Katerina is the main character of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm”, Tikhon’s wife, Kabanikha’s daughter-in-law. The main idea of the work is the conflict of this girl with the “dark kingdom”, the kingdom of tyrants, despots and ignoramuses. You can find out why this conflict arose and why the end of the drama is so tragic by understanding Katerina’s ideas about life. The author showed the origins of the heroine's character. From Katerina's words we learn about her childhood and adolescence. Here is an ideal version of patriarchal relations and the patriarchal world in general: “I lived, I didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild, I did what I wanted.” But it was “will”, which did not at all conflict with the age-old way of closed life, the entire circle of which is limited to housework.
Katya lived freely: she got up early, washed herself with spring water, went to church with her mother, then sat down to do some work and listened to the pilgrims and praying men, of whom there were many in their house. This is a story about a world in which it does not occur to a person to oppose himself to the general, since he has not yet separated himself from this community. That is why there is no violence or coercion here. For Katerina, the idyllic harmony of patriarchal family life is an unconditional moral ideal. But she lives in an era when the very spirit of this morality has disappeared and the ossified form rests on violence and coercion. Sensitive Katerina catches this in her family life in the Kabanovs' house. After listening to the story about her daughter-in-law’s life before marriage, Varvara (Tikhon’s sister) exclaims in surprise: “But it’s the same with us.” “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity,” Katerina says, and this is the main drama for her. Katerina was given away to marry young, her fate was decided by her family, and she accepts this as a completely natural, ordinary thing.
She enters the Kabanov family, ready to love and honor her mother-in-law (“For me, mamma, it’s all the same, like my own mother, like you...” she says to Kabanikha), expecting in advance that her husband will be her master, but also her support, and protection. But Tikhon is not suitable for the role of the head of a patriarchal family, and Katerina speaks of her love for him: “I feel very sorry for him!” And in the fight against her illegal love for Boris, Katerina, despite her attempts, cannot rely on Tikhon. Katya's life has changed a lot. From a free, joyful world, she found herself in a world full of deception and cruelty. She wants with all her soul to be pure and impeccable. Katerina no longer feels such delight from visiting church. Katerina’s religious sentiments intensify as her mental storm grows. But it is precisely the discrepancy between her sinful inner state and what the religious commandments require that does not allow her to pray as before: Katerina is too far from the sanctimonious gap between the external performance of rituals and everyday practice. She feels fear of herself, of the desire for will.
Katerina cannot do her usual activities. Sad, anxious thoughts do not allow her to calmly admire nature. Katya can only endure as long as she can and dream, but she can no longer live with her thoughts, because cruel reality returns her to earth, to where there is humiliation and suffering. The environment in which Katerina lives requires her to lie and deceive. But Katerina is not like that. She is attracted to Boris not only by the fact that she likes him, that he is not like the others around her, but by her need for love, which has not found a response in her husband, by the offended feeling of her wife, by the mortal melancholy of her monotonous life. It was necessary to hide, to be cunning; she didn’t want it, and she couldn’t do it; she had to return to her dreary life, and this seemed to her more bitter than before. Sin lies like a heavy stone on her heart. Katerina is terribly afraid of the approaching thunderstorm, considering it a punishment for what she did. Katya cannot continue to live with her sin, and she considers repentance the only way to at least partially get rid of it.
She confesses everything to her husband and Kabanikha. What can she do? All that remains for her is to submit, renounce independent life and become an unquestioning servant of her mother-in-law, a meek slave of her husband. But this is not Katerina’s character - she will never return to her former life: if she cannot enjoy her feelings, her will, then she doesn’t want anything in life, she doesn’t even want life. She decided to die, but she is afraid of the thought that this is a sin. She doesn’t complain about anyone, she doesn’t blame anyone, she just can’t live anymore. At the last moment, all the domestic horrors flash especially vividly in her imagination. No, she will no longer be a victim of a soulless mother-in-law and will not languish locked up with a spineless and disgusting husband.
Death is her release.
Turgenev table views of Bozarov and Kirsanov, essay on the last days of life.
Table of views of Bozarov and Kirsanov.
The play “The Thunderstorm” by A. N. Ostrovsky depicts the era of the 60s of the nineteenth century. At this time, revolutionary uprisings of the people are brewing in Russia. They are aimed at. improving the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people, to overthrow tsarism. The works of great Russian writers and poets also participate in this struggle, among them Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm,” which shocked all of Russia. Using the example of the image of Katerina, the struggle of the entire people against the “dark kingdom” and its patriarchal order is depicted.
The main character in the play by A. N. Ostrovsky
"Thunderstorm" is Katerina. Her protest against the “Kabanovsky” order, the struggle for her happiness is depicted by the author in the drama.
Katerina grew up in the house of a poor merchant, where she matured spiritually and morally. Katerina was an extraordinary person, and there was some kind of extraordinary charm in her facial features. All of her “breathed” Russian, truly folk beauty; This is how Boris says about her: “There’s an angelic smile on her face, but her face seems to glow.”
Before her marriage, Katerina “lived, didn’t worry about anything, like a bird in the wild,” she did what she wanted and when she wanted, no one ever forced her or forced her
To do what she, Katerina, did not want.
Her spiritual world was very rich and diverse. Katerina was a very poetic person with a rich imagination. In her conversations we hear folk wisdom and popular sayings. Her soul longed for flight; “Why don’t people fly like birds? Sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run, raise my hands and fly.”
Katerina’s soul was “educated” both by the stories of the praying mantises, who were in the house every day, and by sewing on velvet (sewing educated her and brought her into the world of beauty and goodness, into the world of art).
After marriage, Katerina’s life changed dramatically. In the Kabanovs' house, Katerina was alone, her world, her soul, no one could understand. This loneliness was the first step towards tragedy. The family's attitude towards the heroine has also changed dramatically. The Kabanovs’ house adhered to the same rules and customs as Katerina’s parental home, but here “everything seems to be from under captivity.” The cruel orders of Kabanikha dulled Katerina’s desire for the sublime, and from then on the heroine’s soul fell into the abyss.
Another pain of Katerina is misunderstanding by her husband. Tikhon was a kind, vulnerable person, very weak compared to Katerina, he never had his own opinion - he obeyed the opinion of another, stronger person. Tikhon could not understand his wife’s aspirations: “I can’t understand you, Katya.” This misunderstanding brought Katerina one step closer to disaster.
Love for Boris was also a tragedy for Katerina. According to Dobrolyubov, Boris was the same as Tikhon, only educated. Because of his education, he came to the attention of Katerina. From the entire crowd of the “dark kingdom” she chose him, who was slightly different from the rest. However, Boris turned out to be even worse than Tikhon, he cares only about himself: he only thinks about what others will say about him. He leaves Katerina to the mercy of fate, to the punishment of the “dark kingdom”: “Well, God bless you! There is only one thing we need to ask God for: that she die as soon as possible, so that she does not suffer for a long time! Goodbye!".
Katerina sincerely loves Boris and worries about him: “What is he doing now, poor thing?.. Why did I get him into trouble? I should die alone! Otherwise, she ruined herself, she ruined him, it’s a disgrace to herself—he’s an eternal shame!”
The morals of the city of Kalinov, its rudeness and “stark poverty” were not acceptable to Katerina: “If I want, I’ll leave wherever my eyes look. Nobody can stop me, that's the way it is
I have character."
Dobrolyubov gave the work a high rating. He called Katerina “a ray of light in the “dark kingdom.” At her tragic end, “a terrible challenge was given to tyrant power... In Katerina we see a protest against Kabanov’s concepts of morality, a protest brought to the end, proclaimed both under domestic torture and over the abyss into which the poor woman threw herself.” In the image of Katerina, Dobrolyubov sees the embodiment of “Russian living nature.” Katerina prefers to die than to live in captivity. Katerina's action is ambiguous.
The image of Katerina in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” is an excellent image of a Russian woman in Russian literature.
The play by A.N. is rightfully considered one of the masterpieces of Russian drama. Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm", which the author himself assessed as a creative success.
The main conflict of “The Thunderstorm” is the clash of an awakening personality in the conditions of the “dark kingdom” with its dogmas, despotism and falsehood. This person was Katerina.
Her life is unthinkable without sunrises and sunsets, dewy grasses in flowering meadows, birds flying, butterflies fluttering from flower to flower. Along with it is the beauty of a rural church, and the expanse of the Volga, and the Trans-Volga meadow expanse. The bright image of a bird rising to the blue expanses of heaven runs through the entire play. This is the image of a spiritualized soul that has risen to the heights of spiritual perfection. And Katerina herself dreams of becoming a bird: “Why don’t people fly like birds? You know, sometimes I feel like I'm a bird. When you stand on a mountain, you feel the urge to fly. That’s how I would run, raise my hands and fly.” You need to pay special attention to how Katerina prays, “what an angelic smile she has on her face, and her face seems to glow,” there is something iconographic in this face, from which a bright radiance emanates, her prayer is a bright holiday of the soul , these are angelic choirs in a pillar of sunlight pouring from the dome, echoing the singing of wanderers and the chirping of birds. “Exactly, it happened that I would enter heaven and not see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service is over.”
Katerina experiences all the joy of life in the temple, in the garden, among herbs, flowers, and the morning freshness of awakening nature. In the dreams of young Katerina there is an echo of the Christian legend about paradise, the divine garden, which the firstborn people were bequeathed to cultivate. They lived like birds of the air, and their work was the work of free and free people. They were immortal, and time had no destructive power over them: “I lived and did not worry about anything, like a bird in the wild. Mama doted on me, dressed me up like a doll, and didn’t force me to work; I used to do what I want... I used to get up early; If it’s summer, I’ll go to the spring, wash myself, bring some water with me and that’s it, I’ll water all the flowers in the house. I had many, many flowers.” Later, in a difficult moment of her life, Katerina laments: “If I had died as a little girl, it would have been better. I would look from heaven to earth and rejoice at everything. Otherwise I would fly... from cornflower to cornflower, in the wind, like a butterfly.”
In the Kabanovsky kingdom, where all living things wither and dry up, Katerina is overcome by longing for lost harmony. Her love is akin to the desire to raise her hands and fly; the heroine expects too much from her. A proud, strong-willed woman, she was given in marriage to a weak, weak-willed man who is in complete submission to Tikhon’s mother. A spiritual, bright, dreamy nature, she found herself in an atmosphere of lies, cruel laws, fell in love with the “wingless”, dependent Boris, whose love did not satisfy her melancholy. Katerina feels guilty before Tikhon and Kabanikha, and not so much before them, but before the whole world, before the kingdom of good. It seems to her that the whole universe is offended by her fall. Only a full-blooded and spiritual person can feel his unity with the universe in this way and have such a high sense of responsibility before the highest truth and harmony that lies within him. The decision to commit suicide comes to Katerina along with internal justification, a feeling of freedom and sinlessness after the moral storms she has experienced. By the end of the drama, the fear of fiery hell disappears, and the heroine considers herself entitled to appear before the highest moral court. “Death due to sins is terrible,” people say.
But along with spirituality, weaknesses also live in Katerina. From childhood, she was accustomed to daydreaming and enjoying the beauties of nature and was not accustomed to the insults that she later encountered in the “dark kingdom.” Before her fall, she had no doubt that after death she would go to heaven, and she did not think about the terrible torment in hell. Katerina did not notice her pride, and this destroyed her after she faced the difficulties of life. At first glance, it seems that she accomplished a feat, but in fact she evaded it. It seems to us that voluntarily leaving life is scary, but in fact it is many times easier than enduring the suffering and insults of people and struggling with all the difficulties of life, which is a real feat; for the Bible says: “He who endures to the end will be saved.” All sins are forgiven to those who sincerely repent of them: “Repent, and you will have mercy.” There is only one sin that is not forgiven to a person - suicide.
The play is very close to our time, although it was written more than a century ago, since in our age, with addiction to alcohol and drugs, suicides have become more frequent, and many have forgotten about the soul and love. The Lord said: “Many will pass away in the name of iniquity, and the love of many will grow cold.” And we see this in the spread of numerous religions and the popularity of extrasensory perception, “which come to us in sheep’s clothing, but inside are ravenous wolves.” Few people now care about their soul, but more about their body, how to eat and drink more and watch something interesting on TV. This is how our boring, monotonous life passes, and only some of us really think about it, only closer to old age do we begin to understand that we have not done anything useful to anyone and have lived our lives in vain. The Apostle Paul said about the human body: “There is earth and you will return to earth,” but the soul is immortal, and you need to think about where it will go - to heaven or hell.
Katerina is the main character of the work "The Thunderstorm". She was overtaken by a fate that even people with the strongest willpower cannot cope with - a conflict with the “dark kingdom,” the kingdom of tyrants and despots.
After marriage, Katerina became a pretender. In the Kabanovs’ house, the heroine was alone, no one could understand her: neither her husband Tikhon, nor Kabanikha. The cruel orders of her tyrant mother-in-law dulled Katerina’s dreams.
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So, Kabanova tries to instill in Katerina her despotic laws, which, in her opinion, strengthened the family. These were the first prerequisites for the tragedy.
Tikhon Kabanikha controlled every step, every word and action. This woman completely discouraged her son from making decisions on his own.
Our heroine is not the kind of girl who could lie and be a hypocrite. Another tragedy for Katerina was her love for Boris. Katerina’s bright feelings, gullibility and naivety destroyed her. While Boris thought and cared only about himself, Katerina worried about him.
The thing that Katerina valued most was her personal freedom. She considered life meaningless without freedom. The atmosphere that reigned in the city, which was in the Kabanovs’ house, misunderstandings with her husband and a mistake with Boris ruined this girl. Death became her freedom.
Updated: 2017-04-24
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