I option

The drama "Thunderstorm" is a milestone work by A. N. Ostrovsky. The action takes place in the city of Kalinov, standing on the banks of the beautiful Volga River.

The city of Kalinov is described in detail, concretely and in many ways. An important role in the drama is played by the landscape, which is described not only in the author's remarks, but also in the dialogues of the characters. Some see its beauty, others are indifferent to it. The high Volga bank and the distance beyond the river determine the motive of the flight, inseparable from Katerina.

Beautiful nature, pictures of the nightly festivities of young people, songs that sound in act III - all this is the poetry of the city of Kalinov. But in the life of the city there is also a bleak prose: the everyday cruelty of the inhabitants to each other, the inevitable poverty and lack of rights of the majority of the townspeople.

From action to action, the feeling of being lost to Salinov intensifies. The life of this city is completely closed and unchanged. Residents do not see anything new and do not want to know about other lands and countries. And about their past, they retained only dark, devoid of connection and meaning legends (like the legend about Lithuania, which “fell to us from the sky”). Life in Kalinovo freezes, dries up, the past is forgotten, "there are hands, but there is nothing to work." The wanderer Feklusha brings news from the big world to the inhabitants of this city, and they trustfully listen to stories about countries where people with dog heads “for infidelity”, about the railway, where “they began to harness the fire serpent” for speed.

Among the characters in the play there is no one who does not belong to the world of this city. Lively and meek, domineering and oppressed, merchants and clerks - they all revolve in this closed patriarchal world. Not only obscure Kalinovskie townsfolk, but also Kuligin, who, at first glance, is the bearer of progressive views, is the flesh of the flesh of this world. He is a self-taught mechanic, but all his technical ideas are an obvious anachronism for the 30s of the 19th century, to which the action of the Thunderstorm is attributed. The sundial he dreams about comes from antiquity, the “perpetuum mobile” is a typical medieval idea, the unrealizability of which was not in doubt in the 19th century. Kuligin is a dreamer and a poet, but he writes "in the old way", like Lomonosov and Derzhavin. Kind and gentle, dreaming of changing the life of Kalinov's poor, having received an award for discovering a perpetual motion machine, he seems to his fellow countrymen to be something like an urban holy fool.

Only one person does not belong to the inhabitants of this city by birth and upbringing - Boris. He feels like a stranger, he is not used to local customs, but he recognizes the power of the laws of this city over himself. That is why he behaves as if he is financially dependent on the Wild or is obliged to obey him as the eldest in the family.

The city of Kalinov is not just a setting for a drama. This is a symbol of the patriarchal merchant life with its poetry and cruelty. It is a symbol of all Russia.

II option

A. H. Ostrovsky entered the history of Russian art as the co-creator of the realistic "folk theater", the creator of a rich and diverse world of artistic types. One of his outstanding works is the drama "Thunderstorm". N. Krutikova in the article “Creator of the Folk Theatre” writes that “Thunderstorm” appears to be “specifically national, having only local, ethnographic significance”, and then immediately clarifies that “within the framework of the old merchant life, within one family, Ostrovsky raised fundamental social problems, created images of world significance.

The action of the drama takes place on the banks of the deep, wide Russian river Volga, which is a symbol of the Russian soul. Here, as Kuligin says, “the view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices." Against this background, the image of a dark, deceitful merchant city is especially clearly drawn, where “by honest work we will never earn more daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, he tries to enslave the poor, so that he can make even more money on his gratuitous labors.

The rulers of the city, legislators, executors and judges at the same time in it are the limited, quarrelsome Kabanikha and the unbridled tyrant Wild. They are the main force of the dark kingdom. The first is known for its despotic character, which is based on the dogma of subordinating all actions to the charter, and the charter is not written, but ossified in her dark head: everything must be done “as expected” (“Why are you standing, don’t you know the order? Order wife, how to live without you”). The second is an unreasonable boor and a warrior in the “war with the women”, a petty, mean and stingy old man, guided by the principle “I won’t pay them any pennies per person, but I make up a thousand of this, so it’s good for me !"

Among the ignorant and hypocritical rich of the city, who lock themselves in their homes not from thieves and not because of piety, but “so that people do not see how they eat their own food and tyrannize their families,” young people are the true treasure: Katerina , Varvara, Kudryash, trying to fight the darkness and boredom of Kalinov. Kuligin, who not only clearly sees the life that this city lives, but also tries to somehow really help the inhabitants: he persuades Diky to donate money for the construction of clocks and a lightning rod, besides offers his labor free of charge and selflessly.

Ural State Pedagogical University

Test

according to Russian literature of the 19th (2nd) century

4th year students of the correspondence department

IFC and MK

Agapova Anastasia Anatolievna

Ekaterinburg

2011

Subject: The image of the city of Kalinov in the "Thunderstorm" by A. N. Ostrovsky.

Plan:

1. Brief biography of the writer
2. The image of the city of Kalinov
3. Conclusion
4. Bibliography

1. Brief biography of the writer

Nikolai Alekseevich Ostrovsky was born on September 29 in the village of Viliya, Volyn province, into a working-class family. He worked as an electrician's assistant, from 1923 - in a leading Komsomol job. In 1927, Ostrovsky was bedridden by progressive paralysis, and a year later the future writer became blind, but, “continuing to fight for the ideas of communism,” he decided to take up literature. In the early 1930s, the autobiographical novel How the Steel Was Tempered (1935) was written - one of the textbook works of Soviet literature. In 1936, the novel Born by the Storm was published, which the author did not have time to finish. Nikolai Ostrovsky died on December 22, 1936.

1. The history of the creation of the story "Thunderstorm"

The play was begun by Alexander Ostrovsky in July and finished on October 9, 1859. The manuscript is kept inRussian State Library.

The personal drama of the writer is also connected with the writing of the play "Thunderstorm". In the play's manuscript, next to Katerina's famous monologue: “And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens, and everyone sings invisible voices ... "(5), there is a note by Ostrovsky:" I heard from L.P. about the same dream ... ". L.P. is an actressLyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya, with which the young playwright had a very difficult personal relationship: both had families. The husband of the actress was an artist of the Maly TheaterI. M. Nikulin. And Alexander Nikolayevich also had a family: he lived in a civil marriage with a commoner Agafya Ivanovna, with whom he had children in common - they all died as children. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for nearly twenty years.

It was Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya who served as the prototype for the image of the heroine of the play Katerina, she also became the first performer of the role.

In 1848, Alexander Ostrovsky went with his family to Kostroma, to the Shchelykovo estate. The natural beauty of the Volga region struck the playwright, and then he thought about the play. For a long time it was believed that the plot of the drama "Thunderstorm" was taken by Ostrovsky from the life of the Kostroma merchants. Kostromichi at the beginning of the 20th century could accurately indicate the place of Katerina's suicide.

In his play, Ostrovsky raises the problem of the turning point in public life that occurred in the 1850s, the problem of changing social foundations.

5 Ostrovsky A.N. Thunderstorm. State Publishing House of Fiction. Moscow, 1959.

3. The image of the city of Kalinov

One of the masterpieces of Ostrovsky and all Russian dramaturgy is considered to be "Thunderstorm". The Thunderstorm is, without a doubt, Ostrovsky's most decisive work.

Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" shows the ordinary provincial life of the provincial merchant town of Kalinov. It is located on the high bank of the Russian Volga River. The Volga is a great Russian river, a natural parallel of the Russian destiny, the Russian soul, the Russian character, which means that everything that happens on its banks is understandable and easily recognizable by every Russian person. The view from the beach is divine. The Volga appears here in all its glory. The town itself is no different from others: merchant houses in abundance, a church, a boulevard.

Residents lead their own special way of life. In the capital, life is changing rapidly, but here everything is the old fashioned way. Monotonous and slow flow of time. The elders instruct the younger ones in everything, and the younger ones are afraid to stick their nose out. There are few visitors to the city, so everyone is mistaken for a foreigner, as an overseas curiosity.

The heroes of "Thunderstorm" live without even suspecting how ugly and dark their existence is. For some of them, the city is a “paradise”, and if it is not ideal, then at least it represents the traditional structure of the society of that time. Others do not accept either the situation or the city itself, which gave rise to this situation. And at the same time, they constitute an unenviable minority, while others remain completely neutral.

Residents of the city, without realizing it, are afraid that just a story about another city, about other people can dispel the illusion of well-being in their "promised land". In the remark that precedes the text, the author determines the place and time of the drama. This is no longer Zamoskvorechye, so characteristic of many of Ostrovsky's plays, but the city of Kalinov on the banks of the Volga. The city is fictional, in it you can see the features of a variety of Russian cities. The landscape background of the "Thunderstorm" also gives a certain emotional mood, allowing, by contrast, to feel the stuffy atmosphere of the life of Kalinovites more sharply.

Events unfold in the summer, between 3 and 4 actions 10 days pass. The playwright does not say in what year the events take place, you can put any year - so characteristically described in the play for Russian life in the provinces. Ostrovsky specifically stipulates that everyone is dressed in Russian, only Boris's costume corresponds to European standards, which have already penetrated into the life of the Russian capital. This is how new touches appear in the outline of the way of life in the city of Kalinov. Time seems to have stopped here, and life turned out to be closed, impenetrable to new trends.

The main people of the city are tyrant merchants who try to "enslave the poor so that they can make even more money on his gratuitous labors." They keep in complete subordination not only employees, but also household members who are entirely dependent on them and therefore unrequited. Considering themselves right in everything, they are sure that it is on them that the light rests, and therefore they force all households to strictly comply with house-building orders and rituals. Their religiosity is distinguished by the same rites: they go to church, observe fasts, receive wanderers, generously give them gifts and at the same time tyrannize their households “And what tears flow behind these locks, invisible and inaudible! The inner, moral side of religion is completely alien to Wild and Kabanova representatives of the "Dark Kingdom" of the City of Kalinov.

The playwright creates a closed patriarchal world: Kalinovtsy do not know about the existence of other lands and innocently believe the stories of the townspeople:

What is Lithuania? - So it is Lithuania. - And they say, my brother, she fell on us from the sky ... I don’t know how to tell you, from the sky, so from the sky ..

Feklushi:

I ... did not go far, but to hear - I heard a lot ...

And then there is also the land where all the people with dog heads ... For infidelity.

That there are distant countries where “Turkish Saltan Maxnut” and “Persian Saltan Mahnut” rule.

Here you are ... it’s rare that someone will go out to sit outside the gate ... but in Moscow there are amusement and games along the streets, sometimes there is a groan ... Why, they began to harness the fiery serpent ...

The world of the city is still and closed: its inhabitants have a vague idea of ​​their past and do not know anything about what is happening outside of Kalinov. The absurd stories of Feklusha and the townspeople create distorted ideas about the world among the Kalinovites, instill fear in their souls. It brings darkness, ignorance into society, mourns the end of the good old times, condemns the new order. The new imperiously enters life, undermines the foundations of the house-building orders. Feklusha's words about "last times" sound symbolic. She strives to win over those around her, so the tone of her speech is insinuating, flattering.

The life of the city of Kalinov is reproduced in volume, with detailed details. The city appears on the stage, with its streets, houses, beautiful nature, citizens. The reader, as it were, sees with his own eyes the beauty of Russian nature. Here, on the banks of the free river, sung by the people, the tragedy that shook Kalinov will happen. And the first words in "Thunderstorm" are the words of a well-known spacious song that Kuligin sings - a person who deeply feels beauty:

In the middle of a flat valley, at a smooth height, a tall oak blossoms and grows. In mighty beauty.

Silence, the air is excellent, because of the Volga, the meadows smell of flowers, the sky is clear ... The abyss of stars has opened up full ...
Miracles, truly it must be said, miracles! ... For fifty years every day I have been looking beyond the Volga and I can’t see enough!
The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices! Delight! Take a closer look, or you don’t understand what beauty is spilled in nature. -he says (5). However, next to poetry there is a completely different, unattractive, repulsive side of Kalinov's reality. It is revealed in Kuligin's assessments, felt in the conversations of the characters, sounds in the prophecies of the half-mad lady.

The only enlightened person in the play, Kuligin, looks like an eccentric in the eyes of the townspeople. Naive, kind, honest, he does not oppose Kalinov's world, humbly endures not only ridicule, but also rudeness, insult. However, it is he who is instructed by the author to characterize the "dark kingdom".

One gets the impression that Kalinov is fenced off from the whole world and lives some kind of special, closed life. But is it possible to say that in other places life is completely different? No, this is a typical picture of the Russian provinces and the wild customs of the patriarchal way of life. Stagnation.

There is no clear description of the city of Kalinov in the play.But, reading carefully, you can vividly imagine the outlines of the town and its inner life.

5 Ostrovsky A. N. Thunderstorm. State Publishing House of Fiction. Moscow, 1959.

The central position in the play is occupied by the image of the main character Katerina Kabanova. For her, the city is a cage from which she is not destined to escape. The main reason for this attitude of Katerina to the city is that she knew the contrast. Her happy childhood and serene youth passed, first of all, under the sign of freedom. Having married and found herself in Kalinovo, Katerina felt like she was in prison. The city and the situation prevailing in it (traditionality and patriarchy) only aggravate the position of the heroine. Her suicide - a challenge given to the city - was committed on the basis of Katerina's internal state and the surrounding reality.
Boris, a hero who also came "from outside", develops a similar point of view. Probably, their love was due to this. In addition, for him, like for Katerina, the main role in the family is played by the "domestic tyrant" Dikoy, who is a direct product of the city and is a direct part of it.
The above can be fully attributed to Kabanikha. But for her, the city is not ideal, old traditions and foundations are crumbling before her eyes. Kabanikha is one of those who are trying to preserve them, but only "Chinese ceremonies" remain.
On the basis of the differences between the heroes, the main conflict grows - the struggle of the old, the patriarchal and the new, reason and ignorance. The city has given birth to people like Dikoi and Kabanikha, they (and wealthy merchants like them) run the show. And all the shortcomings of the city are fueled by morals and the environment, which in turn are supported by all the forces of Kabanikh and Wild.
The artistic space of the play is closed, it is enclosed exclusively in the city of Kalinov, the more difficult it is to find a way for those who are trying to escape from the city. In addition, the city is static, like its main inhabitants. Therefore, the stormy Volga contrasts so sharply with the immobility of the city. The river embodies movement. Any movement is perceived by the city as extremely painful.
At the very beginning of the play, Kuligin, who is somewhat similar to Katerina, talks about the surrounding landscape. He sincerely admires the beauty of the natural world, although Kuligin perfectly imagines the internal structure of the city of Kalinov. Not many characters can see and admire the world around them, especially in the setting of the "dark kingdom". For example, Curly does not notice anything, as he tries not to notice the cruel customs reigning around him. A natural phenomenon shown in Ostrovsky's work - a thunderstorm is also viewed by the inhabitants of the city in different ways (by the way, according to one of the heroes, a thunderstorm is a frequent occurrence in Kalinovo, which makes it possible to classify it as part of the city's landscape). For the Wild Thunderstorm, it is an event given to people for testing by God, for Katerina it is a symbol of the near end of her drama, a symbol of fear. One Kuligin perceives a thunderstorm as an ordinary natural phenomenon, which one can even rejoice at.

The town is small, so from a high point on the coast, where the public garden is located, the fields of nearby villages are visible. The houses in the city are wooden, each house has a flower garden. This was the case almost everywhere in Russia. Katerina used to live in such a house. She recalls: “I used to get up early; if it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring water with me and that’s it, water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers. Then we'll go to church with mommy ... "
The church is the main place in any village in Russia. The people were very pious, and the most beautiful part of the city was assigned to the church. It was built on a hill and had to be visible from everywhere in the city. Kalinov was no exception, and the church in it was a meeting place for all residents, a source of all talk and gossip. Walking by the church, Kuligin tells Boris about the order of life here: “Cruel morals in our city,” he says, “In philistinism, sir, you will not see anything except rudeness and initial poverty” (4). Money does everything - that's the motto of that life. And yet, the writer's love for cities like Kalinov is felt in discreet but warm descriptions of local landscapes.

"Silence, the air is great, because of.

Volga servants smell of flowers, unclean ... "

It makes you want to find yourself in that place, to walk along the boulevard with the residents. After all, the boulevard is also one of the main places in small, and even large cities. On the boulevard in the evening goes for a walk the whole estate.
Before, when there were no museums, cinemas, television, the boulevard was the main place of entertainment. Mothers took their daughters there as if they were bridesmaids, couples proved the strength of their union, and young people looked for future wives. But nevertheless, the life of the townsfolk is boring and monotonous. For people with a lively and sensitive nature, such as Katerina, this life is a burden. It sucks like a quagmire, and there is no way to get out of it, to change something. On this high note of tragedy, the life of the main character of the play, Katerina, ends. "It's better in the grave," she says. She was able to get out of the monotony and boredom only in this way. Concluding her "protest driven to despair", Katerina draws attention to the same despair of other residents of the city of Kalinov. This despair is expressed in different ways. It, by

Dobrolyubov's designation fits into various types of social clashes: the younger with the older, the unrequited with the willful, the poor with the rich. After all, Ostrovsky, bringing the inhabitants of Kalinov to the stage, draws a panorama of the morals of not one city, but the whole society, where a person depends only on wealth that gives strength, whether he is a fool or a clever one, a nobleman or a commoner.

The very title of the play has a symbolic meaning. A thunderstorm in nature is perceived differently by the characters of the play: for Kuligin it is a “grace”, which “every ... grass, every flower rejoices”, Kalinovtsy hide from it, as from “what kind of misfortune”. The storm intensifies Katerina's spiritual drama, her tension, influencing the very outcome of this drama. The storm gives the play not only emotional tension, but also a pronounced tragic flavor. At the same time, N. A. Dobrolyubov saw something “refreshing and encouraging” in the finale of the drama. It is known that Ostrovsky himself, who attached great importance to the title of the play, wrote to the playwright N. Ya.

In The Thunderstorm, the playwright often uses the techniques of parallelism and antithesis in the system of images and directly in the plot itself, in depicting pictures of nature. The reception of antithesis is especially pronounced: in contrasting the two main characters - Katerina and Kabanikh; in the composition of the third act, the first scene (at the gates of Kabanova's house) and the second (night meeting in the ravine) differ sharply from each other; in the depiction of pictures of nature and, in particular, the approach of a thunderstorm in the first and fourth acts.

1. Conclusion

Ostrovsky in his play showed a fictitious city, but it looks extremely authentic. The author saw with pain how politically, economically and culturally backward Russia was, how dark the population of the country was, especially in the provinces.

Ostrovsky not only recreates the panorama of urban life in detail, concretely and multilaterally, but also, using various dramatic means and techniques, introduces elements of the natural world and the world of distant cities and countries into the artistic world of the play. The peculiarity of seeing the surroundings, inherent in the townspeople, creates the effect of a fantastic, incredible “lostness” of Kalinov's life.

A special role in the play is played by the landscape, which is described not only in the stage directions, but also in the dialogues of the characters. One can see its beauty, others have looked at it and are completely indifferent. Kalinovtsy not only "fenced off, isolated" themselves from other cities, countries, lands, they made their souls, their consciousness immune to the influence of the natural world, a world full of life, harmony, higher meaning.

People who perceive the environment in this way are ready to believe in anything, even the most incredible, so long as it does not threaten the destruction of their "quiet, paradise life." This position is based on fear, psychological unwillingness to change something in one's life. So the playwright creates not only an external, but also an internal, psychological background for the tragic story of Katerina.

"Thunderstorm" is a drama with a tragic denouement, the author uses satirical techniques, on the basis of which a negative attitude of readers towards Kalinov and his typical representatives is formed. He especially introduces satire to show the ignorance and lack of education of the Kalinovites.

Thus, Ostrovsky creates an image of a city traditional for the first half of the 19th century. Shows the author through the eyes of his characters. The image of Kalinov is collective, the author was well aware of the merchant class and the environment in which it developed. So, with the help of different points of view of the heroes of the play "Thunderstorm", Ostrovsky creates a complete picture of the county merchant city of Kalinov.

1. Bibliography

1. Anastasiev A. "Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky. "Fiction" Moscow, 1975.
2. Kachurin M. G., Motolskaya D. K. Russian literature. Moscow, Education, 1986.
3. Lobanov P. P. Ostrovsky. Moscow, 1989.
4. Ostrovsky A. N. Selected works. Moscow, Children's Literature, 1965.

5. Ostrovsky A. N. Thunderstorm. State Publishing House of Fiction. Moscow, 1959.

6. http://referati.vladbazar.com

7. http://www.litra.ru/com

The theatrical season of 1859 was marked by a bright event - the premiere of the work "Thunderstorm" by playwright Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky. Against the background of the rise of the democratic movement for the abolition of serfdom, his play was more than relevant. Immediately upon writing, it was literally torn from the hands of the author: the production of the play, completed in July, was on the St. Petersburg stage already in August!

A fresh look at Russian reality

A clear innovation was the image shown to the viewer in Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm". The playwright, who was born in a Moscow merchant district, thoroughly knew the world he presented to the audience, inhabited by philistines and merchants. The tyranny of the merchants and the poverty of the philistines reached completely ugly forms, which, of course, was facilitated by the notorious serfdom.

Realistic, as if written off from life, the production (in the beginning - in St. Petersburg) made it possible for people buried in everyday affairs to suddenly see the world in which they live from the outside. It's no secret - mercilessly ugly. Hopeless. Indeed - the "dark kingdom". What they saw was a shock to people.

Average image of a provincial town

The image of the "lost" city in Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" was associated not only with the capital. The author, working on the material for his play, purposefully visited a number of settlements in Russia, creating typical, collective images: Kostroma, Tver, Yaroslavl, Kineshma, Kalyazin. Thus, the city dweller saw from the stage a broad picture of life in central Russia. In Kalinovo, a Russian city dweller recognized the world in which he lived. It was like a revelation that needed to be seen, realized...

It would be unfair not to note that Alexander Ostrovsky adorned his work with one of the most remarkable female images in Russian classical literature. The model for creating the image of Katerina for the author was the actress Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya. Ostrovsky simply inserted her type, manner of speaking, remarks into the plot.

The radical protest against the "dark kingdom" chosen by the heroine - suicide - was not original either. After all, there was no shortage of stories when, among the merchants, a person was “eaten alive” behind “high fences” (the expressions are taken from the story of Savel Prokofich to the mayor). Reports of such suicides periodically appeared in Ostrovsky's contemporary press.

Kalinov as a kingdom of unfortunate people

The image of the "lost" city in Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" really was like a fairy-tale "dark kingdom". Very few truly happy people lived there. If ordinary people worked hopelessly, leaving only three hours a day for sleep, then employers tried to enslave them to an even greater extent in order to enrich themselves even more from the work of the unfortunate.

Wealthy townspeople - merchants - fenced themselves off from their fellow citizens with tall fences and gates. However, according to the same merchant Dikiy, there is no happiness behind these locks, because they fenced themselves off “not from thieves”, but so that it would not be visible how “the rich ... eat homemade food”. And they are behind these fences "robbing relatives, nephews ...". They beat the household so that they "do not dare to utter a word."

Apologists of the "dark kingdom"

Obviously, the image of the "lost" city in Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm" is not independent at all. The richest citizen is the merchant Wild Savel Prokofich. This is a type of a person who is unscrupulous in his means, who is used to humiliating ordinary people and underpaying them for their work. So, in particular, he himself tells about the episode when a peasant asks him to borrow money. Savel Prokofich himself cannot explain why he then went into a rage: he cursed, and then almost killed the unfortunate ...

He is also a real tyrant for his kindred. His wife daily begs visitors not to anger the merchant. His domestic rampage makes the household hide from this petty tyrant in pantries and attics.

Negative images in the drama "Thunderstorm" are also complemented by the rich widow of the merchant Kabanov - Marfa Ignatievna. She, unlike Wild, "eats" her family. Moreover, Kabanikha (such is her street nickname) is trying to completely subjugate the household to her will. Her son Tikhon is completely devoid of independence, is a miserable likeness of a man. Daughter Barbara "did not break", but she changed radically internally. Deception and secrecy became her principles of life. “So that everything is sewn and covered,” as Varenka herself claims.

The daughter-in-law, Katerina Kabanikha, is driven to suicide, extorting compliance with the far-fetched old Testament order: to bow to the incoming husband, “howl in public”, seeing off the spouse. Critic Dobrolyubov in the article "A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom" writes about this mockery as follows: "Gnawing for a long time and relentlessly."

Ostrovsky - Columbus of merchant life

The characterization of the drama "Thunderstorm" was given in the press at the beginning of the 19th century. Ostrovsky was called "the Columbus of the patriarchal merchant class". His childhood and youth were spent in the area of ​​Moscow populated by merchants, and as a court clerk, he more than once came across the "dark side" of the life of various "Wild" and "Boars". What was previously hidden from society behind the high fences of mansions has become clear. The play caused a significant resonance in society. Contemporaries recognized that the dramatic masterpiece raises a large layer of problems of Russian society.

Conclusion

The reader, getting acquainted with the work of Alexander Ostrovsky, will certainly discover a special, non-personalized character - the city in the drama "Thunderstorm". This city has created real monsters that oppress people: Wild and Boar. They are an integral part of the "dark kingdom".

It is noteworthy that it is these characters who do their best to support the dark patriarchal senselessness of the house-building in the city of Kalinov, personally planting misanthropic morals in it. The city as a character is static. He seemed to be frozen in his development. At the same time, it is palpable that the "dark kingdom" in the drama "Thunderstorm" is living out its days. The family of Kabanikhi is collapsing... He expresses fears about his mental health. Wild... The townspeople understand that the beauty of the nature of the Volga region is dissonant with the heavy moral atmosphere of the city.

A brief description of the city of Kalinov in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"

The city of Kalinov is a province far behind in terms of development. Here, it seems, everything is frozen, and will never budge - it will remain under a layer of dust and a web of ignorance.

In this web, in their "dark kingdom", petty tyrants and tyrants dominate entirely, entangling the city with a network of deceptions and lies. They have established their power so much that the second half of the inhabitants, the so-called "oppressed", do nothing for their own liberation, and prefer to step aside, submit to the cruel elements.

Needless to say, self-interest and greed reign in the city; for it was with the help of money that the oppressors acquired their dubious authority. Everything: the fragmentation of society, fear, greed and self-confidence - all this is the fault of money, which someone has a lot of, and someone has too little to strengthen their position. Society is rotten through and through, and it does not strive, and therefore will never achieve, the beauty of feelings and the breadth of the mind; the larger devours the smaller, and the ignoramuses from the "dark side" of the city are pulling the few who still retained some kind of sincerity in themselves to the bottom. And they dare not resist.

The only thing that has retained its original purity is nature, which is gaining all its strength here, and in the end bursts into violent thunderstorms, as if in protest against people hardened from within.

Dramatic events of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm" are deployed in the city of Kalinov. This town is located on the picturesque bank of the Volga, from the high steepness of which the vast Russian expanses and boundless distances open up to the eye. “The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices, ”the local self-taught mechanic Kuligin admires.
Pictures of endless distances, echoed in a lyrical song. In the midst of a flat valley”, which he sings, are of great importance for conveying a sense of the immense possibilities of Russian life, on the one hand, and the limited life in a small merchant town, on the other.

Magnificent pictures of the Volga landscape are organically woven into the structure of the play. At first glance, they contradict its dramatic nature, but in fact they introduce new colors into the scene, thus fulfilling an important artistic function: the play begins with a picture of a steep coast, and ends with it. Only in the first case, it gives rise to a feeling of something majestic, beautiful and bright, and in the second - catharsis. The landscape also serves to more vividly depict the characters - Kuligin and Katerina, who subtly feel its beauty, on the one hand, and everyone who is indifferent to it, on the other. The brilliant playwright recreated the scene of action so carefully that we can visually imagine the city Kalinov, immersed in greenery, as he is depicted in the play. We see its high fences, and gates with strong locks, and wooden houses with patterned shutters and colored window curtains lined with geraniums and balsams. We also see taverns where people like Dikoy and Tikhon are drinking in a drunken stupor. We see the dusty streets of Kalinovka, where townsfolk, merchants and wanderers talk on benches in front of houses, and where sometimes a song is heard from afar to the accompaniment of a guitar, and behind the gates of houses a descent to a ravine begins, where young people have fun at night. Our gaze opens a gallery with vaults of dilapidated buildings; a public garden with pavilions, pink bell towers and ancient gilded churches, where the “noble families” walk with dignity and where the social life of this small merchant town unfolds. Finally, we see the Volga whirlpool, in the abyss of which Katerina is destined to find her last refuge.

The inhabitants of Kalinovo lead a sleepy, measured existence: "They go to bed very early, so it is difficult for an unaccustomed person to endure such a sleepy night." On holidays, they gracefully walk along the boulevard, but “they do one thing, that they walk, but they themselves go there to show their outfits.” The townsfolk are superstitious and submissive, they have no desire for culture, science, they are not interested in new ideas and thoughts. Sources of news, rumors are wanderers, pilgrims, "walkers". The basis of relationships between people in Kalinov is material dependence. Here, money is everything. “Cruel morals, sir, in our city, cruel! - says Kuligin, referring to a new person in the city, Boris. - In philistinism, sir, you will see nothing but rudeness and naked poverty. And we, sir, will never get out of this bark. Because honest labor will never earn us more daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor so that he can make even more money for his free labors ... ” Speaking of moneybags, Kuligin vigilantly notices their mutual enmity, spider struggle, litigation, addiction to slander, manifestation of greed and envy. He testifies: “And among themselves, sir, how they live! They undermine each other's trade, and not so much out of self-interest, but out of envy. They quarrel with each other; they lure drunken clerks into their tall mansions ... And they ... scribble malicious clauses on their neighbors. And they will begin, sir, the court and the case, and there will be no end to the torment.

A vivid figurative expression of the manifestation of rudeness and enmity that reigns in Kalinovo is the ignorant tyrant Savel Prokofich Dikoi, a "scold" and "shrill man", as its inhabitants characterize. Endowed with an unbridled disposition, he intimidated his family (dispersed "in attics and closets"), terrorizes his nephew Boris, who "got him a sacrifice" and on which, according to Kudryash, he constantly "rides". He also mocks other townspeople, shortchanges, "swings" over them, "as his heart desires", rightly believing that there is no one to "appease" him anyway. Scolding, swearing for any reason is not only the usual treatment of people, it is his nature, his character, the content of his whole life.

Another personification of the "cruel morals" of the city of Kalinov is Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, "a hypocrite", as the same Kuligin characterizes her. “She clothes the poor, but completely eats the household.” The boar firmly stands guard over the established order established in her house, jealously guarding this life from the fresh wind of change. She cannot come to terms with the fact that the young did not like her way of life, that they want to live differently. She doesn't swear like Dikoy. She has her own methods of intimidation, she corrosively, “like rusty iron”, “grinds” her loved ones.

Wild and Kabanova (one - rudely and openly, the other - "under the guise of piety") poison the lives of those around them, suppressing them, subordinating them to their orders, destroying their bright feelings. For them, the loss of power is the loss of everything in which they see the meaning of existence. Therefore, they so hate new customs, honesty, sincerity in the manifestation of feelings, the inclination of young people to "will."

A special role in the "dark kingdom" belongs to such as the ignorant, deceitful and impudent wanderer-beggar Feklusha. She "wanders" through towns and villages, collecting absurd tales and fantastic stories - about belittling time, about people with dog heads, about scattering tares, about a fiery serpent. It seems that she deliberately misrepresents what she heard, that it gives her pleasure to spread all these gossip and ridiculous rumors - thanks to this, she is willingly accepted in the houses of Kalinov and similar towns. Feklusha fulfills his mission not disinterestedly: here they will feed, here they will give to drink, there they will give presents. The image of Feklusha, personifying evil, hypocrisy and gross ignorance, was very typical for the environment depicted. Such feklushi, peddlers of absurd news, clouding the minds of the townsfolk, and pilgrims were necessary for the owners of the city, as they supported the authority of their government.

Finally, another colorful exponent of the cruel customs of the "dark kingdom" is a half-crazy lady in the play. She rudely and cruelly threatens the death of someone else's beauty. These are her terrible prophecies, sounding like the voice of tragic rock, receive their bitter confirmation in the finale. In the article "A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom" N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote: “In The Thunderstorm, the need for so-called “unnecessary faces” is especially visible: without them, we cannot understand the heroine’s faces and can easily distort the meaning of the whole play ...”

Wild, Kabanova, Feklusha and the half-mad lady - representatives of the older generation - are the spokesmen for the worst aspects of the old world, its darkness, mysticism and cruelty. These characters have nothing to do with the past, rich in its original culture, its traditions. But in the city of Kalinov, in conditions that suppress, break and paralyze the will, representatives of the younger generation also live. Someone, like Katerina, who is closely connected with the way of the city and dependent on it, lives and suffers, strives to escape from it, and someone, like Varvara, Kudryash, Boris and Tikhon, resigns himself, accepts its laws or finds ways to come to terms with them .

Tikhon - the son of Marfa Kabanova and the husband of Katerina - is endowed by nature with a gentle, quiet disposition. There is in him kindness, and responsiveness, and the ability to make a sound judgment, and the desire to break free from the vice in which he found himself, but weak-willedness and timidity outweigh his positive qualities. He is accustomed to unquestioningly obey his mother, to do everything that she requires, and is not able to show disobedience. He is unable to truly appreciate the extent of Katerina's suffering, unable to penetrate into her spiritual world. Only in the finale, this weak-willed, but internally contradictory person, rises to an open condemnation of the tyranny of the mother.

Boris, "a young man of decent education", is the only one who does not belong to the Kalinov world by birth. This is a mentally soft and delicate, simple and modest person, besides, his education, manners, and speech are noticeably different from most Kalinovites. He does not understand local customs, but is unable to defend himself from the insults of the Savage, nor "to resist the dirty tricks that others do." Katerina sympathizes with his dependent, humiliated position. But we can only sympathize with Katerina - she happened to meet on her way a weak-willed person, subject to the whims and whims of her uncle and doing nothing to change this situation. N.A. was right. Dobrolyubov, who claimed that "Boris is not a hero, he is far from Katerina, she fell in love with him in the wilderness."

Cheerful and cheerful Barbara - the daughter of Kabanikha and the sister of Tikhon - is a life-blooded image, but some kind of spiritual primitiveness emanates from her, starting with actions and everyday behavior and ending with her reasoning about life and rudely cheeky speech. She adapted, learned to be cunning so as not to obey her mother. She is way too down to earth. Such is her protest - an escape with Kudryash, who is well acquainted with the customs of the merchant environment, but lives easily "without hesitation. Barbara, who has learned to live guided by the principle: “Do whatever you want, if only it was sewn and covered,” expressed her protest at the everyday level, but on the whole lives according to the laws of the “dark kingdom” and in her own way finds agreement with it.

Kuligin, a local self-taught mechanic, who in the play acts as a "revealer of vices", sympathizes with the poor, is concerned about improving people's lives by receiving an award for the discovery of a perpetual motion machine. He is an opponent of superstition, a champion of knowledge, science, creativity, enlightenment, but his own knowledge is not enough for him.
He does not see an active way to resist tyrants, and therefore prefers to submit. It is clear that this is not the person who is able to bring novelty and freshness to the life of the city of Kalinov.

Among the actors in the drama, there is no one, except Boris, who would not belong to the Kalinov world by birth or upbringing. All of them revolve in the sphere of concepts and ideas of a closed patriarchal environment. But life does not stand still, and tyrants feel that their power is limited. “Besides them, without asking them,” says N.A. Dobrolyubov, another life has grown, with other beginnings ... "

Of all the characters, only Katerina - a deeply poetic nature, full of high lyricism - is directed to the future. Because, as academician N.N. Skatov, “Katerina was brought up not only in the narrow world of a merchant family, she was born not only in the patriarchal world, but in the whole world of national, folk life, which is already spilling over the boundaries of patriarchy.” Katerina embodies the spirit of this world, its dream, its impulse. Only she alone was able to express her protest, proving, albeit at the cost of her own life, that the end of the "dark kingdom" was near. By creating such an expressive image of A.N. Ostrovsky showed that even in the ossified world of a provincial town, a “folk character of amazing beauty and strength” can arise, whose pen is based on love, on a free dream of justice, beauty, some kind of higher truth.

Poetic and prosaic, sublime and mundane, human and bestial - these principles are paradoxically combined in the life of a provincial Russian town, but, unfortunately, darkness and oppressive melancholy prevail in this life, which N.A. Dobrolyubov, calling this world a "dark kingdom". This phraseologism is of fabulous origin, but the merchant world of the Thunderstorm, we were convinced of this, is devoid of that poetic, enigmatic, mysterious and captivating, which is usually characteristic of a fairy tale. "Cruel morals" reign in this city, cruel ...

• In general, the history of the creation and the idea of ​​the play “Thunderstorm” are very interesting. For some time there was an assumption that this work was based on real events that took place in the Russian city of Kostroma in 1859. “In the early morning of November 10, 1859, the Kostroma bourgeois Alexandra Pavlovna Klykova disappeared from the house and either threw herself into the Volga, or was strangled and thrown there. The investigation revealed a dull drama that played out in an unsociable family living with narrowly trading interests: […]
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• Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was endowed with a great talent as a playwright. He is deservedly considered the founder of the Russian national theater. His plays, varied in subject matter, glorified Russian literature. Creativity Ostrovsky had a democratic character. He created plays in which hatred for the autocratic-feudal regime was manifested. The writer called for the protection of the oppressed and humiliated citizens of Russia, longed for social change. The great merit of Ostrovsky is that he opened the enlightened […]
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• In the drama "Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky created a very psychologically complex image - the image of Katerina Kabanova. This young woman disposes the viewer with her huge, pure soul, childlike sincerity and kindness. But she lives in the musty atmosphere of the "dark kingdom" of merchant morals. Ostrovsky managed to create a bright and poetic image of a Russian woman from the people. The main storyline of the play is a tragic conflict between the living, feeling soul of Katerina and the dead way of life of the “dark kingdom”. Honest and […]
• Katerina Varvara Character Sincere, sociable, kind, honest, pious, but superstitious. Gentle, soft, at the same time, decisive. Rude, cheerful, but taciturn: "... I don't like to talk a lot." Determined, can fight back. Temperament Passionate, freedom-loving, bold, impetuous and unpredictable. She says about herself “I was born so hot!”. Freedom-loving, smart, prudent, bold and rebellious, she is not afraid of either parental or heavenly punishment. Upbringing, […]
• "The Thunderstorm" was published in 1859 (on the eve of the revolutionary situation in Russia, in the "pre-storm" era). Its historicism lies in the conflict itself, the irreconcilable contradictions reflected in the play. She responds to the spirit of the times. "Thunderstorm" is an idyll of the "dark kingdom". Tyranny and silence are brought in it to the limit. In the play, a real heroine from the people's environment appears, and it is the description of her character that is given the main attention, and the little world of the city of Kalinov and the conflict itself are described more generally. "Their life […]
• Katerina is the main character in Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm", Tikhon's wife, daughter-in-law of Kabanikhi. The main idea of ​​the work is the conflict of this girl with the "dark kingdom", the kingdom of tyrants, despots and ignoramuses. You can find out why this conflict arose and why the end of the drama is so tragic by understanding Katerina's ideas about life. The author showed the origins of the character of the heroine. From the words of Katerina, we learn about her childhood and adolescence. Here is an ideal version of patriarchal relations and the patriarchal world in general: “I lived, not about […]
• The Thunderstorm by A. N. Ostrovsky made a strong and deep impression on his contemporaries. Many critics were inspired by this work. However, in our time it has not ceased to be interesting and topical. Raised to the category of classical drama, it still arouses interest. The arbitrariness of the "older" generation lasts for many years, but some event must occur that could break the patriarchal tyranny. Such an event is the protest and death of Katerina, which awakened other […]
• The critical history of "Thunderstorm" begins even before its appearance. To argue about "a ray of light in the dark realm", it was necessary to open the "Dark Realm". An article under this title appeared in the July and September issues of Sovremennik in 1859. It was signed by the usual pseudonym of N. A. Dobrolyubova - N. - bov. The reason for this work was extremely significant. In 1859, Ostrovsky summed up the intermediate result of his literary activity: his two-volume collected works appeared. "We consider it the most [...]
• In "Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky, operating with a small number of characters, managed to uncover several problems at once. Firstly, it is, of course, a social conflict, a clash of "fathers" and "children", their points of view (and if we resort to generalization, then two historical epochs). Kabanova and Dikoy belong to the older generation, actively expressing their opinion, and Katerina, Tikhon, Varvara, Kudryash and Boris belong to the younger one. Kabanova is sure that order in the house, control over everything that happens in it, is the key to a good life. Correct […]
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• Let's start with Catherine. In the play "Thunderstorm" this lady is the main character. What is the problem with this work? The issue is the main question that the author asks in his creation. So the question here is who will win? The dark kingdom, which is represented by the bureaucrats of the county town, or the bright beginning, which is represented by our heroine. Katerina is pure in soul, she has a tender, sensitive, loving heart. The heroine herself is deeply hostile to this dark swamp, but is not fully aware of it. Katerina was born […]
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