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 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 striking 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). Theatrical repertoire filled 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 dramaturgy 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.

IN creative development Ostrovsky, four periods are distinguished:

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 the definition of 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” (“An old friend is better than two new ones”, “Hard days”, "Jokers" and the Balzaminov trilogy), 4) historical chronicle plays ("Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk", "Tushino", etc.), and, finally, 5) psychological dramas ("Dowry", " Last victim" and etc.). The fairy-tale play "The Snow Maiden" stands apart.

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", in spite of detailed descriptions 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. Two characteristic features of Ostrovsky's work were outlined in Notes of a Resident from Zamoskvoretsk: attention to the everyday environment, which determines the life and psychology of characters "written off from nature", and a 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 Zamoskvorechye.

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 name - “Bankrut”), on which he worked from 1846 to 1849. Theatrical censorship immediately banned the play, but, like A.S. Griboyedov’s “Woe from Wit”, it immediately became a major literary event and was successfully 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 the 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 that of household items in narrative works: they complement the image of the merchant 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 heroes on everyday topics, as if “turned off” from the plot action, play an exceptional role in all Ostrovsky’s plays: interrupting the plot, retreating from it, they immerse the reader and the 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 stage. 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. The "young editors" of "Moskvityanin" were especially interested in 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, according to 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, an imperious tyrant merchant, the predecessor of Diky from Thunderstorm, 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 in every person simple and clear moral qualities: 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 "Muscovite" ideas, he took a step back, returning to sharp criticism of the 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 classes and community groups. 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. "Ostrovsky Theatre", declared "obsolete", "conservative" playwrights " 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 are created " business people", for whom "money does not smell", and wealth becomes the only life purpose. 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 money bag thicker: after all, in her opinion, “one cannot live without gold.” Selling love Lydia 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 guessed by Ostrovsky new type"honest" bourgeois.

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 the most capacious symbolic images Ostrovsky. The forest is not only the backdrop against which events are unfolding 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).

"Forest" - 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 through the eyes of 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). The last words and gesture of Neschastlivtsev 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. The leading place in 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 own choice: to become the kept woman of the wealthy merchant Knurov, a participant in the daring entertainment of the “brilliant gentleman” Paratov, or the wife of a proud 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, the “last times”, which Kabanikha was so afraid of, have come: 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. 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", luxury apartment and lunches. 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.

Not a single psychological trait in Larisa Ogudalova has reached 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'm not complaining about anyone, I'm not offended by anyone ... all of you good people... I love you all ... all ... 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.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER OSTROVSKY

Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1823-1886), playwright

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on April 12, 1823 in Moscow in the family of a judicial official. He received a good education at home. At the age of 12 he was sent to the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1840. Then he entered Faculty of Law Moscow University. In 1843 he left the university: the legal sciences ceased to interest him, and decided to seriously engage in literature. However, at the insistence of his father, he entered the service of the Moscow Conscientious Court, and then (1845) moved to the office of the Moscow Commercial Court.

His father's law practice and court service for almost eight years provided the future playwright with rich material for his plays. In 1849, the Moskvityanin magazine published the comedy “Our people - let's settle”, and Ostrovsky became an employee of the magazine. In 1851, he left the service to devote himself to literary creativity.

Ostrovsky created about 50 plays (Profitable Place, 1856; Thunderstorm, 1859; Mad Money, 1869; Forest, 1870; Snow Maiden, 1873; Dowry ”, 1878, and many others). Associated with the name of Ostrovsky whole era in the development of the Russian theater. He is the author of translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Terence, Goldoni. His work covers a huge period of development of Russia in the 19th century. - from the era of serfdom in the 40s. before the development of capitalism in the 80s.

Ostrovsky's dramaturgy played a decisive role in establishing an original and vibrant repertoire on the Russian stage, and contributed to the formation of a national stage school. In 1865, Ostrovsky founded an artistic circle in Moscow and became one of its leaders. In 1870, on his initiative, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created, of which he was the permanent chairman from 1874 until the end of his life.

In 1881-1884. Ostrovsky took part in the work of the commission for the revision of the statutes on the Imperial Theatres. On January 1, 1886, he was appointed head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters. But the playwright's health had already deteriorated greatly by this time, and on June 14, 1886, Ostrovsky died at the Shchelykovo estate in Kossush, Tromsk province.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Born March 31 (April 12), 1823 - died June 2 (14), 1886. Russian playwright, whose work became the most important stage in the development of the Russian national theater. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka.

His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was the son of a priest, he himself graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a court lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters. He rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, and in 1839 received the nobility.

Mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton and a prosvir, died when Alexander was not yet nine years old. There were four children in the family (four more died in infancy).

Thanks to the position of Nikolai Fedorovich, the family lived in abundance, great attention was paid to the study of children who received home education. Five years after the death of his mother, his father married Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were lucky with their stepmother: she surrounded them with care and continued to teach them.

Ostrovsky's childhood and part of his youth were spent in the center of Zamoskvorechye. Thanks to his father's large library, he became acquainted early with Russian literature and felt an inclination towards writing, but his father wanted to make him a lawyer.

In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the third grade of the 1st Moscow Provincial Gymnasium, after which in 1840 he became a student at the law faculty of Moscow University. He failed to complete the university course: without passing the exam in Roman law, Ostrovsky wrote a letter of resignation (he studied until 1843). At the request of his father, Ostrovsky entered the service of a clerk in the Constituent Court and served in the Moscow courts until 1850; his first salary was 4 rubles a month, after a while it increased to 16 rubles (transferred to the Commercial Court in 1845).

By 1846, Ostrovsky had already written many scenes from merchant life and conceived the comedy "Insolvent Debtor" (later - "Own people - let's settle!"). The very first publication was a short play “A Picture of Family Life” and an essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident” - they were published in one of the issues of the “Moscow City List” in 1847. Professor of Moscow University S.P. Shevyrev, after Ostrovsky read the play at his home on February 14, 1847, solemnly congratulated the audience on "the appearance of a new dramatic luminary in Russian literature."

Literary fame Ostrovsky brought comedy "Own people - let's count!"(original name - "Insolvent debtor"), published in 1850 in the journal of the university professor M.P. Pogodin "Moskvityanin". Under the text was: "A. ABOUT." and "D. G.", that is, Dmitry Gorev-Tarasenkov, a provincial actor who offered Ostrovsky cooperation. This collaboration did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, since it gave his detractors a reason to accuse him of plagiarism (1856). However, the play evoked favorable responses from H. V. Gogol and I. A. Goncharov.

Influential Moscow merchants, offended for his estate, complained to the "bosses"; as a result, the comedy was banned from staging, and the author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision on the personal order of Nicholas I. Supervision was removed after the accession of Alexander II, and the play was allowed to be staged only in 1861.

Ostrovsky's first play, which was able to get on the stage, was "Do not get into your sleigh"(written in 1852 and staged for the first time in Moscow on stage Bolshoi Theater January 14, 1853).

Since 1853, for more than 30 years, new plays by Ostrovsky appeared almost every season in the Moscow Maly and St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky became a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In the same year, in accordance with the wishes of the 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 over the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1859, with the assistance of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in two volumes. Thanks to this edition, Ostrovsky received a brilliant assessment from N. A. Dobrolyubov, which secured him the fame of a painter " dark kingdom". In 1860, the Thunderstorm appeared in print, to which he dedicated the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom”.

From the second half of the 1860s, Ostrovsky took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into correspondence with Kostomarov. The fruit of the work were five " historical chronicles in verse": "Kuzma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk", "Vasilisa Melentyeva", "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky", etc.

In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize (for the play "Thunderstorm") and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1866 (according to other sources - in 1865), Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle, which later gave the Moscow stage many talented figures.

Ostrovsky's house was visited by I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. E. Turchaninov, P. M. Sadovsky, L. P. Kositskaya-Nikulina, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova, G. N. Fedotova.

In 1874 the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was formed and opera composers, whose permanent chairman Ostrovsky remained until his death. Working in the commission "for the revision of legal provisions in all parts of the theater management", established in 1881 under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters, he achieved many changes that significantly improved the position of artists.

In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school.

Despite the fact that his plays made good collections and that in 1883 the emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, money problems did not leave Ostrovsky until the last days of his life. Health did not meet the plans that he set for himself. Hard work exhausted the body.

On June 2 (14), 1886, on Spirits Day, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. His last work was the translation of "Antony and Cleopatra" by W. Shakespeare - Alexander Nikolayevich's favorite playwright. The writer was buried next to his father at the church cemetery near the Temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province. For the burial, Alexander III granted 3,000 rubles from the sums of the cabinet; the widow, inseparably with 2 children, was assigned a pension of 3,000 rubles, and for the upbringing of three sons and a daughter - 2,400 rubles a year. Subsequently, the widow of the writer M.V. Ostrovskaya, an actress of the Maly Theater, and the daughter of M.A. Shatelen were in the family necropolis.

After the death of the playwright, the Moscow Duma set up a reading room named after A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow.

Family and personal life of Alexander Ostrovsky:

The younger brother is the statesman M. N. Ostrovsky.

Alexander Nikolaevich had a deep passion for the actress L. Kositskaya, but both of them had a family.

However, even after becoming a widow in 1862, Kositskaya continued to reject Ostrovsky's feelings, and soon she began a close relationship with the son of a wealthy merchant, who eventually squandered her entire fortune. She wrote to Ostrovsky: "I do not want to take away your love from anyone."

The playwright lived in cohabitation with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, but all their children died in early age. Uneducated, but a smart woman, with a subtle, easily vulnerable soul, she understood the playwright and was the very first reader and critic of his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, and two years after her death, in 1869, he married the actress Maria Vasilyevna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him four sons and two daughters.

Plays by Alexander Ostrovsky:

"Family Picture" (1847)
"Own people - let's count" (1849)
« unexpected case» (1850)
"Morning young man» (1850)
"Poor Bride" (1851)
"Do not get into your sleigh" (1852)
"Poverty is no vice" (1853)
"Do not live as you like" (1854)
Hangover in someone else's feast (1856)
"Profitable Place" (1856)
"Festive Sleep Before Dinner" (1857)
"They didn't get along" (1858)
"Pupil" (1859)
"Thunderstorm" (1859)
"An old friend is better than two new ones" (1860)
“Your own dogs squabble, don’t pester someone else’s” (1861)
"The Marriage of Balzaminov" (1861)
"Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1861, 2nd edition 1866)
"Hard Days" (1863)
"Sin and trouble does not live on anyone" (1863)
Voevoda (1864; 2nd edition 1885)
"Joker" (1864)
"In a Busy Place" (1865)
"Abyss" (1866)
"Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866)
"Tushino" (1866)
"Vasilisa Melentyeva" (co-authored with S. A. Gedeonov) (1867)
"Sufficient Simplicity for Every Wise Man" (1868)
"Hot Heart" (1869)
"Mad Money" (1870)
"Forest" (1870)
"Not everything is Shrovetide for the cat" (1871)
"There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn" (1872)
"Comedian XVII century» (1873)
"Snow Maiden" (1873)
"Late Love" (1874)
"Labor Bread" (1874)
"Wolves and Sheep" (1875)
"Rich Brides" (1876)
"Truth is good, but happiness is better" (1877)
"The Marriage of Belugin" (1877)
"Last Victim" (1878)
"Dowry" (1878)
"Good gentleman" (1879)
"Wild Woman" (1879), together with Nikolai Solovyov
"Heart is not a stone" (1880)
"Slaves" (1881)
"Shines, but does not warm" (1881), together with Nikolai Solovyov
"Guilty Without Guilt" (1881-1883)
"Talents and Admirers" (1882)
"Handsome Man" (1883)
"Not of this world" (1885)

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky V.G. Perov. Portrait of A.N. Ostrovsky (1877) Date of birth: March 31 (April 12) 1823 (18230412) Place of birth ... Wikipedia

Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolaevich- Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. OSTROVSKY Alexander Nikolaevich (1823-86), Russian playwright. Creativity Ostrovsky laid the foundations national repertoire Russian theater. In comedies and socio-psychological dramas, Ostrovsky brought a gallery ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolaevich, famous dramatic writer. Born March 31, 1823 in Moscow, where his father served in the civil chamber, and then engaged in private advocacy. Ostrovsky lost his mother in childhood and no ... ... Biographical Dictionary

Russian playwright. Born in the family of a lawyer official; mother - comes from the lower clergy. He spent his childhood and early youth in Zamoskvorechye - special ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich- (18231886), playwright. He came to St. Petersburg repeatedly from 1853, was closely associated with social, literary and cultural life capital Cities. Most of Ostrovsky's plays were first published in St. Petersburg in the journals Sovremennik, ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

- (1823 86) Russian playwright, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1863). Creativity Ostrovsky laid the foundation for the national repertoire of the Russian theater. In comedies and socio-psychological dramas, Ostrovsky brought out a gallery of types from those covered by ... ... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1823 1886), playwright. He came to St. Petersburg repeatedly from 1853, was closely connected with the social, literary and cultural life of the capital. Most of O.'s plays were first published in St. Petersburg in the journals Sovremennik and Vremya. In the journal… … St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Dramatic writer, head of the repertoire of the Imperial Moscow Theater and director of the Moscow Theater School. A. N. Ostrovsky was born in Moscow on January 31, 1823. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, came from a spiritual rank, and according to ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

- (1823 1886), Russian playwright, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1863). Brother of M. N. Ostrovsky. Creativity Ostrovsky laid the foundation for the national repertoire of the Russian theater. In comedies and socio-psychological dramas, Ostrovsky brought out ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

OSTROVSKY Alexander Nikolaevich- (182386), Russian playwright. Organizer and Prev. About va rus. dramatic writers and opera composers (since 1870). Plays (comedies and dramas): in prose "Family Picture" (1847, post. 1855), "Our people let's get along" (1850, post. 1861), ... ... Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Not all cat Shrovetide, Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolaevich. Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born and raised in Moscow, in the very center of Zamoskvorechye, which at that time was a very special world. The people who lived there, their relationships, their way of life, alive and…
• Plays: Ostrovsky A. N., Chekhov A. P., Gorky M., Gorky Maxim, Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich, Chekhov Anton Pavlovich. A. Ostrovsky, A. Chekhov and M. Gorky are brilliant reformers and innovators of the stage, who radically changed the theater. This book includes five famous plays by great playwrights - "Thunderstorm", ...

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 the civil chamber, and then engaged in private advocacy. 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 embezzling someone else's property. 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 the famous artist P.M. that those who then began their literary activity (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 - “Morning of a Young Man”, in 1851 - “An Unexpected Case”, in 1852 - “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, 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. deep knowledge life of the depicted environment, the vivid vitality and truth of the image, a peculiar, lively and colorful language, clearly reflecting 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 not even Gogol rose to his feet, 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 was reflected in the later works of Ostrovsky and further strengthened their national significance. 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 character. 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 certain 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, causing a second great article Dobrolyubova ("Ray of Light in dark kingdom"). 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 for the first time took up the processing of a historical theme prompted to him both by Nizhny Novgorod legends and by a careful study of our History XVII 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 comedy In a Busy Place, published in Sovremennik, 1865, was also inspired by Volga impressions. From the mid-1960s, 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 " new manner ". Their subject is the image of no longer merchant and petty-bourgeois, but noble life: “Each wise man has enough simplicity”, 1868; "Mad Money", 1870; "Forest", 1871. Interspersed with them are household comedies of the "old style": "Hot heart" (1869), "Not all the cat's carnival" (1871), "There was not a penny, but suddenly Altyn" (1872). In 1873, two plays were written that occupy a special position among Ostrovsky's works: "Comedian of the 17th century" (on 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 Griboyedov and Gogol and for a long time established on our stage that “ natural school”, which, at the beginning of its 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. Amid 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 1897 and Kropachev in Russkoe Obozreniye 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. His mother died early, so Ostrovsky did not receive a 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 to write novels and feuilletons. The comedy “Our people - let's settle” (1850) is published in the “Moskvityanin”, but censorship prohibits 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 plays into Russian foreign writers: Shakespeare's "The Pacification of the Wayward" (1865), Italo Franchi's "The Great Banker" (1871), Goldoni's "Coffee House" (1872), Teobaldo Ciconi's "The Lost Sheep" (1872) and Giacometti's "The Family of the Criminal" (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 repertory part of the Moscow theaters and headed theater school. Active labor activity ruined the writer's health.

Thunderstorm Ostrovsky