Wonderful and fair words were said about the play “Thunderstorm” in his letter to A.N. Ostrovsky V.P. Botkin: “You have never revealed your poetic powers as in this play ... "You took a plot that is full of poetry through and through, a plot that is impossible for someone who does not possess poetic creativity ... Katerina's love belongs to the same phenomena of a moral nature, to which world cataclysms belong in physical nature .. .".
So, Katerina is in love with Boris. After reading this line, one can only sigh: "Well, all ages are submissive to love ...", or you can think deeply, because love for Boris became a real tragedy for the heroine of "Thunderstorm", intensifying the drama that she experienced, being in the "dark realm".
Katerina is a thin, dreamy, ethical girl. This is a man of high morals, simply stuffy, artless in relations with people. She does not know how to lie, pretend, hide her feelings. She feels deeply, therefore, once she sees Boris and falls in love with him, she can no longer do anything with herself. “Do I want to think about him? she argues. I don’t think about anything, but he just stands before my eyes. For married Katerina, faithful to her husband and pious, this love becomes a real moral torture. “It’s as if I’m standing over an abyss and someone is pushing me there, but there’s nothing for me to hold on to,” she describes her condition.
Being kind, Katerina pities her husband, whom she never loved and does not love, with whom she can never be happy. He is a weak, weak-willed person who allows himself to be humiliated in front of his wife.
Boris and Katerina cannot see each other, because the married ladies are kept in Kalinovo under seven locks. Tikhon's sister, Varvara, for whom there have long been no moral barriers, is taken to solve the problem. “And I was not a liar,” she says about herself, “but I learned when it became necessary.” It is unlikely that Katerina would have been able to master this science.
At first resisting, Katerina nevertheless accepts Varvara's services. She can no longer be in a suffocating atmosphere of hypocrisy, lack of freedom, tyranny, and she cannot overcome her love. The heroine commits a great sin - she decides to meet with Boris. Fate favors this: Kabanikha sends his son out of the house. Katerina experiences the current situation painfully, but she cannot overcome it. Several meetings with Boris illuminate her life with rays of happiness, but not for long.
Boris is dependent on his uncle, the merchant Diky. He is an orphan, and his grandmother in her will ordered that Boris receive a share of the inheritance only after coming of age and only on condition of a respectful attitude towards his uncle, which is impossible in principle. Not because Boris is not respectful of his elders, but because it is impossible to please a Wild, domineering, rude, shameless and cunning person. Nevertheless, Boris continues to live in his uncle's house, patiently enduring all insults. There is no strength in his character that would help him overcome circumstances.
Once in Kalinov, Boris, like Katerina, feels uncomfortable. “It hurts hard for me here, without a habit! he says. “Everyone looks at me somehow wildly, as if I’m superfluous here, as if I’m disturbing them.” Love becomes an unexpected misfortune for him. “Hunted, downtrodden,” he exclaims, “and then he foolishly decided to fall in love.”
Boris cannot overcome his feelings. “If I have fallen in love ...,” he says, revealing his secret to Kud-ryash, and does not finish the phrase, because everything is clear anyway. However, he cannot take the first step either. Barbara turns out to be much more agile than him. Boris accepts her service, but he does not know how to answer for what he has done. Punished by his uncle, he obediently goes to Siberia. At Katerina's request to take her with him, Boris refuses - he is wary of his uncle. Boris actually betrays Katerina by leaving her in this position.
The heroine is stronger than Boris. It is she, who does not know how to lie, who speaks publicly about her love. She challenges the "dark kingdom", throwing herself into the abyss. Boris, of course, sympathizes with Katerina, but the only thing he can do to help her is to wish her death.
Ostrovsky showed Katerina as a woman who is "clogged down by the environment", but at the same time he endowed her with the positive qualities of a strong nature, capable of resisting despotism to the end. About Boris, the critic N. Dobrolyubov said that he was the same Tikhon, only "educated." "Education took away from him the strength to do dirty tricks ... but it did not give him the strength to resist the dirty tricks that others do ... ".
The chosen natures have their own fate. Only it is not outside of them: they carry it in their own heart. When she comes on her first date with Boris, from the first words she showers him with reproaches for ruining her.
“Why did you come, my destroyer?” she says. “After all, I’m married, because my husband and I live to the grave, to the grave. “After all, what am I preparing for myself? Where is my place, you know?
Calm down, sit down.
Well, how did you not ruin me, if I, leaving the house at night, go to you.
It was your will.
I have no will. If I had my own will, I would not go to you. ( He raises his eyes and looks at Boris. A little silence.) Your will is now over me, can't you see! ( Throws itself on his neck.)
E! Why feel sorry for me, no one is to blame - she herself went for it. Don't be sorry, destroy me, let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing. If I am not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment? They say it's even easier when you endure for some sin here on earth.
Again, the whole character is visible. Again Russian motives. With a kind of voluptuousness, with a kind of daring, she already thinks about the moment when everyone learns about her fall and dreams of the sweetness of being executed in public for her deed. What kind of despotism after that could have an influence on such a nature. If she were surrounded by the kindest people, she, having committed her sin, would have been executed in the same way and yearned. Perhaps there would have been no suicide, but her life would still have been shattered. Such common women, as the author gives us, make no concessions either to the public court, or to the demands of youth, or even to the all-healing time. If she were a developed woman, she would find the justification for her love both in the thirst of a person to taste happiness on earth, and in her bitter share, and, finally, in the legitimacy in which she herself would clothe her love. All these higher considerations are completely alien to Katerina. What in ordinary language is called a misdemeanor, in her concept is a grave, mortal sin, worthy of all the torments of hell.
<…>How, they say, could Katerina fall in love with such a vulgar gentleman as Boris! Among so many convex and bright faces in the drama, this face really catches the eye with its impersonality and insignificance. Not a single property that makes up the character is indicated in it directly and positively by the author. The flabbiness and passivity of this person appear in him as if by themselves, without the knowledge of the author. All this is true, but what of it? How could Katerina now find out what kind of person this was? She fell in love with him without saying a single word to him; on the first date she came to him as to a stranger; before she saw him, her heart already demanded love. She liked him because he suffers grief just as much as she does. Finally, she just fell in love with his face, and she fell in love with Boris. You never know who and for what women love, the most developed, not like Katerina in this respect, a simple and direct woman.
Dostoevsky M.M. ""Storm". Drama in five acts by A.N. Ostrovsky"
Read also other topics of analysis of the drama "Thunderstorm":
Dobrolyubov N.A. "A Ray of Light in a Dark Realm"
In his article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”, A. N. Dobrolyubov wrote: “Thunderstorm is, without a doubt, Ostrovsky’s most decisive work ... There is even something refreshing and encouraging in Thunderstorm” .
"Thunderstorm" was written by Ostrovsky after his travels along the Volga as part of a literary expedition. This trip helped the playwright more accurately and vividly depict the life, customs, general atmosphere of the provincial towns of the 19th century, and recreate typical and vivid characters.
One of the leading lines in the drama is the relationship between Katerina and Boris, since these relationships play a big role in the tragedy played out in the play.
Katerina is a proud, strong-willed, but impressionable and dreamy woman. She was brought up in an atmosphere of love and joy, lived among pious and nature-loving people, was free to manage her life as she wanted, so she often and happily recalls her home now. Now she is married to a weak, weak-willed, who is in complete submission to her mother Tikhon. Spiritual, poetic, bright and romantic nature, she ended up in a house where harsh laws, lies, hypocrisy, hypocrisy reign, where the tyrant Ka-banikha rules, which no longer gives life to anyone. Freedom-loving and open Katerina constantly feels the heavy moral oppression of her mother-in-law, she is forced to patiently endure her unfair endless reproaches. This house is a prison for her, everything here is done “out of bondage”. There is no soul mate next to Katerina, a person who would be able to understand and support her.
But then Boris appears in the city, who differs from other residents of Kalinov in appearance, manners, European clothes, and education. Not knowing his inner world, Katerina creates in her soul an image that is unlike the real Boris in its qualities, but capable of evoking her deep and selfless love.
Who is Boris really, what is he like? From childhood, Boris was brought up with his sister in Moscow. Their parents loved them and gave them an excellent education, but then they died of cholera: "My sister and I were left orphans." And then Boris's grandmother also died, leaving the entire inheritance to her uncle - a petty tyrant and a rude man, but the richest man in the city - Diky, punishing him to pay the necessary share to his nephews if they were respectful to him. However, the Wild man is not such a person as to part with his money. And Boris patiently endures his uncle's bullying, being sure in advance that neither he nor his sister will receive a penny from Diky.
Having fallen in love with Katerina, Boris does not think about the future, about the misfortune that he can bring to a married woman, which is obvious to others. Even the dim-witted but freedom-loving Kudryash warns him with alarm: “Oh, Boris Grigoryevich, quit giving up!.. It means you want to ruin her completely... But what kind of people are here! You know. They'll eat it, pound it into the coffin... Just look - don't make trouble for yourself, and don't get her into trouble either! Suppose, even though her husband is a fool, but her mother-in-law is painfully fierce. Boris does not think about Katerina, goes on about his feelings, and this is reflected in his spinelessness, lack of life guidelines and clear moral principles.
For the sincere and deeply religious Katerina, love for Boris is a sin, and not only before her lawful husband, but also before God. This is the reason for her internal conflict, her conscience is restless. However, in Boris, Katerina sees a strong personality who can give her support and protection, free her from the crampedness and stuffiness of the Kabanikha house. Katerina’s love is strong, deep, selfless, the girl is ready to sacrifice even her own moral principles as a sacrifice to this feeling: “If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human court?”
And yet, making a free choice, Katerina is very hard going through her betrayal. For her, this is a sin against conscience, but she is ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of her beloved, knowing that any sins are atoned for by suffering. It is not people's rumor that worries her, but the purity of her own soul, and we see that Katerina does not change herself until the very tragic end. material from the site
What about Boris? When, at the beginning of the first date, Katerina drives him away, exclaiming in despair: “Well, how did you not ruin me, if I, leaving the house, go to you at night,” Boris cowardly justifies himself: “Your will was for that” . Such is all his love - weak, indecisive, sluggish, capable of taking, but not giving. After all, by and large, he has nothing to lose: he is a new person in the city, as he arrived, he will leave, "a free Cossack." Upon learning that their connection has been revealed, he leaves at the behest of his uncle, leaving his beloved woman alone, despite the fact that he could save her, taking her with him, despite a bad feeling. He is only enough to lament: "Only one thing you need to ask God for her to die as soon as possible, so that she does not suffer for a long time." Thus, love did not exalt and inspire him, but only turned out to be a new, heavy burden that aggravated his situation in life. People like Boris are not hardened by life's trials, but are more strongly bent to the ground.
Katerina, even with her death, protested against the darkness, savagery, narrow-mindedness of the patriarchal way of life, against the stuffy atmosphere of Kalinov, and in this protest the author’s faith in the spiritual strength of the Russian person and the expectation of future changes in Russian social life were revealed.
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On this page, material on the topics:
- why Katerina chose Boris
- love story of katerina and boris
- what's in the coffin what's on earth quote Katerina in a thunderstorm
- why did Boris patiently endure the bullying of the wild
- Catherine and Boris relationship
Katerina and Boris in the play "Thunderstorm" are the characters at the level of which the love conflict of the work is realized. The feelings of young people were initially doomed, the love of Katerina and Boris was tragic: Katerina was married, cheating on her husband and escaping with another person was below her moral principles. The author does not talk about the first meeting of Katerina and Boris, the reader learns about it from the words of Boris: “And then I foolishly decided to fall in love. Yes, to whom? Into a woman with whom you will never even be able to talk! She goes with her husband, well, and the mother-in-law with them! Well, am I not a fool? Look around the corner and go home." It was not love, but rather falling in love at first sight. For Katya, feelings meant much more. In such a hobby, the girl saw the very real and sincere love that her heart dreamed of. Therefore, the girl, whose upbringing did not allow her husband to cheat, desperately tried to calm her heart. Katya's decision to go out to Boris's garden was fatal. After ten nights of secret rendezvous, Katerina confessed to her husband and mother-in-law that she felt for Boris. The last meeting between Katerina and Boris happened after Katya's conversation with Tikhon and Kabanikha.
Each of the characters is looking for a meeting with each other, each has a feeling that they have to say something to each other. But both are silent. And there's really nothing to talk about. I must say that before the meeting, Katya was in a kind of borderline state. Fragments of thoughts and phrases, as if Katya wants to confess something important. The idea of a terrible lynching seemed to be in the air, not yet taking clear forms, but after meeting with Boris, the decision was finally made. What happened during their conversation?
Katya still hopes that she can be happy with this person, she begins to make excuses for her actions, to apologize, to ask for forgiveness. Her question about whether he has forgotten her makes readers understand that there have been some changes in Katya's feelings. Boris answers all the remarks of the girl in a detached way, showing that he does not need anything. Katya finds out that Boris is going to Siberia. And now, the last thing the girl decides on: “will you take me with you?”
The remark once again proves Katya's strength of character, steadfastness and faith in this love. The girl desperately hopes for a positive answer. In fact, dozens of other, more important ones were focused on this issue. “Do you love me?”, “What do our feelings mean to you?”, “Am I wrong about you?” - and many others. Katya talks about herself, and Boris, at such an important moment for the girl, recalls her uncle: “I just asked my uncle for a minute, I wanted to at least say goodbye to the place where we met.”
Notice, say goodbye to the place, and not to Katya. At this moment, Katerina receives answers to all her unasked questions, finally deciding to commit suicide. It is after these words that such a sharp and painful insight comes, which the girl was so afraid of and at the same time was waiting for.
Despite this, the girl thinks about saying something important. Really important. But Boris hurries Katya, he does not have much time. The girl is silent about the fact that she has already decided to part with her life - this is a sacrifice not for Boris, but for herself. Death is not due to unhappy love (that would make everything vulgar), but because of the inability to live honestly.
There is one remarkable detail in Katerina's farewell to Boris: Boris begins to guess what Katya has in mind, wants to come closer, hug the girl. But Katherine pulls away. No, this is not an insult, not pride. Katya asks Boris to give alms to everyone who asks her to pray for her sinful soul. The girl finally releases Boris. And Boris leaves, not understanding the scale and significance of this conversation for Katya.
Homework for the lesson
1. Collect citation material to characterize Katerina.
2. Read steps II and III. Mark phrases in Katerina's monologues that testify to the poetic nature of her nature.
3. What is Katerina's speech?
4. How is life in your parents' house different from life in your husband's house?
5. What is the inevitability of Katerina's conflict with the world of the "dark kingdom", with the world of Kabanova and Dikoy?
6. Why next to Katerina Varvara?
7. Does Katerina Tikhon love?
8. Happiness or misfortune on the life path of Katerina Boris?
9. Can Katerina's suicide be considered a protest against the "dark kingdom"? Maybe the protest is in love with Boris?
Exercise
Using the material prepared at home, characterize Katerina. What traits of her character appear in the very first remarks?
Answer
D.I, yavl. V, p.232: Inability to be hypocritical, lie, directness. The conflict is outlined right away: Kabanikha does not tolerate self-esteem, disobedience in people, Katerina does not know how to adapt and submit. In Katerina there is - along with spiritual softness, trembling, songfulness - and firmness hated by Kabanikh, strong-willed determination, which can be heard in her story about sailing on a boat, and in her individual actions, and in her patronymic Petrovna, derived from Peter - " stone". D.II, yavl. II, pp. 242–243, 244.
Therefore, Katerina cannot be brought to her knees, and this greatly complicates the conflict confrontation between the two women. A situation arises when, according to the proverb, the scythe found a stone.
Question
How else does Katerina differ from the inhabitants of the city of Kalinov? Find places in the text where the poetic nature of Katerina is emphasized.
Answer
Katerina is a poetic nature. Unlike the rude Kalinovites, she feels the beauty of nature and loves it. In the morning I got up early ... Oh, yes, I lived with my mother, like a flower bloomed ...
“I used to get up early; if in the summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring water with me and that’s it, water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers,” she says about her childhood. (d.I, yavl. VII, p. 236)
Her soul is constantly drawn to beauty. Her dreams were filled with wonderful, fabulous visions. She often dreamed that she was flying like a bird. She talks about her desire to fly several times. (d.I, yavl. VII, p. 235). With these repetitions, the playwright emphasizes the romantic sublimity of Katerina's soul, her freedom-loving aspirations. Married early, she tries to get along with her mother-in-law, to love her husband, but no one needs sincere feelings in the Kabanovs' house.
Catherine is religious. With her impressionability, the religious feelings instilled in her in childhood firmly took possession of her soul.
“Until death, I loved to go to church! It’s like, it happened, I’ll go into paradise, and I don’t see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service ends,” she recalls. (d.I, yavl. VII, p. 236)
Question
How would you characterize the character's speech?
Answer
Katerina's speech reflects all the richness of her inner world: the strength of feelings, human dignity, moral purity, truthfulness of nature. The strength of feelings, the depth and sincerity of Katerina's experiences are also expressed in the syntactic structure of her speech: rhetorical questions, exclamations, unfinished sentences. And in especially tense moments, her speech takes on the features of a Russian folk song, becomes smooth, rhythmic, melodious. In her speech, there are vernacular, words of a church-religious nature (lives, angels, golden temples, images), expressive means of folk-poetic language ("Wild winds, you transfer my sadness and longing to him"). Speech is rich in intonations - joyful, sad, enthusiastic, sad, anxious. The intonations express Katerina's attitude towards others.
Question
Where did these traits come from in the heroine? Tell us how Katerina lived before marriage? How is life in your parents' house different from life in your husband's house?
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In childhood “It’s like a bird in the wild”, “mother didn’t have a soul”, “she didn’t force me to work.” Katerina's occupations: she looked after flowers, went to church, listened to wanderers and praying women, embroidered on velvet with gold, walked in the garden Katerina's features: love of freedom (the image of a bird): independence; self-esteem; dreaminess and poetry (a story about visiting a church, about dreams); religiosity; decisiveness (a story about an act with a boat) For Katerina, the main thing is to live according to your soul. |
In the Kabanov family “I have withered completely”, “yes, everything here seems to be from bondage.” The atmosphere at home is fear. “You will not be afraid, and even more so me. What kind of order will this be in the house? The principles of the house of Kabanovs: complete submission; renunciation of one's will; humiliation by reproaches and suspicions; lack of spiritual principles; religious hypocrisy For Kabanikh, the main thing is to subdue. Don't let me live my way |
Answer
S.235 d.I, yavl. VII ("Was I like that!")
Conclusion
Outwardly, the living conditions in Kalinovo are no different from the environment of Katerina's childhood. The same prayers, the same rituals, the same activities, but "here," the heroine notes, "everything is as if from bondage." And captivity is incompatible with her freedom-loving soul.
Question
What is Katerina's protest against the "dark kingdom"? Why can't we call her either "victim" or "mistress"?
Answer
Katerina differs in character from all the characters in "Thunderstorm". Whole, honest, sincere, she is incapable of lies and falsehood, therefore, in the cruel world where the Wild and Kabanovs reign, her life is tragic. She does not want to adapt to the world of the "dark kingdom", but she cannot be called a victim either. She protests. Her protest is love for Boris. This is freedom of choice.
Question
Does Katerina Tikhon love?
Answer
Given in marriage, apparently not of her own free will, she is at first ready to become an exemplary wife. D.II, yavl. II, p. 243. But such a rich nature as Katerina cannot love a primitive, limited person.
D. V, yavl. III, p.279 "Yes, he has disgusted me, he has disgusted me, his caress is worse for me than beatings."
Already at the beginning of the play, we learn about her love for Boris. D. I, yavl.VII, p.237.
Question
Happiness or misfortune on the life path of Katerina Boris?
Answer
The very love for Boris is a tragedy. D.V, yavl. III, p. 280 "Unfortunately, I saw you." Even the narrow-minded Kudryash understands this, warning with alarm: “Oh, Boris Grigoryevich! (...) It means that you want to ruin her completely, Boris Grigoryich! (...) But what kind of people are here! You know yourself. They will eat her, (...) Just look - don’t make trouble for yourself, but don’t get her into trouble! Suppose, even though she has a husband and a fool, but her mother-in-law is painfully fierce.
Question
What is the complexity of Katerina's internal state?
Answer
Love for Boris is: a free choice dictated by the heart; deceit that puts Katerina on a par with Varvara; renunciation of love is submission to the world of Kabanikhi. Love-choice dooms Katerina to torment.
Question
How is the heroine's torment, her struggle with herself, her strength shown in the scene with the key and the scenes of meeting and parting with Boris? Analyze vocabulary, sentence structure, folklore elements, connections with folk song.
Answer
D.III, scene II, yavl. III. pp. 261–262, 263
D.V, yavl. III, p. 279.
Scene with the key: “What am I saying, that I am deceiving myself? I have to die to see him." Date scene: "Let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing! If I was not afraid of sin for you, will I be afraid of human judgment? Farewell scene: “My friend! My joy! Goodbye!" All three scenes show the determination of the heroine. She never betrayed herself: she decided on love at the behest of her heart, confessed to treason from an inner sense of freedom (a lie is always not free), she came to say goodbye to Boris not only because of a feeling of love, but also because of guilt: he suffered because of for her. She rushed into the Volga at the request of her free nature.
Question
So what lies at the heart of Katerina's protest against the "dark kingdom"?
Answer
Katerina's protest against the oppression of the "dark kingdom" is based on a natural desire to defend the freedom of her personality. Captivity is the name of her main enemy. With all her being, Katerina felt that living in the "dark kingdom" was worse than death. And she preferred death to captivity.
Question
Prove that Katerina's death is a protest.
Answer
Katerina's death is a protest, a riot, a call to action. Varvara ran away from home, Tikhon blamed his mother for the death of his wife. Kuligin reproached him with unmercifulness.
Question
Will the city of Kalinov be able to live in the old way?
Answer
Most likely no.
The fate of Katerina takes on a symbolic meaning in the play. Not only the heroine of the play perishes - patriarchal Russia, patriarchal morality perishes and goes into the past. Ostrovsky's drama, as it were, captured people's Russia at a turning point, on the threshold of a new historical era.
For conclusion
The play still asks a lot of questions. First of all, it is necessary to understand the genre nature, the main conflict of "Thunderstorm" and understand why N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote in the article "A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom": "Thunderstorm" is, without a doubt, Ostrovsky's most decisive work. The author himself called his work a drama. Over time, researchers increasingly began to call "Thunderstorm" a tragedy, based on the specifics of the conflict (obviously tragic) and the nature of Katerina, who raised big questions that remained somewhere on the periphery of society's attention. Why did Katherine die? Because she got a cruel mother-in-law? Because she, being a husband's wife, committed a sin and could not stand the pangs of conscience? If we confine ourselves to these problems, the content of the work is significantly impoverished, reduced to a separate, private episode from the life of such and such a family, and loses its high tragic intensity.
At first glance, it seems that the main conflict of the play is Katerina's clash with Kabanova. If Marfa Ignatievna had been kinder, gentler, more humane, there would hardly have been a tragedy with Katerina. But the tragedy might not have happened if Katerina knew how to lie, adapt, if she had not judged herself so severely, if she had looked at life more simply and calmly. But Kabanikha remains Kabanikha, and Katerina remains Katerina. And each of them reflects a certain life position, each of them acts in accordance with its own principles.
The main thing in the play is the inner life of the heroine, the emergence in her of something new, still unclear to herself. “Something in me is so unusual, as if I’m starting to live again, or ... I really don’t know,” she admits to her husband’s sister Varvara.
