A. Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" was presented a year before the abolition of serfdom in 1859. Katerina's life in her parents' house stands out in this story. The image of the main character changes with each chapter, she is vulnerable and tender.
The action takes place in the fictional city of Kalinov. The drama unfolds in one of the merchant houses on the banks of the Volga. The mistress of the house, the merchant Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, is an imperious and capricious person. She holds everyone around in her arms. Nobody can resist her. But her zeal to subjugate everyone and everything encourages the conquest of more and more new souls.
The red line between the lines of the play is the theme of generational conflict. And today this problem is relevant and modern. The embodiment of tyranny and desire to rule the world in the image of Marfa Kabanova personifies the system established by the older generation. But the image of Katerina is especially revealed, her spiritual tragedy does not leave anyone indifferent.
The appearance in the Kabanovs' house of a new family member, Katerina, switches the merchant's attention to a new victim. Katerina Kabanova, the daughter-in-law of the imperious Marfa Ignatievna, appeared in the house not at the behest of her heart, but through the fault of circumstances. She was forcibly given in marriage to the son of the merchant Tikhon, whose will was enslaved by her mother. Katerina's life in the parental home was also not distinguished by joy and happiness.
The appearance of Katerina brings a special meaning into the atmosphere of the play, opposing the bright image of a sincere and pious girl to the “gray” existence of the merchants of the middle of the 19th century. The image of the girl amazes the reader with her simplicity, sincerity, she is ready to give the world her kindness and can do it. Her image is the only one that is called "a ray of light in the dark kingdom."
But the limits of merchant society do not allow her soul to open up. Her bright dreams and thoughts, which she shares with her husband's sister Varya, are not needed and incomprehensible to anyone. In the merchant environment there is no place for sincerity and love, freedom of the soul and purity of thoughts.
From childhood, Katya got used to the unrequited love of her mother, to the joyful world of freedom and church wisdom. The girl has nothing to breathe in a merchant's house, she is alien to the resourcefulness and lies that reign in society. Her soul can fly like a free bird only in dreams, which have become so rare with the onset of marriage. The image of Katerina in "Thunderstorm" is described in detail. Her experiences and mental anguish are briefly presented.
A breath of fresh air for Katerina is love for Boris, the nephew of the same greedy as Kabanikh and pompous merchant Diky. Because she is forced to spend her days locked up in the kingdom of her mother-in-law, Katerina is looking for an outlet for her feelings in affection for Boris. While Katerina's husband is away, the lovers' secret rendezvous helps her realize that her love for Diky's nephew is not really the kind of love from which one can fly to the stars. Katerina's life in a strange house turns into flour.
She realizes that the hopelessness of her situation has pushed her to an imaginary lover who is not at all as perfect in his thoughts as she would like. Turns out she made it herself. She needed at least someone who could share her bright thoughts with her, with whom she could make her dreams of a happy and free life come true. Katerina's life in her parents' house makes the main character believe in ghostly love.
The merchant's widow Marfa Kabanova, in her lust for power, was never able to get her daughter-in-law to recognize her supremacy. Katerina calls her mother-in-law “you” in her eyes, thereby making it clear how much she considers them equal. Katerina regrets her husband, realizing that he will never be able to escape from his mother's arms on his own, and his mother will not allow him to. His complaints about life are nothing more than a recognition of his infantilism and the habit of being led by a strong leader.
And Martha, like a poisonous spider, weaved her webs, sticky and strong, into which it was not difficult to get into those who lived in a society where deceit, foolishness and envy reigned. The appearance of a brave opponent, proud and silent, reveals a selfless desire to change something in the world around. The impossibility of single-handedly resisting the ossified system of government is reflected in the thunderstorm that breaks out and culminates in the suicide of the main character. For her, "not death is desirable, but life is unbearable."
Her dream to fly like a bird does not seem absurd or funny. It embodied all the despair of a young girl, all the pain and unimaginable spiritual tragedy. Understanding the very essence of life in a lie, unwillingness and inability to pretend and adapt lead Katerina to the edge of a cliff. Deeply believing, she was not afraid to commit suicide, thereby forever depriving her restless soul of peace, she was not afraid of God's wrath and heavenly punishment. Katerina's protest in Ostrovsky's play The Thunderstorm ends in tragedy.
At that time, Katerina was cornered by circumstances. Her confession of betrayal to her husband and mother-in-law speaks of how pure and highly spiritual her nature was. To be honest to others, but first to yourself - that's the wrong side of her soul, the very bottom.
"Thunderstorm" by A. Ostrovsky struck his contemporaries with the courage of Katerina's reasoning and delighted with the strength of character of such a fragile and tender soul. Silent opposition and disobedience to the will of the existing regime creates a feeling of incessant struggle and confidence in victory, if not now, but certainly.
The image of Katerina prompted many young minds to rise to fight against the autocracy, strengthen their will and spirit through trials, and find their way to the light in the name of freedom and justice. The task for "Thunderstorm" - "Katerina's life in her parents' house" is given in secondary schools. The image of a martyr girl is popular to this day.
Katerina is the wife of Tikhon Kabanov and the daughter-in-law of Kabanikhi. This is the central character of the play, with the help of which Ostrovsky shows the fate of a strong, extraordinary personality in a small patriarchal town. In Katerina, since childhood, the desire for happiness is very strong, which, with growing up, develops into a desire for mutual love. Despite her religiosity, Katerina remains an earthly and lively girl, experiencing a love feeling. But how much her heart is full of love, just as much the main character feels her sinfulness. She is married, and the object of her sighs is a completely foreign, alien man. Katerina tries to find peace with the help of religion, love for her lawful husband, but her free nature turns out to be stronger. Perhaps if she had felt the support of her husband at this dramatic moment in her life, then she would have been able to cope with herself. But her husband is a weak person, whose will is subordinated to his mother - Boar. And so Tikhon drives off, and the feeling, as a result of a fierce internal struggle, takes up morality: "I should at least die, but see him."
After betraying her husband, Katerina's religiosity only intensifies. The heroine, who is essentially a simple provincial girl, turns out to be unprepared for the abyss that opens before her. Katerina feels a growing fear, it seems to her that she will definitely be punished by heaven for her sins. Finally, at the moment of a thunderstorm, she repents of her betrayal in front of everyone.
Thunderstorm is not only a love drama, but also a tragedy of a strong man who, after a misdeed, does not feel sorry for himself, but, on the contrary, deliberately gives himself up to the judgment of others without hope of forgiveness. And by committing adultery, Katerina, in fact, makes a kind of existential choice in favor of her real "I". And for this choice she had to pay with her life.
The image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" contrasts perfectly with the gloomy realities of Russia in the pre-reform period. At the epicenter of the unfolding drama is the conflict between the heroine, who seeks to defend her human rights, and a world in which strong, rich and powerful people rule everything.
From the very first pages of the work, the image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" cannot but attract attention and make one feel sympathy. Honesty, the ability to feel deeply, the sincerity of nature and a penchant for poetry - these are the features that distinguish Katerina herself from representatives of the "dark kingdom". In the main character, Ostrovsky tried to capture all the beauty of the people's simple soul. The girl expresses her emotions and experiences unpretentiously and does not use distorted words and expressions common in the merchant environment. This is not difficult to see, Katerina's speech itself is more like a melodic chant, it is replete with diminutive and caressing words and expressions: "sun", "grass", "rain". The heroine shows incredible candor when she talks about her free life in her father's house, among icons, calm prayers and flowers, where she lived "like a bird in the wild."
The image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" perfectly echoes the image of a bird, which symbolizes freedom in folk poetry. Talking with Varvara, she repeatedly refers to this analogy and claims that she is "a free bird that has fallen into an iron cage." In captivity, she is sad and painful.
In the house of the Kabanovs, Katerina, who is dreamy and romantic, feels completely alien. The humiliating reproaches of the mother-in-law, who is used to keeping all the household in fear, the atmosphere of tyranny, lies and hypocrisy oppress the girl. However, Katerina herself, who by nature is a strong, whole person, knows that there is a limit to her patience: “I don’t want to live here, I won’t, even if you cut me!” Varvara's words that one cannot survive in this house without deceit cause Katerina's sharp rejection. The heroine opposes the "dark kingdom", his orders did not break her will to live, fortunately, they did not make her become like other residents of the Kabanovs' house and begin to hypocrite and lie at every turn.
The image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" is revealed in a new way, when the girl makes an attempt to break away from the "hateful" world. She does not know how and does not want to love the way the inhabitants of the “dark kingdom” do, freedom, openness, “honest” happiness are important to her. While Boris convinces her that their love will remain a secret, Katerina wants everyone to know about it, so that everyone can see. Tikhon, her husband, however, the bright feeling awakened in her heart seems to her And just at this moment the reader comes face to face with the tragedy of her suffering and torment. From that moment on, Katerina's conflict occurs not only with the outside world, but also with herself. It is difficult for her to make a choice between love and duty, she tries to forbid herself to love and be happy. However, the struggle with her own feelings is beyond the strength of the fragile Katerina.
The way of life and the laws that reign in the world around the girl put pressure on her. She seeks to repent of her deed, to purify her soul. Seeing the picture “The Last Judgment” on the wall in the church, Katerina cannot stand it, falls to her knees and begins to publicly repent of sin. However, even this does not bring the girl the desired relief. Other heroes of the drama "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky are not able to support her, even a loved one. Boris refuses Katerina's requests to take her away from here. This person is not a hero, he is simply not able to protect either himself or his beloved.
Evil is attacking Katerina from all sides. Constant harassment from the mother-in-law, throwing between duty and love - all this eventually leads the girl to a tragic ending. Having managed to know happiness and love in her short life, she is simply not able to continue living in the Kabanovs' house, where such concepts do not exist at all. She sees the only way out in suicide: the future frightens Katerina, and the grave is perceived as salvation from mental anguish. However, the image of Katerina in the drama "Thunderstorm", in spite of everything, remains strong - she did not choose a miserable existence in a "cage" and did not allow anyone to break her living soul.
Nevertheless, the death of the heroine was not in vain. The girl won a moral victory over the "dark kingdom", she managed to dispel a little darkness in the hearts of people, induce them to action, open their eyes. The life of the heroine herself became a "beam of light" that flashed in the darkness and left its glow over the world of madness and darkness for a long time.
The main characters of "Thunderstorm" Ostrovsky
Events in the drama of A. N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm" unfold on the Volga coast, in the fictional city of Kalinov. The work gives a list of characters and their brief characteristics, but they are still not enough to better understand the world of each character and reveal the conflict of the play as a whole. There are not so many main characters in Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm.
Katerina, a girl, the main character of the play. She is quite young, she was married off early. Katya was brought up exactly according to the traditions of house building: the main qualities of a wife were respect and obedience to her husband. At first, Katya tried to love Tikhon, but she could not feel anything but pity for him. At the same time, the girl tried to support her husband, help him and not reproach him. Katerina can be called the most modest, but at the same time the most powerful character in Thunderstorm. Indeed, outwardly, the strength of Katya's character is not manifested. At first glance, this girl is weak and silent, it seems that she is easily broken. But that's not the case at all. Katerina is the only one in the family who resists Kabanikh's attacks. It opposes, and does not ignore them, like Barbara. The conflict is more of an internal nature. After all, Kabanikha is afraid that Katya can influence her son, after which Tikhon will no longer obey the will of his mother.
Katya wants to fly, often compares herself to a bird. She literally suffocates in the "dark kingdom" of Kalinov. Having fallen in love with a visiting young man, Katya created for herself an ideal image of love and possible liberation. Unfortunately, her ideas had little to do with reality. The girl's life ended tragically.
Ostrovsky in "Thunderstorm" makes not only Katerina the main character. The image of Katya is opposed to the image of Marfa Ignatievna. A woman who keeps the whole family in fear and tension does not command respect. The boar is strong and despotic. Most likely, she took over the “reins of government” after the death of her husband. Although it is more likely that in marriage, Kabanikha was not distinguished by humility. Most of all, Katya, her daughter-in-law, got it from her. It is Kabanikha who is indirectly responsible for the death of Katerina.
Varvara is the daughter of Kabanikhi. Despite the fact that she has learned resourcefulness and lies over the years, the reader still sympathizes with her. Barbara is a good girl. Surprisingly, deceit and cunning do not make her like the rest of the city. She does as she pleases and lives as she pleases. Barbara is not afraid of her mother's wrath, because she is not an authority for her.
Tikhon Kabanov fully lives up to his name. He is quiet, weak, inconspicuous. Tikhon cannot protect his wife from his mother, since he himself is under the strong influence of Kabanikh. His rebellion ends up being the most significant. After all, it is the words, and not Varvara's escape, that make readers think about the whole tragedy of the situation.
The author characterizes Kuligin as a self-taught mechanic. This character is a kind of guide. In the first act, he seems to be taking us around Kalinov, talking about his customs, about the families that live here, about the social situation. Kuligin seems to know everything about everyone. His estimates of others are very accurate. Kuligin himself is a kind person who is used to living by established rules. He constantly dreams of the common good, of a perpetual mobile, of a lightning rod, of honest work. Unfortunately, his dreams were not destined to come true.
Diky has a clerk, Curly. This character is interesting because he is not afraid of the merchant and can tell him what he thinks about him. At the same time, Curly, just like Wild, tries to find a benefit in everything. He can be described as a simple person.
Boris comes to Kalinov on business: he urgently needs to improve relations with Diky, because only in this case will he be able to receive the money legally bequeathed to him. However, neither Boris nor Dikoy even want to see each other. Initially, Boris seems to readers like Katya, honest and fair. In the last scenes, this is refuted: Boris is not able to take a serious step, take responsibility, he simply runs away, leaving Katya alone.
One of the heroes of the "Thunderstorm" is a wanderer and a servant. Feklusha and Glasha are shown as typical inhabitants of the city of Kalinov. Their darkness and ignorance is truly amazing. Their judgments are absurd, and their outlook is very narrow. Women judge morality and morality by some perverted, distorted concepts. “Moscow is now a place of amusement and games, but there is an Indo roar in the streets, a groan stands. Why, mother Marfa Ignatievna, they began to harness the fiery serpent: everything, you see, for the sake of speed ”- this is how Feklusha speaks of progress and reforms, and the woman calls the car a “fire serpent”. Such people are alien to the concept of progress and culture, because it is convenient for them to live in a fictional limited world of calm and regularity.
Characteristics of Katerina from the play "Thunderstorm"
On the example of the life of a single family from the fictional city of Kalinov, Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" shows the whole essence of the outdated patriarchal structure of Russia in the 19th century. Katerina is the main character of the work. She is opposed to all other actors of the tragedy, even from Kuligin, who also stands out among the inhabitants of Kalinov, Katya is distinguished by the power of protest. The description of Katerina from "Thunderstorm", the characteristics of other characters, the description of the life of the city - all this adds up to a revealing tragic picture, conveyed photographically accurately. The characterization of Katerina from the play "Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky is not limited to the author's commentary in the list of characters. The playwright does not evaluate the actions of the heroine, relieving himself of the duties of an omniscient author. Thanks to this position, each perceiving subject, whether a reader or a viewer, can himself evaluate the heroine based on his moral convictions.
Katya was married to Tikhon Kabanov, the son of a merchant. It was given out, because then, according to the house building, marriage was more the will of the parents than the decision of young people. Katya's husband is a pitiful sight. The irresponsibility and infantilism of the child, bordering on idiocy, led to the fact that Tikhon is not capable of anything other than drunkenness. In Marfa Kabanova, the ideas of tyranny and hypocrisy inherent in the entire "dark kingdom" were fully embodied. Katya strives for freedom, comparing herself with a bird. It is hard for her to survive in conditions of stagnation and slavish worship of false idols. Katerina is truly religious, every trip to church seems like a holiday for her, and as a child, Katya often fancied that she heard angelic singing. Sometimes, Katya prayed in the garden, because she believed that the Lord would hear her prayers anywhere, not only in the church. But in Kalinovo, the Christian faith was deprived of any inner content.
Katerina's dreams allow her to briefly escape from the real world. There she is free, like a bird, free to fly wherever she wants, not obeying any laws. “And what dreams I had, Varenka,” continues Katerina, “what dreams! Or golden temples, or unusual gardens, and invisible voices sing, and the smell of cypress, and the mountains and trees seem not to be the same as usual, but as they are written on the images. And it’s like I’m flying, and I’m flying through the air. ” Recently, however, a certain mysticism has become inherent in Katerina. Everywhere she begins to see imminent death, and in her dreams she sees the evil one, who warmly embraces her, and then destroys her. These dreams were prophetic.
Katya is dreamy and gentle, but along with her fragility, Katerina's monologues from The Thunderstorm show resilience and strength. For example, a girl decides to meet Boris. She was overcome by doubts, she wanted to throw the key from the gate into the Volga, thought about the consequences, but nevertheless took an important step for herself: “Throw the key! No, not for anything! He is mine now ... Come what may, and I will see Boris! Katya is disgusted with the Kabanikh's house, the girl does not like Tikhon. She thought about leaving her husband and, having received a divorce, live honestly with Boris. But there was nowhere to hide from the tyranny of the mother-in-law. With her tantrums, Kabanikha turned the house into hell, cutting off any opportunity for escape.
Katerina is surprisingly perceptive towards herself. The girl knows about her character traits, about her decisive disposition: “I was born like that, hot! I was still six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, but it was towards evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they already found it, ten miles away! Such a person will not submit to tyranny, will not be subject to dirty manipulations by the Kabanikh. It is not Katerina's fault that she was born at a time when the wife had to unquestioningly obey her husband, she was an almost disenfranchised application, the function of which was childbearing. By the way, Katya herself says that children could be her joy. But Katya has no children.
The motif of freedom is repeated many times in the work. An interesting parallel is Katerina - Barbara. Sister Tikhon also strives to be free, but this freedom must be physical, freedom from despotism and mother's prohibitions. At the end of the play, the girl runs away from home, finding what she dreamed of. Katerina understands freedom differently. For her, this is an opportunity to do as she wants, to take responsibility for her life, not to obey stupid orders. This is the freedom of the soul. Katerina, like Varvara, gains freedom. But such freedom can only be achieved by suicide.
In the work of Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm", Katerina and the characteristics of her image were perceived differently by critics. If Dobrolyubov saw in the girl a symbol of the Russian soul, tormented by the patriarchal housing construction, then Pisarev saw a weak girl who herself drove herself into such a situation.
2. The image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm"
Katerina is a lonely young woman who lacks human participation, sympathy, love. The need for this draws her to Boris. She sees that outwardly he does not look like other residents of the city of Kalinov, and, not being able to find out his inner essence, considers him a man of another world. In her imagination, Boris appears as a beautiful prince who will take her away from the "dark kingdom" to the fairy-tale world that exists in her dreams.
In terms of character and interests, Katerina stands out sharply from her environment. The fate of Katerina, unfortunately, is a vivid and typical example of the fate of thousands of Russian women of that time. Katerina is a young woman, the wife of the merchant's son Tikhon Kabanov. She recently left her home and moved to her husband's house, where she lives with her mother-in-law Kabanova, who is the sovereign mistress. In the family, Katerina has no rights, she is not even free to dispose of herself. With warmth and love, she recalls her parental home, her maiden life. There she lived freely, surrounded by the caress and care of her mother.
Katerina found herself in completely different conditions in her husband's house .. At every step she felt dependent on her mother-in-law, suffered humiliation and insults. On the part of Tikhon, she does not meet any support, much less understanding, since he himself is under the rule of Kabanikh. By her kindness, Katerina is ready to treat Kabanikha like her own mother. "But Katerina's sincere feelings do not meet with support from either Kabanikha or Tikhon.
Life in such an environment changed the character of Katerina. Katerina's sincerity and truthfulness collide in the house of Kabanikh with lies, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and rudeness. When love for Boris is born in Katerina, it seems to her a crime, and she struggles with the feeling that has washed over her. Katerina's truthfulness and sincerity make her suffer so much that she finally has to repent to her husband. Katerina's sincerity, her truthfulness are incompatible with the life of the "dark kingdom". All this was the cause of the tragedy of Katerina.
"Katerina's public repentance shows the depth of her suffering, moral greatness, determination. But after repentance, her situation became unbearable. Her husband does not understand her, Boris is weak-willed and does not go to her aid. The situation has become hopeless - Katerina is dying. It is not the fault of Katerina's death one specific person. Her death is the result of the incompatibility of morality and the way of life in which she was forced to exist. The image of Katerina was of great educational importance for Ostrovsky's contemporaries and for subsequent generations. He called for a fight against all forms of despotism and oppression of the human person. This an expression of the growing protest of the masses against all forms of slavery.
Katerina, sad and cheerful, compliant and obstinate, dreamy, depressed and proud. Such different states of mind are explained by the naturalness of every mental movement of this at the same time restrained and impulsive nature, the strength of which lies in the ability to always be itself. Katerina remained true to herself, that is, she could not change the very essence of her character.
I think that the most important trait of Katerina's character is honesty towards herself, her husband, the world around her; it is her unwillingness to live a lie. She does not want and cannot cheat, pretend, lie, hide. This is confirmed by the scene of Katerina's confession of treason. Not a thunderstorm, not a frightening prophecy of a crazy old woman, not a fear of fiery hell prompted the heroine to tell the truth. “The whole heart is broken! I can't take it anymore!" So she began her confession. For her honest and whole nature, the false position in which she found herself is unbearable. To live just to live is not for her. To live means to be yourself. Her most precious value is personal freedom, the freedom of the soul.
With such a character, Katerina, after betraying her husband, could not remain in his house, return to a monotonous and dreary life, endure the constant reproaches and “moralizing” of Kabanikh, lose her freedom. But any patience comes to an end. It is difficult for Katerina to be where she is not understood, where her human dignity is humiliated and insulted, her feelings and desires are ignored. Before her death, she says: “What is home, what is in the grave is all the same ... In the grave is better ...” She does not want death, but life is unbearable.
Katerina is a deeply religious and God-fearing person. Since, according to the Christian religion, suicide is a great sin, by deliberately committing it, she showed not weakness, but strength of character. Her death is a challenge to the “dark force”, a desire to live in the “light kingdom” of love, joy and happiness.
The death of Katerina is the result of a collision of two historical eras. With her death, Katerina protests against despotism and tyranny, her death testifies to the approaching end of the "dark kingdom." The image of Katerina belongs to the best images of Russian fiction. Katerina is a new type of people in Russian reality in the 60s of the XIX century.
