Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" caused a strong reaction in the field of literary critics and critics. A. Grigoriev, D. Pisarev, F. Dostoevsky devoted their articles to this work. N. Dobrolyubov, some time after the publication of The Thunderstorm, wrote the article "A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom." Being a good critic, Dobrolyubov emphasized the author's good style, praising Ostrovsky for his deep knowledge of the Russian soul, and reproached other critics for not having a direct look at the work. In general, Dobrolyubov's view is interesting from several points of view. For example, the critic believed that dramas should show the detrimental effect of passion on a person’s life, which is why he calls Katerina a criminal. But Nikolai Alexandrovich nevertheless says that Katerina is also a martyr, because her sufferings evoke a response in the soul of the viewer or reader. Dobrolyubov gives very accurate characteristics. It was he who called the merchants "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm".
If we trace how the merchant class and the social strata adjacent to it were displayed for decades, then a complete picture of degradation and decline emerges. In "Undergrowth" the Prostakovs are shown as narrow-minded people, in "Woe from Wit" the Famusovs are frozen statues who refuse to live honestly. All these images are the forerunners of Kabanikhi and Dikiy. It is on these two characters that the "dark kingdom" in the drama "Thunderstorm" rests. The author acquaints us with the manners and orders of the city from the first lines of the play: "Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel!" In one of the dialogues between the residents, the topic of violence is raised: “Whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor ... And among themselves - then, sir, how they live! ... They are at enmity with each other.” No matter how much people hide what is happening inside families, the rest already know everything. Kuligin says that no one has been praying to God here for a long time. All doors are locked, "so that people do not see how ... they eat their own household and tyrannize the family." Behind the locks - debauchery and drunkenness. Kabanov goes to drink with Dikoy, Dikoy appears drunk in almost all scenes, Kabanikha is also not averse to having a glass - another in the company of Savl Prokofievich.
The whole world, in which the inhabitants of the fictional city of Kalinov live, is thoroughly saturated with lies and scams. Power over the "dark kingdom" belongs to tyrants and deceivers. Residents are so accustomed to dispassionately kowtowing to richer people that this lifestyle is the norm for them. They often come to Wild to ask for money, while knowing that he will humiliate them, but will not give the required amount. Most of the negative emotions in the merchant are caused by his own nephew. Not even because Boris is flattering Dikoy in order to get money, but because Dikoy himself does not want to part with the inheritance he has received. His main features are rudeness and greed. Dikoy believes that since he has a large amount of money, it means that others should obey him, fear him and at the same time respect him.
Kabanikha stands up for the preservation of the patriarchal system. She is a true tyrant, able to drive anyone she doesn't like crazy. Marfa Ignatievna, hiding behind the fact that she respects the old order, in fact, destroys the family. Her son, Tikhon, is happy to leave as far as possible, just not to hear the orders of his mother, the daughter does not care about the opinion of Kabanikha, lies to her, and at the end of the play simply runs away with Kudryash. Katherine got it the most. The mother-in-law openly hated her daughter-in-law, controlled her every action, was dissatisfied with any little things. The scene of farewell to Tikhon seems to be the most revealing. The boar was offended by the fact that Katya hugged her husband goodbye. After all, she is a woman, which means that she must always be lower than a man. The destiny of a wife is to throw herself at her husband's feet and sob, praying for a speedy return. Katya does not like this point of view, but she is forced to submit to the will of her mother-in-law.
Dobrolyubov calls Katya "a ray of light in the dark realm", which is also very symbolic. First, Katya is different from the inhabitants of the city. Although she was brought up according to the old laws, the preservation of which Kabanikha often speaks, she has a different idea of life. Katya is kind and clean. She wants to help the poor, wants to go to church, do household chores, raise children. But in such an environment, all this seems impossible due to one simple fact: in the "dark kingdom" in the "Thunderstorm" it is impossible to find inner peace. People constantly walk in fear, drink, lie, cheat on each other, trying to hide the ugly side of life. In such an atmosphere it is impossible to be honest with others, honest to yourself. Secondly, one beam is not enough to illuminate the "kingdom". Light, according to the laws of physics, must be reflected from any surface. It is also known that black has the ability to absorb other colors. Similar laws apply to the situation with the main character of the play. Katerina does not see in others what is in her. Neither the inhabitants of the city, nor Boris, "a decently educated person," could understand the reason for Katya's internal conflict. After all, even Boris is afraid of public opinion, he is dependent on the Wild and the possibility of receiving an inheritance. He is also bound by a chain of deceit and lies, as Boris supports Varvara's idea to deceive Tikhon in order to maintain a secret relationship with Katya. Let's apply the second law here. In Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm, the "dark kingdom" is so all-consuming that it is impossible to find a way out of it. It eats Katerina, forcing her to take on one of the worst sins from the point of view of Christianity - suicide. The Dark Realm leaves no other choice. It will find her anywhere, even if Katya ran away with Boris, even if she left her husband. No wonder Ostrovsky moves the action to a fictional city. The author wanted to show the typicality of the situation: such a situation was typical of all Russian cities. But only Russia?
Are the conclusions so disappointing? The power of tyrants gradually begins to weaken. This is felt by Kabanikh and Dikoy. They feel that soon other people will take their place, new ones. Like Katya. Honest and open. And, perhaps, it is in them that the old customs that Marfa Ignatievna zealously defended will be revived. Dobrolyubov wrote that the finale of the play should be viewed in a positive light. “We are pleased to see the deliverance of Katerina - even through death, if it is impossible otherwise. Living in a "dark kingdom" is worse than death." This is confirmed by the words of Tikhon, who for the first time openly opposes not only his mother, but the entire order of the city. “The play ends with this exclamation, and it seems to us that nothing could be invented stronger and more truthful than such an ending. Tikhon's words make the viewer think not about a love affair, but about this whole life, where the living envy the dead.
The definition of the "dark kingdom" and the description of the images of its representatives will be useful to students in grade 10 when writing an essay on the topic "The Dark Kingdom in the play" Thunderstorm "by Ostrovsky."
Artwork test
The work of A. N. Ostrovsky stands at the origins of our national dramaturgy. Fonvizin, Griboyedov and Gogol began the creation of the great Russian theater. With the advent of Ostrovsky's plays, with the flowering of his talent and skill, dramatic art rose to new heights. No wonder the critic Odoevsky noted that before Ostrovsky there were only 3 dramas in Russian literature: "Undergrowth", "Woe from Wit" and "The Inspector General". He called the play "Bankrupt" the fourth, emphasizing that it is the last missing cornerstone on which the majestic "building" of the Russian theater will be erected.
From "Bankrupt" to "Thunderstorm"
Yes, it is with the comedy “Our people - we will settle” (the second name of “Bankrupt”) that the wide popularity of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, a playwright, who united in his work and masterfully reworked the best traditions of the “natural” school - socio-psychological and satirical. Having become the "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye", he opened to the world a hitherto unknown layer of Russian life - the middle and small merchants and bourgeoisie, reflected its originality, showed both bright strong, pure characters, and the gloomy harsh reality of the world of huckstering, hypocrisy, lack of high impulses and ideals . It happened in 1849. And already in his first significant play, the writer outlines with strokes a special type of personality that will appear in him again and again: from Samson Silych the Bolshoi to Titus Titych Bruskov from “A Hangover at a Strange Feast” and further, to Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova and Savel Prokopyevich Diky from "Thunderstorms" - a type of tyrant, named very accurately and succinctly and, thanks to the playwright, entered our speech everyday life. This category includes people who completely violate the logical and moral, human community. The critic Dobrolyubov called Dika and Kabanikha, representing the "dark kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm", "tyrants of Russian life" by the critic Dobrolyubov.
Tyranny as a socio-typological phenomenon
Let's analyze this phenomenon in more detail. Why do tyrants appear in society? First of all, from the awareness of one's own complete and absolute power, the complete leveling of the interests and opinions of others in comparison with one's own, the feeling of impunity and the lack of resistance from the victims. This is how the "dark kingdom" is shown in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm". Wild and Kabanova are the richest residents of the small provincial town of Kalinov, located along the banks of the Volga. Money allows them to feel personal importance and significance. They also give them power - over their own families, over strangers, in some way dependent on them people, and more broadly - over public opinion in the city. The "dark kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is terrible because it destroys or distorts the slightest manifestations of protest, any trends of freedom and independence. Tyranny is the other side of slavery. It equally corrupts both the “masters of life” themselves and those who are dependent on them, poisoning all of Russia with its noxious breath. That is why, according to Dobrolyubov's definition, the "dark kingdom" in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is synonymous with tyranny.
drama conflict
Possessing a deep understanding of reality, the writer was able to depict its most significant and significant aspects. In the pre-reform year of 1859, he was under the impression of traveling along the Volga in 1856-1857. creates a play, later recognized as one of his best creations - the drama "Thunderstorm". What is interesting: literally a month after the play was completed, events took place in Kostroma, as if they were reproducing a literary work according to the script. What does it say? About how accurately Alexander Nikolaevich felt and guessed the conflict and how realistically the “dark kingdom” is reflected in the play “Thunderstorm”.
It was not in vain that Ostrovsky chose the main contradiction of Russian life as the main conflict - the clash between the conservative principle, based on patriarchal traditions, formed over the centuries and based on indisputable authority, moral principles and prohibitions, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the rebellious, creative and living principle , the need of the individual to break stereotypes, to go forward in spiritual development. Therefore, not only Dikoy and Kabanikha embody the "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm". Ostrovsky makes it clear that the slightest concession to him, connivance and non-resistance automatically transfer a person to the rank of accomplices.
The philosophy of the "dark kingdom"
From the very first lines of the play, two elements break into our consciousness: free, wonderful distances, wide horizons and stuffy, thickened atmosphere of a pre-storm, the agonizing expectation of some kind of upheaval and a thirst for renewal. Representatives of the "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm" are horrified by the cataclysms of nature, seeing in them a manifestation of God's wrath and future punishments for sins - obvious and imaginary. Marfa Ignatievna repeats this all the time, echoes her and Dikoy. At Kuligin's request to donate money for the construction of a lightning rod for the townspeople, he reproaches: "The storm was given as a punishment, and you, such and such, want to defend yourself from the Lord with a pole." This remark clearly shows the philosophy that the representatives of the "dark kingdom" adhere to in the play "Thunderstorm": one cannot resist what has dominated for centuries, one cannot go against the will or punishment from above, humility and humility must remain the ethical norms of our time. What is interesting: the main tyrants of Kalinov themselves not only sincerely believe in this order of things, but also recognize it as the only correct one.
hypocrite under the guise of virtue
The "Dark Kingdom" in A. N. Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" has many faces. But its pillars are primarily Dikoy and Kabanova. Marfa Ignatyevna, a portly merchant's wife, the mistress of a house behind whose high fence invisible tears are shed and everyday humiliation of human dignity and free will takes place, is unequivocally named in the play - a hypocrite. They say about her: "He gives alms to the poor, goes to church, is devoutly baptized, and eats at home, sharpens iron like rust." She tries to observe the external laws of antiquity in everything, while not particularly caring about their internal content. The boar knows that the younger ones must obey the elders and demands blind obedience in everything. When Katerina says goodbye to Tikhon before his departure, she makes her bow at the feet of her husband, and her son - to give his wife a strict order on how to behave. There and “do not argue with mother”, and “do not look at the guys” and many other “wishes”. Moreover, all those present are well aware of the farce of the situation, its falsity. And only Marfa Ignatievna revels in her mission. She also played a decisive role in Katerina's tragedy, distorting her son's character, ruining his family life, outraging Katerina's soul and forcing her to take a fatal step from the banks of the Volga into the abyss.
Lies as a law
"The Dark Kingdom" in A. N. Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" is tyranny in its highest manifestation. Katerina, comparing life in her own family and in her husband's family, notices the most important difference: here everything seems to be “out of captivity”. And it is true. Either you obey the inhuman rules of the game, or you will be crushed to powder. Kuligin bluntly states that morals in the city are "cruel". He who is rich tries to enslave the poor in order to increase his fortune on their pennies. The same Dikoy swaggers over Boris, who is dependent on him: "If you please me, I will give the inheritance!" But it is impossible to please a petty tyrant, and the fate of the unfortunate Boris and his sister is predetermined. They will remain humiliated and insulted, powerless and defenseless. Is there a way out? There is: lie, dodge, while possible. This is what Tikhon's sister, Barbara, does. It is simple: do what you want, as long as no one notices anything, everything was “sewn and covered”. And when Katerina objects that she doesn’t know how to dissemble, she can’t lie, Varvara simply tells her: “And I didn’t know how, but it became necessary - I learned!”
Kudryash, Varvara and others
And what are the victims of the "dark kingdom" based on the drama by A. N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" in general? These are people with a broken destiny, crippled souls, a disfigured moral world. The same Tikhon is a kind, gentle person by nature. The tyranny of his mother killed in him the rudiments of his own will. He cannot resist her pressure, he does not know how to resist, and he finds consolation in drunkenness. To support his wife, to take her side, to protect him from the arbitrariness of the boar, is also beyond his power. At his mother's instigation, he beats Katerina, although he takes pity on her. And only the death of his wife makes him openly blame his mother, but it is clear that the fuse will pass very quickly, and everything will remain the same.
Another male character, Vanya Kudryash, is quite another matter. He rebuffs everyone, and even the “piercing” Wild does not let down rudeness. However, this character is also spoiled by the deadening influence of the “dark kingdom”. Curly is a copy of the Wild, only not yet in force, not matured. Time will pass, and he will prove worthy of his master. Barbara, who has become a liar and endures her mother's harassment, eventually runs away from home. The lie has become her second nature, and therefore the heroine evokes our sympathy and compassion. The timid Kuligin rarely dares to defend himself against the impudence of the petty tyrants of the "dark kingdom". In fact, no one, except for Katerina, who, by the way, is also a victim, has sufficient firmness to challenge this "kingdom".
Why Katherine?
The only hero of the work who has the moral determination to condemn the life and customs of the "dark kingdom" in A. N. Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is Katerina. Her naturalness, sincerity, ardent impetuosity, inspiration do not allow her to put up with arbitrariness and violence, to accept the etiquette dictated since Domostroev times. Katerina wants to love, enjoy life, experience natural feelings, be open to the world. Like a bird, she dreams of breaking away from the earth, from the deadly life and soaring into the skies. She is religious, but not boar-like. Her straightforward nature is torn in two by the contradiction between duty towards her husband, love for Boris and awareness of her sinfulness before God. And all this is deeply sincere, from the very depths of the heart. Yes, Katerina is also a victim of the "dark kingdom". However, she managed to break his chains. She shook the age-old foundations. And she was able to point the way out to others - not only by her own death, but by protest in general.
The dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is an allegorical statement familiar to everyone from the light hand of his contemporary, the literary critic Dobrolyubov. This is how Nikolai Ivanovich considered it necessary to characterize the difficult social and moral atmosphere in the cities of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century.
Ostrovsky - a fine connoisseur of Russian life
Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky made a bright breakthrough in Russian drama, for which he received a worthy article-review. He continued the traditions of the Russian national theater, laid down by Fonvizin, Gogol, Griboyedov. In particular, Nikolai Dobrolyubov highly appreciated the playwright's deep knowledge and truthful portrayal of the specifics of Russian life. The Volga city of Kalinov, shown in the play, has become a kind of model for the whole of Russia.
The deep meaning of the allegory "dark kingdom"
The dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is a clear and capacious allegory created by the critic Dobrolyubov, which is based on both a broad socio-economic explanation and a narrower one - a literary one. The latter is formulated in relation to the provincial town of Kalinov, in which Ostrovsky depicted an average (as they say now - average) Russian town of the late 18th century.
The broad meaning of the concept of "dark kingdom"
First, let us characterize the broad meaning of this concept: the dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is a figurative characteristic of the socio-political state of Russia at a certain stage of its development.
After all, a thoughtful reader who is interested in history has a clear idea of what kind of Russia (the end of the 18th century) he is talking about. The huge country, a fragment of which was shown by the playwright in the play, lived in the old fashioned way, at a time when industrialization was dynamically taking place in European countries. The people were socially paralyzed (which was abolished in 1861). Strategic railroads were not built yet. The people in their mass were illiterate, uneducated, superstitious. In fact, the state did little social policy.
Everything in the provincial Kalinov, as it were, is "boiled in its own juice." That is, people are not involved in large projects - production, construction. Their judgments betray complete incompetence in the simplest concepts: for example, in the electrical origin of lightning.
The dark kingdom in Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" is a society devoid of a development vector. The class of the industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat has not yet taken shape ... The financial flows of society have not been formed insufficient for global socio-economic transformations.
The dark kingdom of the city of Kalinov
In a narrow sense, the dark kingdom in the play "Thunderstorm" is a way of life inherent in the bourgeoisie and merchants. According to the description given by Ostrovsky, this community is absolutely dominated by wealthy and arrogant merchants. They constantly carry out psychological pressure on others, not paying attention to their interests. There is no government for these ghouls who "eat with food." For these petty tyrants, money is equivalent to social status, and human and Christian morality is not a decree in their actions. They practically do whatever they please. In particular, realistic, artistically completed images - the merchant Savel Prokopevich Dikoy and the merchant's wife Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova - initiate the "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm". What are these characters? Let's consider them more closely.
The image of the merchant Saveliy Prokofich Wild
Merchant Dikoy is the richest man in Kalinov. However, the consistency in it does not border on the breadth of the soul and hospitality, but on the "cool disposition". And he understands his wolf nature, and wants to somehow change. “About fasting somehow, about a great one, I spoke ...” Yes, tyranny is his second nature. When a “man” comes to him with a request to borrow money, Dikoy rudely humiliates him, moreover, it almost comes to beating the unfortunate man.
Moreover, this psychotype of behavior is always characteristic of him. (“What can I do, my heart is like that!”) That is, he builds his relationships with others on the basis of fear and his dominance. This is his usual pattern of behavior towards people with inferior
This man was not always rich. However, he came to solvency through a primitive, aggressive, established social model of behavior. Relations with others and relatives (in particular, with his nephew), he builds on only one principle: to humiliate them, formally - to deprive them of social rights, and then use them himself. However, having felt a psychological rebuff from a person with equal status (for example, from the widow of a merchant Kabanikhi), he begins to treat him more respectfully, without humiliating him. This is a primitive, two-way scheme of behavior.
Behind rudeness and suspicion (“So you know that you are a worm!”) Greed and self-interest are hidden. For example, in the case of a nephew, he actually disinherits him. Savel Prokofich harbors hatred in his soul for everything around him. His credo is to reflexively crush everyone, crush everyone, clearing the living space for himself. If we lived at this time, such an idiot (excuse the frankness) could well, just in the middle of the street, beat us for nothing, just so that we crossed to the other side of the street, clearing the way for him! But such an image was familiar to serf Russia! Not for nothing, after all, Dobrolyubov called the dark kingdom in the play "Thunderstorm" a sensitive and truthful reflection of Russian reality!
The image of the merchant's wife Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova
The second type of Kalinov's wild morals is the rich merchant widow Kabanikh. Her social model of behavior is not as primitive as that of the merchant Wild. (For some reason, an analogy comes to mind regarding this model: “The poor eyesight of a rhinoceros is a problem of those around it, not the rhinoceros itself!) Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, unlike the merchant Diky, builds her social status gradually. Humiliation is also a tool, but of a completely different kind. She mainly affects members of her family: son Tikhon, daughter Varvara, daughter-in-law Katerina. She puts both her material and moral superiority at the basis of her dominance over others.
Hypocrisy - that's her key to The merchant's wife - a double morality. Formally and outwardly following the Christian cult, it is far from the real merciful Christian consciousness. On the contrary, she interprets her status of churching as a kind of deal with God, believing that she has been given the right not only to teach everyone around her about everything, but also to indicate how they should act.
She does this all the time, completely destroying her son Tikhon as a person, and pushing her daughter-in-law Katerina to commit suicide.
If the merchant Wild, having met on the street, can be bypassed, then the situation is quite different with regard to Kabanikha. So to speak, she continuously, constantly, and not episodically, like Dikoy, "generates" the dark kingdom in the play "Thunderstorm". Quotes from the work characterizing Kabanikha testify: she zombies her loved ones, demanding that Katerina bow to her husband when he enters the house, suggesting that “you can’t argue with mother”, that the husband gives strict orders to his wife, and on occasion beat her ...
Weak attempts to resist tyrants
What opposes the community of the city of Kalinov to the expansion of the two aforementioned tyrants? Yes, practically nothing. They live in a comfortable society for themselves. As Pushkin wrote in "Boris Godunov": "The people are silent ...". Someone who is educated tries to timidly express his opinion, like engineer Kuligin. Someone, like Barbara, crippled himself morally, living a double life: assenting to tyrants and doing what she pleases. And someone is waiting for an internal and tragic protest (like Katerina).
Conclusion
Does the word "tyranny" occur in our everyday life? We hope that for the majority of our readers - much less often than for the inhabitants of the fortress town of Kalinov. Accept sympathy if your boss or someone from the family circle is a tyrant. Nowadays, this phenomenon does not immediately spread to the entire city. However, it does exist in places. And you need to find a way out of it...
Let's return to Ostrovsky's play. Representatives create a "dark kingdom" in the play "Thunderstorm". Their common features are the presence of capital and the desire to dominate society. However, it does not rely on spirituality, creativity, or enlightenment. Hence the conclusion: it is necessary to isolate the tyrant, depriving him of the opportunity to lead, as well as depriving him of communication (boycott). A tyrant is strong as long as he feels the indispensability of his beloved and the demand for his capital.
You should just deprive him of such "happiness". In Kalinov, it was not possible to do this. It's real these days.
The fate of Katerina is the tragedy of a man who is not in his environment. Being among people alien to her, who did not show a drop of understanding towards her, every day she feels a terrible, soul-crushing loneliness.
This story is one of hundreds, if not thousands. Marriage is not for love, the relatives of the husband, who were never destined to become relatives for Katerina herself, and every new day, like two drops of water, is similar to the previous one ... It is unlikely that from the height of our time, at least one of us could fully realize what Katerina actually had to go through, what she had to go through every day. Minute by minute. Hour after hour. Day after day.
The "Dark Kingdom" is the impersonal people deprived of individuality, surrounded by whom Katerina spent her days. Were there many people like her, doomed to loneliness and sunk into oblivion? Ostrovsky immortalized her - and, perhaps, thanks to her, we have the right to think about how many such "dark kingdoms" and "rays of light" were. "Rays of light", which with each new day went out more and more, dimmed, paled, in order to finally disappear forever in this protracted loop of time. And they were immediately replaced by others ...
Katerina, of course, found the least understanding in the face of Kabanikh, her own mother-in-law. The imperious, almost despotic nature of this woman, her desire to totally control the life of her own son and daughter-in-law terribly humiliates the main character. She feels that despite her status as a wife, she still does not have a voice in this family, she is not considered, she is looked down upon and does not want to consider her.
Katerina's husband is, in general, a good and kind person, who, however, is at the mercy of his own mother and does not dare to say a word to her in defiance. Therefore, in his face, she cannot find the main thing that she needs so much - protection from her own mother-in-law, affection and care, the feeling that she is needed and loved. But there is none of that. All that remains is to console herself by talking to Varvara, the sister of Katerina's husband.
It was Varvara who eventually inspired Katerina to escape at least for a while from the "Dark Kingdom", to Boris, who seems to Katerina herself a vague, ghostly hope for a brighter future. She herself understands how shaky this hope is, but it is impossible to live, feeding only on her own light in this pitch darkness. Sometimes you just need a little more light, another light! .. Boris became this light for her, for whom she found a place in her heart.
Did Katerina understand in the depths of her soul that she would not be able to escape from the "Dark Kingdom", that she hoped for a future that would not come true? After all, with all the ardor of her nature, she remains a conscientious person. It is her duty to live with an unloved husband who does not understand her, which her own conscience constantly reminds her of.
Everyone, especially the most desperate act, has and will have consequences. Unfortunately, Katerina, having nevertheless corrected her debt, could not cope with the pangs of conscience. In the depths of her soul, she was ready to stay in the "Dark Kingdom" for the rest of her life, resigned herself to this.
What a terrible executioner the hope that Boris so imprudently gave her can become! Without this meeting, who knows, maybe Katerina would have lived on like this - driven by the duty to be faithful, to respect those who do not respect her, to be with those who are alien to her. Alas, once correcting what she considered her duty, she could no longer live with it.
Having barely realized that there is a life outside the "Dark Kingdom" that she could never become a part of, Katerina could no longer survive the thought that she would have to return to where she accidentally managed to escape at least for a while.
Once having known the taste of another life, in which happiness could have been, which Katerina had never known, she had to return again to that longing with which she had lived for years. Not just to melancholy - to the voice of her conscience, which would never let her live in peace anymore. Was there a way to escape from the "Dark Realm"? Only one. She had to choose death. And she made her choice.
