers who went the same way: Pisemsky, A. Potekhin and other writers who were less noticeable, but at one time enjoyed well-deserved success, were playwrights of a homogeneous direction. Dedicated to the theater and its interests with all his heart, Ostrovsky devoted a lot of time and labor to practical concerns about the development and improvement of dramatic art and about improving the financial situation of dramatic authors. He dreamed of being able to transform artistic taste artists and the public and to create a theater school equally useful both for the aesthetic education of society and for the training of worthy stage figures. Amidst all sorts of grief and disappointment, he remained true to this cherished dream until the end of his life, the realization of which was partly realized by the Artistic Circle he created in 1866 in Moscow, which later gave the Moscow stage many talented figures. At the same time, Ostrovsky took care of alleviating the financial situation of Russian playwrights: through his work the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed (1874), of which he remained the permanent chairman until his death. In general, by the beginning of the 80s, Ostrovsky firmly took the place of the leader and teacher of Russian drama and stage. Working hard in the commission established in 1881 under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters "to review the legal provisions in all parts of the theater management", he achieved many changes that significantly improved the position of the artists and made it possible to more appropriately stage theatrical education. In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school. His health, already shaky by this time, did not correspond to the broad plans of activity that he set for himself. Reinforced work quickly exhausted the body; On June 2, 1886, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate, Shchelykovo, without having had time to realize his transformational assumptions.

Ostrovsky's writings have been published many times; the last and more complete edition - the association "Enlightenment" (St. Petersburg, 1896 - 97, in 10 volumes, edited by M. I. Pisarev and with a biographical sketch by I. Nosov). Separately published "Dramatic translations" (M., 1872), "Intermedia Cervantes" (St. Petersburg, 1886) and "Dramatic works of A. Ostrovsky and N. Solovyov" (St. Petersburg, 1881). For the biography of Ostrovsky, the most important work is the book by the French scientist J. Patouillet “O. et son theater de moeurs russes" (Paris, 1912), where all the literature about Ostrovsky is indicated. See the memoirs of S. V. Maksimov in Russkaya Mysl in 1897 and Kropachev in Russian Review in 1897; I. Ivanov "A. N. Ostrovsky, his life and literary activity"(St. Petersburg, 1900). The best critical articles about Ostrovsky were written by Apollon Grigoriev (in The Moskvityanin and Vremya), Edelson (The Library for Reading, 1864), Dobrolyubov (The Dark Kingdom and The Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom) and Boborykin (The Word ", 1878). - Wed. also books by A. I. Nezelenov “Ostrovsky in his works” (St. Petersburg, 1888), and Or. F. Miller "Russian writers after Gogol" (St. Petersburg, 1887).

Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1823-1886) - Russian drama writer, translator. Born March 31, 1823 in Moscow in the family of a civil servant. His father worked in the civil chamber, and after some time became a private lawyer. Mother died early, so Ostrovsky did not receive home education. The writer's childhood and youth were spent in Zamoskvorechye.

He studied at the gymnasium, and at the end he received a law degree at Moscow University, but did not finish his studies due to a conflict with some professor. He served as a scribe in a conscientious court, and then moved to a commercial one. The comedy "Family Picture" (1856) in the journal "Contemporary" was the first publication of the writer. He also tried writing novels and feuilletons. The comedy “Our people - let's settle” (1850) is published in the “Moskvityanin”, but censorship forbids its presentation and writing criticism about it in the press, and it became possible to make a stage production only in 1861 with a changed ending.

In 1856, Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich ordered the writers to study and describe the production and life of various Russian localities. Ostrovsky studied the Volga and published a trip report in the Naval Collection in 1859.

His impressions of the trip were expressed in the article "Thunderstorm" (1860) and the dramatic chronicle "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1862).

Ostrovsky also translated into Russian plays by foreign writers: Shakespeare's Pacification of the Wayward (1865), Italo Franchi's The Great Banker (1871), Goldoni's Coffee House (1872), Teobaldo Ciconi's Lost Sheep (1872) and The Family criminal" Giacometti (1872). Remade from French "Slavery of husbands". The translated 10 interludes by Cervantes were published in a separate book in 1886.

Ostrovsky wrote 49 plays, created the Artistic Circle in Moscow in 1866, and in 1874 the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers, which he headed for the rest of his life. In 1881, he created a commission under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters, which considered bills on theatrical activities. In 1885, he worked as the head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and headed the theater school. Active labor activity crippled the health of the writer.

Thunderstorm Ostrovsky