Innovator of Russian dramaturgy. What is dramatic innovation?

The selfless work that accompanied the playwright throughout his life was marked by brilliant results. It was A.N. Ostrovsky who, with his dramatic masterpieces, completed the creation of the Russian national-original theater, begun by Fonvizin, Griboyedov and Gogol. The role of Ostrovsky, a leading writer, a luminary of national original drama, was recognized by the entire progressive public during his lifetime. Goncharov wrote: "Ostrovsky is undoubtedly the most major talent in modern literature!

Revyakin A.I.

Belinsky proudly wrote about Griboyedov's Woe from Wit, Pushkin's Boris Godunov, Gogol's The Inspector General, and some other works of Russian dramatic art, "which would honor any European literature».

But these plays were an exception in the extremely poor repertoire of the Russian theater of the 30s and 40s of the 19th century. The stage was filled with empty vaudevilles and rhetorical melodramas, for the most part poorly translated and altered from French. According to Belinsky, the witticisms of these vaudevilles are "heavy, the puns are stretched out behind the ears"; the life depicted in melodramas "also resembles Russian society like in Arabic. The critic was forced in 1841 to admit that "we have no dramatic literature" (Russian Theater in St. Petersburg).

Six years have passed, and II.S. Turgenev in an article devoted to the analysis of the tragedy of N.V. Puppeteer "General Lieutenant Patkul", in full agreement with Belinsky, confirmed: "We still do not have dramatic literature and there are no dramatic writers yet."

Expressing the wishes and dreams of progressive spectators, theater lovers, Gogol, Belinsky and other literary figures urged playwrights to create original plays that truly depict Russian characters and Russian reality.

Indignant at the dominance of vaudeville and melodrama in the theater, Gogol in 1836 asked: “Where is our life? Where are we with all the modern passions and oddities? He asked: “For God's sake, give us Russian characters, give us ourselves, our rogues, our eccentrics! To their stage, to the laughter of everyone! (Petersburg notes of 1831). And Belinsky demanded: "everyday ... food for the stage should be works ... full of the living interests of modernity."

The playwrights of A.N. Ostrovsky. Throughout creative way he had hesitations. He experienced a partial influence of Slavophilism (Don't get into your sleigh; Poorness is not a vice; Don't live as you want). In some of his plays recent years there has been a trend of improvement, which has affected the substitution of clear social characteristics abstract-moralizing (The heart is not a stone; Not of this world) and in the appearance religious motives("Voevoda", second edition). But despite all his hesitations, the playwright remained at the core of his convictions a democratic educator, imbued with ardent hostility to serfdom and its remnants, a fighter for the enlightenment of the people.

Democratizing the themes of drama, Ostrovsky not only introduced into his plays people of labor and need, more or less closely connected with the people, but also placed them at the center of the plays as goodies. Such, for example, are the teachers Ivanov (Hangover at someone else’s feast) and Korpelov (Labor bread), the self-taught watchmaker Kuligin (Thunderstorm), the tradesman Aristarkh (Hot Heart), the accountant Platon Zybkin (Truth is good, but happiness is better), artists Neschastlivtsev ( Les) and Kruchinina (Guilty without guilt), to some extent tearing with their environment - merchant, like Katerina Kabanova (Thunderstorm), noble, like Larisa Ogudalova (Dowry), bureaucratic, like Zhadov ( Plum).

Victims of arbitrariness and violence were also portrayed by previous playwrights, but it is in Ostrovsky's plays that these victims express dissatisfaction with existing social divisions, consciously or directly, spontaneously, protest against them, defend their own human dignity.

Seeing no other way out, protecting her human dignity, not reconciling herself with the everyday despotism surrounding her, Katerina goes to her death (Thunderstorm). Defending his girlish will, Parasha shouts to her stepmother: “Everything, take everything away from me, but I won’t give up my will ... I’ll go to the knife for her!” (Warm heart). To the insulting words of the merchant Barabosheva, “Well, what kind of person are you in this world?” the accountant Platon Zybkin, who works in her firm, boldly says: “I am no worse than you,” and convicts her son of meanness and considers him a scoundrel (True is good, but happiness is better). Poor Meluzov, who is waiting for a teacher's job, does not hide his hostility towards the morally emasculated bureaucrat Bakin, accusing him of corrupting people. Refusing to duel with him, he says: “I will do my job to the end. And if I stop teaching, stop believing in the ability to improve people, or cowardly plunge into inaction and give up on everything, then buy me a gun, I’ll say thank you ”(Talents and fans). Ostrovsky paints the victims of social and domestic and - more broadly - public arbitrariness with deep, open sympathy; he clearly admires their protest against the injustice that prevailed. And at the same time, they are satirically denounced by the masters of the then life - the economically and morally impoverished nobility (Educatee; Enough simplicity for every wise man; Forest; Wolves and sheep), the predatory-selfish commercial and industrial bourgeoisie that replaces it (Our people - we will settle; Thunderstorm; Hot heart; Dowry) and bureaucracy mired in embezzlement and bribery (Profitable place; Rich brides; Guilty without guilt).

A.N. Ostrovsky is an innovator of drama not only in terms of its subject matter and democratic content, but also in form. Breaking the traditional visual forms of dramaturgy, he creates, according to the apt definition of Dobrolyubov, "plays of life." The deep vitality of Ostrovsky's plays, their fidelity to reality is reflected in their entire structure, but especially in speech expression. actors.

The playwright very early showed an increased interest in the living word. S.V. Maximov recalls: “He loved his native speech to the point of adoration, and nothing could please him more than by communicating a new word or an expression unheard of by him, in which he was drawn new order living images or behind which an unknown cycle of new ideas was hidden” (“A. N. Ostrovsky in the memoirs of contemporaries”. M., 1966).

Ostrovsky conceived a dictionary of the living Russian language, for which, starting in 1856, he collected words with the help of friends and family members. K. V. Zagorsky recalls: “When the children and Marya Vasilievna went for walks and, returning, told him some word or phrase heard in the city, he immediately wrote it down.” The dictionary conceived by Ostrovsky was not completed, but Full time job over him invaluably enriched him creative possibilities.

Being a deep connoisseur of the living Russian language, the playwright used all its resources - lexical, morphological, phonetic, phraseological, syntactic - to depict the socially typical and at the same time individual essence of the characters.

Speech fidelity is the emblematic seal of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy. April 17, 1871, notifying the artist F.A. Burdin about the completion of the comedy “Not Everything is Shrovetide for the Cat,” he noted: “... this thing is written for connoisseurs, the main thing here is Moscow life and merchant language, brought to the point.”

But being, according to B.N. Almazov, "mathematically correct", the language of the characters in Ostrovsky's plays never became naturalistic. Speech originality The characters of the plays by the creator of The Thunderstorm and The Dowry are the result of a deep, skillful generalization and, in some cases, varying degrees of stylization. His speech skills are virtuoso. This he says in the words of Tsar Berendey: “I am kind to the game of the mind and the word” (Snegurochka).

Enlivening the development of the action on the stage, Ostrovsky sometimes uses an original, unusual word and expression of his characters, but at the same time always determined by their characters, their position in society. So, for example, Lipochka Bolshova, reproaching her mother for refusing to marry her fiancé, says: Why not an incomparable party? Why not capidon? What did you find gullible in him?” (Own people - let's count). Matchmaker Krasavina, talking about love affairs Balzaminova, says; “He walks under the windows beckons, and she captivates him from the second floor” (Festive dream - before lunch). These phrases are spectacular, scenic, but they are organic to Lipochka and Krasavina, ignorant and, for all that, wanting to show their education.

deep knowledge Ostrovsky native speech, its masterful use was recognized by the entire progressive public from the very beginning of his career. So, N.A. Nekrasov, in an article about the drama “Don’t Live As You Want,” wrote: “Let’s not talk about the fidelity of the language, the Russian warehouse, both in life and in speech, is given to Mr. Ostrovsky more than to any of contemporary writers; he possesses it calmly and completely, and from all his faces the Russian spirit really breathes. ON THE. Dobrolyubov, summarizing the statements of criticism that preceded him, said: “... everyone noticed (although not everyone gave her due justice) accuracy and loyalty vernacular in Ostrovsky's comedies" ( dark kingdom). I.S. Turgenev called the language of "Kozma Minin" exemplary, most excellent. what "we haven't written yet". Concerning Voyevoda, he remarked: “Nobody wrote such a glorious, tasty, pure Russian language before him!” In 1893, after watching the play "Hot Heart" in Alexandrinsky theater, P.I. Tchaikovsky said with admiration: "And with Ostrovsky, every word is worth its weight in gold!" L.N. Tolstoy recognized the playwright's "perfect knowledge of the language of the characters." M. Gorky saw in him a "connoisseur" and "sorcerer of the language."

From the very beginning of his creative path, Ostrovsky acted not as a narrow household worker, but as the creator social types deep and broad generalization, turning dramaturgy and theater into a school of public morals. In connection with the release of his first major play, “Our people - we will settle,” Ostrovsky wrote: “I wanted the public to brand vice in the name of Podkhalyuzin in the same way that it brands it with the name of Harpogen, Tartuffe, Nedorosl, Khlestakov and others.” Due to the breadth of generalization, many of his characters have become a household name, for example, Tit Titych Bruskov (Hangover in someone else's feast), Glumov (Enough simplicity for every sage), Khlynov (Hot heart).

Hostile to naturalism, Ostrovsky enriches his realism with romance (Snegurochka) and turns to the conventional means of caricature and grotesque (the image of Krutitsky in the comedy Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man, the images of Kuroslepov, Khlynov, Gradoboev in the comedy Hot Heart).

Ostrovsky was an ascetic of labor. Overcoming censorship constraints, material difficulties that haunted him all his life, and the hostile attitude of the directorate of the imperial theaters, he created 47 original plays, in addition to the second editions of Kozma Minin and Voyevoda. He wrote 7 plays in collaboration with S.A. Gedeonov, N.Ya. Solovyov and P.M. Nevezhin. Introducing compatriots to the best foreign playwrights, he translated 22 plays from English, Italian, French and Spanish. He also translated the classic drama Ukrainian literature G.F. Kvitki-Osnovyanenko - "Schira Love" ("Sincere love, or dear more than happiness"). This is a whole folk theater!

ON THE. Nekrasov perfectly defined Ostrovsky's enormous mental strength, addressing him in 1867 with the words: “You are our hero, and I know and believe that you will still show us great power».

About the role of Ostrovsky in the development of the national drama and stage, I.A. Goncharov. Congratulating him in 1882 on the thirty-fifth anniversary of theatrical and dramatic activity, he wrote: “You brought literature as a gift a whole library works of art, created a special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, at the foundation of which you laid cornerstones Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol. But only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater". It, in fairness, should be called the "Ostrovsky Theater".

In that welcome letter, Goncharov, calling Ostrovsky "the immortal creator of an endless array of poetic creations," argued that the playwright "did everything that was fitting for a great talent. There seems to be nowhere left to go!"

But Ostrovsky did not limit himself to creating dramatic masterpieces. He showed up and public figure large scale. In an effort to raise culture moral character actors, playwright together with V.F. Odoevsky and P.M. Sadovsky organized the Moscow artistic circle (1865). This circle for many years became an attractive center of the Moscow intelligentsia. The circle provided artists and financial assistance.

With the aim of improving financial situation, raising the ideological and professional level domestic playwrights, Ostrovsky and V.I. Rodislavsky initiated the establishment of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Composers (1874). Ostrovsky remained the permanent chairman of this society, which played a huge role in the development of dramatic art, until his death.

Struggling for a radical transformation of the performing arts, in 1881-1882 the playwright took an active part in the commission for the reform of the imperial theaters, in 1886 he became the head of the repertoire of the Moscow imperial theaters. big and constant attention Ostrovsky gave novice playwrights, reading them, plays. Turning dramaturgy and theater towards reality, towards truth, towards realism, turning them into a school of public morals, Ostrovsky designated himself new era in the development of domestic dramaturgy and stage.

I.F. Gorbunov recalls the first production of Ostrovsky’s play in the theater: “With the appearance on the stage of Ostrovsky’s comedy Don’t Get in Your Sleigh, the Moscow stage begins new era. I was at the first performance of this comedy. It was given as a benefit to Kositskaya. The curtain went up, and new words were heard from the stage, new language before which either the St. Petersburg playwright Grigoriev spat on from the height of his ignorance “with comrades”, forcing them to speak in a non-existent, composed, stupid language, or portrayed them as such cloying patriots that it was sickening to look at them.

It is difficult to overestimate the influence of Ostrovsky on the domestic drama and stage. Actors were realistically strengthened and brought up on his roles, starting with P.M. Sadovsky, A.E. .Martynova, L.P. Kositskaya. He studied dramatic art A.F. Pisemsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and M. Gorky. His theories about theatrical business continue and are carried out in the Soviet theater, in particular and especially in the Stanislavsky system.

Ostrovsky's dramaturgy retains its relevance even today due to the nationality, universal humanity of its ideological and moral principles. It is precious to us both for its objective-cognitive properties and for the protection of goodness, justice, and humanity.

L-ra: Russian speech. - 1973. - No. 2. - S. 4-11.

Keywords: Alexander Ostrovsky, characterization of the work of Alexander Ostrovsky, criticism of the work of Alexander Ostrovsky, criticism, download criticism, free download, abstract, Russian literature of the 19th century, playwrights of the 19th century

The selfless work that accompanied the playwright throughout his life was marked by brilliant results. It was A.N. Ostrovsky who, with his dramatic masterpieces, completed the creation of the Russian national-original theater, begun by Fonvizin, Griboyedov and Gogol. The role of Ostrovsky, a leading writer, a luminary of national original drama, was recognized by the entire progressive public during his lifetime. Goncharov wrote: \"Ostrovsky is undoubtedly the greatest talent in modern literature!\"
Ostrovsky's innovation was reflected not only in the fact that he sharply turned dramaturgy and theater back to life, to its urgent social and moral problems, but also in the fact that he wrote his plays in the name of the people and for the people. And the people gratefully accepted his dramaturgy.
Guided by ardent patriotic intentions, Ostrovsky wrote numerous memorandums to the directorate of the imperial theaters, in which he proposed specific measures for transforming the theater, turning it into a school of public morals. These notes were neglected, they were not given a go. But Ostrovsky, sparing no effort, continued to defend his ideas.
The theatrical principles of the great playwright were implemented and continued in the system of K. S. Stanislavsky, they were further developed in the Russian theater.
The great creative heritage of Ostrovsky, which had a huge impact on the development of domestic drama and the stage, on dramatic and stage art in general, retains and will retain for a long time the value of a wonderful, indispensable textbook of life, delivering true aesthetic pleasure to readers and viewers. His plays, being among the world's literary and artistic treasures, are increasingly attracting the attention of foreign publishers and theaters.

The profound changes that took place in Russian life at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s increased the playwright's interest in history. home country, especially to those of its periods, which also turned out to be critical. In the plays "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (855-862),...

1. New!

   the epic slowness of the development of the action and the thoroughness of the scenic characters; detailed descriptions of patriarchal merchant life; emphasis on the individual destiny of the individual and the pursuit of happiness of the individual ordinary person; while the history of life...

All the heroes and heroines of A. N. Ostrovsky can be divided into those who have power over others and those who have no rights. IN late plays Ostrovsky, the first acquire the features of "tyranny", and the latter become victims of these "tyrants". As is usually the case in life...

2. New!

   Ostrovsky created his plays in a conscious confrontation with the fictional world of protective-romantic melodrama and the flat snarling of naturalistic pseudo-realistic vaudeville. His plays radically updated the theatrical repertoire,...

Innovative feature of O. - extensive expositions in his plays. The Storm is no exception.

In addition, Ostrovsky was one of the first in Russian dramaturgy to introduce landscape into his works, which is reflected in the picturesque scenery. In "Thunderstorm" these are wonderful views of the Volga expanses.

Another innovative feature- wide use of folklore works. Folk songs are sung by Kuligin, Kudryash, Varvara.

Thus, in the plays of Ostrovsky special meaning acquires a "background" (landscape, folklore), on which the main action develops.

One of the essential features of such a “background” is the presence on the stage of a number of characters who, not participating in the main intrigue, are very important for understanding common sense works. In The Thunderstorm, these are Dikoy, Kuligin, Shapkin, Feklusha, a half-crazy lady, and other people.

Both drama and tragedy grow in Ostrovsky from everyday life, from the atmosphere in which the characters constantly live. Ostrovsky's works are often called "life plays".

The exposition in Groz takes two whole actions.- first and second. A wide picture of the mores of the city of Kalinov opens before the viewer; all the main characters of the play enter the stage; monologues and dialogues reveal the essential aspects of their characters.

The plot of "Thunderstorm" is based on love affair. E This exposition is also contained at the beginning of the piece. First, Boris, addressing the viewer, talks about his feelings for Katerina. A little later, Katerina confesses to Varvara that she loves Boris.

The sudden departure of Tikhon to Moscow brings the plot closer. Katerina, anticipating that she will not be able to cope with passion alone, begs Tikhon to stay or take her with him. Tikhon remains indifferent to her pleas. Moreover, he offends Katerina, frankly expressing to her his desire to take a break not only from the guardianship of his mother, but also from the presence of his wife.

It is significant that the plot in The Thunderstorm occurs only at the end of the second act. This famous scene with a key. Two feelings struggle in Katerina's soul - a passion for Boris and a consciousness of the sinfulness of this passion. In the end, Katerina takes the key from Varvara: passion wins.

In the scene in the ravine in the third act, the element is most fully revealed folk life, so dear to Ostrovsky. Kudryash and Barbara sing folk songs. The poetic side of the patriarchal world opens before the viewer.

Climax of the play- the scene of Katerina's confession in the fourth act. This scene is preceded by peals of thunder, denunciations of a half-mad lady. On the advice of Varvara, Katerina tries to pray, but then an image of fiery hell opens before her. Horrified, the heroine confesses her sin to her husband and mother-in-law.

Passion, however, does not let her go, and Katerina does not see a real way out of the situation.

The tragic denouement of the play- Katerina's suicide - is preceded by several scenes that reveal the depth of the heroine's despair.

First of all, let's mention Katerina's monologue in the second scene of the fifth act, where the heroine, left alone, calls her lover, hoping for his support: “No, nowhere! Is he doing something now, poor thing?..” Boris is unable to help Katerina. In essence, he leaves her in trouble, as evidenced by their last meeting.

Katerina’s last monologue (“Where now? Go home? No, I don’t care whether it’s home or in the grave ...”), from which we learn about fatal decision heroines, strikes with its hopelessness: “It’s all the same that death comes, that it’s on its own ... but you can’t live!”

Katerina could not find a way out of the critical situation, overcome despair. From the people around her, the heroine did not receive the true, compassionate love and forgiveness that was so necessary at that moment. In her rebellious heart, Katerina did not find the strength to humble herself before the will of God.

As a result, it turned out to be easier for Katerina to destroy her soul than to continue to live in the “dark kingdom”.

So we see that in genre specifics, in the nature of the conflict and in the features stage action The play showed Ostrovsky's innovation. The playwright managed to combine dramatic and tragic conflicts, to combine a broad picture of manners with intense action.

Ostrovsky's innovation manifested itself already in the subject matter. He sharply turned dramaturgy to life, to its everyday life. It was with his plays that the content of Russian dramaturgy became life as it is.

Developing a highly wide circle meanwhile, Ostrovsky used mainly the material of everyday life and customs upper Volga region and Moscow in particular. But regardless of the place of action, Ostrovsky's plays reveal the essential features of the main social classes, estates and groups of Russian reality at a certain stage of their development. historical development. "Ostrovsky," Goncharov rightly wrote, "scribbled the whole life of the Moscow, that is, the Great Russian state."

Creativity Ostrovsky, despite its thematic breadth, is often associated only with the image of the merchant class. Starting with the appearance of the play “Own people - let's settle!” among the vast majority of critics, Ostrovsky established himself as the literary pioneer of the merchant class.

Along with coverage key parties merchant life, dramaturgy XVIII centuries did not pass by such private phenomena of merchant life as a passion for a dowry, which was prepared on a monstrous scale (“The Bride under a Veil, or the Petty-bourgeois Wedding” unknown author 1789)

Expressing the socio-political demands and aesthetic tastes of the nobility, vaudeville and melodrama, which filled the Russian theater of the first half of XIX century, greatly muted the development of everyday drama and comedy, in particular drama and comedy with a merchant theme. The theater's keen interest in plays with merchant themes emerged only in the 1930s.

If at the end of the 30s and at the very beginning of the 40s the life of the merchants in dramatic literature was perceived as a new phenomenon in the theater, then in the second half of the 40s it already becomes a literary cliché.

Why did Ostrovsky turn to the merchant theme from the very beginning? Not only because merchant life literally surrounded him: he met with the merchants in the house of his father, in the service. On the streets of Zamoskvorechye, where he lived for many years.

Under the conditions of the disintegration of feudal-serf relations, landlord Russia was rapidly turning into capitalist Russia. The commercial and industrial bourgeoisie was rapidly advancing onto the public stage. In the process of transforming landowner Russia into capitalist Russia, Moscow becomes a commercial and industrial center. Already in 1832, most of the houses in it belonged to the "middle class", i.e. merchants and townspeople. In 1845, Belinsky stated: “The core of the indigenous Moscow population is the merchant class. How many old noble houses have now passed into the ownership of the merchants!

A significant part of Ostrovsky's historical plays is devoted to the events of the so-called "Time of Troubles". This is no coincidence. The stormy time of "distemper", clearly marked by the national liberation struggle of the Russian people, clearly echoes the growing peasant movement 60s for their freedom, with a sharp struggle between reactionary and progressive forces that unfolded in these years in society, in journalism and literature.

Depicting the distant past, the playwright had in mind the present. Exposing the ulcers of the socio-political system and the ruling classes, he scourged the contemporary autocratic order. Drawing in plays about the past images of people boundlessly devoted to their homeland, reproducing spiritual greatness and moral beauty common people, he expressed his sympathy working people of his era.

Ostrovsky's historical plays are an active expression of his democratic patriotism, an effective realization of his struggle against the reactionary forces of modernity, for its progressive aspirations.

Ostrovsky's historical plays, which appeared during the years of a fierce struggle between materialism, idealism, atheism and religion, revolutionary democratism and reaction, could not be raised to the shield. Ostrovsky's plays emphasized the importance of the religious principle, and revolutionary democrats conducted irreconcilable atheistic propaganda.

In addition, advanced criticism negatively perceived the very departure of the playwright from the present into the past. Ostrovsky's historical plays began to find more or less objective evaluation later. Their true ideological and artistic value begins to be realized only in Soviet criticism.

Ostrovsky, depicting the present and the past, was carried away by his dreams into the future. In 1873. He creates a wonderful fairy tale play "The Snow Maiden". This is a social utopia. It has a fabulous plot, characters, and setting. Profoundly different in its form from the playwright's social plays, it organically enters the system of democratic, humanistic ideas of his work.

IN critical literature about The Snow Maiden, it was rightly pointed out that Ostrovsky draws here a “peasant kingdom”, a “peasant community”, once again emphasizing his democracy, his organic connection with Nekrasov, who idealized the peasantry.

It is with Ostrovsky that the Russian theater begins in his modern understanding: the writer created a theater school and a holistic concept of playing in the theater.

The essence of Ostrovsky's theater lies in the absence extreme situations and opposition to the actor's gut. The plays of Alexander Nikolaevich depict ordinary situations with ordinary people whose dramas go into everyday life and human psychology.

The main ideas of the theater reform:

· the theater should be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall that separates the audience from the actors);

immutability of attitude to language: mastery speech characteristics expressing almost everything about the characters;

· betting on more than one actor;

· "People go to watch the game, not the play itself - you can read it."

Ostrovsky's theater demanded a new stage aesthetics, new actors. In accordance with this, Ostrovsky creates an ensemble of actors, which includes such actors as Martynov, Sergei Vasilyev, Evgeny Samoilov, Prov Sadovsky.

Naturally, innovations met opponents. They were, for example, Shchepkin. The dramaturgy of Ostrovsky demanded from the actor detachment from his personality, which M.S. Shchepkin did not. For example, he left dress rehearsal Thunderstorms, being very dissatisfied with the author of the play.

Ostrovsky's ideas were carried to their logical end by Stanislavsky.