"Storm"
The Thunderstorm was written in the second half of the 50s of the 19th century, when the country was on the verge of socio-political and social changes. Naturally, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky could not but react to these shifts. During this difficult period, in addition to "Thunderstorm", the playwright wrote the plays "Dowry", "Profitable Place" and others, in which he reflected his view of what was happening.
"Thunderstorm" A. N. Ostrovsky raises not so much social as moral problems. The playwright shows us how feelings that were not known before suddenly awaken in a person and how her attitude to the surrounding reality changes.
The “dark kingdom”, shown by the playwright, is the opposition of the laws of Domostroy and the desire for freedom and happiness. The thunderstorm in the play is not just a natural phenomenon, but a symbol of the heroine's state of mind. Katerina grew up and formed as a person in the terrible conditions of Domostroy, but this did not stop her from resisting the Kalinovsky society. It was important for Ostrovsky to show that where any manifestation of freedom is destroyed, a strong character may appear, striving for its own happiness. Katerina strives for freedom with all her heart. This is especially evident thanks to her story to Varvara about her childhood, when she lived in an atmosphere of love and understanding. But Katerina still does not fully understand that new attitude to the world, which will lead her to a tragic end: “Something in me is so unusual. It’s like I’m starting to live again.” Having fallen in love with Boris, she considers her feelings sinful. Katerina sees this as a moral crime and says that she has "already ruined" her soul. But somewhere inside, she understands that there is nothing immoral in the pursuit of happiness and love.
for this act?
From childhood, Katerina was an independent, freedom-loving nature. She lived in her mother's house like a bird in the wild. But then she ends up in her husband's house, where a completely different atmosphere reigns. She says: “Yes, everything here seems to be from captivity.” In words, the mother-in-law seeks to observe moral principles, but in fact, “she ate at home completely.” The boar does not recognize anything new, does not allow Tikhon to live with his mind, and oppresses his daughter-in-law. It doesn’t matter to her what is in Katerina’s soul, customs would be observed. “She is strange, extravagant, from the point of view of others, but this is because she cannot accept their views and inclinations,” Dobrolyubov wrote about Katerina in his article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom.” Tikhon also does not understand Katerina's soul. This is a weak-willed person who is in complete submission to his mother. His only joy is to break out of the house and take a walk for several days. Kabanova's daughter Varvara does not argue with her mother, but deceives her, running away at night to walk with Kudryash.
“Cruel morals in our city,” says Kuligin.
Katerina's despair when, having fallen in love with Boris, she rushes to him, to Tikhon, asking him to take her with him. Tikhon pushes his wife away, dreaming of walking free, and Katerina is left alone. A painful moral struggle takes place in it. Brought up in a religious family, she considers it a great sin to cheat on her husband. But the desire to live a full life, the desire to decide one's own destiny, to be happy take precedence over moral principles. However, with the arrival of Tikhon, Katerina's moral suffering begins. No, she does not regret that she fell in love, she suffers that she is forced to lie. Lies are contrary to her honest, sincere nature. Even earlier, she confesses to Varvara: “I don’t know how to deceive, I can’t hide anything.” That is why she confesses to Kabanikha and Tikhon her love for Boris.
But the moral problem is not solved. Katerina remains in her husband's house, but for her it is tantamount to death: "What goes home, what goes to the grave, it doesn't matter ... It's better in the grave." Boris, who turned out to be a weak man, subordinate to his uncle Diky, refuses to take her with him to Siberia. Her life becomes unbearable.
"husband's wife", according to the laws of society, she does not have the right to decide her own fate. There is no way out for her. And she decides to take a terrible step. “And if I get very sick of being here, then there’s no way to hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, I’ll throw myself into the Volga, ”Katerina says to Varvara earlier. So it happened, she could not stand that oppression and harassment in the Kabanikh's house. According to Christian laws, suicide is a terrible sin. But, according to Katerina, an even greater sin is to live in lies and pretense. Kuligin, shocked by the death of Katerina, throws her oppressors in the face: “Here is your Katerina. Do with her what you want! Her body is here, but her soul is no longer yours: she is now before a judge who is more merciful than you!” In these words - the justification of her suicide. God will be more merciful to the unfortunate woman, because it is not she who is to blame for everything that happened, but the unjust, immoral structure of society.
Katerina's soul is pure and sinless. Before her death, she thinks only of her love - the only joy in her bitter life. And therefore, despite the tragic ending, in The Thunderstorm, according to Dobrolyubov, “there is something refreshing and encouraging,” and the very character of Katerina “breathes on us with a new life that opens up to us in her very death,” it was not for nothing that the critic called her "a ray of light in a dark kingdom."
Moral problems in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm"
Ostrovsky was once called the "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye", emphasizing the artistic discovery of the world of merchants in the playwright's plays, but today such works as "Dowry", "Our people - we will get along", "Talents and admirers", "Forest" and other plays are interesting not only concrete historical problems, but also moral, universal. I would like to tell you more about the play "Thunderstorm".
It is symbolic that in 1859, on the eve of the social upsurge, which would lead to the abolition of serfdom in 61, a play called The Thunderstorm appeared. Just as the name of the play is symbolic, its moral issues are also multifaceted, in the center of which are the problems of external and internal freedom, love and happiness, the problem of moral choice and responsibility for it.
The problem of external and internal freedom becomes one of the central ones in the play. “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel,” Kuligin says already at the beginning of the play.
Only one person is given to stand out against the background of those who are humiliating and humiliated - Katerina. Already the first appearance of Katerina reveals in her not a timid daughter-in-law of a strict mother-in-law, but a person who has dignity and feels like a person: “It’s nice to endure something in vain,” says Katerina in response to the unfair words of Kabanikha. Katerina is a spiritual, bright, dreamy person, she, like no one else in the play, knows how to feel the beauty. Even her religiosity is also a manifestation of spirituality. The church service is filled with a special charm for her: in the rays of sunlight she saw angels, felt her involvement in something higher, unearthly. The motif of light becomes one of the central ones in Katerina's characterization. “But it seems to glow from the face,” it was enough for Boris to say this, as Kudryash immediately realized that it was about Katerina. Her speech is melodious, figurative, reminiscent of Russian folk songs: "Wild winds, you transfer my sadness and longing to him." Katerina is distinguished by inner freedom, passion of nature, it is not by chance that the motif of a bird, flight appears in the play. The captivity of the boar's house oppresses her, suffocates her. “Everything seems to be from under your captivity. I withered completely with you, ”says Katerina, explaining to Varvara why she does not feel happiness in the Kabanovs' house.
Another moral problem of the play is connected with the image of Katerina - human right to love and happiness. Katerina's rush to Boris is a rush to joy, without which a person cannot live, a rush to happiness, which she was deprived of in the Kabanikh's house. No matter how much Katerina tried to fight her love, this struggle was initially doomed. In Katerina's love, as in a thunderstorm, there was something spontaneous, strong, free, but also tragically doomed, it is no coincidence that she begins her love story with the words: "I will die soon." Already in this first conversation with Varvara, an image of an abyss, a cliff appears: “To be some kind of sin! Such a fear on me, such a fear! 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.”
The most dramatic sound takes on the name of the play when we feel how a "thunderstorm" is brewing in Katerina's soul. The central moral problem play can be called the problem of moral choice. The clash of duty and feeling, like a thunderstorm, destroyed that harmony in Katerina's soul with which she lived; she no longer dreams, as before, of “golden temples or extraordinary gardens”, it is no longer possible to relieve her soul with a prayer: “I will begin to think - I will not collect my thoughts in any way, I will not pray in any way.” Without consent with herself, Katerina cannot live, she could never, like Barbara, be content with thieves', hidden love. The consciousness of her sinfulness burdens Katerina, torments her more than all the reproaches of Kabanikha. The heroine of Ostrovsky cannot live in a world of discord - this explains her death. She herself made the choice - and she pays for it herself, without blaming anyone: "No one is to blame - she herself went for it."
It can be concluded that it is the moral issues of Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" that makes this work interesting for the modern reader even today.
Columbus of Zamoskvorechye. A. N. Ostrovsky knew the merchant environment well and saw in it the center of national life. Here, according to the playwright, all types of characters are widely represented. The writing of the drama "Thunderstorm" was preceded by the expedition of A. N. Ostrovsky along the Upper Volga in 1856-1857. “The Volga gave Ostrovsky abundant food, showed him new themes for dramas and comedies, and inspired him to those that are the honor and pride of Russian literature” (Maximov S.V.). The plot of the drama "Thunderstorm" did not follow the real story of the Klykov family from Kostroma, as was believed for a long time. The play was written before the tragedy that took place in Kostroma. This fact testifies to the typical nature of the conflict between the old and the new, which was louder and louder in the merchant environment. The theme of the play is quite multifaceted.
Central problem- confrontation between the individual and the environment (and as a special case - the powerless position of a woman, about which N. A. Dobrolyubov said: "... the strongest protest is the one that rises, finally, from the chest of the weakest and most patient"). The problem of confrontation between the individual and the environment is revealed on the basis of the central conflict of the play: there is a clash between the "hot heart" and the dead way of life of the merchant society. The living nature of Katerina Kabanova, romantic, freedom-loving, hot, unable to tolerate the "cruel manners" of the city of Kalinov, about which in the 3rd yavl. The 1st act is narrated by Kuligin: “And whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor, so that he can make even more money on his free labors ... They undermine each other’s trade, and not so much out of self-interest, but out of envy. They quarrel with each other; they lure drunken clerks into their tall mansions ... ”All lawlessness and cruelty are committed under the guise of piety. To put up with hypocrisy and tyranny, among which the exalted soul of Katerina is suffocating, the heroine is not in a state. And it is absolutely impossible for the young Kabanova, an honest and whole nature, the principle of "survival" of Barbara: "Do what you want, if only it was sewn and covered." The opposition of the "hot heart" to inertia and hypocrisy, even if life becomes the price for such a rebellion, the critic N. A. Dobro-lyubov will call "a ray of light in the dark kingdom."
The tragic state of the mind and progress in the world of ignorance and tyranny. This complex issue is revealed in the play by introducing the image of Kuligin, who cares about the common good and progress, but encounters misunderstanding on the part of the Wild: “... I would use all the money for society and use it for support. Work must be given to the petty-bourgeois. And then there are hands, but there is nothing to work. But those who have money, for example, Dikoy, are in no hurry to part with them, and even sign their ignorance: “What else is there elestrichestvo! Well, how are you not a robber! A thunderstorm is sent to us as a punishment so that we feel, and you want to defend yourself with poles and some kind of horns, God forgive me. Feklusha's ignorance finds a deep "understanding" in Kabanova: and in Moscow now there are amusement and games, and through the streets there is an Indo roar, there is a groan. Why, mother Marfa Ignatievna, they began to harness the fiery serpent: everything, you see, for the sake of speed.
The substitution of life according to the grace-filled Christian commandments for a blind, fanatical, "house-building" Orthodoxy, bordering on obscurantism. The religiosity of Katerina's nature, on the one hand, and the piety of Kabanikha and Feklusha, on the other, appear completely different. The faith of the young Kaba-nova bears a creative beginning, full of joy, light and selflessness: “You know: on a sunny day, such a bright column goes down from the dome, and smoke goes down in this column, like clouds, and I see, it used to be , as if angels in this column fly and sing ... Or I’ll go to the garden early in the morning. As soon as the sun rises, I fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don’t know what I’m crying about; so they will find me. And what I prayed for then, what I asked for, I don’t know; I don’t need anything, but I had enough of everything. Rigid religious and moral postulates and severe asceticism, so revered by Kabanikha, help her to justify her despotism and cruelty.
The problem of sin. The theme of sin, which appears more than once in the play, is closely connected with the religious question. Adultery becomes an unbearable burden for Katerina's conscience, and therefore the woman finds the only possible way out for her - public repentance. But the most difficult problem is the solution of the question of sin. Katerina considers life among the “dark kingdom” to be a greater sin than suicide: “It’s all the same that death comes, that she herself ... but you can’t live! Sin! Will they not pray? Whoever loves will pray…” material from the site
The problem of human dignity. The solution to this problem is directly related to the main problem of the play. Only the main character, by her decision to leave this world, defends her own dignity and the right to respect. The youth of the city of Kalinov is not able to decide on a protest. Their moral "strength" is only enough for secret "vents" that everyone finds for himself: Varvara secretly goes for a walk with Kudryash, Tikhon gets drunk as soon as he leaves the vigilant mother's guardianship. Yes, and other characters have a small selection. “Dignity” can only be afforded by those who have a solid capital and, as a result, power, but Kuligin’s advice can be attributed to the rest: “What to do, sir! We must try to please somehow!
N. A. Ostrovsky covers a wide range of moral problems that were acute in his contemporary merchant society, and their interpretation and comprehension goes beyond a specific historical period and receives a universal sound.
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In Ostrovsky's tragedy The Thunderstorm, the problems of morality were widely posed. On the example of the provincial town of Kalinov, the author showed the manners prevailing there. He portrayed the cruelty of people living in the old fashioned way, according to Domostroy, and the riotousness of the younger generation. All the characters of the tragedy can be divided into two groups. Some believe that you can be forgiven for any sin if you then repent, while the other part believes that punishment follows sin and there is no salvation from it. Here arises one of the most important problems of man in general and the heroes of the "Thunderstorm" in particular.
Repentance as a problem appeared a long time ago, when a person believed that there was a higher power and was afraid of it. He began to try to behave in such a way as to appease the gods with his behavior. People gradually developed ways to propitiate the gods through certain actions or deeds. All violations of this code were considered objectionable to the gods, that is, a sin. At first, people simply made sacrifices to the gods, sharing with them what they had. The apogee of these relations is human sacrifice. In contrast to this, monotheistic religions arise, that is, they recognize one God. These religions have abandoned sacrifice and created codes that define the norms of human behavior. These codices have become sacred because they are believed to be inscribed by divine powers. Examples of such books are the Christian Bible and the Muslim Quran.
Violation of oral or written norms is a sin and should be punished. If at first a person was afraid of being killed for sins, then later he begins to worry about his afterlife. A person begins to worry about what awaits his soul after death: eternal bliss or eternal suffering. In blissful places, one can end up for righteous behavior, that is, observance of norms, and sinners go to where they will suffer forever. This is where repentance arises, since a rare person could
live without committing sins. Therefore, it becomes possible to be saved from punishment by asking God for forgiveness. Thus, any person, even the last sinner, receives hope for salvation if he repents.
In The Thunderstorm, the problem of repentance is particularly acute. The main character of the tragedy, Katerina, is experiencing terrible pangs of conscience. She is torn between a legitimate husband and Boris, a righteous life and a moral decline. She cannot forbid herself to love Boris, but she executes herself in her soul, believing that by doing so she rejects God, since a husband for a wife is like God for a church. Therefore, by cheating on her husband, she betrays God, which means she loses all possibility of salvation. She considers this sin unforgivable and therefore denies the possibility of repentance for herself.
Katerina is very pious, from childhood she used to pray to God and even saw angels, which is why her torment is so strong. These sufferings bring her to the point that, fearing the punishment of God (it is represented by a thunderstorm), she throws herself at the feet of her husband and confesses everything to him, giving her life into his hands. Everyone reacts differently to this recognition, revealing their attitude to the possibility of repentance. Kabanova offers to bury her alive, that is, she believes that there is no way to forgive her daughter-in-law. Tikhon, on the contrary, forgives Katerina, that is, he believes that she will receive forgiveness from God.
Katerina believes in repentance: she is afraid of sudden death, not because her life will be interrupted, but because she will appear unrepentant, sinful before God.
The attitude of people to the possibility of repentance is manifested during a thunderstorm. The storm personifies the wrath of God, and therefore people, when they see a thunderstorm, look for ways of salvation and behave differently. For example, Kuligin wants to build lightning rods and save people from thunderstorms; he believes that people can be saved from the punishment of God if they repent, then the wrath of God will disappear through repentance, just like lightning goes into the ground through a lightning rod. Wild, on the other hand, is sure that one cannot hide from the wrath of God, that is, he does not believe in the possibility of repentance. Although it should be noted that he can repent, as he throws himself at the peasant's feet and asks for forgiveness from him for scolding him.
Pangs of conscience bring Katerina to the point that she begins to think about suicide, which the Christian religion considers one of the most serious sins. Man seems to reject God, so suicides have no hope of salvation. Here the question arises: how could such a pious person as Katerina commit suicide, knowing that by doing so she was ruining her soul? Maybe she didn't really believe in God at all? I must say that she considered her soul already ruined and simply did not want to live in torment further, without hope of salvation.
It faces the Hamlet question - to be or not to be? Endure suffering on earth or commit suicide and thereby end your suffering? Katerina is driven to despair by the attitude of people towards her and the pangs of her own conscience, so she rejects the possibility of salvation. But the denouement of the play is symbolic: it turns out that the heroine has a hope for salvation, since she does not sink in the water, but breaks on the anchor. The anchor is similar to the part of the cross, where the base stands for the Holy Grail (the cup with the blood of the Lord). The Holy Grail also symbolizes salvation. Thus, there is hope that she was forgiven and saved.
