The psychological drama of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky "Dowry" is the strongest classical play of the 19th century. A typical Volga merchant town with bankrupt nobles, where serious passions flare up. It may seem that the basis of the play is love. After reading, instead of a creative one, we see a calculation that becomes a miscalculation, as a result - a failed "bidding". The image of Larisa Ogudalova appears as the embodiment of a beautiful and desirable “thing”.
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The history of the creation of "Dowry" is as follows. The work, which today is considered a classic of world drama, is studied according to the school curriculum, but was not accepted during the author's lifetime.
The premiere performance based on the play "Dowry" took place in the autumn of 1878 and caused rejection from theater critics and spectators. The further fate of the play was not easy due to the failure of the first productions. The genre of the drama was not chosen by chance: in order to reveal the depth of the psychological experiences of the main characters.
The author actually spent five years working on the play, during which he either postponed work (the plot of the work changed somewhat), then returned again. Ostrovsky served as a justice of the peace, therefore there is an opinion that the play is based on real events: if the main character really had a prototype, then a specific person is to blame for the death of this girl.
Now the concept of “dowry” is practically not used, its meaning has changed. Previously, the presence of a dowry for a girl was a must. Basically, who is the poor girl? - just a stone around her husband's neck, because then the woman did not have the opportunity to work and increase her capital. Even a smart, beautiful girl with a rich spiritual world was perceived as a second-class person. The dowry had to endure everything meekly, there was almost no hope for sincere, mutual love.
The main characters of the play are residents of a small county town on the banks of the Volga. Names and characteristics of heroes:
Larisa Ogudalova - marriageable bride
We offer a summary of the chapters. In the play "Dowry" the plot is structured as follows.
Merchants Knurov and Vozhevatov meet near the city coffee shop, waiting for Paratov's return. Vozhevatov decided to buy the Lastochka from the shipowner.
In a conversation “for tea” (they drink champagne from tea cups), Vozhevatov tells the story of Larisa Ogudalova, who was forced to marry Karandyshev. Knurov is surprised by this choice: having despaired after Paratov's departure, the girl agreed to marry the first who would marry.
There also come the newly-made groom. Karandyshev draws himself, invites merchants (as equals) to his dinner dedicated to the bride.
Left alone with Larisa, he brings the girl to tears in his own words. The "ideal man" for her is Sergey Paratov. A salute shot is heard about the arrival of Paratov. Larisa, frightened, asks to take her away.
Paratov returns after a year's absence, Robinson with him. Knurov wonders if it's a pity to part with the "Swallow"? Sergei Sergeevich replies that this feeling is alien to him, expresses his readiness to sell everything profitably. Then he talks about his rich bride with gold mines. Before the imminent wedding, Paratov wants to have plenty of fun. Then Vozhevatov discusses an evening picnic with Gavrila, almost forgetting about Karandyshev's invitation.
Knurov comes to the Ogudalovs, outraged by Karandyshev's poverty and future marriage in general. The merchant offers Harita Ignatyevna to make Larisa his kept woman, as he is sure that it is expedient to leave such a husband.
The prudent mother takes advantage of this offer, Knurov himself says that the girl should be sewn good outfits, and the bills sent to him.
Larisa feels bad in the city, the girl thinks about the village - a "quiet corner". He wants to play a romance on the guitar - she is upset. Seeing the gypsy Ilya, he calls him to her. He talks about the return of Paratov. The mother sees this circumstance as the appearance of another suitor, although her daughter refuses to endure such humiliation.
Karandyshev arrives, cruelly condemning the customs of the city, opposes the departure, although the bride asks him about it. Unexpectedly for everyone, Paratov comes to them.
Talking to his mother, the ex-fiance talks about his upcoming wedding, then asks to call the girl. Left alone, he reproaches her, talks about windiness, like any other woman. She is offended, but at the end of the conversation she blurts out her love for Paratov, and in response she hears an offer to remain friends. Having achieved his goal, talking, he offends Karandyshev who came to them, a quarrel occurs between them. The mother forces the future son-in-law to invite Paratov to dinner. Then Vozhevatov arrives, trying to pass off Robinson, who was accompanying him, as a foreigner.
In the groom's office, the girl and her mother are discussing how this dinner party failed. Everyone laughed at the owner and even made him drunk on purpose. This is where guests come in. Knurov is outraged at how bad the wines and appetizers were.
All the men laugh at the master again. Karandyshev, who came here, continues to show off, does not respond to the bride's remarks. At the request of Paratov, Larisa performs a romance with the gypsy, although the groom is against it in every possible way, and then, delighted, leaves for champagne.
Paratov, left alone with Larisa, persuades them to go with them on the ship. She recognizes him as her master and agrees to everything. While Karandyshev once again goes for wine, everyone runs away. Returning, he swears revenge, takes a gun and runs away.
Karandyshev is in a coffee shop, trying to ask Robinson about where everyone else is, but he pretends not to understand anything.
The picnic is over. Knurov and Vozhevatov discuss the current situation. It is clear to them that Paratov will not refuse a profitable wedding. Each of the men is ready to take the compromised girl as his mistress, they play her toss. Knurov wins.
Paratov is grateful to Larisa for being with them at the picnic, but reminds him that he cannot get married, since he has a fiancee. He consoles with the fact that even now Karandyshev will take her back, and instructs Robinson to take her home.
Desperate, the girl turns to Vozhevatov for help, but he gives her to Knurov, and he calls with him to Paris for full support. Larissa doesn't answer.
She is found by Karandyshev, who was ready to become her protector, but this is precisely what the girl perceives as an insult. Then the fiance, blinded by jealousy, says that she is for everyone a thing played in a toss.
The girl agrees to be a thing, but does not intend to belong to him, so she decides to go with Knurov. In a fit of anger, Karandyshev shoots her. Full of gratitude, the heroine dies, saying that it is all herself. And behind the scenes the gypsies sing. It is difficult to say who is really to blame for Larisa's death.
Attention! Gypsies sing at all the key moments of the play.
Ostrovsky specifically introduces this contrast technique to show how a Russian person loves the “holiday of life” and is drawn to it, and at the same time that this fun is alien, not characteristic of him.
"Dowry". Alexander Ostrovsky
A brief retelling of the drama by A. N. Ostrovsky "Dowry".
The author shows in the play "Dowry" the unattractive side of his contemporary society, where everything is bought and sold. Circumstances lead to the death of a young girl who could not survive among the cruelty and.
The play "Dowry" is rightfully considered one of the most outstanding creations of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, but at the same time it remained unrecognized by the author's contemporaries. Literary critics attribute "Dowry" to an innovative work that was ahead of its time, the viewer, due to his lifestyle, was not yet ready for such a plot.
Work on the work began in 1874, just at that time the author held the position of an honorary justice of the peace, many cases fell into his consideration, which, according to historians, served as inspiration for creating this particular story. Ostrovsky very scrupulously approached the creation of a new, jubilee - fortieth of his creations.
The work lasted four long years, during this period the author managed to publish four works in parallel. In November 1878 the play was finished and already on November 10 the first premiere took place on the stage of the Maly Theater in Moscow.
But the author's expectations were not justified. Supporters and connoisseurs of Ostrovsky's talent had already died by that time, and critics, the audience, and the actors themselves could not appreciate the new work. "Dowryless" held on to the capital's scenes with all her might for several years, and then came a long break that lasted fifteen years.
By the time they decided to stage the play again on the capital's theater stages, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was no longer alive. The great Russian actress Vera Fedorovna Komissarzhevskaya breathed new life into the forgotten "Dowry" and was able to reveal the true image of Larisa.
"Dowry" is not forgotten to this day. Throughout the history of the play, many attempts have been made not only to stage productions, but also to screen. Eldar Ryazanov's film "Cruel Romance" is considered to be the most successful film adaptation, which to this day excites the hearts of viewers and true fans of the invaluable talent of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky.
Anton Pafnutich Spitsyn - a character in the background of the famous work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "Dubrovsky"
Any religion teaches that revenge is a negative phenomenon and it does not lead to good. Every child is taught from childhood to forgive, forget evil and respond with kindness to the offender. But the characters are different for everyone, and life
Each person adapts to the external conditions in which he finds himself due to certain circumstances. The story of a boy who found himself in the wild still shocks many
Every person has parents. Even if life has developed in such a way that parents do not raise a child from early childhood, all the same, parents gave life to a new person.
The history of one city is a very significant work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. This is a kind of parody of the history of Russia. Saltykov-Shchedrin talks about the city of Foolov
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dowry | |
| The first publication in the journal "Notes of the Fatherland" (1879, No. 1) |
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| in Wikisource | |
"Dowry"- a play by Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky. Work on it continued for four years - from 1874 to 1878. The premiere performances of The Dowry took place in the autumn of 1878 and provoked protests from the audience and theater critics. Success came to the work after the death of the author.
The play was first published in the journal Domestic Notes (1879, No. 1).
In the 1870s, Alexander Ostrovsky served as an honorary magistrate in the Kineshma district. Participation in the processes and familiarity with the criminal chronicle gave him the opportunity to find new topics for his works. Researchers suggest that the plot of The Dowry was suggested to the playwright by life itself: one of the high-profile cases that stirred up the entire county was the murder of his young wife by a local resident Ivan Konovalov.
Starting a new work in November 1874, the playwright made a note: "Opus 40". Work, contrary to expectations, went slowly; In parallel with The Dowry, Ostrovsky wrote and published several more works. Finally, in the fall of 1878, the play was completed. In those days, the playwright told one of the familiar actors:
I have already read my play in Moscow five times, among the listeners there were people who were hostile to me, and everyone unanimously recognized The Dowry as the best of all my works.
Further events also testified that the new play was doomed to success: it easily passed the censorship, the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine began to prepare the work for publication, the troupes, first of the Maly and then the Alexandrinsky Theater, began rehearsals. However, the premiere performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg ended in failure; reviews from critics abounded with scathing reviews. Only ten years after the death of the author, in the second half of the 1890s, the recognition of the audience came to the "Dowry"; it was associated primarily with the name of the actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya.
The action takes place on the site in front of a coffee shop located on the banks of the Volga. Local merchants Knurov and Vozhevatov are talking here. During the conversation, it turns out that the shipowner Paratov is returning to the city. A year ago, Sergei Sergeevich hastily left Bryakhimov; the departure was so swift that the master did not have time to say goodbye to Larisa Dmitrievna Ogudalova. She, being a “sensitive” girl, even rushed to catch up with her beloved; it was returned from the second station.
According to Vozhevatov, who has known Larisa since childhood, her main problem is the lack of a dowry. Harita Ignatievna, the girl's mother, in an effort to find a suitable groom for her daughter, keeps the house open. However, after Paratov's departure, the contenders for the role of Larisa's husband came across unenviable: an old man with gout, an eternally drunk manager of some prince and a fraudulent cashier who was arrested right in the Ogudalovs' house. After the scandal, Larisa Dmitrievna announced to her mother that she would marry the first person she met. It turned out to be a poor official Karandyshev. Listening to the story of a colleague, Knurov notices that this woman was created for luxury; she, like an expensive diamond, needs an “expensive setting”.
Soon, the mother and daughter of the Ogudalovs appear on the site, accompanied by Karandyshev. The fiance of Larisa Dmitrievna invites visitors to the coffee shop to his dinner party. Harita Ignatievna, seeing Knurov's contemptuous bewilderment, explains that "it's the same as we have dinner for Larisa." After the departure of the merchants, Julius Kapitonovich arranges a scene of jealousy for the bride; to his question, why is Paratov still good, the girl replies that she sees in Sergey Sergeevich the ideal of a man.
When a cannon shot is heard on the shore, announcing the arrival of the master, Karandyshev takes Larisa out of the coffee shop. However, the establishment is not empty for long: after a few minutes, the owner Gavrilo meets all the same merchants and Sergei Sergeevich, who arrived in Bryakhimov together with the actor Arkady Schastlivtsev, nicknamed Robinson. The name of the book hero, as Paratov explains, the actor received due to the fact that he was found on a deserted island. The conversation of old acquaintances is built around the sale of the steamer "Swallow" by Paratov - from now on, Vozhevatov will become its owner. In addition, Sergei Sergeevich reports that he is going to marry the daughter of an important gentleman, and takes gold mines as a dowry. The news of the upcoming marriage of Larisa Ogudalova makes him think. Paratov admits that he feels a little guilty towards the girl, but now "old scores are over."
The events unfolding in the second act take place in the Ogudalovs' house. While Larisa is changing clothes, Knurov appears in the room. Harita Ignatievna greets the merchant as an honored guest. Moky Parmyonych makes it clear that Karandyshev is not the best match for such a brilliant young lady as Larisa Dmitrievna; in her situation, the patronage of a rich and influential person is much more useful. Along the way, Knurov recalls that the bride's wedding attire should be exquisite, and therefore the entire wardrobe should be ordered at the most expensive store; he bears all expenses.
After the merchant leaves, Larisa informs her mother that she intends to leave immediately after the wedding with her husband to Zabolotye, a distant county, where Julius Kapitonych will run for justice of the peace. However, Karandyshev, appearing in the room, does not share the wishes of the bride: he is annoyed by Larisa's haste. In the heat of the moment, the groom delivers a long speech about how all Briakhimov has gone mad; cabbies, sex workers in taverns, gypsies - everyone rejoices at the arrival of the master, who, having squandered in revelry, is forced to sell "the last steamer".
Next comes Paratov's turn to pay a visit to the Ogudalovs. First, Sergei Sergeevich communicates sincerely with Harita Ignatievna. Later, left alone with Larisa, he wonders how long a woman is able to live apart from her loved one. The girl is tormented by this conversation; when asked if she loves Paratov, as before, Larisa answers yes.
Paratov’s acquaintance with Karandyshev begins with a conflict: saying the saying that “one loves watermelon, and the other loves pork cartilage,” Sergey Sergeevich explains that he studied Russian from barge haulers. These words arouse the indignation of Julius Kapitonovich, who believes that barge haulers are rude, ignorant people. The flaring quarrel is stopped by Harita Ignatievna: she orders to bring champagne. Peace has been restored, but later, in a conversation with merchants, Paratov admits that he will find an opportunity to “make fun” of the groom.
In the house of Karandyshev - a dinner party. Yulia Kapitonovich's aunt, Efrosinya Potapovna, complains to the servant Ivan that this event takes too much effort, and the costs are too high. It's good that we managed to save on wine: the seller sold the batch at six hryvnias per bottle, re-gluing the labels.
Larisa, seeing that the guests did not touch the offered dishes and drinks, is ashamed of the groom. The situation is aggravated by the fact that Robinson, who is instructed to drink the owner to complete insensibility, suffers loudly due to the fact that instead of the declared Burgundy he has to use some kind of "kinder-balm".
Paratov, demonstrating affection towards Karandyshev, agrees to have a drink with an opponent for brotherhood. When Sergei Sergeevich asks Larisa to sing, Julius Kapitonovich tries to protest. In response, Larisa takes the guitar and performs the romance "Do not tempt me unnecessarily." Her singing makes a strong impression on those present. Paratov confesses to the girl that he is tormented by the fact that he has lost such a treasure. Immediately he invites the young lady to go beyond the Volga. While Karandyshev proclaims a toast in honor of his bride and looks for new wine, Larisa says goodbye to her mother.
Returning with champagne, Julius Kapitonovich finds that the house is empty. The desperate monologue of the deceived groom is dedicated to the drama of a funny man who, when angry, is capable of revenge. Grabbing a gun from the table, Karandyshev rushes in search of the bride and her friends.
Returning from a night walk along the Volga, Knurov and Vozhevatov discuss the fate of Larisa. Both understand that Paratov will not exchange a rich bride for a dowry. To remove the question of possible rivalry, Vozhevatov proposes to decide everything with the help of lots. A thrown coin indicates that Knurov will take Larisa to an exhibition in Paris.
Meanwhile, Larisa, rising from the pier uphill, is having a difficult conversation with Paratov. She is interested in one thing: is she now a wife to Sergei Sergeyevich or not? The news that the beloved is engaged becomes a shock for the girl.
She is sitting at a table near the coffee shop when Knurov appears. He invites Larisa Dmitrievna to the French capital, guaranteeing, in case of consent, the highest content and the fulfillment of any whims. Next comes Karandyshev. He tries to open the bride's eyes to her friends, explaining that they see in her only a thing. The found word seems to Larisa successful. Having informed her ex-fiance that he is too small and insignificant for her, the young lady passionately declares that, having not found love, she will look for gold.
Karandyshev, listening to Larisa, takes out a pistol. The shot is accompanied by the words: “So don’t get it to anyone!”. To Paratov and the merchants who ran out of the coffee shop, Larisa informs in a fading voice that she does not complain about anything and is not offended by anyone.
The premiere at the Maly Theater, where the role of Larisa Ogudalova was played by Glikeria Fedotova, and Paratov was Alexander Lensky, took place on November 10, 1878. The excitement around the new play was unprecedented; in the hall, as reviewers later reported, "the whole of Moscow gathered, loving the Russian stage," including the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. Expectations, however, did not come true: according to the observer of the newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti, "the playwright tired the entire audience, even the most naive spectators." It was the most deafening failure in Ostrovsky's creative biography.
The first production on stage at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, starring Maria Savina, elicited fewer derogatory responses. So, the St. Petersburg newspaper Novoe Vremya admitted that the performance based on "Dowry" made a "strong impression" on the audience. However, there was no need to talk about success: a critic of the same publication, a certain K., complained that Ostrovsky spent a lot of effort on creating a story of little interest to anyone about a “stupid seduced girl”:
Those who waited for a new word, new types from a venerable playwright are cruelly mistaken; instead of them, we got updated old motives, got a lot of dialogue instead of action.
Critics did not spare the actors who participated in the "Dowry". The capital's newspaper "Birzhevye Vedomosti" (1878, No. 325) noted that Glikeria Fedotova "did not understand the role at all and played badly." The journalist and writer Pyotr Boborykin, who published a note in Russkiye Vedomosti (1879, March 23), remembered only “drawing and falseness from the first step to the last word” in the work of the actress. Actor Lensky, according to Boborykin, when creating the image, made too much emphasis on white gloves, which his hero Paratov put on "unnecessarily every minute." Mikhail Sadovsky, who played the role of Karandyshev on the Moscow stage, presented, in the words of a Novoe Vremya observer, "a poorly conceived type of groom official."
In September 1896, the Alexandrinsky Theater undertook to revive the play, which had long been removed from the repertoire. The role of Larisa Ogudalova, performed by Vera Komissarzhevskaya, initially caused the familiar irritation of reviewers: they wrote that the actress "played unevenly, in the last act she hit melodrama." However, the audience understood and accepted the new stage version of "Dowry", in which the heroine was not between suitors, and above them; the play gradually began to return to the theaters of the country.
Productions
Larisa, which is included in the gallery of notable female images of literature of the second half of the 19th century, strives for independent actions; she feels like a person capable of making decisions. However, the impulses of the young heroine collide with the cynical morality of society, which perceives her as an expensive, exquisite thing.
The girl is surrounded by four admirers, each of whom is trying to get her attention. At the same time, according to researcher Vladimir Lakshin, it is by no means love that drives Larisa's boyfriends. So, Vozhevatov is not greatly distressed when the lot in the form of a thrown coin points to Knurov. He, in turn, is ready to wait until Paratov comes into play in order to later "take revenge and take the broken heroine to Paris." Karandyshev also perceives Larisa as a thing; however, unlike rivals, he does not want to see his beloved stranger thing . The simplest explanation of all the troubles of the heroine, associated with the lack of a dowry, is broken by the theme of loneliness, which young Ogudalova carries within herself; her inner orphanhood is so great that the girl looks "incompatible with the world."
Critics perceived Larisa as a kind of "continuation" of Katerina from Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" (they are united by ardor and recklessness of feelings, which led to a tragic ending); at the same time, features of other heroines of Russian literature were found in her - we are talking about some Turgenev girls, as well as Nastasya Filippovna from The Idiot and Anna Karenina from the novel of the same name:
Drawing a parallel between Karandyshev and the "humiliated" heroes of Dostoevsky, the researchers emphasize that Julius Kapitonovich is infinitely far from Makar Devushkin from the novel "Poor People" and Marmeladov from the novel "Crime and Punishment". His "literary brothers" are the hero of the story Notes from the Underground and Golyadkin from The Double.
Karandyshev's shot is a complex action in its motives and in its results. One can see here just a criminal act of the owner and egoist, obsessed with one thought: not for me, but for no one. But you can see in the shot and the answer to Larisa's secret thoughts - in a difficult way they penetrate the mind of Karandyshev, the only one of the four men who did not want to transfer her into anyone's hands.
The image of the city
If the fate of Larisa largely repeats the story of Katerina, transferred from the middle of the 19th century to the 1870s, then Bryakhimov is the development of the image of the city of Kalinov from the same Thunderstorm. Over the two decades separating one play by Ostrovsky from another, the main types of townspeople have changed: if previously the tyrant-tyrant merchant Dikoy dominated in the outback, now he has been replaced by the “dealer of a new formation” dressed in a European costume, Knurov. The Kabanikha, who poisons all life around her, also became a character of the outgoing era - she gave way to Harita Ignatievna Ogudalova, who “trades her daughters”. Passing before the realities of life, the nephew of Wild Boris, according to the trends of the times, turned into a brilliant gentleman Paratov.
At the same time, the pace of urban life has not changed. Life in Bryakhimov is subject to the usual rituals - every day there is mass, vespers and long tea parties near samovars. Then, according to the bartender Gavrila, the city covers the feeling of "first melancholy", which is removed by long walks - so, Knurov "every morning the boulevard measures back and forth, just as promised."
All the heroes of the play are connected by a "common interest": they are unbearable in this city. Even Knurov's silence is evidence of the "conflict situation" in which he entered with the hated Briakhimov. And Vozhevatov? He is also in "conflict with Brakhimov's boredom." Larisa is oppressed not only by the situation in her house, but "the whole atmosphere of Bryakhimov".
Names and surnames of characters
Boris Kostelyanets is convinced that Ostrovsky put a special meaning into the names and surnames of his heroes. So, Knurov, according to the author's remarks, is "a man with a huge fortune." The character's surname reinforces the feeling of power coming from the "big deal": "knur"(according to Dahl) is a boar, a boar. Paratov, whom the playwright characterizes as a "brilliant gentleman", also did not accidentally find his surname on the pages of the play: "fairy" called a particularly swift, unstoppable breed of dog.
Harita Ignatievna, who knows how, if necessary, to deceive and seduce, bears the surname "Ogudalova", based on the verb "buzz", meaning "to braid", "to swindle".
Screen adaptations
- The first film adaptation of "Dowry" took place in 1912 - the film was directed by Kai Ganzen, the role of Larisa Ogudalova was played by Vera Pashennaya.
- Among the most famous film versions of the work is the film by Yakov Protazanov, released in 1936.
Larisa in the film is not endowed with the features of a tragic doom.<…>In accordance with Ostrovsky's plan, Larisa is presented by the director of the film as cheerful, up to the last minute reaching for life with all the forces of her sensitive nature. To show this particular Larisa, the authors of the film reveal her life long, a whole year before the events with which the play begins and which last only twenty-four hours.
Music
- - ballet "Dowry" by Alexander Friedlander.
- - opera "Dowry" by Daniil Frenkel.
Write a review on the article "Dowry"
Notes
- Alexander Ostrovsky.. - M .: Olma-Press Education, 2003. - S. 30-31. - 830 p. - ISBN 5-94849-338-5.
- Eldar Ryazanov. Unreported results. - M .: Vagrius, 2002. - S. 447.
- , With. 215.
- // Russian Vedomosti. - 1878. - No. 12 November.
- Eldar Ryazanov. Unreported results. - M .: Vagrius, 2002. - S. 446.
- Vladimir Lakshin.. - M .: Time, 2013. - 512 p. - ISBN 978-5-9691-0871-4.
- Lotman L. M. dramaturgy of the second half of the 19th century]. - M .: Nauka, 1991. - T. 7. - S. 71.
- , With. 228.
- , With. 229.
- Derzhavin K. N.. - M., L.: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1956. - T. 8. - S. 469.
- Isakova I. N.. Linguistic and cultural thesaurus "Humanitarian Russia". Retrieved April 30, 2015.
- . Encyclopedia of national cinema. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
- Eldar Ryazanov. Unreported results. - M .: Vagrius, 2002. - S. 451.
Literature
- Kostelyanets B.O.. - M .: Coincidence, 2007. - 502 p. - (Theatrum Mundi). - ISBN 978-5-903060-15-3.
- Ostrovsky A.N. Dramaturgy. - M .: Astrel, 2000. - ISBN 5-271-00300-6.
An excerpt characterizing the Dowry
The squadron drove around the infantry and the battery, which was also in a hurry to go faster, went downhill and, passing through some empty, without inhabitants, village, again climbed the mountain. The horses began to soar, the people blushed.
- Stop, equalize! - the command of the divisional was heard ahead.
- Left shoulder forward, step march! commanded ahead.
And the hussars along the line of troops went to the left flank of the position and stood behind our lancers, who were in the first line. On the right, our infantry stood in a dense column - these were reserves; Above it on the mountain, in the clear, clean air, in the morning, oblique and bright, illumination, on the very horizon, our cannons were visible. Enemy columns and cannons were visible ahead beyond the hollow. In the hollow we could hear our chain, already in action and merrily snapping with the enemy.
Rostov, as from the sounds of the most cheerful music, felt cheerful in his soul from these sounds, which had not been heard for a long time. Trap ta ta tap! - clapped suddenly, then quickly, one after another, several shots. Everything fell silent again, and again crackers seemed to crackle, on which someone walked.
The hussars stood for about an hour in one place. The cannonade began. Count Osterman and his retinue rode behind the squadron, stopped, spoke with the regimental commander, and rode off to the cannons on the mountain.
Following the departure of Osterman, a command was heard from the lancers:
- Into the column, line up for the attack! “The infantry ahead of them doubled up in platoons to let the cavalry through. The lancers set off, swaying with the weathercocks of their peaks, and at a trot went downhill towards the French cavalry, which appeared under the mountain to the left.
As soon as the lancers went downhill, the hussars were ordered to move uphill, to cover the battery. While the hussars took the place of the uhlans, distant, missing bullets flew from the chain, screeching and whistling.
This sound, which had not been heard for a long time, had an even more joyful and exciting effect on Rostov than the previous sounds of shooting. He, straightening up, looked at the battlefield that opened from the mountain, and wholeheartedly participated in the movement of the lancers. The lancers flew close to the French dragoons, something tangled up in the smoke there, and after five minutes the lancers rushed back not to the place where they were standing, but to the left. Between the orange lancers on red horses and behind them, in a large bunch, blue French dragoons on gray horses were visible.Rostov, with his keen hunting eye, was one of the first to see these blue French dragoons pursuing our lancers. Closer, closer, the uhlans moved in disordered crowds, and the French dragoons pursuing them. It was already possible to see how these people, who seemed small under the mountain, collided, overtook each other and waved their arms or sabers.
Rostov looked at what was going on in front of him as if he were being persecuted. He instinctively felt that if they now attacked the French dragoons with the hussars, they would not resist; but if you strike, it was necessary now, this very minute, otherwise it would be too late. He looked around him. The captain, standing beside him, kept his eyes on the cavalry below in the same way.
“Andrey Sevastyanych,” said Rostov, “after all, we doubt them ...
“It would be a dashing thing,” said the captain, “but in fact ...
Rostov, without listening to him, pushed his horse, galloped ahead of the squadron, and before he had time to command the movement, the whole squadron, experiencing the same thing as he, set off after him. Rostov himself did not know how and why he did it. He did all this, as he did on the hunt, without thinking, without understanding. He saw that the dragoons were close, that they were jumping, upset; he knew that they would not stand it, he knew that there was only one minute that would not return if he missed it. The bullets squealed and whistled so excitedly around him, the horse begged forward so eagerly that he could not stand it. He touched the horse, commanded, and at the same instant, hearing the sound of the clatter of his deployed squadron behind him, at full trot, began to descend to the dragoons downhill. As soon as they went downhill, their gait of the lynx involuntarily turned into a gallop, becoming faster and faster as they approached their lancers and the French dragoons galloping after them. The dragoons were close. The front ones, seeing the hussars, began to turn back, the rear ones to stop. With the feeling with which he rushed across the wolf, Rostov, releasing his bottom in full swing, galloped across the frustrated ranks of the French dragoons. One lancer stopped, one on foot crouched to the ground so as not to be crushed, one horse without a rider got mixed up with the hussars. Almost all French dragoons galloped back. Rostov, choosing one of them on a gray horse, set off after him. On the way he ran into a bush; a good horse carried him over him, and, barely managing on the saddle, Nikolai saw that in a few moments he would catch up with the enemy whom he had chosen as his target. This Frenchman, probably an officer - according to his uniform, bent over, galloped on his gray horse, urging it on with a saber. A moment later, Rostov's horse struck the officer's horse with its chest, almost knocking it down, and at the same instant Rostov, without knowing why, raised his saber and hit the Frenchman with it.
At the same moment he did this, all the revival of Rostov suddenly disappeared. The officer fell not so much from a blow with a saber, which only slightly cut his arm above the elbow, but from a horse's push and from fear. Rostov, holding back his horse, looked for his enemy with his eyes in order to see whom he had defeated. A French dragoon officer jumped on the ground with one foot, the other caught in the stirrup. He, screwing up his eyes in fear, as if expecting every second of a new blow, grimaced, looked up at Rostov with an expression of horror. His face, pale and splattered with mud, blond, young, with a hole in his chin and bright blue eyes, was the most not for a battlefield, not an enemy face, but the simplest room face. Even before Rostov had decided what he would do with him, the officer shouted: "Je me rends!" [I give up!] In a hurry, he wanted and could not disentangle his leg from the stirrup and, without taking his frightened blue eyes off, looked at Rostov. The hussars jumped up and freed his leg and put him on the saddle. Hussars from different sides were busy with the dragoons: one was wounded, but, with his face covered in blood, did not give up his horse; the other, embracing the hussar, sat on the back of his horse; the third climbed, supported by a hussar, onto his horse. Ahead ran, firing, the French infantry. The hussars hastily galloped back with their prisoners. Rostov galloped back with the others, experiencing some kind of unpleasant feeling that squeezed his heart. Something obscure, confused, which he could not explain to himself in any way, was revealed to him by the capture of this officer and by the blow that he inflicted on him.
Count Osterman Tolstoy met the returning hussars, called Rostov, thanked him and said that he would present to the sovereign about his valiant deed and would ask for the St. George Cross for him. When Rostov was demanded to Count Osterman, he, remembering that his attack had been launched without orders, was fully convinced that the boss was demanding him in order to punish him for his unauthorized act. Therefore, Osterman's flattering words and the promise of a reward should have struck Rostov all the more joyfully; but the same unpleasant, vague feeling morally sickened him. “What the hell is bothering me? he asked himself as he drove away from the general. - Ilyin? No, he's whole. Did I embarrass myself with something? No. Everything is not right! Something else tormented him, like remorse. “Yes, yes, that French officer with the hole. And I remember well how my hand stopped when I picked it up.
Rostov saw the prisoners being taken away and galloped after them to see his Frenchman with a hole in his chin. He, in his strange uniform, sat on a clockwork hussar horse and looked around him uneasily. The wound on his hand was almost not a wound. He feigned a smile at Rostov and waved his hand in the form of a greeting. Rostov was still embarrassed and somehow ashamed.
All this and the next day, Rostov's friends and comrades noticed that he was not boring, not angry, but silent, thoughtful and concentrated. He drank reluctantly, tried to remain alone and kept thinking about something.
Rostov kept thinking about this brilliant feat of his, which, to his surprise, bought him the St. George Cross and even made him a reputation as a brave man - and could not understand something. “So they are even more afraid of ours! he thought. “So that’s all there is, what is called heroism?” And did I do it for the fatherland? And what is he to blame for with his hole and blue eyes? And how scared he was! He thought I would kill him. Why should I kill him? My hand trembled. And they gave me the George Cross. I don't understand anything!"
But while Nikolai was processing these questions in himself and still did not give himself a clear account of what so embarrassed him, the wheel of happiness in the service, as often happens, turned in his favor. He was pushed forward after the Ostrovnensky case, they gave him a battalion of hussars, and when it was necessary to use a brave officer, they gave him instructions.Having received the news of Natasha's illness, the countess, still not quite healthy and weak, came to Moscow with Petya and the whole house, and the entire Rostov family moved from Marya Dmitrievna to their house and completely settled in Moscow.
Natasha's illness was so serious that, to her happiness and to the happiness of her relatives, the thought of everything that had caused her illness, her act and the break with her fiancé passed into the background. She was so ill that it was impossible to think how much she was to blame for everything that happened, while she did not eat, did not sleep, noticeably lost weight, coughed and was, as the doctors made her feel, in danger. All he had to think about was helping her. Doctors went to Natasha both individually and in consultations, spoke a lot in French, German and Latin, condemned one another, prescribed the most diverse medicines for all diseases known to them; but not one of them came up with the simple thought that they could not be aware of the illness that Natasha suffered, just as no illness that a living person is obsessed with could be known: for every living person has his own characteristics and always has special and its own new, complex, unknown disease to medicine, not a disease of the lungs, liver, skin, heart, nerves, etc., recorded in medicine, but a disease consisting of one of the innumerable compounds in the suffering of these organs. This simple thought could not come to doctors (just as the thought cannot come to a sorcerer that he cannot conjure) because their life's work was to heal, because they received money for that, and because they spent the best years of their lives on this business. But the main thing is that this thought could not come to the doctors because they saw that they were undoubtedly useful, and were really useful for all the Rostovs at home. They were useful not because they forced the patient to swallow mostly harmful substances (this harm was not very sensitive, because harmful substances were given in small quantities), but they were useful, necessary, inevitable (the reason is why there always are and will be imaginary healers, soothsayers, homeopaths and allopaths) because they satisfied the moral needs of the sick and people who love the sick. They satisfied that eternal human need of hope for relief, the need for sympathy and activity that a person experiences during suffering. They satisfied that eternal, human need, which is noticeable in a child in the most primitive form, to rub the place that is bruised. The child will kill himself and immediately run into the hands of the mother, the nanny in order to be kissed and rubbed on the sore spot, and it becomes easier for him when the sore spot is rubbed or kissed. The child does not believe that the strongest and wisest of him do not have the means to help his pain. And the hope for relief and the expression of sympathy while the mother rubs his bump consoles him. Doctors were useful for Natasha in that they kissed and rubbed the bobo, assuring that it would pass now if the driver went to the Arbat pharmacy and took seven hryvnias of powders and pills in a pretty box for a ruble, and if these powders were sure to be in two hours, nothing more and no less, the patient will take in boiled water.
What would Sonya, the count and the countess do, how would they look at the weak, melting Natasha, doing nothing, if there weren’t these pills by the hour, drinking warm, chicken cutlets and all the details of life prescribed by the doctor, observing which was a lesson and comfort for others? The stricter and more complex these rules were, the more comforting it was for those around. How would the count endure the illness of his beloved daughter, if he did not know that Natasha's illness cost him thousands of rubles and that he would not spare thousands more to do her good: if he did not know that if she did not recover, he would not he will spare thousands more and take her abroad and hold consultations there; if he had not been able to tell the details about how Metivier and Feller did not understand, but Freeze understood, and Wise defined the disease even better? What would the countess do if she could not sometimes quarrel with the sick Natasha because she did not fully comply with the doctor's prescriptions?
“You will never recover,” she said, forgetting her grief in annoyance, “if you do not obey the doctor and take your medicine at the wrong time!” After all, you can’t joke about this when you can get pneumonia, ”the countess said, and in the pronunciation of this one word, incomprehensible to more than her, she already found great consolation. What would Sonya do if she didn’t have the joyful consciousness that she didn’t undress for three nights at first in order to be ready to fulfill exactly all the doctor’s instructions, and that she now doesn’t sleep at night so as not to miss the clock in which it is necessary to give harmless pills from a golden box? Even Natasha herself, who, although she said that no medicines would cure her and that all this was nonsense - and she was glad to see that so many donations were made for her that she had to take medicines at certain hours, and even she was happy was that she, neglecting the fulfillment of the prescribed, could show that she did not believe in treatment and did not value her life.
The doctor went every day, felt the pulse, looked at the tongue and, not paying attention to her dead face, joked with her. But on the other hand, when he went out into another room, the countess hurriedly followed him, and he, assuming a serious look and shaking his head thoughtfully, said that, although there was danger, he hoped for the effect of this last medicine, and that we had to wait and see. ; that the disease is more moral, but ...
The countess, trying to hide this act from herself and from the doctor, put a gold piece into his hand and each time returned to the patient with a calm heart.
The signs of Natasha's illness were that she ate little, slept little, coughed, and never perked up. Doctors said that the patient should not be left without medical help, and therefore they kept her in the stuffy air in the city. And in the summer of 1812, the Rostovs did not leave for the village.
Despite the large number of swallowed pills, drops and powders from jars and boxes, from which madame Schoss, the hunter for these gizmos, gathered a large collection, despite the absence of the usual village life, youth took its toll: Natasha's grief began to be covered with a layer of impressions of her life, it such excruciating pain ceased to lie on her heart, it began to become past, and Natasha began to recover physically.Natasha was calmer, but not more cheerful. She not only avoided all external conditions of joy: balls, skating, concerts, theater; but she never laughed so that her tears were not heard because of her laughter. She couldn't sing. As soon as she began to laugh or tried to sing alone with herself, tears choked her: tears of remorse, tears of memories of that irrevocable, pure time; tears of annoyance that so, for nothing, she ruined her young life, which could have been so happy. Laughter and singing especially seemed to her a blasphemy against her grief. She never thought of coquetry; she didn't even have to refrain. She said and felt that at that time all men were to her exactly the same as the jester Nastasya Ivanovna. The inner guard firmly forbade her any joy. And she did not have all the former interests of life from that girlish, carefree, hopeful way of life. More often and most painfully, she recalled the autumn months, the hunt, her uncle, and Christmas time spent with Nicolas in Otradnoe. What would she give to bring back even one day from that time! But it was over forever. The foreboding did not deceive her then that that state of freedom and openness to all joys would never return again. But I had to live.
It was comforting to her to think that she was not better, as she had thought before, but worse and much worse than everyone, everyone, who only exists in the world. But this was not enough. She knew this and asked herself: “What next? And then there was nothing. There was no joy in life, and life passed. Natasha, apparently, tried only not to be a burden to anyone and not to interfere with anyone, but for herself she did not need anything. She moved away from everyone at home, and only with her brother Petya was it easy for her. She liked to be with him more than with the others; and sometimes, when she was with him eye to eye, she laughed. She hardly left the house, and of those who came to see them, she was glad only for Pierre. It was impossible to treat her more tenderly, more carefully, and at the same time more seriously than Count Bezukhov treated her. Natasha Osss consciously felt this tenderness of treatment and therefore found great pleasure in his company. But she was not even grateful to him for his tenderness; nothing good on the part of Pierre seemed to her an effort. It seemed so natural for Pierre to be kind to everyone that there was no merit in his kindness. Sometimes Natasha noticed Pierre's embarrassment and awkwardness in her presence, especially when he wanted to do something pleasant for her or when he was afraid that something in the conversation would bring Natasha to painful memories. She noticed this and attributed it to his general kindness and shyness, which, according to her, the same as with her, should have been with everyone. After those inadvertent words that, if he were free, he would ask her hands and love on his knees, said at a moment of such strong excitement for her, Pierre never said anything about his feelings for Natasha; and it was obvious to her that those words, which then so comforted her, were spoken, as all sorts of meaningless words are spoken to comfort a crying child. Not because Pierre was a married man, but because Natasha felt between herself and him in the highest degree that force of moral barriers - the absence of which she felt with Kyragin - it never occurred to her that she could get out of her relationship with Pierre not only love on her part, or still less on his part, but even that kind of tender, self-confessing, poetic friendship between a man and a woman, of which she knew several examples.
At the end of the Petrovsky post, Agrafena Ivanovna Belova, the Rostovs' Otradnenskaya neighbor, came to Moscow to bow to the Moscow saints. She invited Natasha to go to bed, and Natasha seized on this idea with joy. Despite the doctor’s prohibition to go out early in the morning, Natasha insisted on fasting, and not fasting as usual in the Rostovs’ house, that is, listening to three services at home, but in order to fast as Agrafena Ivanovna used to, that is, all week without missing a single Vespers, Mass or Matins.
The countess liked Natasha's zeal; in her soul, after unsuccessful medical treatment, she hoped that prayer would help her with more medicines, and although with fear and hiding from the doctor, she agreed to Natasha's desire and entrusted her to Belova. Agrafena Ivanovna came at three o'clock in the morning to wake Natasha, and for the most part found her no longer asleep. Natasha was afraid to oversleep the time of matins. Hastily washing herself and humbly dressing in her worst dress and an old mantilla, shuddering with freshness, Natasha went out into the deserted streets, transparently lit by the morning dawn. On the advice of Agrafena Ivanovna, Natasha did not preach in her parish, but in the church, in which, according to the pious Belova, there was a priest of a very strict and high life. There were always few people in the church; Natasha and Belova took their usual place in front of the icon of the Mother of God, embedded in the back of the left choir, and Natasha’s new sense of humility in front of the great, incomprehensible, seized her when she, at this unusual hour in the morning, looking at the black face of the Mother of God, lit by candles burning in front of him, and the light of the morning falling from the window, she listened to the sounds of the service, which she tried to follow, understanding them. When she understood them, her personal feeling with its shades joined her prayer; when she did not understand, it was still sweeter for her to think that the desire to understand everything is pride, that it is impossible to understand everything, that one must only believe and surrender to God, who at that moment—she felt—ruled her soul. She crossed herself, bowed, and when she did not understand, she only, horrified by her abomination, asked God to forgive her for everything, for everything, and have mercy. The prayers to which she devoted herself most were the prayers of repentance. Returning home at the early hour of the morning, when there were only masons going to work, janitors sweeping the street, and everyone was still sleeping in the houses, Natasha experienced a new feeling for her of the possibility of correcting herself from her vices and the possibility of a new, pure life and happiness.
During the whole week in which she led this life, this feeling grew every day. And the happiness of communion or communication, as Agrafena Ivanovna said to her joyfully playing with this word, seemed to her so great that it seemed to her that she would not live to see this blessed Sunday.
But the happy day came, and when Natasha, on that memorable Sunday, in a white muslin dress, returned from communion, for the first time after many months she felt calm and unburdened by the life that lay ahead of her.
The doctor who came that day examined Natasha and ordered to continue the last powders that he prescribed two weeks ago.
“It is imperative to continue—in the morning and in the evening,” he said, evidently himself conscientiously pleased with his success. “Just please be careful. Be calm, countess, - said the doctor jokingly, deftly picking up the golden one in the flesh of his hand, - soon he will sing again and become frisky. Very, very much in favor of her last remedy. She brightened up a lot.
The countess looked at her nails and spat, returning to the living room with a cheerful face.At the beginning of July, more and more disturbing rumors about the course of the war spread in Moscow: they talked about the sovereign's appeal to the people, about the arrival of the sovereign himself from the army to Moscow. And since the manifesto and appeal had not been received before July 11, exaggerated rumors circulated about them and about the situation in Russia. They said that the sovereign was leaving because the army was in danger, they said that Smolensk had been surrendered, that Napoleon had a million troops, and that only a miracle could save Russia.
July 11th, Saturday, the manifesto was received but not yet printed; and Pierre, who was with the Rostovs, promised the next day, on Sunday, to come to dinner and bring a manifesto and an appeal, which he would get from Count Rostopchin.
On this Sunday, the Rostovs, as usual, went to Mass at the house church of the Razumovskys. It was a hot July day. Already at ten o'clock, when the Rostovs got out of the carriage in front of the church, in the hot air, in the cries of peddlers, in the bright and light summer dresses of the crowd, in the dusty leaves of the trees of the boulevard, in the sounds of music and the white pantaloons of the battalion that passed for divorce, in the thunder of the pavement and In the bright glare of the hot sun there was that summer languor, contentment and dissatisfaction with the present, which is especially sharply felt on a clear hot day in the city. In the church of the Razumovskys there was all the nobility of Moscow, all the acquaintances of the Rostovs (this year, as if expecting something, a lot of wealthy families, usually moving around the villages, remained in the city). Passing behind the livery footman, who was parting the crowd near her mother, Natasha heard the voice of a young man speaking in a too loud whisper about her:
- This is Rostov, the same one ...
- How thin, but still good!
She heard, or it seemed to her, that the names of Kuragin and Bolkonsky were mentioned. However, it always seemed to her. It always seemed to her that everyone, looking at her, was only thinking about what had happened to her. Suffering and dying in her soul, as always in the crowd, Natasha walked in her purple silk dress with black lace the way women know how to walk - the calmer and more majestic, the more painful and ashamed she felt in her soul. She knew and was not mistaken that she was good, but this did not please her now, as before. On the contrary, it tormented her most of all lately, and especially on this bright, hot summer day in the city. “Another Sunday, another week,” she said to herself, remembering how she had been here that Sunday, “and still the same life without life, and all the same conditions in which it used to be so easy to live before. She is good, young, and I know that now I am good, before I was bad, but now I am good, I know, she thought, but the best years pass in vain, for no one. She stood beside her mother and exchanged relations with close acquaintances. Natasha, out of habit, looked at the ladies' toilets, condemned the tenue [demeanor] and the indecent way of crossing herself with the hand in the small space of one standing close by, again thought with annoyance that they were judging her, that she was judging, and suddenly, hearing the sounds of the service, she was horrified at her vileness, horrified at the fact that her former purity was again lost by her.
The handsome, quiet old man served with that meek solemnity that has such a majestic, calming effect on the souls of those who pray. The royal doors closed, the veil slowly drew back; a mysterious quiet voice said something from there. Tears, incomprehensible to her, stood in Natasha's chest, and a joyful and agonizing feeling agitated her.
“Teach me what to do, how to improve myself forever, forever, how to deal with my life…” she thought.
The deacon went out to the pulpit, straightened out his long hair from under the surplice, with his thumb wide apart, and, placing a cross on his chest, loudly and solemnly began to read the words of the prayer:
“Let us pray to the Lord for peace.”
“In peace, all together, without distinction of class, without enmity, and united by brotherly love, we will pray,” thought Natasha.
- About the peace from above and about the salvation of our souls!
“About the world of angels and souls of all incorporeal beings that live above us,” Natasha prayed.
When they prayed for the army, she remembered her brother and Denisov. When they prayed for sailors and travelers, she remembered Prince Andrei and prayed for him, and prayed that God would forgive her the evil that she had done to him. When they prayed for those who love us, she prayed for her family, for her father, mother, Sonya, for the first time now realizing all her guilt before them and feeling all the strength of her love for them. When we prayed for those who hate us, she invented enemies and haters for herself in order to pray for them. She counted creditors and all those who had dealt with her father among the enemies, and every time she thought of enemies and haters, she remembered Anatole, who had done her so much evil, and although he was not a hater, she joyfully prayed for him as for enemy. Only during prayer did she feel able to clearly and calmly remember both Prince Andrei and Anatole, as people for whom her feelings were destroyed in comparison with her feeling of fear and reverence for God. When they prayed for the royal family and for the Synod, she bowed especially low and crossed herself, telling herself that if she does not understand, she cannot doubt and still loves the ruling Synod and prays for it.
Having finished the litany, the deacon crossed the orarion around his chest and said:
“Let us commit ourselves and our lives to Christ our God.”
“We will betray ourselves to God,” Natasha repeated in her soul. My God, I commit myself to your will, she thought. - I don’t want anything, I don’t want; teach me what to do, where to use my will! Yes, take me, take me! - Natasha said with touching impatience in her soul, without crossing herself, lowering her thin hands and as if expecting that an invisible force would take her and save her from herself, from her regrets, desires, reproaches, hopes and vices.
The Countess several times during the service looked back at the tender, with shining eyes, face of her daughter and prayed to God that he would help her.
Unexpectedly, in the middle and not in the order of the service, which Natasha knew well, the deacon brought out a stool, the same one on which kneeling prayers were read on Trinity Day, and placed it in front of the royal doors. The priest came out in his purple velvet skufi, straightened his hair, and with an effort knelt down. They all did the same and looked at each other in bewilderment. It was a prayer just received from the Synod, a prayer for the salvation of Russia from enemy invasion.
“Lord God of strength, God of our salvation,” the priest began in that clear, unpompous and meek voice, which only spiritual Slavic readers read and which has such an irresistible effect on the Russian heart. - Lord God of strength, God of our salvation! Look now in mercy and generosity on your humble people, and hear philanthropicly, and have mercy, and have mercy on us. Behold the enemy, confuse your land and want to lay the whole world empty, rise up on us; all the people of iniquity have gathered, to destroy your property, to destroy your honest Jerusalem, your beloved Russia: to desecrate your temples, dig up altars and desecrate our shrine. How long, Lord, how long will sinners boast? How long do you use to have legal power?
Lord Lord! Hear us praying to you: strengthen with your strength the most pious, most autocratic great sovereign of our Emperor Alexander Pavlovich; remember his righteousness and meekness, reward him according to his goodness, which is what keeps us, your beloved Israel. Bless his advice, undertakings and deeds; establish with your almighty right hand his kingdom and give him victory over the enemy, as Moses against Amalek, Gideon against Midian and David against Goliath. Save his army; put the bow of copper on the muscles that have taken up arms in your name, and gird them with strength for battle. Take up arms and a shield, and rise up to help us, let them be ashamed and put to shame who think evil to us, let them be before the faithful army, like dust before the face of the wind, and let your strong angel insult and drive them; let a net come to them, but they will not know, and catch them, but hide them, let them embrace them; let them fall under the feet of your servants, and let them be trampled under our howl. God! it will not fail you to save in many and in small; thou art a god, let no man prevail against thee.
"Dowryless" act 1 - summary
In a coffee shop in one of the Volga cities, local wealthy businessmen are talking - the elderly Knurov and the young Vozhevatov. They discuss high-profile news: the well-known young beauty Larisa Ogudalova is getting married to an insignificant and poor official Karandyshev.
Dowry. Film-performance based on the play of the same name by A.N. Ostrovsky (1974)
Larisa is a noblewoman, but without funds, dowry. Her mother, Harita Ignatievna, trying to find the daughter of a rich groom, arranged evening parties at her home, inviting wealthy people to them. But none of them ever wooed Larisa. The whole city remembers the story of her last year's passion for the handsome and daring shipowner Sergei Paratov. He frequented the Ogudalovs' house, beat off other suitors from there, but finally left without making an offer. Passionately in love, Larisa rushed after him, but her mother turned her out of the way.
Vozhevatov tells Knurov: today Paratov must come back to the city to sell one of his ships.
Larisa enters the coffee shop with her mother and Karandyshev. After Larisa agrees to marry him, Karandyshev turns up his nose, but this only causes ridicule and mockery among the townspeople. Now, in the coffee shop, Karandyshev begins to find fault with Larisa with jealous pettiness. He reminds her of the story of Paratov. Larisa in her hearts tells the groom that he cannot stand any comparison with the brave and proud Paratov.
The Ogudalovs and Karandyshev leave. Paratov appears in the coffee shop, having just arrived on his own steamer. The news of Larisa's marriage at first makes him excited and thoughtful. But he quickly pulls himself together and tells Knurov and Vozhevatov that he himself decided to marry - a rich girl. Gold mines are given as a dowry for her, and his own financial condition is greatly upset.
Karandyshev is going after the wedding to go to a remote district, where it is easier to make a bureaucratic career. Larisa is not even afraid of a dull life in the wilderness among the forests. She wants to quickly leave the city, which is associated with heavy memories for her.
But Paratov suddenly drives up to the house where she lives with her mother on trotters after a year's absence. In a private conversation with Larisa, Paratov unfairly reproaches her for "forgetting him too quickly" and arrogantly mocks Karandyshev in Larisa's eyes. Larisa in response admits that she still loves Paratov ..
Enter Karandyshev. Paratov talks down to him, even yelling at him. Karandyshev is clearly cowardly, endures insults and, at the insistence of Larisa and her mother, invites Paratov to his place for today's pre-wedding dinner.
Paratov decides to make fun of Karandyshev there with the help of a greasy, eternally drunk joker - the actor Robinson. Paratov, Knurov and Vozhevatov are going that same evening, after dinner, to go for a walk across the Volga and hire a boat and a gypsy choir for this.
Inviting the city's rich to dinner, Karandyshev treats them with shameful poverty. His stingy aunt bought the cheapest products for the festive table. The guests mockingly discuss this in their circle. Robinson, trained by Paratov, at dinner tries to get Karandyshev to drink more.
After dinner, the guests ask Larisa to perform a romance. She sadly takes the guitar and, looking at Paratov, sings: “Do not tempt me unnecessarily by returning your tenderness.” Paratov listens in great agitation.
The conversation between Paratov and Larisa in private. “Why did I run from you! he exclaims. Why did you lose such a treasure! With your singing, you awakened noble feelings that have not yet completely died out in my soul. Paratov invites Larisa to go with him on a walk across the Volga: "Now or never."
Larissa hesitates. Openly leaving the groom on the eve of the wedding with other men is not an easy step. But Paratov begs with such passion that she decides to put her fate on the line. Larisa hopes that Paratov will propose to her at the picnic. “Either you rejoice, mom, or look for me in the Volga!” she says to her excited mother.
Rich guests leave without even warning the drunken Karandyshev. Upon learning of this, he almost cries from resentment. "I will take revenge!" shouts Karandyshev, grabs a pistol hanging on the wall and runs out.
In the evening, the festivities return from across the Volga. Knurov and Vozhevatov enter a coffee house on the shore. Neither one nor the other believes that Paratov will marry Larisa, and now she may have to break up with the offended Karandyshev. Knurov and Vozhevatov themselves are not indifferent to Larisa. Knurov, in order to avoid rivalry, suggests throwing a coin: whoever gets lucky will “take care” of Larisa in the future, and let the other renounce claims to her. Throw - and happiness falls to Knurov.
Larisa and Paratov are walking in the distance. “You still haven’t said whether I’m your wife now or not?” she asks passionately. Paratov at first evades answering, and then says that he uttered his passionate words to Larisa before the picnic in a fleeting passion. Paratov now invites her to return to Karandyshev. “I can only hang myself or drown myself!” Larisa gasps. Paratov says that he is already engaged, shows the ring. Larisa sinks into a chair in shock.
Old Knurov comes up and offers Larisa all her fortune if she agrees to become his mistress. He cannot marry because he already has a wife. Larisa shakes her head in tears. Knurov leaves. Larisa runs up to the steep Volga cliff, but at the sight of the height she recoils in horror. "I can't kill myself! If someone else had killed me!"
Karandyshev runs up to the coffee shop where she is sitting. He attacks Larisa with reproaches and tells what he learned from Robinson: Knurov and Vozhevatov played her with a coin. Larisa is stunned: “So I’m just thing for men!"
Karandyshev calls her shameless, but promises to forgive if she returns to him. “Go away! - Larisa chases him. “I’m too expensive for you!” “So don’t get to anyone!” - shouts Karandyshev, takes out a pistol and shoots at her.
Larisa grabs her chest: “Ah! What a blessing you have done for me!" “No one is to blame,” she convinces Paratov, Knurov and Vozhevatov, who ran out of the coffee house. - It's me. Live, live everyone! You need to live, but I need to ... die ... I don’t take offense at anyone ... you are all good people ... I love you all ... I love you all.
Larisa dies to the sound of a gypsy song in the distance.
See details in a separate article
A. N. Ostrovsky described quite accurately the picture of indifference and heartlessness of those times. Today we will consider the characteristics of the heroes. "Dowry" is a work that has entered the annals of world literature. So let's get started.
Julius Kapitonych in the play is a poor official who cannot boast of either a full wallet or self-respect. The main feature of the hero is pride, which, in principle, led to a tragic end. What are the characteristics of heroes? "Dowry" by Ostrovsky A.N. is a work that is slightly simplified by the fact that the outstanding playwright endowed his characters with speaking names. Consider this technique of the author on the example of the same Karandyshev.
Although he has the name of a great man (Julius Caesar), the surname originates from the word "karatysh". The author shows us the discrepancy between his desires and real possibilities. Larisa is for him a way of self-affirmation, so he cherishes his pride. The Ogudalov family considers him a backup option, the only possible way out of the situation, although not very successful, Julius Kapitonych is greatly offended. His "lover" is a way to defeat a stronger opponent, Paratov.
What is the characterization of the characters? "Dowry" is a work that does not require much effort to understand, as the author accurately and in detail describes his characters, their feelings and true being. The tragic end is another moment by which A. N. Ostrovsky makes fun of Karandyshev's nature. Since Julius Kapitonich cannot defeat his rival, he kills the subject of their dispute. The figure of this man is very pathetic and funny.
This character continues our characterization of heroes. "Dowry" is a work that cannot do without an analysis of the image of the main rival Yuliy Kapitonych. We have already spoken above about the distinguishing feature of A. N. Ostrovsky and about speaking names. So, the surname of Sergei Sergeyich originates from the word "paraty", which means "predator".
Note that his behavior in the play can also be characterized: "He has no heart, that's why he was so bold." This is a quote characterizing the hero as a heartless and cruel character. He is young and ambitious, a very prudent and greedy person: “And now, gentlemen, I have other things to do and other calculations. I marry a very rich girl, I take gold mines as a dowry.
Who else can continue the characterization of heroes? "Dowry" is a work that cannot ignore the main character, who has become the subject of a dispute between two heartless and greedy people. She evokes a feeling of compassion, as she is really passionate about Sergei Sergeyich, who betrayed her for profit. Larisa Ogudalova is a dowry, a girl from a poor family, but she is an incredibly subtle and sensual nature.
When Paratov rejected her, she has the last hope - to marry Karandyshev, since she considers him a man with a good soul and heart, incomprehensible to anyone, but incredibly kind. When Larisa realized that she was a toy in the wrong hands, she tried to kill herself, but she did not have the strength to do it. Only Karandyshev's shot helps her get rid of torment.
Let's try to systematize the analysis of the main characters of the drama using a table.
Characteristic |
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A nobleman, 30 years old, a respected person, a lover of luxury, incredibly prudent, heartless, all his actions are connected with profit. |
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Karandyshev | A young, poor official, proud and envious. Always reproaches Larisa for the "gypsy camp" in her house. The rival of Sergei Sergeyich, trying to imitate him in everything, even speaking about educated and respected people with Paratov, puts them side by side. |
A young girl of marriageable age from a poor family, a dowry. He is going to marry Karandyshev because of the hopelessness of the situation, so as not to live with his mother. A talented, beautiful and educated girl, but a doll in the hands of men. |
This is how we presented the characteristics of the main characters. In order to draw your own conclusions, we advise you to read this work.
