Why N.A. Did Dobrolyubov call Katerina's character a "strong Russian" character?

The play “Thunderstorm”, written by A.N. Ostrovsky in 1859, became the object of controversy among many critics, whose opinions were both positive and negative. But the classic interpretation of this work is considered to be a critical article by N.A. Dobrolyubov's “Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”, in which he deftly parried the attacks of other critics, answered many questions of interest to readers and analyzed the images of the heroes of the drama.

Nikolai Alexandrovich paid special attention to the characterization of Katerina, the main character of the work. After all, she, a fragile, defenseless girl, was so alone in the “dark kingdom” of the Wild and Kabanovs. But why in his analysis did he call Katerina's character a "strong Russian" character?

According to Dobrolyubov, Katerina is very peculiar. In her character there is nothing external, alien, everything comes from within him; any impression is processed in it and fuses with it organically. She does not act on conviction or logical reasoning. She is driven by nature. Katerina loves everything around her: nature, the sun, the church, her house with wanderers, the poor, whom she helps, showing responsiveness, hospitality and boundless kindness. From everything that exists, she chooses only that which does not contradict her nature. Her soul is much wider and deeper than that of other people, she is free, liberated and harmonious.

Being in captivity, Katerina is not capricious, does not blame anyone, lives very peacefully and is ready to submit to everything, which is not contrary to her nature. But, recognizing and respecting the aspirations of others, she demands the same respect for herself, and any constraint deeply revolts her. She cannot endure any more humiliation and decides to fight for her rights, but being unable to stand up for herself, she goes the opposite way - she herself runs from the destroyers and offenders, so as not to contradict herself.

Dobrolyubov compares Katerina with a deep river: it flows as it requires

natural property. It boils not because the water suddenly wanted to make some noise, but because it is necessary for it to continue flowing. So it is in the character of Katerina: we know that he will endure himself, in spite of any obstacles; and when there is not enough strength, he will die, but he will not betray himself.

Katerina did not love her husband. But she can't be blamed for that. “She just didn't have a particular desire to get married, but there was also no revulsion from marriage; there was no love in her for Tikhon, but there was no love for anyone else either. She didn't care. But when she met Boris, new feelings appeared in her - passion and love. And in these feelings her whole life began to consist, all the strength of her nature. She was attracted to Boris not only by the fact that she liked him, she was attracted to him by the need for love, the mortal anguish of her monotonous life and the desire to be free, free. It was for freedom that Katerina was ready to fight and achieve it at all costs: here the strength of her character was manifested.

I believe that N.A. Dobrolyubov called Katerina’s character “Russian” and “strong”, because with such a character a person is able to love like that, able to sacrifice like that, endure all hardships and hardships like that, while remaining himself. Katerina had a character that the "dark kingdom" could not change.

Ostrovsky's play was written in 1859, during the rise revolutionary movement masses, in an era when the individual rose to fight for his emancipation. "Thunderstorm", according to N. A. Dobrolyubov, "the most decisive work Ostrovsky", since it shows the complex, tragic process of the emancipation of the reviving soul.

In the play, darkness struggles with light, ups and downs give way to downs, it shows both the vitality of the morality of the "dark kingdom", and its precariousness, and the strength of character that could overcome it even at the cost of own life. And Katerina fights with all the cruelty, injustice of the "dark kingdom" - main character plays by A. N. Ostrovsky.

Her childhood was bright and quiet. Katerina went to church, listened to the stories of wanderers, embroidered with gold on velvet. But Katerina's religiosity is faith in fairy tales that she listened to as a child. In religion, Katerina is attracted primarily by the beauty of legends, church music, iconography, "her imagination works tirelessly and takes her to new world, "quiet and bright".

The courageous and decisive nature of Katerina is manifested in childhood. She tells Varvara: “I was still six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, but it was in the evening, it was already dark: I ran out to the Volga, got into a boat and pushed it away from the shore. another morning has already been found, ten versts away!"

A bright childhood has passed, and Katerina is married to an unloved person. Katerina did not immediately like life in the mother-in-law's house. The absurd and cruel Kabanikha, who "eats up" her relatives, "grinds iron like rust," seeks to suppress Katerina's freedom-loving nature. But the heroine boldly enters into a fight with the Boar. Honest and truthful, Katerina cannot adapt to the life of the "dark kingdom". "I don't want to live here, so I won't, even if you cut me!" she says decisively to Varvara.

Tenderly and passionately Katerina loves Boris. Her love is also a protest against the moral foundations of the "dark kingdom". The strength of her feelings is such that she is ready to disregard social customs and religious concepts: "Let everyone know, let everyone see what I'm doing!"

But happiness only beckoned Katerina. For two weeks she met with Boris, but now Tikhon arrives. Frightened by a thunderstorm and the lamentations of a half-mad lady, Katerina confesses everything to her husband.

“What, son? Where will the will lead? - Kabanikha says angrily to Tikhon. She gloats over her victory over Katerina.

But we see that Katerina, not Kabanikha, is morally victorious in this struggle. Katerina's protest grows. She is ready for anything, so she asks Boris to take her with him. But Boris "not of his own free will" leaves, he is completely dependent on his uncle, the merchant Diky.

The last hope went out in Katerina's soul. "Live again? No, no, don't... not good!" she thinks. Katerina understands that living in the Kabanovs' house is immoral. It's better not to live at all than to put up with "miserable vegetation".

N. A. Dobrolyubov writes: "... she is eager for a new life, even if she had to die in this impulse." Here it is, Katerina's protest, a protest against evil and philistinism, cruelty and lies, a protest "carried to the end!"

In response to an article by N. A. Dobrolyubov, four years later, an article by D. I. Pisarev "Motives of Russian Drama" was published. In it, Pisarev criticizes Dobrolyubov's article "Ray of Light in" dark kingdom"and is surprised that the critics could not "make a single objection to Dobrolyubov." Pisarev says about Katerina: "What kind of love is this that arises from the exchange of several glances? safely by all members of all Russian families?" The critic claims that Dobrolyubov, seeing something good in every act of Katerina, compiled perfect image, saw as a result of this "a ray of light in the "dark kingdom." Pisarev cannot agree with this, since "upbringing and life could not give Katerina either a strong character or a developed mind. The mind is the most precious thing, or, rather, the mind is everything.

Why are the views of Pisarev and Dobrolyubov so divergent? What makes one write about the strength of Katerina's character, and the other about the weakness of this character? Recall that Dobrolyubov's article was published in 1860, during a revolutionary upsurge, when bold and resolute heroes stood in the foreground, striving for a new life, ready to die for its sake. At that time there could be no other protest, but even such a protest affirmed the strength of the personality's character.

Pisarev's article was written in 1864, in the era of reaction, when thinking people were needed. Therefore, D. I. Pisarev writes about Katerina's act: "... Having done many stupid things, he throws himself into the water and thus does the last and greatest absurdity."

How do I feel about Katherine? Do I consider it "a ray of light in a dark kingdom"? Yes, I love Katerina, I love her kindness and tenderness, the sincerity of her feelings, her determination and truthfulness. I believe that Katerina can be called "a ray of light in a dark kingdom", as she protests against Kaban's concepts of morality, "does not want to put up, does not want to use the miserable vegetative life that they give her in exchange for her living soul."

This, in my opinion, is the strength of Katerina's character.

What is a "Russian strong character" according to Dobrolyubov using the example of Katerina's character

A play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" is one of his best works. The fighter against the "dark kingdom" is the main character of the play - Katerina. In the image of Katerina, Ostrovsky showed a decisive and integral Russian character.

Katerina's character is unique. Dobrolyubov said about it this way: “There is nothing external, alien in him, but everything comes out somehow from within him, every impression is processed in him and then grows organically with him.” Katerina is never capricious, does not flirt, she does not want to stand out and show off. On the contrary, she lives very peacefully and is ready to obey everything, unless it is contrary to her nature. But while recognizing and respecting others, she demands the same respect for herself. The environment in which Katerina lives requires her to lie and deceive.

The play repeatedly repeats an image that helps to understand the main thing in Katerina's character - the image of a bird. The bird is a symbol of will. From here permanent epithet"free Bird". “I lived, I didn’t grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild,” Katerina recalls about how she lived before the wedding. “ Why do people do not fly like birds? she says to Barbara. “You know, sometimes I feel like I’m a bird.” But the free bird Katerina got into an iron cage. The mother-in-law does not like Katerina and all the time reproaches her for all sorts of little things. But we note that Katerina’s character is not like that, and this is confirmed by the words: “Oh, Varya, you don’t know my character! Of course, don't let that happen! And if I am very disgusted here, they will not hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”

The denouement of the whole play occurs when Katerina confesses her infidelity to her husband. She does this because she does not want to and does not know how to lie. She had no love for her husband, but only pity. And she cheated on him with the man she loved. She is stumped because she sees the hatred and suspicion of the "dark kingdom". And she found a way out of this impasse in the decision to die. But in these last moments she does not blame anyone, she does not complain about anyone; on the contrary, she thinks that she herself is to blame for everyone.

Dobrolyubov said this: “It is sad, such a release is bitter; But what to do when there is no other way out. It's good that the poor woman found determination at least for this terrible exit. That is the strength of her character!”

Indeed, a person who was not afraid to admit to treason, was not afraid to challenge the “dark kingdom” and was not even afraid of death has a strong character.

June 09 2012

Speaking about how “the strong Russian character is understood and expressed in Groz”, Dobrolyubov rightly noted “concentrated determination” in the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom”. However, in determining its origins, he completely departed from the spirit and letter of Ostrovsky's tragedy. Is it possible to agree that “upbringing and the young did not give her anything”? Without monologues-memoirs of the heroine about her youth, is it possible to understand her freedom-loving character? Feeling nothing bright and life-affirming in Katerina's reasoning, without honoring her religious culture enlightened attention, Dobrolyubov reasoned: "Nature here replaces both the considerations of the mind, and the demands of feeling and imagination." Where Ostrovsky triumphs folk religion, Dobrolyubov's abstractly understood nature sticks out. The youth of Katerina, according to Ostrovsky, is the morning of nature, the solemn sunrise, bright hopes and joyful prayers. The youth of Katerina, according to Dobrolyubov, is “the meaningless nonsense of wanderers”, “dry and monotonous life”. Having replaced culture with nature, Dobrolyubov did not feel the main thing - the fundamental difference between the religiosity of Katerina and the religiosity of the Kabanovs. The critic, of course, did not ignore that the Kabanovs “everything breathes cold and some kind of irresistible threat: the faces of the saints are so strict, and the church readings are so formidable, and the stories of the wanderers are so monstrous.” But what did he attribute this change to? With the mindset of Katherine. “They are still the same,” that is, in the youth of the heroine, the same “Domostroy”, “they have not changed in the least, but she herself has changed: she no longer wants to build aerial visions.” But in tragedy it's the other way around! “Aerial visions” just broke out in Katerina under the yoke of the Kabanovs: “Why don’t people fly!”

And, of course, in the house of the Kabanovs he encounters a resolute “not that”: “Everything here seems to be from under captivity,” here the cheerful generosity of the Christian worldview has died out. Even the wanderers in the Kabanovs' house are different, from among those hypocrites who "due to their weakness did not go far, but heard a lot." And they talk about last times”, about the imminent end of the world. Religiosity, distrustful of life, reigns here, which plays into the hands of the pillars of society, who with an evil grumble meet the one that broke through the dams of the house. living life. Perhaps the main mistake in Katerina's stage interpretations was and remains the desire either to obscure her key monologues, or to give them an overly mystical meaning. In one of the classic productions of "Thunderstorm", where Strepetova played Katerina, and Kudrin played Varvara, the action unfolded on a sharp opposition of the heroines. Strepetova played a religious fanatic, Kudrina - an earthly girl, cheerful and reckless. There was some one-sidedness here. After all, Katerina is also earthly; no less, but rather more deeply than Varvara, she feels the beauty and fullness of being: good, embracing ... ”Only the earthly in Katerina is more poetic and subtle, more warmed by the warmth of moral Christian truth. The love of life of the people triumphs in it, which sought in religion not the negation of the earth with its joys, but its sanctification and spiritualization.